Miller wants to hunt

This is Miller's reaction to me asking him if he wants to go hunting. He'll learn.

We brought Miller into our lives so that I could have a hunting companion.  Also, for entertainment and general buddy for Ali and I.  Unfortunately for the pup, part of his calling had to wait until after the floors were finished.  Well, I finished the floors, and Miller got to go hunting.

Before I show you the floors, I’m going to brag about this pup.  He’s about seven and a half months now, forty pounds of trouble.  He’s not as shaggy as we hoped, he doesn’t like to swim, and he jumps up on the counters to steal food, drink coffee, and knock over his other favorite beverage, beer.  Little punk that he is, we love him and his cuddling and grunting.

Alison may dump me for putting this picture in.

The situation to get him out and learning about how he pays for his keep came together with the ending of THE FLOOR project.  We needed to be out of the house for a few days while a contractor sanded and finished the floor.  Our  constant and amazing savior Kelsey came to the rescue and offered us three a place to stay while this happened.  I happened to have a day off during this time, which translates into five days off in my profession, so Alison and Kelsey would have to keep the house warm without us; Miller and I were going huntin’.

He did great!  Out at the ranch, he retrieved his first duck.  Hesitant, as though an invisible string were pulling him to me, he brought me a hen widgeon.  It was absolutely amazing to see Miller, our tug-o-war master gently bring me a duck from the other side of a small pond.  He’s money on tennis balls and sticks, but I figured he’d try to eat any birds I shot.

The next day found us further east and into a bird I’d never hunted before, Hungarian Partridge.  As my new friend Matt Anderson’s father would say, it’s “Purty Country”.

We flushed quite a few birds, and Miller began to figure out what those good smells were, but my shooting was poor.  We ended the day with one bird.  Miller had another invisible string retrieve, not knowing why on earth he was giving me this delicious bird.  I thought I should engrave the moment digitally, so gave him back the bird so I could snap a photo.  Let’s just say it was a mistake.  But it was still “Purty Country”.

That night I stayed with my aunt and uncle at their ranch, with the plan to really put Miller on some birds in the morning.  We had a great evening of catching up and watching the National Finals Rodeo on TV.  Uncle Steve told me where to go, and in the morning, we went.  Right away we saw pheasants flushing in the distance.  We took off after them in the stubble, trying to keep them upwind of the pup’s nose.

More "Purty Country".

And soon, Miller, our bird dog, had his first, honest to goodness SOLID point.  This is why I was willing to put up with coffee on my computer.  Food stolen from the counter.  Poop in friends living rooms.  This, THIS was Miller’s calling.  And it was perfect.  I moved in to flush the pheasant, which was just three feet from his nose.  Only, this pheasant had quills.  If Miller had done anything other than point this porcupine, he’d have been in a world of hurt, and taken me for a panic stricken ride to the nearest vet.  But he held his point, and I pulled him away quickly, saying “leave it”, just like we practiced a month ago with cookies.  Leave cookies and porcupines alone.

We ended the hunt very successfully with Miller pointing some pheasants and me shooting some pheasants and another hungarian partridge.

Aunt Vicki's house is in background.

It’s an unfortunate thing that a pheasant’s beauty is best observed dead, and in the hand.  It’s hard to really grasp just how amazing the variety of colors and patterns of a bull pheasant’s feathers are unless it’s in your hand, not protesting.  Sad, but true.  And delicious.

I’d found out the night before that my grandma was in the hospital after a fall, so I cut our trip short a day and went to see her and my mom.  Grandma seems to be healing nicely, and I’m sure she’ll be back on her feet, keeping herself in good shape in no time.  Mom and I had a good visit and tour of her home county, visiting my grandpa at the cemetery, the ranch, and the site of Ali and I’s wedding next summer.  Miller returned with me to Portland, tired and ready to be back in his house.

Tired puppy.

