Big enough house

So this is what it feels like to have a big enough house!  Sue is spending the night here, and even though both she and the boys have gone to bed, I can go back and forth to the basement freely, flipping on lights as I go, moving laundry, etc.  In our old house the basement was both Aaron's bedroom and the guest room.  Now the boys are together in the smaller main-floor bedroom, Sue is upstairs on a real bed in the larger upstairs room, and the smaller upstairs room has no current purpose.  How about that?!

This house is not excessive, but it has room enough to accommodate our family for the next couple of decades.  There's bedrooms for everyone when the boys are big enough to need their own, and even then there will be a room for guests and/or an office.  Someday we'll make the upstairs more full-fledged by adding a dormer, expanding the bathroom, and updating the insulation and wiring and so on, but for now, it's totally fine the way it is.  There's a good section of the basement that should do well for a music studio, with room for Dale's bandies too (whoever they may be) - and they won't even have to look at the washing machine.  That will leave plenty of room downstairs for repair projects, an art area, and well-organized storage (let me fantasize, all right?).

Sue spent the late afternoon outside in the yard with the boys, and they all loved that.  Jordan prefers not to get dirty but helped with the weeding anyway:  he told Grandma that he would use the shovel to scoop the dirt, but she should be the one to pull out the weeds where he had scooped.  Aaron doesn't mind at all being dirty; he dug with any available implement and said "Wormy, wormy, wormy!" every time they spotted an earthworm.  There were plenty - the soil is terrific in all the beds.  There's evidence of much successful gardening, including roses, blueberries, raspberries, peas, kale, broccoli, rhubarb, spinach, onions, and carrots.  We picked and ate some early arugula and admired the large rosemary bush.  The sellers let us know that there are lots of hummingbirds who would appreciate a feeder.  Sue is thrilled to have access to some garden space, and we are thrilled to have her go to town on our behalf -- she's an awesome gardener.  Dale is equally eager.  I'll play in the dirt too, but I expect my specialty to be cooking up all the fruits of their labor.

Sue had come not only to visit but also to free Dale and me to finish cleaning out the apartment.  We have now removed every item from there except the cleaning supplies, and 90% of the cleaning is done... I was disappointed not to get that last little bit done today, but it was better to just go home and have dinner with everyone at a normal time.  Scrub, scrub, scrub.  Every fingerprint on the matte white doorways, every mark on the beige carpet, every dusting of construction particles has to be cleaned up until the place is spic and span.  I feel like the Karate Kid washing all those cars.  

Construction update

The construction on the walkways lately is possibly even more stressful and disruptive than when the walls were torn out of our apartment. There has been debris all over the place since Friday, including unattended over the weekend: mostly broken pieces of drywall, plaster-type dust, scattered nails, and just garbage. We notified the management of the problem, but it wasn't addressed today - in fact there's more junk in addition to what was there over the weekend.

Now, there is a truly scary thing, which is that one of the heavy wooden boards that substitutes for a railing is unattached. This afternoon it was just balanced up against the posts, in danger of being blown or knocked over. Those boards are three feet high and probably eighty pounds -- if one fell on Aaron, it'd flatten him. I found the manager and let her know, but nothing happened. Now it's lying down on the walkway, so there is no railing.

Our nice, friendly construction guys who always left the place in the best possible condition? They have disappeared. In their place we have foul-mouthed guys who leave the place dirty and unsafe.

I cannot imagine what it would be like to live here if we didn't know we were leaving soon. What if we had to put up with this for months into the future? I never know what is around the corner. Dale thinks we'd have to move. I am just glad we don't have to make that decision.

Construction walkthrough

We thought we'd share these little movies of the condition of the exterior.

Construction update

We have flooring in our entry today, isn't that great? It's been torn out since December 11. The new stuff doesn't match the kitchen flooring, but never mind. The two lights in the entry area and the front hall are still inoperative, the door has no trim around it, and we've put paper towels up in the entry window for privacy, since there's no blind there now.

