The realtor called; I no longer own a house in Washington!

Got paid today, and was excited to think that I wouldn't have to make a mortgage payment! But with the closing papers to sign (yay!) I had to send a cashier's check for $1508. I can only hope that at least half of that comes back ( Read more... )

Stanley Hallett was quite the mover and shaker here in town, who was or wan't a British peer. His house is across the street.

Kevin's friend Lonnie came from Portland towing his utility trailer. They bought some sheetrock and now we have walls, actual R-30 insulated walls, and ceiling in the stairwell, instead of the lath and plaster we had torn down! What a kind and helpful thing for him to do.

Finally, thanks to the Herculean efforts of Kevin and our friend and plumber Bob, the 1.5-gallon-per-MINUTE leak under the house is FIXED. Hope the house doesn't fall in when the ground dries out!

I was sitting here dreaming about putting a powder room somewhere in the house, thinking of the stainless steel sink/toilet combo we saw at Habitat. Googling around I found one that I like, which is of course $5400.

This clever item makes more sense; that way we only have to find room for a toilet.

And then there's... this.

Kevin has built a berm alongside the chicken pen, around the apricot tree to the alley. He has wanted to plant fruit trees there ( Read more... )

Views from my desk, yesterday morning 8 am:

( Pretty morning. Snow and ice. )

I called a Spokane insurance agent (again) today about a piece of mail that keeps coming here. The insured, daughter of the prior owner of the house, is apparently still insuring her car here although she lives west of the Cascades now. I had never gotten anything but a recording from the agent's number, but today he picked up and listened to my ( Read more... )

Today Kevin laid out the bricks from the tottering chimney he took down into a nice little patio. He got it within a half inch of square by eye.

( I got to tend the fire. )