Friends, Family, the Fourth and Peeps

Since our last entry on April 22, we have been to our place two other weekends, but did not do any work. One weekend at the beginning of June we had our niece/nephew and their one-year old staying with us so that we could all attend another nephew's wedding in Show Low.  We meant to get some work done after they left Sunday, but Mike was recovering from a cold the week before and ended up sleeping the Monday away.  The other trip was with some visiting friends from North Carolina who came to attend our son's reception in the valley and took the opportunity to do some sightseeing too.  We stayed overnight in Payson and then did a road trip to the Grand Canyon.  We went back to the valley after the trip but our friends stayed a few more days in Payson while they did some touristy things.

We spent a little over a week together and this is the best group shot we got

For the 4th of July holiday, we spent a full week in Payson to hopefully avoid some of the valley heat and to carry on our annual holiday celebration with our MRKLUD group of friends.  We did escape some of the extreme temperatures Phoenix experienced, but Payson had its own hot weather (up to 105).  Luckily the heat died down some as the week went on and we were back in the 90s for most of the week.  The beautiful thing about Payson compared to the Valley is that the temperatures are lower at night and in the morning.  It was great waking up to mid-60 degree weather.  We actually slept with our windows open some of the time. Try that in Phoenix!

The first part of the week we spent by ourselves and did not do too much.  Mike did some yard work and Laurie worked on her home budget stuff along with some CE (continuing education for her CPA certificate). Together we watched a couple of movies, did some shopping and visited a new church.  The shopping made us proud owners of a new couch and a couple of chairs with ottomans.  Laurie was a little tired of the camp chairs and we needed to have more seating since we would be having six people joining us for the 4th. There is a new Big Lots in Payson and they were having a sofa sale and, while we were browsing, the furniture salesman told us he would knock another $50 off one of their discontinued models - SOLD!  Earlier in the week we had been to Walmart and found some outdoor chairs with foot stools that we can use in the house for now and then transfer outside when we buy our real furniture.  It took awhile for the associate to find a price for the grouping and then, when it was rung up at the register, it ended up being about $40 less than he had quoted.  We saved a lot of money-according to Laurie (as well as spent a lot of money-according to Mike)!

Could not get rid of all the camp chairs as of yet

Almost looks like a real living room from this angle

Mike also had some time to finish the new dog fence he built the last time we were up.  He was able to modify his design and put in a gate so we no longer have to slide the whole fence back and forth to get through.  He originally made the gate opening with a bottom support bar to keep the two fence parts together, but after a few visitors (and Laurie when wearing her boots) tripped over that support, we removed the extra bar and the fence and gate worked just as well without tripping anyone. It is interesting to note that our engineer son was the one who finally convinced Mike that the fence would be OK without that support. Who let him grow up to give wise advice?

The gate fully open for easy pass through

The gate closed and latched

Our guests began to arrive Wednesday afternoon, with the last couple getting in mid-evening.  That was our son and our new daughter-in-law who came up for the whole four days from the Tucson area.  We had a house full of eight people Wednesday night and for the 4th of July, but then one couple left that night and another couple left Friday afternoon.  While we were together, we had a wonderful time eating, playing games and having our annual peep shoot.  We did our regular teams of guys vs. gals and this year the guys were victorious after two years of defeat.  That night, the remaining six of us went down to the golf course parking lot at the bottom of the hill and watched Payson's firework show as that location worked really well last year. This year the fireworks started on time at 9pm. It was a great 35 minute show (thanks Kristin for the pics!).

The peep table layout - all peeps have point values based on color

We over-crowded the table on the third set - never again

The MRKLUD rough and ready group, though we only harm peeps

The fireworks show for this small town is quite amazing

About a mile away from the crowds, we only miss stuff on the ground

We made a trip Friday to Pine/Strawberry to check out the thrift store there and then returned the next day to pick up a table set and chair for Matt and Danielle and to attend the craft fair that started that day.  They bought a really nice solid wood table with leaves and six chairs for $75.  They are trying to accumulate furniture for a house they bought and are moving into later this month.  We also offered to let them use the washer and dryer my sister gave us until they can afford to buy their own set as we are not ready to use it in Payson.  We took those, plus the furniture, down to the valley when we left Sunday using the trailer we bought last year.  We will also use the trailer to help them move into their new place.