At least the door doesn't have a breeze blowing around or under it now. For a while there were visible gaps around the framing, and even holes that an animal could get through. (The pictures below were taken on Dec. 16.) During that period there was also no ceiling in the entry - they put up plastic to provide some insulation and to catch drips (picture from Jan. 8).



The drywalling day was pretty intrusive (Jan. 16 - yes, for my birthday I got drywall). Of course they had to block off the entry for the day. We were home with Aaron, who was having is puking week, so we had to block him from that whole area with a baby gate. It was loud, and obviously we had no privacy. When we wanted to go out, they cut a big slit in the plastic for us to pass through.

When they were done with that, there were visible gaps around the door again. We notified the management and they filled them in with something.

Another oddity is in Jordan's room. It looks like some of their exterior work maybe became interior work accidentally, because up in the corner there are holes that appear to have been sawed in the drywall. Debris falls through or from them onto Jordan's toys.

The boys' favorite construction activity is when they haul large objects up to the roof with ropes that run up the side of the building. Dale caught a sheet of drywall going by; the rest is scaffolding, 8x8 beams, that kind of thing. The stuff whacks against the siding and the windows on the way up, which like I say thrills the boys but greatly disturbs me. It also leaves muddy rope marks on the windows. (Pictures from Jan. 13 and Jan. 21.)

All this is a drag. The real scare, though, was the other day (Jan. 20) when Dale was off to school with the boys as usual, Aaron walking by himself to the elevator, and as he goes around the corner, there are no railings. No plywood barriers, which substitute for railings where there's construction. Nothing. We live on the third floor. I don't even like to think about it. I understand (and hate) that they sometimes have to take down the barriers when they're actively working on something, but this area was unattended for hours. I complained repeatedly.

Rent unabated

Our attempt to get rent abatement was met with stiff resistance. They responded by voiding our partial check, refusing discussion, calling it nonpayment of rent, and beginning the pre-eviction process. That was not pleasant. I got a little freaked out. We looked into it, and although they'd have to take us to court in order to actually throw us out, we decided to pay up. Among other reasons, it's not our last month here.

There was a "construction update" meeting on Tuesday, attended by a number of angry tenants. Many of the units are much worse off than ours, and no one is getting a satisfactory response from the management. They have an email group and are coordinating their efforts! I was delighted to find this little rebel band, and even more pleased when I learned that they have met with a lawyer who is willing to represent all of us. There may be more on that later this week.

The day after I politely recounted my pre-eviction story for all to hear at the meeting, the management offered us a settlement: $128. That's not even per month - that's the total offer. And that's if and only if we sign an agreement stating that we will not seek any further compensation, that we understand this is not compensation for damages but merely a goodwill offering, etc, etc. This is laughable. We think that ten times that amount would be more fair.
We'll throw in our lot with the lawyer.

Rent abatement update

The apartment manager stopped by our unit on Friday to return our partial rent check to us, voided, with a letter stating that rent is due in full.  The explanation offered is that any rent abatement would come from the construction account, not the operations account (where the rent goes).  I said (in person, I hope pleasantly) that of course there's only one account on our side.  The manager referred me to the owner's representative, to whom I have placed a call.  He hasn't gotten back to me yet.  All of this seems very much to be expected.

If you're looking for that last post about the impending major construction, I deleted it, because it turns out it was sent to us in error.  Only the north side of the building is getting such extraordinary treatment.

Rent abatement

We're in negotiation for rent abatement. Here's the letter we're submitting to the management. We think we're being very reasonable.

Trash

The apartment trash bin (trash room?), and the recycling. All of Seattle has this problem.

Sammamish holidays

Well! We made it! It's been a very wet and snowy Christmas - everywhere, I guess, but here it's truly unusual. Thank goodness we already live here, because had we tried to travel cross-country to get here, this surely would have been the year we got stuck. As it was, we drove 30 minutes to and from Kari and Danny's house without incident. They got at least 12 inches of snow in the past week and a half. Seattle got somewhat less, and now it's finally turning to rain; only the side streets and parking lots are slushy. We're all hoping for a slow melt, to minimize the flooding. We have water dripping steadily into our apartment through the unfinished ceiling, from the snow melting on the walkway above... in the scheme of things, not the worst, but still.

