 Holiday and Winter Solstice Greetings! Our main theme of the year can be summed up in one word: renovation. In late spring we decided to take our small, country cottage and flip it in the true sense of the word, switching the bedroom with the living room. It’s a passive solar thing. Our house was backwards. We had a poorly-lit, one-window bedroom on the south side of the building, and a picture-windowed living room on the northern, “cold” end – exactly the opposite of what you should have in a well-sited, energy efficient home. But first, let me show you a few highlights of 2013:  There's a video on YouTube. In January, I participated in a group of solo performances by writers in Ashland. My piece was about a fearful woman on her first ocean dive. In March, we built our third entry in the Mt. Ashland Dummy Downhill. Our theme has always been Wizard of Oz characters. This year we chose Miss Gulch On Her Bicycle, our most ambitious idea yet. I started the infrastructure when Wayne was down in Austin for his yearly stint as Stage Manager for the fabulous Continental Club during South By Southwest. (SXSW). Our friend Cindy gave us an old bicycle which was perfect. Wayne got home and gave her a face. As our first two dummies in past competition crashed, this year we were determined to get her down that hill and over the jump. It turned out to be a beautiful day, and we bronzed! See her fly down the hill and over the jump in perfect form! Just fyi, the dummies are supposed to go over the jump and crash into pieces.  The whole Miss Gulch On Her Bicycle story can be found in the March section of this blog. In April I turned the big 6-0. I felt as if I were going to this milestone with heels firmly dug into the ground, but now that a bunch of our friends have done the same thing I feel better. Really, it’s not so bad once you get used to it.  In June, the renovation began. I'm considering chronicling the entire process in a somewhat humorous novel, once the trauma begins to recede. We’ve kept excellent records, and the sunlight now streaming through the new windows somehow makes the past six months seem like a dream. But, this being Christmas sort of chronicle, I promise not to drone on about all the highs, lows and pitfalls of the project. I’ll just treat you to a few highlights, bearing in mind that the thing you hear most about a renovation is this: It always takes longer and costs more than you think. What we planned, in our naiveté, was a summer project involving replacing the windows, painting and switching the furniture. By July, we’d pulled down the walls and ceiling in the old living room, replaced the electricity, caulked and insulated. Really, once you’re down to your studs, you might as well just do everything. We take comfort in knowing what’s behind those walls, now. Our friend William helped us mightily until things got busy with his own fine carpentry business, which you should definitely check out: southernoregoncabinetry.com.  By late September we had a new bedroom with a refinished floor, an additional window and two closets where there were none before! Plus a groovy set of Alder “pocket” doors in a new wall. We were in a race against time and weather to begin Phase II: get the upcoming new living room (old bedroom) torn down and built back up again, with the wood stove installed before the weather turned cold. Once again, we were down to the studs. I could go on for hours, so just trust me when I tell you there were many “hills and valleys” during this process. Some of the electricity behind the walls in “Phase II” caused our electrician to shake his head in disbelief, and we thought most electricians had seen it all. Still, it’s a little house in the middle of four acres in the boonies, so a total re-wire was a relatively simple thing. Shortly, there was new, 5’ x 3’ window on the south wall, allowing light to come streaming through the house! Once again, we insulated the walls, the sheet rock guys came, and... I'm droning, aren’t I?  Our new living room floor. By then we’d found an amazing carpenter, Chris, who seemed able to make all things possible. He quickly ripped out the stinky old floor, replacing it with a new Douglas fir floor. He built wonderful moldings around the windows, a tiled platform for the wood stove, and installed a new Alder bathroom door. The tension peaked with a number of setbacks in the wood stove installers’ schedule, as we were well into November. The pile of demolition garbage outside had grown to epic proportions. But finally, the demo-pile was hauled away, and the wood stove was installed the night before our first hard frost. There are lots of little things to do to finish up Phase II, but thankfully, the holidays have intervened. We fully plan to hibernate for the rest of the winter before we begin Phase III: The Kitchen.
Have a peaceful holiday and a Happy New Year!
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Here's where I expound on whatever I'm passionate about at the time. I welcome your comments, as long as you're not hateful, a terrorist, or attempting to pedal work-at-home offers.
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