Category: Blog

Holy moly.

By noon on Sept 1, we had two houses reasonably ready for new tenants, all of our stuff was sold, shipped, or stored, and we were on a plane. But WOW was it a wild ride to get to that point.

The captions on the pictures below tell most of the story. But the pictures don’t include:

• The crazy Facebook marketplace sale we did on Sunday. We needed to sell our car, couch, mattress, and bikes, but wanted to use them until the last possible minute. I put those items up for sale at 8:30 am on Sunday, and did nothing but monitor texts and messages for the next two hours! Our rust bucket Jeep Cherokee was a particularly hot item – there was actually a bidding war for it, and we ended up getting $75 more than we asked for!
• Neither house met our high standards for being 100% clean and put together. The newly-remodeled house still had a few unfinished odds and ends – like, the curtains we purchased as closet doors didn’t get hung, the electrician needed to come back and finish a few small bits, and the bathroom mirror and towel racks didn’t get hung. And in our house, we didn’t have time to touch up the paint and I’m pretty sure we missed the upper kitchen cabinets in our cleaning frenzy (although I’m pleased to report that we did a good job with the most important places, e.g. toilet, tub, sinks, fridge, and stove!) . But we’re fortunate to have understanding new tenants (and the ability to reduce their rent a bit this month in appreciation for their flexibility).
• The AMAZING help of our friends is somewhat captured in the photos, but not to the degree that demonstrates the depth of our appreciation for them. Everyone who loaned tools and pickup trucks, helped with projects, took away our garbage and recycling, brought us dinners and snacks — THANK YOU!! This truly would not have been accomplished without your help.
• The lovely porch party we had on a beautiful Monday evening – it was so nice to see many of our Sitka friends, and have a little celebratory send-off.
• Impossible to capture in photos is the complex mix of feelings we have as we reach the end of this insane effort and transition into a new chapter and adventures unknown. Tears were shed as we said “see ya later” to our friends and houses and sweet community of Sitka, but there’s also so much excitement and anticipation for what lies ahead. Oh, and we’re deliriously exhausted, also.

After two days of travel – including a perfect evening in Seattle with some dear friends, followed by a less-than-perfect snafu with baggage storage at SEATAC – we arrived in Michigan on Thursday night. We’re spending Friday very slowly and quietly taking care of a few bits of business and settling into my sister’s house on the lake. This weekend we plan to help her harvest her massive crop of tomatoes, raspberries, and peppers, and preserve vast quantities of produce.

Thanks for following along with our crazy journey this month. We’ll keep you posted on new adventures as they develop. Hugs and love all around!

What a week! As of Wed night, the bathroom tile is ready for grout, we’ve primed everything that’s getting painted, and the first coat of paint is done on both bedrooms, the kitchen cabinets, and all the trim. Tomorrow the electrician is coming to replace the panel and fix various outlets, and we plan to finish all the painting. Plus hopefully do some outdoor clean-up and a trip to the dump.

The other night (on the one sunny day we’ve had all month!) we had some friends over for drinks . After taking a look around at our house projects, one of them said, “I thought you were planning to leave at the end of the month but it looks like your plans might have changed?” Ha! Nope, we’re still leaving! Only six days left! In addition to finishing up these house renovations, apparently we’re hosting an informal party on Saturday (!!!), and there’s still plenty of packing/shipping/cleaning to do in our main house. Ay yi yi – what kind of crazy circus is this anyway!?

But seriously, we’re having fun (mostly) and feeling excited in spite of being totally exhausted and occasionally overwhelmed. And we’re truly, deeply grateful to our friends who are feeding us, helping with the project, loaning tools, or just reading this and sending good vibes. THANK YOU!!

Late on Tuesday night (Aug 17), after a week of going at it, we peeled the last of the old texture off the walls and ceiling. (Well … it’s not quite *all* gone: we decided not to deal with the ceilings or closet walls in the bedrooms. We just couldn’t take it anymore! Plus, we’ll have an easy reminder of what it all used to look like.) What an effort! But, no regrets. It’s going to look SO much better.

