Mine, All Mine...Sort Of

March 23, 2010

So...this was a little awkward.

I was now the official owner of the house, but had not anticipated the prolonged stay of the owners when I'd previously set up an estimate with Brian Lamberg from North Shore Electric for this Tuesday morning at 10 o'clock. I emailed them a reminder that Brian and I were meeting at the house (a pre-condition to their staying was that I would continue ahead with this appointment since I wanted to set up the re-wiring of the house as soon as possible) and they emailed back that they remembered, no problems.

Still, I felt totally intrusive as I entered the house. I could see from the boxes and clutter that they were in the midst of madly packing up all their life's belongings, and as I stood there in the entranceway calling out, "Helloooo...?" I began to think that going ahead with this estimate had been a bad idea.

But then they emerged from two separate rooms, smiling, and welcoming me into what they were calling my home...oh wait. It was! How strange it must have been for them to have to think of themselves as tenants in what had been their home for so long. Anyhow, we hugged and said our hellos and all the tension immediately melted away. They returned to what they had been doing and Brian and I were left to our own devices. I know I've said it before but I have to say it again. I got so lucky with these wonderful sellers! They were just the kindest people I could have ever hoped to have such normally-strained dealings with!

But back to the story at hand...so Greg Layman, our home inspector, had noted that the house had MAJOR electrical issues. Not surprising, since a lot of the wiring was original with the house, or apparently put in not long after, maybe circa late 1920s and 30s. Then there were a few spots in the attic and basement, and throughout the main floor, where various previous home owners had modified, replaced, or added wiring at intervals over the years. In short, the house was -- electrically speaking -- a real mess!

These are the major issues, as I understood them, from what I managed to glean from the information Greg and Brian provided me at two separate times (and please bear in mind that I am electrically-understanding-deficient, so go easy on my interpretations here!):

(1) Most of the wiring was the old-style knob-and-tube stuff, which is okay, and many old Evanston houses retain their original wiring just fine. That being said, it must be used under specific standards, for example the wiring must always remain open-air, and this was not the case in many spots throughout the house.

(2) There were many poorly-done DIY patch jobs throughout the house, many of them not up to current code. The house is actually old enough that it is grandfathered in, and does not need to meet current Evanston electrical code, but just because it doesn't have to be, doesn't mean it shouldn't be -- after all, the current, most up-to-date, safest code of today is written that way for a reason. I didn't want to take any chances.

(3) The attic was a total fire hazard because the insulation was aged, most of it a mix of old fiberglass and newspapers from the 1940s and 50s, and a haphazard array of wires of all ages ran every which way up there. The lady of the house was actually reduced to tears when she heard Greg exclaim over the attic's current state because she was so terrified that through unintentional neglect, they might have sold me and Ayize a house that might one day burn down and endanger us. Like I said -- I could not have bought my house from kinder souls!

(4) The owners had actually installed a brand new circuit breaker box a few years back -- Brian said it was top of the line -- but unfortunately, the actual wires leading into it were all outdated, many of them the very old fabric-covered type, and we even saw evidence of a long-ago electrical fire that occurred previous even to these owners. So -- a brand new box, but with bad wiring. But at least the box was good -- that was a start.

So the bottom line was that I had two choices. There was the much cheaper route, which would be to have a one-for-one replacement done. This was what their original electrician had estimated for, way back in January. He could simply tear out and replace any faulty wiring throughout the house, but leave what was working intact and integrate the new and old. He also prepared a second estimate that would additionally introduce wiring out to the garage (recommended but not required for most Evanston houses) plus bring the house up to current code (add the current required number of outlets per room, have the required number of smoke and carbon monoxide detectors for all three bedrooms, install arc-fault circuits for all three bedrooms, and change outlets in the bathroom and kitchen to be GFCI outlets), but these items were mine to cover, not being required (since, as previously mentioned, the house was grandfathered in). I did use this guy's first estimate in negotiating the final, reduced price on the house sale, but I knew in my heart that honestly, I was gonna get my own electricians and have the whole joint re-wired from the ground up, to code, and with the best people, regardless.

