Archive for Fun Stuff
Corvallis and Albany: Dine for the Arts
Help out the Linn Benton Arts Center and have some fun and a good meal at the same time. Dine out for the Arts.
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What is Dine for the Arts?
On the first thursday of the month, one of our superb local restaurants supports The Arts Center by donating a portion of a specific day’s earnings to our operating expenses. That day is the perfect day for you to enjoy a meal out, supporting both the restaurant and The Arts Center at the same time! So, make it a night, dine out and support the arts.
Compare Eugene and Corvallis Oregon…
Here’s a fun comparison of the two cities of Eugene, Oregon and Corvallis, Oregon brought to us by VIA the AAA travel magazine.
Since I live in Corvallis and work and play in the entire Willamette Valley , I enjoy reading this kind of thing. And, I can’t help but comment that I listed and sold the Weigand house in the College Hill West Historic Nieghborhood of Corvallis and included cherrys in my marketing materials to represent the Maraschino part of the story.
I’d have to agree that football takes the front seat in fall. It’s everywhere and even if you’re not a big fan of sports in general Beaver Mania is contageous…it grows on you. We see crisp fall days that are spectacular in their beauty that more than make up for the soggy ones. I’m happy to say I’m a proud sponsor of OSU Athletics. Go Beavs!
Beside eating (and there are many more great food places than those listed in the article), there’s some great shopping (Many Hands Trading Center and Radiance by Design to name two), the Arts Center is nearby (always an exhibit and great gift shop), Central Park and the fantastic Corvallis Public Library or enjoy a stroll down Riverfront Park. On Saturdays or Wednesdays spring through fall enjoy the outdoor market.
The article also talks a bit about DaVinci Days but misses another favorite annual event, Fall Festival .
Read the whole article here Eugene vs Corvallis
Northwest Art and Air Festival, Albany Oregon 2010
2010 Albany Art and Air Festival
Sure to be a really fun weekend. Plenty of good music, hot air balloons, art and food. Early balloon fill and launch is awesome to watch. Went last year and loved every minute of it. This year’s Saturday night entertainment is America.
Dava’s Amazing Corvallis House Story: Chapter II–Well, It’s a Deep Subject…
Chapter II — Well, It’s a Deep Subject…
Venturi to Submersible: Better Efficiency
The “old” well system at our “new” house in Corvallis, was based on something we were told is called a Venturi System (it may also be called a “Double Drop Jet-Pump System). It involves physics and back pressure. The pump actually had to pump water back into the well, to create pressure to bring water to the house. We learned that this was not the most efficient process to use and in fact the water pressure was much less (about 3-4 time less) than with a submersible pump. So, the first official house project after moving was… (drum roll please) to change the well over from the old pump system to a new one.
One challenge we had is that the well (in the ground) was located in the driveway. Part of putting in a submersible pump meant that we had to raise the wellhead to 18″ above the ground (this is a good practice for keeping your well un-contaminated and is actually code in Oregon now). We want to be able to use the driveway without obstacles so putting a structure over the well was not acceptable.
The solution: put the well in a vault. We (Adam, see blisters) had to dig up the well to see how deep the well head really was so that the vault could be spec’ed out. We waited a while for a specific vault to be built. Meanwhile, we (Adam) dug a hole big enough for the vault and a trench to expose the rest of the pipes and electrical and such so that the well team could deal with it. Huge blisters from that work…
The slide show pretty much shows how the workday went. We were without water for a few hours, but nothing excessive. Hat’s off to Mainline Pump and Irrigation, in Philomath, Oregon for the great job!
We have GREAT water pressure now and a quiet pump.
Dava’s (Amazing) Corvallis House Adventure Part I: The “New” House
Dava’s (Amazing) Corvallis House Adventure: Here’s the “new” house.
I’ve had some people ask me to “post” picture of my new house, which of course, I’m happy to do. As a matter of fact, I thought I’d start a story line on my blog called “Dava’s Corvallis House Adventure”, but now that I’m into it some more, I think I’ll call it Dava’s Amazing Corvallis House Adventure, assign chapters and see where it takes us. I’m already behind on the story (it’s been busy around here); but, I’m hoping I’ll catch up soon. Here’s just a few pictures of the rooms that are going to be impacted (and that’s the only way to describe it) first…
- Redo the kitchen including adding a garden window, cabinets etc.
- Vault the ceilings in the living room and kitchen
- Push out the south side of the house to increase the living area to allow for a full master suite
- Enlarge the shop
Down the road a bit we want to have a green house, maybe some chickens, landscape and make a circular driveway. We’re excited and it’s a long-term project.
Watch for more posts…
Dava’s Corvallis House Adventure: Three Incidents during the Move (that I’d rather not have happened)
Three little things during the move–that I’d rather not have happened and how I might have prevented them.
