Got our windows!

This weekend we drove up to Payson around noon.  Mike got busy right away fixing the "hang" on our new back door (wasn't quite up to his standards when he put it in last month).  He basically had to cut the frame out of the wall and reshim it to even it out and he did it - WooHoo!  I read that hanging a door is a true test of carpenter prowess so I guess he has arrived.  He also hung the pantry door.  Now when I go in to get food out of the "food tote," I actually have to open a door to enter the pantry.  Seems funny since the walls are all open.

Our pantry door with no walls

Our new windows were delivered Saturday morning and we installed the kitchen and back dining room windows.  When we laid out the kitchen plan, we moved the sink from the west wall to the north wall and, since there should always be a window over the sink, we also had to relocate the existing window.  This works out well because we plan on expanding the master bedroom/bath/closet so that it will cover the entire back concrete deck and that would mean the west wall of the kitchen would no longer be an exterior wall, hence no place for a window.  It also gives us a prettier view as now we will be looking out the back of our house rather than into the neighbor's yard.  Our carpenter had already framed up the window opening so Mike just had to cut a hole in the siding, and then trim and re-trim (lesson learned, measure the NEW window to determine how big to cut the hole) and in it went.  The dining room window was easier to install as this was a replacement for the one we had already framed and installed on July 31st; however, that window took over an hour to remove. I guess when Mike puts in a window it is there to stay.  We spent a lot of time trying to decide what kind of outside trim to put up around the windows.  Previously it was just straight edges, but all our neighbors have these pretty angled edges so we decided to go with that look.  Mike did a great job of miter cutting the boards and I painted and primed them.

The new kitchen window above our camp sink

The original back window and trim design . . .

. . . and the new and improved window and trim design

The rest of the weekend was pretty much spent measuring for the kitchen ceiling insulation, measuring for and cutting roll bars and cabinet supports, and several hours of shopping at Home Depot trying to figure out the best way to insulate the kitchen ceiling.  We debated several options including foam boards and blown in insulation and finally (we hope) decided to just use batt insulation.  The insulation value won't be as good, but every other option would take up a lot more time, be more expensive and would drop the ceiling lower than the 7'6" it already is - not good!

We also had our first home cooked meal on Friday.  Steaks on the small gas portable camping grill and microwaved baked potatoes and steamed corn.  Very yummy! I actually have a rose bush for the 1st time in my life.  Now I have to figure out how to take care of it, but we had the most beautiful bloom on it this weekend so I cut it and put it on the table to make our meal perfect.

After weekends of eating out for dinner, finally a home-cooked meal

One of the new blooms on my rose bush

It was very cold this weekend! We hadn't planned on that when we packed so we had to make a WalMart run to buy hot chocolate, sweats and thermal underwear for me and 2 Home Depot runs to get the correct space heater for our bedroom.  Mike is his own personal heater so he was able to get by with the clothes he brought, but even he complained about being cold at least once :).

Our space heater, though we upgraded to a larger one the next day

Stats: 5 Home Depot trips; 3 WalMart trips
Remodeling expense  10/19-10/24: $163 (plus $100 in gift cards)
Remodeling expense to date: $24,569

Taking a weekend off!

I finally got back from all my travels on Thursday night, just in time to do some laundry and head up to Payson on Friday.  Because we had been apart for almost two weeks, and with all the craziness of the traveling, we decided to just enjoy having a home in Payson this weekend and not do any work (although Mike did end up having to fix the master bathtub faucet again and, of course, we had to visit our friends at home depot several times).

On Saturday we took Zena to the dog park and discovered they were having an "Annual Dog Day in the Park" event which is sponsored by a local dog group (PAWS - Payson Area Woofers Society).  They had food, things to buy, and games for the owners and dogs.  I got roped into participating in a "dressing up your dog" contest.  The participants had to run from one chair to another; put pants, a shirt, a scarf and a hat on our dog; and then return to our original chair while keeping all the items on the dog.  I was very surprised when we came in first place. Since I did an activity, I signed Mike up to do one also.  Let's just say this did not make his day, but he did it.  This game was an obstacle course.  Everyone else was using treats to coax their dogs through the track, but on a test run we found that did not work for Zena.  Mike found a ball in the park and that definitely got her attention.  She did a fairly good job making it through the course, but they did not make it into the top group.  We then had a hot dog lunch and some ice cream provided by some local vendors.

