It's Been A Year

Seriously, It's been a full year and a day since I blogged last. I write in my head all the time but getting from my head to the blog, just has not happened. One of the reasons I stopped writing was the Astoria house we flipped -  in the end not only did we win but we did way beyond what we expected. But as to whether we would ever repeat that experience?  don't know, the stress was insane, it just seemed to never end. You know those horrible stories you read and you can't believe people get away with that and how can that be legal- well, they do get away with it and yes we had a lawyer. We are done with house flipping - and I will leave it there for now. David has been working on our house for the past few months and taking a well earned break. For the past few years he has been flipping one house after the other without a break - he finished the house in Gerard's fort, flipped Mapletown, moved us to Jefferson and flipped that one. sold it and moved us to Oregon, got this liveable and flipped Astoria - he needs a break! Plus the insane housing prices - we do poke around once in awhile and it's just crazy. we looked at one that was 6 inches from another house, across from storage buildings, failed septic, falling apart - $164,000 - and it sold for that price! Eek!

So I work full time as the consult nurse for the Area Agency of Aging and Disability which I love - 5 days a week, no weekends, no nights, no oncall, no holidays...... it's a great job. David is in charge of the house and dogs and renovations. It's so funny that people think we just bulldoze in and rip everything out - sheetrock, white paint, cold, sterile, call it a day.  We don't - the houses we buy tend to be older, unusual - sometimes quirky. I  help with demo and my flashlight and I will often be peeking behind and under things. There's nothing more exciting than pulling up the tan carpeting and exposing the hardwood - the Mapletown house I must've scrubbed the floor 50 times before I found the original wood color. We preserve what we can - not only do we save money but an older home will have things that you can't buy anymore. This home the entire downstairs is real knotty pine - it's no longer produced. The bathroom is clear, varnished cedar. I scrubbed the living room and polished it - it's gorgeous! The bathroom David had to replace part of the wall - we were lucky the hot tub room he took down had one wall of protected clear cedar. 

Some of it we could not save - most of the cabinets and walls in the kitchen were destroyed, one wall was covered in black mold, some of the cabinets were warped with water damage and the cat feces and hair - you learn to ALWAYS wear gloves. But as of the other day, the kitchen is done with the exception of a few shelves that need to be added to the cabinets - it's done. David found an antique baking table with possum belly drawers as a gift for our 40th anniversary and it was the last piece. The original floor wood insets still need to be stained but they're stripped and look lovely. The original fixtures are cleaned and look perfect. I would say the house is about 85% done, it's set up how we like it. The guest room is upstairs, there's a small alcove behind the stairs that we use as a playroom for the girls and the loft is a den/home office on the opposite side. We have the girls for anywhere from a week to two weeks at a time which is why they have their own room and spaces in the house. We also have two saucer swings on the giant walnut swings and a fenced yard, I love living so close to them and Brandi - it's so much fun seeing them all the time now instead once or twice a year. And that's it for the day. I'm hoping to start blogging again regularly - I've had this blog since 2004 and it would be a shame to stop now, wouldn't it?