We have not done any drywall work on the Payson house since the beginning of April. We have been up to the house a couple of times since then, but once was just an overnight stay and the other was a weekend with our son Matt and his girlfriend Danielle. We used the place as a stopping point to continue up to the Grand Canyon with an overnight stay in Williams and then back to the Payson house for another night. The trip was fun and we saw elk and a bobcat at the canyon around dusk on our way out.
This past weekend, we decided to take one extra day to avoid the Memorial day holiday traffic so we went up Thursday afternoon and came back late on Monday. The highway construction that started just after Labor Day in 2010 was finally completed and the trip up and back was clear - no longer a single lane - and free of traffic. It was so nice and made Mike very happy.
We took Matt with us and our original plan was to get as much work done as possible over the four days we were up there. However, Matt was still looking for a summer job and we thought he might have better luck in Payson since they are more of a summer season area than Phoenix. So he and I left Friday morning to do some shopping and put some applications in for him and did not get back until early afternoon. Then we had some good friends, Doug and Ursi, call to let us know they were in town passing through to go camping in Williams. So all three of us met them at the McDonalds to visit for a little bit. We then headed up to Pine to check out another possible job opportunity for Matt at a thrift store and of course to do some more shopping. By the time we got back, it was too late to start any work. However, Mike did find some parts he needed at the Pine thrift store to use to install a wall-mounted make-up mirror I found at a garage sale and he put it up in our master bathroom.
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| Wall-mounted mirror from a garage sale for make-up and hair |
Saturday morning Mike was up early to go to a local farmer's market. He was interested in getting some tamales he heard they had for sale. He found an arts & crafts fair in town and came home to get us and we all went. On our way home, we passed one of my favortie thrift stores and they had a wood kitchen table set for sale. It was a table with four chairs for $125. We bought it and then tried to figure out how to get it home in our Altima, when one of the guys who works there came out and asked where we lived. Turns out he lives nearby and he offered to deliver it for free. We had it in the house and setup later that afternoon. Mike and I went out to buy some accessories and found that Home Depot had discounted their outdoor chairs and picked up four to complete our outdoor dining set (previously used as our kitchen table). Seeing that it was Memorial Day weekend, we thought we should have a flag at the house and bought one while at Home Depot. Mike and Matt set it up when we got home and displayed it the rest of the weekend.
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| Table and chairs from thrift store with hardly a scratch for $125 |
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| Old dining table now outside with new chairs |
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| New flag and holder to give honor to those who serve and have served on this holiday |
We got an early morning call on Sunday from my Dad to say he and my step-mom were on their way up to their place in Christopher Creek and would we like to meet for breakfast. We prodded Matt out of bed (not his normal waking hour, but the promise of pancakes got him moving) and met them at the Beeline Cafe. We had a great breakfast and made it home early enough to actually do some work.
We decided to finish drywalling Matt's (guest) room first. We had two walls left to do in this room and once completed, we will not have to pass drywall through the den/hallway wall anymore. First Mike had to trim away some of the old drywall around the closet opening. We did not remove any drywall from the closets and the existing drywall on the opening overlapped the drywall on the wall. During the deconstruction, some of the hangover part was ruined but we were able to trim it flush with the studs and make a good corner with the new dywall overlapping the old. The trimming threw a lot of drywall dust into the air and, since we were already making a mess, we decided to cut out the window opening which had been covered since the install last year. Thought this would help get some air flow (and light) into the room.
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| Matt's room window uncovered to help air out drywall dust |
Putting up the drywall in the guest room was more difficult than we originally thought due to the door and the closet. It is easy to cut out around windows using our Dremel tool, but it takes more effort around doors since a small gap needs to be left for the door frame. The closet cutting was tough because we have to cut the new drywall without damaging the old drywall. In the end we were able to finish all the cuts and think it will all work.
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| One of the last two walls in Matt's room we finished |
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| The last wall we completed, including cutting for corners around the closet |
Since we had a long day doing drywall, we decided we would only do one drywall project per weekend to leave us time to complete one of our smaller projects (there are plenty of those). At the beginning of the weekend, I noticed one of the boards we had put up under the house to cover our crawlspace openings had fallen. Mike decided that we needed to cover these openings with the siding we had bought last year for this purpose. As usual, what was thought to be an easy, quick project, turned into a whole day event. Mike and Matt had to go to Home Depot to find something to rest the siding on since it could not go all the way to the dirt (wood-to-dirt is an issue for termites). They originally thought they would use some cement bricks similar to the house supports, but trying to cut brick to fit the openings would have been tough. They found some composite decking material that Home Depot had reduced the price on due to a non-stock return and thought that would work as a buffer material. They cut those boards to lay sideways in the opening and then placed the siding board on top. These were screwed into 2x2s that they nailed into the concrete supports. They completed the last opening just about dinner time. Mike also added one of the composite boards to close an opening under the front porch, which was the last large opening into the crawl space. We still have spots where very small critters can squeeze through (mice and such), but the larger animals should not be able to get in. We did decide that all future "extra" projects will not be that involved.
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| Three of four openings under the deck for our crawlspace walled in. The darker wood is the composite. |
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| Composite wood placed between brick and wood deck. Last large opening filled. |
It was an overall great weekend with lots of rest, shopping and some work done at the house, including having one room completed with drywall. It is nice to be at a stage that we can actually go up to Payson and relax for some of the time.
Stats: 3 Home Depot trips; 5 Walmart trips
Remodeling expense 4/24-5/30: -$555
Remodeling expense to date: $26,677
