Water Heater Revisited and More

We are back on schedule for weekend visits to our Payson place.  During the winter, we try to visit only one weekend per month due to the cost of heating since the crawlspace insulation is not done yet.  But this weekend was like spring with daytime temperatures in the 70s and 40s at night.

This trip was special as we brought up our very first ATV that we bought last week from a neighbor who buys them and fixes them up.  We had been wanting one (actually two) for awhile, but the timing was never right.  Our neighbor usually only resells 2x4 units, but found a 4x4 and knew we were interested so he picked it up for us.  It is a smaller unit (Polaris 330) and will work well for Laurie.  It fit in the back of the pickup just fine and the truck had no issues getting to Payson with it on board.  We got the unit for off-road activities, but also to use for store runs (cheaper on gas).  An ATV needs to have certain items to be street legal in AZ and this unit was missing two of those requirements: a rear-view mirror and a horn.  Mike bought the necessary parts online and was able to install the mirror before our trip, but brought the horn parts with us.  After a run to Home Depot (cheaper than the auto store) for the necessary connectors and wire, he was able to install the horn.  The unit is now ready to be licensed for the road.  We planned to get the title transferred on Monday, forgotting that it was a government holiday, so now Laurie will need to visit the Chandler MVD sometime this week.

Laurie's new quad

We did start to look for an ATV for Mike, but Laurie had lunch with her dad last week who has a larger ATV they rarely use and they agreed to let us keep it in Payson and they will just swing by and pick it up if they need it.  We did not have room to take it up this trip, so we will get it next month and have two ATVs up north.

Last month when we were at the house, we had an issue with running out of hot water when taking showers.  This has not happened since we replaced the elements many months ago.  In addition, we have not been able to drain the tank the last few times we have tried.  We decided to look at replacing the unit (it has a 6 year warranty and we have been there 3 1/2 years), but found that Home Depot is changing from the GE brand to Rheems (who makes the GE units) and they will be more efficient than the GE; however, they will not be available in the store until March or April.  So we decided to hold off for now and see if we could find out what was troubling our unit.  We spent most of the afternoon slowly draining (bucket by bucket) the tank.  Then Mike removed the elements and found our fairly new lower element was completely coated with crud.  Looking though the element hole, we could see the tank had quite a bit of sediment at the bottom.  Mike used the shop vac to suck out most of the garbage.  We had heard that white vinegar will dissolve the build-up so we poured a couple of gallons into the tank, with some water, and let is sit for a few hours.  We drained the tanks, cleaned off the elements, and put the unit back together, then filled it and drained it again.  After this, our hot water situation was much improved.  We will see if this lasts or if installing a new water heater is in our future.

Water heater torn apart again

Tools of the trade to clean it out

The more corroded one on the left has already been cleaned some. Bottom of bucket has some of the tank crud.

In the valley, we have powered Malibu lights in the front and back yards.  Mike has had to repair and replace a few of the Malibu lights since we have lived in the house.  So instead of running electric for lights at our place up north, we installed solar LED lights in the front yard.  We thought they would be better to have and easier to maintain - not true.  Not only do they not put out a lot of light, every year you have to replace the batteries and then, in a couple of years, the plastic gets all cracked and they have to be completely replaced.  This weekend was that time for our two post lights, which were the first ones we installed.  We found a good price for them through Home Depot online and bought two sets, so now we are ready for the next replacement - hopefully at least 2 years down the road.

Both posts got new lights

One night we took some time to build a fire in our outdoor pit.  We have not had one in quite awhile and really needed to burn some tree branches that Mike has cut down over the year.  We have decided to burn them rather than have them go in the dumpster. While it was still light out, we broke up quite a bit of the branches and stocked up the pit.  We used some of the dry grass left in the yard for a starter.  After dinner and once it got dark, we lit the fire and that old dried wood made quite a roaring fire.  We had to wait for it to settle down before Laurie could roast her marshmallows.  Now we need to have about 20 more of those fires to get rid of all the wood we've been stacking.

