Moving-In Week!

I've purposely avoided updates on our house.  This is because, no matter how hard we worked, we could not seem to pull it out of that unfinished-looking stage.  There always seemed to be ladders, sheetrock dust (still is), paint cans, wires, holes that needed something in them .....  and all accessorized with an abundance of tools strewn about.  I was tired of posting pics of the process and was beyond ready to show the results.  

So to bring 'er up to date, I'll mention a few "highlights" from along the way ......

Painting the exterior of the house was a lot of work, but the rewards were immediate.  We opted for three colors (all shades of taupe) which meant a LOT of taping.  But we're happy with the results.

The garage doors arrived in the perfect color.  We did not have to paint them.  Hooray!

The interior walls and ceilings were a big job and weeks later we're still finding spots to touch up, but again ..... happy.  Then (insert creepy theme music) came the job of painting our interior trim, meaning all the base boards, window trim, door frames, etc., that Husband had dutifully constructed and installed himself.  Plus the doors had to be painted.  [Need I mention that every inch of trim had to be caulked (by yours truly), which is absolute death to a manicure.]

Our builder (Don), builder-friend-Alan, and Favorite-First-Son-Who-Is-A-Builder ..... ALL said they paint their trim last.  This means after the walls and ceiling are painted, and after the flooring is installed.  (But, thankfully, before the carpet arrives.)  Okay, so we did.  That was when I discovered that the entire world of Youtube how-to videos is shaking its head and saying, Don't do it, you fool".  Thus I learned by sad experience that when painting one's trim LAST and with a powered paint sprayer that blasts wet paint willy-nilly in the general direction one points it, means one is about to plunge into the outer darkness of painting-PREP.  One day we literally spent 14 hours taping and then spent approximately 14 minutes spraying everything we had taped.  And that was only a few rooms.  We bought rolls and rolls AND ROLLS of masking tape, and returned to the store several times to buy more.  This was worse than laying 1200 square feet of wood flooring and three rooms of tile.

This was worse than the wiring.  (Husband may disagree.)

This was Masking-Tape-Hell. 

Everything that couldn't be removed, had to be covered and taped, including the floor.  At one point, I had a small meltdown and had to walk away, indulge in a good cry, then go back to work.  It took us four and a half LONG days.  THAT is one job I will NEVER do again. (Standing with clenched fist.)

Thus our DIY-resolve weakened and we broke down and paid gobs of money to a couple of angels who paved our entire patio.  Ahhhhh.  Who says money does not buy happiness??  (The driveway and front sidewalk are yet to come and still remain on our DIY list, as is our tiled shower in the master bathroom.)

The large rock on the right came from where our front door is now.  We had the excavator move it to this spot.  Grandkid seating.

Long story short, the carpet in the bedrooms will be installed tomorrow and then we're moving in.  (We're actually just sleeping in the RV at this point, as our beds are still in storage.)  Over the past several weeks, each time we've headed o'er the mountains, we've brought back a load in our utility trailer.  So we have a portion of our stuff here.  We'll bring the remainder in a mega U-Haul and then our life as motorhome dwellers will officially come to an end.

A few pics:

The counter backsplash is yet to come.

The wood stove and I are already becoming great friends.  Best heat ever.

I chose this light fixture very early on, and nicknamed it "the fun light".

I included this shot to show Husband's skills.  He built that drop-ceiling-thing from which the lights are hanging.  (T'was NOT fun getting it up there.)  That last piece of trim at the top of the range hood is on eternal back-order.

And the above is because we live on Quail Rd.  

Two years ...... and "only shades of gray"

On March 21 (the beginning of Spring) it will be two years of living in a rolling box.

Hang yer hat on that one.

Has it been worth it?  Would I do it again?

Yes and no.

If you are a low-stress person like the one to whom I am married, you can check off one of several requirements necessary for living in an RV.  I am not that person.  I envision every catastrophe possible as we're rolling down the road, navigating through tight traffic and into minuscule gas stations, crowded parking lots, and tent-sized camp sites.  Visually no lane on any road is wide enough nor was ever intended to accommodate anything this big.  (That's how it seems.)  And although we are now pros at prepping the Beast for a trip, and for setting up when parked, I still do not like moving the thing.  Which kind of defeats the whole point.  Husband loves to take it on the road, confident that all obstacles can be overcome, because he's the other type of person.  (See above.)

