The Move to Awahnee

[Greg]

Suddenly, it is all to real and all too soon.

For what seemed like forever, it appeared that we would never be moving away from Los Angeles. But with the turn of the year, the time is now. 

I've had three paint contractors come in to bid on painting the house inside and out. Two of the contractors actually gave me bids. That was the first big sticker shock. It was twice what I was expecting to pay. I've had two flooring contractors come in to bid on replacing my flooring. One of them gave me a bid. It started out at 4x what I was expecting and I worked him down to 2x what I was expecting.

Things are moving at what seems like a break neck pace because The Queen and I have trips as well. She has a business trip next week and in three weeks. In two weeks, the pair of us are going to Florida to celebrate her mother's 80th birthday. In four weeks, we both travel to Oakhurst to look at more houses.

There are two houses that we would move into tomorrow if my money had cleared from the pension fund. Oddly they are both on Woodview St. But that doesn't happen until April. We also have about 10 more houses to look at. Thankfully, houses in the Oakhurst-Mariposa corridor aren't moving that quickly. That might all change in March once the weather improves. Our realtor up there is a little sketchy. Most of the sketchiness comes from her fellow realtor and fiancee. I intend to leave him behind during the next visit.

Currently, the Queen and I are filling up boxes. We have to get all the knickknacks and assorted house detritus out of the way so the painters can paint and floor installers can install floors. This gave the Queen a bit of a heart attack since she will be gone starting next week. Our current ration is 3 boxes to donate to 1 box to keep. God help me when I back up my office.

I have a ton of neglected housing projects to accomplish as well. The biggest of which is getting the garage back on its foundation. I also have to build two more garage doors to replace the two that have slowly been destroyed by termites. After that there are a million little things to do. The painters come in two and a half weeks.

Needless to say I'm bit stressed out and cranky at the moment. I also have a documentary to complete which is going as easily as pushing water uphill. 

I'm sure it will only get worse.

[Drunk Monk]

DOOM south will be sorely missed.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Hey, at least you moved some dvd’s.

[Greg]

If I sell a couple of more, I'll be in double-digits in sales.

[Greg]

When I bought Lynch manor 23 years ago, I missed a significant problem in the garage. When I gave the garage the cursory look it all seemed fine. Plus, I was very excited to have a garage where I could place all my tools. And in my defense, the home inspector didn't see it either.

When I walked through the garage, there was a half sheet of plywood leaning against the back wall. Just another piece oft stray detritus to be thrown out when I moved in. Turns out the piece of plywood blocked the view of the bottom plate of the back wall. A month later when I finally moved the plywood, I could instantly see that about half of the bottom plate no longer set on the the foundation. At one end there was even a sizable where I could see plenty of daylight. If you want to know why I have a cornocopia of wild life in my garage, it's because of that gap. (And the fact I put food out there for the cats)

Well, the garage wasn't going to fall down and there wasn't an easy fix for the problem so I lived with it. I lived with it until I realized the next owners of Lynch manor might not be so forgiving. This was the weekend I set out to resolve the problem.

There's about 18 inches of space between the back wall of the garage and the neighbors fence. Just enough room for me to brush one shoulder against the stucco of the garage and the other against the termite rot of the wood fence.

Now the neighbor behind was nice enough to put in the new fence about ten years ago without my cash infusion. but when they did the install of the new fence, they just pushed the old chain link fence in between the garage and the new fence. My first job was to cut out the old chain link. In order to cut out the chain link, I needed to cut out the small saplings that grew between the openings in the chain link.

And they wonder why carpenters swear. I also spent a lot of time wishing I had a small pair of bolt cutters to cut the chain link fence. But no. I did it with my pliers. I took it out in three sections, constantly fight one branch that I just kept working around because I was too stubborn to just go get the saw again and cut it.

My plan was to put some boards under the bottom plate of the wall that was hanging off the foundation and using my car jack lift the whole wall. Once the plate was higher than the foundation, it would be simple as pie to push the wall back into place. A few concrete screws later and everything would be perfect.

