September Update

The summer is almost over. It's been an interesting one, filled with numerous trips to the transfer station (sounds much nicer than dump, doesn't it?). I continue to be amazed that it took us an entire summer to empty the cabin. It's not entirely empty, there is some furniture and a smallish collection of boxes. "Smallish" is a relative term - but believe me - this is smallish! I want to restate that I am a packrat. Yes, I am. Yet this cabin has cured me. I never dreamed I would be so toss-happy. My grandmother would be horrified and I remain a bit surprised myself. It has been a loosely organized tossing - some items being immediately tossed while others kept for awhile before being classified as needing-to-be-tossed.

Michele likes Gary's new tool kit!

I am happy to report that we've moved into Phase Two: cleaning and ripping. Our many thanks to fellow family members for all the labor day weekend help. They claim they didn't do much. We feel much differently about that! Any and all help is extremely appreciated!! I know they wanted to do more - ripping and tearing and helping us get squared away before winter comes. However, the dreaded M word became a reality. M=money, or lack thereof.....

Mom & Bruce removing the old, smelly ceiling tiles in the loft

Jon & Bruce removing more ceiling tiles - they're all gone now! (the tiles, that is...)

Yet, with a leaking roof, cracked windows and rotten siding - we felt the need to borrow money to get the little cabin secured before winter. Now we have remodeling money and our help has gone home. Let nobody ever accuse me of good timing. The roof is to be professionally installed within the next two weeks. Then siding and windows. Even with this on the horizon, we felt the need to make some emergency repairs - some of which can be kept as permanent repairs.

Gary undoing some wiring before we begin ripping - right wall

Left wall - before rippping

Yes - our little beach cabin lost some of its charm this past weekend. Oh, I can still foresee many great beach weekends with family and friends - these outings will be made much richer knowing we busted our butts to make it all happen.

This is why we were ripping.....

I was reminded this weekend how much I dislike carpentry. With sewing and knitting there is ease. Not so with plywood, floor underlayment, and hardi-board. But the large gaping holes in the floor/walls needed to go. I'm not excited about having another Willard siting and I'm thinking Gary isn't, either.

All the yukky stuff is gone...but now we must work fast before night falls!

But we're now relieved we made these repairs - the house smells even better now - sort of like a lumberyard. The moldy, rotten floor underlayment was smelly!

Ripping up that floor was NOT fun - and it took the Fein tool, the sawzall, and the skill saw! New wood looks (and smells!) nice!! Look, ma! No holes!

The last item we had to complete? The HUGE hole in the floor where the mover fell through when packing up grandma's things. I remember her being sooooo indignant when he damaged her floor! Sheesh! And finally (and we do mean FINALLY!) ALL DONE! Ok, except for leveling the floor surface and recovering it with something....Gary's leaning towards Pergo - and I'm unsure about that.

(ignore the plastic leaf bag nailed to the left window - it's a temporary location for garbage collection) Did I mention we are extremely happy this is behind us?????

rippin' and a grinnin'

Ok, maybe not grinnin....

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You Know You've Been to the Dump too Often When...

You bet your spouse for who comes closest to the total bill. And you get pretty damned good at guessing the amount. We broke our personal best on Tuesday. The dump personnel recognize you and ask if the cabin is empty yet??? Seriously! We thought we were done with major dump hauls. Not so - we had forgotten the rotten cans of fruits and veggies and meat in the meat locker. There was also at least 20 POUNDS of white sugar in gallon mayo jars. Yeesh! That was a seriously barfy load. I'll spare you the gory details. It was NASTY! Just when we thought we had a load, we discovered at least 20 small boxes up in the rafters in the bedroom. No kidding. It is just insane! We found about 10 rolls of adding machine paper. Heh. And all but 4 boxes went straight to the trailer to haul away. Old styrofoam projects that were not completed, mice/squirrel-chewed boxes of ribbon, and my personal fav: the disco Christmas ball (large styrofoam ball covered in Nyquil-style clear medicine cups, edged w/glitter). The four boxes we kept? Old glass Christmas ball ornaments. Some very 60's and look more like easter eggs than Christmas ornaments. Oh, and we have two artificial Christmas trees (I think...) Gary was trying to figure out how to get beneath the new section of the cabin. I suggested cutting an opening in the meat locker floor. Seemed like a good idea - great plumbing access. Well, after we cleared enough crap that we could actually SEE the floor, aha! I had such a good idea, somebody else had beat me to it. Behind the meat locker door is a trap door for entering the crawl space. The funny part of the crawl space is....... .....yeah, Gary spotted another BOX! And, ahem, several empty whiskey bottles!!!!! Photos soon, I hope.... Terry

I just can't believe it....

There's stuff in the rafters!! We found a real gem yesterday..... One of those old thick albums full of cabinet cards!! Too bad it's not the Harris side... It's the Pearce side...

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What's Missing, Part 2

I meant to include some photos - but not yet - takes too much time I don't have right now. Went back to work yesterday - right into a 16 hr shift (and I'm getting too old to pull 16 hr shifts!!!). (stupid blogger - even tweaking the html code, this stupid thing won't break into separate paragraphs!!!!)
Ok - the dead refrigerator is gone! We had not even thought about the washer/dryer, but we'd tossed enough crap that we could finally get to them...the washer had "clean" clothes in it. A 5 yr old load of laundry(!). The dryer was completely rusted inside....ick.....and I had found the receipts for all three of these appliances! They were purchased in 1971. When we'd moved the washer aside, you could see where the gearcase oil had dumped all over the floor. Ok - that was it - all were destined for our favorite destination: the penninsula transfer station!!!
We hauled countless books (I LOVE books - this about killed me) that were moldy beyond mention. We also tore down the old pressboard wardrobe in the bedroom. I had emptied it of clothing and knew it was falling apart and moldy. I had no idea that it was contributing about 95% of the mold smell in the bedroom!
Both defunct music organs are gone, the couch in the study was extremely gross! Hairy white mold all over the back of it (barf!) - ditto with the old tv unit. I was not happy about having to toss this stuff - but it had become quite clear that they were ruined beyond the point of rescue -how horribly sad....
The net result? We got up Wednesday morning and went to the house to make morning coffee. Wow! While there is still a very slight musty odor, it is such a huge improvement that made all this work worthwhile. We both felt pretty satisfied with what we've done and both feel more confident we can rescue this old cabin!
Next trip: tearing out the ceiling tiles in the addition.... Estate situation: still fighting MLynch. Sending income tax stuff to CPA. Likely will have to pay some State of Oregon Estate tax. Both atty and myself hoping for dispursement by Dec 09 at the latest....

let's play what's missing!

We're hoping to have made the last of the "major" dump runs! The house is actually becoming more bearable. Oh sure, there is a slight musty odor, but what a huge improvement!

Am going to see if any of my photos can be uploaded using this new app...
Can't get photo part to work just yet. Guess I'll have to do that at home.

And I say, the more, the merrier - hoping you can all come over for the holiday weekend!

Mobile Blogging from here.

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blogging from the beach

Just checking out my new blogger app for the ever-handy iPhone.

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