- My husband hit head on the light fixture that used to be over the table. Table had been moved, but stuff was still being packed in that area. This was not the first time for this bit of glass. I worried about it a lot and generally had it protected (faked a table with boxes under it, but they got relocated and …) I think for future if I have a light fixture like that, I’ll simply remove the glass to a safe place.
- Sudden loss of water at the new house. Ohhhh, freak out! I’ve not lived with a well before, so of course, all the worst case scenarios leaped to mind before we discovered that the cable guy had unplugged the pump. Maybe there should be a sign that says “don’t unplug this” near the well pump.
- Limited participation on my part. I was busy, busy, busy with work. So a lot of the actual moving day stuff was handled without my assistance. Perhaps this is a good thing, as I tend to the bossy side of life. Also, it was much less stressful for me, but still, stressful. The good thing is, the work I did was very productive.
All in all it wasn’t a bad move. Everything made it here it good condition. It will be a while before we find everything (especially since we’re starting a remodel as soon as we move in…). The pre-planning and pre-packing was well worth the effort.
July Exhibit at The Corvallis Arts Center: Far Away
The July exhibit at the Corvalls Arts Center is entitled “Far Away”.
Take a few minutes and make a worthwhile visit to the Arts Center this month for July’s exhibit. The exhibit’s theme was inspired by this years da Vinci Days Festival theme of “map making” which has expanded into the official 2010 theme of “Cosmos”, along with the Community Art Project of “Space Odyssey”.
This exhibit is fun with an delightful center piece. The artwork is fun and thought provoking. I walked away just a little lighter in my step and have found my mind drifting back to various pieces. You’ll be glad you stopped in.
For more on the exhibit: Far Away
Related Links:
Community and Causes page on www.soldbydava.com
My Corvallis Oregon Move–7 Things that Worked for Me
My Own Recent Corvallis, Oregon Move
I recently sold my home of 11 years in Corvallis, Oregon and moved to a rural subdivision just outside Corvallis (technically in Benton County, but still with a Corvallis zip code). The “new” home on a very big lot (nearly 3/4ths of an acre), similar in vintage to the “old” house, a little larger, a little “newer” (1963 vs 1959) and it has a shop.
I’m pretty experienced at “moving”. We moved around a lot when I was a kid (something like 14 or so different times before high school) and there are a lot of moving stories associated with all those moves. All-in-all, I have to say the process went very well this time. Of course, I think I had the best real estate agent around… Even so, we had our ups and downs. There is rarely a home sale process that occurs without some “challenges”.
We needed to sell the home we lived in, so that we could move the money and buy the home we wanted. A fairly normal scenario, but it can be a tricky process. The one thing I can say that worked in our favor was that I do know how to do this. I even listened to my own advice.
Here are the 7 things that worked for me.
- Prepare the house to be sold for market (commonly called “staging” but oh, so much more than “decorating”
- Finish projects—the ugly old half bath finally got a face lift
- Fix what needs fixing—refinished some wood flooring, put back closet doors, installed new appliances, replace glass in windows with seals that were compromised, fine tune to the nth degree
- Eliminate anything that’s excess—pack away items that are specific to us, clear out closets, haul away excess (how in the world did we accumulate so much stuff?) and stash the rest–preferably off site
- Touch up paint—this one item has the biggest impact and is the least expensive to do
- Touch up the landscaping—weed, mow, bark dust etc. Haul away that “extra yard stuff”
- Do a market analysis—list within the confines of that analysis. This is a crucial step. Going over won’t bring an “offer”. Listen to feed back from other professionals (even though this is what I do, it’s difficult to be objective–but used my own judgment as well, some thought I could list higher…)
- Take many, very good, photos, publish the very good photos in real estate specific web sites that are well trafficked the local MLS (Willamette Valley MLS), ColdwellBanker.com, ValleyBrokers.com, Realtor.com and nearly every other web site known to the real estate world.
- Disclose everything I know. Detailed information. No guessing, ”just the facts, ma’am”
- Negotiate the best offer. Received two offers, focused on the best. In contract within 6 days of publishing to MLS. No worries from the home inspection (because we knew pretty much what we had). Sweated out the appraisal (it was fine—I thought it should be, but these are weird times)
- Move! (the seller of the house I purchased gave me early possession—that won’t always work, but there’s almost always a solution). We hired a local professio
nal mover, because after all, we are not kids anymore. Get in touch with me if you need his name. - Closed! Signed papers, used a local, lender. Everything there went like clockwork.
Of course there will be some glitches. Some of the things that happen right after a move are funny, some are not. We are very happy with the new place. No, the boxes are not yet unpacked, but the bird feeders are up and we’re looking forward to the next phase.
Related posts: What is Staging and Why Bother?
Corvallis | A tour of Fall Color
Here’s a little tour of Corvallis, Oregon showing fall colors all over town, on the river front and on the Oregon State University Campus Lots of fun.
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