Kathy and Calvin's Home Page

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
In the beginning of July I purchased a rebar cutter/bender on craigslist. During my conversation with the seller, I told him we were looking for a concrete guy to pour the foundation, slab, and back stairwell. He gave me his info and I didn't think much of it. How could someone commuting between Portland and Corvallis underbid a local person? But he did, by almost 50%. The Corvallis "tax" hits again. It seems that everything is more expensive in Corvallis, including contractors. After calling references, we had Paul on board to do the concrete work.

Paul had bid the job to use metal framed forms. These 2 foot by 8 foot forms weighed about 90 lbs each. Not so bad until you realize we had to put 140 of them in the hole and then take them out. Remember, to take them out there is now a 9 foot tall wall in the way. Oh logistics!

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
On July 21st, 2 days before issuing the permit, E.D. Hughes began demolition. Steve, the demolition guy, was able to remove the house in just 6 hours.

Of course, the rats had the last word.

In another 6 hours he dug a huge hole and over 30 dump trucks of soil was removed.

It was now July 28th, only 5 days after the city issued the permit.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
By June 22, almost 2 weeks later, we were able to get the permit undenied despite the fact that it only took 2 days to come to an agreement. This delay worried me in that you only get a few days to request a hearing after denial or you lose your money (over $500) and you have to start all over.

Part 1, Part 2
Our hurried house plan submitted for review included engineering drawings to deal with bearing walls and the basement. We planned to take the requirements to give up 20% of our little 5000 sq ft lot to an appeals board.

By April we hired our second attorney. This attorney at first said he could definitely help. After reviewing our information he told us "ADA is king." I was mad. How could an attorney tell us the city had a reason? What I didn't understand at the time but later came to believe is that you can fight anything but ADA requirements for 5 foot wide sidewalks. You could definitely fight greenspace (trees and grass between the street and sidewalk) and boy did the city want a ton of that.

With our first plan review results (after 2 weeks), the city lowered their requirements from 20% of our lot to 14%. Obviously they could move on their requirements. We had some hope so we began to get bids on demolition and excavation. I was surprised that E.D. Hughes came in very low.

Part 1
By December of 2008, we switched gears and started thinking about simply demolishing our home and starting over. Although expensive, I estimated that it would cost about $80,000 more but we would end up with a much more energy efficient and usable home.

Our home had 7 ft tall ceilings. I liked that but Steve didn't. The height wasn't as bad as the fact that none of the ceilings were straight. In addition, we suspected that none of the windows had headers over them.

The problem in building from scratch was 2 fold: the city's prohibitive requirements and a very small lot. In December, I waltzed over to the permit department to ask them about any issues that we would have in rebuilding. Very quickly I found that our sidewalk was too narrow and that they would require land to be "dedicated" in order to widen the sidewalk. Although ADA standard sidewalks are necessary, I pointed out that the city already had a plan in place to move the sidewalks out into the middle of the street on our block. This was to become a long drawn out fight.

When I purchased my home in 2003, it may well have been the last home under $150,000 in Corvallis. I knew it had problems so I put some money aside to fix the roof and do something with the red water. Only blocks from my ex-husband and around the corner from the co-op, Sam's Station, and bus stop - I really began to like the location.

We liked the house enough to stay and build a little shop (to the right of the picture above). This was supposed to help us store the tools that would be used for renovation.

In December, I started looking at the house for renovation. It was doable but difficult. We found that the main part of the house was 18x20 feet and the rest all added on. We found the home to be very deficient both in building quality and safety. In the picture below you can see the 2x4 floor joist (naughty, naughty) with the crooked beams under it. We think those may have been the skids used to move it.

Change.org wants us to contact our representatives to support an energy efficiency bill:

by requiring that utilities gradually increase energy savings - an average of one percent a year starting in 2012 through 2020.

That's nice but have they read the national building code requirements for newly constructed residential homes? Talk about out of date! It does not give credit for radiant heating (in floor) with a condensing gas water heater. This particular water heater costs $2500-$4500 and is 97% efficient! It has a stand by loss of 1% but that doesn't include about 6 months of the year when the radiant floor heating is in effect - because there is no standby.

