With gigabytes of storage at our fingertips, I hope a paper devotee needs a file cabinet. As we continue our “rightsize” winnowing of household items, this morning’s activities included moving this freebie to the curb and giving away an assortment of woodworking clamps to our friend Ethan E. as he begins building furniture. He will return in September for the small freezer chest, a pile of lumber, and motley assortment of nuts and bolts, nails and screws (more stuff gone!) Already out of the house and at a new home is the two-drawer cabinet that I bought in 1976 at the Eau Claire Book & Stationery store when I started library school at UW-Madison.
PS – Three hours on the curb and then it was wheeled down First Street on a dolly!
There are no quiet days at our construction site. They hung sheetrock on a Saturday, finished siding the house on a Sunday and work proceeds steadily Monday through Friday. With our red door key (to match the red doorknob) we check the progress every few days. We are not looking for errors so much as we are curious as to the flow of all these sub-contractors who slip in and out of the timeline.
During one early evening visit, we discovered the electrician missed running the conduit for the in-floor outlet in the TV room. Unfortunately, we did not catch this omission until after the slab had been poured. But, as it was clearly noted on the approved plans, a worker with a concrete saw cut a trough and the electrician ran the wire exactly to my request. I had laid out the perfect viewing dimensions of the new TV room using a triangular ruler, graph paper, and snips of to-scale cover stock representing the furniture. Just as requested, we now have a double outlet 6’-5” from the west wall and 9’-6” from the south/garage wall for over-the-shoulder task lighting. The patched floor is ugly but all will be hidden when the LVP is installed.
With steady progress at the site, we fill our days with behind-the-scenes tasks. Two Men & A Truck walked through our 1st Street house and provided estimates for packing and moving. We selected window dressings at Hirschfields. And we continue the onerous task of evaluating 40 years of detritus tucked in closets. The timing of recent family visits allowed us to repurpose four bags of books and a unique selection of Cubs swag. As the days and weeks progress, our to-do list will continue to grow.
Since March 6, when we selected Solstice Place as the location for our new house, we have scouted the neighborhood with a close eye for any progress on our lot. And today was the day for changes! The trenches have been dug for the footings and a nearby pile of dirt rests ready for future grading. Meanwhile, while waiting for the actual construction to begin, our days have been full of decisions, decisions, decisions.
Our first appointment was at the lumberyard for interior and exterior doors, door hardware, windows, and a hand-railing for the front steps. This visit gave us a sense of what would follow. With each visit there were offerings as bid and then the possibility to make choices from a broader selection outside the basic budget. For example: we were happy with the door levers as bid but opted for a different style kitchen faucet with the cost difference being our responsibility.
The tile store definitely lived up to the “and more” part of its title as we selected birch cabinets, granite countertops, sinks, LVP flooring, and (yes) tile for the bathrooms and the kitchen backsplash. We needed two visits for all those decisions. We even stayed within our allowance for flooring and tile but, I must admit, we went a smidge over in the cabinet category.
As our construction package includes new stainless-steel appliances, we will leave our functional white appliances on First Street. But even at the appliance store there is a lot to consider: slide in or free-standing stove? freezer on the bottom, side, or top? range hood or cabinet fan? Plus, double checking consumer ratings for reliability.
It took two appointments to determine the location of all the disc lights, although we were steadfast in our choice of decorative blue fixtures for the kitchen and dining room, the brushed nickel for the bathrooms, and the exterior, prairie-style lighting. From lighting we progressed to plumbing – from the kitchen faucet to the shower heads from grab-bars to towel racks the choices we made this morning will (hopefully) be the last, at least for a couple of days. But, in the meantime — we have a hole!
Folktale advice directs the gardener to plant potatoes on Good Friday. We opted for a more scientific approach and waited until the soil temperature reached 50°F. That occurred this weekend. The 20 hills of organic Kennebecs are the first of the plantings in this last garden on First Street.
And to boost the yield of late summer produce, I tried a slightly different approach when adding eggshells to my raised, square-foot beds. Usually, I just crumble the shells in my garden-gloved hand but after reading that smaller pieces release more nutrients, I put the food processor into garden service.
With the stock market appearing to have recovered after spiraling into a tariff black hole the likes of which we had not seen since 1987 (and that time we lost half of our portfolio’s worth!), it was reassuring to learn that all of our lumberyard decisions – exterior and interior doors, door hardware, and windows – are already in a local warehouse. We had worried that the price of Canadian lumber might escalate to the point of making our construction project nonviable after the current administration insulted our nearest and “best-est” neighbor.
Up until now, I had only thought in terms of big-ticket items (appliances and roof tresses) as being affected by the roiling rhetoric in this uncertain trade environment. But, the instability in the market also has a negative impact on small entrepreneurs like local yarn stores (LYS).
Knit Camp and the 2025 Traveler’s Club – Marie Greene is worried that the future shipments for our upcoming virtual adventures to Germany, France, and British Columbia could be affected by shipping strikes, trade issues, or other disruptions. She will combine three quarterly packages into one box. While not a big deal, I will just have to be patient and open each package at the assigned time rather than acting impulsively when my box arrives, it is sad to think the American business environment is that unstable.
