The County of Los Angeles is putting on these ‘smart gardening’ workshops in all kinds of cities in the area … (They also offer a series [...]]]> Completely randomly a few weeks ago I just Google’d ‘Santa Clarita gardening class’ … and found a free composting class just a few blocks away from our house!

The County of Los Angeles is putting on these ‘smart gardening’ workshops in all kinds of cities in the area … (They also offer a series of gardening instructional videos that I need to watch).

Since the workshop was just a few blocks away from my house, I left at the last minute and was totally surprised to find the park completely crowded! So, uh … somehow I didn’t even notice that the city was having an “open house” event at the same place as the composting class!

I invited Julie to meet me there, and by the time we arrived (about 1 minute after the class was scheduled to start), ALL the seats were taken plus some more people standing around …

The man teaching the composting class was this adorable older guy who clearly loves gardening, loves his yard/property and has been composting/gardening for a long time…

He talked about treating his worm-composting worms like pets (if you’re going to be away from home for more than a couple weeks, be sure to have someone look in on them), and all excited about what he’s able to grow in his yard, giving hints about having your neighbors save their veggie scraps for you …

I kind of love him

The park/city division has this whole local-plant garden surrounding the area. Including signage/etc that describes what you’re looking at (recycling grass, drought-resistant, etc).

Such a fun Saturday morning! I went straight home and walked around our yards thinking about where we would put our compost bin, our herb garden and other goodies!

Can’t wait til next spring when the house is more put together and we can really focus on the yard!

The VERY FIRST weekend we were in the house, it rained and poured here and we discovered that our 3 windows in the back of the house on the bottom floor leak….

Ugh.

All over our brand new floors and nicely painted walls.

This house tried to kill me …

The VERY FIRST weekend we were in the house, it rained and poured here and we discovered that our 3 windows in the back of the house on the bottom floor leak….

Ugh.

All over our brand new floors and nicely painted walls.

We spent weeks and weeks with tarps nailed over the window frames to help protect it from the rain…

And it continued to rain. Every few days.

Just often enough that between work and rain, Andrew didn’t have time to recaulk the windows at all for over a month.

More than a month with blue-tinted light because we just left the tarps up.

It was both depressing and hilarious

Finally, we just got sick of it … there was just WAY too much stress trying to keep the rain out AND trying to worry about fixing it in a timely manner….

Our contractor happened to come over on a particularly rainy day and just said he’d take care of it. Bless him.

Yes, it cost us more to have him do it, but the stress relief itself was totally worth it.

So the following Monday (a few weeks ago now), Tony and his team came and reinstalled/recaulked those 3 windows in about 2 hours. Done and done.

No more leaky windows! No more stress when it rains.

Thanks goodness ….

Now we just have to worry about the flooding backyard when it rains ….

In order to organize these plans, as well as *try* to keep track of what [...]]]> Just after we closed Escrow, my brain was going CRAZY trying to remember all the things that HAD to be done to Headquarters, as well as all my ideas for sprucing up the place beyond just making it livable.

In order to organize these plans, as well as *try* to keep track of what we’re spending, and to keep track of what we still want to do, I created a Google Doc for Andrew and I to share. Although, I’m not sure he’s ever looked at it.

Regardless, I now have a record of all the work that has been done to the house and all the things we want to do moving forward. Now that the kitchen is installed, the windows no longer leak and the house is LIVABLE, the rest of our To-Dos are primarily dependent on our cash flow.

So, some of these may stay undone for awhile.

But, so you can keep track along with us ….

Tasks that were basically completed before we moved in

• remove all the trash and debris from the house
• remove all the cabinets/counter from the kitchen
• remove all mold from kitchen
• remove all old floors throughout house
• fix hole in kitchen ceiling
• fix floorboards in bedroom
• fix bathroom/kitchen leaks
• new floors upstairs
• new floors downstairs
• paint all rooms (white)
• take out fake closet in downstairs bedroom
• reinforce beam below upstairs bedroom
• replace broken front window
• trim tree on side yard
• get rid of mold in garage
• add dining room light
• new garage door opener
• rekeyed front door

To be done after we moved in (March 10). Some of these are BIG (buy washer and dryer). Some of these are SMALL (buy hanging basket for kitchen). The crossed out items have been completed as of 5/2… almost entirely thanks to Andrew:

• replace floor in front of garage
• replace door into garage
• fix AC going out of garage
• paint exterior / red front door
• new roof
• rafters in garage
• trim tree pushing on light post
• scrape all ceilings
• replace thermostat
• replace all the windows with double panes
• install solar panels
• garage: add shelves above washer and dryer
• garage: buy washer and dryer
• master bathroom: new floor
• master bathroom: shower door hanging crooked
• master bathroom: clean clean clean
• master bathroom: buy trashcan
• master bathroom: buy TP roll holder
• master bathroom: basket for TP
• master bathroom: paint?
• master bathroom: buy/hang towel racks
• master bathroom: new toilet?
• master bathroom: shelves?
• master bathroom: light cover over sink
• master bathroom: new floor
• master bathroom: new vanity/sink
• master bedroom: paint
• master bedroom: hang curtain rod
• master bedroom: blinds
• master bedroom: hang artwork
• master bedroom: buy/hang curtains
• master bedroom: window screen
• master bedroom: bookcases?
• master bedroom: full length mirror
• master bedroom: bedside tables
• master bedroom: bedside lamps
• master bedroom: hooks in closet interior
• guest bedroom: blinds
• guest bedroom: bed
• guest bedroom: rug
• guest bedroom: small dresser
• guest bedroom: ceiling fan
• guest bedroom: mirror
• guest bedroom: hang artwork
• guest bedroom: paint
• guest bathroom: new vanity
• guest bathroom: new floor
• guest bathroom: new tub
• guest bathroom: fix shower
• guest bathroom: new toilet
• guest bathroom: big mirror
• guest bathroom: new floor boards
• guest bathroom: paint
• guest bathroom: buy TP holder
• guest bathroom: towel racks
• guest bathroom: buy shower rod
• guest bathroom: hang shower curtain
• living room: see about building cupboard under stairs
• living room: paint
• living room: hem curtains
• living room: rug
• living room: smaller armchair
• living room: make coffee table
• living room: new or refinished entertainment center
• living room: better lighting
• living room: lamp for corner
• living room: DVD shelves
• living room: side tables
• living room: window screen
• dining room: paint
• dining room: window screen
• dining room: rug
• dining room: new table
• dining room: chairs
• dining room: artwork?
• sitting room: sand blast fireplace
• sitting room: add bricks to fireplace
• sitting room: add mantle to fireplace
• sitting room: paint
• sitting room: hang artwork
• sitting room: get armchair
• sitting room: rug
• sitting room: side tables
• sitting room: new gas line for fireplace
• Amy’s office: window screen
• Amy’s office: window blinds
• Amy’s office: bookshelves
• Amy’s office: chalkboard paint
• Amy’s office ceiling fan
• Amy’s office: scrapbook bookshelf
• Andrew’s office: window screen
• office bathroom: new vanity/sink
• office bathroom: new floor
• office bathroom: new tub?
• office bathroom: paint
• office bathroom: shelving or towel racks?
• office bathroom: rehang doors so they close
• kitchen: cabinet hardware
• kitchen: Oven/range/hood
• kitchen: dishwasher
• kitchen: cabinet hardware installation
• kitchen: sink
• kitchen: faucet
• replace kitchen cabinets
• replace kitchen counters
• replace kitchen tile
• recaulk back windows
• kitchen: backsplash
• kitchen: hanging basket for onions/etc
• kitchen: hooks for aprons
• kitchen: artwork
• kitchen: rug for by sink
• front yard: add porch to front of house
• front yard: replace posts (brick)
• front yard: create brick front porch
• front yard: flower bed in front of porch
• front yard: add lighting (to path/garage)
• front yard: clean up/decorate entry way
• front yard: weed around tree
• front yard: trim tree
• front yard: till/plant grass
• front yard: clean or remove gravel
• backyard: replace shelf under kitchen window
• backyard: remove “garden”
• backyard: remove palm tree
• backyard: fix flooding issue
• backyard: mow grass
• backyard: build trellis/patio overhang
• backyard: plant trees
• sideyard: rebuild wall
• sideyard: install gate
• sideyard: remove dirt/rocks against house
• sideyard: install cement/brick walkway
• sideyard: remove lombardi tree
• sideyard: clean leaves/debris from hill
• sideyard: plant ground cover on hill

I’m pretty sure this is not all … But we’ll keep you posted ….

Any ideas for Schubert HQ?

[...]]]>

Full reveals of each room to come …. eventually….

But then I really *got it* …. The [...]]]> The first Anne book I read was Anne of Windy Poplars – which I read for the first time when I was about 9 or 10….. and hadn’t the slightest idea what the ‘Windy Poplars’ of the title was supposed to be until about halfway through.

But then I really *got it* …. The HOUSE. They NAMED THE HOUSE.

To a 9 year old growing up in the early 1990s in an L.A. suburb … this was REVOLUTIONARY.