Not so much. The wall wasn't budging. 200 sq feet of 1/2 thick stuck was very happy right where it was, thank you very much. Plus, the foundation had shifted some in the 90 years since it was poured. It was quite as level as when it was new. Some sections had sunk while others had risen.

I spent a lot of time looking at the concrete wondering how I was going to remove 1/2" thick chunk of concrete out of the floor in order to allow room for the wall to come back into place. Because I am the sharpest pencil in the box, it only took me an hour to come to the conclusion that it's easier to cut wood than it is to cut concrete. Especially since I have a lot more wood cutting tools than concrete cutting tools.

The sawmill is my friend. I had a good chunk of the bottom plate off in a jiffy. The wall still wouldn't budge into it's proper place. I cut more. I wedge the blade in tight when the studs pinched the blade when I was cutting nails. There was more colorful language.

By the end of the day, I had got to a point where part of the bottom plate is actual on the foundation. I tried pounding it further in with my trusty sledge hammer but there isn't enough room in the narrow corridor between garage back wall and neighbor fence to get a good swing.

My next attempt will involve clamps and boards nailed to the concrete foundation. I spent about an hour looking for the special concrete nails. I knew they were in the garage somewhere. I could picture the clear plastic box and it's bright blue contents perfectly. I just couldn't picture where the box sat. Until epiphany came while I was resting on the couch watching football and remembered what cardboard box they were hiding in.

Today, Monday, I have more contractors coming to talk to me about paint and flooring installation. I have more boxes to fill with books. I have 22 boxes of books that I'm hoping to sell and another 15 boxes of books I'm keeping.

[Drunk Monk]

And they wonder why carpenters swear. I also spent a lot of time wishing I had a small pair of bolt cutters to cut the chain link fence. But no. I did it with my pliers. I took it out in three sections, constantly fight one branch that I just kept working around because I was too stubborn to just go get the saw again and cut it.

That's crazy.  Even I have bolt cutters.  Cuz ya never know when you gotta cut through some fence or some locks or something...

[cranefly]

And they wonder why carpenters swear. I also spent a lot of time wishing I had a small pair of bolt cutters to cut the chain link fence. But no. I did it with my pliers.

That alone makes me wince.  Years ago I made eight big tomato cages out of concrete reinforcing mesh.  I started with wire cutters, then with aching hands made a trip to the hardware store to buy bolt cutters.
All your work is very unsettling, reminding me of our house's growing state of disrepair.  We could have sold it last summer as is, but I think that window has closed.  I suspect there's a whole lot of work ahead of me...
Wishing you the best in the fix-up.

[Greg]

I spent the week meeting with contractors for painting, flooring and moving. Both the flooring and painting contractors I hired from Home Depot were thousands of dollars less than other contractors. I blame the flooring guy from Empire for even suggesting Home Depot. I would never have even considered them but the Empire guy (Empire is a flooring company that has ads constantly on TV) said they were much better than Lumber Liquidators. I gave it a shot and called them and save about $4K in the process. So, thanks Empire.

I also hired an electrician to come in and fix our wall sconces one of which was no longer working. I don't play with electricity. It's not one of my skill sets so I always bring someone in.

I also wanted the electrician to look at a plug in the bedroom and a loose socket in one of my ceiling fans. I had dealt with these electricians before. The Queen had a problem while I was out of town with the electrical panel once while I was out of town. I found these guys. They did a good job at a reasonable price. After some hunting I found their number and gave them a call.

When the new wall sconces arrived on Friday, I gave them a call and they came right over. I was very happy.

They couldn't do anything about the plug in the bedroom. The A/C unit that plugs into that socket just draws too much power for that circuit. It's always going to pop the fuse. 

One of the electricians got to work on the sconces. Turns out the one that wasn't working had burned out in the socket.

Meanwhile I talked with the other one about the sketchy light socket in the ceiling fan. Let the adventures begin.