Kari loves Christmas and it's always very festive over there, with Christmas eve activities including a family feast, writing letters to Santa, and setting out cookies for him and oatmeal and apples for the reindeer. After the kids go to bed there is a flurry of last-minute wrapping, creating artsy gifts (this year was crowns), and setting up the stockings, which go into these gigantic boxes that the kids play in for the rest of the year. I didn't grow up with a full-fledged kid-oriented Christmas, and I am not really up to speed on all the specifics... the details of the Santa mythology, which kinds of gifts are opened when, I get a little overwhelmed. But we swing with it.

Here are the kids discovering their gigantic boxes.



The opening of the presents is your basic mayhem. One of the traditions is to use the leftover ribbons to decorate the dog.



The resulting toys are of course how the kids spend the rest of the day (that, and gorging on cookies). Here's Jordan with a Lego forklift of Sam's. That's Harry in the background with the crown.



At that point he had been in those pajamas for about five days running -- all those snow days, he just never really got dressed. I did finally got them into the laundry today. That meant peeling off the firefighter badge from the front of them, but he said he was ready to let that go.

Jordan's special gift was this lovely knight, shown here attacking the decorated dog.



All the glamour of the morning, though, was in these swords. They're soft, but glittery and bejeweled, and they look a lot like light sabers, and ... there were only two of them, one for Harry and one for Sam. Ah, Christmas. Sam lent his to Jordan for much of the day.



It brought up a lot of Christmas issues for me, because the swords were from Santa, and Jordan asked very quietly and sadly why Santa didn't bring one for him. I was totally out of my depth... what could I say that would continue to respect the household Christmas traditions? But we managed it somehow. And now that we are out of those swords' seductive glow, it doesn't seem to be a problem. Jordan told me later how he had reconciled himself to the situation. He said he thought of something they say at his school, "like when Will was sharing his Star Wars toys? We said, 'You get what you get and you don't have a fit.' This was like that." I've heard that phrase before and I'm not crazy about it - it seems a little rude. But it worked for Jordan. Maybe it helped him recognize that his trouble with the swords was not unique - that there a lot of situations in which you don't get everything you want, and life goes on.

Hanukkah gets its due at Kari and Danny's house as well. Every night there were five menorahs lit before dinner.



And after dinner, the most high-energy games of dreidel I've ever experienced. Here are the kids chanting "Nun! Nun! Nun!" in an effort to prevent whoever it was from winning.



And last but not least, the highlight of Aaron's holiday was Lenny, the gecko. You probably can't see Lenny in this picture but hopefully you can sense Aaron's fascination. He could not get enough.

This just in

10:30pm Dale and I were watching a pretty good movie and there was a sudden noise of rushing water. Nothing in our apartment, thank goodness, but probably a frozen pipe burst somewhere nearby, sure to be a drag for someone. And then the shrieking alarm started to go off.

It continued, and was intolerable, and we went into what-do-we-bring mode. 1. Children. 2. Warm things. 3. Laptops. 4. Wallets, keys. Other than that my mind was a blank. We threw laptops and warm things into bags, woke and dressed the children, and carried them down to the car, because it was 25 degrees outside and we didn't know how long we'd be stuck out there. We considered driving to Bekah and Bob's house, but the roads are very bad. The fire trucks were blocking the driveway, anyhow, so we just stayed there in the car. Randomly, one of the things I happened to stuff into my pocket was the camera, so here's the scene in front of the apartment.


The kids were great. Aaron never missed a beat. Jordan was shaky at first, but soon accepted our assurances. Here they are just hanging out in the car.


