Cedar Ave

Cedar Ave is one of the main streets in South Minneapolis.  Unfortunately, over the years, it has become a main alternate route for people to drive into the city as well as to the MOA.  As a result, the traffic is horrendous, it is also unsafe in some areas, not bike or pedestrian friendly. Here is a group of residents in the South Minneapolis that are working with the county and city to correct these problems and also to promote local businesses in the area.  If you live in any of the neighborhoods adjacent to Cedar, I urge you to go check out CAU.  You can find more information at cedaraveunited.org and cedaravenueunited.blogspot.com .

Not much happening....

We have not had much happen on the home front.  I'm itching to get started with the work, but instead learning how to be patient  We were told last week that it would probably be 4-6 weeks before we closed on the loan!!!  Our contractor didn't sound too happy, but was OK with the time frame.  In the meantime, I keep looking around to see if there is anything I can do to start work.  We did the MS walk this morning and I'm a little sore.  I know I'm going to be hurting tomorrow. So starting next weekend I'm going to start by stripping off the ugly stick on tiles in our foyer and remove the old heating vent to the bathroom.  Then I may start moving some of the outlets and light fixtures upstairs to where we want them, but I may be getting a little ahead of myself.  

The Beasts in the Yard

Minneapolis has had some really nice weather this last week.  All our animals love being outside. Here are some pictures of them enjoying the warm weather.

New Blog Name?

If we don't start work on our house soon I may have to change the name of this blog to "the Ghetto House." Last week we came home to find the bottom of our screen door had fallen off. The Byerly's deliver guy laughed and asked if it was a new doggie door.  I thought about changing it, but our plan is to open up the porch, in which case we will not need a screen door there, so I don't want to have to buy one now if it is only going to be for a couple of weeks.  

Our neighbors who have all seen the inside of the house at some time all realize how much work we have to do, so hopefully they won't complain to the city.  

As far as getting our loan, we just sent the plans to the loan officer and are waiting for an appraisal.  We decided to have the floor of the tuck-under garage dug out so that the whole space meets the height requirements for a bedroom.   So this way we get appraised as a 3 bed/2 bath house instead of a 2/2.  

In the picture is Buster warming himself up this winter.  It was one of his favorite spots when it got really cold outside.

Spring is here

Our lilac bushes have buds on them and everywhere else I look there are signs of spring. Finally!! Seth has started working on the garden.  He has his own blog with his progress at toilinthesoil.blogspot.com.  He is planting all kinds of plants; tomatoes, beans, peas, onions, garlic, herbs, chili peppers, rhubarb, carrots, radish, celery, broccoli.....and that is all I can remember.  At least we are not doing the CSA again this year.  If all goes well we may have to distribute stuff to other people, because there is no way that the two of us will be able to eat all those veggies.

We are slowly making other progress toward fixing up the house.  We have a contractor with a really decent estimate.  Now we are waiting for th

e FHA guy (not completely sure what to call him) to finish his write up and then off we go to the loan officer and appraiser!  We are keeping our fingers crossed that we get the amount we want.  Then I really will have a lot to blog about as things start moving.  

Restore or Rebuild?

Now we have had three different contractors tell us that for the amount we are willing to pay to rehab our house, we could build a nice new-construction house of the similar size and with everything we want in our home.  Additionally, the last person to see it today noticed that the southeast corner of the house was settling and brought up concerns with it.  So we are trying to decide what to do.  

The pros of rebuilding are; we get a brand new house, we can adjust the floor plan to what we would like, we won't have to worry about fixing things or sudden problems.  

The cons are; it is a new house and would lack the charm of an old house, we have to find a place to live while we are rebuilding and we may have to jump through hoops getting the neighborhood and city to agree.  We would like to keep to an older arts and crafts style house if we were to rebuild. 

The pros to renovating; we get the house to look the way we want it too, we have very little to do and can add/change/fix things as they come along, we still have a cool old house in the city, it will still probably be cheaper overall.

The cons; dealing with settling, unexpected problems with the house, constantly having to fix something.

Thoughts?

Last of the Contractors

I think we have had the last contractor come through the house.  I'm fed up of showing people around and telling them what we want done.  I know at least one guy realized it, but it was "early" in the morning for me and I had not yet finished my cup of coffee.  The guy before that though was a little bit of a jackass and refused to stick to the list and kept arguing with me.  We didn't even go upstairs, when I said that we wouldn't be using his company and thank you for coming. Hopefully we will start getting some numbers in next week and can make a decision.