The Hearth Is Complete

This weekend marked the fifth anniversary of our Payson house.  Our journey began in July of  2010 and we have been trying to share much of that time with all of you (the few readers we have).  Thank you for sticking with us through the years and the many times we did not get our posts online (this past year was the worst).  We definitely thought we would be further along than we are, but if you have been keeping up with us, you know there were many breaks in the past few years that slowed down our progress.  However, we have always said we are not in a rush and we are in it for the long haul. So let's continue with the beginning of year number six.

It only took seven months, but Mike finally completed the hearth this weekend.  We purchased the trim a few weeks ago and, now that the grout was set, Mike cut and secured it around the hearth.  He used brads in a new staple gun we had bought for work at the Gilbert house and nailed the trim into the plywood edge.  Probably should have glued it too, but it is just nailed for now.

We removed the hearth from the tarp it had been sitting on for months and moved it to its final resting place in the corner.  Then we moved the pellet stove out of the den and onto the hearth.  This will give us a better idea of how the venting will work and where it will exit through the wall.  It turned out very nice.  The pellet stove project is not completely done, but it is getting closer.

When it is complete, this is how it should still look

At the beginning of June, Laurie's sister and her husband moved to Arizona after selling their house in Houston, Texas.  Their plan is to buy or build in the Payson area, but in the meantime they are staying in one of Laurie's dad's cabins in Christopher Creek, about 25 minutes from Payson.  We have had a couple of get togethers since they have been in town and this weekend we went over for a fish fry - a Powell family favorite (taco dinners are the other favorite).  As usual the fish were great and there was plenty to eat and, when we left, we were given some un-cooked fish fillets to take home.  We have received fish in the past, but it just never seemed to make it to a dinner plate at our house.  This time Laurie was determined to cook the fish and the next night she did.  It was a little trial and error at first, but the last batch was perfect and it was a great meal.  We took pictures so she could prove to her dad that she actually cooked the fish this time.

Mike thought her family used a special coating, but it is saltines

Fresh fish coated and frying away

Stats: 1 Home Depot trip; 3 Walmart trips
Remodeling expense 7/13/15-7/20/15: $27
Remodeling expense to date: $51,493

Still Recovering From Move

This weekend, we moved some furniture items and boxes into the storage which were too heavy for Laurie to do on her own.  We also assembled our large desk in the den as Laurie wanted to keep it because she really likes it and it has tons of storage.  After it was setup, she is thinking it might be too big for the den, but we left it there for now to give her a chance to decide.

After setting up the washer/dryer in June, we needed to add some shelves to use in the small space remaining in the laundry closet.  We found exactly what we needed at Big Lots and it was a special price cut weekend.  Mike put the shelves together and they fit perfectly.  We now have space to store all our laundry and cleaning items.

It is a snug fit, but it works and holds all the supplies

Once Laurie (and most of our house) was relocated to Payson, we moved all but one of our four vehicles there as well.  The Jeep has been there since we got it back from Matt after he graduated from college and the truck (Titan) and car (Altima) have been there on and off, depending on where we are on any given weekend. Our fourth car, a Mitsubishi Eclipse convertible, has always been in the garage in Gilbert and has only made the Payson run once.  But now Laurie has the Jeep, the Titan and her "fun" car with her all the time.  Since buying the house we have talked about putting in a garage.  It would be nice to have protection from the weather for at least one car, but that will not be happening any time soon as we have a few other more critical items (putting in a kitchen to name one) which need to be accomplished 1st.  In the meantime, the Eclipse is prone to leaking when it rains and the sun is also pretty rough on soft tops.  So Laurie decided to buy a 10'x20' canopy carport from Harbor Freight and we put it in the area of the front yard where we think we will be putting the garage to give us some idea of what it will look like and to shield her car from the elements.  Not sure it really gives us a good idea of what an actual garage would look like, but it does give protection to the car.

The awning blocks some of our view when we are on the porch, but still get the breeze

The car does get some ground splash, but at least it does not leak

Mike also had time this weekend to complete the grouting of the hearth he had built in December for our pellet stove.  Based on all the research he had done, he thought the grouting would go easier, but later he determined it was made more difficult because he used premixed grout and it was thicker and dryer than the products he had seen online.  It still looks good, just took more work to make it clean.  The next step, after the grout cures, will be to add the trim and put it in place.