We hoped it was just the broken pipe setting off an alarm perhaps because there's a sprinkler system, but of course you never know. And they have to check everything. So we waited a while and chatted with Jordan about all the cool firefighter stuff. He is of course very into all that so it's a great topic of conversation.

After not too long, they let us back in and turned off the very loud alarm, and we got back upstairs and put the kids back to bed. The firefighters had kicked the door in, and in fact had blown the frame right out of the doorway.


In case you want to know, that's apparently quite easy to do. "One swift kick," they said. They came in shortly after we had the kids down and had some work to do in our front bathroom; apparently the busted pipe is right behind our front shower wall. More construction ahead, it seems. (We are the lucky ones, though... the guy below us got all our water in his apartment.) Jordan got up to check out the five firefighters in the bathroom and was thrilled to accept gold badge stickers from them; then he said he wanted to go back to sleep. that's my boy!

The firefighters nailed our door frame sorta back together before they left. They were super nice, as firefighters always seem to be.

Dooraway

Today we had no door. In fact, we had no doorway, really -- just a big hole in the front of the house. Phil had to spend the day locked in the laundry room.

I was a little worried we'd be living with a tarp over the hole for the weekend, but fortunately, by the end of the day, we had a door again, complete with a non-rotten doorway. There's still the same drywall missing in the interior, and part of the floor is gone too. Now, though, I'm in the mood to appreciate the solidity of what's there.

In case you're wondering, we plan to seek rent abatement. Comments welcome on what all this should be worth.

Construction update

The construction is ongoing. The good news is that our walkway is no longer our personal rain zone. We used to always have water dripping on us when we stood at the front door, through the walkway above, even when it wasn't raining (below left), and our apartment always had a mud puddle in front of it, even when everyone else's walkway was dry. Now the ceiling is gone (below right). So it doesn't drip!

Perhaps more importantly, the rotten beams have been replaced with sound ones, the better to provide a roof over our heads.

Our interior is unchanged from ten days ago, which is a bummer. The manager says they are expecting a drywall estimate in a couple of weeks. I think that means January at the earliest.

Construction update

Construction proves that you can get used to anything. The walkways are still in the temporary state we documented over a month ago - safe, but ugly. The water running down the face of the building has damaged the exterior walls, so the ceilings and the siding have been partially removed. Now, water drips through the walkway above us, meaning it rains on our head when we stand at our front door, and there is always a muddy puddle for us to track in. The workers have kindly put up plastic sheeting to divert some of the water, which gives the whole place a sort of a magic-tent-meets-shantytown effect.

As of this morning, there is construction inside our apartment as well, since the water damage involves the interior walls. I guess it was a real mess while they were working - I wasn't here. They left the place in safe condition. There's no way to be perfect, though, and we found a loose staple in the rug, which was worrisome. Here's Aaron looking for more.

Lest you think we are miserable, we had a great Thanksgiving weekend, with three separate feasts - and everyone we visited had a piano. Suzie instructed Aaron in using his fingers, not his palms.

Landing

We're settling in for our second night in the apartment, and things are going great.  We've gotten everything in, put together the beds and the dining room table, unpacked the kitchen, and even had home-cooked breakfast and dinner today.  (And hooked up the internet!)  We're still tripping over boxes, and the dresser drawers are full of things besides clothes so there's nowhere to put the clothes, and various surfaces are covered with many miscellaneous items; but for our second day here, I think we're doing great.  

The apartment is terrific.  Everything is clean and functional and well-designed (except the walkways).  It was a sunny day today and the big southern windows were in fine form.  Aaron likes to stand up on a bench and point at the birds and dogs and whatever else is out there.  Both kids took naps, and the late afternoon included a fun walk past an aquarium store to a great playground.  Sue is spending the weekend here to help us with the kids while we finish unloading and run errands.

The Camry was returned to us today as well.  I had a little bit of an adventure coming up with over $1000 in cash on a couple hours' notice, but it worked out.  Who knew you could just get that much from an ATM?  It took two cards, but so what.

