Cody, WY

On Saturday morning we drove to Billings and shopped at the Ferguson Kitchen, Bath and Lighting Store.  Talk about $pensif !!  We saw some nice deep, wide, jetted tubs, but we just want the wide,deep part. 

We went to Home Depot and Lowe's to shop.  We really like the wood look-a-like porcelain tiles at HD.  At Lowe's we purchased the front door and a lock set.  We also picked up three pendant lights for the bar area.  With a big door laying in the bed of the truck and a thunderstorm approaching, we decided that we would get our groceries in Cody instead of in Billings.

I think we will probably just end up ordering our tub online.  We saw a nice large tub offered by Kohler with a bow front apron that should be roomy - especially if you use a curved shower curtain rod with it.

On Sunday morning we drove to Cody, ate breakfast at Bubba's Barbecue, and then went to Wal*Mart to get our groceries.  This was a big grocery trip because we did not buy groceries last month. 

When we got home, we put the food away and then I went outside and changed the oil and oil filter on the truck.  The truck has 199,200 miles now.  I put another bottle of Slick 50 in with this oil change.

We sure have a lot to do in the coming weeks.  We still need a refrigerator, washer and dryer.  We have to get all of the interior doors and lock sets, we need to get the floor coverings, and all of the lighting fixtures. 

Take Off

Bob rode to Cody with me today.  We ate breakfast at Granny's and then we went to the courthouse. 

Bobby shopped at Wal*Mart and got his hair cut during the morning.  He came back to the courthouse at noon and we went to The Sunset House to meet Chris, Laura, and Katie. 

Chris had shop approval drawings from Enercept ready for us.  He also had an invoice for the cost of panels, interior framing, nails, caulking, equipment rental, house wrap, tape, and of course, labor.  I will deliver the signed approval drawings and a monster check for $62,909.57 to them tomorrow to get the order placed and into production.

Laura also had a few renderings of the house in different colors and siding combinations.  She showed these to us on her tablet computer, right there at the lunch table.  None of the combinations she presented really excited me, but she is going to keep working on it.

The expected panel delivery date is sometime between July 10 and July 15.

Bob spent the afternoon at the Cody Public Library reading.  He came back to the office around 4:45 and we drove back to Powell. 

For dinner we had a whole chicken that had slowly cooked in the crock pot all day long.  It was falling apart.  I think Bob is going to make chicken soup tomorrow with the leftovers.

Things are finally starting to take off!

Powell, WY

Bob and Buddy sitting on a rock outcrop.

Yes, quite a bit has happened since I last wrote.  It's hard to stay motivated to write when progress on the house is going so slowly!

Friday afternoon, Earl, the maintenance guy for The Real Estate Connection, came to fix the sprinklers in the yard.  Mrs Christensen was out there chatting him the whole time and then she went inside to bake him some cookies!  We are pretty sure we know who bitched and complained about us not running the sprinklers.

On Friday evening I tried to rent a vibratory floor sander to get the last of the sealer off of our concrete slab, but both sanders in Cody were rented by KOA Campground and would remain rented for 5 or 6 more weeks - they are refinishing cabin floors.

So, we postponed our camping trip until we could get a sander.  On Saturday morning we went to Billings and got the sander and some stain and sealer.  Now we were ready to camp and work.

We went to Clark on Saturday evening and set up our camp.  Bob brought a big queen-size air mattress because "I am getting too old to sleep on the ground."  Well, he inflated it and it was too big to fit into the tent!  So he had to deflate it, put it into the tent and re-inflate it.  It was too big for the tent.  The sides of the tent were bulging and we could not get the door zipped shut!

Our neighbors from down the road, the Stoltz's dropped by to leave their business card.  Gordon Stoltz has a small construction company.  We promised to keep him in mind for possible concrete or tile work in the future.

It was warm as we set up the camp and started the fire, but within 15 minutes of the sun setting it began to get chilly.  Bob went to put on his flannel shirt and we sat closer to the fire.

During the night  the dog escaped from the tent because the door wouldn't zip all the way down and the air mattress sagged from under him.  I opened the door, called to him, "You get back in this house!", and he hopped back inside. 

In the few moments that I had the flap open I looked up at the sky. Wow!  The moon had set behind the mountains and the sky was very dark.  Very dark.  Darker than we EVER saw it in Florida, and even darker than in Powell.  You could see MILLIONS of stars and the Milky Way stretched across the sky like a big milky river!!  Truly impressive.  You will appreciate that when you get here.

On Saturday we set up our portable generator and began sanding the slab.  We had to stop every five feet to keep the sander from stalling out and tripping the breaker.  We eventually got the entire slab sanded down, but the paper loaded up on the sealer and we were not able to get all of it off of the concrete.

So, we changed our minds about the floor.  Since we could not get the sealer all up, it was not worth wasting $350 on stain and sealer that would end up splotchy and unacceptable.  So, Bob returned these on Monday morning along with the sander we rented in Billings.  We have decided to tile the downstairs (except for the bedroom, which will have a cork floor).