So…  The floors.  It’s taken me too long to install them.  I was surprised how slowly I was able to make progress.  I shouldn’t have though, because I selected each piece for each spot based on its grain orientation, color, pattern, size.  I put over 8000 nails in the floor, 1000 plus of which I had to cut by hand.  Probably a couple of gallons of glue were put on the bottom of the boards throughout the house.  And they cover everything except the bathrooms.  

This is what we got.  I wish I still had my other camera (stolen!) so that I could get a really wide view of the floors.  Among my disappointments- 1) I cry everytime I hear something hard hit the floor 2) Alison insists we cover it with things like furniture 3) Photos don’t even come close to how beautiful they are.  I’m stunned by how well they turned out.  No boring quarter cut white oak for us, this is Douglas Fir salvaged from century old building beams, the bottom of the Nehalem River, or the dregs of logging operations.  There are several colors that appear in parts of the boards.  Knots, pitch pockets and beetle holes.  I placed vertical grain in the areas of moisture and high traffic.  Crazy purple, black, and tiger stripped boards in areas that wouldn’t be covered.  I put a lot into this and I owe Alison a MASSIVE thankyou for her patience in letting me do this.  I really took my sweet time, gaining skill along the way.  And we came away with something I think we’re both really proud of.  Miller even likes it.

Play bow.

Now we’ve got to finish up with the fireplace, trim, put up new doors, build closets, remodel the bathrooms…  And then hit the outside.  But I think Miller and I can get out hunting a few more times while we do that.  A few more photos of the floor.  Come by if you’re local and get a real view if you can!

Ali working on the fireplace pre finished floor. Miller lending support.

Mt. Hood. Near next summer's wedding venue, the Balch Hotel.

FINALLY AN UPDATE!

Ok, it’s time for more pictures.  Way overdue I know, but that is how life seems to go.  We’ve been up to A LOT.  Hitting the pillow HARD every night it seems and waking early every morning to romp with Miller our new pup.  We’ve been in the house for a little over a week now.  Not to say it’s done.  The kitchen is mostly done (AND AWESOME) and the flooring is next.  We’re walking around on plywood floors right now while the tongue and groove flooring adjusts to the temperature and humidity of the house.  It’s supposed to do that 2-3 weeks and its been 2 weeks so far.   Matt’s mom’s husband Jim has a wood mill on the Oregon coast where he mills specialty products so that’s where we were lucky enough to get Doug fir made into floors for us.

Check them out!

This week we’re “on vacation” and have continued knocking things off our to-do list and have it wittled down to the point that we are actually (fingers crossed) going to leave town today to go SOMEWHERE, ANYWHERE.

Since the last post…that one was the total weight lost from the house = 5 tons!!! at least.  I think the next big accomplishment was Matt’s plumbing the house.  He showed you some pics last time of that job.  The most exciting part is that it passed inspection on the 1st go!!!  That is particularly impressive because there is no manual to use that explains city code, or nothing that he found at least.

Next came framing the laundry room…

This is the pocket door being framed my Matt and his friend Rick.

Finishing up the cinder block side of the fireplace that someone didn’t ever bother to finish intially.  Eventually (soon!) this will be covered with cement to make it smooth then the entire fireplace painted.

Masonry by Matt, not bad for first stab at it.

Next, lots and lots of drywall.  The ceilings had to be resurfaced as we had the asbestos popcorn texture removed.   We hired Jorge who was recommended by a friend.  I decided I really wanted “smooth” walls instead of the textured walls that were there.  So the kitchen was all drywalled from scratch, lots of holes patched, and the entire surface of the walls and ceilings covered with drywall compound 2-3 x and smoothed out.  They look great!!!  and they better  It took 5 weeks I think and lots of stress and about twice as much money as we planned, but that seems to be the standard for anything in home improvement, just in case anyone is thinking about it

Kitchen getting new drywall.

Drywalling process, the middle bedroom.

Meanwhile we did figure out we have some cool plants in our yard.

Garden boxes starting out, pretty dogwood tree and soon-to-be-gone-and-turned-into-perennial-garden red bush.