I DO like living in it when stationary in places like Palm Springs where it's warm in January and there's a swimming pool and jacuzzi just steps away.  Or when you can visit out-of-state relatives and still sleep in your own bed.  Having your entire house with you wherever you go, has its advantages.  Imagine never having to pack a suitcase or worry you'll forget something.  You not only have all your belongings with you, you even brought your own toilet.  Pretty cool.

On the other hand, being stuck in an RV out in a remote part of the world, through a cold and seemingly endless winter ..... that part I'd have to think long and hard about before signing up for another year.

So .... while I have no regrets, I don't want to do it again.

Unless we'd be wintering in Palm Springs.  Or Yuma.  Of course.

And now ..... house update.

"But today there is no day or night
Today there is no dark or light
Today there is no black or white
Only shades of gray"
(The Monkees, 1969)

The Finish-it-Ourselves phase has begun!  We spent last week painting the inside.  The still-freezing-at-night weather is forcing us to delay painting the outside for now.

"Fifty Shades of Gray" is another fitting title for our color choices.  More specifically, make that six shades of gray and counting. I have banished all beige from my life, and gray reigns as my new neutral.   Yes, since there aren't a lot of clouds outside, we'll create them inside.  If you're not feeling the gray-love with me, be patient.  The end result, as it exists in my mind, will be gorgeous.  Yes ..... darn it, it will.  You'll see.

The photo makes it look darker than it is.

Husband wanted to spray the whole thing, ceilings and all, one color.  I belong to the Likes-White-Ceilings camp.  (I learned at the paint store and online, that I am not alone.)  Therefore, we compromised.  The two guest rooms, guest bath, and laundry room have white ceilings.  And the den, which we painted a darker shade of gray, has a light gray ceiling -- the same light gray as most of the rest of the house.  I love my white ceilings but the price was -- I got to roll and edge all the associated walls (double coats) which took an additional two days.   Needless to say, it's much slower than spraying.  But white ceilings are light and bright and go with everything!  I can change the wall colors some day, if I want, without having to repaint those blasted 10-foot high, overhead surfaces.  Excellent investment for the future, I say.

Experimenting with exterior color combos (during a brief warm spell) and the rock is done!  (That front door is a temp till the permanent one arrives.)

The other great news is .... we can use our garage!  I mean, we can actually put things in it and it's not in anyone's way.  This means ..... storage!  Tools!  Equipment!  Our still crated wood stove!  You know .... stuff!!  The garage doors are still a couple of weeks away (back ordered) so we can't drive into it yet.  AND it has lights with switches and everything!  (It's the little things ....)

Next: Flooring.  Tile and hardwood.  The soreness has just begun.

I've Got The Power

The Dilemma

About a month ago we were informed by our builder that the electrician who had started on our house by nailing a few outlet boxes here and there, was let go.  The reason --- apparently electricians in this part of the world are in crazy-high demand and as a result, his price doubled.

And our builder could not find anyone else to do the job.  In fact, no one was returning his calls.

The Solution

Husband is now our electrician and I am the assistant.  He and his dad wired our home 30 years ago, so with that limited experience, copious online research, questions to experts, frequent visits to a new home being wired nearby, and as little guesswork as possible, we have been hoisting, hauling, pulling, and stripping endless miles of wire.  Plus hammering nails, drilling holes, dragging heavy ladders from one end of the house to the other, and daily runs to Home Depot.  The homeowner, working on his own home, is the only non-licensed entity allowed to do such a thing, so our options were limited, to say the least.  At this point, we are nine days in and The Electrical Monster To Do List is growing mercifully shorter.

I texted this picture to our kids saying, "We found an affordable electrician and he's cute!" They didn't realize it was their dad.  (Hehehehe.)

