One Step, Two Step, Next step- Canoe Step?

This year we embarked on the task of trying to complete one of our big landscaping feats on the hillside... the stairs down to the pond. Our conservation requirements gave us three years from the time of the original permit -November 2010 - to complete our original mitigation and close it all out.  Early this year, with time flying by and first hand knowledge of the speed of procedures in our town, we realized that we needed to get going on it if we were going to do anything at all.

The first step was drawing up a plan, which Anthony did on top of our original site plan. He ran this by the conservation agent in February and then gave it to the site engineer, who submitted it to the conservation commission in May as an amendment to our original plan. Spring planting season looked like it was turning into summer planting season. 

Wouldn't you know, our meeting date fell in the middle of a week in June when Anthony was bouncing back and forth between conferences in Maine and Rhode Island, and me alone with my big pregnant belly and toddler on a school night was not going to be able to make it. Not that we needed to, after all, we were paying our engineer to do it. At 7:00 that night I sat back grading papers on the couch watching the conservation commission on tv. After some rather contentious cases interspersed with the cons com members checking in on the Bruins game, our case finally came up at 9:41. It was peacefully agreed to by 9:46. While I'm obviously pleased by the lack of drama, I wish it could have happened before my bedtime.

With builder John standing by, we awaited the official word from the committee. And waited. And waited. And waited.  Anthony finally checked in on the progress (or lack there of), only to find that apparently it had been stuck on the admins. desk for a while. Really though, we know what speeds things up for us construction-wise... it's having a baby, right?

Our second child was born (!) and with Anthony's nagging gentle reminders to conservation, we got the word we could build our stairs. Juggling our new life, here's where we're happy we hired someone to build them instead of attempting to do this ourselves. 

It took us a while to get everyone home from Boston, and now our summer planting season has turned into a fall planting season, or more likely, moved back to a spring planting season due to a new state-wide ruling - which we still don't really understand - that we could have an additional three years to complete any work from the original cons com permit.  

Stairs to pond: check. The neighborhood cat already likes to lie out on the upper landing. 

Next up: figuring out the planting (can we just finish this already?), and getting a canoe to hold our family of four. I'd include Zippy, but let's be honest. He would have more fun barking at us from the shore.

-J&A

Love Potion #9

I'm revamping our magic number. Apparently we only need the 9 part to fall in love. Married on a 29 and our first daughter was born on a 29. But in true preexisting, nonconforming fashion, our second daughter was in such a hurry she just went with the 9th. Two months old now and we're all quite smitten with her.

N & C: Sisters

- J

Rerun

That's right, if you're opposed to watching reruns, then perhaps this post isn't for you, because yes- we've been here before.

At the risk of being redundant, we are in the midst of car-buying decision-making woes yet again. We have the Rav4 that came with N's birth, but the pink bike (aka 2nd vehicle) is getting a little tired of being stuck inside this blizzardy winter, and our wallet is taking a hit because when Anthony drives me to school and then on to take Natalie to day care he has to go past Starbucks to the tune of "Tasty treat! Tasty treat!" in the backseat- and who is he to deny the little scone lover? (Especially when there's an Earl Grey tea in it for him as his "reward" for driving.) Then there's the issue of whoever has the car is the sole driver for the day- it might make more sense for us to split the tasks.  So after about 7 years of one carness and a growing desire to be a bit more lazy, we've decided it's time.

So we're back to the ole "which car is right for us?" waffling. We originally got the Rav4 a few years back because we thought it was a nice mix of a small car + big car (3rd row sqiiiisssh when needed). So now that we have the perfect middle car do we go smaller, or bigger?

Shack to Home, Blog to Book

As if the blog itself weren't enough documentation, it has now become a book of its very own-hold-in-your-hand-proof that we lived through it and are still a happy little family. (The warm toesies are icing on the cake reminders of the happiness.)

Yes, the whole house-building thing was certainly a big project, and yes, putting together the book  brought back some anxious feelings, but it's nice that it's all so tidy in 110 pages. Just like it's nice that we actually do fit comfortably in a 20 foot wide house.

The book was done through blurb and is straight from the blog, including it all from our initial post on March 14, 2010 to the post on January 8, 2012.

The first page:



Easy-peasy-slurp-it-into-blurberezy, right? Well, the lay-out did take some time, as well as going back to find all the original pictures in their full resolution gloriness so they would be fit for hard copy. And then of course, there were a few gratuitous pictures thrown in there to tell the story a bit more- like my cliffsnotes version of the outside and inside for the final pages:

With this post, I realize it might be some crazy time-warpy thing to blog about the book that's about our blog, but consider us archived.
- J

Front Door Revisited

Obviously this little house project was a pretty big deal for us. I am blown away on a daily basis that we actually did it. Each piece of it holds a memory of something that went right or something that...