Last year was the worst year for our back yard and dead grass.  The yard was clean in July, but infrequent visits after that, combined with lots of rain, brought a sea of green to the yard.  While Matt was there, he was able to apply weed killer and cut down the growth, but it left quite a bit of dead stuff in the yard.  Mike had tried one of those weed torches a year or two ago, but it did not work very well and we returned it.  However, with the current weed issue, apart from rototilling the whole yard, we could not think of another way to get rid of the dead grass.  So we bought a new unit at Home Depot and this one uses a long hose to hook up to a 20 gallon propane tank, like you would use on a BBQ.  At the first attempt, the flame was very lame.  It would not stay lit and took forever to burn just a few spots. Mike had just taken the tank to be filled and had found that it was only low a couple of gallons, even though he could not get anything out of it when it was hooked up to our grill.  The station attendant said the valve can get stuck and to bang the tank on a hard surface.  After hitting the tank on concrete and banging on the valve with a wrench, he tried the torch again and it was like a jet engine.  It shot a flame out that started burning up big patches of dried foliage.  We had to double team the effort to keep the fire from getting out of control.  We did just a small section of the side of the house and, part-way into it, our smoke alarm in the house went off.  The windows were open and the smoke was blowing into the house.  It was starting to get too windy, so we stopped burning and made sure all small fires were out.  Cannot wait to do the rest of the yard and have it all cleaned up, hopefully without burning up the neighborhood.

This whole area was covered in dead grass

The darker spots are burnt grass, which we dispersed with our shoes.

The weed torch

Since we did not take pictures of the new gutters last trip, here is what they look like.

The new gutter system

Cannot wait to see how they work in a rain

Part of the work here included raising the center post to remove a dip in the porch roof

I got this picture of the gutters in the back, but not of the ones on the next patio.  The sun was too bright.

Stats: 4 Home Depot trips; 1 Walmart trip
Remodeling expense 1/27/14-2/17/14: $0
Remodeling expense to date: $39,406

End of 2013 - Unexpected Guests and Too Much OT

We are again behind on our blog entries for the house in Payson, but in reality we have not done any improvements and have not really been at the house much since July.  We are hoping to complete the interior of the house (with the exception of the kitchen) in 2014 and, more importantly, insulate our crawlspace area to help with winter heating bills.

After our annual 4th of July event with our friends from our MRKLUD group (and our son and new daughter-in-law), we had plans to work on the incomplete house items.  The major events from the first half of the year were completed and we were looking forward to focusing on the house.  The last activity we needed to do was to help our son move into house they were buying in Southern AZ at the end of July.  Just days before signing off on the house, Matt lost his job.  When he went a few months with no job offers, we convinced them to move to our Payson house while he continued to look.  By the end of September, they were moved into our place.  This put a hold on all improvements as the house was quite full with all of their extra items and we felt it might be a little awkward being at the house for long periods of time while they were living there.

In addition to all that, Mike had a work project that ramped up into full force in October and he had to spend extra hours working and we ended up canceling many of our planned weekends to Payson.  Then, at the beginning of December, he traveled to Hawaii (island of Oahu) to complete the project he was working on.  At the same time, we had planned a vacation to the Big Island and Kauai for almost three weeks during the Christmas/New Year holidays.  Mike's work schedule on Oahu got extended and, instead of coming home for a few days between work and vacation, he went straight to our vacation stop.  By the time it was all over, he had been away from home for 35 days.

Just before our vacation, our son found a job in North Las Vegas and, within one week, they moved all there stuff there, rented a house, and moved in.  Before the job came through, we had made plans with one of our contractors to install new gutters around the house.  Prior to moving, our son was able to help with that activity by taking down the old gutters and painting the trim since Mike could not get away from work to do it.  The gutters were done just before our vacation and Laurie was able to close up the house for the winter after the kids moved.  Then she met Mike in Hawaii for a wonderful multi-week vacation, part of which was spent with our friends.

Now we are back to the real world and have made two trips to the house since our return.  Laurie spent a few days during the week cleaning the house as there was not a lot of time to do that between Matt and Danielle moving out and her leaving for Hawaii.  Then the two of us went back up this weekend just to relax and finish some cleanup of things left from the gutter work and projects our son was working on.  As much as we loved having our son and daughter-in-law close, and are very thankful for God providing this wonderful house that they could use during this rough spot, it was wonderful to have the place to ourselves and back to normal.  We forgot to take pictures of the new gutter system for the blog, but will get them on the next trip.

Remodeling expense 7/8/13-1/20/14: $1,355
Remodeling expense to date: $39,406

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