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The Devil is in the Details

Here we are in Portland for a few days to check on our new home. Yesterday was amazing. Money from our buyers left Florida in the morning, east coast time. Before we left the house at 9 am to drive to the airport, we got an e-mail that the money had been received and money for our new house was being wired to Portland. Halfway to the airport, our Realtor called to ask if we wanted to close yesterday instead of today. Of course! So by the time we got to Portland, we owned a house and could get the keys and have our way with it!!

We met Cynthia there to get the keys and she had champagne, wine and cheese and balloons:

Celebrationbaloons

Today, we went back to start thinking about things we need to do: window coverings, area rugs, cable, phone jacks ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù phone jacks? ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù what do you mean there are no phone jacks. Smoke detectors ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù what do you mean there are no smoke detectors? You see, when you fall in love with something, you don’t notice all those minor little details.

Smoke detectors were delivered to the house for us to install, but the phone jack thing is a BIG mystery. We found where the phone line comes in?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù here in the unfinished basement:

Unfinishedbasemen_t

Moreunfinished

The lines run along the ceiling and appear to go up to various rooms in the house, but there is no evidence of phone jacks upstairs – anyplace!! I am sure someone can take care of this for us – for a price!

Here are some more shots of the studio area. There is a smaller room off the studio with a counter top, storage and a sink. Here are some photos of the area. I am so excited to have a place to keep paints, dyes, etc:

Studiosink

Studiostorage

Morestorage

More details: I noticed that the outlets in the studio are all located midway up the wall:

Studiooutlet

Here is the other room downstairs which we are calling the media room. It also has a fireplace.

Basementmediaroom

Mediafirplace

M & M came to see the house for the first time today. They thought it was appropriate to run around wildly in the studio while there was no furniture to impede their excitement:

Basementrunaround

Oh, look, it’s the masked avenger. Maybe he will find the missing phone jacks!

Milorunaround

A few details that I was trying to explain to my friends at lunch the other day. Here is the funky art deco window thing that opens into the foyer to let in more light:

Funkyartdecowindow

From inside the room which was a dining room, but will be Steve’s office:

Funkyotherside

Here are the cool closet doors handles:

Closethandlesw

And here is what is blooming in my new yard:

cherry blossoms:

Cherryblossoms

camellias:

Camelia

mystery plant:

Moreflora

It was a beautiful day in Portland. The sun was shining and it was almost balmy. Tonight we went out for sushi. A great day!

 

 

10 Responses to “The Devil is in the Details”

  1. joan says:

    Your studio…I swoon
    Your mystery plant might be Pieris japonica
    Best wishes for wonderful creating

  2. Deborah says:

    I’m so thrilled for you! And sushi too? What could be better?

  3. Jen Anderson says:

    No wonder you fell in love with the house! That studio is marvellous, and those nifty unique details….perfect for you.
    Have fun making the place your own.
    Jen

  4. dee says:

    Wow, how great is that studio? Everything that you mention can be easily fixed and all of it matters not when you can go into the garden and look at camellias. Lucky, lucky, you. Sending you virtual bread, salt, and wine. Dee

  5. patricia says:

    congrats! the houses in the northwest are so cool with all that funk — er — and the things you overlook — in our house it was — ahem — no heat upstairs (in new england mind you!) oh yeah and the basement bulkhead is not really hitched to the house…and, oh well…you know…p.s. been trying to limit my blog time lately, needless to say today’s one of my going overboard days…

  6. Kathie says:

    What an easy house-buying process. Do you know how fortunate you are?? And flowers. FLOWERS!!

  7. Mary Manahan says:

    That basement/studio is ideal! I can see why you are so excited. Why have landlines anyway? You’re living in the past, man! ;D

  8. Do people use phone jacks anymore? I thought everyone just had cell phones! Here, it’s common to just have one jack and hook your phone/computer/router to it and then have everything else wireless.

    Good luck with your improvements!

  9. Linda Cline says:

    How exciting. That studio looks like it was made for you.

    Maybe the original owner was a quilt artist who didn’t like to talk on the phone 🙂

    Or (trying to make a logical guess here) the interim owner who did the fixing up resurfaced the walls and forgot to install the phone jacks afterwards.

  10. DebR says:

    Congrats, Gerrie, I’m so excited for you that you closed already!! It’s great seeing more photos too.

    I wish I lived in the area – installing phone jacks is one of the handy-dandy things I know how to do! 🙂