Another Inspection Under Our Belts

After all the work we did over the Thanksgiving week, we originally were not going to go back up again until Christmas.  But then Mike decided that it would be a good idea to get our next inspection completed so we would be ready to install the drywall over his Christmas break.  We thought we would leave after Mike got off work on Friday, meet the inspector in the afternoon and then spend the rest of the weekend enjoying Payson.  We contacted the inspector and found out he does not work Friday afternoons and already had a late morning appointment.  Mike still thought it was a good idea to have the inspection done, so he took off from work for the day and we scheduled an appointment with the inspector for 9am.

Since we were going to be there early on Friday, we called Waste Matters, the company who provides our roll-off unit, and asked them to pick up our full trash bin.  Over the Thanksgiving week, we filled it almost to the top with the windows and siding.  We still needed to have a trash bin on site for the drywall work, but found it would be cheaper to get the next smaller size as there is no tonnage charge per pick-up.  We scheduled for them to arrive later in the morning for the pick-up and delivery.

To save heating costs for one night, we drove up to Payson early Friday morning to be there in time for our 9am appointment.  We got to the house at 8:40am and our inspector had just pulled up.  He mostly reviewed the changes that had been requested in the previous inspection and then told us we were ready for the drywall.  The whole process took about fifteen minutes and yielded no problems - Yeah!

After unloading the car, we had extra time before Waste Matters was due to arrive, so we took the opportunity to take apart the old partial wood fence between our house and the neighbor on our east side.  The fence was mostly falling down and the wood was in bad shape.  We are not sure why it was there as the chain link fence that separated the yards was in fine shape.  We were able to dismantle the whole fence and get the wood into the dumpster just as the guy arrived to pick it up.  The replacement dumpster arrived about an hour later.  It looks more like the kind you would see at a business or apartment complex.  They didn't think they could get it in our back yard as the dump truck that picks up is wider than the delivery truck, but we wanted it secured to avoid other people using it (which apparently is a big problem in Payson as trash pickup is a separate service and pretty expensive).  After pruning a couple of branches from our juniper tree, they were able to drop the can behind the gate and the dump truck was able to get to it.  That was the end of our work for the weekend.

The dilapidated fence was an eyesore

The whole fence just topped off the dumpster

The view is much better with the fence gone

Our new smaller and cheaper dumpster

The dump truck just barely fits through the fence

A couple of hours later, our realtor came over to see our progress on the house.  I have been meaning to call him for awhile as I know he was interested in coming by, but the timing was never quite right.  It was good to see him again and he said he liked the changes we put in place and the house looked much better, even without the drywall.  His partner now wants to see the house since she had the original listing and worked with the owners.

We then went to town to cruise the thrift stores.  Mike was looking for some jeans and I am always looking for bargains.  After going to five stores, Mike found absolutely no jeans for men, but plenty for women.  I think it must be because men wear them until they fall apart or the jeans are bought up as soon as they get on the shelf, since men are not usually as picky at buying used clothing as women.  We did find a pair of work overalls for me ($1 compared to $35 at WalMart), a dog sweater for Zena and some other odds and ends. Since we did not find anything for Mike, we stopped by Walmart to check out what they had and he found a few pairs of pants and a couple of shirts for a great price.  He even got a pair of work boots to keep from ruining his tennis shoes while he's working on the house.  We had a great time shopping and just being together.

We wanted to do the insulation under the floor prior to the Christmas break, but decided we could save some money by adding it to another Home Depot bid order.  I calculated the rest of what we needed to buy from Home Depot (under our 1st phase remodeling budget which doesn't include flooring or kitchen) and it totaled around $3000.  We made of list of all the items and went to Home Depot to get SKU numbers and prices to provide with our bid. That took us a good part of the afternoon and, after this trip, we were both exhausted!

We have been too busy to take in very many of the local activities, but Saturday night was the Payson Electric Light Parade and we had heard it was a good one.  The weather this weekend was not as cold as the last time we were up, but we bundled up in our jackets, took our camping chairs and Zena, in her new sweater, and made our way down to Main Street.  We found a place to sit at the end of the route that gave us a fast getaway after the event was over.  They had a wonderful group of entries, though there were some difficulties with the spacing of the vehicles.  A few times it seemed that the parade was over, but since we had not seen Santa or my hairstylist, who was the snow queen, we knew there should be more.  Sure enough a few minutes later, the parade would start up again.  Zena hated the parade due to all the noise (sirens, bands, etc), and as soon as we got up to leave, she was pulling us back to the car.  Mike says she can't go again, but I think she just needs to get out and experience more things like this to get used to it so we'll see.

We decided to leave right after lunch on Sunday to get back to the valley and we winterized the place since we would not be back for a few weeks.  Mike's new connection on the main water line under the house worked perfectly to drain the extra water out of the pipes and made the process much easier than his previous method of blowing out the lines with an air compressor.  I just have to say that I am lucky to have married such a smart man.  Even though he has never done any of this kind of work before, he is a natural at it and I am so proud of him (love you sweetie).  He is going to put together a checklist for opening and closing the place in the winter just to be sure nothing is missed or in case Matt and I have to go up without him.

Stats:  2 Home Depot trips; 3 Walmart trips
Remodeling expense 12/3-12/5: $5
Remodeling expense to date: $24,283