But wait- back to the positive- I marvel at the fact that, as I type this, it's 39 degrees outside, yet I am barefoot in my house and my toesies are toasty. I don't fear stepping out of bed in the morning, because I am now greeted with w-a-r-m-t-h. Yes, the floors are a big positive, and I am so thankful to Anthony (and our other floor elves- ahem, mom and dad) for doing that for me.

Part of the deal was that this house was and is our gift to each other for the next _ _ years forever. My interpretation of this means that on special occasions I can up my nagging and get something checked off the in-the-back-of-my-mind to do list. My birthday this year brought the doorknobs from the front door of the shack into our bathroom.

"Need help, Daddy?"

Place to hang my towel? Check.

See? I knew I saved them for a reason!

- J

TEN

It's fitting that as we celebrate a decade of marriage our daughter has a love of counting to ten- as in waaahn, twooo, treeee, foorrr, fiiibe, siix, seben, aaate, niiine, ten... seben, eight, nine, TEN! (clap, clap, clap) As we say in the elementary math world, ten is a friendly number, and for a while there it was healthy for us too, because whenever she would start to count she would simultaneously want one of us to get down on the floor and do sit-ups. Our little drill sergeant!

Ten is also a number that demands reflection, as well as suggests a look ahead. We know we've done a lot in the past ten years (or 14! since we met). As part of Anthony's anniversary card to me he unknowingly wrote this part of the blog:

10 Things We've Done in the Past 10 Years:

1. Moved across the country twice.
2. Visited at least 31 states and 6 countries.
3. Had a Natalie.
4. Demolished a house and built a house.
5. Flown to Hawaii 3 times...what's your favorite island?
6. Blogged about a part of our lives...we are SO American.
7. Gotten a dog that we were never able to stop from barking.
8. Never bought our own plates.
9. Shared at least 520 pizzas.
10. Continued to be very much in love.

Through it all we have learned that predicting what the next ten years will be like is an exercise in futility, so here's to just hoping that they are happy and healthy (and that maybe the dog will stop barking).

- J (& A)

A Soft Close

Surprisingly enough (to us), we've heard from quite a few people about our lack of blog posts. So it's time to ring in the new year by (once again) reviewing our original "to do's" from the first post in 2010.

1. Build house (sub-categories: choose architect, builder, go through committees, move out, tear down pre-existing, non-conforming (PENC) structure, build a new one that might be slightly less non-conforming but at least will have insulation, move back in.)
2. Buy a car.
3. Find out if I still have a job next year. (Would greatly help with #s 1 and 2)
4. Have a baby!!
5. Get my dog to stop barking randomly.
6. Figure out all the sub-categories for #s 2-5.
7. Start blog to help organize the chaos that is rapidly descending on our lives.

I really love crossing out items on my "to do" lists, so this was quite satisfying. Unfortunately Zippy hasn’t stepped up to help out with number 5 yet, and after our recent trip to NY, his "needs improvement" list is growing. It now also includes, “Get my dog to not chase snowplows.”

Zippy and Sophie frolicking in the snow, 

right before the snowplow came by and added another element to their playing.

Actually, we could revamp the whole list with new goals in almost all the categories.

1. Landscaping and smart interior decorating and storage.
2. Figure out how to get our other vehicles (bikes) easily in and out of the house in all types of weather (see #1).
3. Aim for success and happiness at our jobs and our job/home balance.
4. Make our million daily decisions in raising our happy, healthy toddler.
5. Yep, see above for the same old dog goal. Sigh, Zippy...

He looks innocent enough.

It's always about the journey, right?  

Housewise, we still attempt a project here and a project there... 

Books for bookshelves

But overall it's now in a state that is allowing us to live. So consider the goals of 2010 closed out, and the blog itself on "a soft closed/semi-sporadic" mode as we leave more time for other adventures. (see #4)!

Anthony and Natalie

Race Point Beach on New Year's Day

-J

Tortoise-Like Progression

Our remaining house projects (inside and out) are coming along slow and steady now, and after the pace of last year, that's fine by me. We live here now and that's just like a big sigh...ahhhhhh!

The outside retaining wall was completed, grass is now growing, and mulch was laid down on our northern slope.

Hopefully all this will hold our little spot of the planet in place. We're now searching for a more permanent fence and gate so that Zippy can regain his private reign over the backyard.