And – clearly – I immediately resolved to name my future house one day….

I started seeing house (or estate) naming in all kinds of books ….. all the Anne books, Gone with the Wind, any Jane Austen book, even American history (i.e. Monticell0). And soon, I figured, there was no reason why I couldn’t name my own house.

I named my parents’ house in the last few years – Hann Manor (that lovely repetition of vowel sounds)….

For our own house, I wanted something that really would be fun to put on party invitations but still be very Andrew-and-Amy.

Some of you know we call ourselves Team Schubert (why we do that is a completely different story all together) …. And somehow Team Schubert wouldn’t live in a Windy Poplars or Manor or Mount Vernon.

So where would Team Schubert live?

HEADQUARTERS

Team Schubert Headquarters – where we plan our nefarious schemes and brilliant world domination plans.

Obviously.

Schubert HQ is where we return after long days at work. Schubert HQ is where we keep all of our tools and supplies. Schubert HQ is where we host our select group of allies.

SO …  You’re welcome to come visit Schubert HQ: home of Team Schubert.

(just give us a few weeks warning so we can get the shower in the guest bathroom fixed)

When we looked at the house initially, the kitchen was pretty disgusting but we didn’t really have the budget to re-do it. We were just going to paint and scrub and disinfect and scrub.

But, then at the appraisal it turns out the mold was pretty prevalent [...]]]> As you know, we have no kitchen.

When we looked at the house initially, the kitchen was pretty disgusting but we didn’t really have the budget to re-do it. We were just going to paint and scrub and disinfect and scrub.

But, then at the appraisal it turns out the mold was pretty prevalent throughout the cabinets/floor/walls in the kitchen so they had to pull it all out anyway.

We still didn’t really want to spend that much money right away but we made it work. We decided to order custom cabinets (because if we’re paying for new cabinets anyway we might as well get what we want and not those tacky pre-made ones) and in doing that relegated ourselves to living without a kitchen for awhile.

We currently have a little microwave cart that holds the coffee pot and acts as the pantry+only counter space, plus a fridge, plus an oven/stove (which was useless for 2+ weeks before we had the gas turned on).

But finally (finally) our cabinets have been delivered! Progress!

Of course, one of them was dropped on my car, so there’s that little hiccup. But the cabinet itself was fine…. It *looks* like everything is here and accounted for, and just waiting installation….

A little sneak peek of our pantry doors ….. We weren’t supposed to unpack the boxes, but this is the one that got dropped so the delivery company opened it for inspection and then (mostly) packed it back up again)

Of course, now we’re waiting for the floor tile to be delivered. HOPEFULLY any day….. and then HOPEFULLY they can start all the installation early next week.

Because even after they spend a week retexturing and painting the walls, laying the new tile, installing the new cabinets and stove hood …. after all that we have to have the counter-people come out to template the counter top – and then wait another 3 weeks for the counter to be delivered!

I was hoping this would all be done by the end of April, but I don’t think that’s happening.

The next time you see the kitchen hopefully more work will be done!!

Everyone in our little blog world has stylish little corner vignettes dedicated to this offbeat musical medium, emphasizing their vintage expertise.

Everyone in our little blog world has the [...]]]> Everyone in our little blog world is getting into turn tables, and vinyl records, and cute little repurposed vintage shelving units for their budding collection.

Everyone in our little blog world has stylish little corner vignettes dedicated to this offbeat musical medium, emphasizing their vintage expertise.

Everyone in our little blog world has the 4 or 5 MUST have vinyl records proudly on display for easy listening and impressing visitors.

Me?

Records are taking over my life.

I’m terrible at estimating numbers, but our record collection is …. probably just over to 1000 records.

All organized alphabetically by artist, and then chronologically within the artists’ collection.

We moved recently and I spent far too much time wondering where exactly we would PUT all these records…..

These are basically the only 2 shelving units we currently own …. which means that the records are the only things that have been unpacked!  The shelves are about 6′x 6′ and are almost full…. The space we are dedicating to Andrew’s record-collection is HUGE!

I’ll never have that cute little vinyl vignette in the corner of my living room, I’ll never have a small select display of favorite records as decor. Collecting records is a serious business in the Schubert family …. and for the rest of my life I will have to make room for all the records.

{They bring Andrew so much joy – how could I resist? }

We’ve got all of the unpacking to do still – since the kitchen isn’t installed we have no where to unpack our kitchen, and we don’t actually own enough bookshelves to hold all the books we own. So there are boxes everywhere. Plus [...]]]> As you can imagine, it’s been a bit chaotic around here.

