Month: October 2022

–Went to Home Depot for Moen shower faucets. Discovered the cartridges are attached to Y-shaped copper tubing; would have to remove tiles to install them. Took it back. Crap.

–Stopped at Bel Air for dessert and Boboli pizza crusts. Had pizza for dinner.

–Went to the post office to pick up a Tilley hat. There wasn’t the slightest hint of why I had to pick it up–no postage due, for example. While I was in line, Grace called, having fallen into the pool for the third(?) time. Her phone still seems to work (her last dip killed an iPhone) , and the Seiko quartz I gave her still seems to work, though I had to dry out some condensation on the inside of the crystal.

–Took drill press and art press to 1956 DVL.

–Took some Grace bins over; emptied six of mine and brought them back. Took some heavy stuff over (vise, belt grinder, buffer). No problems parking. Found a new shower head (and an old one) in the garage. Installed it. It’ll be fine for a while. Found a drawer full of old paint cans in the garage. Will dispose of, gradually. Took the big ladder and checked out the sky-high smoke alarm in the living room. It’s wired in. Duh. Took one of our small garage door remotes over and instantly paired it with the opener. Should have much better range than the clunky remotes that came with the house, but not very useful until (if) I can program a button for the front gate.

–Took another load to 1956 DVL. Adjusted springballs on all appropriate door tops. Walked back to Tunnel Hill, drove the Mustang over to DVL, and parked both cars in the garage. Seems like it will work: fair amount of room in front and to right of Mustang (on right), maybe only two moves to get each car in. Good news.

–Made Boboli pizzas for dinner.

–Still no word on what buyers want after inspection, and no word from Bret Sullivan re trellis removal.

–Took a load over. I fixed stuff; Grace cut shelf liner. Washer and dryer arrived (unannounced) around 4:00, went in fine, and the washer top opens all the way! Yay!

–Grace noticed that the hot water faucet in her bathroom hums when on; seems to be a handle issue rather than a pipe issue. Will replace faucets (anyway); might not be easy because of the stopper connection underneath.

–Went to Jack’s Urban Eats for dinner. Good stuff.

–Took another load to 1956 DVL. Almost cleaned out upstairs. The pool keys, which were sitting on th kitchen counter for a while, have completely disappeared. I’m a little concerned I did something “official” with them and forgot all about it.

–Got a large pizza for dinner at Papa Murphy’s.

–Cleaned up (again) and then spent the day at 1956 DVL while appraiser and inspectors looked over 11474 THW. Lunch at Togo’s (no go), toilet seat at Home Depot.

–Made Boboli pepperoni pizzas for dinner.

–Smoke alarm started beeping. Went to Target and bought a boatload of batteries, replaced all that were suspect.

–Took a couple of trips with bins to 1956 DVL. Played a lot with knives. That’s about it.

–Took some bins over to 1956 DVL.

–Made pizza for dinner with Bel Air refrigerated dough. Okay, not great.

–Filled some more bins and took them over with Grace.

–Stopped at Bel Air to deposit a couple of small checks, get a $100 bill for Rowena (forgot the thank-you note), buy some pizza dough and mozzarella.

–Continued moving in to 1956 DVL. Removed plants in big pots and drip lines that were feeding them; capped the half-inch supply line.

–Grace was having issues with the Samsung. Got her back on my (previous) iPhone SE. It works, but she can’t undelete voicemails (I can on mine). Will keep trying.

–Took some bins over to 1956 DVL. I hung around waiting for the PG&E guy to show up. Grace took over the waiting at 3:30; PG&E guy came shortly thereafter. Gas is on, everything good.

–Mark Solich called. Trying to get me together with a guy working nearby for an estimate on tearing down our trellis.

–Escrow for 1956 DVL closed around Noon. We took some stuff over and put the toters out. Got SMUD transferred; PG&E tomorrow; Sac County Utilities will give us a compost toter in early November. I hung the bat. We met neighbor Kenny, former professional piano player. All looking good so far.

–Boboli pizza for dinner.

–Spent the day waiting to hear from Mark. Finally around 5:30 he sent a text: buyers are doing a full-price offer at $725,000. Absolutely mind-boggling. Escrow to close in 30 days. Unbelievable.

–Talked to PG&E again. Got a good guy this time (and one I could understand). After initially saying there was no gas meter at the house, he talked to his supervisor and found it. A tech will come out Tuesday between Noon and 4:00 to turn on the gas.

