A Weekend with Our Nephew

We have a nephew in Texas who became a truck driver in 2013.  He has had many different routes since he got his first job, but a recent change in trucking lines has started to bring him through Arizona.  This week he decided to take some extra time off during his load change in Phoenix and spend a few days with us.  He was hoping to go fishing while he was here with some of Laurie's brothers (Mike is not a fisherman), but found out from them that the fish were not biting well and both of the uncles had to work the weekend.  So we asked him to join us in Payson for the weekend and he agreed.

Mike had pulled almost a 24 hour shift at work due to some resource scheduling issues and made up some of the time by taking Friday off, so we went up earlier than usual.  This worked out well because we had to leave Payson early in order to get our nephew back to his truck by Sunday night.  On the way up, we stopped at Laurie's dad's place to pick up the quad that he is going to let us use up in Payson.  They rarely use it around his property and said we could keep it as long as he could get access to it if they needed it for hunting.  It is a little bigger than the one we bought for Laurie, but still fit in the back of the truck nicely.

When we took up the quad for Laurie on our last trip, we decided we would need a place to store the quads instead of leaving them in the open.  We found a 10x10 "Shed-in-a-box" on Amazon which would house both quads.  This had arrived in the mail just before our trip and we were able to fit it in the truck with the quad.  Mike was happy our nephew was joining us as it would be another set of hands to help put up this structure.

We did not have any tasks this weekend, except to erect the shed and spend time with our nephew.  We had a great dinner at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants on Friday night and then hit the ground running Saturday on the shed.  The best place to put the new shed was next to our small wood shed in the Northeast corner of the backyard.  The only problem was this is where Mike had put many tree cuttings over the past year or so.  We spent a few hours cutting the branches into smaller sizes that could be used in our fire pit (the plan all along) and then clearing the area of dead grass.  Then we had to make the area a little more level for the shed as it had quite a slope to start with.  Once the area was well prepared, we began construction.

Chopping up the old tree branches

Area cleared and mostly levelled

The shed was not hard to put together, but it definitely required some extra hands and we even had to solicit Laurie's help from time to time (in between her picture taking duties).  Laying out the frame seemed to be difficult at first, but once we started on the shed cover, we found that the frame was the easiest part.  It did not help that we had some very strong gusts of wind while we worked, causing the cover and shed to move about until we finally got it secured.  All in all it was not a bad project and came out quite nice.  Both quads fit inside with room to spare.  Many thanks to our nephew for helping out.

Our nephew waiting for instructions from Mike

Laying out the frame pieces

Frame set in place

The front and back panels went on before the combination side/top

Our nephew making sure the ladder was secure

Mike was challenged to roll open the door by himself (not an easy task).

Four thumbs up for a job well done

Amazingly, both quads fit

When we went to transfer the quad license from Laurie's dad, we found that the title was missing and we would have to do it another day.  In addition, we need to make his quad street legal as it is missing a horn, a rear-view mirror and a license plate holder/light.  We plan to take the quads in for service soon and will have some of that added at that time.

Sunday was a great day of rest and a safe trip back to our nephew's truck depot in Phoenix and then home.

Stats: 1 Home Depot trip; 2 Walmart trips
Remodeling expense 2/18/14-3/16/14: $15
Remodeling expense to date: $39,424