Photos Of Winlock Property: Mud Room

The second room on the tour is the mud room. I believe this may have been used by the previous owners as the laundry room. Hard to say since there is also a spot in the basement set up for a washer and dryer, although neither of those appliance was included with the property. I am leaning towards setting up my laundry area in the basement. I will also put some kind of clothesline system down there so I can easily line dry clothing, etc. year round.

 

The view from the doorway of the loom room, looking into the

mud room. The door on the far side leads to the basement and

the exterior side door is around the corner to the right. I wonder

if that hole in the wall, covered by black tape, was for the dryer?

did they have it venting into the stairwell? I forgot to check.

Located on that same wall is a built in cupboard.

 

The door to the outside. This will be our main entrance.

We plan to build a garage on this side of the house.

This will also be the closest door to the backyard,

where my gardens and greenhouse will be. There

are handy hooks next to the door for our coats, bee suit,

 etc. I wonder what that thing hanging off the

basement door is. I'm just noticing that.

Another view of the basement door.

The inside of the cupboard located next to the basement door.

Looking into the room from the back door. Instead of a

washing machine, I think I'll put a utility sink there under

the other cupboard. I've always wanted one of those.

The wall opposite the basement door. Through this doorway

you can see into the loom room and the kitchen.

Photos Of the Winlock Property: Loom Room

Yesterday we traveled back to Winlock for the home inspection. Good news! The inspector only found one issue that we weren't already aware of, that the bathroom fan vents into the attic instead of outside. Easy to fix. Otherwise no surprises, unless you count that I was surprised that the furnace actually functions. The inspector stated that the building is in great shape for its age. It's nice to have that confirmation. Not to say that there aren't issues. There are lots of them but they are mainly cosmetic. The house is filthy, too. The previous owners weren't clean people. They also had at least one pet, apparently a large dog. A dog that shed. Everywhere. And pooped. Everywhere. Once we close on the property we'll have to take a couple of days to remove the soiled carpets and scrub the place, top to bottom, before we move anything in. The basement is actually the cleanest place in the entire house.

While I waited for the guys (inspector, realtor and my husband) to look the house over I took photos of every nook and cranny of every room. Over 100 photos. I'll share some of them here. We'll call these the BEFORE pictures. These will allow me to plan my attack. What kind of work each room needs and where my furniture will be placed.

We'll begin our virtual tour with the loom room. This was listed as a bedroom (because of the closet) but it is at the opposite end of the building from the other bedrooms. I will use it as my fiber studio or Loom Room and will store my looms, spinning wheels and other fiber processing equipment in here. It is an awesome workspace with many windows.

The view from the far wall, looking towards the door.

Yes, the carpet is absolutely filthy.

 

If you were standing in the doorway, looking into the room,

these windows are to your left. They look out to the driveway

on the right side of the house. You can also see the neighbor's

house. Way over there. Plenty of privacy to that side.

 

This is the wall opposite the doorway. More

windows. You can see the neighbor's home across the

road, our front law, and our driveway.

 

The wall to the right of the doorway. Notice the recalled

Cadet heater. It's a wonder the place hasn't burned

down. Not sure what used to be next to the heater. I'm

guessing maybe a water fountain? It has pipes below.

That's the cool thing about having a full basement.

You can easily see what is under every room.

 

This is inside the coat closet. It runs the full length,

back behind the built in cupboard. Note the original

bead board. I love the look of bead board and will

probably be using it a lot during the remodel. You

can see a bit of mold growing down on the bottom

right of the closet wall. That is the only mold to

be found in the house, other than what my be waiting

for us under the leaky toilets. Not bad for a house

that has been closet up and unheated for over 6 mos.

 

The drawers are all in good shape. There are a couple of

door hinges that need work. And I'll replace the hardware.

 

A view through the closet, behind the drawers.

 

Someone has replaced most of the light fixtures

with these. They look appropriate to the era.

 

Hurry Up And Wait

I remember this motto from my military days. It's not just for the Army. Fannie Mae is also quite fond of this one-sided concept. Fannie leaves us twisting in the wind for over a week, but when it's our turn to move "time is of the essence". We now have the signed agreement papers in hand and must schedule the inspections for the home and well. Fannie is insisting we need to close on this property "on or before" February 14th. Really? Seriously? I'll believe it when I see it. A new house for Valentine's Day would suit me just fine.

