Short Weekend

It was a toss-up whether to go up to Payson this weekend or stay home and work on the pool and patio renovation (can't get enough of that construction work).  We opted to go up north for just one night as it may be a few weeks before we can get back up there and Mike wanted to check to make sure there were no water leaks since we started leaving the water on for the sprinkler system. That left us Sunday to work on the pool deck at our house in Gilbert.

After getting a new stem installed a few weeks ago in the master bathtub, Mike really wanted to find a replacement handle like the original one (that one had to be drilled out to get it off).  He found one online in New Jersey and it came last week.  He replaced it on Friday and now the tub is back to normal.

There was a community garage sale in our neighborhood last weekend and I found a front porch light I liked better than the one we'd originally installed.  The first one had a top that made it too tall.  Mike was able to replace the light on Friday and this one fits just right.

Our new used front porch light with our seasonal decoration and sign

We made a trip to Home Depot on Friday to look at some items for the current bid we are working on.  We priced out some gutter components and looked at various types of drywall tape and corner beads. While we were there, we decided to get a weed eater instead of having to bring up the one from home because the grass/weeds in the front were getting tall already.  Mike worked on the grass and weeds on Saturday, pulling what he could and cutting down the rest, but the weed eater did not work as designed, so we took it back.  We also took measurements throughout the house for our drywall tape and corner bead that will go up after we finish hanging the drywall.  We still have a long way to go before we need it, but we want to add these items to our current bid to see if we can get better pricing.

While we were at the house on Friday evening, we heard the water pipes start to moan (happens when the water runs through some of the faucets), but there was no water running.  Mike found that the anti-siphon sillcock in the back yard, that we had connected to one of the water timers, was gushing water out of the anti-siphon device.  He took it apart and found a washer had been dislodged and put it back in place.  This stopped the leak, but later that evening it started up again.  Mike had to get a new one at Home Depot the next morning and he replaced the whole valve.  We had planned to replace this valve eventually because it was very hard to open and close.  Mike thinks something got damaged internally when he originally installed it.  We really thanked God for letting us go up there to check on the place as this leak could have run for weeks.  Leaks will always be a concern as long as the water is left on while we are away.  Mike likes to turn off the water flow to the hot water heater while we are gone, but there are definitely many more areas that could spring a leak in our absence.  Mike has talked about re-routing the water connections that feed the sprinklers so we can turn off the house water and leave only those two lines active.  He does not think it will be that difficult to do and it will help to alleviate the concern.

We had accumulated quite a few items from Home Depot for the restoration that had yet to be installed.  We decided to add these parts to our current bid and found we could save quite a bit of money buying them through the bid.  Before we returned home, we gathered up all these items and returned them to Home Depot.  We received store credit which we will give right back to Home Depot when we finalize our bid.

Stats: 3 Home Depot trips; 0 Walmart trips
Remodeling expense 4/11-4/23: -$313
Remodeling expense to date: $26,122

No More Fire Hazard!

We finally finished putting up the drywall on all the outside walls.  Since we installed all the insulation over the Thanksgiving Holiday, and since insulation is supposed to be covered as soon as possible so as not to be a fire hazard, we are lucky our little house survived these past 5+ months.  This last wall was the most difficult!  It is the east wall of the family room and it is almost 24 feet long.  Because both the roof and floor slope in this room, we had to cut each piece of drywall on the diagonal.  To make the process harder, we were working behind the pile of drywall that we're storing on the family room floor and we had to stagger the vertical seams.  Because of this, we ended up putting up the bottom drywall before the top which is not recommended by any of the drywall hanging websites.  We weren't sure why this would be a problem until we actually had to do it.  For those of you who have never hung drywall, what we discovered is that the reason it is easier to put up the bottom drywall last is you can fudge a little on the bottom spacing.  You can't do that on the top.  You have to get a precise measurement which was no easy feat with our sloping roof line.  It took a lot longer than usual, but we did it and it actually looks really good.

One more piece to go

All the boards are up, but need to finish the screws. Went to a movie and dinner instead

Finished all the screws after dinner and rearranged boards and tools.

