Raincharm’s Weblog

A more typical Seattle November day – minus the rain, so far.

I had an appointment this morning. Part of the H7N9 Flu Vaccine Study.
They wanted to suck my blood, again.

Being a non-work day, non-raining, and reasonable temperature – we walked to the appointment.
After being poked we took off up to Capital Hill (emphasis on up).

This is called Black Sun. We thought Grey Sun fit the day a bit better.

Black Sun with Grey Sky and Space Needle

Instead of heading straight north (homeward) we veered east a bit, to grab a bit of the Husky/Cougar Apple Cup excitement.
Walking through the neighborhoods as we approached from the south reminded me of football Saturdays growing up in Ann Arbor. Folks that lived relatively close to the stadium could pad their wallets by providing mini-parking lots on their lawns.
A business took this one step further. The Montlake 76 Station closed most of their station for parking/tailgating. It looked like two of the gas pumps were still open for service, maybe. [We thought of the current “Mayhem” commercial at a tailgating function. The coals in the grill are not completely extinguished before being closed up in the SUV while the owner’s went to watch the game. That and the can of lighter fluid ignited a spectacular car fire. Move this to a gas station for even more special effects …]

As we were preparing to cross the intersection next to the Montlake Station, the policeman that had been lounging on his motorcycle suddenly leapt into action and drove into the middle of the intersection. At first this just seemed to be because it was getting busy. But, his motorcycle was really blocking one of the traffic lanes. And he was only letting one lane go. (For those that may try to picture this, it was the lane exiting from Eastbound 520 to Montlake.) At second look it appeared he was allowing the freeway exit to clear because there were emergency vehicles on 520, being slowed by the exiting traffic. This could make sense as there is a hospital across the street from Husky Stadium, and ambulances travel this way frequently.

Our waiting was finally rewarded with a vision of all the commotion. At least 6 police vehicles (motorcycles and cars) escorting three buses carrying the Washington State Cougars to the venue! Were they late? I am sure a few of the rabid Husky fans were a bit perturbed. Carl & I just laughed, although I wish I had thought to get my camera out before they arrived.

You can see one of the things that make travelling to Husky Stadium unique. You can boat to the stadium.

From the Montake Bridge, over the Montlake Cut. Boat parking to the left (port).

What is in those red cups?

The procession on land to the stadium. Carl says the 14-6 sign is predicting the final score. I like the alcohol limit sign myself (next to the Big W)

Husky Stadium and “The Wall” protecting the light rail station currently under construction

We finally got far enough away to be out of the crowds, that is until we entered the Starbucks.
A few blocks later we were finally home.
10+ miles. A few more than anticipated, but a good walk.

Now I need to re-energize to move some more furniture, and unpack a few more boxes.

And since I have not posted a house picture in a while – here is the carport currently under re-construction.

Carport Improvement

Last weekend was one of those where there was not much time for anything other than what was done.

This weekend is slightly more leisurely.

breakfast fixings

Last weekend we went to two shows, moved out of two storage units, and rearranged much of the moved matter again.

This weekend we went to a dinner, moved about 1/4 of a  storage unit, and shifted stuff around the house some more.

In between the new carport is starting to take shape, flooring has been installed in our closet, and DirectTV has been added to our lives.

DETAILS

The shows from last weekend: Les Miserables at the Village Theatre in Issaquah. The Hounds of the Baskervilles at the Seattle Rep. pay

Les Miz was absolutely outstanding. Everything. Made fighting through the stinging rain and wind to reach the theatre worth the effort. The Hounds was also a good show. Carl gave it a rave review. He has known the story since a high school class. I (unfortunately) fell asleep in the 3rd act. It had nothing to do with the show, and everything to do with prior events of the day.

This weekends dinner was a very nice affair with one of Carl’s teammates and other associated persons. Baseball was the initial common denominator, but of course talk ranged from kids to refinished floors and even a bit of the political spectrum.