During the Friday trip to Pine/Strawberry, we also visited Arizona's first schoolhouse.  We were not able to go in since it was not open that day, but we did look through the windows.  There was a sign on the road by the schoolhouse advertising goat cheese and fudge at a store farther down the road.  So we followed the signs and ended up at the Ranch at Fossil Creek.  They have llamas and goats and a yurt that you can rent (which is something Laurie is interested in doing).  It was very rustic, but interesting.  We petted some goats, sampled cheeses and fudge and, of course, bought some to take home.

On Friday afternoon, after our friends left for home, we went to visit Laurie's family at her Dad's place in Christopher Creek.  They had borrowed an ice cream maker from a friend and we brought some of the necessary ingredients.  In just under an hour, we had homemade ice cream and it was very, very good.  We spent a few hours visiting and then headed back to Payson.

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing after some fun-filled days with our friends and family.  It was great to spend some alone time with our new daughter-in-law, as this was our first opportunity since the wedding.  They too enjoyed the resting time and had fun giving their new chair a test run. Although this is officially Danielle's chair, we noticed Matt hogged it most of the weekend. However, Danielle came up with an idea which allowed them both to use the chair at the same time.

Danielle's thrift store chair, but must use it through Matt

Relaxing and ready for a 3D showing of Wreck It Ralph

On Sunday morning, Mike installed a new shutoff valve on the water softener loop line in our pantry.  He has been wanting to do this since the weather turned warmer so we would not have to turn off each of the water valves under the sinks and on the toilets.  We cannot turn off the main water line as we do during the winter months since we need to water the plants around the house.  Mike does not want to have water pressure in the house while we are away after hearing stories from people at work about leaks caused by compression lines on toilets and sinks failing.  So on a previous visit, Mike found that our main water line under the house tees off to outside lines before entering the house and all the water into the house goes through the water softener loop.  The first install of the valve produced a small leak at the new connector, but he was able to re-tape the connections and now we can turn the house water off without going into the crawl space and our plants will not die.

New shutoff valve on water softener loop

Before Matt left, he helped Mike move the washer/dryer to the trailer. Later that night, we packed the truck and headed for home.  It was a truly wonderful week and, even though it was hot, it was cooler than the valley.  Whenever we spend time like this at our little get-away, we wish more and more that we could live up there full-time.

We have discussed our tracking method of the remodel costs that we have been reporting in each of our blog entries.  At first we thought all costs should be included (this would include furniture and other living necessities), but have recently stepped back and thought only actual remodeling items should be reported. This will more accurately represent the cost of rebuilding the home, as the other items could be used anywhere and would have been needed even if we had not decided to remodel.  Our original method of reporting expenses is listed below with the costs involved to date, but below that (and to be used for future blogs) are the actual remodel costs.

Stats: 2 Home Depot trips; 2 Walmart trips
Remodeling expense 4/23-7/7: $509
Remodeling expense to date: $48,094

Actual Remodeling expense 4/23-7/7: $63
Actual Remodeling expense to date: $38,051

Master Bathroom Reborn

We cannot believe that we are actually back at the house in Payson two full weekends in one month.  That has not happened since July of 2012.  This weekend promises to be a busy one as we try to put our master bathroom back together. The first task of the weekend was to seal the new tile in the master bathroom, guest bathtub and foyer.  This was a fairly simple task, except that Mike dripped sealer in Laurie's hair when he was working on the higher spots and she was working on the lower.  Since the tile around the guest bathtub will be subjected to water on a regular basis, we decided to apply a second coat of sealer while the other areas only got one.

Foyer taped off to avoid getting sealer on carpet

Laurie did the lower tiles so Mike could drip sealer in her hair

The guest bathroom also required one other change due to the tile work.  Joe (our tile guy) ran the bullnose tile on the outside of the tub which made the new towel shelf we put up too close to the tile.  Mike had to pull out the old screw anchors, patch the holes and re-center the shelf on the wall.  It was not much effort, but still took time.  We also applied an enamel paint to the chipped areas on the tub.  We can't say that this was a good fix, but having white spots is much better than exposed metal.  It will eventually need to be re-finished professionally, but it should get us through until next year (when our new home improvement budget kicks in).  After applying the second sealer coating on the tub tile and fixing the chips, we were able to put up the shower curtain/rod.  We will need to pull out the toilet and sink/cabinet one more time in order to paint this summer.