We didn't get to try out our new grill this weekend.  I forgot the steaks and I was going to go into to town to pick some up when it started snowing. We decided it wouldn't be the best time to grill out so we went out for for a movie and dinner instead.  The snow fell all day Saturday and into the night.  We got as much or more than when it snowed before New Year's!  It didn't stay around long and by Sunday you couldn't even tell we'd had any.  Since we couldn't go hiking and we didn't have any yard work to do, we headed home early on Sunday.

Snowfall by mid-morning, looks like picture from New Year's

I was worried about the trees and tried to remove excess snow

Zena playing with her ball in the snow

Mike shoveling the last of the snow

Our Christmas gift from Matt was hung up this weekend.

Stats:  1 Home Depot trip; 0 Walmart trips
Remodeling expense 4/4-4/10: $0
Remodeling expense to date: $26,435

Another Two Bite The Dust

Well we are almost finished hanging the drywall on the exterior walls.  We did the two outside walls of the Master bedroom today.  It seems to get easier each time.  Must be learning from our past experience.  We had to cut 5 feet out of one wall for the french doors.  We were concerned about trying to get the top piece up over the doors so we ended up cutting the 12 foot length in half.  Working with a 6 foot section is so much easier – now we’re wishing we’d just ordered the 8 foot pieces of drywall.  Would have resulted in a lot more taping, but the hanging sure would have gone faster!  We are finding that there are some rather large gaps between the ceiling and wall drywall due to the uneven slope of the roof so my sister suggested we use crown molding to cover the seam.  We picked up a couple of pieces at Home Depot and tried them out and found one we like.  It is a curved “cove” molding and it is very subtle which we like because the house is not going to be fancy enough to support traditional crown molding.  Mike also cut the window opening in the family room so we could get more airflow in the house.  We didn’t have to use our heater or A/C this weekend, but we can tell the warm weather is coming soon.

The west wall of the master bedroom

The north master bedroom wall

We can see out the front again and all the windows got cleaned too

Because we didn’t have towel racks in the master bathroom, we’ve been hanging our bath towels on a hook over the door in our bedroom.  I found a wall cabinet, with towel bar, for $25 at Target and Mike put it together and mounted it.  Now we just have to find somewhere for Mike to hang his towel :).

A great place for MY towels

We did a lot of outside work this weekend.  We had hoped to go for a hike on Sunday, but the yard work took most of the day and exhausted us so we will hike another day.  We cut down/pulled up two dead trees (killing one old electric chainsaw in the process) and planted our living Christmas tree.  We also pulled a lot of weeds, trimmed the out of control hedge beast in our front yard and transplanted a “volunteer” side bush to a more suitable location.  Since the weather is getting warmer and we’re only coming up every few weeks, we made some repairs to the sprinkler system, ran a new line under the deck to the rose bush and installed timers on both the front and back spigots (our sprinklers are not automatic).  We also found some really cute solar post lights at Home Depot to add some ambiance to our driveway.  Finally, we added mulch to our front yard trees and rose bush.  Very colorful!

We gave the pine tree that was here time to recover, but alas it had to go

The beast hedge all trimmed proper

Our other pine tree that is still alive

This tree changed color in two weeks

Our living Christmas tree in the ground

Rose bush with mulch and new drip line (at wall)

Two station timer for our front water lines

Solar LED light mounted on our driveway posts

We’ve been having trouble with the tub in the master bath.  The tub/shower faucet did not have a stop point, so it took a little work to get it positioned to be off.  We could not find a replacement in the Payson area so Mike had to jury rig something together which has never quite worked.  This last week he decided he was going to go to every plumbing  store in the valley until he found the replacement stem and he did – at Central AZ Supply in Mesa.  He was able to replace the mechanism and the tub is now good as new.  He also fixed a tiny leak that had developed under the house in the winterizing drain he installed last year.