Yesterday morning I left Bob and Daisy at Dr. Bischoff's clinic.  Daisy had an appointment for spaying at 7:30 AM.  She came through her surgery just fine.  In fact, she was ready to go home at 11:00, but they kept her until 3:30 to watch her.  She was a little groggy for the rest of the afternoon, but today she is just fine.

This is what a brand-new meter reads.

After work today, I was headed home and realized that it was only 5:10 PM.  On the spur-of-the-moment, I decided to come home via Clark, so I turned onto WY 120 West and headed to Clark.  I went out to our property to ostensibly to check on the slab, but as I rounded the curve on the north side of our property, I noticed something different - something standing up behind the red address marker.  Then I realized it was  the new power meter pedestal!  I glanced across the road and saw a new power pole with transformer too! 

We have electric power at 160 Brushland Drive now!

Pole, transformer, pedestal, and meter.

Because the footprints and tire tracks had been rained on, and the fact that Beartooth Power does not work on weekends, I am guessing the service was put in on Monday or Tuesday.

Tomorrow at noon we are meeting the Gunn's at The Sunset House for lunch.  We will approve panel shop drawings and hopefully get a dollar figure from Chris to submit our Construction Loan Draft with.  Then we can (FINALLY) get the panels ordered.

I warned Bob that we would have endless delays.  It's better to be prepared for disappointment.  Still, once the panels are delivered, the house should go up fast, and hopefully we can move in before it gets cold.

Panel Shop Drawings

I kept a close watch on the clock yesterday afternoon at work to make sure that I could get out of the office on-time.  I made sure that my scanning was caught up and that I had my titles and UCC paperwork all filed in order and I left right at 5:00 PM.

Even on the very best day it takes at least 25 minutes to dash from Cody to Powell.  I arrived at 5:30 and Bob had sandwiches he fetched from Subway ready for dinner.

We ate and then went back out at 5:45 to meet Laura Viklund and Chris Gunn, our building contractor.  They live out on the Willwood Division and it's at least a 7 mile drive to their house.  We arrived to find that Chris is working on their wooden deck.  Like the rest of the house, the deck will be constructed on a massive timber frame.

Chris and Laura can't wait to get started on our little house and they had some panel shop drawings ready for us to review from Enercept, the SIP manufacturer.  Chris warned us that the SIP prices went up about 5% and the door/window package increased about 2%.  On a $30,000 package of SIPs the price will increase about $1,500, and I told him that we could absorb that because the electric service extension came in less than it was quoted last year.

We identified a $1000 savings by replacing the really nice Pella craftsman-style front door with leaded cut glass in the window with a Lowe's Reliabilt craftsman-style door with 1/4 illumination and 6 panes.  The door we are going to use is only about $200.

One change we agreed to make was to have the exterior doors open inward.  I wanted the back door and the roof door to open out, but Laura said that it is a pain to use a screen door when the weatherproof door opens that way.

Chris is going to help us with our search for a tub/shower insert by providing some catalogs for a company that only sells to contractors.  Hopefully we can find something we like quickly.

If the panel drawings come back and we sign them for approval, we will have to provide a check for 50% of the cost to place the order.  The lead time is about two to three weeks right now.

Right after that we will have to get busy selecting colors for the siding, roofing, and trim.

We came home and spent an hour and a half reading the panel shop drawing.  Mostly we made sure the rough openings for the doors and windows were the correct size for the doors and windows on the schedule.  I also checked to make sure the locating dimensions were right.

I didn't really sleep very well last night.  I was warm and couldn't really get comfortable.  As a result, I ended up spending most of the day in a foggy haze.

There were a few light thundershowers today.  That really drove the humidity up.  

During lunch today I went to Woodward Equipment Rentals and reserved a vibratory floor sander.  I am going to sand the slab lightly this weekend and get it prepared for acid staining.  I will have the entire slab stained and sealed before they come to place the walls on it.

Because we are planning to be in Clark all day Saturday, we are thinking about camping out there on Friday night. 

Yard Sale

 "This is LENOX china!  This is THE BEST china made in the United States, not England!  You are not asking enough for it!!"  Claimed one old lady as she saw our plates priced at 50¢ each.

Too bad she didn't buy anything.

"You guys have that pretty orange fungus growing on your porch.  You know people take rocks with that growing on it and make fireplaces out of it?  Then they pour beer on the fireplace to feed the fungus?" 

Uhhh... no Sir, we did not know that, but we have a bunch of rocks with orange, blue, gray, all kinds of colors of fungus growing on them out on our property.

"What is this?  How is it used?  Does it work?  Will you take $7 for it?"

"What no tools?  No country CD's?  What's the matter with you guys?"

I don't really know, but he still bought Salvador Dali's Temptation of St Anthony for $5.00.

"No hunny, write a check to these nice guys.  If you write a check we can use it as a business deduction later."

This was said by the real estate agent who purchased our dining room set, sliding waste baskets, and a couple of paintings.

"I just want you two to know that those bar stools are polyester and NOT LEATHER like you told me!  I saw the tag on the bottom as I was unloading them."

Well whoopie lady, you got the damned things for $10 each.  What did you think they were made of?