We’ve got all of the unpacking to do still – since the kitchen isn’t installed we have no where to unpack our kitchen, and we don’t actually own enough bookshelves to hold all the books we own. So there are boxes everywhere. Plus all the list of things that have basically gone wrong since we moved in ….

Through all that, the master bedroom has been my haven…

(Andrew just happened to be in there while I was taking photos)

I’ve made the bed basically every day since we moved in.

I hardly ever did before, but here I just need there to be the one space that looks nice, is done and is livable and does not look chaotic.

There are still some things we want to do in here – paint, hang curtains, hang artwork above the bed, maybe make a little reading nook – but for the most part the room is DONE (enough).

It’s a huge huge room.

I think what we will eventually do (after it’s painted) is move the dressers to the walls on either side of the bed, and then the other half of the room we’ll have space for a little reading chair, or book shelves or really anything.

It’s a HUGE room…

But for the moment, I am content just sitting on the nicely made bed, checking my email and ignoring the wreck of the rest of the house for a brief time….

Some examples from the last couple weeks:

Mold in the kitchen:

This we discovered before we moved in, but AFTER it was really too late to back out of the purchase. It cost us about [...]]]> As with pretty much everything, when you’re buying a house, if something can go wrong it will.

Some examples from the last couple weeks:

Mold in the kitchen:

This we discovered before we moved in, but AFTER it was really too late to back out of the purchase. It cost us about $3400 just for the mold remediation and pushed all the work on the house back at least a week … PLUS they ripped out EVERYTHING in the kitchen and tossed it – even the brand new garbage disposal and other perfectly-fine-not-moldy pieces.

So we are having to replace EVERYTHING in the kitchen. Which is a bit more than we wanted to spend.

But (eventually) we’ll have a pretty new kitchen.

Black Widow spider in our mailbox:

Of course I got mail about 4 or 5 times before Andrew looked all the way in and noticed the spider. It’s gone now …. hopefully never to return.

Birds living in the attic:

I was sitting in the bedroom during the first week and I kept noticing birds flying right up to the house by the bedroom window. Too low to be the roof, but where could they be going??

I went out back, looked up, and there’s this HOLE in the side of the house up near the eaves. Just between the master bedroom and the office room next door. I would guess about 6″ in diameter. Definitely large enough for a bird to fly into, and high enough to be leading into the attic.

I’ve heard a couple things in the attic since then. Not a whole lot, so I’m not sure if there’s just a nest or what. Eventually we’ll have to go up there, patch up the hole and figure out what to do!

No gas for 2 weeks:

Um. Yea. No heat, no hot water for over 2 weeks.

We got up every single morning and drove across town to Andrew’s parents’ house to take hot showers and have coffee and drop off dishes to be washed (thanks Julie!)

Kitchen not completed:

This of course we knew about. No cabinets. No counter. No sink. No floor.

No real way to cook (luckily we have the grill) or wash dishes. Especially since we didn’t have any hot water!

We’re hoping for it ALL to be done by the end of April.

Not all the work we asked for was completed:

Let me rephrase that. Not all the work we *thought* we asked for was completed. There is still tile part way down 1 of the hallways  (that I hate and want taken out), and the “closet” we asked them to take out of the downstairs room was still half there when we moved in.

Nothing irreversible. And I’m sure it’s not like a big part of the job that they charged us for and then ignored. But still. Annoying.

Downstairs bathroom backed up:

Andrew geared up to clean the crap out of the tub

Not in the house a week and we have to call a plumber. For serious. The stupid thing couldn’t even give us a full week. Andrew and I both were home all day, luckily. The toilets stopped draining properly and the raw sewage started backing up into the downstairs tub….. Blech!!

We noticed the problem around 2p and got a plumber out there that afternoon. He spent over an hour trying to fix it, decided it needed something more and would be back Monday morning.

So we spent our first FULL weekend in the house with no hot water AND no toilets. Needless to say, we spent a lot of time at Andrew’s parents’ house.

Monday morning the plumber comes back, digs a big ol’ hole in our front yard and gets to work again, STILL not able to clear the sewer line completely and has to move on to the 3rd line of defense.

It’s *basically* clear now. Not forever, though, due to roots. But that’s $1400 we did not plan on spending. Luckily it *happened* to be the day we were both paid so we actually had some money, but still. Really? 6 days after moving in? Sigh.

Back windows leak:

The SAME weekend our toilets backed up it rained pretty hard …. That Saturday morning we went to Andrew’s parents’ to take showers, use their bathroom, have coffee, etc.

We actually thought about staying longer but eventually got home around 10a or so …. to find puddles under all of our back windows!