I am anxious to get back inside the house and take lots of interior pictures. This is the first time we have made an offer on a home based on a single visit. I don't remember details, just the basics. For example, I couldn't tell you what the bathtub looks like....or even how the main bath is laid out. On the initial visit I was focusing on the layout of the home, the structural soundness, whether there was mold, etc...I just glanced over things that weren't crucial....like the closet in the sewing room. I will be tagging along on home inspection day in order to get lots of detailed interior photos. I need to have some idea of where my furniture will go.

In the meantime, here are some photos from the real estate listing. They aren't the best. Which I am sure worked to our advantage. I had been looking at these photos for a couple of months and there was nothing about them that made me want to drive to Winlock to view the property. It's interesting how misleading photos of properties can be. We have driven to Quilcene and Montesano based on photos and been hugely disappointed at what the houses actually looked like. The pictures of the home in Quilcene had obviously been taken years ago when the home and grounds were in peak condition. We drove nearly 2 hours to find the home is currently a run down shambles. The realtor for the Montesano property hired a professional photographer who was able to stage the home and also take photos from the most flattering angles. Another huge disappointment in person. Then there is the case of this Winlock property. The photos did nothing to pique my interest. The exterior photos showed gravel, and more gravel. No photos (or mention) of the fenced pastures or fruit orchard. No photo of the huge, glorious, clean, dry basement. No photo showing how this property sits on a corner lot in the middle of a peaceful, rural farming community. When we finally drove up to the property we didn't recognize it.

The listing had very few interior photos. This was counted as a bedroom because of the closet but it is more of an office. I will use it work a loom room. Through the door you can see into the mudroom. The washer and dryer will go next to the hot water heater. There is a door in the mudroom that leads down to the basement.

 The other end of the loom room. Lots of windows!

Half of the long living room. The far door leads to the kitchen. It is actually a pocket door. The door to the right leads into the vestibule. It closes with an interior glass door.

Winlock, Here I Come!

It's official. We are going to buy that schoolhouse in Winlock, WA. Providing it passes the inspections, of course. The septic has already been pumped and inspected because the property had a previous sale fail due to lack of funds. That just leaves the house and the well. We have looked the house over and I can't see any issue that would cause it to fail. It seems to be structurally sound. It was built in the 30's, when there was still pride in craftsmanship. It was a schoolhouse, so it isn't fancy, but it is sturdily built. Because it has a full basement we are able to see the beams and they are huge.

This has been a stressful couple of weeks. We made our initial offer on the property back on Dec. 27th. We are used to negotiating with individuals when buying a home. We start low. Fannie Mae doesn't work that way. It is either a YES or a NO. They don't counter. After waiting a full 10 days our first offer was rejected. They were waiting to see if they got any other offers....and they did. We were then asked to make our last, best offer. This we did the very next day. That was this past Tuesday. Yesterday (Friday) we got word of their preliminary acceptance of that second offer. We are now waiting to receive the signed papers before we schedule the inspections. We are assured the papers are in transit.

Yesterday I was finally able to relax. That waiting process was 2 weeks of pure torture. Now we can finally breathe easy and begin planning in earnest. Today we will go look at some paint swatches. We are excited to begin this new chapter in our lives. It's going to be a labor of love. Here are some more photos of the property. I will post some interior photos once I am able to revisit the property, probably not until the inspection.

Another view of the front of the house. It currently has a horseshoe shaped driveway that goes around the back of the house and out the other side. We are planning to put a garage at the end of this half of the driveway, near that side (back) door. We'll be replacing that side deck and have the stairs go to the back instead of the front. I will be using the backdoor the most since it opens into the laundry room/mudroom. The 4 windows to the left are the living room. The first 2 windows to the right are the kitchen (you can see that some ding-a-ling put the fridge in front of the window) and the second 2 are the office/loom room.

This is the back of the building. We believe it is also the site of the septic drain field. We have yet to see the as-builts.  This area will probably be fenced in for Reggie. That window to the right is the master bedroom. We may add French doors onto a little deck. It would be nice to sit out there and watch the critters. The other 2 windows are for the bathrooms.

This is the left side of the house, showing the basement door. This area is directly across from the orchard. We plan on putting a covered patio/carport here. That would give us a covered work area for brewing, canning, etc...

This is the driveway down the left side of the building. It runs past the basement door, around the back of the house and out past the right side of the building. That is the orchard to the left. There is a little tarp building there. It is filled with old bales of straw. Not sure what type of animal(s) they kept there.