–Heard from Mark that the people who looked at the house will likely make an offer tomorrow. Mark has priced the house at (an optimistic) $725k.

–Had little Safeway pizza crusts + cheap Bel Air marinara sauce + mozzarella for dinner. Good stuff.

–Went to Chase and wired payment to American Title. Success.

–Went over for a final walkthrough at 1956 DV. All looks good: Attic is clean and lights work, flexible ducts were replaced, satellite dish removed, trellis taken down. Looks like the drip system will take more work than I had thought. Got SMUD to start electric on Monday. PG&E said (something like) it’s an all-electric house, and it would be a pain to get gas to it. But there’s gas to the dryer, the water heater (presumably) and the furnace (inspector said he couldn’t test it because gas was turned off). Told Mark, and he’ll look into it.

–Frozen Viccolo pizza for dinner–not as good as it used to be.

–Starrett square came in; nice. Also Sweet Maria’s Yirgacheffe beans.

–Got the old Insignia VHS player working through the Sony, so we don’t have to move my old analog TV to the new house for Grace to watch tapes. Had to take the top off the player to tease out a Wallace and Grommet tape that had gotten scrunched and stuck inside. All good now.

–Mark Solich came here at 2:00 to look over the house. We showed him what furniture would stay, what would go. Surprisingly, he didn’t make any noise about new oven, paint, ugly valences, etc. I had done up a spreadsheet showing how much money we had in the house (a little over $700k); he thought he could get that or more. But we gotta move fast, as real estate is declining every day.

–Got some Jack’s Urban Eats for dinner.

–Talked with Mark Solich and State Farm; 1956 DV moves forward.

–Got another pepperoni pizza from Il Forno Classico and watched the restored One-Eyed Jacks. Pretty good.

–Puttered around all day.

–Hoped to watch the Film Foundation’s restoration of One-Eyed Jacks. Never got an email, couldn’t find the right site. Eventually (too late) I went to the old link I had saved and there it was. Crap! Will watch tomorrow, early, I suppose.

–Went to Smart and Final for fruit, muffins, milk. That was my last shot at herbes de Provence cheese; no dice. I have no idea where I got that stuff. Almost has to be Bel Air though.

–Took a shower.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for peaches and pears. Returned a whole bunch of jam jars to Kathy’s Kreations. She showed zero gratitude.

–1956 DV seller agreed to all requests, so: trellis gone, satellite dish gone, attic cleared.

–NOS Rubberset shaving brush (with tag) came in. Got it apart with the strap wrench, cleaned the bristles with alcohol and water, polished it up on the buffer. It could use a more serious sandpaper polish, but I might just leave it: it’s shiny and unused.

–Played with Leica SL2 and lenses. The Sigma 65mm appears to be every bit as good (sharp, contrasty) as the Leica 50, at half the size/weight and 1/6 the price. Mind-boggling.

–Fixed the spray/stream nozzle on kitchen faucet. Will replace o-rings tomorrow to stop a leak at the base.

–Went to 1956 DVL with Grace to finalize repair options with Mark. Measured garage; Mustang will fit. Turns out we have three sprinkler valves–two in front, one in back. Nothing obvious outside the house that the HOA might control.

–Ordered pickup pizza from Il Forno (with difficulty; had to get past Slice and Doordash). Best pizza ever, period.

–Went to The Gun Range to pick up a couple more checks. Went to Bel Air to deposit the checks and pick up dessert.

–Packed a bin with some of my knives.

–Rolex 1803 came back from Kirill Yuzh.

–Went to the post office to see why tracking didn’t work for Matteo’s present. They said something about how the package was picked up by a third party (Parcel Post?) and would be trackable soon. Um hmm…

–Went to Bel Air for cream and cream cheese.

–Biked over to 1956 DV for home and pest inspections. Mostly good. There’s more irrigation than I thought, more plants to trim, a satellite dish, and dry rot in the front patio cover. Will likely just remove the patio cover, as there’s a nice tree over the patio that gives lots of shade.

–Went to Jasper’s where I had an egg BLT and Grace had a chocolate milkshake. Grace’s stomach has been really bad ever since, so I doubt she’ll be back.

–Went shopping at Sunrise Mall Hallmark for birthday cards, then Sprouts for veggies and such.

–Took a shower.

–Went to both farmers markets (Sunrise, Folsom) for apples, pears, jam, broccoli, tomatoes.

–State Farm home insurance cost went from $1,738 to $1,950. Crap.

–Used the Zoccam app to send $11,000 earnest money deposit to First American Title.