We're still buying the Portland house, as far as we know. For the past few days, we've been working on gathering the financial documents required by our lender, and Patrick is going to fly back out to Portland for the home inspection, which is scheduled for next Wednesday. We have started a to-do list, and Robbie has been doing a great job of staying on top of everything--he even scheduled the inspections for us. Having a realtor is awesome!

We're still very excited to be buying a house, but now that the offer has been accepted, the pace of things has slowed down a little, and we've had a chance to relax somewhat. We should make sure not to get too complacent though, since we need to start thinking about packing soon! Anyway, here are some non-Portland-related things that I've been meaning to write about:

1. Back at the end of May, we spent an afternoon in Napa with Tree and Andrew. They are members at Merryvale, so they get free wine tastings whenever they want (with two guests allowed). I tried some sips of Patrick's wines, but I still haven't learned to enjoy wine, so mostly I ate the free crackers. At one point, we heard the strains of Bon Jovi's Dead or Alive coming from behind a closed door. I don't know what was going on back there (maybe a game of Rock Band?), but I bet it was fun!

We had a very good lunch on the patio at Go Fish--I had the wakame salad and sushi plate. Yum! Next, we drove over to COPIA and caught the tail end of the art show there. While there, we ran into Jordan, whose husband was participating in the art show. Tree went to school with Jordan, so they spent a little while catching up while Patrick, Andrew, and I admired Jordan's very cute baby, Moses.

We walked around COPIA for a little while, and it looked like it would be a nice place to spend a day. They offer some exciting classes, like cheese-making! Their grounds are really pretty. And they're right next to the Oxbow Public Market, which was just as awesomely delicious as I'd anticipated. First, we got ice cream from Three Twins. I had scoops of both the strawberry and the mint confetti ice creams. The latter was an excellent specimen of mint chocolate chip, and I was tempted to go back and get another scoop. But I restrained myself.

Tree and Andrew stopped by Tillerman Tea and got a cup of really good lemon jasmine iced tea--so good that Patrick and I went back and ordered the same thing for ourselves. The secret is lots of honey. Tree managed to perfect the recipe in her home kitchen, so now we can have her make it for us whenever we visit :)

And finally, we stopped in at the Fatted Calf's new storefront. Oh, I love the Fatted Calf. I wish we lived closer to the farmers' markets that they sell at, since we haven't been able to eat nearly enough of their delicious charcuterie, and now we're moving away. Sigh. Since we didn't have a cooler, we were pretty limited in what we could buy from them. Andrew bought some beef jerky and salami, and I bought some Rancho Gordo beans (I know, beans aren't even a Fatted Calf product, but normally I have to go to the Ferry Market or order online to get Rancho Gordo beans).

2. A couple of weeks ago, we got all dressed up and went to the SF Opera on a Friday night to see Wagner's Das Rheingold. We were going to go out to a fancy dinner beforehand, but in an attempt to save money, we got burritos in San Mateo instead. An excellent pre-opera meal! Apparently we could have also had dinner at the buffet in the basement of the opera house. There was some good people-watching to be done down there. We saw a guy hitting on two buxom young ladies. Who knew that the opera was such a good place to pick up women.

We were way up in the balcony, so it was kind of hard to see what was going on on stage. I really liked the idea of setting the story in early industrial America, and the performance was good, but despite all this, we both fell asleep toward the end. The music was just too slow and soothing. Maybe next time we should try an opera by somebody other than Wagner.

3. Later that same weekend, having obtained both strawberries and rhubarb from our farmers' market, I made a batch of strawberry-rhubarb creme fraiche ice cream. It was based on David Lebowitz's strawberry sour cream ice cream, but I used only 11oz of the strawberry-sugar-kirsch mixture, and then added roasted rhubarb with syrup (inspired by Nigella Lawson's rhubarb ice cream recipe--roast 10oz rhubarb with 1/2c vanilla sugar at 375F for 45 minutes). Right out of the ice cream maker, the texture was disconcertingly light and fluffy, but after an overnight freeze, the texture was normal. The flavor was good, though it's not the best ice cream I've made to date. Not bad though. Here it is garnished with a Miette graham cracker.

4. We continue to eat unremarkable (but pretty healthy) dinners, without much planning on my part. Last weekend, Patrick made some chicken patties (from Nigella's How to Eat) at my request, and we had them with mashed potatoes and frozen corn (time to start cleaning out the freezer). The patties were easy to make (especially if you're not the one making them!) and pretty tasty, if a little boring. They're intended for children, and I think they would be well received by that audience.

5. Presented with mixed summer squash in our box, I made some zucchini fusilli for dinner last week. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't worth the amount of butter involved. Not worth a remake, I'm afraid.

6. Today we decided to take advantage of our proximity to the ocean while we still can, and we spent the afternoon in Pescadero. It was a good day to go to the coast, since Menlo Park apparently broke 100 degrees today, while Pescadero was in the low 80s. Much better!

Pescadero is very small and has limited lunchtime choices, but what they have is good. The line at Duarte's was long, so we decided to enjoy some BBQ at the Pescadero Country Store instead. We grabbed a seat at one of the picnic tables in the store's backyard and ate ribs and a tri-tip sandwich while two amiable guys played guitar for the crowd. It was a good way to spend lunchtime.

After lunch, we checked out a few of the stores along the main street, and then we stopped in at Duarte's for a piece of olallieberry pie a la mode. Very good! We were also given a basket of hot-from-the-oven crusty sourdough bread and butter (I guess every table gets bread, even if they're just having pie), and it was excellent. If I hadn't just eaten ribs, I would've gotten some artichoke soup to go with the bread.