The moves: Saturday = Storage Units 2 and 3 to the house. Sunday = Everything moved into the garage into the house.

Saturday’s move was accomplished by four people all over the age of 55. Yeah for us! And we all survived, and even felt better for the effort (in the end). Kudos to Mark H and Lisa T for their assistance – we could not do it without your help, and are still searching for some way to repay your efforts.

Each storage unit essentially filled the 19-foot truck. [If this was a longer haul we would have packed more efficiently, but this was definitely a short haul.] So we had two trips, with a lunch intermission. Furniture went to the appropriate room, identifiable boxes went to an assigned room, and everything else went into the garage. I was going to get a picture of the garage – stuffed to the doorway, but the camera phone ran out of battery charge at the opportune moment.

[There are a few items left in Storage Unit #2. Four chairs that should never see the interior of our house again (dinette style with orange flower vinyl backs), the waterbed frame which is likely to be posted soon on Craigslist, and most of the Parabody Universal workout unit, which is waiting for space to be opened up in the basement for re-assembly.]

Sunday’s emptying of the garage was needed as the garage serves as the work area for the contractor, who is currently building the carport. Much of the move was from the garage to the basement, but a few boxes did move up when we finally determined what was in said box.

New carport skeleton

This weekend has seen emptying of portions of Storage Unit #1. Carl has been accomplishing this one car-load at a time.

The carport is the most worthy addition of mention for this past week. It will have a shingled roof once it is done, and pickets along the side that match the back-deck. The minimum height over the driveway is 6’6″. This is a huge switch from the prior carport. The prior carport was responsible for knocking down Bob (Carl’s dad) and rotating at least one car-top ski-rack (and this was after we took off the first section of roof to allow the mini-van of the moment to fit under the roof). It also had a corrugated plastic finish that had weathered past any semblance of looking “nice”.

Old carport with Sagan

The garage door at the bottom of the driveway is also slated for replacement.
The springs had broken – or more specifically, some metal part of the door lifting/spring operation.
And of course the old door is an odd size …
And yesterday, after extracting an old kitchen shelving unit from the garage for re-use in a deserving friend’s house, the door did not close quite properly. And then took a short ride on Jay’s back. And is now in a vertical position, awaiting the contractor’s ability to get it through the next week or two until the new door arrives.

Here is a last look at our apartment “kitchen”.

Apartment Galley

And here is our new house KITCHEN.

Spacious

(Yes, the picture is a repeat, but if I took one now you would see a bunch of stuff on the floor that has not found a home yet. Or is waiting to be taken out to the recycling bin.)

We are completely out of the apartment, and a bit into the house.
We still have 3 fully stocked storage units.
At least one will be emptied out this weekend, and possibly more.
We will have a truck, so all of the furniture is due to return.

It is actually rather nice living in a house that is populated only by a bit more stuff than fit into the apartment. Except when you go looking for something. And even if you know you should have that something, where it is can be a question.

Work goes on here at the house, but it is finishing up details.
Blinds have been hung.
Most of the painting is done.
We have 5 different keys to get into the house. That will hopefully be reduced to one after the locksmith’s visit tomorrow.

Big things that remain are the carport and new garage door.

And then there are the changes that we have requested as we moved in.

I really wanted a broom closet. We never had a place to put the vacuum cleaner and it just shuttled around from place to place. So we had a “broom closet/cabinet” made as part of the kitchen cabinetry. It would work perfectly. Except that it really feels like it should be a pantry instead.

As Jon described it – it is right in the kitchen in a “1” spot on the convenience chart. A vacuum/broom accessibility feels more like a “3” in terms of convenience requirements.

We have adopted Rey’s room as the computer room/coat closet room/Jay’s work room (per Sagan this morning). It would appear that the vacuum and broom can fit just fine in the closet with the coats.

So the cabinetmaker paid a visit this morning to determine what he would need to do for the conversion. In about 3 weeks we should have a pantry. That is about the same time that the new garage door is scheduled to arrive.