Apparently you have an option of a tankless heater (do you have any idea of how much heat is lost through the stainless flu?), and ELECTRIC radiant heating system (expensive, can't fix if broke), or well insulated HVAC forced air ductwork. Yes, we all know a duct heating system is both efficient and gives you clean air (not). Radiant floor heating, on the other hand, can be very efficient and clean and has been around for a long, long time.

I used to get the Oregon Home magazine. At first it was free then about $6 a year. I quit getting them because I hate tearing out the pages and scanning the stuff I like. But now behold, an electronic version that even feels like a real magazine:

http://orhome.journalgraphicsdigital.com/pubs/orhome/mar09/

Check out the bathroom on page 54. If only they could give me a direct link to page 54 it would be perfect. Or if I could embed their pictures in my site like we do with youtube videos.

Anyways, this is a perfect way for me to get my magazine on without having to store the magazine, tear out pages I like, scan them, then recycle. Did I mention the link above is free? Hmmmm, freeeee.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/keillor/2008/01/30/education/
Whoo-be-gone! Garrison certainly peeved off (obviously) a bunch of teachers. Whoooeee! Of the first 30 or so responses (letters), not one respondent actually responded to what he wrote. See, we really do need Reading First - but let's start with using it on the teachers. Garrison wrote that although NCLB has flaws - Reading First is the best part of it. Reading First actually works!

But then teachers respond with:

The NCLB test is horrible, long, requires memorization, requires teaching to the test, etc. etc etc.

Really? There is one single NCLB test? Wow, I didn't know that. I thought that each state makes its own test. So whose fault is it?

I saw one lady that posted saying balanced literacy is phonics. Hold on, I have to stop laughing.

OK, I'm back. She is clearly an idiot. Balanced literacy is an outcropping of Whole Language. See, she also needs to go back and learn to read history.

I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I don't think they should drive.

After 3 months, I've just finished my student teaching in a rural town. I was super fortunate in getting a great host teacher, a classroom of wonderful fourth grade students, and a couple of willing principals. The sun and moon must have aligned for me because I really came out of the experience feeling positive with lots of questions - always a good thing to have more questions about how does a teacher do this or that when... Or at least it's better than saying that was an awful experience with no questions :)

I had students from out of my homeroom in reading, math, and science. They were all very accepting and polite. I really think it had to do with the host teacher having high expectations and a school that runs a positive behavior supports (PBS) program. I was, to say the least, very impressed with the professional level of the teachers. They would meet together to discuss direction, hash out standards, and ensure a continuum of behavioral strategies for students that went from class to class. The parents of the students are lucky - I'm not convinced all schools are run that well.

My husband sent a letter to Congressman DeFazio about the 700 BILLION dollar bailout. He got a 3 page letter back stating why the bailout was a horrible thing. As I read through the letter, I can see DeFazio going around from town to town in the desert sand wearing flip flops. He has a message. Some listen but many do not. It ends in a disaster.

Sounds familiar?

Geez, sometimes I wonder if meek will really inherit the earth. If DeFazio is anything, it is certainly meek. The weird part is that there are some serious right wingers that like him. The lefties are very happy with him (although they want him to go further). And he is super safe in his seat. Good luck to the guy people running against him (*snicker*).

1. Who is that man? I like the cut of his jib.
2. Smithers, did I win the debate?

I've just sold my mom's house. My husband, brother, sister, and 2 nieces/nephews took several weekends and days to get it in shape to sell. We did all the work ourselves and even listed it on craigslist. Fortunately, our open house was on the same day as other better advertised open houses on the same day. We actually sold the house in 3 days.

In selling by ourselves, we used NW Realty Consultants to do the paperwork after we found the buyer. It turns out my mother bought her Turner home through For-Sale-By-Owner (NW Realty Consultants) and I used their services in purchasing my house 5 years ago. We also used NW Realty Consultants to sell our Albany home. We paid an hourly rate to do the paperwork (correctly). It went very smooth.

And once again it went very smooth. As a bonus, I worked with Ticor Title in both Salem (where the house is located) and Corvallis (where I could drive down the street to sign papers). Talk about handy.

After 2 years of writing lots of papers and 7 tests later, I have come to the point of starting student teaching. I begin the final phase in the quest of gaining elementary teacher licensure. The past 2 days I attended a reading conference by a Reading First speaker which was pretty good overall. At the conference I got to know my host teacher along with the new principal and other grade school level teacher better. They seem like a good bunch and are truly caring and even careful in trying to do right by the kids.