Tag Archives: home ownership

What once was lost, now is found.

I tend to be an organized person, although I’ve relaxed a lot in retirement. However, I still find it annoying when I can’t find something – especially when I just had it and I haven’t moved from where I was working. Pro Tip: always check under the cat. (Of course, now that Roxie is a member of the family, things go missing more often; the girl is a total kleptomaniac.)

Roxie, aka Klepto Kitty

We are currently trying to find the biggest item we have ever misplaced. Actually, we didn’t misplace it, we’ve never known where it is.🤷‍♀️ The Cabin is our third home, but the first to have a septic tank. The general rule of thumb seems to be that a septic tank should be pumped out every three to five years; as of August 5th, we have been living here eight years. Kenn and I have had a few discussions about having the septic tank checked/pumped, but then it slips our minds. However, we have finally taken action. (Go, us!) We had someone come out last week, but the ground was too boggy to do much. He’s supposed to come out again this Friday, but what with regular rainstorms, I’m not sure that the ground will be much better.

Kenn contacted the previous owners of The Cabin and asked about the location of the septic tank. They gave him a rough idea of its location, but he wasn’t able to find it. Before the technician was scheduled to arrive, Kenn said he remembered us getting a hand-drawn diagram of the location of the septic tank when we closed on the house. Of course, neither of us could find the closing paperwork. So much for my organizational skill! (I found the paperwork for our first two houses with no problems.🙄)

Kenn has become friends with the owners of the local pawn shop. (How’s that for a non sequitur?) He stopped in at the pawn shop for a visit and asked if they knew where their septic tank is; they did. They also gave Kenn a tip. It turns out that we can get a copy of the latest septic tank inspection from our local… health department. I thought we might be able to locate the information on the Tax Commissioner’s website, but I was wrong. Getting the information from the health department would have never even crossed my mind. Kenn gave the health department a call yesterday, and they have already sent him some information; he also got out and did some digging and is pretty sure he found the septic tank. According to the paperwork from the health department, the original 1979 septic system was replaced and relocated in 2001; the location of the “new” system matches up to what Kenn found. He has also flagged the location so we don’t “lose” it again.

What’s the biggest (or most important thing) you have misplaced?

Also, today is Kenn’s birthday. Happy 63rd, Kenn!

Out with the old.

I don’t know what happened, but when my part-time job ended, I decided that it is time for us to start working on the projects that we’ve discussed seemingly forever. Among those projects are:

  • Replacing the ceiling fan and light fixture in our living/dining area.
  • Install vinyl plank flooring in the basement bathroom and replace the sink and toilet.
  • Replace the counter and sink in the main floor bathroom.

The basement bathroom project revolves around us agreeing on which vinyl plank flooring pattern to use which may take a while. Kenn likes lighter flooring, I don’t – especially for the basement bathroom. The basement bath is between the half of the basement that serves as Kenn workshop and the half where my video game consoles are set up. As such, that bathroom sees a lot of muddy boots (Kenn’s) which, in my opinion, are not conducive to a light colored floor. I think he now sees the logic behind going with something a little darker, but we haven’t found exactly what we’re looking for yet.

Our next door neighbor has his own counter/cabinetry business, so replacing the counter/sink in the main floor bath is only a matter of getting on his schedule. We purchased the sink/counter combo for our master bath from him, so we already know what pattern we want – no decisions to make here!

We usually replace ceiling fans and light fixtures on our own, but the ones in the “great room” are going to require a professional with a scaffold or something due to the twenty-foot ceilings. I will dust the ceiling occasionally, but that’s where it stops for me.

We recently undertook a smaller project. Well, it was a smaller project for me; I don’t think it was even on Kenn’s list. We replaced our mailbox. The Cabin came with a rustic mailbox. (Shocking, I know.) The cedar mailbox was great for our rural location and rustic house, but it required too much upkeep for me. The mailbox looked like a house and the previous owners had stained the sides and roof of the mailbox to match those of The Cabin. They had even painted the “doors and windows” on the mailbox green like those on The Cabin. I played around with the idea of repainting the mailbox “door” yellow after we repainted our front door, but… no. The mailbox roof had faded and needed to be restained; it also had moss and lichen growing on it. I mentioned it to Kenn, and he was enthusiastic. “We can clean it and restain it!” However, I strongly suspected that that “we” meant “me” and “me” had no interest in taking on that task. I’m not a high-maintenance person, and I don’t want a high-maintenance mailbox. So, I bought a basic bronze mailbox and we installed it a few days ago.

The original mailbox.
The new mailbox.

While we were installing the new mailbox, we were also waiting for an air conditioning technician to arrive. Our A/C had stopped working the previous day, and it was time for us to find out if the existing unit could be repaired or if it would need to be replaced. Based on the date written on the unit, it’s twenty-two years old; I couldn’t help but feel that the odds were not in our favor. However, we dodged a bullet. A new switch and capacitor got the unit back up and running. We know it’s at the end of its lifespan, but hopefully, this fix will keep it running a little longer.🤞

Are you a DIY-er or do you prefer to hire a professional for your home improvement projects?

