Tag: Garden

2017 at the Ranch

On By juliestrubIn Garden, Kitchen, Stuff you can't see1 Comment


It’s been a big year. There hasn’t been a new blog post since March(!), but here’s a recap of what’s been going on this year with Ranch and its occupants.

After the initial push to renovate the interior in Fall of 2016, and to deal with the surprise that the roof was actually made of Swiss cheese, we took some time off from any big and/or expensive renovation projects. In addition, after 12 years with my previous company, I switched jobs in May. This has been a smart move and a life upgrade, but has taken some focus away from house projects as I’ve come up to speed on a new platform and life at the early days of a technology start up.

We’ve felt good about the complete renovation of the interior. We’ve been luxuriating in the spa-like shower experience that Mrs. Snodgrass designed & executed, and hosting many holidays in the open plan kitchen/dining area. We reclaimed the backyard kitchen garden, successfully grew tomatoes (for the first time!), planted a mini fern garden, hosted about a billion BBQs and dog romps, and have discovered that our friends’ first choice for a birthday celebration is usually a home cooked meal at the Ranch.

2016 and 2017 have had their fair share of shit (you know what I mean). I won’t get into that here. However, there has been a positive by-product of this downturn of events for our community and our country. We have declared the Ranch a safe haven for our circle of friends – those we’ve known for years as well as some the amazing new friends we’ve made here in Portland and beyond.  2017 has brought us together with a number of folks from near and far that we’ve met through fandoms, Clexacon, Thorns soccer, Instagram (yep!) and being open to creating a supportive community.  The ranch has been a key part of this because we have the space to host guests, an open plan to sit and eat, play with the dogs, enjoy the fire, watch Amy Sedaris, etc. This place has became a default home base for our little community.

P.S. Here’s one update that is the kind of thing I would usually post: we had the gutters cleaned a couple weeks ago. During the Thanksgiving downpour, the most prominent gutter convergence near the front door was overflowing, which is about the worst place for a gutter failure. We thought: do we get up on a ladder (well, first buy a ladder that tall) and do this ourselves? I did a little research and it was about $125 to have them cleaned by “Neighborhood Gutters”. Sold! They even sent us some grainy before and after photos (my personal obsession):

A Giant Waste Bin of Renovation Refuse

On By juliestrubIn demolitionLeave a comment

bin-2-for-web

Laura had the excellent idea of getting one of those giant container waste bins delivered to put all the demolition refuse in. I had been researching one-off loading & hauling solutions where you call some guys who have a big truck and they load and haul it for you. Laura’s idea on the container delivery was much better, because we had it for a whole week and could add to it throughout that time.

It wasn’t cheap, but way cheaper than hiring people to get rid of that quantity of crap. I researched the cost to haul just the old carpet, and it was more than half of what having a huge bin for the whole week ended up being. Even if we had a truck (like that 1998 Ford F-150 the missus has been eyeing), we would have had about 10 labor-intensive & costly trips to the dump if we were to have done it that way.

Another benefit was that since we scheduled it for a week, it gave us a reasonable deadline to complete the demo, and also the sense of urgency to take advantage of the flat rate we were paying and get rid of anything that was borderline.

Here’s a partial list of the contents:

– wall to wall carpet & pad
– a billion staples from the old carpet & linoleum
– old linoleum (3 layers) & the plywood it was attached to
– kitchen countertops & cabinets
– bathroom linoleum
– bathroom vanity, sink, & hardware
– bathroom shower pan, plastic liner, & hardware
– a weird outdoor carpeted lattice ramp (for dogs and/or humans)
– old busted screendoor
– various garbage from the backyard
– metal blinds from the bedrooms that we managed to break within 2 minutes of trying to use them

bin-1-for-web

The last benefit was that after the took the full bin away, it was like all that old crap was magically gone. Well, not really, since we pulled it out ourselves with some serious blood, sweat & tears (not an exagerration). But when we came back to the house and the container had been picked up, it felt like we had moved into a new, more fun phase of the project: rebuilding the ranch and make it somewhere we can’t wait to live!

The home stretch to home ownership

On By juliestrubIn Smoke removalLeave a comment

Title-folder

We got up bright and early to head to the Title company (conveniently located across the street from our apartment) and finalized the deal. Everything going smoothly, scheduled to record tomorrow. Our fantastic Realtor and Fixer Upper Expert (Dee) is going to provide some expertise in the coming weeks with our pre move-in renovation plan.

In the meantime, the wife and I are going to sit down with a spreadsheet and start making a list of priorities for before moving in (de-smoke, paint, remove stanky carpet). I LOVE this kind of spreadsheet, especially when Laura builds them. #hearteyes