Matt took out that bush for me, thanks dear!!!

With the help of an electrician friend, we dialed the house out.  Pretty much rewiring it, or at least that’s what Matt told me when I gasped at the price

"Canned lights are like bikinis, the smaller they are, the more expensive they are!" - Tony

After that there was A LOT of painting.  2 coats of primer with paint sprayer, ceiling paint, hard lessons learned regarding too much paint in corners and certain areas of the ceiling, and finally 2 coats of paint.

Effects of paint spraying...

small bedroom, currently the closet.

moved into middle bedroom as master wasn't painted yet at the time.

Master looking into master bath

clean but not pretty - hallway bathroom

June 18th I think was Miller’s homecoming, all 12 pounds of an almost 9 week old pup.  He’s a Pudelpointer which will look a lot like a German wire hair when grown up, will help Matt get (and me by proxy) a lot of birds, and will be 55 pounds we are guessing.  Yesterday he weighed in at 20.   He’s cute, and thankfully so, cause if he weren’t, it would be hard to put up with some of his antics.  Lots of good moments with interspersed “crazy/wild/out of control” moments….but we are working hard on training.  Yes, I now carry treats and a clicker with me at all times.

When I met him for the first time he didn't even wake up he was so beat!

Stuck between the couch cushions.

Making Gus's bed his own.

Um, adorable, no?

The kitchen cabinets were up and looking good….until we realized that they had sent us cabinets made with particle board instead of plywood as we ordered.  They offered us 700 dollars off to keep those and we said “No way!” and they picked em up and took em back….another 3 weeks in waiting.  The countertop templating was delayed due to that and so about 3 weeks after the cabinets were installed, the countertops arrived!  Kitchen was unpacked and we moved a bed and clothes into the house.  Bathrooms were given new vinyl floor and a good scrub just as a temporary fix until we have debt paid off and a little money in the bank, THEN we’ll do the bathrooms.

Matt figured out how to install ALL of the appliances.   We have been using the dishwasher like mad, and it’s pretty great.  We still need to buy a hood/vent and install it over the cooktop.  Soon I hope.

Drum roll please…..

Pretty great, right?

And the living room…

Here’s an update on the front of the house – starting to have veggies coming out of our ears.  Oregon is amazing for gardens.  Matt set up an automatic watering system, so that helps too!

remember the red bush? no longer

NOW it’s time to get off the computer and get out of town.  Thanks for sticking with us and having patience with the posts.  Hope to show you some floors in the next month or so!  and have you over for dinner

Miller chillin' in the front grass.

The UPS and DOWNS of WEIGHT

Sorry it’s been so long.  The picture below illustrates how much weight the house has lost.  And then some.  And somehow continues to lose.

Filled with the entrails of the house.

But there is much to celebrate!  That photo was taken awhile ago, and since then the house has been gaining weight, getting fatter most days.  I’ll show you a few construction photos, but first a bit more demo photos.

This must've been near original vinyl flooring.

After the popcorn was scraped.

Sawing and ripping out the particleboard and vinyl.

Kitchen be gone. The laundry room has been yanked as well.

After pulling the wall for the laundry room.

The pile. This, and it's sibling piles, were moved into the container at the start of the post. Which went to EastSide Recycling to be recycled instead of in the landfill.

We moved a ton of stuff out of the house, mostly partlicleboard, as mentioned in a previous post.  Also included was a bunch of sheetrock, various trimmings, the light branches of our past pine tree out front, an ugly bush, and everything else I forget.  It was a ton.  Actually, more like five.

And then the Heating Specialist went to work.  These guys installed the flooring panels for our radiant floor heating system.  Have we mentioned that yet?  We looked at the costs of various heating systems, and without the benefit of previously installed ductwork, forced air was only a bit less then radiant floor heat for our house.  Word on the street is that this form of heat is awesome; warm feet, cooler head, warm chairs, no blowing dust, low operational costs…  Why not?  We tried talking ourselves into something cheaper, but in the end we decided that this was a worthwhile investment.  Especially since the radiant CEILING HEAT that came with the house was looking to cost us a minimum of $30 a day for the opposite of all that was listed before.  Unreal.

