Our First Fire and a Shed Shift

Since this past weekend, Laurie has been successful in getting rid of some of the larger unsold garage sale items through the Payson yard sale website.  She also spent time cataloging the large quantity of left over articles that were to be donated to the local thrift stores. This will allow us to get an accurate donation value for our 2015 tax return.  While all this was going on, the couple who wanted our old 8x10 shed came and began the extraction process.  Laurie said it took them almost a full day to get it up on blocks and dig trenches so they could position a small trailer under it.  That was the way it stayed over night and the next day they came back with newer trailer wheels (they were afraid the originals would not hold the weight) and got the shed settled on the trailer.  Laurie said it took some time to maneuver the truck while pulling the trailer/shed in the back yard to align it with the gate opening, then off it went.  They used hurricane straps to secure the shed to the trailer and Laurie said the trailer only tipped a little when they turned onto the street from our driveway.  The family are Christians and so they said a group prayer asking for God's protection over the endeavor.  She got a call a little later that they made it down the steep airport road safe and sound.  Now our yard looks really bare.

After a full day, the shed is elevated with a trailer under it

Day two - the shed is now on the trailer with better wheels

The trailer with shed had no problem going through the double gates

And off the shed goes to its new home, only a couple of miles away

The corner of our yard, the barest it has ever been

On Monday, we delivered all the boxes to two thrift stores on main street: the Senior Center and the Humane Society.  We decided to split it into two groups as we had a LOT of stuff and didn't want to overwhelm the volunteers who accept the donations. The people there were very thankful. Now the only boxes left in the house contain items we will be keeping that haven't made it to their final resting place yet.

In preparation for the new shed being delivered on Monday, we had to level (within 4 inches) a 10x20 spot in the yard. Mike started to rake out the area where the old shed had been when our neighbor Chris came by and said we should use the quad.  We had pulled the large dilapidated workbench out of the old shed to make it lighter and the new owners were not able to fit it into their truck. So Mike hooked it up to the quad and hauled it in circles over the area we needed leveled. This worked fairly well until the workbench fell apart.  Then Mike got one of our metal ATV ramps and stacked some bricks on it, that worked even better.  Once we had it smoothed out, we found we had a 7 inch difference from one end to the other.  Between the two of us (and a number of blisters), we were able to move dirt from one end of the plot to the other and make the area level (within an inch) for the install.

Mike using neighbor's idea and workbench to level the ground

Using an ATV ramp added the finishing touch

Along with some manual labor to clear the tire treads

The top of the stick shows how much dirt we had to move

Laurie ran the string every way to be sure we were as level as possible

Sunday was a lazy day and we started with breakfast in Pine before going to the Fall craft fair.  The restaurant was crowded and breakfast was not as good as it has been in the past and neither was the fair.  They had some different booths this time, more people selling antiques than crafts, so we left there earlier than expected and made our way north of Strawberry.  We had plans to visit friends who were up from the Valley camping.  It was an interesting visit because the guy is the brother of the couple we had at the house a couple of weekends ago.  We have not seen his family either for quite some time and now we got to visit with both brothers in the same month.  We met them at their campsite and sat around their smoldering fire catching up on each other's lives.  It was a great visit and good to see them again after so long and we invited them to go on the planned Jerome quad trip in the Spring.

Mike had made plans the previous weekend with our neighbor Chris to go on a quad ride.  While he was getting ready, he learned that Joan, our neighbor from across the street, also wanted to go.  Once they all got saddled up, it ended up being Mike, Chris, Joan and Joan's husband Bob.  Chris led the pack and they went down the same dirt trail Mike and Laurie had taken last year when they first got the quads, only this time they went the opposite direction.  Mike remembered the steep hills and now he was going down instead of up.  Quite the thrill!  They almost made it safely to the main road when Joan tipped her quad on its side (got a little too high on the road bank).  Mike and Chris were ahead waiting for them and went back when they saw the accident.  It was surprising to see nary a scratch on Joan, though we found out later she had hit her head fairly hard.  The guys righted the quad and they took the easy way home.

After completing the pellet stove install, Laurie agreed to have William Bailey, the guy who sold us the stove last year, stop by the house for an initial startup/checkup service.  He inspected the venting (inside and out), said everything looked good and then proceeded to explain the operation and maintenance of the stove.  Not long after, we had our very first roaring fire.  We went over the things we should do on a daily/weekly basis and, when we had no more questions, off he went.  We let it run a little while and then shut it down.  To be sure we knew how to start it again, we fired it back up a little while later and had our second blazing fire.  This time we only kept it on for a few minutes as the day was not cold enough to keep it running.  We are now ready for winter.

It took almost a year from purchase to fire

The last activity of this weekend was the new shed install.  The guys showed up late morning and began putting it together.  After the floor structure was in place, the installer checked for levelness and added a relatively flat cement brick to the lower corner we had filled in.  So we did not do too bad in our leveling job - yay for us! When they were about half done, we noticed the asphalt roofing shingles they had brought were not the color we had ordered.  Laurie contacted the company and found they would not be able to get the correct shingles installed until Friday.  So the guys completed the job up to the point of laying the shingles and away they went.  We then transferred a lot of stuff out of the workshop to give us room to move around.  The items will only be housed in the new shed temporarily until Mike can sort through his stuff and move his tools.  Laurie is planning to paint the shed this week and so we started to caulk the joints.  We thought we had enough to complete the job, but ran out about a third of the way through.  Laurie will need to complete both the caulking and paint before she leaves at the end of the week.

The new shed has a galvanized steel base, so no concrete was needed

All of the pieces were stacked on this trailer

The flooring was upgraded to one resistant to insects and moisture

This consisted of six pieces nailed together and screwed into the floor

Two end caps and the trusses are ready for plywood roof

Still not sure why we had a mixture of radiant barrier roofing and not

The doors are in and all the trim pieces are waiting to be installed

Tar paper and flashing were the last items for install before calling it a day

As if that was not enough work for the day, we also moved our 10x20 car canopy from the front to the back to protect both the car and the quads until we can fit the quads in the workshop.  In trying to move the canopy, we got lucky in that our neighbors Chris and Bob saw us and jumped in to help.  We were thankful as it was just a bit too unwieldy for the two of us to move on our own.

This will keep these vehicles protected for now.

Stats: 0 Home Depot trips; 1 Walmart trip
Remodeling expense 10/05/15-10/12/15: $85
Remodeling expense to date: $51,749