A BIG project

Well, my first blog entry (and from my Ipod)...

The remodeling project we are embarking on is rather intimidating. We both know that it is/will be a stretch of our skills, patience, and durability. Together, we have done almost all the things we will encounter in this project...but in smaller doses. We have done several signifigent projects in the past, two involving building permits. I realize that the permitting process is more complex these days (and also learning about all the new codes and technologies). One important factor is that we do plan to have our architects (Jason and Wendy) to hold our hand as needed, through out the process. Also, we hold the option of enlisting professional help when / if needed (but at a price).

I'm working to tame the garage by the end of the month (December), while otherwise continuing the planning process.

Let the games begin!

Everything has a story

I spent much of today boxing things up for storage. I filled twelve boxes with things from our china hutch alone. Logic tells me that now is the time to get rid of things we no longer use or want, so I ponder each thing before I wrap it in newspaper. See that little pickle dish in back of this picture? My father won that little bit of painted china in a bingo game when we lived in Newfoundland in 1952. I know this because my mother wrote its history on the piece of tape on the bottom of the dish in her neat librarian handwriting. How can I possibly let go of an object imbued with so much nostalgia and luck? The fact that we have several other pickle dishes, and that this little pickle dish holds only a few pickles in each of its little compartments, and that it has a tiny chip on one edge, seems to make it that much more special. So I tenderly wrap it in newspaper and nestle it with the good china

Another case in point... this old wicker fishing creel. My dad actually used it when he fished (a reason why some people may feel it should be discarded). For sixteen years it sat on top of our china hutch, holding a bunch of bits and pieces left after my mother’s funeral. Things we just didn’t know what to do with; letters of condolences, a box of broken watches we found in my mom's underwear drawer (some were at one time nice, some belonged to long-gone relatives), my mother’s high school autograph album (I met some of the people who signed it when they were in their eighties). Throwing any of it away would feel like tossing away connections - with the people who wore the watches, with my mother’s childhood. Do I need these little artifacts to help me remember? Will I begin to write little notes on the bottoms of items I have saved? Will I still want to keep them when I unwrap them after all this is over? How can I simplify things if I hang on to them all?

No real answers now. I set some things aside for Goodwill, but most of them go into the boxes, to be stored and then unwrapped, handled, and pondered over at some future time. It is no wonder we have never remodeled before, this job is hard!

So it begins....

Are we out of our minds? Most of our friends think so, because we are about to start a significant home remodel being our own contractor, draftsman, construction worker, electrician and handyman. Because we are not entirely crazy, we did work with a wonderful architect couple, Wendy and Jason Swift, to develop a plan. Besides making our home more livable and pretty, we have a few other goals:

1. To stay sane
2. To stay together
3. To stay solvent
4. To finish before we have to move to an old folks home

We are writing this blog to help us accomplish these things and we invite you to come along for the ride.

We live in Portland Oregon, the Do It Yourself capital of the world, in a 60-year old home that has seen its share of poorly done remodels and out-of-date redecorating.