The kitchen continues to come along, though nothing seems to move as quickly as I would like, or imagine.  Part of that may simply be the result of an overly optimistic, mental timeline, but the seemingly constant, unforeseen issues that pop up and need correction certainly slow things down at times, as well.

The new island is in, the new light fixtures over it are now in, and we’re moving ever closer to spraying the texture and painting.  Anybody that has ever done sheet rock knows that the process includes a lot of sanding to get the plaster smooth.  That sanding results in a great deal of dust that just seems to coat everything.  I won’t miss it when we finally wrap up this remodel, but I’m afraid this is just one room; we still have a few other rooms to do.

I’ve whined before about the impending arrival of fall and cooler weather.  Admittedly, some of my obsession is nothing more that a touch of fear of the unknown.  We have been watching the leaves turn from the front porch of the house and yesterday, we woke up to a bit of snow on the car.

By late afternoon, I was outside in a t-shirt, so clearly, this was nothing but a tease of things to come.  I’m pleased to report, however, that we’ve made a little more forward progress.  A technician came out on Tuesday to turn our furnace on, and the county inspector was scheduled to come out on Wednesday to make sure everything was up to code.  On Monday, I remembered that the installer had mentioned that we would need to have CO2 detectors on each floor in order to pass that inspection.  I rushed down to the Ace and bought the only three hardwired smoke detector  / CO2 alarms they had in stock.  We started checking and discovered that even though there was a ceiling fixture on each floor with wires in them, they were wired to each other, but they were not hooked up to power.  So, after working on the kitchen all day, we stayed until nearly 9:00 pm to get those detectors installed properly.  The building inspector arrived about noon on Wednesday, glanced at the furnace, made a little small talk about our view, and left.  All that time, sweat, and worry, and he never even noticed what a great job we had done with our code-mandated safety efforts.  It reminded me of those big inspections we had in the Army where we’d stay up all night cleaning, buffing, polishing, and arranging our equipment just so.  We even slept on the floor so as not to wrinkle the blankets on the bed, only to have the Commander poke his head in the door, nod, mumble a cursory ‘mmm hmmm’ and then leave.  After all that effort, you just wanted to drag them back in and make them acknowledge how perfectly you had rolled your socks and precisely you had your footwear lined up under the bed.

At the end of the day, we have a county-approved furnace that is keeping the chill at bay and we’ve started using our fireplace for a bit of added warmth and ambiance.  Oh, and it’s a good way to get rid of 2×4 scraps.

People keep asking about Digger Guy and whether or not our septic system is finished.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I offer a visual answer.  At the bottom of these two photos is a large equipment box that he left in the driveway.  It contains the tools and fittings he’ll need to connect the house plumbing to the new tank once it’s completely installed.  A hint……  look at the leaves on the trees in the background.

He couldn’t show up because it was raining.  He couldn’t finish because he didn’t have enough dirt.  He had dirt delivered and he couldn’t finish because the dirt had too many rocks.  He got the right dirt delivered and he couldn’t finish because he had to drive to Denver to pick up a check.  It’s been a little aggravating, though to be honest, there’s a certain amusing quality to it all, too.  It helps that we have a little time before we actually need it to be functioning, but still….

He sent me a message on Wednesday saying he’d see me yesterday morning.  He finally showed up and got to work about 4:30 pm, just as I was finishing up for the day.

I’m going to head down and make a little more dust, and then we’re going to use some of our points to spend the weekend in a hotel.  Ahh….  the idea of standing under a shower spray with unlimited hot water and sleeping in a king sized bed!!!!  I just hope we can remember how to work those newfangled flush toilet thingys.

According to the calendar, it’s still summer for another couple of days.  While it may not even be autumn yet, it seems like winter is already beginning to arrive up in the northern Rockies.  Early snowfall in Montana is a welcome relief for our friends and family there who have been suffering with the numerous forest fires for the past couple of months.

