A Long Time Away

According to our last blog entry, it looks like it has been eight weeks since we visited our wonderful home of the North.  But in reality, it has only been six weeks since we spent a full weekend up there and only four since I made a brief visit.  We had a full weekend in February where we did not do any work, just a little bit of planning and then I came up on a Friday afternoon for about a half hour.  We originally planned to be up for the last weekend in February, but it was right before our vacation to California and we needed to get prepared for the trip.  However, in addition to having some items to bring to the house, we needed to get our hitch extension to use for this weekend.  It is always a nice ride up to Payson and I did not mind the quick turnaround.

We had a great vacation in California the first week of March and were joined by our MR KLUD friends for a couple of days.  We went to Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm and took a whale watching cruise in San Diego.  We had a blast spending time with our friends and getting to go to places we have not been in a long time.  The end of the week was not as hectic, or fun, as Laurie came down with a cold, but it allowed us to get all rested up for coming home.

MR KLUD at the happiest place on earth. Don't we all look happy? Of course we are, we are not at work!

MR KLUD on the Hornblower in San Diego, CA

MR KLUD at my happiest place on earth.  Much less crowded than Disneyland with boysenberry pie!

After returning home, we had another weekend of activities in the Valley.  One Saturday Laurie went to a baby shower for our niece, who is due in May, and then on Sunday we went with Laurie's dad/stepmom to Tucson to see our son who is living there now.  It has been about a month since he moved and we got to see his placed unpacked and he was able to get us into his work for a tour.  As part of the tour, we were able to climb up on a Caterpillar front loader machine (sorry, pictures were not allowed at the site) that he is currently testing and it was huge!  He has been certified to drive these units around the test yard, but not on the test trails.  Even though it was raining and muddy, it was a great experience.

Carroll, Matt, me, Laurie and Doris at a great restaurant near Matt's place.

So finally we had a free weekend to go back up North.  We needed the hitch extension because we (i.e. Laurie) finally made a flooring decision to use fiberglass backed (floating) sheet vinyl for our kitchen (see last blog entry) and we found one we liked at Lowes, which does not have a store in Payson.  We tried to get flooring at Home Depot, but didn't like their selection, even though they were cheaper and much more convenient for transporting the flooring.  We thought we could borrow a truck to haul the vinyl up north, but as we got closer to the date, it did not look like that would happen.  So our backup plan was to go up to Payson, pick up the Jeep, rent a trailer in Rye, and make a round-trip to the Valley to get the vinyl.  We found a Lowes store that was easier to get to for our planned trip and when Laurie went to place the order, we found that store had the flooring we wanted on clearance and we paid less than half of what the other Lowes was selling it for.  Then to make things even better, we were able to get the truck we had hoped for and did not have to make the round-trip.  We couldn't believe how well that all worked out.  So I picked up the cut vinyl roll after work on Friday and up north we drove.

All we needed to do this weekend was get the vinyl into the house and unroll it to allow it to acclimate to the temperatures before we install it next weekend.  So we unloaded it and waited to unroll it until just before we left on Sunday (this kept us and the dog from walking all over it).

Our new vinyl just unloaded from the truck

The weather was so nice on Saturday, we decided to do some yard work.  We did not want the weeds to get too out of control, so spent a few hours removing as much as we could (which was quite a bit).  This was made easier by the recent snow that had all melted in the past week leaving the ground quite mushy.  We also decided to remove one of the apple trees that did not do too well last year.  It produced a lot of fruit, but unlike the other tree, the birds never ate any of it and the branches just drooped.  We will eventually plant another type of fruit tree in its spot as we do not need two treefulls of apples.

Weeds removed from the yard along with one apple tree

Old apple tree awaiting space in the dumpster

After lunch, Laurie worked on our budget and finances while I took the time to clean up the floor in the hall bathroom.  I had removed all the tile awhile ago, but there was still some pieces of Hardy board and lots of glue residue.  Even with the two batteries I have for the Craftsman multi-tool, I was running them both down before even one could charge.  So I would work until the battery died, read my book until one charged up and repeat the cycle until the floor was done.  I also removed the old, rusty ring around the toilet drain pipe.  The room is all ready for flooring which will most likely be tile, installed just after Easter.

Hall bathroom floor ready for tile

As is our norm, we did not want to do any work on Sunday, but I decided I wanted to fix one of the new boards we put on the front deck.  On one end of the board, one of the screws did not catch the joist underneath completely which allowed the board to twist.  So I went under the house to add a board next to the joist to give me more room to put in another screw.  While I was crawling to the front deck, I saw a water leak near the front of the house.  This was in the connection for the front hose bib.  We still had some time after I fixed the porch board, so I went to Home Depot to get a new coupler (I am hoping that is the issue).  We have had one other Shark Bite coupler go bad with a small crack in the threaded brass connection.  This leak looked like it could be the same thing or else it could be that there was not enough teflon tape on the connection to the bib.  So I played it safe and got a new connector and replaced that and the tape.  We did not turn the water on before leaving, so we will see next time if I fixed the problem.  At least the deck is fixed.

While I finished this up, Laurie cleaned the floor in the great room and put down some plastic and tarps so we could roll out our vinyl before leaving (the extra precaution is necessary as the flooring needs to breath with the topside down and we have nail heads that are raised on the floor).  Due to the clearance price, we got an extra ten feet of the flooring, but we only had room to roll out what we would need for the kitchen.  We put the dog on the porch with all the stuff to take back to the valley and unrolled the vinyl, with just enough room to walk out the door.  Next week, we should have a kitchen floor.

New vinyl ready for acclimation

On the way out of town, we always like to drive the back roads past the Green Valley Park (less hectic than the main road).  As we passed the park, I noticed a large bird on top of one of the trees and some people taking pictures.  We stopped to get a better look and the large bird was a bald eagle.  One of the ladies there said the sighting is not uncommon and one time she saw it swoop down on the lake, pick up a fish and fly to some nearby hills.  Though we did not get to see it in action, it looked very majestic sitting on its high perch.

View of eagle (top of tree) from the road as we passed

Getting a better view of the eagle

Isn't that a majestic looking bird!

Stats: 1 Home Depot trip; 0 Walmart trips
Remodeling expense 1/30/12-3/25/12: $177
Remodeling expense to date: $39,298