More coats of paint, window treatments, mirrors, shelves, hooks, furniture... you name it- we're doing it inside the house. But in our own way, which of course means finding things we can reuse as well as family labor practices.

Here are just a few of my favorite recent projects:

Jamey adds his genius design and carpentry skills to our bathroom mirror (also from the floorboards of our old house).

Sadly, Jamey had to leave before the mirror was completed and so it took a couple more weeks for Anthony to finish it.

Add in my bucket-handle-for-a-towel-holder and we're now calling this bathroom done.

My dad spent some time picking out and arranging just the right NY apple branches for us to hang our coats on.

We've learned over the past several years that the secret to living in small spaces with a lot of fun gear is organization.

Our basement project is just beginning.

The porch swing was given to us by our neighbor.

We painted it and restrung the rope. Natalie enjoys her choice of rocking devices.

Just like with anything, there's always something else that can be done, but at this time nothing feels as necessary, and so we're moving along at our new improved (slower) pace.

-J

Power Up

Ah, lights, refrigeration, hot water, internet... Welcome back!

I jokingly blame Anthony for our three days of indoor "camping". I seem to remember a previous post where he might have dared a hurricane to show up. Our new house held up well.

First big storm in the new house

Irene was windy and blustery, but overall not too damaging in our area. We did lose power Sunday afternoon, and it was finally restored this afternoon (Wednesday). The fence between our yard and our northern neighbors also fell down, but it was going to be taken down this month anyway. Since it was mostly high winds and very minimal rain here our new loam stayed in place. (We had placed straw bales strategically on the hillside, just in case.)

Temporary lack of fence between our house and the neighbors

& our some of our erosion control straw bales

The storm did delay our landscaper another week though. However, I'm not going to hold my breath on that one.

-J

The Grass Is Truly Greener on the Other Sides of the Fences

Mostly because we don't have grass yet.

I think the neighbors have also been doing extra good jobs on their lawns just to spite us. To our credit, three carloads of New York apple orchard stones did make their way out here this summer for our amateur "class up the shed" event.

Yes my dad is doing physically demanding labor the day before the big Falmouth Road Race.

He still won his age group...

Pretty nice, eh?

Yet in typical house-building fashion, our professional landscaping has been held up a while. Our landscaper, Paul, is a guy that gave us a quote in the early spring and then religiously called Anthony every Wednesday after that to see how we were doing on our decision. We finally signed on with him in early July, anticipating that he would start a week or two after. Delays and hold-ups begat more delays and hold-ups. And well, you know how delays and rabbits handle multiplication...

We began to get used to our fancy schmancy new house with the ghetto yard. I think in some way it helped ease our transition to niceness from all the shacks we're used to living in. (Plus, I think we both secretly enjoyed not mowing this summer.)

Remember this one?

Our Oregon shack and fast-growing grass (which Anthony is cutting with scissors- long story).

We used to love August when the grass would finally turn brown and die and we could have some mowing time off.

Just when we were assured that we were really good to go and the stone guy was going to come and start building our retaining wall, he (ironically?) got a kidney stone. The grading and loaming did go on without him however.

Our new dirt is much darker than the sand we've been tracking in all summer.

*Of course* that started today- there's a hurricane coming! Why would we hold off a few more days when we can spread out all this expensive dirt now just in time for Irene to toss it about? And with nothing to retain it yet. *sigh*

-J

Realizations

We haven't felt the need to blog lately because, well, the house building is pretty uneventful right now. We're mostly just getting settled and waiting for some key professional landscaping ingredients. However, inside we have realized a couple of things:

a. Despite being 20 feet wide, there's a lot of open space in the house. Or maybe it's just that we don't have very much furniture. This is proving to be a positive in Natalie's book- especially as she learns to walk with her little car back and forth and back and forth and back and forth (and back and forth). Plus we have plenty of room for a tent and tunnel in our living room- and isn't that just every child's dream? Twenty feet wide is proving to be plenty big so far.

...and back and forth

b. Our shiny new house makes the furniture we do have look ugly.

Like maybe it came from the streets of Boston on "big trash day" or the "as is" section of Ikea or something. We've been taking what we have and all the little things we saved and trying to give it all a place in our new life. We certainly don't *need* new stuff, we're living comfortably and fine with what we have. Paint can do wonders. Fabric can be reused. Hardware is available on something your husband called trash three days ago.

No, I'm not going to show you a picture of our ugly furniture.

I'm going with these cute window treatments instead.

