We found it!

We have looked at over 96 houses during this process. We were settling in for the long haul, but thankfully we did not have to do it. We put an offer on a house tonight. We had looked at it over the weekend, and it was one of those things that we just kept thinking about it. I was the last house we looked at Saturday, and we were both exhausted. We went back by Sunday, and talked about it alot. So we made an offer on it tonight. We should find out if they accepted our offer by tomorrow night... that is if no one makes a competing bid!

It is a 1950 bungalo in the St John's area. That is on the north side Portland, and it is an up and coming "trendy" area. We really like the neighborhood, and we will have excellent resale. The layout is great.. It has 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, formal dining room, big kitchen, mud room, attached garage, fireplace, and a large covered patio. it also has all of its original windows and hardwood floors through out. The kitchen still has the original cabinets. It has oil heat, but the tank is above ground which eliminates all of the environmental issues associated with in ground tanks. At least it has the duct work so we can put in a regular furnace and air conditioning more easily. Best part it is all on one level! The yard is 1/5 acre, which is big for Portland, and great for the dogs. Plus we aren't crammed in with our neighbors. The ages of the houses around us vary. Most of them look older... maybe late 20's.

We have ideas for things we want to do to it. It is in great shape. It had definitely been well taken care of and loved. It was "remodeled" in the 70's, hence the orange kitchen counter. But alot of the original features are there so we have a good base and fun stuff to do. It has vinyl siding yuk, and blue at that! It needs a new roof, so there is no guilt in revamping the front porch. We will be able to do some outside construction this time. Fun! Fun! Fun!

Someone didn't love it enough

My doctor really needs to water his plants. I think this might make some of his patients nervous to see a dead plant in the waiting area.

Fallen Blooms

S&M angel...

Chained to a fence for all of eternity.

The house on Delaware

After the string of houses that were sold very quickly, I have taken to not waiting until the weekend to do the drive-bys. I check them out on the web when I get notified of a new listing, weed out the duds, and go by for a closer look. This was cute and in a really nice area. Well I went to look at it the afternoon it went on the market... 2:30, and it had already had an offer on it that evening. Another cheap fixer upper flying off the market.

Snow on my Sleeve

Snow Bunny

Snow blobs on the Buber-Su

Intense snow shower

It was still pretty warm too. The flakes were bigger than quarters.

Shifting winds

The weather had been decent for the past 2 weeks. A mix of rain and sun each day. We had lots of rainbows and blue skies. It was weird to see black storm clouds on one side of the river and blue sky with puffy clouds on the other. It was kinda warm too. But now the cold has moved back in... as well as the full time rain. Tonight however... the rain turned to snow. Sort of. The flakes were huge and wet, but the temps were in the low forties. Weather has always fascinated me... I think I get that from you dad. But I won't go as far as wishing I could chase storms.

Precious!

This is one of the lovely bathrooms in the Farragut house.

Pink sink, as if the green wasn't bad enough

The kitchen in the house on Farragut was breathtaking.

A nice staircase

The inside of the house on Farragut was pretty intense. It actually photographed pretty well. It had major water damage among other things.

The house on Farragut

This was by far the scariest house we looked at. It was in a kinda rough area, but it was big and a real fixer-upper. Too much of a fixer-upper. I'm not sure we could get anyone to lend on the house. The backyard was a mud pit, and the neighbors had built a 12 foot concrete block wall between the yards.

What a cool stove!

This was in the 40's house in sellwood. I have only see pictures of these.

Awesome door knocker

This was at a 40's house in sellwood, which is the antiques district.

Mr Nelson's party house

This house was in a really cool area. It was a 20's house that had been "remodeled"... in the 1980's. Everything was black and mirrors. There was no grass, and everything was concreted over. Mr Nelson had been sent to the old folks home, but it looked like he had had some fun in the party house. The checked walls are contact paper.

Another example

This is the rest of the kitchen at the solar panel house. I love that the dishwasher was in the hall.

What a strange kitchen

This house was in a sketchy area. It had a HUGE solar panel inserted into the side of the roof. It stuck out very badly, and it was leaking into a light fixture in the kitchen. This kitchen has the strangest layout. A corner stove?