Mike thought she wanted a pose, but she really wanted an action shot

Action shot - Had to scrub a little harder than he thought to get grout off

Another action shot - Final clean of the tile

The house is slowly getting to a normal state.

Stats: 1 Home Depot trip; 3 Walmart trips
Remodeling expense 6/23/15-7/12/15: $99
Remodeling expense to date: $51,466

Down to One Home

We decided near the end of 2014 that we would sell our home in Gilbert for a couple of reasons.  First: there had been a few rounds of layoffs at Mike's work and, though he was assured his job was safe for another year, we did not want to be in a position of "having" to sell a home.  Second: we felt we could save money by not having upkeep on two homes.  We had already decided our retirement future would not include two homes, so getting out of our Gilbert home would allow us to focus our time and efforts on one house.

After the deck was built, we began to focus our work on getting the Gilbert house ready to go on the market in March.  We had a number of tasks and activities to complete within a short span of time, but got it all finished and on the market on March 14. By the end of the weekend we had numerous offers from anywhere below our asking price to many thousands over.  We picked one from a family we actually got to meet the same day we made our decision and then the clock started ticking.  Everything went smoothly towards the May closing date until about a week before the close.  The new owners had been misinformed about their ability to get financing and they were unable to qualify for the loan.  They asked us to consider renting to them until they were able to purchase the home in October. We decided we would leave it in God's hands by checking on the people with previous offers and if nothing came through, we would go with the rent to own option. Our realtor put in calls to two of our backup offers and found one who still wanted our house and had met Laurie when he toured the house originally.  Even though he had entered into a contract on another house, he did not like the school district.  Then just before he was contacted by his realtor about our house being available again, he received news that the other house did not appraise for the purchase price.  He was able to back out of that deal and go for ours.  We were able to fast-track the process and closed only two weeks later than originally planned. Although the original buyers were originally very sad that they couldn't buy our house, they later realized that it wouldn't have been the best time for them to purchase a home and so it all worked out in the end.

In the meantime, we had rented an apartment near Mike's work for him to live in during the week.  We moved a number of items he would need while living there and then everything else was moved to the Payson house.  We made a few of our regular weekend trips with as many boxes as would fit in the truck or car to help reduce multiple trips later with a rental truck.  Since the Payson house was already pretty full, we had to get creative with our storage.  We have quite a bit of room in the attic of the workshop, but the opening is narrow and not too many large boxes can fit through.  With the new insulation in the crawlspace, we decided to put down plastic and use it to store plastic totes (we heard it was not a good idea to put cardboard under the house).  To make it easier for Laurie to get into those totes, we removed the boards Matt and Mike put up to cover the openings many years ago to keep animals out.  Mike then reattached them using hinges and hooks as he had with the one door we have been using to access the crawlspace.  Now we have 4 separate openings and the only cost was the hardware.

We can now access the crawlspace from more than just one door

What's behind door #2?

BOXES - mostly decorations or camping stuff

Then the real moving day came and we made one Penske truck trip to Payson with most of the big stuff we were keeping (and some we would get rid of later). We did that trip in one day, packing the truck the day before and then driving up, unloading and returning in the afternoon.  The whole process went well until, near the end of the unloading, Mike fell off the truck onto his back and side.  He missed the ramp while trying to get a better grip on a piece of furniture and down he went.  Originally he felt fine enough to complete the move, but as the days went by, he started having pain that could have been from a bruised or cracked rib.  It took over a month to completely heal.

Now the Payson house was packed with boxes and furniture and it would be Laurie's task to sort through it all and choose which items to keep and which to set aside for a future garage sale.  This should have been accomplished quickly, except Laurie started a new full-time job near the end of May.  Since the clearing process could take longer now, we decided to get a storage unit in Payson to store all the boxes and give us room to move around in the house.  Luckily Mike was on a three-week work trip in Hawaii while all this was going on and, by the time he returned, Laurie had quit her job (due to a difference of opinion with her boss over the legality of deducting certain expenses).  Just when we thought we were set to move forward getting the house arranged, Mike came down with bronchitis and was sick for about a month and Laurie developed a bad infection just as Mike was feeling better.