Enter Brian Lamberg, North Shore Electric's estimator. This guy was awesome. Down-to-earth, extremely helpful, and provided me with no-nonsense advice on both sides of the coin including recommending against stuff that would have added money to his pocket but was probably not cost-effective given my budget. For example, I was all gung-ho to have electrical gutter cable installed in my gutters (they prevent them from icing up and damming in the winter by automatically heating up and thawing forming ice when the temps drop below forty degrees). I had heard remarkable success stories from almost all "gutter tape" users and was revved up to the nines as I enthusiastically discussed them with Brian. When I was done babbling about their purported miraculousness, he smilingly promised to add them as an option to my estimate, but cautioned me dryly that although he would welcome the business, my money was probably far better spent investing in better-quality gutters (the current ones were in awful shape) and just getting my butt up on a ladder a few times each fall to keep my gutters cleared of leaves. Oh. That took the wind out of my sails. When I later received the estimate, I saw installing those things runs around $1,200, even on a tiny house like mine. Reality check! Obviously, I declined that option, and am meekly gonna spend fifty bucks on a good ladder instead.

But anyhow, my point being, Brian took his time, physically walked me through every step of the estimate, and then addressed my million questions carefully and kindly and with great humor for another half-hour or so because I tend to be thick-headed about this kind of stuff and need everything explained to me repeatedly. Then he prepared a four-page estimate for me that started with the basic requirements involved with re-wiring (with details on each individual room, and the cost of each step), plus added on each additional thing we had discussed (like wiring the garage, adding a doorbell, gutter tape, etc.) as options to be chosen or declined. It was a clear, concise estimate that really helped me think through each and every room, for example, deciding which I wanted overhead lights in, and which I wanted just standing lamps in, and other details like that that might have been lost in the haze of a compact, single-price estimate like the one I'd originally received from the other electrician.

But the estimate also provided me with a much-awaited opportunity to glimpse "my" house again, up close and personal. It was also my first time in the home post-closing, and that morning, I had been really rushed.

I had my camera today as we walked through the back yard to inspect the garage, and I took some photos of the garden since I had not had a chance to back in January. I just wanted to remember it as it had been, and also I wanted to get an idea of how large it was, etc.

The owner saw me snapping photos, and as I wrapped up with Brian and was getting ready to hop back on my bike and head home, she approached me to say goodbye. She apologized and told me that she used to tend the garden quite religiously but since she'd become chronically ill (the reason they were moving to a sunnier clime), she'd not been able to keep it up as much the past few years. I assured her that I had lots of gardening family and friends who had offered assistance and promised to send her some future photos.

And then we hugged our goodbyes and that was the last I saw of them both, though we have emailed back and forth since then. And those "after" photos...well, it turned out that she had no reason to apologize after all! Because a surprise was on its way...but more on that in another posting.

For now, check out these "before" photos of the garden for later comparison, and there is more on the rest of our day that follows after that:

Standing on the center concrete patio and looking at one back corner. You can see a bit of the garage and some of the owners' artwork around. This bit of garden appeared completely dead to me.

Close-up of some of the artwork hanging on the old wooden partition fence. I told them I loved this copper sun sculpture and this leaping dog, as well as many other pieces I commented on that day. More on that later, though...another surprise awaited me!

The main portion of the garden against the house (opposite from the sun and dog sculpture). This area showed the most promise as you could almost make out different "sections" of the garden, but most of it, too, was buried under several years of leaves and general yard debris.

The third main portion of the garden ran behind the Chinese "foo" dog pictured here in the foreground, and along this wooden fence towards the garage. It looked dead as a doornail, but I had high hopes to create some kind of small edible garden here in the future.

Anyway, two big surprises, as I mentioned, awaited me, but I will spill those in a future post. For now...onwards to the rest of our afternoon!

Ayize had a nice long nap and awoke eager to play. We headed over to Raymond Park to goof off with a few of his best pals. Here you can see Jonah and Ayize hard at work "improving" the sawdust-free state of the curvy slide. They looked like a pair of poster children for Obama's "back to work" stimulus plan!

Lukey looking sly.

Baby Olivia braving the hubbub of the park to join the big kids for an afternoon out.

Up, up, up...

...and finally -- wheeeeee -- down!

Jonah bogarted this abandoned stroller and had a jolly time taking the baby inside it for a wild ride through the sandbox. Not long after, we all parted ways and headed home to warm up, eat our supper, and hit the hay.

Eight days until we would actually (hopefully) take possession of our new home!

Let the countdown begin!!