There are 2 good sized fenced areas on the left half of the property, next to Hemmenway Rd. This first field holds the orchard. There are maybe 9 fruit trees in here. I don't yet have an accurate count and I don't have any way of knowing what type of fruits they will bear. It will be a surprise. My chickens will hang out in this area. They can fertilize the trees for me.

The second field will be my goat/sheep pasture. I will cross fence it so I can rest half at a time. This photo shows half of it.

The second half of the goat pasture. There is a dog house in there. I do plan on getting a guard dog, so that house will come in handy.

This is a weird angle but it kind of shows the back area of the property. I will get a better photo. This one makes the back look small, which it isn't. There is plenty of room behind the house, and to the right of the goat pasture, for raised planting beds and a greenhouse.

That's all for now. I will update just as soon as I have something more to share.

Where Have I Been? And What Am I Up To?

I apologize for the long gap between postings. As soon as my husband and I returned from our Poland adventure we turned our energy towards finding a small farm we can retire to. I have been retired for 3 years and he is set to join me in another 2. With house prices and interest rates still low it seems like the perfect time to find our little slice of heaven.

WHAT the property is was more important than WHERE it is. At least that was our philosophy at the outset of this process. Of course we had a laundry list of things our new property should have. The most important thing was that it had enough room for some critters and be outside the  city limits. I wish to raise chickens (definitely), goats (maybe), sheep (another maybe).....and expand my apiary (most definitely). To accomplish this I need at least an acre. It could be a bit more, but not more than I can handle on my own. My husband does not share my "farmer" genes.

To date we have looked at hundreds of properties, thanks to the internet (Zillow, Realtor.com, Google Earth, JohnLScott.com, etc....). And we have toured at least 20. Of these, we found 4 that we were interested in enough to take a second look and perhaps make an offer.

The first was a cute 1920's two story set on a hill in Kelso, WA. That hill turned out to be a deal breaker. On our second tour of the property we realized that the back left corner of the home was perilously close to the edge....and the ground was settling. It was a lovely home but I would always be in fear of it sliding down the steep hill, with me inside. No thank you.

The second was an adorable 1930's farmhouse in Chehalis, WA. Tiny, but cute. It sat on an acre of flat land, with a creek passing through the front. Anyone familiar with Chehalis knows about its infamous flooding. This particular house was located outside the flood plain but that creek was worrisome. Still, the property had an awesome multiuse outbuilding (garage, shops, barn) and we made what we felt was a "more than generous" offer. This one was a For Sale By Owner and the owner had an unrealistic idea of what the property was  worth. We said no thank you and moved on.

Property number 3 was located right on highway 101 in Central Park which is located just up the hill from Aberdeen, WA. When I say it was right on the highway, that's what I mean. But it was fully fenced to keep my animals safe and the home was well insulated. The road noise was not excessive. The house was a 1930's rambler that had been added on to. It had over 1500 SF. The property was just shy of an acre. It had some cute outbuildings but the biggest attraction was the 1000 SF garage. This property had storage galore. We got very far along in the purchasing process but had to back out when we discovered that the septic system needed over $10,000 worth of repairs. Again, no thank you.

That sale failed right before Christmas. I was very disappointed which made for a rather dismal holiday. I could hardly wait for December 26th to arrive so I could resume the house hunt. This time we were touring 3 properties in Winlock, WA. A bit of backstory, we had been looking in Winlock, on and off, for at least 3 years. We absolutely LOVE this little town. Even though it is on the I-5 corridor, it is situated off the freeway. You depart the freeway, travel through some farmland, THEN arrive in town. There is absolutely no reason for anyone to stumble into Winlock unless they, or someone they know, lives there. It has one grocery store, an IGA. A couple of hardware stores, a feed store, etc...but not much that a tourist would be interested in.

So we arrived in town. We toured a small mish mashed house on 2 acres. The ad stated it had a barn...but the "barn" was dilapidated and un salvageable. Yuck. The second place was actually one we had toured a couple years back, when it was occupied and for sale. Now it is a repo. The house is a shotgun style. Incredibly boring and fugly. It's on a couple of flat acres and in a nice quiet area but that house was too ugly. Nope. Not gonna happen.

And then....we found it. We had actually been watching this property online for a while. But the ad and pictures didn't do it justice. The Google Earth view was confusing, and it was a repo. In this area that generally equates to "unlivable". Those properties either have flood damage, have been trashed by the previous owner, been vacant and unheated so long they are filled with black mold, have been broken into and vandalized.....or all of the above.