Basement toilet?

The house on 39th had a "bathroom" in the basement. It actually worked. I thought it was hysterical that it was freestanding. There was even a vent!

The furnace

This is an oil furnace in the house on 39th. Apparently oil heat is very common here. Creepy. The tanks are usually in the ground. When you buy a house you have to be careful and have the ground around the tank tested. If there is cintamination, the area has to be remediated, and it is pretty expensive.

The 70's room

This is a third bedroom in the house on 39th. In portland they have regulations on what passes as a "legal" bedroom, and this is not one of them. The window is way too small.

The coolest peep hole ever

Groovey mail slot at the house on 39th

Door knob on the house on 39th

The first house of the day

We looked at this one first... and last. I was awesome. It is on 39th ave, and Just worn out enough to be fun. It was in a great neighborhood, and had some great features. Of course we found out there were 2 competing offers on it by the end of the day. Apparently the market is pretty competative in the price range of "fixers" we are looking at.

Ahhhh... house hunting

Today we wore out the realtor, but she's a trooper. I think I wore Jim out too. Our realtor is really great. She sends me tons of stuff for us to ponder. They have great county websites that let us check out the sales history, tax records, retail price, crime stats (with each incident mapped for a 1/2 mile radius), aerial photos, and neighborhood pricing. I don't know how we could really weed out some of these houses. The realotr loves us... she just sends us stuff and we do all the research and do a drive by before we decide to go inside. We went out to see 6 of them today, and boy did they run the gambut.

There's a rainbow where Mt Hood should be!

In front of me was a rainbow and a dark sky, behind was bright sun and puffy clouds.

The Notice

This was on the door of the handicap stall in a chinese restaurant Jim and I went to tonight. It scared me a little.

"The restroom lights are on a 5 minute motion censer. If you happen to be in one of the stalls and the light turns off, open the stall door and wave your hands, it should turn back on."

Okay... there are some problems with this little setup...
1) You have to stand up and hobble to the door to open it... the stalls are really deep... especially the handicapped one.
2) Even if you get the door open, the entrances to the stalls don't angle towards the "censer"
3) If you are in there on the pot for more than 5 minutes, you probably won't be in the position to open the door and wave your hands anyway.

At least it was in chinese too. I enjoyed admiring the characters. Of course I was then sitting on the pot wondering if I had been in there for 5 minutes. So I decided to prepare my toidee paper in advance just in case.

Another scary house

This one was really bad. On MLS they only had a picture of the back of the house, as you see here. Well... they didn't include all the trashiness. They also had pictures of the inside which DID include the occupant's trash and lawn chairs. We knew it would need some work, but it was decently priced, old, and huge. We found out once we got there why there was no photo of the front. The front was up against the interstate. I mean against it. See the little row of cypresses on the left of the photo - there is a wall there. That is the "sound barrier" wall on the interstate. I'm sure the house was awesome a one point, but the interstate came through unfortunately too close. The state really should have taken the house.

Every cloud has a silver lining...

Chronic Onychophagia - better know as nail biting

The demographic:
- 28% to 33% of children ages 7-10 years old
- 44% of adolescents
- 19% to 29% of young adults
- 5% of older adults

It is more common in young males.
It increases the risk of tooth decay by damaging the tooth enamel.
Nail biters are less susceptible to infection.

The upside is... because I bite my nails and constantly am exposing myself to all sorts of germs and bacteria, I am less susceptible to infections. It is kinda like people who live with contaminated water supplies and no refridgeration... they have bolstered up their system to protect themselves. Yay for strengthening my immune system!

All Hail the Teeter-Totter!

I love the teeter-totter, or what some call a see-saw. I know they are very dangerous when not used properly. Kinda like alcohol, chewing gum, firearms, and hair dryers. And that makes teeter-totters are a dying breed. I propose they should only be legal for adults to use them. They should issue teeter-totter liscenses to those above the age of 21. After a driver's test of course.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is mom's birthday. I won't reveal her age, but she is 30 years older than I am. teehee. She and dad came up from McMinnville to have dinner. We took them to Russell St BBQ, and they really liked it. They even said it was the best bbq they have found in Oregon. Funny that 2 vegetarians found a good bbq joint!