The Roth Radiant Panels in the living room.

You can see the basic idea of the radiant floor system.  These panels, which are styrofoam with thick aluminum sheeting on top, are screwed down all over the house with channels aligned for 3/8″ PEX tubing to run back and forth throughout.  The panels are very light, but surprisingly solid as long as you’re stepping on the aluminum parts.  The PEX tubing snaps into the channels and stays.  Warm water will flow through the tubing, warming the floor above.  The aluminum helps to diffuse the heat out to the sides and prevent hotspots.  This is the vascular part of the system.

Star Wars robot?

And this is the heart.  Our new gas water heater was designed to heat both domestic water and the water for a radiant floor system.  There’s all sorts of pipes and valves and pumps and whatnot behind it, but I like this view.  Hopefully soon, we’ll give it life.

More panels, the fireplace and front door.

3/4" plywood goes on top to nail our Doug Fir flooring onto.

The next part of the house gaining weight was putting 50 or so sheets of 3/4″ plywood on the floor.  This all had to be screwed down every 6″ around the exterior of each sheet, as well as every foot within the rest of the sheet.  Figuring out where the precious tubes were and how to avoid them with the screws became a challenge.  Eventually, we all came up with various methods for mapping out the tubes.  By we, I mean myself, Alison, and my awesome friends Bret, Stephen, and Emery, who volunteered their time to help us out.  It was a long, complicated process.  Alison and Emery became our premiere sawyers, able to cut holes for plumbing, cutouts for doorways and fireplaces, all on one piece by measuring and translating it to the sheet of plywood.  When you’re talking about tolerances of 1/8th of an inch, it’s kind of amazing.

Ali doing what she does best.

Let’s see, what else.  After the flooring was done (except for the awesome Dour Fir tongue and groove planks that Jim is sawing up for us, thanks Jim!), Alison got Jorge working on creating smooth walls in the house.  He started in the back and has been moving steadily forward towards the kitchen, racing and beating me and my plumbing.  Unfortunately, the sheetrock in the kitchen needs to stay down while my plumbing and Tony’s electrical gets inspected, so Jorge still has some work to do.  Without pictures, believe me, the smooth walls are a lot of work and he does an amazing job.  As well as fixing my screw ups.  I’ve become too used to tearing down and cutting into sheetrock.

Anyhow, back to gaining weight.  My new friend Tony, who is a friend of my friend Jon, is an electrician.  And Tony has, in his words, helped me to “Pimp out” the house.  We’ve added can lights, and a couple of breakers.  We’ve updated the bathroom fans.  Exterior lighting has been updated and put on a photocell switch of some sort, that turns on the lights when it becomes dark.  All the wiring was gone over and updated if needed, making the house safer.  He did a great job, and still is not done.  Our rough in inspection was “Partially approved” with three things for me to fix.  All easy.  After we pass the next inspection, Jorge will be able to sheetrock and mud the whole house and Tony and I can trim out all of the electrical.  The next inspection will include my attempt at plumbing the entire house.

Hmmm... This could be why the shower was weak.