Meanwhile, here in the southern Rockies, the trees are beginning to change and the winds have a bit of a chill to them.  The weather report on tonight’s news was forecasting a mix of snow and rain down in Woodland Park this weekend.  Since we’re nearly 2000 feet higher here, I’m curious to see whether we might see our first snow of the year.  But, our propane tank is full, our new furnace will be turned on on Tuesday, and thanks to my brother-in law, I have a pretty good start on a supply of firewood, too.  I think I’ve mentioned that the previous resident here had been operating a sawmill on the property….  there are a number of logs lying strewn around the property, a huge pile of slabs and end cuts, and even a fair amount of cut and split firewood, though it’s scattered all over and needs to be collected.  While I worked down at the house, Mike was nice enough to work on the problem for me; cutting and splitting enough to fill my utility trailer.

                 

I towed the trailer down this morning and moved the wood to the empty pallets under the front porch.  There’s probably a cord there, and I need to gather more, but it’s a great start and despite the splinters in my hands, it gives me a little peace of mind.  I suppose next time I could wear gloves.

Meanwhile, I think we have the electrical figured out and the kitchen is coming along.  Our electrical panel was moved out of the pantry and into the ‘sewing room’, which means the electrician had to install several junction boxes to extend the various wires so they’d reach the new breaker box.  Not only did he not bother to write down which circuits controlled which rooms, but he didn’t even connect all of the wires to circuit breakers.  Believe it or not, the county electrical inspector didn’t seem to take issue with bare, unconnected wires simply tucked inside the panel.

I don’t have the cabinets in yet, but we’re closer.  I’ve got the sheet rock up and some of the tape and mud done.  It’s beginning to look like something!  Here’s a look at the before and now.

 

After another short break, we’re back to work on the house and beginning to feel like we might actually be making some progress.  With some subtle changes in the weather lately, getting out of the 5th-wheel and into the house is taking on a new sense of urgency.  The mornings are still clear and warm and the afternoons are still bringing rain and thunderstorms, but there’s a bit more chill in the air and the trees are starting to show their fall colors.  Winter may not be far off.

Sandi and I made a quick trip back to Washington to attend our daughter’s wedding and wrap things up with our house there.  I had no idea that we had so much stuff that the 26 foot U-haul and my utility trailer wouldn’t be enough, but with the camper shell on my pickup and a 12 foot, enclosed trailer, we managed to get just about everything that was left.  Thanks to some great friends and a couple of our kids, the few things we left behind either found new homes or ended up at the dump, and the house is ready for it’s new owners.  This trip back was completely issue-free; no lost pets, no washed-out driveway, and no tow-truck bills.  Sandi’s sister and brother-in-law both recently retired, so they followed us down to see our adventure first hand and help us out a bit.

The Digger Guy saga continues.  When we left for Washington, he had brought his equipment to the property and was going to get started the next day, promising we would have an operating septic system by the time we returned.  We had barely gotten on the road that morning when he sent us a message asking for some money up front for the purchase of the tank.  Fortunately, we hadn’t gone too far and we were able to meet with him and get him taken care of.  When we returned a week and a half later, I was glad to see the progress he’d made, but I wasn’t terribly surprised to see that he wasn’t finished as we had hoped.

The old tank has been collapsed and filled, the new hole has been dug just down the slope, and the new tank has been set into place.  It still needs to be connected and buried, but surprising absolutely no one, we’ve hit a new snag.  When he came out to finish the job, the bearings went out on the excavator.  He contacted a machinist friend in Texas who crafted new bearings for him, but they didn’t arrive until last night.  As of this morning, repairs and maintenance are underway and he expects to be back out later this afternoon or early tomorrow.  As a side note, he seems to be a really decent, hardworking guy.  I’m not sure his business management skills are what they could be, but he does seem to be trying to get us up and running.  The aggravating thing is that this experience seems pretty typical of contractors in this area…..  a little slower and less reliable than you might find in other parts of the country.

But, we’re not sitting idly by while we wait.  We ordered our kitchen cabinets a month ago, and they came in while we were gone.  I’m really beginning to dread these trips to Colorado Springs, but this time, neither traffic nor the weather posed any problems, so we made it down, got the trailer loaded, and made it back with no problems.

I have a little bit of electrical and sheet rock work to do before I can actually install them, but we have our cabinets, and they look pretty good.