Yarnology in Winona, MN – Having weathered the global pandemic, they promise to make it through this new gale but they are urging customers to be flexible. Exact shades of favorite yarns may not be available and to buy an extra skein when purchasing for large projects as they may not be able to replenish weights, colorways or dye lots.
Stash in Charlotte, NC – Has informed its customers they are stocking up but to brace for the worst. Often yarn stores order directly from small companies and, in the past, were able to avoid tariffs due to the small size of the orders. “The de minimis exemption has been off, on, off, on and so on and no one knows what to expect.”
During the market swings, pundit noise, and alerts from different yarn and knitting sources, I find the Hokey-Pokey is the earworm in my head.
You put the tariff on, you put the tariff off You put the tariff on and shake it all about You do the Hokey-Pokey…
With the purchase agreement signed and two-days to deposit the earnest money, we are one step closer to owning the “villa” on Solstice Place.
While there is still a myriad of decisions to be made some details are known. We have a sketch of our new home. We know the exterior colors. A large portion will have horizontal-siding in a rich indigo reminiscent of new blue jeans. The gable peaks will be finished in driftwood-colored shakes (imagine sunlight on silvery gray wood washed up on a rocky Lake Superior shore.)
After several weeks of graph paper drawings using a scale ruler, we know exactly where the in-floor electrical plugs will be set into our slab-on-grade floor. I determined the “perfect” placement of our furniture (everything fits!) I even modified the bathroom layout to ensure we have sufficient space to easily accommodate the turning radius of a wheelchair (should one of us need this accommodation.) We have earmarked two media consoles as possibilities in the TV Room to hold a new 65-inch screen and our existing external sound bar. Between online wish lists and upcoming showroom visits we hope to narrow additional choices quickly and minimize expensive change orders.
The first snowfall at our newly purchased house – November 1985
Even as we excitedly peruse electrical, plumbing, and tiling websites to identify possibilities for the new “villa” at 5314 Solstice Place, we recognize we will experience daily “lasts”. Our last Christmas is already a memory. And, while the garden is still being planned, we did not realize when we planted the garlic cloves last fall that we were beginning our last gardening season on First Street.
For a majority of our lives this has been our home – 40 of 42 married years; 40 of my 72 and 40 of Richard’s 78 years. It is tempting to simply look towards September, to focus on the myriads of decisions in an effort to make this shiny new building project and the move as easy as possible. Conversely, it would be easy to get lost in the memories. To reminisce about late nights spent with the steam gun and a putty knife as we removed seven layers of smoke permeated wallpaper in the dining room; the residual nicotine so heavy that the house smelled like an old-time beer bar. To laugh at the number of times we washed and moved buckets and buckets of river rock around our lot – raked from one garden path to another. Maybe, just maybe, we can manage a blend of something old and something new. But today, after yesterday’s blizzard, I will be happy to pack away my last memory of snow shoveling. Fingers crossed that winter weather cooperates.
We have a site! Specifically, Harvestview Third, Lot 7, Block 11 located at 5314 Solstice Place NW. After looking at existing side-by-side townhouses, we will purchase a new “villa.” This will provide independent living on one level with no-step entry constructed on a 50×100 foot lot. Interestingly, this parcel is slightly larger than our current property, with the added benefit of HOA provided lawn care and snow removal.
Given the already high-costs for construction materials post-Covid and mix in an unstable market due to ditzy rhetoric about on-again, off-again tariff threats and we thought the price of new construction might be unaffordable. But after weighing the pros & cons of 30+ year old properties in need of new appliances and remodeled bathrooms versus new construction with greater energy efficiencies and various warranties, we will build. Next step – choices, choices, choices.
Our search for a new house has begun. With help from Alex Mayer, we are looking for the “right-sized” dwelling with living space on one-floor and maybe even a no-step entry. We have loved our quaint 100-year-old home in this well-established neighborhood, but we are ready to relinquish worries about exterior maintenance, snow removal, and lawn care to a homeowners’ association (HOA).
While there are a multitude of variables beyond our control, we hope the search will follow a steady linear progression: view homes for sale, make an offer, close on the new property, remodel and/or renovate to our taste, move, and then finally put our house on the market. We have already discovered that modern home shopping is certainly easier than 40-years ago. From the comfort of our sunroom sofa, we review online listings; dismissing one as too big or another as too small, all the while hoping for that Goldilocks “just right” dwelling. On a deep-freeze day last week, we visited a side-by-side townhouse on two levels – nice but not quite right. Today, with a sunny blue sky, we will visit another listing that just went on the market yesterday.
Late afternoon postscript – Today’s townhouse also falls into the nice but not quite right category.
Through the efficiency of eSignatures, we signed with a realtor last week making it official that we are house hunting. This final GeometricJanuary post reveals just one of the barriers necessitating this life changing move from our multi-story, 100-year-old house to a step-free environment, boasting all the modern-day amenities on one floor. The turning parquet stairs with four angular steps to-and-from the back door is the shortest of the house’s staircases. While geometrically appealing, these steps are, at times, difficult to maneuver. In addition, there are other interior steps between some of the rooms and the exterior approach up the berm to the front door has two runs of steps. The quirks of our old house on a small lot with insufficient space to ramp would provide a significant challenge even for This Old House thus making our decision to move the reasonable choice.
A shout of appreciation to BeckyB for hosting this month’s photo challenge featuring square geometric images. I am looking forward to her next quarterly square challenge.