The very fashionable first place winner Zena

Running the course

Next to the dog park, we found a craft fair that was getting close to shutting down for the day, but not before I was able to pick up some homemade Christmas gifts.

Then we hit a yard sale near our house.  We have seen a roll-off dumpster at this house for many weeks and the people even had to post a sign at one time saying the yard sale is coming soon to keep people from stopping.  We found out after we stopped that the home was owned by an elderly couple and the husband had just passed away.  The daughter had come from her home in New Zealand to help clear out all the stuff and organize a yard sale, then she was taking her mom home to live with her. Even though they had started the yard sale the previous weekend, they still had quite of lot of stuff remaining.  The daughter had done a lot of work to try to price the items based on E-Bay values, so things were not quite at a garage sale price.  However, this second weekend had brought the prices down some to start getting rid of what they had left.  We picked up a coffee maker, some tools, a tool belt for Mike (he has never had one), a pop-up canopy, and a TV set with a built-in VCR and DVD player, along with some other misc. stuff.  We ended up going to the sale on both Saturday and Sunday.  It was hard not to stop since we passed it every time we left or returned to our house.  It was really nice having the TV set as we could now watch DVDs on it instead of on my laptop.  Payson has five Redbox locations, one Blockbuster store and two Blockbuster Express kiosks and, since we don't have cable service there, we watch a lot of movies in the evenings.

Our new entertainment center setup

It was a wonderful weekend just enjoying our place and some of the things that Payson has to offer.  We have been so busy with remodeling the house that we have missed some of the local festivals and activities, but keep telling ourselves that next year we will have the time to participate and just spend time enjoying having a mountain getaway.

Stats:  5 Home Depot trips; 0 Walmart trips
Remodeling expense 10/15-10/17: $128
Remodeling expense to date: $24,406

We Have Lights!

When Mike returned from Virginia, he was on his own for a few weeks while I was still on the East Coast.  He was not sure if he wanted to go up to the Payson place without me, but decided that he could complete some work that did not require two people.

He spent the weekend putting up all the lights and ceiling fans throughout the house.  We decided to salvage as many original fixtures from the house as we could in order to save our budget for more important projects.  We also had a used ceiling fan we purchased in 2007 for the apartment we stayed at for a year and a couple of fixtures I bought at thrift stores and ReStore.  Before putting up the salvaged fixtures, Mike had to piece together all the jumbled parts that had been moved from closet to closet many times over the past few months.

He installed the ceiling fan from our apartment (much nicer than the salvaged fans) in the master bedroom and two lights in the master bath.  The one above the mirror was the salvaged light set (and is actually quite pretty) and the one nearer the door was a $4 thrift store find - score again!  The salvaged ceiling fans were put in the guest bedroom, den and great room and will be replaced once all the more critical projects are funded.  We have one more salvaged fan that will go in the dining area, but that cannot go in until the kitchen ceiling drywall is up.

Our bedroom fan with ReStore lights to match the bathroom fixture

Used bathroom lights that are new to us

Guest bedroom light and fan re-used from original house

Another re-used fan and light in the den

Salvaged ceiling fan/light and front door entry fixture

Mike put back up the salvaged lights in the hall bathroom (ugly - will be a priority replacement), the end of the hall near the master bedroom and the front entry (these two are nice, but they are brass and all our new fixtures are nickle so I'm going to try to paint them) and the pantry (used the old kitchen fluorscent light) .  He also put up a Restore purchased light in the laundry room and a Home Depot purchased light outside the master bedroom back door (which is an exact match of the one we found at Restore that is outside the kitchen back door).  We had also found, at Lowes, a light adapter that would work with the new blown glass shade we bought in Arkansas on our vacation.  It has a rod which screws into a can light socket and a plate that covers the opening.  This, along with the shade, was installed in a corner of the great room and is a nice accent light.

Ugly hall bathroom fixture, but good for now

A ReStore light for our laundry room

Pantry light used to be in the kitchen

Arkansas light with adapter

On Saturday night I got a whole slew of picture texts to my phone from Mike showing off all the new lighting in the house.  He is so proud of himself (as he should be).

Mike then spent his final hours, before going home on Sunday, installing the water heater cover and ReStore purchased timer, and putting caulk around the trim we installed on the back patio prior to our trip.

Added conduit, timer and blanket to the water heater

Stats:  5 Home Depot trips; 1 Walmart trip
Remodeling expense 9/22-10/10: $215
Remodeling expense to date: $24,278