As I said in a previous post, the original plan was to finish the house ourselves.  This meant flooring, paint, trim, hang cabinets, and pavers outside.  Or, in other words, the pretty stuff.  Stuff that, after a day's work, one could step back and admire the fruits of one's labor before collapsing into an exhausted heap.  Wiring, as essential as it is, is not pretty.  By five o'clock each day, when we are bone-weary and out of daylight, we don't have the reward of a pretty hardwood floor, a painted wall, or a trimmed window.  We have a tangle of unsightly wires going every direction within the stud walls that, a few months ago, were exciting to see but are now tiresome and in dire need of covering up .... with .... sheetrock .... please!  The upside is that from now on, when I plug in an appliance or turn on a light, I will know exactly where that blessed electricity came from and the route it took to get there.  Plus Yours Truly has earned her very own tool belt.

Needless to say, we were on ladders a LOT.  These 10 foot ceilings were certainly not MY idea.

Longtime Friend Dave, who happens to be an electrician as well as a very kind and sympathetic soul, and who lives in our previous hometown 3.5 hours away ..... is driving out tomorrow to spend a couple of days correcting our mistakes and finishing up, in hopes to placate the county inspector.  I told Husband I don't want to be there when Dave first arrives at the house and sees our work.  I'm too afraid of hearing ..... "Um, looks like we've got a problem." ... in stead of, "Looks good!  You guys don't need me!"

Update and The Result

Dave came bringing much wisdom and expertise and guided us to within sight of the finish line.  Turns out most of what had been done before he got there was okay.  Thank you, Dave!!!

I call that panel where all wires converge, the "Mother Ship".

'Twas another long day after Dave left to finish it all before The Inspection.  We felt like we were up against finals at the end of a long semester.

But as it turned out, the inspector was VERY nice and hardly looked at most of the details we were somewhat nervous about.  He almost seemed more interested our plumbing and happily offered a few tips about the bathtub.

And we passed!!!!!

Another hurdle cleared.

P.S. Much credit goes to Husband who puts in the bulk of the work and long hours, with much more to come.  I am reminded yet again, that he can do pretty much anything he puts his mind to.  And I deserve the credit for marrying well.

And so it goes ....

Geez ..... I need to write another update.  But our life has been kinda boring .....

Unless, of course, you're excited to hear about shingles, or trenches, or those little switch boxes our electrician has nailed randomly around The House.

WHICH, by the way, is becoming more real, although it's still far from livable.  And I'm not sure when it WILL be livable because the construction industry in this area is governed by snails, AKA contractors, who always seem to have another job that they MUST finish before starting on, or finishing, ours.

So we wait.


And wait.


And tear up with joy when we find an actual work vehicle parked on our property, with actual work people, who are actually working.

And (dare we hope) we might have electric power soon.  Maybe within (gasp!) a few days.  (How naive were WE, to expect power to be wired onto our property from an existing power pole that sits capably across the street, in the same year we request it?)

Husband working on The Box where there will soon be an OUTLET which will allow us to PLUG stuff in!  (Note the brand new pole on the right.  We honor the two trees that gave their lives for that pole.  One from which it is made, and one that was in the way.)  Oh .... and that flat area where the tractor-thing is sitting is where Husband's shop, housing many guy-toys, will be built. 

A couple of posts ago, when I mentioned we might be painting by late November ..... Let's all have a good laugh.  How silly.  Now we're thinking January.  But we'll see.

We met with Eric -- Awesome Cabinet Maker from Spokane, recommended by Favorite-First-Son-Who-Knows-This-Stuff.  Eric delivers all the way down here.  And he is making our cabinets!  Or at least he will ... make .... our .... cabinets ..... someday.

I don't mean to sound cynical because truthfully, I'm not.  Life is great!  And we are excited.  So rather than cynical, let's just say I'm anxious for each new stage of the building process.  I JUST wanted to see the house started and as soon as it was started, I wanted walls, and as soon as there were walls, I wanted windows and a roof, and now there are windows and a roof, and I just want doors!  How wonderful it will be to have doors to lock it up securely!  And THEN I'll want that boring wiring and plumbing to be DONE because they're ... boring, and life will be perfect when we FINALLY get siding and sheetrock ....

Anyway, you get the picture.

Should've got over to get this pic sooner, before the sand pile arrived.  It's for the future pavers that will comprise the driveway and sidewalk.  