This property is a 1930 schoolhouse that has been converted to a home. It retains much of the original features and charm. There is a vestibule in front, built in closets and bookshelves, bead board, and even the original coat hooks the students used. It has fir floors throughout that need refinishing. The building was neglected by the previous owner and needs some serious cleaning, painting, updating....but the building is rock solid and oozes charm and potential.

It sits on a full acre that has 2 pastures and at least 6 fruit trees. Since it is a repo we wont know what the trees are until they bear fruit next year but the trees look to be in good shape. It last sold in March of  '07 for $175,000. The property was repossessed and first listed back in July at $128,900. The price has been steadily coming down since then. Why has no one bought it? Well, it's out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by farmland. And the listing was not accurate. It doesn't have 2760 SF. You never figure the unfinished basement into the SF, but this listing did. And it doesn't have a fireplace. Granted there is an old, rusty woodstove sitting down in the basement, but it isn't hooked up.

So it has been languishing, unsold. On Christmas Eve they dropped the price a final time, to $86,900. This would be the last chance to buy it before the bank gives up and sells it to an auction company. Once that happens it is sold, for cash, to investors and "flippers". This was perfect timing for us. We have submitted our offer and should know by next Tuesday whether it is accepted. I have my fingers crossed. This will make an awesome farm.

Greetings From Poznan, Poland

My husband and I are currently visiting Poznan to attend an international pipe smoking competition. I will have lots of pictures to share once we return but here are a few for now.

Aboard the train, getting ready to travel from Berlin to Poznan.

The train station in Poznan.

A cool, old building across from the station.

I will post more about our adventures later.

First Foray Into Lacto-Fermenting

Now that I am (once again) trying to eat healthier I have a desire to try lacto-fermenting. I have been hearing about this for a while, especially when I was hanging out on a kombucha board. I admit that I thought it was pickling with milk....and that didn't sound tasty. Come to find out it is pickling the old fashioned way, using natural lactic acids and yeasts, which are present in our environment. You've heard of "probiotics" and how healthy they are for our guts? That is the benefit of lacto-fermented foods. Unfortunately I got this desire at the very tail end of the pickling season. The only pickling cukes to be had were well past their prime and verging on spoiling. I also couldn't find any dill seed heads. Still, I forged ahead. Nothing will dissuade me from my desire to produce my own delicious, natural dill pickles. Will I achieve this dream? Time will tell. For now let me share with you my first fumbling baby steps on this journey.

First I picked out 6 of the least rotten feeling pickles at the produce stand. I gave them a good scrubbing and  trimmed off any soft spots. I also trimmed both ends of each cuke. Then I soaked them for about an hour in an ice water bath to firm them up. Next I located one of the pickle jars I'd saved. It was just big enough to do the job. Now to add my flavorings. Lacking a proper head of dill I opted to use a tsp. of dried dill. I also added a tsp. of pickling spices and 2 peeled cloves of garlic to the bottom of the jar. Next I added the cucumbers, standing them on their ends. After I had all the goodies loaded into the jar I mixed up a pickling brine using some kosher salt and water. Now to rig up some way to keep the cukes below the surface. I put some water into a Ziploc bag and stuffed that into the jar top. Oh, I forgot to mention the oak leaf. I had read somewhere that if you add a tannin rich leaf (or leaves) to the jar it will make your pickles crisper. The leaves can be oak, grape, horseradish, or cherry. I had access to none of the above. I finally located an oak tree in the Walgreen's parking lot. Later on I read that the oak leaves need to be the rounded, not pointy, variety. Apparently pointy oak leaves have too much tannin and will make your pickles too astringent.

I added a cloth to the top of my makeshift pickle crock and left it alone for 3 days. On day 3 I removed the cloth to take a peek. I was looking for bubbles which would signal that fermentation was underway. Success!

Fermentation is an inexact science. There are lots of variables. My pickles should be done in 7 to 10 days. Our days are getting colder now so I am thinking it will be more like 10 days before they are ready to go into the fridge. The cold will then inhibit fermentation and allow the pickles to mellow. There is just one hitch in my plan. I will be out of town on day 10. I am going to set the jar against a cold outer wall and hope for the best. Here is a picture of the pickles showing the oak leaf I had found.

 

As you can see, it is the pointy leaf variety (figures). I have removed it today and am hoping the tannin levels in the brine aren't too high. I do have some powdered tannin that I use in wine making. I wonder if I couldn't add a bit of that to my pickles in the future? Check back in about a week to see how these pickles turned out.