He started by saying he doesn't work on ceiling fans. I countered with I don't need you to fix the fan, I just need you to check out the ceramic light socket. The problem has always been some sort of loose connection.The bulb works when you put it in the socket but goes out when you tighten the glass lid over it. I figured an electrician could find the source of the loose connection.

He agrees to look at it. He fiddles. He gets it working. He's happy. He tightens the glass globe and the light goes out. He fiddles some more. Now all this time, the electricians have been dealing with hot circuits, including the sconce guy.

The ceiling fan guy takes apart the socket. There is much discussion about the age of the ceiling fans. I say 20 years. He mentions these parts would be hard to replace. I go on-line and find many similar parts within a few seconds for about $4.00.

He takes the socket apart and reassembles it. During that time, the other light in the fan goes out and the fan itself kicks on. No amount of pressing on the remote shuts off the fan. The fan electrician gets off the ladder and gets a bulb out of my floor lamp to see if maybe it's just the bulb that has burned out.

During the removal of the bulb, ceiling lamp electrician shatters the floor lamp. Oopsy.

Ceiling lamp electrician tells me it's not his job to play with ceiling fans. The best bet at this point is to replace the ceiling fan all together. And since this is a really old model, I will have to replace both units so they will match. He tells me he will come on his own time and only charge me half price to change out both fans.

Excuse me? What was going to be a $150 job is now a $500 job. Thanks, now.

We go back and forth. There is a lot of discussion of him telling he's not supposed to do what he did so it's my fault for making him do it. 

I escalate and ask to speak to his boss.

I talk to the boss. I tell him I just need to go back to the point where I have one light and the ceiling fan works. He agrees, but there is no way to get to that point. The fan has to be replaced. He says if I get the lamps, he'll put them in for free. Sigh. New fans it is.

They are coming back on Monday when the ceiling fans come in. Until then I have a fan spinning above my head blowing cold air. I might head up into the attic to see if I can disconnect it.

Meanwhile I'm heading to the garage to see if can get the rear wall back on it's foundation.

[Greg]

Update: Ceiling fans replaced on Sunday. The kid came back at 7:30am. I played assistant since he was by himself.

Update: The rear wall of the garage is back on its foundation. The sledgehammer is my spirit guide.

[Greg]

This could be in the Doom dreams section but it is more pertinent here since the whole move thing might be messing with my head.

I woke up in the middle of the night and got out of bed. I noticed moisture coming from the ceiling. I look up and sure enough water is leaking in through the roof. I go into the closet to check how extensive the leak is. It's extensive. I can see the water drops forming on the ceiling before they drop to my feet. I'm going to need a new roof along with all my other repairs. Just feckin' great.

Then I wake up. All is dry except for my sweat covered pillow.

The next phase is getting the new flooring put in. I have two different carpets in the house and the look miserable. The first thing our realtor confirmed was that I was going to need new flooring. Sigh. I agreed.

The flooring is ready to come in. They are currently tracking down the molding that goes with it before they drop it off at the house. There 87 boxes of flooring I will have to carry from the curb to the house. The flooring has to sit in the house for 72 hours before installation to acclimate.

They are going to rip up the carpet first, naturally. but everything in the house that is on the floor has to go. I have to take apart the desks I built or modified. My headboard has to be dismantled. So much crap. I pray for the cleansing fire.

The current timeline is for this to be done by next Tuesday or so. As I look around the house, especially my office, I have a lot of crap that has to get on up. I'm planning to stage some of it on the deck. I'm hoping it doesn't rain during the floor install.

Home Depot swears it will only take a day for the flooring to be installed. I'll believe it when I see it. Even if it takes two days, that disruption should be minor compared to when the interior of the house gets painted. That is supposed to take a week.

Until then, sweet dreams.

[Drunk Monk]

holy cats.  did you just tell us your wet dream?

tmi, greg.

TMI!!!

[Greg]

You had to go there, didn't you?

[Drunk Monk]

You had to go there, didn't you?

i got my degree in psych, remember?

[Greg]

It's all a blur.....

[Drunk Monk]

It's all a blur.....

Good thing you’re clean and sober then.

No wait. You have no excuse.