Bomb Shelter For Sale

Well well well....Mr. Handy has completed his work on The Bomb Shelter and put up a "For Sale By Owner" sign. Asking price? A mere $159,000.00.  At 965 square feet, with 3 tiny bedrooms and just 1 bathroom, that's a paltry $165.00 per square foot. After discussing with the neighbors we have confirmed that we aren't the only ones who think this is a crazy insane ridiculous asking price.  It will take a special person to spend $160K on this "unique" architectural style.  But hey, at least the place is clean and fresh.  We've seen a few house hunters come by and we're waiting to see how long it takes Handy to figure out nobody will buy it at the asking price. 

T.B.S. Update

Progress on The Bomb Shelter! We now have stucco, and more "junk" has been removed. I tell ya, those workers are LOUD and CHATTY. They start early, and I listen to them banter as I am getting ready for work in the morning (our bathroom window is the closest spot to the action next door). At night the owner ("Mr. Handy") stops by to check on their progress. Next up, we hope, are new windows and paint!

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Happy Birthday, Vince!

This past weekend we were invited to a 50th birthday party for our dear friend Vince Martinez.  Vince, his wife Linda, and their 5 kids are part of our small home church group that we have been meeting with for more than 11 years now.  They also happen to live right around the corner from us!  We have so enjoyed their friendship and influence in our lives over the years -- they can always be counted on for good advice, a fun night out, and a fantastic bottle of wine (at the very least!).  We're even more thrilled to look to them for parental advice in the coming years -- as you can see, they are pros! 

L to R below are Linda, Julianna (age 15), Rachel, (age 18), Abbi (age 21), and Vince, with their twin boys Nathan & Gabriel in the front (age 12).  What a beautiful family! 

I made a photo book for Vince from all the pictures I took at the party.  You should be able to view the book by clicking here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirect.jsp?token=898352613606%3A825631786. 

Enjoy!



The Story Of The Bomb Shelter

We moved to Old Town Clovis in September of 2000, after being married just over a year. We found a great deal on an apartment one street over from Pollasky Avenue, and fell in love with the area. A few years later, we summoned up the courage to become homeowners.

One night, as we were dreaming about being homeowners in Old Town, we were taking our nightly jog around the neighborhood (a ritual that died long ago!) when we passed this....uh...."architectural wonder" pictured below. It was late at night, and someone inside was playing loud electric guitar. I distinctly remember saying to Chad, "Let's just hope we don't end up next door to a junky place like that, with all that noise!"

Fast forward a few months, and I had to eat my words when this "lovely" place ended up being NEXT DOOR to our cute little house that we couldn't resist buying. Since we moved in, we have tried hard not to look at it. It really is an eyesore, and we soon dubbed it "The Bomb Shelter" due to the various riffraff that were in and out of the house all the time. Over the years it has fallen into even worse disrepair and we wondered what might become of it (and how badly our property value was suffering). Then a few months ago we heard from some other neighbors that someone had actually bought the place as an investment.

Our first thought was, "Why not just tear it down and start over?!" But several weeks ago we started noticing definite activity going on over there. I wish I had thought to take some pictures sooner, because the pics below actually show the place in quite an improved state. Before Mr. Handy started working on it, the brown weeds were waist-high and the front was covered in graffiti.

Then a few weeks ago, Mr. Handy decided to introduce himself to Chad and share his plans for the place -- a complete overhaul, to turn it into a rental -- that involved us sharing the cost of fixing the fence between our place and "TBS." Hello, unexpected major expense! After getting some shocking quotes, we made a deal with Mr. Handy to pay $900 for our part of the project. Yes, $900 sounds outrageous, but this was SIGNIFICANTLY less than half of the quotes we received just for that one stretch of fence that divides our properties. And since $900 was all he asked for, we did the "good neighbor thing" and coughed up our share. (Really, the new fence looks good from our side, and adds to our motivation to get our backyard finished!)