We made some improvements in the kitchen by bringing up some unused shelving.  It is amazing how nice it is to have our food supplies organized and accessible.  I told Mike I could be happy with this setup for a kitchen until we’re ready to retire, but then I made a comment about the sink being too small and now he doesn’t believe me.  While at Home Depot, Mike decided to get a new gas grill.  The one we have been using is a tabletop model and just wasn’t manly enough (I guess) so now we have one that he assures me will get used every weekend we are up there.  I just need to remember to pack the steaks.

More places to store our stuff and easier to access

Just a small grill, but bigger than the camping one we've been using

This was also our first weekend trip where we stayed Sunday night and came back to the valley early Monday morning.  We woke up at 5:30am and was able to leave the house by 6am (no need to winterize anymore).  The traffic was almost non-existent and Mike was still able to make it in to work around 8am.  We may start to do this more when the weekend traffic gets heavier this summer.

Stats:  2 Home Depot trips; 1 Walmart trip
Remodeling expense 3/21-4/3: $261
Remodeling expense to date: $26,435

Spring Is Starting to Spring

We arrived at our place Friday afternoon to a stunning display of purplish leaves on our tree out front.  We found quite a few trees starting to bring in new colors throughout the neighborhood and town.

Beautiful bloom on our tree in the front yard

We brought with us a new counter-top convection oven to give ourselves more cooking options than the microwave and a bullet-like mixer.  Both were quite a deal at Kohls.  We spent the late afternoon rearranging the kitchen and getting the house out of its winterized condition.  Since the days are getting longer, we had time to take a neighborhood walk while there was still light.

Our kitchen keeps growing with more stuff

Will soon need more counter space

We are determined to hang drywall on the exterior walls of at least one room every weekend we come up.  This weekend we did the guest (Matt's) bedroom.  Mike spent some time in the morning removing the rest of the paneling in the small hallway so we could pass the long sheets of drywall through the wall studs in the den.  He also removed other pieces of paneling that remained around the doors in the hall and bedroom.  Since we have been using the guest bedroom to store all our tools, Mike had to clear them all out to give us room to work.  He then spent some extra time removing dried spray foam insulation from around the windows.

Removing paneling around door

Multi-tool has been a great asset

Opening through den to guest room

While Mike was working, I wanted to visit the local paint store to look at a product I had seen there last year that might work for a remodel we are planning for our pool deck in the valley.  I also stopped at the grocery store and snuck into a thrift shop (unbeknownst to Mike) while I was out.

When I got home, we started the drywalling.  This was our first attempt to hang drywall without Matt.  We were concerned about moving the sheets, but did not really have many issues.  It was fun taking the sheets through the wall as I could walk right through carrying the sheet (my diet is actually paying off), but Mike had to set it down and walk around.  He could fit through the stud openings, but not with the drywall.  We didn't plan well for the first sheet we moved and ended up taking it in backwards.  Since the sheets are the full length of the room, we could not turn it around and had to bring it all the way back out and do it again.  More thought went into the other three sheets, but we still got it wrong on the third sheet.  It only took about five hours, but we did complete the two exterior walls in that room.

A picture to prove I am working

Done for the day and my thrift store coveralls

We had a leisurely morning on Sunday and then started some yardwork.  Mike continued his spraying of all the weeds and I watered bushes/trees and pulled up an awful looking vine that had fallen off one of our brick walls.  Before going home, we went on a 2 hour hike just west of our house.  There is a north part of the trail and a south part, but the two do not yet meet.  We wanted to see if we could find a connection to get from one to the other and we did (mostly due to someone thoughtfully placing yellow ribbons on trees) - down the side of a hill, through brush and some cactus and we were on the south trail at last.  This took us back to some town roads which looped back up to our place.  We think we hiked about 6 miles, though next time we will remember our camera and GPS.

It is possible that the temperatures will still get to freezing at night before we make it back, so we winterized the place again (hopefully the last time for awhile) and took off for home.

Stats:  0 Home Depot trips; 0 Walmart trips (Wow that's a first!!)
Remodeling expense 3/7-3/20: $0
Remodeling expense to date: $26,174