New House Layout and Tidbits

SUMMARY: It has rooms and Stuf

Few home-for-sale listings provide a floorplan unless they are brand new. This house isn't; it's 14 years old. But the home seller apparently saved a copy from Way Back When. Rooms are good sizes; layout is lovely for someone who wants a downsized footprint.

Tidbits! it has:

• Nine-foot ceilings! (2.74 m) And the living room is vaulted even higher! It feels light, airy, spacious, and so breathable. Standard modern homes in US are 8 feet (2.44 m)--and have been for decades. 
• A whole-house built-in vacuum! I've always yearned for one. This one comes with a bonus little sucker at the bottom of one of the kitchen cabinets so if you want to do a quick sweep-up of dog hair, simply whisk it into that corner, step on the switch, and pfffft away it goes.
• An extra-wide entry hall, so bookcases fit on one side and a table and bench on the other. Without feeling crowded. (Photo is from the listing and shows the seller's furnishings, not mine.) Gives me shivers of delight.

Front door is normal width; wide-angle images distort some things.

(Images are from the house's listing online.)

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New House Story

SUMMARY: Buying one in Washington!

I'm going to try to post daily how this all happened/is happening. I'm already a month (or 3 years?) behind, but there's not a lot to say until last week. 

But I am calling it my Viking House--I have traversed the wild seas of California, Oregon, and Washington, into the woods of a new seaside village,  and am setting down roots. Like Vikings of old!

Keep checking back!

Notes: 

• It's not a new house; it's just new to me
• The sale is not final yet. Keeping fingers crossed.

(photo is from the house's listing online.)

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Garages: Not just for breakfast any more

SUMMARY: Well, that title makes no sense...

More copied from Facebook, my [long] comment on a friend successfully cleaning up their garage.

I love having a garage that I can park in. Get in and out of the car during rainy weather without getting wet. And it protects the car from the elements. And fewer worries about breakins/thefts. And can put the dogs into and out of the car without worrying about leashes or distractions. Heaven! One of the biggest bonuses, IMHO.

Not all garages offer all the benefits, however.

The two apartments I rented before becoming a homeowner

First one: Just a parking lot. No benefits at all. In the rain, run down the long walkway and up the stairs. (No dogs, so not an issue there.)

Second one: Enclosed (2 walls and ceiling) detached carport. Could get into and out of the car in the rain and take time getting things into and out of the car, but then would have to run down the driveway in the rain, carrying whatever you had.  Sometimes instead I used an open parking spot directly across from my door to shorten the trip. Still no dogs.

My first house (townhouse)

An open  carport. Ugh--detached from the house, so still rain was an issue, but it was just a few steps in the rain, unlock my private door in the fence to my patio and unlock the uncovered door into the house, so a quick trip. But wet. Had a dog by then, she'd just follow me (advantage of doing a lot of stuff with the dog from 6 weeks old).

This is a current photo. That car is parked in what I think was my spot.
My door through the fence was where the light-colored wood is, above the right side of my rear-view mirror.

From inside my back (sliding) door, looking at the door thru the fence.
(It's messy because I had just spent the morning putting in new sod.)

My second house 

A one-car attached garage in which previous owners added the living room fireplace. If we had nothing else in the garage, we could squeeze one car in, but we'd have to inhale deeply to be sure it didn't scrape. At least, if we parked there, we'd be out of the rain and dogs could get into the car with no worries.

But, mostly, then, we used it for storage. So across a short sidewalk to the covered front door. Also then could open the front garage door and carry things into the house through the garage.  The husky was the dog we'd have to worry about getting safely into the car, the other dog was fine.

Wow. I hope I have better photos of the house (and garage) somewhere.
This is all I seem to have scanned in so far.
See the chimney coming out of the roof? Who does that?!

Next house

Detached garage (Still running through the rain) with no door for several years.

We'd try to use it for parking, but the challenge was opening the big wrought-iron gate, and if the dogs were loose in the yard, we'd first have to put them away somewhere, open the gate, drive in, close the gate, let the dogs out. So we'd often park outside the gate, which left the whole driveway and garage as places to play, have BBQ or party guests, do workshop things and, yes, just toss things on the floor to store instead of putting them properly on the shelves.

But then we'd put things away and park in the garage again for a while.

Rental between houses for most of a year

Huge detached 3-car garage, although the path from the side of the garage to the house was a small patio.

HOWEVER--the owner stored a lot of his stuff in a good part of the garage, and I stored all my stuff from the move in the other side, waiting to find a new place.