James and I did some more house hunting today. We had 12 to go look at. Oh my. As per usual we found a doosey or two. We did find one we really liked, and later in the day found out that they had just accepted an offer from someone. The year is still young. We have contacted a realtor to help us out, and we are meeting with her tomorrow. We shall see.

Finger Lickin' Good

Tiffanie is cleaning up after her doughnut extravaganza.

Voodoo Doughnut

Voodoo Doughnut is a crazy little doughnut shop downtown. They are famous for their weird flavors. Tiffanie brought this one in today. Its called the Grape Ape... it has grape koolaide mix sprinkled on it.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Jim and I had a nice leisurely v-day celebration. I took him someplace very special... Sonic. Unfortunately I didn't make reservations. There were no drive-up stalls left when we got there. So we went through the drive-thru and got it to go. We had a lovely dinner still in the car, but across the street. I swore to jim that I wouldn't do anything crazy this year... so sonic it is! We had fun... as usual. We never have to do anything special because we always seem to entertain ourselves just fine.

I think however that my all time favorite v-day was quite a few years ago. Jim and I had a "romantic" valentine's picnic in Cherokee Park (still one of my favorite places) in knoxville. I fondly remember making jim look into the sun because I thought his brown eyes looked pretty in the sunlight. Yes... we still joke about that one. When I want to be extra sweet I ask jim to look into the sun so I can admire his pretty eyes.

I think I have been a little nostalgic since mom and I are going back to knoxville. I originally didn't want to go back. I was (and still am) scared that it will be really different from the memory I have in my head. I don't want to tarnish or warp that memory - even if I remembered it wrong in the first place.

Creepy Gelato

It was so hard to tell if it was real or not... it totally looked like plastic. Ick.

House Hunting and the Like

Saturday Jim and I decided to try hanging out on the east side. We have been looking at some houses out there, and we thought we needed to see how we felt hanging out there... incase it was going to be our 'hood. We went to a place called Russell St BBQ. Yes... Jim and I are still vegetarian. They have a bbq tofu sandwich. Now don't gag! Its really good. Mom and dad need to go there to try the regular bbq. Their sauces are yummy. We then went in search of excitement, but realized we would need to make our own. The east side neighborhoods were pretty calm. It was not too hopping. We should have expected as much. Portland is not a late night town. There really aren't many 24hr places. Downtown there is more activity later at night. It is nothing at all like San Fran that's for sure! Jim and I still hold that knoxville had more late night activity.

We have seen some really adorable neighborhoods in the course of the great house hunt. There are some amazing houses here, and there are streets and streets of cool old houses - of all sizes. Jim and I get all excited when we find a house listed on the MLS that fits our criteria. We typically go out on the weekend with a half dozen or so that we want to track down. It always starts the same. We find the neighborhood... we say to each other that the neighborhood is really nice. We find the street... we say to each other that the street is okay. Then we start honing in on the house number... we say to each other what the hell? We know when we are close when we find a great area and drive through it until the streets get worse. We know we are looking for something in particular. We want an old house - 1930's or older. It has to have a yard - for the babies. It has to have off street parking - which we have determined is equated to an extra $50k on the house price, which is totally worth it because we have nice cars, and I'd like to keep them that way. We also want a "fixer". Now that word is dangerous. Its definition runs the gambut... needs paint, needs landscaping, needs new windows and roof, needs to be patched up, needs to be gutted, or just needs to be burned to the ground. We are going for the "needs to be patched up" or preferrably "needs to be gutted". Some houses we have found would be great, but they are in an "unfortunate" place. You know... underneath an interstate overpass, across from a school (my own personal version of hell), on the corner of a very busy intersection, terrifying neighbors, etc. I know patience will pay off. Finding a house is kinda like finding a dog... you know 'em when you see 'em.

Dad and the itty bitty bear

Dad's cousin Brian sent him this photo. It was taken in September 1957 in the smoky mountains. Those crazy guys.