Bathroom is complete for now until we paint this room

Since Mike painted most of the rest of the house with the primer, and already painted the master bathroom one time (Laurie changed her mind about the off white color we originally chose), we decided to let Laurie tackle the bathroom paint job this time.  With the paint colors that she picked out with our niece last summer, Laurie bought the new paint at a Sherwin Williams in the valley and we brought it up with us.  Sherwin Williams was having a 4 day, 40% off sale and we luckily hit it at just the right time. We have usually painted together, so this was her first time on her own.  She had some problems at first, but got the job done.  There were some touch-ups she had to do later and she had to wait for the water leak patch to be fixed to finish the whole job.  Once that was all done, it all looked very good.

Did not get any of Laurie working, but this was her prep work

The finished product after the patch and touch-up

While Laurie worked on the painting, Mike's job was to work on the water leak in the bathroom.  We found in January that the sharkbite valve on the cold water pipe in the master bathroom was leaking, possibly due to a bad seal.  The new valve was placed on an old pipe and the plastic on the pipe end was very rough when the sharkbite was removed.  These pipes were not replaced in our remodel since the walls in the bathrooms were not removed. There was not enough pipe protruding from the wall to make a clean cut for the valve, so a new pipe needed to be installed. Mike looked in the crawl space and found that our electrician/plumber ran new plumbing under the house and then coupled those new pipes with sharkbites to the older pipes that were not replaced.  So replacing the old pipe was a lot easier than running new pipe all the way back to the source.  After Laurie was done with the painting and Mike made a run to Home Depot for the proper parts, he removed the old pipes and ran new ones through the hole in the wall and down to the crawl space.  He used the same sharkbite connectors for both the splices and the valves.  It all worked very well until we turned the water back on.  The hot water line at both the splice and valve was dry and the cold water valve was no longer leaking, but the splice connection under the house was leaking like a sieve.  Mike tried cutting the pipes for clean connections and even got a new sharkbite connector, but could only reduce the bad leak to a periodic drip.  He finally got a different type of connector at Home Depot and tried that before we finished for the weekend and it seemed to be holding better, but we left a bucket under the connection to see how it does while we are away.

New pipes going down into the crawlspace

New pipes with valves attached

Once the pipes were replaced and the valves were no longer leaking, Mike next had to patch the drywall around the pipes.  We still had some old 5/8" drywall and some joint compound for the patch, but had to get drywall tape.  After some cutting, trimming, taping and applying joint compound, we had a fairly clean patch job.  Mike thought it was only necessary to do two coats with the compound and when that was dry and sanded, he applied primer paint to the spot.  When that was dry, Laurie applied her coats of paint while doing the touch-ups and afterward the patch was barely noticeable.  Of course we were not too concerned as the patch would be behind the vanity.

Putting the patch into place

After taping and joint compound

Patch with the primer

While Laurie was working on the painting, Mike constructed a pet fence for the 11' opening to the kitchen out of PVC pipe he picked up on one of his Home Depot runs.  After Laurie's week with Zena and rain, he had created a design that would hopefully work.  His original design had three sections that could be taken apart and easily stored, but during the actual construction he found it was better to have four sections as these would fit better behind the short wall in the kitchen.  Laurie found it was really more of a fence than a gate (too tall for her to step over), but it does provide a block that will keep Zena in the kitchen.  After getting the fence up, we found that there was enough room to slide it to one side to go around it instead of climbing over and Mike has thought of a way to add a gate on a later visit.

Our PVC pet fence, hopefully it will have a gate in the future

Once the master bathroom had all its fixes and paint, we were able to put the fixtures back up and install the toilet and sink.  Laurie wants to wait on installing the two cabinets to allow the wall paint to cure longer since, when we pulled the cabinets off the wall, a few small pieces of paint came with them.  But for now we are able to use the bathroom for more than just showers.

Almost fully back together, still need front and side cabinets

The last part of the weekend work involved taking care of the weeds and mowing the grass/weeds in the front.  During downtime on Sunday, Mike started spraying the weeds with Round-Up and then finished on Monday.  He also spent time on Saturday trimming the dead branches from two of the trees in the back yard and piling all our dead branches behind our small shed.  Hopefully we can find some time to burn this dead wood instead of taking up space in our dumpster.  Mike did use our Hula Hoe to remove and rake up many of the bigger weeds and dead stuff and then mowed the front.  It was so much easier and faster to mow that area than use the weed-eater as he has done in the past, plus a lot less stress on his back.  We will see how well the Round-Up does on the weeds left over when we visit again.

