All this stinking heat - which literally smashed heat records every day this week - has been tough to work in! It starts out awful in the morning when the humidity is high. You instantly start sweating without even moving a muscle. As the day heats up, things get better since they dry out and an occasional breeze cools you down a bit. But by the end of the day, no matter how much liquid you consume, you still have a headache or are really tired. And there's nothing quite like spending the evening in nothing but underwear because it's so hot inside the house that you can't bear it otherwise!
Today was most likely the warmest day we'd ever seen since we've been in Oregon. We've been under an "extreme heat warning" for the past week and we're supposed to stay there for another two or three days at least. Up in the mountains where I was working the temperature was in the 90s, but down in the valleys, the temp shot up to 113! It's now 6:30 and the official temperature is down to 101!
- "WHY MEN SHOULD NEVER GET MARRIED"
- "NAGGING BEGINS AT A YOUNG AGE"
- "WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN'T HAVE A PINK OTTER POP?!"
- "YOU THINK I'M TOO EMOTIONAL?! IMAGINE WHAT I'LL BE LIKE IN 13 YEARS!!!
Oh yeah, it was nice and hot here today! This whole weekend was, actually. On Friday we ran some errands in Roseburg (couldn't wait to be done there). Yesterday we went up to Eugene to do some shopping. We went to Skinner Butte Park which we'd never been to before. It was really pretty, but definitely a "city" park; one too many homeless, bums and wierdos running around. That afternoon and evening we spent with Todd, Casey and Gavin which is always fun. It was hot and humid, so we just hung out in their yard and chatted. We went out to dinner at McMenamins on the Willamette River. Beautiful views right at sunset. There were even a few ripe blackberries that we picked for Emma and Gavin.
It's amazing how fast things get done down here; the home inspector went and did his job on Monday morning and he had the full report submitted to our realtor later that evening! The great news was that he said the house is in great shape and has been well kept. There are only a few small catches. 1) The master shower drain has a small leak under the house which as of yet hasn't caused any damage. 2) There's a wire (not sure if it's power, cable, phone, etc.) that for a few feet is on the exterior of the house which exposes it to the elements. 3) one of the vents for the crawl space has a hole cut in it for a pipe that is big enough to let pests in - not that it has as of yet. 4) calking has worn off of some of the house joints and the tub/shower in the second bathroom and needs to be re-done. 5) There is a vine maple which comes within six inches of the house. 6) the gas fireplace is dusty and needs to be cleaned.
As you can see, there is nothing majorly wrong with the house, which is wonderful! Currently, however, the house cannot pass the pest and dry rot inspection because of the leaky shower drain. We're working with our realtor to get the current owners to make/pay for the necessary fixes and then the inspector will have to come back out and give the house a passing report. So all of this is GREAT news!
It was just another week at work. The good news here is that there are no timber sales on the horizon for about a year, so I'm spending most of my time getting to know the South River Resource Area, cleaning up and organizing old data, figuring out where past monitoring sites are located and doing a fair bit of aquatic trend monitoring. On Tuesday I did get out with the soil scientist to look at a timber unit; the contractor wanted to build a road into a timber unit in a different location than was initially proposed. The new location crosses a stream. The stream is dry in the summer, but is in bad shape. I figured the contractor could cross the stream if he put a bunch of logs in the stream to drive his equipment over which would allow water to pass, but would also aggrade sediment which the channel needs. Doing this quick fix would allow him access, but the access wouldn't have to be a road. Both the soil scientist and I said "no" to putting in a proposed landing on the other side of the stream crossing. The landing would have been 80 feet square and would have been only 30 feet from the stream. Plus the area is seasonally saturated with water since it's in a low spot. So our concluding remarks were 1) no road, 2) install an adequate crossing for heavy equipment - less disturbance and soil compaction than a full blown road and 3) no landing.