It takes moving to a new place to make you realize just how many necessary objects are involved in the simplest tasks.  Today I kept starting to do the dishes but needed soap, a sponge, a brush, a dish drain.  I even did that Lily Tomlin thing where you buy a garbage can and take it home in a bag, then when you get home you put the bag in the garbage can.  I've been grocery shopping a couple of times, too, and it wears me out, because I don't know where things are.  And I spend five minutes furrowing my brow over what kind of bread to buy, because bread is different here.  Better, by far - great bread is everywhere I look.  But that doesn't make the decision simpler.  

Moving in

Dale slept the clock around. And we had a very successful day today! We got ourselves to Seattle, liberated the Corolla from the trailer, and figured out where to put the truck. We're on the third floor, but thank goodness there's an elevator, and they gave us the "stop" key so we could keep the door open for loading and unloading. In the middle of the day our savior Bob arrived, and we got a good routine going: Bob and Dale hauled stuff up to the door, I brought it into the apartment and kept an eye on the kids. Here's Jordan and Ava having a little drink by the fire.

Later in the day the kid factor went up (Aaron woke from his nap, and Susanna and her friend Penelope came home from school) and the unloading efficiency went down. But we got the truck more than half unloaded, which is fantastic progress. And I unpacked the kitchen.

Happily, the walkway was not nearly so bad today. When they're not actively working on our area, it's safe.

We're back at Kari and Danny's tonight, but tomorrow morning, we'll go back to Seattle to stay. Jordan is eager. Saint Bob will help us again in the afternoon, and hopefully they'll get the truck emptied out. And we'll start really living in our house!

That's more like it

We got into the apartment, and it's great! Bekah and Ava met us there, and the kids romped around while I did the walk-through. It's about the same amount of space as the Haddon house, minus the attic and basement (which is a big deal) but plus another bathroom and a gas fireplace. The main living area is just one big open area, overlooked by the kitchen - a good arrangement with the kids. The kitchen is pleasant and functional, more than I'm used to. There's a big wide south-facing window along the far wall of the living room, through which the sun was streaming today. There's a view that is partly the roof next door and partly a nice vista down over the U district - including my new office building! There's the same view from the master bedroom. Jordan's bedroom is in the front of the house, looking onto the courtyard; Aaron's is the walk-in closet off the master, which is more than big enough for the purpose. There's a small and mostly unappealing balcony. Closets. And last but not least there's a generous utility room with washer/dryer and plenty of space for Phil's facilities. It's quite a bit nicer than the other apartments I've stayed in (Olympia, College Park) and I think it will accommodate us very well for the next few months.




Jordan's bedroom:

Aaron's bedroom:

Entry closet:


There is one huge, serious drawback, and that is the construction on the exterior. It is horrific. Look at the walkway. And we have a toddler.

I will never be able to put Aaron down out there, ever, and even Jordan and I are going to have to seriously watch our feet. Not to mention guests. Can this be legal? Even in the name of necessary improvements? We already argued for (and got) a bit of a break on the rent, but that was with the understanding that the walkway in front of our door would be completed when we arrived. This is so extreme that Bekah and I pretty much found it comical.

On the bright side, the courtyard might be sort of cute when it's done. If we're here then.

And if I feel too sad about the situation, there is a Grief Support Community just down the street.

When we had completed our apartment business, the five of us went to the zoo. That drive was six minutes. I practically shrieked with joy when I clocked it. We had lunch, and then since it was on the chilly side, spent our time in the Zoomnasium, a nature-themed indoor playground. It rocked. Aaron ran around going "Pbbbbth" at the elephant (his trumpeting sound) and making fish lips at the fish, and Jordan and Ava took turns hatching out of a big rubber egg.

This afternoon, Jordan is playing with Sam for a change. When Harry gets home from school, the three of them will go with Aunt Kari to the farm where they pick up their box of veggies. Aaron will stay here with me and Grandma Sue, who is aching for quality grandson time.