We made a quick stop at the beach (the water was pretty chilly, so we didn't stay long), and then we headed to Harley Farms, which we've been meaning to visit for years. It was a fun visit. We got to see all the goats being fed, and there were even some baby goats to see, because apparently the goats continued foaling (or whatever it's called when goats do it) later than usual this year. We stopped in at the store, sampled some cheese, and then bought a little round of tomato-basil goat cheese for dinner.

We had picked up some garlic-artichoke bread at Norm's Market earlier, and we bought a basket of cheap strawberries at a little farm on the way home. After getting home and napping for a while, we packed up our Pescadero haul and had a picnic in the park behind our apartment. The only thing that would've made it better is if we'd had some salami to go with it! We should really have more picnics. We used to have them so often when we were in grad school.

Mmm, the multi-bean salad recipe in The New Moosewood Cookbook (similar to this one) is really tasty. I made mine with black-eyed peas, green beans, and three kinds of beans from Rancho Gordo (eye of the goat, yellow eye, and Christmas limas). We had it with some barley topped with poached eggs. Can you tell I'm starting to clean out our cupboards? Lots of beans and grains to use up before we move. Of course, I'll want to get some more Rancho Gordo beans before we leave, since I'm fond of them, and they won't be local anymore once we move to Portland.

Man, we really need to get a new camera (ours appears to be broken for good this time). Entries about beans just aren't as good when there are no pictures of said beans.

Things on the home-buying front are a little stressful today, as it's turning out to be harder than anticipated to get letters from our employers verifying our employment status. Oh well, I think it's almost taken care of, and we should be able to get them to our lender before the deadline. We're still very excited to be moving to Portland. Check out the awesome community event that happened just this past weekend! Now we no longer have to say "Aww, why don't we live in Portland?" when we see things like that, because we will live there, and we'll be able to participate!

Patrick flew out to Portland for a few hours today to attend the home inspection. The inspector was awesome and really thorough (we definitely recommend Owens Inspection Services if you need a house inspected in Portland!) and has already sent us his report. Less awesome is all the stuff he noticed, but I guess inspections are rarely feel-good activities, as the whole point is to list all the flaws present. He didn't find anything that was a definite deal-breaker, but there are a lot of little things that seem to be common for old houses like this (the house was built in 1906). We knew it needed some work, but we weren't expecting quite this much.

Most of the things he noted don't need to be fixed right away, and there's nothing really dangerous, but we can see ourselves spending a lot of time and money in the future improving things. But since most of the houses in the neighborhood were built around the same time, we'll probably encounter similar issues with any homes in this price range. Unless we are willing to pay more for a recently renovated house or are willing to live in a less desirable location, I think we will have similar things to fix whether we stick with this house or try to find another one.

So, home inspection day has not turned out to be the most enjoyable part of home-buying. We haven't made a decision about whether to buy the house or back out. Robbie is going to have a contractor check things out tomorrow and give us estimates on fixing the two most worrisome findings (long-term viability of the retaining wall and lack of structural support above the basement exit). (Having a good realtor like Robbie is key. He is arranging everything for us!) We have another week left in our inspection period, so we don't have to make our decision just yet.

On a positive note, we've gotten all of our supporting loan documents submitted, and that side of things is proceeding smoothly. That's something to feel good about!

We're feeling better about the house today. Robbie called and gave me a pep talk about how this house is actually above average considering its age and price. He acknowledged that reading through the inspection report makes you feel like you're buying a junk heap, but it's not as bad as it sounds. And he's right--the foundation, furnace, roof, and most of the electrical system are in good shape. We can handle the needed repairs if we do them a little at a time, which we can, since they're not urgent.

Apparently the seller is willing to negotiate with us regarding the two most worrisome inspection findings (retaining wall and basement door support), so we can probably get them to make the repairs or give us a credit on our closing costs so we can pay for them ourselves. Sounds good!

The basement door support estimate was only $300, which was way cheaper than I had expected. We're still waiting to hear on the estimate for fixing the retaining wall, which will be more expensive. But I think we're going to go ahead and buy the house. I'm excited to improve it!

Two things that I meant to mention in my last post but forgot about (and a third thing for good measure!):

1. The inspector told Patrick that if he (the inspector) were the one buying the house, his findings wouldn't stop him from buying it. That's reassuring.

2. Our house-to-be is only a couple blocks from the longest-running Rocky Horror Picture Show in the world (though that may not be entirely true). Not that we are big Rocky Horror Picture Show enthusiasts (I went once freshman year in college; Patrick has never been), but that seems like something to be proud of! The house is also only a short walk from the only year-round farmers' market in Portland. Awesome!

3. Oh, and here are a few of the nicer pictures Patrick took during the inspection. There are also a lot of pictures of worn wood, non-grounded outlets, and cracked plaster (cosmetic cracks only, luckily), but who wants to see those?

Old outside fuse panel (no longer in use), with gigantic switch.

Nice old clawfoot tub in the upstairs bathroom (enamel is worn in places; not sure if you can re-enamel things like this?). Plus newish Marmoleum floors. This is one room we shouldn't have to worry about remodeling for a while, since it was redone pretty recently.

I like the hardware on the sink in the upstairs bathroom, though there's no counter space, which may be frustrating. It'll be like staying at a quaint bed and breakfast every day.

This picture of the side porch (which is attached to the kitchen) was taken to show the undesirable wood/ground contact under the porch (it can lead to termites, though there don't appear to be termite problems at the moment). But I still think the porch looks pretty appealing, with the roses and all.