The above photo is of a galvanized steel pipe I took from the house.   All of our water supply, from the meter throughout the house, is galvanized steel pipe.  And I’m guessing it was low quality to begin with.  So, figuring that as a fireman who knows a thing or two about hoses and water flow, friction loss, pressure and such, I could plumb the house using PEX, the wonder material.  I’ve never plumbed a whole house before.  I’ve only fixed leaking pipes in the attic of my old house when the copper would spring pinhole leaks while I was away.  And I used PEX to fix it.  Amazing stuff, it’ll expand if the water within freezes, and goes back to it’s original size.  It can bend around all sorts of corners and other pipes.  It doesn’t rust or corrode, obviously.  And it’s super easy to connect, using either the expensive push to connect fittings or the cheap compression rings.  I used the cheap rings and headed under the house.  We have a crawl space that mostly lets me crawl on my hands and knees.  I spent a lot of time under the house.  It’s kind of neat.  Oh, it’s dirty, and Alison swears it has a musty smell that I wore back to the community (that’s what we call Kelsey’s place) and will probably give me some sort of lung problem.  But I like it down there.  Maybe after I clean it up of rocks, pipes, wood debris and beer bottles from 1980 and put a vapor barrier down, I’ll set up a napping area to escape the summer heat.

The plumbing is done, inadvertently tested, and a success!  At least I think it is; we’ll see how the inspector feels.  I didn’t have to do much with the drain and vent system, just raise the toilet flanges and move the kitchen sink drain and vent.  Not hard, but we’ll see what the inspector says.

New supply line.

   What else…  Did some ductwork for the bath fans, built a few awesome boxes for our future raised garden beds, fretted over too many things…  As you can see, a lot has happened in only a few moves, and a lot of moves remain.  But I think it’ll go quickly once the inspections are passed.  Jorge can finish his sheetrock and mud.  The cabinets and appliances can go in.  Electrical trim work can be completed.  Paint can be applied, flooring laid down.  We’re getting there, and my wrists are tired of typing.

Matt

From the half cul de sac.

 Just wanted to post a little preview of what’s to come…. I don’t think Matt mentioned above that he took down the original laundry room wall and with the help of friend and former coach Rick, he framed a pocket door for the laundry room.  so now the garage door opens into the kitchen instead of into the laundry room.  The laundry room is smaller than it was, but the sacrifice was for the good of the kitchen – to have an island!  See below… Off white cabinets are ready to install whenever we are ready for them.  Black/dark grey countertops are scheduled for templating in about 3 weeks!  butcher block idea was nipped in the bud, like it, but wanted something more durable I guess.  With the help of Meghan and Daphne and Matt, I pulled the trigger on a single stainless steel farm sink – 33 in wide!!!! OMG – yesterday! I’ll spare you the minutiae of that decision.

Now I’ll leave you with some photos of those garden boxes.  I left work today at 7:30 pm and stepped into bright 68 degree weather and thought to myself that I can’t wait to come home and sit out on the porch while grilling dinner!!  just a few more months!

-Alison

This is where I can bury him if I need to

TIme for tropical drinks and game night!!!! Let's get out of here.

Just say “NO” to fake wood.

I can’t stand particle board.  Also called MDF in some of it’s variations.  Medium Density Fiberboard.  Crappy stuff.  It’s often used in homes that have carpet or vinyl flooring to bring the height of the floor up to the level of the walls, doors or other flooring within.  In it’s more recent vintages, I’ve read, it’s not entirely bad stuff.  But if it gets wet, it swells and eventually melts.  Just take a piece and leave it on the sidewalk.  After the first decent rain all you’ll have left is a smattering of sawdust.  And this is what is supposed to hold our awesome new wood floor down?!  Not after today.

The master bedroom with no sawdust board.

Living room after Alison ripped up all of the 8'x4' sheets of 3/4" particle board.

Ali using her tools.

We moved all of this junk into the garage, which you’ve not seen before.  May I present to you, the already full garage:

And I promised some pictures of the outside of the house as well.  It’s not all about looks, personality counts too.

Note the blue tarps under the wood chips. Stay classy, Roselawn.

After all the fun of removing flooring, I was ready to be done, but Alison had some time before her scheduled workout that evening.  I know, right?

So, we made the decision that we’ve been talking about, and acted.

I ripped down the cabinet that was blocking my view of the fireplace.  It wasn’t gonna cut it anyways, so we got the sawzall and the prybar and did a bit more demo.  Goodbye, Kitchen.  It will never know the taste of Coconut Banana Bread.