Mom drew attention to the date... 50 years ago. So how old WAS dad anyway?

Busy as a Bee

Work is keeping both Jim and I busy these days. I have my life scheduled out until way past May. Gladly not all of my scheduled trips are for work. I'm going to CA in early May for work, but I am getting a chance to visit the Baldry clan for a few days. I'm so glad We live close enough that we can see them more often that once every few years! I'm also possibly going out to TN in the summer. I hope to get to see Bucky and Holly again soon too.

Jim and I are excited to host a bunch of people again this year. Jim's parents are coming out early April (I think), and his sister Kate is coming late April. The baldry clan is coming sometime this summer too! If you want reservations at our palatial portland palace... you'll need to make your reservations early!

The guys at work in NY have been telling me about all of the lake effect snow they have been having (and continuing to have) lately. The word on the street is that upstate NY is getting hammered with snow. Oswego has had around 6 feet. Oh I am sooo thankful that last winter - you know... when I was there - was a mild one. And my poor little Heather is in NYC right now... getting a taste of the winter weather.

"The Peace Candle of the World"

It even says so on the side!

Boat Waste Pumpout

It looked like a gasoline hose attached to a small metal box. It was just sitting on the dock with the hose flung out beside it. It was pretty creepy to think people sucked the poo out of their boats right there. You guys can just image how it creeped me out... knowing my issues with restrooms. It was like a floating, open air toilet. Eeew!

You can see the courthouse in the background.

A big ol' cargo ship

It is making its way along the main channel.

Out and About

Jim and I went on a little excursion today. We drove NW out of town, drove through Scappoose and St. Helens (the city). It was bright and sunny, and we could see Mt Hood, Mt Adams, and Mt St Helens on the horizon. That is one of many reasons I love living here.

Scappoose is one of those places that isn't really exciting, and I only knew of its existance because they talk about it on the weather channel alot. I guess they have a weather station there. It does however have the "Peace Candle of the World" - aka a silo dressed like a candle.

We went on to St Helens. It was a cute little place, too bad there is a Boise-Cascade paper plant there. It is right on the Columbia river. They had a very cool courthouse. We went to a nice antique store on the waterfront. The owner had recently moved to St Helens from Asheville NC. We reminisced about that area. She said they were hoping to move back there in a few years. When Jim and I went back out to the car I kinda felt a little homesick for a minute.

They had a dock on the Columbia, and Jim and I walked out on it. There was a big cargo ship that was slowly going by. St Helens is right at a branch off of the main channel of the river. As it approached the branch point it looked as if it was going aground. It was kind of surreal looking.

Roughin' it in the city

Jim and I are still looking for a house. We are taking our time. I think I have mentioned before about finding unpaved roads inside the city limits. They (usually, not always) have signs saying "unmaintained road". What? Some of them are literally dirt as if they had never been maintained at all. Jim and I have 2 things working against us... we are using the subaru's navigation system and its CD is an eastern US version. The other thing is the paper map book that we are using shows roads existing and connecting that aren't really there. The puddle in the middle of the picture covered the entire width of the road, and it was pretty deep. This particular road is about 4 miles from the center of the city.

The other day we actually had the road end and continue on as a sidewalk. Crazy. Some of these roads are really bad.

Even in Tennessee you wouldn't find dirt roads in a city. You had to go pretty far out to find one. I can't even think of one near Knoxville. Who's the hick anyway?

Paul being sucked towards Nordstrom Rack

We all went to dinner friday night, and the restaurant happened to be across the street from a Nordstrom's Rack. Paul has a problem... a Nordstrom's problem. He loves the place, and you should have seen how atwitter he was when he saw it.

Quinoa Salad... Gag

Jim and I went to Oba, a neuvo latino restaurant in the Pearl, with Paul and Tiffanie. Paul is in from NY this week. The food was okay-ish. Jim got butternut squash enchiladas, and they came with this quinoa salad. It kinda looked like icky, squirmy worms.. the kind that you learn about in biology class. Even looking at the photo now... I can't process what I am seeing.