I've got a couple pictures here of some surveying I did on Thompson Creek above Olalla Creek. The only other thing I have to report is that I'm covered in poison oak right now. There are two types of poison oak rashes I've discovered: 1) the blistering oozing kind that usually only covers a square inch or two and 2) the kind that leaves raised welts all over your body where you came in contact with the stuff. These don't hurt and they don't ooze, but they itch like crazy. I have the later and I'm going insane scratching them all!
This weekend was nice, because for the first time in a while I could actually stay home and sleep in! We caught up on a lot of errands and othewise "busy work." We finally got out to go swimming in the river which was really nice, because it was 100 degrees! Dohnele and I went swimming and we did a bit with Emma. Since we didn't have any floaties or anything, we just held on to her and told her to kick, which she thought was a delightful thing. Anyway, we all got burnt really nicely after only a couple hours. Emma and I look nice and tan now and Dohnele is excited about her swim suit tan lines.
At one point this weekend I was upstairs when Dohnele came rushing up the stairs asking for the camera. I thought she saw a deer or something in the backyard, but she told me what Emma was doing; apparently, she dragged a chair across the kitchen, got up to the sink, poured some soap, got the dish rag and had started doing dishes! It was amazing, because she did it entirely on her own and we had never shown her how to do it before. She did pretty good too!
First the bad: why in the heck aren't post offices open on weekends?! It's the only time people who have jobs are available to take care of business and they are never open! First of all I thought I'd call the office to make sure they were open, but of course the only number in the phone book is a stupid 1-800 number which tells me I wouldn't have been able to actually talk to a person in the office. So I went to three different post offices and they were all closed!
Now the good: watch the movie "The Ramen Girl". It's really cute! Nothing too special, but it's unique and worth watching.
SWEET!!! The sellers accepted our offer! The only thing that they added as a counteroffer was the option of staying in their house a week beyond closing if needed. Apparently they had a bad experience with a previous house where the buyers killed the deal after the sellers had already moved out. The deal works for us, because we'll have paid rent in our current place up through the end of August. We'll close on the house on the 17th, so if the sellers stay in the house an extra week, that'll still give us a full week to move. And since we're only moving across town, it won't be a big deal at all.
So YAY! On Monday we'll sign a paper acknowledging their acceptance and then our realtors will order a home inspection for us.
So we're all set to make an offer on the house in Sutherlin!!!
We spent this entire evening looking at our top three houses. It was really amazing to come away with a different opinion than when we went into the evening; I didn't think our opinions would change, but they did... Completely!
The house in Winchester (see below pictures) we're ruling out completely. The overall house is just small; smaller kitchen, smaller bedrooms, smaller bathrooms, etc. The master bedroom is right off the living room. There is no convenient outdoor "space" for Emma. I went down to the lower part of the lot which is much steeper than I remembered. It's not very private, either. I had grand plans for putting in a lawn and garden down there, but then everyone on the terrace above would be looking at you. No thanks. Way too much work. And considering the time and money we'd have to put into developing that part of the lot, we could just spend that extra money and buy a bigger, nice house with those features already included.
The house in Winston we actually liked more, but once again, work would be required. We'd have to repaint the rooms (right now there are several shades of white, teal and beige). We'd also have to put in laminate flooring (right now there are three different types of heavily worn carpet). But the yard is big enough and the landscaping is amazing. Plus there's a hot tub!
However, the house in Sutherlin (floorplan and backyard below) is where the action is happening! There literally isn't one single thing that we dislike about the house! The neighborhood is quiet and because it's a bit more upscale, there aren't rednecks and white trash hanging out on the curb (at least from what we could see). The house is perfectly sized, nice and new. The yard is perfect and privacy is very nice considering there are houses on two sides; there are no neighboring windows looking in the back yard. The kitchen is huge and the house is wired for surround sound which is an added bonus. The house also has the highest assessed value of all the houses we've looked at and in the last two months the price has come down $12,000.
So not only is it the best house right now, but unless we really screw it up, it'll be the best house for resale in 5-10 years when we move again.
Our next step is to meet with our loan officer and finalize the details of the offer which we hope to make before the weekend! YAY!!!