Not so mellow yellow

Our house (aka The Cabin) is very rustic and we love it. One of the only things I haven’t been crazy about is the fact that the front door and shutters are green. Green is my least favorite color. It makes sense; the green accents and brown siding help The Cabin “blend in” with our wooded lot. Over time, it has become obvious that the painting of the door was one of those sort of slapdash “fixes” to pretty up the house for selling. Everything door-related had been painted green: the window dividers, the door, and the doorframe. Over the years since we moved in, the paint had begun fading and started peeling. There were many discussions about repainting the door and what color(s) we should use. We finally quit talking about painting and actually painted. (Go, us!)

The Cabin with its original green door

I knew I wanted to paint the window dividers white like they were originally. Initially, I wanted to paint the doorframe white as well, but decided that that would be too stark against the darker shutters and siding. In a flash of inspiration, we decided to paint the doorframe brown. I’m a big fan of Behr paint-and-primer-in-one. (Behr is sold at Home Depot.) I’ve seen Behr work miracles covering some extremely dark colors with only one coat. I had a hunch that the front door would not be one of these miracles since the green we were covering was so dark. I was right. Even the dark brown took two coats (and a few touch-ups) to cover the green. Due to our cats, we couldn’t have the door open for hours while we painted and let the paint dry. We did as much painting as we could with the door in place. Friday, we took the door down and replaced it with a sheet of plywood, which remained in place until late Saturday when the paint was dry enough to rehang the door. (We also removed the weather stripping before rehanging the door since it had also been painted green. We’ll install new weather stripping in a couple of days when the paint is fully cured. The humidity level around here slows the drying time.)

The temporary door placeholder and its newly brown frame.

What color did we decide to paint the door itself and how many coats did it take? Kenn chose the color, which is appropriately named Extreme Yellow. (Or, as I call it, YELLow.) I’m the one who is all about color and sparkle, so the fact that Kenn chose such a vibrant color still amazes me. It took four coats of yellow to cover the green, and there are still a few places I may touch-up. Okay, I’ve yammered on enough, so it’s time for the big reveal. (Drum roll, please.) Kenn is thrilled with the finished product; he says it makes him smile every time he sees it.

The Cabin with its new, extremely yellow door.

We’re planning to leave the shutters green – at least for now. Of course, the more that I look at the “new” door, the more I think we need to change the shutters. If we do repaint them, they won’t be as bright as the door.

So, what do you think? Paint the shutters or leave them be? What color would you recommend for the shutters?

Finally!

Kenn and I love our home, which we have named The Cabin. We’ve lived here for six and a half years and sometimes I still can’t believe it’s ours. While we will probably never own a cabin in the mountains (a dream of mine), our house is the next best thing; the only thing missing are the mountains. Even though we may don’t have mountains, we do have four acres of mostly wooded property and the north Georgia mountains are just a few hours away.

Waiting for siding for the chimney

As much as we love The Cabin, like all homes, it comes with it’s share of not-so-fun stuff. Y’all know what I’m talking about – the unexpected expenses that can hit without warning. Last year we had several of those. One of the most unexpected was having to replace the siding on our chimney. The Cabin, including the chimney, has wood siding. Last summer we went through a couple of extremely rainy periods. During one of those I saw something I couldn’t identify on the deck and went out to see what it was. “It” was a soggy piece of siding and insulation that had fallen off the chimney. Once things dried out a little, Kenn got out to see how far the damage extended. The answer was: pretty much all the way up the chimney. We are experienced renovators, but this was far beyond our capabilities. Fortunately, one of our youngest son’s friends works in his father’s construction business so we contacted him for recommendations. (We’ve know this guy forever. We watched him grow up and he was one of the herd of boys we frequently had at our house on weekends.) Bryce came out on his free time, removed the old siding, reinforced a couple of areas, re-framed everything, and dried it in. He finished in mid-August 2023.

Then began the search for siding. We had no idea getting siding was going to be such an arduous process. Bryce recommended the company that does siding for his dad, but we just couldn’t get things coordinated with the owner. We then had to put the process on hold while we were on our road trip. Once we got back, we (or rather, Kenn) took a deep breath, and began the process of calling contractors and getting quotes. Once again, this was much harder than it should have been. Some people came to the house, took measurements, and never gave us quotes. One would only do unfinished wood siding; we would have had to pay yet someone else to stain it. No thanks. My “favorite” was the day we had two different contractors coming out a couple of hours apart. The first one ran a little late and was still here when the second contractor showed up early. The second guy completely lost his shizz because someone else was here. He went on a rant and refused to even give us a quote because we were obviously “only looking for the lowest price and that would not be him.” I’m assuming he charges more for his mind-reading capabilites since he had no idea what we were actually looking for. However, I can promise him that he will never get any business from us and I will make sure to tell others looking for recommendations how unprofessional he was.

It took until November before we finally found a good, responsive contractor. They gave us a quote and multiple siding options to choose from. We ran into a few delays. The first siding we chose had been discontinued. The second option was available but there were some supply chain issues (some weather related) so the materials didn’t come in until last week. As promised, they put us on their schedule as soon as the materials came in. There were a couple of small glitches that got smoothed over quickly and most importantly, WE NOW HAVE SIDING ON THE CHIMNEY! Here’s hoping this is the last repair we will need to make for a while.

Six months later, we have siding!

What are your favorite – and least favorite – parts of home ownership?