The New Shed Completed (Finally)

After Mike left for the Valley, Laurie took care of caulking and painting the new shed over the next few days.  Luckily she had good weather (except for the mornings being cold and the afternoons, in the direct sun, being hot) and was able to complete the work.  She had enough paint left over from our other shed to finish one coat on the new shed.  She was quite sore after the long days of painting this very large and tall shed.

The shed is now a nice green color to match our other shed

Just a photo to show Laurie's dedication working into the twilight hours

As we stated in our previous blog entry, the new shed was not able to be completed because the company sent the wrong color shingles.  We were told that the installers would bring the correct shingles and finish the work on Friday, 10/16.  On that Friday, Laurie kept checking for updates and was finally told, late that afternoon, that the installers returned to the Valley due to bad weather.  There had been some rain that day in Payson, but none at our house.  We were not happy, but it was rescheduled for Monday.  On Saturday, Laurie received another call from the company telling her the truck was going in for service on Monday and so the work would have to be pushed off one more day to Tuesday.  That date was going to make Laurie's schedule very tight because she had to return to the Valley no later than Tuesday evening in order to have sufficient time to prepare for our Wednesday trip to the East coast.

The weather threatened to be bad, but it held off enough for the workers to get the new shingles installed and allow Laurie to get on the road in the afternoon.  That was cutting it too close.

The shingles are finally going on

Workers completing the task with clouds all around

Our finished 10x20 shed

Stats: 1 Home Depot trip; 0 Walmart trips
Remodeling expense 10/13/15-10/20/15: $0
Remodeling expense to date: $51,749

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

The Elusive Garage Sale

This was Mike's short weekend, but due to the garage sale activity, he took an extra day to help out.  During some of the lulls in helping Laurie get set up for the sale, he took some time to clean out the small wood shed that was on the property when we bought the house.  As we mentioned in the last blog, we are getting a new shed and the old one needed to be torn down to make room.  Prior to the weekend, Laurie decided to post the shed on one of the Payson "freebie" web sites and we actually had a couple of people who were interested.  All Mike needed to do was empty it so the new owner could haul it away.  Most of the stuff that would be ruined by rain fit in the workshop (although there is no room to move in there now) and the rest had to be stored outside.  Now it is ready for the new owner to pick up.

Empty and ready for new owners

Laurie has been working with two of our neighbors on the garage sale, and they brought some things over to sell.  All of us were together in the evening to start putting out items for the morning and we eventually brought out some chairs to talk and have a beer or two.  This was the first time we had spent more than just a few minutes with our neighbors Chris/Victoria and Bob/Joan and we had a great time.  The party eventually broke up so everyone could head home for dinner.

Then came the morning of the garage sale and we had beautiful weather.  Mike made coffee, put out the signs (Laurie had also put an advertisement in the local paper) and picked up some donuts for everyone to eat that morning.  The day was very busy with constant traffic and more fun with our neighbors.  Victoria was the top sales person and we all got rid of some stuff. It was a long day and we wrapped things up about mid-afternoon and took it easy the rest of the day. Come Sunday morning, the weather took a turn for the worse.  We had on and off rain and had to keep putting tarps over the items and taking them down when the weather cleared.  We had very little traffic that day, though not sure if it was due to the weather or just a normal slowdown for a Sunday.  We closed up earlier than planned and got a surprise lunch from Laurie's sister and her husband, who stayed to help finish the packing.  It sure is nice to have helpful family members in town.

Garage sale day finally came and we displayed much to sell

The whole yard was filled awaiting customers

Sunday's rain did not help us get rid of more stuff

The leftover items were to be donated to one of the local thrift stores, so we stored all the boxes on the front deck to make it easier to get into the truck later. Since our large desk did not sell, Laurie decided to try putting it into the den without the hutch (one last ditch effort to keep it).  We tore apart the hutch and assembled the desk (once again and hopefully for the last time).  It fit nicely under the front window in the den and, without the hutch, it doesn't look so big in the room.  It is a nice spot for it as it gives Laurie a nice view out the front window with lots of natural light. Good compromise.

Definitely less overwhelming without the hutch

When Mike rode the bigger quad the last couple of times, he could not get it to idle when he came to a stop.  During the garage sale he was talking to our neighbor Chris about it (who also has quads) and he offered to look at it.  Chris recommended a carburetor cleaner, one in a spray and one to put in the gas tank, that he has had luck with.  We tried the second product and did not quite get the results he wanted, so he removed the carburetor and disassembled it.  Using the spray cleaner, he completely cleaned all the components then put it all back together.  He had to play around with some of the adjustments after that, but eventually it started running much better.  Mike took it around the block a few times and it ran like a champ.  In appreciation, we took Chris and Victoria out to dinner Sunday night at Chilis and had a good time getting to know them better.

Mike took off for home after dinner and Laurie has more work this next week to finish getting rid of the rest of the garage sale items and our shed.  We will see how that goes.

Stats: 0 Home Depot trips; 3 Walmart trips
Remodeling expense 9/29/15-10/04/15: $0
Remodeling expense to date: $51,664