Even though Mike was not feeling 100%, he still came up to Payson (but he did make a trip to the local Urgent Care while in town). Laurie really needed a washer and dryer since she was in Payson full-time now.  We were able to keep our front loading units from the Gilbert house and had decided to use them in Payson.  In order to fit them best into the area we have for the laundry, we had to stack them so we ordered a stacking kit that is made for our washer and dryer.  We spent the afternoon putting the units together and then into place.  We had to buy a few extra parts to complete the install, but it worked out very well.  We still had the external dryer venting in place that we had installed when our son and daughter-in-law lived in Payson for a few months in 2013, so no extra work was required there.

Our stackable front loaders

Mike also put together the expresso Ikea bookshelf we brought up from Gilbert.  It will be one of two large items we kept that will now be in our den in Payson.  It fits like a glove along the back wall with the closet in our den.  However, Mike thinks having both this and a large desk in this room may be too much.  We will see.

Stats: 6 Home Depot trips; 4 Walmart trips
Remodeling expense 2/04/15-6/22/15: $161
Remodeling expense to date: $51,367

A New and Bigger Deck

When we decided to have our deck redone, we had some ideas of what would make it better.  We came up with a design that we felt would best optimize the space.  We extended the depth of the deck from 10 feet to 15 feet.  We moved the stairs from the side of the deck, by the back door, to the side of the deck closer to the concrete patio and had it be next to the deck so it did not extend into the yard.  We felt this placement would be good for when (if) we extend the deck the full length of the house. The design also had an opening in the deck to access the concrete patio.  With the current deck, to get to it from the concrete patio, you either had to climb over the railing or we had to go down into the yard, across the yard and over to the deck stairs.  This new design would gives us more freedom to go between the back patios.

A reminder of what the old deck was like

We gave Bob our design and he drew it up and gave us the supply list.  In order to maximum the promotions offered by Home Depot, we ended up placing two separate orders. They did not stock quite a bit of the wood we needed so it had to be ordered.  Laurie received the call to schedule the delivery, but, when it arrived, it only contained a few pieces of the order. Apparently the delivery person did not realize there were two separate orders. After a lot of phone calls, we got it straightened out, but the 2nd part of the order was not able to be delivered for another week. This threw the schedule out of whack and caused additional delays because Bob had to work it into his other jobs. It was also very rainy during January which pushed the schedule further behind. Not too big of a deal, but a little inconvenient living in a house, with a very active dog, when the back door is not in service.

Over the next few weeks, Laurie was in Payson to help with staining and run errands for supplies and lunch.  Part of the new build also included attaching flashing between the deck and the house as the previous owners had not done a good job installing that.  We had already replaced some wood under the house when we replaced the kitchen flooring due to the flashing issue. 

The staining begins using quite a bit of the front yard (Roscoe the dog supervises)

And some of the backyard

Delivery delays allowed bad weather, not great working conditions

Sunny days brought more staining

Then the work began in the mud

Starting to resemble a deck

Most of the snow is gone, but mud is aplenty

Even during construction, more wood had to be stain and stored

Looks even more like a deck

It looks so much brighter than the old one

Getting there, but still some left to do

At the beginning of February, we had our brand new deck. It really turned out nice and gives us plenty of room.  The access to the concrete patio works very well and the stairs are placed perfectly.  Laurie wanted some accent lighting, so she bought some solar post lights like what we have in the front yard for each of the deck posts.  It looks very pretty at night.  Now we just needed to have a party to test it out.

Now it is complete and looks fabulous,with access from the concrete patio

The color really stands out

The wider depth makes a big difference

A nice, solid staircase

It looks ginormus (yes that s a word)

The spindles turned out great

One more view from the yard

And the stairs from the other side showing the opening in the back to the patio

A great view of the stairs, railings and post lights

Laurie tried to capture the solar led post lights and you can see some near the stairs

Stats: 3 Home Depot trips; 0 Walmart trips
Remodeling expense 12/26/14-2/03/15: $1,857
Remodeling expense to date: $51,206