fedibblety thanksgiving collage

Thanksgiving was a big success for the Fedibblety family. There were 8 (and 7/9) people in attendance, including Rob & Clare, Dave & Ellen, Harold & Fran, and also Bret & Drew. We had a very nice Thanksgiving day, with lots of cooking and eating. We even used the wood cookstove for some dishes.

Then on Friday, we packed up the moving truck, and Ellen & Dave drove it out to Colorado on Saturday, which was successfully unpacked today. It was quite a bit of work, but it is always nice to be together with family. Thanks to everyone for their help packing. We couldn’t have done it without you!!

We did get into one home improvement project during the holiday, which was replacing the brick moulding and the door frame to the door above the garage, which had been rotting. It seems that water had been collecting near the the bottom, and it was rotting up the sides. Ellen had the ingenious idea to put some flashing down to try to get the water to drip down and away, instead of sitting there. Hopefully that will work as intended. Only time will tell.

I’ll let the pictures display the rest.

We both arrived Friday night around 8:30. We stopped by the house on the way back to Clare’s apartment so that Ellen could get a look at it. It was a very comfortable temperature, since Clare had gotten the new furnace installed on Tuesday. After looking around for awhile and discussing what we wanted to tackle, we headed back to Clare’s apartment, chatted a bit, then went to bed.

Saturday we slept in until about 7:45 or so, since Clare and Rob were both kind of sick. After some coffee and breakfast we headed over to the house with our supplies, and got to work. We had several tasks planned:

1. Install stove and dishwasher
2. Fix plumbing
3. Change locks
4. Clean
5. Paint family room

We did not end up getting to the last item at all. As it turns out, there were something wrong with every plumbing fixture in the house. Rob tackled the kitchen sink while Ellen worked on the bathrooms. The kitchen sink seemed to be leaking from the supply lines. After turning off the water, Rob re-taped the supply hoses, and then put them back on, and it seemed like they stopped leaking. Meanwhile Ellen snaked out both bathroom sinks, and then put in new traps as the old ones were quite clogged. Clare got to work on the door locks.

As we worked, we kept noticing new things to be done, and by 11:00 a.m. we had a pretty long list of stuff to buy. So Rob and Ellen went to Lowe’s to acquire stuff. They ended up spending almost 2 hours just at Lowe’s. On the way back they stopped at Chipotle to get some lunch, which was eaten while sitting on the fireplace, the only seat in the house so far.

While Ellen and Rob had been shopping, the stove had been delivered. After lunch Rob continued to work on the kitchen sink, while Ellen cleaned up the area by the stove, and Clare continued on the locks. Then Ellen and Rob hooked up the new gas stove. It even has a convection oven! (not true convection, with an additional heating element, but some convection nonetheless) Sometime in the afternoon, Rob decided to test the sprayer on the sink. No water came out at all. And shortly after this, it started leaking again. So we were able to get the dishwasher hooked up, but eventually decided to buy a new kitchen faucet. So around 7:00 we made another trip to Lowe’s, this time all 3 of us. We returned a few items we had not needed from the previous trip, and picked up a new faucet, plus some wood filler (for the lock project) and a few other miscellaneous items.

After the second Lowe’s trip, Clare ordered pizza and went to pick it up while Ellen and Rob installed the new faucet. It only took about 20 minutes to install, and there were no leaks. And best of all, we got a nice Moen faucet that has a sprayer built into the spigot for almost half off. We can’t resist a good deal.

We took the pizza back to Clare’s apartment, and enjoyed it with some PBR. There’s nothing like PBR after a hard day’s work.

Sunday morning we woke up about the same time, and left the apartment right about 9:00 to pick up the U-Haul that Clare had rented to move her stuff from the apartment to the house. Clare got the U-Haul while Rob dropped Ellen off at the house so she could do some more cleaning there while Rob was helping Clare move.

