A Week On My Own

With work and holiday events in the Valley, we were not able to make it back up to Payson until Christmas Day.  After a brief stop at the house, We traveled to Pinetop to have dinner with my Dad and his wife since they made the trek to Payson to have Thanksgiving dinner with us.  The roads were clear and we had a great visit and amazing meal!  We made it back to Payson in the early evening and spent the rest of the day relaxing.  It was a nice and peaceful Christmas.

Laurie and Matt had to go back to the Valley on Monday since Laurie had to be back to work on Tuesday and Matt was scheduled for a flight on Wednesday to visit his girlfriend in Ohio.  I had the week off work, due to a standard work shutdown between Christmas and New Year's, so this would be my first time at the Payson house on my own for a whole week.  Laurie has done it several times in the past year and a half, but except for one weekend, I have never had the chance.  So we had a leisurely day on Monday and went to the movies in the afternoon before they left for Gilbert.  My plans for the week were to finish the priming of the den and hall bath, get the ceilings painted with a flat white top coat, reinstall all the light fixtures and fans, and start/finish the replacement of the deck on our front patio.

Of course I started with a project which was not on my list, but which has been bugging me since day one.  The front porch gate sagged when we first bought the house and I have tightened all the screws as well as replaced some.  It has held up better since then, but was starting to sag again.  I decided to take the gate completely apart so I could fill the screw holes with a drillable putty and add some diagonal supports.  I bought a piece of redwood at Home Depot and some stain at Neumann's for my diagonal piece.  It did not match the older wood as well as I would have liked, but it does blend in well.  I got them all back together with some new screws (no leftover parts) and then hung them on the porch.  The gates look good and no longer sag.

Front porch gate all disassembled

Rebuilt gates with diagonal supports

I spent one day getting the supplies I needed from Home Depot, Walmart and Neumann's and renewing the Jeep's registration in Payson since that is where it stays most of the time.  Registering it in Payson also eliminates the need for annual emissions testing.  With all my supplies, I was finally ready to start painting.  I finished the priming of the den and hall bath on one day and then did the ceilings over two days.  Boy my arms were tired.  After putting in an especially long day painting, I had hoped to finish up the ceiling that evening, but had to leave it until the morning as I could not reach above my head anymore.  Once the ceilings were finally complete, I was able to put up all the light fixtures and smoke detectors.  By the time Laurie arrived Friday night, I had all but one ceiling fan back up.  I finished the last ceiling fan in the great room the next morning by using a support from the security screens to help keep it in place while I did the install.  Worked much better than having Laurie hold it in the air while I did all the connections.

Priming completed in the den

The den alcove

Hall bath completely primed

Lights back up in the kitchen. . .

. . .dining room. . .

. . .and pantry.

New ceiling fan for the den

New light fixture from Restore for hallway

Another Restore light fixture for the entry

Our bedroom got the same old ceiling fan

Where the guest bedroom got a new one just like the den.

Screen door support used to hold up fan in great room

This fan was new when we put it up last year.

While I was working during the week, Craig and Bob came by a couple of days to work on the shed.  They had done more work since our last visit and, now that the holidays were done and the weather was nice, they had time to finish it.  The color we got from Neumann's for the shed was perfect.  It blends well with the surrounding trees and we have decided to use the same color to paint the house when that time comes.  After the shed was completed, I rented an appliance dolly and moved all the woodworking tools and washer and dryer into it.  The great room finally has space, except for the decking lumber.

The completed workshop/shed

The workshop got full real quick. . .

. . .where the great room is mostly empty.

The last planned project was the replacement of the front porch decking.  Laurie was originally against tackling this job as she thought I should have a few days of rest during my "vacation" week. However, I was able to talk her into it after assuring her it would be an easy task (really, nothing is EVER easy with this house).  The old wood came up fairly quickly.  We were thankful that not too many of the screws had stripped heads.  The next step, laying out the flooring, was more difficult.  We were using 2x6 planks instead of plywood and Laurie wanted to try something more unique than the standard pattern of alternating short and long boards.  We tried many different plans on paper, but all of them used more lumber, had more cuts and ended up with joints in high traffic areas.  We decided to keep it simple and it still took us all afternoon to get most of it completed.  We could not finish the job as, when we got to the end, we had a bigger gap that a 2x6 would fill, plus the final row was uneven.  We decided to leave it until the next trip and then review our options.  Matt (our resident Engineer) would be with us and would hopefully have some suggestions.

New decking made with 2x6 lumber

New decking and the fixed gate.

The final day was a morning of rest followed by the trip back to the Valley.  It was a very productive week and our house is finally starting to resemble a home.

Stats: 4 Home Depot trips; 4 Walmart trips
Remodeling expense 12/18-1/2/12: $334
Remodeling expense to date: $39,049