Our steel bed headboard and footboard were purchased by a lady named Cleo.  She did not want the side rails - just the headboard and footboard.  "I am going to spray paint them red and put them into my garden.  I am making a 'flower bed'."   Not exactly how I had envisioned the next life for that bed!  Ha!

It was amazing to watch which things sold and which items did not sell.  Some items were handled many  times before someone decided to take it. Most people willingly paid full asking price for our stuff too.

On Monday morning Bob is going to walk to Bank Of The West to deposit $556.50 from our yard sale.  If you subtract the $100 we had for change, and add $27 we took out to buy breakfast and lunch, we made about $483 - that's enough to get a dishwasher for the new house!  I think Project Yard Sale was a success.

Bob will also call Habitat for Humanity's Restore Thrift Shop on Monday to schedule a pick up of the items that did not sell.  We are donating everything except for the Selectavision player and Selectavision movies, the Super 8 mm film projector, old 45 RPM record player, and console stereo.  We will attempt to auction those items on eBay.com.

I am glad I have tomorrow off because we will need that time to recover and get our laundry done.

Project Yard Sale

We've been busting our butts these past three days opening all of the boxes in the storage room and deciding what to keep and what to put out on our yard sale.  When we started the storage room was packed to the ceiling with boxes.  Now half of it is gone.

The living room is cluttered up with items with little neon yellow price tags on them.  We just have a narrow path to the kitchen and another narrow path to the front door.

We have filled two dumpsters with packing material and boxes.  Just an insane amount of paper to wrap our stuff and keep it safe.

Opening some of the boxes was like Christmas because the items inside have not been seen, in some cases, in YEARS.  We had forgotten that we had some of this stuff.

Tomorrow I will go to the bank and get $100 to make change with.  I will hang the yard sale signs.  I will mow the lawn.  I will stage the tables and boxes.

Our yard sale will be Friday and Saturday.  Bob ran an ad in both newspapers.  We have been warned that shoppers will begin arriving as early as 6:00 AM!  I hope we make some money and move some of our unneeded stuff.

We are both sore and tired.

Weekend

We are exhausted.  Quite a busy weekend for us.

On Saturday morning we got up and I made scrambled eggs with cheese with Canadian bacon and Blood Orange Pu Ehr tea.  Then I mowed the front yard and loaded pallets into the bed of the truck.  It was Buddy's birthday today too.  At 8:00 AM, the Birthday Boy had his check up with Dr. Bischoff DVM.

Of course, every time he goes to the vet he is very excited.  The doctor gave him his three-year rabies shot, checked his lymph nodes, ears, eyes, teeth, and put him on the scale.  He weighs 52 pounds.  He was so excited on the scale that he squatted and peed right on the rubber mat!

We've decided to go ahead and schedule Daisy's operation.  She is going to be fixed at 7:30 AM on June 18.

HF Predator 3200/4000 watt gen set.

We took Buddy back home and then we got into the truck, gassed it up, headed to Clark to drop off the pallets.  We stopped and talked with our neighbor, Daniel Glick for a few minutes.  He has three goats, some chickens, two dogs, and four horses now.

After this we headed to Billings.  We did not have as much money as we had planned on having, so we cut back our planned purchases.  The first thing we did was go to Macon and return the citrus stripper that we did not use.  That stuff is $175 for a 5-gallon can!

Next we went to Lowe's to order a vessel sink for the half bath and order the two special order interior

Nyla vessel basin faucet.

doors for the house.  We picked up a faucet for the vessel sink and an extra large rural mailbox too.  The doors and sink have a four-week lead and they will call us when they come in.

We stopped for lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings.  We both had fish tacos with fries, and we shared 12 wings (6 with spicy hot Carribean jerk and 6 with lemon pepper).  After lunch we headed over to Harbor Freight Tools to get a portable generator to use on the construction site.  While we were there, Bob made an impulse purchase and got a small gasoline powered water pump.

He intends to use the pump to draw water from the river and fill a tank on the trailer or on the truck.  We could use river water to water our garden or water our stock.

This was the last stop and we headed back to Powell after this.  The trip consumed 3/4 tank of gas.

Today we had scrambled eggs with onions, mushrooms, and cheese and black tea for breakfast.

The Pacific HydroStar gas powered pump.

We read the directions for each and then put gas and oil into the generator, started it up, and let it run for awhile.  We are going to test run the pump too, but you cannot run it dry.  We need some 1-inch hose and hose fittings before we are ready to run the pump.

After this we spent the afternoon pulling stuff out of boxes and deciding whether it will stay or go.  If it goes, we have to decide how much to ask for it and put a price tag on it.  We are having a yard sale on Friday and Saturday.

It is amazing how much stuff we have that we have decided we could live without!  We are probably going to have a very large sale.  We filled two dumpsters with our packing materials so far and had to leave a few boxes full inside the house until the garbage truck goes tomorrow.  I will post a picture of our yard sale.  This will reduce the amount of stuff we have to move out to Clark and it surely reduces the amount of stuff we have to store in Clark.

Now I am showered and shaved and relaxing with a bottle of cold hard pear cider.  Back to the grind stone tomorrow.  I have to take $10 that I do not have out of the ATM to pay for my CPR/First Aid/AED class tomorrow morning.