Our First Weekend of Sunny Weather

It is Spring and we are back at the house.  We have had so many activities which have prevented us from coming up since the end of January, but we are back and the weather was beautiful, not like our last weekend of rain.

We had one other day trip since our last weekend up here.  We were planning to come up the 2nd weekend in March, but at the last minute Matt's fiance flew into Phoenix for her spring break.  There was a lot of work to be done for their upcoming wedding and Laurie needed to spend time with her plus she and Matt had a chance to spend some time together, the last opportunity for some alone time before the wedding.  But we needed to make a quick trip since we had not set the hold timer on our thermostat to allow for the extra time away and did not want it running at a higher temperature until our next weekend up.  So Mike came up for a few hours on his Monday off and reset the thermostat, brought up and installed a new bed frame for our master bed and also removed a piece of gutter than had drooped during the winter.  We purchased a used pick-up truck at the beginning of February, so he used that to haul some other large items from the Valley, including some large pictures we plan to use at the house and a new workbench he got at Harbor Freight for the work shop.

New workbench - needs assembling

New frame for our bed

Since then, we have been in contact with our tile guy, Joe, to have him do the tiling that was planned for last year now that the weather is warmer.  Laurie quit her job at the end of 2012 and will stay at the house while the work is being done.  We have decided to also have Joe re-tile the tub in the guest bathroom, so preparing for that job was part of the weekend plan.

We used our truck again this trip to bring another load of stuff to the house.  This time we had many items Laurie needed for her longer stay, along with a new queen memory foam mattress we bought for the guest room (the old one we had been using was on loan from her dad and was a smaller double size) and our old lawn mower.  Mike did not like that the lawn mower we have been using in the Valley did not have a bag to it, so we got a new one and will use the old one for up north.  Hopefully that will be faster than using the weed eater on the patch of wild grass in front of the house.

Hopefully this bed is a lot more comfortable for our guests

We did not do any work on Saturday.  Mike has been wanting to go back to the gun range to test some new bullets he bought for his 9mm, test the two 22 caliber rifles he got from his brother and have Laurie do some shooting.  We had a good time, except Laurie did not like shooting the 9mm.  On the way back, we found a new thrift store Laurie has never been to and stopped to shop for a little bit.  Next was a Walmart run for food and then back to the house.  Mike worked on the battery for the Jeep that we keep parked at the house, as our lack of being up north caused it to drain.  The battery is still under warranty at Costco, so we decided he would take the Jeep back to the Valley to get it replaced.

After dinner that night, Laurie mentioned that, while doing the dishes, the water did not seem as hot as it has in the past. We ran the hot water in other sinks and it was hot, but became lukewarm quickly.  A little research on the wonderful web told us that we either had a bad element or a bad thermostat along with how to use a multimeter to check them.  After running the tests, Mike was fairly sure the upper element (did not know we had two elements) was bad.  After a quick run to Home Depot, he had parts to fix that element, and replace the other components if needed.  The next morning he woke up early to drain the tank.  His research showed it could be fixed while full, but only if you were quick and he was not planning on doing it quickly since this was his first time.  The upper element was dark in color and covered in white crust and, based on that observation, he decided to check the bottom one too.  It was not a dark color, but it was heavily covered in the white crust so he opted to replace both.  There was also quite a bit of the white crystalline stuff visible through the bottom element hole and, based on his internet reading, he used the shop vac to extract it.  He did not get all of it, but definitely reduced it.  He put both new elements in and, since the kit he bought had thermostats too, he replaced those.  Once the tank was full and running, we had nice hot water again.  We found out later that night from our handyman friend, Bob, that you can drain your water heater, put one gallon of apple juice in, and then fill it up.  Let it sit for 24 hours without heating it and then drain it again.  All the white crystalline stuff will be broken down by the apple juice mixture.  Just might give that a try later in the year when we have to start draining it for winter.

These are actually cleaner than when they were removed.  The bad one is on the bottom.

After it was all put back together, except for the blanket part.

The water heater incident (as it will forever be called) put Mike a little behind schedule, so Laurie was pressed into service to help with the guest tub demolition after breakfast.  We had to chip off all the 4" tiles, then remove the old backer board and finally the drywall.  It did not take as long as we thought, but it was tedious work, esp. the tile as it mostly came off one tile (or part of a tile) at a time.  Except for around the window, the backer board just pulled off the drywall and the drywall was not bad either.  After we did the tile, and while Mike was removing the backer board/drywall, Laurie worked on removing the outside trim around the bathroom window.  It is the ony window we had not replaced and now was the best time to get rid of that ugly eyesore.  We finished all the demolition in time for a quick run to Home Depot to return some unneeded water heater parts and get a new bathroom window.  We still had some leftover time to get ready for friends to come over for dinner and games.

Look at him smiling, but the fun has just begun

Part way through and she is still smiling

No more smiling faces, but getting close to the end

Exhausted and taking a break amongst the mess - you can't see it, but there is no smile

Tile, backerboard and drywall all stripped away (and yes that is panelling on the left) - guarantee, no smile

Joe stopped by for a few moments on Monday morning to answer some last minute questions so we could be sure everything was set for the work he would start Tuesday.  We then made another run to Home Depot for more tiling items.  Once we were home, we installed the bathroom window, which was no easy task.  The old one came out easily, and then we replaced the old sill board, again not too hard.  But the new window had a wider nail edge and we had to get it to fit under some of the leftover trim board we could not remove (wedged behind another trim board).  We got the window in place and then spent quite a bit of time getting it level and centered.  When we first started replacing our other windows, we just worried about them being level and centered side to side.  It was not until our last few windows that we realized many of our windows were not centered up and down.  So we took the time to get this right and got it secured in place.

It is a new day, so smiling work faces are allowed

Old window out and new sill board in place

The insulation lady doing her handiwork

New window and insulation - almost ready for new tile

Old, ugly aluminum window

New vinyl window to make all windows in the house brand new

The last bit of time Mike had on Monday was spent scraping the rest of the leftover caulk and residue around the tub edge while Laurie, the insulation lady, installed new insulation behind the tub walls.  We were finally ready for Joe to do his magic come Tuesday.  Laurie stayed at the house to work on some other non-house projects and be available in case Joe needed supplies or had questions on what she wanted done, while Mike returned to the valley.

Tub cleaned of all residue - chips to be repaired at a later date. Now we are ready for tiling

It was great to be back up at the house again and to make more progress on its completion (though is any house ever truly completed!). 

Stats: 3 Home Depot trips; 2 Walmart trips
Remodeling expense 1/29/13-4/8/13: $877
Remodeling expense to date: $46,522