Rob helped Clare pack things up until about 10:00, when her friend Nick and his friend Nate came over to help move. Within about an hour, we had packed up the truck with the couch, tables, bed, and other big items, most of which Clare had bought from Craigslist in May. By about 11:45 we had unloaded everything in the house, and went across the street to the Thai restaurant for lunch. We are happy to be in a location where we can walk to 2 different grocery stores, our bank, and several good restaurants (Chipotle, Thai, and Middle Eastern).

After lunch, Nick and Nate took off, and we got back to work. Clare and Rob (especially Rob) had been pondering what sort of ladder to buy for painting. They had almost decided on a multi-purpose ladder, which could be used as an extension ladder and a step ladder, but Rob had misgivings about the fact that it didn’t have a paint tray, and that it didn’t seem comfortable to stand on for long periods of time. However, they couldn’t fit a big ladder in their car. Ellen and Rob almost bought a car-top carrier on Saturday to bring a ladder home, but Lowe’s didn’t sell any. Finally Saturday night it dawned on us that we could use the U-Haul! So after lunch Clare and Rob went to Lowe’s again, this time in the U-Haul. We bought both a 24 foot extension ladder and an 8 foot step ladder. Hopefully that should be tall enough for our cathedral ceiling family room. We also bought a new exterior door for the side of the garage, since the previous tenants had a really cheap door there that didn’t seal well at all, and was probably intended to be an interior door.

After taking back the truck, Rob cleaned out the gutters, which were absolutely stuffed. Next year we will have to get new gutters and fascia for the house. While Rob worked on the gutters, Ellen worked on putting in new valves in the bathtub and shower, both of which were leaking, and Clare worked on getting herself situated in her temporary living space. We set up her bed in the dining room, since we haven’t gotten the carpet replaced yet. That should happen in the next 2 weeks sometime. Clare also worked on hanging blinds in the living room / dining room / temporary bedroom.

After much fiddling around by both Ellen and Rob with the bathtub and shower plumbing, it was starting to look like we were not going to get it to stop leaking, but finally Rob discovered that it was simply that the new valves needed to be tightened themselves. So by the end of Sunday we had finally figured out all the plumbing problems, and we were able to shower in the morning before Clare took Ellen and Rob to the airport. All in all, it was a very productive weekend. We are looking forward to the second weekend, during which we hope to get the painting done.

We are now the owners of 6423 Zang Ct. We have lots of work to do, but we are looking forward to it. It’s great that we got a bunch of experience doing home improvement in the Spencer house. More pictures in our photo albums

Rob and Clare by the kitchen in the Zang house

Rob and Clare and Dave and Ellen and Harold and Fran all arrived at the Spencer house property late in the day June 12, 2007 after a 7 hour trip from Ann Arbor. Clare did a wonderful job driving that big truck!

This picture shows the gravel driveway to the house looking away from the house.

This next picture shows the same view looking towards the house. You can see the gate, the main house the small house and, behind the trees the garage. We have arrived!

The six of us spent the rest of the week unpacking the truck, fixing up the main house, and having some fun along the way.
Fran and Harold were in charge of cleaning the kitchen. Here Fran scrubs down the old refrigerator which will be used for storage since it doesn’t work.

Harold put his efforts into cleaning the stove. Is it clean enough?

Ellen ripped off the wallpaper in the alcove where the new refrigerator will go – only to find MOLD!

So, Rob took down the the old, moldy drywall …

… and Clare and Dave put up new green drywall. Harold will apply a couple of layers of drywall mud before the week is over.

By Sunday June 17 the kitchen was ready for cooking. Rob made pancakes for breakfast and a rice dish for supper. Delicious as usual.

One of the highlights of the week was attending a Hog Roast/Pitch-in at the Fender’s home. This is the hog that Louie Fender roasted. He makes his own special sauce to go with the delicious meat. The neighbors brought their specialties for a potluck dinner.

At the end of the week the six of us posed for this picture. It was a week of work, of fun and of creating many memories. Harold and Fran learned a lot about the history of the house(s) and Clare’s family and their friends. If we look tired, well – we were. But it was still a great week. One we will remember for many years.

The two sets of parents left on Monday, June 18. Now Rob and Clare can put their own touches on this special home.