The two small tress Mike trimmed and then removed much of the old dead weeds/grasses

After using the mower we brought up a few weeks ago.

The weekend was not all work as we found time to visit a couple of restaurants in town including our most favorite place, the 260 Cafe (great breakfast), and go to the local movie theater.  Even though we accomplished a lot, and it was very tiring, it was nice to have the house back to being fully functional so we can start having guests which is hard to do with just one bathroom.

Stats: 3 Home Depot trips; 0 Walmart trips
Remodeling expense 4/13-4/22: $144
Remodeling expense to date: $47,585

Laurie's First Full Week in a Long Time

Now that Laurie is no longer working, she was able to stay up in Payson this week to monitor the tile work.  She also had some other things she wanted to accomplish during this time that made it easier to be on her own.

The rains decided to come this week (not only rain, but one night of snow) and made the whole tiling process more difficult, esp. with Zena wanting to go in and out while Joe (our tile guy) was doing the same.  It made Laurie wish she had some way of keeping Zena in the kitchen while she dried her off.  We decided to look at getting a dog fence to put between the kitchen and great room. An added benefit to the fence would be when we have other dogs over as happened this past weekend when Bob brought Roscoe and he had to stay outside to keep him from wandering around the house and marking new territory. The biggest problem is that the opening is almost 11 feet and the cost of a fence that wide is pretty high so Mike is looking into building a fence out of PVC pipe.

Laurie's first day on her own - snow in mid-April!

The tiling process went well and only took three days from start to finish.  It was good that Laurie was available as she had to make several trips to Home Depot to pick up additional supplies which Joe needed. The biggest issue came up when Joe stopped by on Monday and mentioned that we would need additional bullnose to tile around the window. Since we purchased our tile from Lowes, and since there is not a Lowes in Payson, we went to Home Depot to see if we could find something which matched. Although we found similar tile, Joe was concerned it was a shade too dark and would be noticeable so Laurie went back to Home Depot and picked up several different options to see what would work best. In the end, Joe and Laurie decided the best option was to tile the inside of the window opening with the small square tiles we had bought to use as a decorative tile line around the tub.  Since they have a smooth and finished (colored) edge, no bullnose was required.  For the decorative tile line, in lieu of the small tiles, Joe added a more subtle one-inch half round tile with an Italian design.  The finished product looks great.

Completed tile around the guest bathroom tub

This tile was supposed to be on the walls, but worked well around the window

Nice, simple decorative touch

Another issue came up when Mike realized the plumbing for the tub spigot was too long since it was originally set up for Hardiebacker over drywall and we are now using only Hardiebacker. Laurie purchased a new blade for Joe's tile saw on one of her Home Depot trips and Joe agreed to adjust the plumbing in exchange for the cost of the blade ($58) which we thought was a pretty good deal as calling in a plumber after the fact would have been expensive, in addition to having to remove and replace tile.

The tiling in the master bath and the front door entry was fairly straight forward, though Joe did suggest curving the corner of the entryway which added a nice touch. Laurie also wanted something for the transition line between the master bathroom and the master bedroom and was able to find a decorative tile strip she liked. Joe was able to use the tile strip to replace the small vinyl piece we had to add when we put the flooring in the master bedroom which made Laurie very happy.

Entryway with flair (actually it's a curve)

Old master bath entrance

New master bath entry (and the rest of the bathroom is tiled)

In between Home Depot runs, Laurie was able to complete our tax returns for 2012 and to cut out and start sewing our future daughter-in-law's wedding dress.  She already made a draft version of the dress which Matt's fiance, Danielle, tried on during her visit a few weeks ago and now she is making the actual dress.  She also met with a Home Depot representative to discuss new rain gutters as our's are falling down and leaking.  The quote was more than we expected for seamless gutters and, after he left, Joe said he could do our gutters and would get us a quote.

We had plans in the valley with some friends for the weekend, so Mike drove up after work on Friday to pick up Laurie and Zena and see all the tile work.  Everything looked great and now we cannot wait to get our master bathroom put back together on our next visit.

Stats: 5 Home Depot trips; 2 Walmart trips
Remodeling expense 4/9-4/12: $919
Remodeling expense to date: $47,441

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