So, park in the driveway, unlock the gate, across the patio, unlock the uncovered door while standing in the rain... 
And dogs had to be managed. *Mostly* they were eager to go places, so if I had the car doors open, when I opened the gate, they'd hop in.

This astonished the neighbor. "How do you get them to do that?!"  I asked, do you ever take them anywhere other than to the vet?... No? Yeah, well, that's your problem.

The Crappy Rental and its garage.
It would astonish you to discover that the house roof leaked like a sieve. 

The landlord's side of the garage ... 
You can just see Jake behind the tire.
I wouldn't let them loose in here unsupervised.
Um. Now I'm thinking it's the basement? Might have mislabeled photo.
(Worrisome that one can't tell the difference. Except I think the basement was much lower and had a partial dirt floor?)
Time to go back to the photo albums...

Current house

A spacious attached 2-car garage. Until three years ago, both sides were clear enough for cars, and I've parked mine there for all of the last 19 years but the first few months while unpacking from the move. Then, when the renters weren't using the other side, I started putting things there "temporarily", and clearing them out, and putting more in, and clearing them out--but and now there's a lot of temporary stuff that needs to be processed in one way or another. 　

But still plenty of room to park MUTT MVR. AND no running through the rain! AND easy to put the dogs into or out of the car.

I really really want another one like this (attached) when next I move. High priority!

(I know I have photos--somewhere--but apparently not labeled. So maybe tomorrow I'll try for an appropriate shot.)

Freedom to Roam

SUMMARY: But, for my dogs, only in my yard.

From Facebook discussion June 12, 2020. About the concern for things like whether the dog might eat the neighbors' oleander leaves (which are toxic to dogs) that drop into the yard.

Different people have different approaches towards giving their dogs free rein in the house and, in particular, the yard.

Amber in my tiny townhouse yard.
Would hang out under the storage bin where she could
 peer through cracks in the fence  boards to watch the world go by.

I never thought about them being free in the yard particularly; they just had access. My family's dog (a Collie mix) had freedom in their fenced yard. My first dog (German Shepherd / Golden mix) was about 6 months old when I moved to a townhouse with a patio/"lawn" maybe 12 feet square and 8 foot walls all around, so she grew up without obvious danger accessing that enclosure without me around.

So, by the time I moved to a place with a normal yard, she and I were accustomed to her being on her own out there (w/access to the house).

My entire townhouse back yard.

My dogs get gradually more autonomy as they grow up and/or as I get to know them better and learn what their mean propensities for consumption are. [That's a sophisticated economics joke to impress you with my wit and perspicaciousness.]


I've been lucky and so far had no dogs who were at any obvious risk for eating dangerous things in the house or yard, and I do my best to keep my yard reasonably free of potentially toxic things.

Domesticated foxglove near here,
just one of many colors.

(My last yard had gorgeous pale lavender foxglove flowers come up every spring and I miss them so much. I and dogs had been there for a few years before I learned that they were poisonous. Never saw any of my 4 adults show any interest in eating parts. Also never had a real puppy there.)

Once they've earned it, during the day, they have a doggie door, hence, free run of the house and yard. I wouldn't do this with dogs under 20 pounds, probably. Or still in blatant puppyhood. Or if I lived in a location where, say, coyotes were wont to wander at will through my yard. Or if the yard weren't securely fenced.

Has worked fine with all eight dogs so far except for Sheba the Amazing! Escape Artist Extraordinaire! Had to work hard to keep her home.

But there are risks: Remington engaged with a full-grown raccoon one evening after dark and even at 55 lbs he was severely bitten.   A friend's dog found a skunk in the yard and paid for it. A mile from my house. Same neighborhood. Not big yards. Not wild yards. Middle of the suburbs on the flat valley floor. So--  I just keep my fingers crossed.

COVID-19 Lockdown Day, I dunno, 20? STAY AT HOME

SUMMARY: Wordless Wednesday 

I wonder whether I should change out the flag?!

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I Call This Post: There is No Solution To A Problem That Is So Simple And Obvious That Someone With A Little Bit of Knowledge Can't Overlook It

SUMMARY: Electrical repair

I went outside to plug in my one string of Christmas lights for my garage this year (out of the hundred or so strings that I own), and the plug on the right outside garage wall didn't work. (I tested the lights elsewhere, so I knew they were OK.) 

See, when I bought the house, I had an electrician add a dedicated circuit with outlets in handy places specifically to make it easy to display Christmas lights to my heart's deepest desire.  And now it wasn't working.  I knew that the first outlet before the circuit breaker panel is a GFCI^* and that, sometimes, like if there's too much moisture or some other insult to its integrity, it'll switch itself off.