-Matt

Coconut Banana Bread

Ok,  so we’re going to do this thing, right?  I think we are anyway.  As Matt mentioned earlier, one of the intentions of this blog is to log and SHARE! our favorite recipes.  This way we’ll have an easy way to look things up and we can direct friends to our blog when wanting to disseminate a good find.  I cringe to think how many great recipes we’ve found only to then be forgotten and move onto newer though not necessarily better pursuits.  For time’s sake (you’ve seen the pics of what we’ve been up to right?!), we may just post links to recipes FYI.

Without further ado, may I present to you coconut banana bread.  Probably the best banana bread I’ve made so far.   Sorry for any coconut haters – it’s time to get over it!

COCONUT BANANA BREAD

Slightly adapted from  http://gonnawantseconds.blogspot.com/2009/11/banana-bread.html.  Preheat oven to 350 deg F.  Line 2 Medium or Large loaf pans with parchment paper.  Combine the following in one large bowl.

• 3 c flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 2 c sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp coconut extract if you have it around
• 4-5 bananas (I cultivate my banana graveyard for weeks or sometimes months in the freezer before breaking them out to use – the browner (before they go in the freezer) THE BETTER!)
• 2/3 c coconut oil (any fat will probably do but this is my preference, original recipe calls for 1 1/3 c veggie oil but I find 2/3 c is enough).
• 1/2 c buttermilk (if you don’t have – 1 c milk + 1 T lemon juice or vinegar works)
• 1 c dry flaked unsweetened coconut
• optional 1/2 t cinnamon (I like cinnamon in everything)

Believe it or not, I mix all that in one bowl.  Baking purists I’m sure will gasp.  I do try to not overmix, mix until just combined.  Most important thing I find is that bananas are not to cold and coconut oil not to warm (i usually have to heat glass jar in water bath to get to pourable/measurable state) so that everything mixes well.  Divide between pans and wait 55-60 min or whenever a knife comes out almost clean.  Better on day two so if you can plan ahead, or make 2 batches = 4 loaves like I did today, you’ll be happy.  I’ve given away 2 so far, might freeze one and have the rest for home.

Buster wants to ranch

We’re getting a late start to the blogging thing.  Our first, lickinourchops, was supposed to be a collection of our favorite recipes, either original or gleaned from the googlepages.  I think we published one recipe.  Fail.

This, Ranch Living, is the second blog.  It’s purpose is to keep y’all up to date on our latest venture together- a 1973 ranch house.  We got it for a steal and have made quite a few plans for it.  So far, the plans are in motion.  They better be, as it’s in no shape to live in now.

Hopefully we’ll do a better job of keeping it somewhat up to date, throw some recipes and links to good food on there, and I may even put up photos of big fish and beautiful places.  Until then, let the photos begin.

-Matt

Update- Ok, I’ll tell you a bit about what’s been done so far.  We’ve removed all the carpets and fake tile.  Some walls have been primed.  The garage is now white instead of dark blue.  A decent size pine tree is no longer in the front yard, along with a bush of some sort from the front entrance.  We tested the popcorn ceiling for asbestos, which came back positive, so we had it professionally removed.  The woodstove insert is gone, making DEQ happy.  We’ve lost a closet and a small wall next to the fireplace.  The wainscoting is buh-by.  One of the two garage doors works MUCH better.  Doorknobs and deadbolts are replaced.  One bedroom has had it’s particleboard removed from the floor.  The rest of the house to follow.  The bathrooms have been totally cleaned and some hardware removed.  Many doors now sit in the garage.  And I think today Alison has frosted the windows of the garage, keeping  our tools and new washer/dryer safe.  Also in the exciting department, we’ve ordered the heating system and the floors!  We’ll be the proud owners of an efficient and comfortable hydronic radiant floor heating system, sitting just under the big-leaf maple and red alder flooring.

Now that I look at the photos, I realize I need some exterior shots, as well as the garage.  I’ll keep you posted.  Promise.

-Matt