Rear view and another sand pile awaiting a gazillion more pavers.  

Future patio.  We have no plans to landscape beyond the rock wall perimeter.  It will be au naturale. And if there are any remaining funds, there'll be a hot tub on the patio, outside the slider door, toward the edge of the rock wall by the trees.  

And that's all for now.

Oh, and by the way -- Merry Christmas!

Racing winter

I am often in political discussions online and when someone uses the term, "framers" we all think of Washington, Jefferson, and so on.   But out here on our little five acres of desert, we know them as Aaron and Clinton, AKA the Badger Boys as I have dubbed them since they mentioned they both grew up on a nearby street called Badger.  They are our framers.  And they have been a-framin'.....

Front:

Back:  (Covered patio.)

View from the street.

We have also ordered our wood stove, about which our builder is incredulous.

"You don't want a gas fireplace??"

"No."  (We had a lovely fireplace in our last house and prefer a wood stove.  We cannot wait for that first cozy, bone-warming fire that stoves are so good at. )

We have also picked out exterior colors which took little imagination since just about everyone goes with taupe and/or gray and we are tagging along with the crowd.  (I heard it said on a podcast -- "We tell our friends, our's is the 4th taupe house on the left.")

Plus we've selected our exterior rock.  And our flooring.  And .... cabinet finishes, tile, pavers, lights, appliances, doors, and just about everything else we can think of, wearing a path through the aisles of Lowes, Home Depot, and every other building supply business.  It has kept us happily occupied the last few weeks, in spite of the rude awakening that EVERYTHING is crazy expensive and our original budget is now almost laughable.

And ..... how on earth did people DO this before Pinterest??    It categorizes every idea, keeping them instantly accessible as long as my phone is within reach.  If I find something I like -- a click or two files it in Pinterest.  Then if I need to show what I'm trying to explain to the Husband or to a salesperson, I just pop out my phone and open up Pinterest.  It's all there, literally at my fingertips.

We're in a race against winter that we may not win.  Our conversation yesterday with the paint-store-guy taught us that since we'll probably be painting the outside of the house in November or early December, we'll have to pick our paint days carefully.

"Don't start painting till after the frost melts off in the morning," he said, "and stop early enough in the day so it can dry before everything freezes again that night."  Fortunately deserts are supposed to be relatively dry, so there's that.

So come the holidays, we will be hopping busy as we take over the finishing part.  We've been contemplating buying a hot tub which may become essential and possibly prevent the need for a few physical therapy sessions after we lay the flooring and pavers.

In the meantime, we're camped out of the way, just off our driveway, where we are being the model home-owners by not pestering the workers or making daily changes to the plans ...... of course.  'Cause you know we're not those people.

How Firm a Foundation

It has been requested that I update my blog.  (Hey, Steve!)  So here's the latest.

Are we doing any traveling?

Nope.  Well ..... Husband and friend drove across several states, landing in Montana, to decide that fishing is (give or take a few pros and cons) really no better there than it is here.  But when the trout are beckoning, who needs logic?  So there was that.

As far as RV traveling ...... no.

Do we plan any upcoming trips?

No.  (How boring are we??)

So why the heck do we live in a motorhome?

Because right now we don't have much choice.  And it provides a roof of sorts until our house is built.  And with THAT, we will segue to .... THIS .... HAZAH!

And after WEEKS of hiding in clouds, haze, and smoke .... the Ladies (Three Sisters Mountains) finally emerged, elegantly dressed in their latest ballgowns of snow.  Oh, how we have missed them.

So unless you want all the gritty details, which are dutifully posted in my pinterest account, regarding our choice of appliances, flooring, paint colors, etc. ..... I'll leave it at that.

Anything happenin' yet?

..... or in other words, have we started building our house?

No.

BUT, we have a verbal quote from our builder (Major Hurdle cleared) with the written contract ready to sign, and we have met with the excavators who SAID they can start in a little over a week!!  Should we get our hopes up?  No.  But we have.