The biggest puzzle of the week has been about the hot water heater. We have a line on two on-demand heaters: one electric and one propane. At first we thought electric would be the obvious way to go. But we talked with an electrician and it seemed like we might have to upgrade AND move the whole electric panel for appropriate power and placement. So then we thought maybe propane would be the way to go … until we learned what the code requirements are for tank placement. The tank would have to be on the opposite side of the house, which is aesthetically terrible, but also requires a whole ton of plumbing. Then we entertained the notion of putting the old beast of a storage tank back in place and just leaving it as-is. But it takes up so much space in an already small house! We talked to the electrician again and it turns out we don’t need to *move* the panel, just upgrade it a bit. It’s still a hefty $$ estimate, but it seems like a good investment … not just for now, but also to support future upgrades (i.e., if we’re ever able to add in-floor heat!).

Anyone need a 47-gallon hot water tank? We have one up for grabs. 🙂

Up next: we’ll start to tile the bathroom and paint everything!

At this point, the green house is about as naked as it’s gonna get, and we’re almost at the turning point to start putting it back together again. We’re 13 days in — 18 to go. Seems to be right on schedule, riiiiiiiiight??? We’re definitely tired and sore, but spirits are high and humor is intact.

It’s been four FULL days – mostly dedicated to our obsession with making these walls less ridiculous. I think we’ve mastered the technique now: we apply a thick layer of paint remover, then use a garden mister to keep it wet for awhile – even up to two days. The water seems to help us get through to the bottom layer of paint/mud and has made most of the scraping pretty easy. Just time-consuming! There have definitely been moments when we’ve wondered if we’d ever get past this stage and why we were so crazy to do it in the first place. But, seriously, that texturing was SO heinous – I just can’t in good conscience own something that looks so ridiculous. Plus, I think we’ve each come to a similar realization this week: Matthew’s quote is “These houses weren’t built to be special, but they ARE special.” And I’ve grown to think of myself as trustee of sorts – as though these houses have a storyline of their own, and we’re just here during this moment in their history to help them realize their potential.

Meanwhile this week, we also managed to remove the final layer of linoleum flooring, pulled out the hot water heater (we’re switching to an on-demand unit!), and got rid of most of our personal belongings that we’re not moving or storing.

Next week we’ll be getting some help with installing tile backer board in the bathroom and a professional mudding crew to get the walls/ceiling in shape for painting.

We’re excited by all of you who checked out our site over the weekend – thanks for tuning in! And special thanks to our friends here in Sitka who have been feeding us the last couple of days. Life savers!

Well, now that all the demolition is done, it’s obviously time to start reassembling. We’re definitely feeling the urgency! A little backstory: Matthew’s dad was planning to be here for three weeks this month and we were looking forward to having him be our project manager. The two of us are capable of an awful lot, but there are definitely a few things where we need some guidance (to say nothing of extra hands and humor!). At the last minute (probably after hearing that Sitka was experiencing the highest-per-capita level of COVID in the entire country last month!) he decided it wasn’t the best idea to travel across the country and risk exposure to the virus. Completely understandable, but we miss you, Jim!!

In his absence, we’ve called in some reinforcements to mentor us on patching walls, repairing rot, helping with the wall re-plastering, and tiling. It’s a relief to know we’ll have some help … but those folks are a little busy for the next couple of days. Besides, our priority task right now is to work on smoothing out that wall texture. Yesterday and today we started this process, and although it was a crazy amount of work, we feel that we see the path forward. And it will be a MAJOR improvement! However, we bought out the local supply of our preferred brand of paint remover and had to call on our friend in Juneau to buy out Home Depot’s supply. It should arrive via air cargo on Tuesday morning.

And so, we found ourselves in a holding pattern this afternoon on the green house. Fortunately, since we’re also moving out of our house at the end of the month, there’s plenty of other stuff to do! We refocused our energy today on packing up more of our personal belongings.

Here’s a few photos of the last couple of days.