The Big Move and Exterior Renovation

Once Raminta graduated from nursing school and started working at a local ER, we were lucky enough to have some breathing room in the budget that hadn't been there before. We're certainly still paying down debt (and will be for a long while) but also starting talking about investment. Ra is not a fan of the stock market, and although I've been investing in stocks for a dozen years, I am very bearish on the economic outlook as we transition to the backside of the peak oil curve. Since we think Portland is well situated for many of the potential crises of the next few decades, we thought a transition into local real estate investment made a lot of sense. Our first thought was to get a duplex or some other investment rental property, but then we realized that we're tired of always driving across town to visit friends and decided to buy a new house for ourselves in one of the neighborhoods near the center of our social lives (and rent Wonderland, the house we've enjoyed for the last 7 years).

After a handful of months searching, a failed inspection on one promising property (the foundation was partially constructed with non-standard materials that would not stand up under the lateral forces of even the smallest of earthquake tremors) and getting ever-so-slightly outbid on another (that was a bit expensive, over-landscaped and a tad too cool for us), we found the perfect house in the vibrant Alberta Arts district.


The interior of the house is in good condition. Aside from the fact that all of the upstairs doors seem to open in the wrong direction (toward the middle of rooms instead of out of the way against convenient walls), the only significant work needed was to have the main level floors refinished. We had that done right away and moved in a few weeks after closing.

The exterior was another story. The roof needed to be torn off and replaced, so we did that right away. While the roof was being done, we also had the chimney (which was in disrepair) pulled down into the attic, then lined and capped. The gutters only had downspouts in the front of the house, so we had some leaks repaired and more downspouts added at the rear.

Sure, that sounds like a lot, but that was the quick and easy part. The real fun began once we started work on the siding.

For those who aren't familiar with T-111, it's cheap and effective plywood siding. It's also damn ugly. Our house was wrapped in it. After pulling back some sections to guess about the condition of the underlying layer(s) of siding, we hired a contractor to pull off the T-111, hopefully exposing original lap siding in reasonable condition...


Instead what we got in this first phase was Z-brick. I had never heard of the stuff and do not recall ever seeing it out in the wild, but it's essentially a roofing material patterned to look like brick.

...and from a distance, it looks like brick.

...but up close, it pretty much just looks like crap.

Okay, fine, I cheated and used a shot that included areas where the Z-brick has been pulled away to reveal the original clear cedar siding, but you get the idea.

After pulling off the Z-brick, we found that the original lap siding that existed was in very good condition. There were some areas that needed to be filled where some old doors and windows existed in the original layout, but surface preparation mostly it was a matter of pulling out thousands of nails that held up the Z-brick, filling cracks and holes, and scraping down the old paint. The backside of the house needed the most love (a.k.a. patching and blending), but the rest of the house was straightforward.


After a few weeks of seemingly constant banging, scraping and grinding on the outside of the house, it was patched and ready for primer and paint.





Yes, that's a bold green. We're not sure how our paint chip that looked like an army green turned into pea soup, so at this point we were more than a little nervous about how it would look in the end. We're no color design experts and picked our palette with minimal assistance, so there was about a week of looking at the green and asking each other (and everyone we knew) if we liked it. Add in a quick scare one morning when Ra saw the "pink elephant" test paint that our contractor used on the foundation to see how it would take up color, and we were braced for a difficult "yes, you painted it but those aren't the colors we picked and we think it looks like a clown house" standoff. Thankfully, this was the final result...



It may not be easy to tell how it looks from the harsh early morning light of these pictures, but we're psyched with the final result. Sure, the shades are a bit brighter than we visualized beforehand, but the look is very fun (without being obnoxious) and fits well with the neighborhood vibe. In fact, our siding/painting contractor had handfuls of people asking about the project daily as he worked and even picked up a whole house interior/exterior job around the corner based on neighbors walking past our house in progress.

Now that we're moved in and finally have the property to ourselves, we are working feverishly setting up house and starting the garden. We'll have interior pictures to share when we are de-cluttered and are more than ready to have some time to relax and enjoy all of the work.

It is also worth mentioning that this purchase and move is part of a bigger picture we are calling our "sustainability plan". Being close to a strong community of friends, growing more of our own food and eventually becoming a one-car family with more efficient commutes (by bike, if possible) are just some of the milestones on that progression. Politics aside, we are just trying to set ourselves up to be less sensitive to problems that we think will only continue to grow as fossil fuels become more expensive and environmental concerns grow in the coming years. Possibly even more importantly, we really are coming to appreciate growing into and helping build a community of supportive and inter-reliant friends and neighbors. We're all in this together, and even in good times, we can make everyone's life more enjoyable with meaningful connections and timely assistance and support. ...and I bet you didn't even know that transplanting a few tomato plants and then relaxing in the back yard after an evening BBQ with friends could mean so much more.

Finally, here's a teaser shot of half of the raised beds that were already here when we purchased the house. (The other pair are to the left, on the west side of the yard.) We got some starts from friends and the nursery and will hopefully still get a decent crop despite our late start...



Almost settled,
Shiv and Raminta