Perhaps it will all be done before the kids arrive home for Christmas. Except final outdoor painting and staining, that will wait for the dry seasons to roll back around.

The biggest thing about being back in the house is that it is really big.
The apartment was all about proximity.
You were always in close proximity to everyone and everybody and everything.
Here there are miles to cover, and everything seems so far apart.

The move. (The last move – apartment to house, everything fits in a car. Not to be confused with the previous move from the apartment to house, everything that would not fit in a car, that actually happened before Disneyland (see a post or two earlier).)

We lived for a week or two in the apartment with minimal dishes, the blow-up bed, the computer, TV and a small TV cart (too small for the TV that was sitting on top of said cart). Our clothes were in laundry baskets – his and hers. We had a card table and two folding chairs. It was sparse.

The reason for the staggered move was two or three-fold.

• We hoped to rent our apartment to somebody else for November
• We were going to be gone the last full weekend in October, when we could take the time to move heavy stuff.
• We wanted to stay out-of-the-way of the house work (mostly painting) as long as possible.

As it turned out, we stayed in the apartment until November 4th. Then we moved everything but the card table, TV, stand and a chair. And cleaning supplies. (The apartment had cable TV and the Sounder’s were still in the playoffs at that time.)

Man Cave (5 floors up) (Those are the Seahawks on the telly)

November 6th and 7th were cleaning days, and the final removal of all things that belonged to us. Cleaning went relatively, sort-of smoothly. After much elbow grease had been extended we discovered that our range had not only an interior light, but it was “self-cleaning”. Carl had to leave at one point because I would not let anyone use the bathroom. And the final cleaning of the cabinets cleared up the mystery of the missing compost bags. Keys were turned in on the 7th. We have yet to hear what we may get back from our deposit, and to our knowledge the apartment is still vacant.

Except perhaps for the Carbon Monoxide Detector that was left. We had said detector in our house before we moved out. It was plugged into a wall that no longer exists, so the contractor removed it. He gave it to us to take because it had a nasty habit of squawking when not plugged into an outlet. Of course, that is how it is designed to work. We received this unit with tape over the switch to keep it quiet. This only lasted until the switch overpowered the tape. This occurred one of the first days in the apartment and I thought the apartment fire alarm was going off. To silence the device I plugged it into the wall. When we were moving out I tried to hold the switch down with various implements, none of which worked except my thumb. I was trying to figure out how I could drive and hold the switch at the same time. In the end it was still in the wall outlet as a backed out of the apartment for the last time, scrubbing the last bit of floor as I left.

Now we need to make room for beds, chairs, tables, exercise equipment and boxes and boxes and boxes of things that we have done without for several months.

Hmmm… Ever see Storage Wars? (See what cable does to a person)
I wonder what folks would think of our units.

The season is over. Baseball season that is.The evil Red Sox won. I really wanted St. Louis, and really did not want Boston.

All of those playoff beards can be removed. But really, I did not think these beards were a playoff phenomena, the beards have been here all season.

Our season was known as, “The Year of the Fez”.

Saunder’s April Home Run

The Mariner’s season did not always go as planned, but Saunder’s seemed to like our section. Of the 5 home runs Saunders hit in Safeco this year, Carl caught 2. The first and last.

Saunders HR catch in September

Note the change in facial hair. Our equally bearded seat-mate (just to the left of Carl) got a few home runs as well. By the end of the season the announcers were confusing who was who.

With the season behind us it is time to get ready for the winter.

What have you been up to today?

A planned trim got a bit out of hand.

Freshly shorn.

 In other news, the house bits keep getting done.

Notice how the accent row goes from the bottom of the electrical plates to the top.
(Sorry about the wire and paperwork disrupting clean scene) And you can see a drawer handle – bonus.

Detail. The switch here is for the exhaust fan – with variable speeds.

Tomorrow will be focused on moving things around the new space.

And the Sounder’s game – we are hoping the rain holds off, or more likely is over, for game time.