The three back-bottom floor windows were clearly installed by an amateur. Andrew remembered (belatedly) that one of the contractors who came to look at the house had mentioned we would probably want to recaulk around the back window, but we hadn’t gotten to it yet.

So we come home to puddles in the guest room (*RIGHT* by all of Andrew’s boxes of records which he had fortunately moved away from the back wall just a couple days before), the back door and the kitchen window (luckily our brand new cabinets were not installed yet).

And … of course…. it’s still raining. So Andrew had to run to Lowe’s to get nails and tarps and we stood out in the rain, getting SOAKED, nailing tarps to our back wall to keep the rain from coming in more.

Of course, the same weekend as our plumbing emergency.

Tree knocking over lightpost:

This is our front yard…. we have a little side hill with a big eucalyptus tree …. and if you look carefully you can see one of the branches is growing in a V around this light post ….. and very slowly pushing it towards the street!

Andrew’s dad is going to bring over his chainsaw and big ladder so we can cut that branch (and I guess have firewood), before the lightpost falls over into the street.

Backyard doesn’t drain:

5 days after the rain and there are still puddles of standing water in our backyard.

Anyone know why or what we can do about it?

Needless to say, we won’t be getting any pets any time soon….. or plant a veggie garden this year at least.

Car dented

Yesterday was our first morning with the gas on so we could take a shower at our own house and not have to drive across town… SO excited. Until we realized that our power was out!

The whole neighborhood was blacked out from about 11p Tuesday night til late Wednesday afternoon. And this is, of course, right after I bought brand new half-n-half for my coffee. Which is now probably spoiled in the fridge that was off for over 12 hours. And we didn’t have coffee anyway since there was no electricity.

Other excitement yesterday morning: We got our kitchen cabinets delivered!!!!  Very exciting! They will be installed starting the middle of next week, so at least we’re moving forward.

The delivery company put the cabinets in their cartons in the garage … and very carefully did NOT stack them, since these are all custom cabinets and fancy (and pricey)….. The VERY last carton was our pantry (90″ tall or so)…. and when rolling it up the (not steep) driveway, the guy lost control and the corner of the carton landed on my car.

Big 8″-or-so dent in my car. Photo posted here.

Sigh.

They were super apologetic and perfectly nice about it and assured me they would process my insurance claim ASAP. But still …. I really did not want to have to deal with work on my car on top of everything else. Good grief!!

Thank goodness the cabinet is fine.

I’m sure there are other things, and all of these are manageable …. But it certainly is A LOT of stuff to have to deal with just in the first couple weeks…..

But the worst part was lying in bed, in a cold room, in a cold [...]]]> Our first night after moving into the new house was not as restful as I would hope …. a bit too cold, plus noisy birds in the morning, plus no curtains in our room to block the sun ….

But the worst part was lying in bed, in a cold room, in a cold house, realizing we hadn’t made sure our water heater was lit/going the night before! Gah! No hot showers!

(we later found out that we weren’t going to get hot showers for over 2 weeks. But that’s another story)

Along with a big star on the SHEETS box, I made sure to clearly label which box had the coffee pot and a couple coffee mugs…. Priorities.

We may not have a kitchen, but we have a coffee pot and water – so we made some fresh coffee our first morning in the house.

Of course, we were out of half-and-half so I had to try to drink it black, but still…

About mid-morning, Andrew headed back to our former apartment to do a little bit of cleaning and pick up some of the final pieces (TV wall mount, vacuum, etc)

I stayed behind to do a bit more cleaning and rearranging and organizing.

There’s not really much to do when we don’t have any kitchen cabinets OR put-together bookshelves to empty boxes into

One of the few things I COULD do was put all my clothes back in my dresser.

We thought the movers could just wrap it up and move it with contents, but it turns out not this (cheap) kind of dresser. So Andrew had to quickly dump all my drawers into 1 big box!

I got so tired of tracking dust everywhere, so I got this brilliant idea:

For whatever reason, we got a Sunday New York Times, so I pulled it apart and taped it down. Just to cover the layer of dust. The tile should be installed soon, and then we won’t have to worry about that any more.

Julie and Kaitlin came over and brought us lunch (thank you!) and saw the house with all the work done!

We had asked the contractor to take out this fake closet…. but for whatever reason they just took out the doors and tracks and left this weird shelf.

So Andrew spent a bit of time Sunday afternoon taking down as much of it as he could …

2 of the bedrooms on the second floor get a lot of sun in the afternoons and are going to get pretty hot. We’ve already moved the floor fan up to our room ….

Just a nice, relaxing Sunday together in our new home … I’m looking forward to many more to come ….