Wednesday, August 31, 2016

New Home on the Oregon Coast!

I knew it had been a while since I posted on my blog but I was a bit surprised it has been almost 4 months! I seemed to have fallen down a rabbit hole. The big reason I have been absent so long is that we were finally able to buy a house! We have moved a whopping 1 and 1/2 miles to the south which puts us in the even smaller town of Nehalem, Oregon. The community we live in is a combination of three small villages clustered together. We have been living in Manzanita where the full-time population is around 750 people. Nehalem has a population of around 300 people. However, that hardly matters as we are all part of the same community. We have changed our home and neighbors but not our community. We take a lot of comfort in that!

The house is a 1973 fixer-upper with a need of a lot of fixer-upping. Buying the house was a journey and moving in has been quite a journey too. There was a lot that needed to be done in a short time for safety and comfort before moving in. I had to temporarily put down my paint brush and pick up my pipe wrench and wire strippers.

Yes, my tools. My mate has been busy with his business and bringing in an income so I took on the task of cleaning, painting, and repairing plumbing and electrical. I still have a ways to go but we are all moved in and chipping away at it. I do have a lovely room for a studio. I had to rip the carpeting out only to find the particle board subfloor is disintegrating and will need to be replaced. It is an old story that those who have bought fixer-uppers will be quite familiar with.

All of it has been challenging and fun (and sometimes not so fun) and will be continuing but, I need to get back to my work of painting. It doesn't take long to get out of practice! With this in mind, I am using Leslie Saeta's 30 in 30 challenge to get back into the swing of things. I am not totally crazy though! I am going to start small. My theme for this challenge will be 10.20.30. I want to work on certain skills, value being one of them so I will be taking an hour a day and painting a 10 minute painting, a 20 minute, and a 30 minute painting. The short painting time is to loosen me up and to sharpen my observational skills. I will be painting them in black and white or brown and white so I can focus on value or tone. If I have time that day, I will continue on to paint a full color version of my subject. As always, I will be painting from life.

The past four or five months have been spent making a couple of major life changes. These have taken all my energy and focus but I always knew I would be getting back into my painting. I will talk more on the new house and my last painting trip to Stehekin, WA over this next month. In the meantime, I have this wonderful challenge, and two painting trips this coming month!

Here is another view of the house, with the giant Monkey Puzzle tree in front:

Off to get my gear ready for tomorrow,
-Renee

5 comments:

Nancy Van Blaricom said...

I love this idea of 10. 20 . 30 ! I won't join the challenge this year, but I love this idea and I might give this a daily try with out joining. It sounds perfect for me! I will need to think about it some, but it sounds perfect ! Glad you are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with the home projects. Why oh why do we do this to our selves, lol. !. Its a long journey but a rewarding one……

Theresa said...

Congratulations! And what a beautiful place to have bought a home in. Have fun with the fixing up. I don't mind cosmetic stuff, but judos to you for doing plumbing and wiring. For us that is a definite "Gene" job but the rewards in the end are so worth it. My first house was a late 1700's colonial that had originally been built as a barn, converted to a two family and then moved 150 feet onto a new foundation from the main house sometime in the early 1900's.

Cindie said...

Congrats on your new home! I just love those Monkey puzzle trees, I often walk around the neighborhood when at our beach cottage and admire them. Eventually I will plant one after we get from working on our fixer upper inside to moving outside to the yard.

Dana said...

Congratulations on your new home Renee! May the satisfactions and frustrations of fixer-uppering result in a house that works perfectly for you.

R. Delight said...

Thank you all for the lovely comments! Nancy, I hope you do give it a try. When I had my workshop from Kathleen Dunphy she mentioned this practice technique. I was reminded of it again when I heard her interview on the Plein Air podcast. I thought combining it with the challenge would suit me just fine. Thanks for stopping by!

Theresa, a 1700's colonial sounds quite challenging. It probably was a lot more charming than our 1973 hybrid rambler. I am not complaining though, it is "our" house now. After 6 years of renting, that is a lovely thing.

Cindie, ours is a female Monkey Puzzle Tree. She has these huge seed balls at the moment. The tree is wicked sharp and huge. We will have to trim it up above the house. It has already bit me a few times. I know what you mean about having to work on the inside before moving to the outside. I am itching to get into the yard here. I really do need to get a small fall garden planted and cover crops to start rehabbing the much abused soil here. Then there is washing and painting the vinyl siding, which is currently pink, and washing the windows! I know you know how that is.

Dana, thank you so much for the well wishes. I skimmed through your blog to start catching up. Looking forward to seeing you latest projects. Always inspiring.

Thanks again all, you are all very inspiring and I am looking forward to catching up on my blog reading!

-Renee

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