Every day we hear new noises and voices over the fence, and we're watching cautiously to see the outcome of Mr. Handy's "investment." The other day Chad got a tour, and discovered it's actually a 3-bedroom, 1-bath house that's smaller than ours. At that point I decided we should chronicle the progress, since this place has been such a topic of conversation ever since we moved in.

Here's hoping Mr. Handy can turn that ugly duckling into a less ugly duckling! I will continue to post pics as we see progress.

Making Progress...

Below is a pic of our new back door. It currently opens up to a 2-foot drop onto soft dirt -- lovely. But, we expect our new patio to be poured sometime next week! Chad is busy working on trenching for sprinklers, since one of the pipes has to go underneath the patio.

The new door came with quite a dilemma, and we're currently soliciting feedback on what to do. Our dining room is tiny, and as you can see, the furniture is pretty close to the door. So, we chose a door made for an "outswing" vs. an "inswing." With an inswing, the door would hit the table and/or the china hutch when trying to go outside -- there just isn't enough space to accommodate a 36-inch arc. So, outswing was the logical choice.

Except we didn't think about the screen door! On the front door, we use a "Phantom Screen," which we love. But with the back door set for outswing, this means the retractable screen would have to be installed on the inside of the door frame (aka, inside my dining room)! And at this point, a retractable screen is our ONLY option for a screen, because a traditional screen door would have to be hung for an inswing, since the door is outswing. Oh gosh.

We're not sure how much it would cost to have the door hardware changed to make it an inswing, or whether we would have to (or even could) return the outswing door for an inswing door, if that's what we need to have to resolve the screen issue. But that will require a major furniture re-arrange and will make our already small dining room even more cramped.

Tom & Niki (the neighbors) don't have a screen on their back door. Maybe that's our solution.

This is why home improvement causes me stress! It's much like the fashion domino effect, which is a separate phenomenon worthy of its own post.

Summer Home Improvement

This summer we decided to forgo a more extravagant vacation in order to invest in some home improvement. Lately we've been spending more time with our fun and friendly neighbors, Tom and Niki, hanging out on their back patio -- drinking, eating, playing cards or lawn games, and spending time with their adorable doggies. It's been just what we (I) needed to finally feel motivated to put in a backyard.

We've lived at our place almost 8 years and our back has been dirt and weeds the whole time. For shame! We told ourselves, "Why spend money on a backyard when we're eventually going to add on to the house?" But the addition isn't happening... yet. (Guess we're waiting for the right time and the motivation we needed to get going on the backyard!) And we're seeing how much fun it is to spend evenings outside with friends or loved ones. So we decided to invest in a basic backyard plan that will not require undoing any expensive structure/ landscaping when we finally do make the addition to our house.

Our first step was clearing the ultimate white trash scene from the yard. We had a beat-up, old brown pickup that wouldn't run hiding among the tall weeds, an old/ dead mulberry tree, and so much brush it was a fire hazard. I neglected to take a "before" picture, which is okay because I would probably be too ashamed to post it. So below you can see the blank canvas we're left with after spending $1,000 to get the old truck running/smogged/registered/ insured (holy cow!) and $825 on tree/weed removal (who knew?!).

Next steps: putting in a French door from our dining room out to the new backyard patio (along with the electrical work for a porch light), having a 16'x23' patio poured (we're thinking stamped cement), putting in sprinklers, and planting grass/trees and flowers/garden. We'll see if we can stay relatively close to our budget and time frame... The goal is to get everything done but planting the grass and flowers/garden before Chad goes back to school. We also need to figure out what kind of temporary patio covering and patio furniture we want. And I'm determined to have a fire pit of some kind!

And of course I say "we" like I've ever done a day of yard work in my life. But I'm a great motivator and cheerleader, and I'll keep the cold beers coming for all the guys who have offered to help!

Also on tap for summer home improvement: re-grouting the kitchen and bathroom tile, and repainting the bathroom! We'll continue to post pics as projects commence/progress!