So I pushed its little Reset button, then its little Test button, then Reset again, and nothing happened. That could mean that the GFCI is broken, or it's possible that that could mean that the circuit breaker itself had flipped itself off (or was defective) so the GFCI had no power with which to reset itself. So I went to the circuit breaker panel, where I cleverly, years ago, clearly labeled which breaker belonged to the Christmas circuit. It didn't look tripped (lower right ones in the panel), but I flipped it off and on anyway. Made no difference.

I know how to replace a GFCI outlet, but don't know how to test whether the circuit breaker is bad. I could've just bought a replacement outlet and tried replacing it, but hip and knees hurt too much, so I appealed to Nextdoor for anyone who might be able to help with this, at the going rate.  A very nice neighbor came by with his gear, and he went through the same steps, but also pulled the cover off the GFCI and tested the wires in the wall, and sure enough, no power coming from the circuit breaker.

He asked whether there were other outlets on the circuit, and I said yes, and they don't work (because if there's no power to the first outlet...) and don't have GFCI outlets themselves, but we went around to the front of the house and tracked the conduit for the wire under the porch roof and he double-checked those outlets himself, and  noted where the conduit headed into the wall on the left side of the garage.

And he said, so, can we see where that comes through inside the garage? So, we went into the garage, and traced where the shiny unpainted conduit came through the wall, led across the ceiling, turned and headed towards the back wall where the circuit panel is located (bottom center left below the paper bags on the shelf).  At this point, we've been at it for probably 20 minutes, after my initial 10-15 on my own. And it's starting to rain.

So we walk back to examine where the conduit comes out from behind the shelf, and interestingly, it branches--one branch goes into the wall and down behind the circuit breaker panel to connect to the circuit breaker, as expected. But the other branch descends outside the wall.

 "Huh," he says, looking at the other descending branch, "What does THIS do?"

(Now, refer back to the 2nd photo in this post.)

So, anyway, now my Christmas light outlets work.

---

* Ground fault circuit interrupter--means if it gets wet, the switch on the outlet pops off so nobody gets shocked and nothing burns down.

Grief and Joy

SUMMARY: Things change over time. But not quickly.

Two things happened Sunday that made me realize that the jagged wounds of losing Tika and Boost are scarring over:

• I took Chip and Zorro up Coyote Peak to my special Photo Spot where the Merle Girls and I had gone so many times, and although of course I thought about Boost and Tika, it was more of a reminiscence, not a tearing-out-my-guts experience. That had been one big reason why I hadn't even tried before: Couldn't bear the thought of going up without the girls and remembering all those good times.   But this time, I was completely present with these dogs, paying attention to them, enjoying them, incorporating their presence on this special peak into my life story.
• I again came across Team Small Dog's cartoon post about scaredy-cat young Border Collies from a while back, and it reminded me so much of Boost all over again, and it made me laugh all over again--and the laughter didn't end in sobs; it was all delight.

So, two and a half years is apparently how long it takes to where  I'm managing to have their memories in my life without immediately breaking down.  You know, it gets to where one thinks that will never happen.  Not to say that I don't miss them so much so often. But it's bearable now, most of the time.

Unlike this:

This evening, I had a little extra time and was in the neighborhood of my parents' former home. Thought I'd do a quick drive-by.  Oh, it hurt. From a mile away, the closer I got, the more it hurt and hurt. Grief is physical.  Both parents gone so recently, and the house where they lived for 49 years, and all those birthdays and Christmases and dinners and celebrations and all the books and the bookcases full of photo memories and all the family memorabilia and heirlooms and the things that my parents loved everywhere in the house.  All the things that made the house My Parents' Home.  It could never be reproduced anywhere again. And neither could Mom or Dad be.  It hurt so much.

So, 9 months since Mom died; 6 months since we sold the house; those are nowhere near long enough to distance the grief.

It'll be a long time before I try that again.

49 Years of History, gone

SUMMARY: (WORDLESS WEDNESDAY) We sold my parents' house April 20. This weekend, May 28, new owners had it on the block again. With some differences. Well--OK--everything's different! Most of the walls are in the same places, though--

(Each photo of My Parents House is followed by roughly equivalent of Remodeled House.)




































(in following, fridge was on far side of stove/counter)

(Sorry, on this one, the preceding isn't taken from the same angle as the following; fireplace is in the same place, just done differently.)










(Following garage photos taken from different angle; door is in same place)









(Two following looking up at same place, latter is just closer)

































































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