My mother was intrigued by the challenge of creating roman shades for Natalie's room by taking apart old venetian blinds from our last house to use as parts.

c. We're too afraid to commit to hanging pictures and other things that require holes in our pretty new walls. Heck, we're too afraid to commit to buying floor mats for the front door and that certainly doesn't require holes. I think this drove my parents crazy last week during their visit. How many times did we hear, "You know, you should really put something to hang towels on in the bathroom." or "You really should get a mat for the front door." After rushing to commit and decide so much in the past year we have now slowed down considerably. Yes we know things like this can be changed, but knowing us, once we've committed $12.99 to a floor mat, it's not going to be changed until it literally falls apart. Therein lies the fear of commitment.

Note the artwork resting on the repainted shelf in the background.

Feel free to come over and vote where you think it should be hung.

-J

Tape

We've been pushing through the red tape all year, and there's still a little bit more of that to go, I'm sure (bank inspector comes Thursday), but now we're ceremoniously done with another sort of tape- the green tabs that we were using to open our cabinets and drawers.

The "before" : green tape tabs

Master of precision

Yes, we got around to installing the knobs and pulls. And while I felt that the green had added a fun hint of color, I do have to say that the doors and drawers open so much better with the real stuff.

The "after"

Island drawers sans green tape

Classy!

It's starting to be pleasant realizing we can now slow down and do things at our own when-we-get-to-it pace. Sure there's plenty to do still, but we're in. We're living here just fine the way it is. There's no dire rush anymore, and that's nice.

-J

Suitable for Framing

I hold in my hands our actual Certificate of Occupancy.

Anthony gathered the final signature on our building permit this morning. (In case you're wondering, the last one was Conservation- although they have not granted their own Certificate of Compliance yet, apparently we're good enough to live here).

We are officially official.

-J

Builder 1, Inspector 0.

Well, maybe builder -32 (up from -33), inspector 435 would be more accurate, but we'll still take the win. I'll spare you the dramatic build up...our house finally passed inspection. But, as per usual, even try #3 was not without its own drama.

With Natalie at "school" for the day, Jody and Zippy spent Monday, inspection #3 day, out of the house to accommodate a visit from the town. She returned mid-afternoon to find a cryptic note on the permit where the signature should have gone, saying only "thermostats not programmable?" Hearing of this at work from Jody, I relayed the news to John the Builder via a phone message. In truth, I also though it might be good to have fancy thermostats. We started with programmable thermostats, but they didn't work, as someone installed the wrong wires during rough in. Last week the plumbers replaced the non-working ones with old school dial thermostats. Apparently, with radiant floor heat, dials are just as good...so there you go.

10 minutes later John called back, hopping mad, and read me the appropriate line from the current edition of the Mass. State Building Codes that said programmable thermostats were required with forced-air systems, but made no mention of other heat sources. He followed up with some choice words about the inspector's level of competency. The next morning at 8am, he was at town hall to figuratively - and perhaps literally, I don't know, I wasn't there - throw the book at them.

Relaying the conversation to me later, John said that both the inspectors and the building commissioner insisted that programmable units- at least one per house they said- were required. Sliding his copy of the building code across the counter, John challenged them, "Show me where it says that." Apparently the office effectively shut down for some time, as the group of them searched the very code they are supposed to follow for something they've been requiring for years.

Finding nothing but the line John read to me over the phone, they quickly signed the permit and shuffled him onto his next stop.

So, what remains? A signature from Conservation -which could get interesting- and finalizing the loan paperwork, but occupying the structure is no longer an issue.

Stepping back for a moment, it's been surprising to me how much the events of the last few weeks have seeped into our daily lives. Yesterday I caught Jody and Natalie playing a game I now refer to as Building Inspector. They had set up little fabric block buildings on the floor (see below) and as Natalie would knock them over, Jody would call out things like "No permit for you!" or "Failed! This railing is an inch too low." or "Your bottom step is not at grade!"

Natalie playing building inspector with mom. "The roof on this one looks a little loose!"

-A

Dirt

It all comes down to dirt.

Fancy, nicely graded dirt apparently.

That's what currently stands in the way of our official occupancy permit. The temporary front step and grading that our contractor fashioned were just not of equal height and has failed the inspection twice. Both us and our contractor tried explaining that our official landscaping with our expensive conservation-required loam and even grading would be happening in a few weeks and the problem would be resolved then, so couldn't we just hold off on this one little thing until after that? Nope.

Anthony put on his landscaping hat tonight and gave it a try himself. I think it's lovely and takes the same amount of thigh muscle power from both legs to ascend to the porch, but I'm not the one signing off on it, so we'll see.

Natalie and I have been advocating for a stroller ramp instead of steps all along.

Final inspection, take 3?

- J