I had a set-in-stone vow when the plan of moving all kicked off a year and a half ago ..... to NEVER build another house ourselves (been there, done that).   But with an eye on our budget and the determination to stay out of debt, we have decided to have our builder get it to a point of extreme unfinished-ness (post-sheetrock, pre-everything else inside) and closed to the weather.  After which Husband will don the contractor's hat, take the helm, and git 'er done.

Back in 1985 (when I can retroactively apply dates to occurrences in our lives because I was still having babies and our last one was born that year) we bought a couple of acres, set up a temporary mobile home, and commenced a ridiculous plan to build a home for our family with our own bare hands, paying for it as we go.  (Do you hear the fairies hovering above, warning "Don't do it, you fools!"?)  Husband was serving as a Mormon bishop (similar to minister) at that time, with a full-time job, plus we had four young children with one, as mentioned above, still in Newborn Stage.  And not long after that, we started a new manufacturing business.

A very young Husband on a very steep roof.

Reality set in quickly and we could see that if we wanted our children to grow up in this house, they were not going to wait the 20 years it would take for their silly parents to build it.  So we hired contractors and, long story short, eighteen years later, when we tired of mowing those two acres and decided it was time to move again, we finally finished up the trim in the upstairs bedrooms so that we could put it on the market.

We hadn't started the landscaping yet, which was worse than building the house.  Sorry about the poor picture quality.  The scanner wasn't hooked up and this is a phone-photo of photos.   

Never again, I said.

Till now.

Our reasoning is thus:  Husband is now mostly retired and has time.  Children are grown and launched.  We have funds.  We are still healthy.  And we both think shopping for light fixtures, cabinets, tile, flooring, appliances, etc., is a lot of fun.  (We're weird that way.)   Hopefully this will save enough money so that we can also build a shop, pave our driveway, and after selling the Beast, buy another smaller trailer for future travels.  Are the fairies hovering again?  Are we insane?  Probably.  

I guess we'll see.




 

Don't ask

Starting Week Four of waiting for our builder to give us the final quote.  In other words, nothing on the house-to-be is happening.  Nothing!  Well, actually, a few things are happening, but only by the sweat of our own personal brows.

Not that we blame our builder.  It's just that we happened to pick a bad time to build a house because we are in a house-building-boom and anyone related to construction is not that anxious to add to their work load.  Apparently, for example, the truss-building people are swamped and have not yet sent their quote to our builder.  "It usually never takes this long", we are told.   So it drags on.

We, however, have been working our little hearts out.  Our five acres is now minus 11 trees on or very near where the house-to-be will someday sit.  Husband in his safety chaps has been wielding a chainsaw and felling trees while I drag the limbs (not his, thank goodness) and firewood into piles.  We hope there will be no neighboring wild fires before we can get it all cleaned up.

One pile of many.

Upside:  I am excited about the firewood and about building our first fire in our wood-stove-to-be.  It has been 15 years since we've heated with wood and we've missed it.

Downside:  This whole moving onto rural acreage thing was supposed to end yard work forevermore.  The Yard Plan was to do what is called xeriscape, or in other words, pretty much nothing.  Except for a narrow perimeter around the house, leave the land like we found it.   Something one best not do in a subdivision if one wants to be liked by one's neighbors.

But lately I've been sensing local nervousness about the above-mentioned wild fires and reading too many fear-mongering booklets telling us to keep everything cleaned up and mowed.  So we may have jumped from the proverbial frying pan into the (wild) fire.  Husband is still holding out that, once all set up, there will be little to do, but I'm not so sure.

The property out here is covered with trees of one variety -- the juniper.  And I've decided junipers look nice from a distance, in a grouped setting.  But standing close to one of them and really giving it a visual once over ..... these things are not that pretty.  The fear-mongering booklets say to cut away any dead branches but that would take out large portions of nearly EVERY tree.  You've got to give them some credit for being hardy enough to grow in this sandy terrain .... but most are one quarter dead already.

So now that we are into June and the summer is well underway, I am wondering about what we will be in next winter.  Hopefully not the Beast again ..... because last winter and its ice storms wasn't fun.  We haven't planned on doing another southern escape like we did this year, but it may have to happen.  We'll see.  In the meantime, don't bother asking.  I'll let you know when something finally happens.  You'll probably read about it in the headlines.