Like most people, COVID-19 put a kink in our travels for 2020 and 2021. A lot has happened since our return to Oregon with our fears on high alert in spring of 2020. That trip had us wondering if state borders would suddenly slam shut, if gas stations and RV parks would close, travel restrictions would maroon us somewhere in between our winter and summer homes. Luckily, none of that happened, we arrived safe and secure at our Coastal home in April of 2020. Then, a major change came as we pondered our situation vis-a-vis healthcare and aging in place. For medical reasons we needed to be much closer to emergency healthcare, and our doctors were all a 3-1/2 hour drive inland from here.
We did a lot of repairs to get our “dream” home ready to sell and started looking in the Rogue Valley along the I-5 corridor. With my sister’s help we won the bidding war on an older ranch style home just outside of Grants Pass. The home site had a 1970’s home on 1.5 acres, and included a 24’x 30’pole barn.
And what a war it was! We saw the house hit the market via a web link to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) the web server that holds housing data for all real estate offices. I called our agent at 7AM and she arranged a “showing” for us at 9:30 AM that same day. We were one of 18 offers that were received by the owners that evening. Of all those, our bid was the one selected! We all bid over the asking price of $330,000- (some of us way over) and our combination of all cash and no contingencies (other than home inspection)- won out. Our home at the coast was still in escrow, so my sister stepped in to help with a bridge loan.
Joan and I had planned to do some extensive remodeling, to modernize and update this 1970 home. We were perfectly happy to stay in the motorhome on the property while we removed ceilings and walls to brighten and open up the floor plan. We drew up the floor plan on the computer using a program called Sketchup and this allowed us to experiment with different options
The walls that are shown with squiggles (clouds) around them are walls that we no longer wanted. Not shown here are the walls around the original small kitchen, which we also eliminated to stretch the kitchen across the whole exterior wall.
These walls in the old kitchen and entry way must come down
We wanted to do most of the work ourselves, and we wanted to have a big kitchen and dining area, large island in kitchen, views to the back yard, and sight lines into the living room. We also wanted to remove the lowered ceilings everywhere and raise them back up to 8’. We have no idea why they were all so low, but the original occupant must have liked the “cozy” ? feeling. Structurally there was no obstacle to taking out the old supports and putting in new drywall ceilings at the top of wall
We worked diligently from July to November of 2020 to get the house finished so we could move in.
We drew some rather rudimentry drawings of what we wanted the kitchen to look like. Our idea was to have windows between the upper and lower cabinets to let in light and give views to the back yard while sitting at the island or in the dining room. We shopped online for cabinets in kit form, that we would assemble and install ourselves.
To do the windows this way, meant taking down the existing exterior wall and re-framing it with the new window openings. That meant building permits and plan review. We drew up our plans on a free copy of Sketchup and got them approved, with a few corrections.
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| Assembling the cabinets was easy and a lot of fun |
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We built the island on a custom base I made and used 36” wall cabinets and a plywood top
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Flooring was the last hurdle to moving in, so we spent a week or more installing oak tongue and groove flooring throughout the house. Joan did the layout and I glued and nailed.
Finally by November 16th 2020, nearly 5 months since we purchased the home, we were ready to move into it for the first time. Thoroughly modern, new wiring, lighting, some new plumbing, all new paint and decor.
Now to wait out the pandemic, here in our “new” home and see when traveling became possible again.
Home.
Your Traveling Friends
Jeff and Joan
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