According to the calendar, Spring has officially arrived!  It’s this time of year that I used to find myself wandering around the yard at our old house; looking at the new growth beginning to bud on the fir and hemlock trees and the blossoms just starting to form on the plants, shrubs, and flowers.  Somehow, I found the process to be really peaceful and reassuring….  sort of signalling an end to the cold, wet, and gray, and welcoming a newer, brighter period.  Of course, it was that oppressive and heavy grayness that prompted our move in the first place.  Here in Colorado, we’ve enjoyed seeing blue skies and sunshine nearly every day, but we’ve had to endure some awfully chilly temperatures.

This year is a little different since the flora and fauna have changed a bit.  The pine trees are starting to develop new growth, and it wont be long before the aspens down in the valley begin to leaf out.  We’re hopeful that the purple wildflowers we saw covering the hillsides last year will return soon, and the deer have already begun hanging around again.

We woke up yesterday morning to brilliant sunshine and 40 degrees with a promise of another t-shirt kind of day.  By noon, we were in the middle of a near-blizzard, with the snow blowing sideways and even straight up, if you can imagine that.  The wind comes in quite strong from down in the valley and hits the rock bluff behind the house, causing the snow to do all sorts of strange things.  By about 3:00, the wind had stopped, the sky had cleared, and all the new snow had melted.  Sandi had gone down to Colorado Springs, where it was in the low 70’s.  Remember, that’s just 15 miles away as the crow flies.  We’re not letting our guard down just yet, though….  the forecast is calling for possible heavy snow overnight on Monday with the potential for 6-10 inches.

This week is sort of significant for a couple of other reasons, too.  I was here for the start of Summer last year, we saw the arrival of Fall a few months later, and we bundled up for the coming Winter in December.  We’ve covered them all, now.

March 18 also marked the one year anniversary of our first visit to the property.  We loved the view, but we went back down to Colorado Springs that evening shaking our heads at how overwhelming it all seemed.  We wrote if off as just ‘too much’ and decided to keep looking for something else.  We woke up the next morning and started talking about how it might be do-able after all, changed our flight, came back up on Monday the 20th to get a second look, and the journey began!

Small spaces don’t typically photograph well, but we’re definitely making progress in the upstairs bathroom.  The new ceiling fan / light / heater is installed and wired, we moved the gfi outlet, the vanity light, and the switches, so the electrical ‘stuff’ is done.  We moved the water supply from the old tub to the new shower, moved the supply lines for the sink, and we extended the drain line for the new shower.  So…  the plumbing ‘stuff’ is done, too.    All of the sheet rock is up, the shower space, the bench, and the shelves in the shower are framed in, and the cement board is starting to go up.  We’re putting in the shower pan today, and we’ve picked out the tile we want to use for the bathroom floor and shower walls.  Plus, we’ve ordered the linen cabinet, shelf, vanity, and mirror, so we’re getting ever-closer.

 

At almost five weeks, I think this is probably the longest we’ve gone without an update.  When I last checked in, we had moved our efforts upstairs and had begun remodeling the bedroom, adding a usable closet, replacing the extensive railings, and completely redoing the master bath.

Before I get to that, I mentioned that we were going to pick up the replacement pantry cabinet for the kitchen.  Of the two we originally brought home, one was damaged so badly that we simply couldn’t use it.  Good news….  the new pantry was in perfect condition and now we’ve got all the cabinets installed.

The railing project has come out really nice.  In place of the old oak hand rails and balusters, we’ve built low walls that will be topped with a hand rail and short, wrought iron balusters.

The closet situation was incredibly inadequate.    Judging from the hardware over the small closet, it appeared that the single, short  rod was hidden by some sort of curtain.  That just isn’t the aesthetic we’re looking for and it seemed rather small.  I don’t have a lot of clothes, and I can count the number of shoes I own on one hand, but this wouldn’t even be large enough for my stuff.  To make matters worse, I live with a woman.  At the risk of sounding sexist (which it probably is), I think we all know that having a larger closet space is critical.

Fortunately, the bedroom was plenty large, so we were able to take about 4 feet from the back of the room and build a walk-in closet along the entire back wall.  Though they aren’t my favorite option, we decided to go with pocket doors on either side of the bed.  That will give us plenty of room for a king sized bed and night stands.  I think this will give us ample space for hanging clothes and plenty of shelves for additional storage.  Plus, it’s going to have new ceiling lights and I got to try my hand at wiring a three-way switch from scratch.  My fingers are crossed that it all works!

 At the same time, we needed to find a little extra space to expand the bathroom a bit.  We decided to remove the old, narrow tub and replace it with a good-sized shower.  The maroon tile was heavy, dark, and imposing, so we just took everything out…  right down to the studs (again!)  At the same time, we wanted to add a little floor space so it didn’t feel so cramped.    The old closet space will basically be the alcove for the shower, we’ll move the toilet over into the corner, and put in a wider vanity.  While we’re at it, we hope to be able to add a linen cabinet, as well.  It won’t be huge, but it should be better than what we started with.

We’ve made a lot of progress even managed to fit in another short road trip.  This time, we drove down to Vegas by way of Santa-Fe, NM, and Flagstaff, AZ.  We were thinking that taking the southern route would keep us away from any nasty, winter road conditions.    Unfortunately, I-40 was just a single, snowy lane all the way from Flagstaff to Kingman, AZ.   We spent a couple of relaxing days hanging out in our room, we won about $150 at the blackjack tables, and got to spend some time with some of our kids and grandkids.  We got to meet our newest granddaughter, too….  she’s awfully cute.   On the way back through Utah, we stopped to see a fellow retiree and his wife in their beautiful new home.  They have some incredible views and it was fun to catch up a little.

I even got to scratch two more items off my bucket list.  Okay, so I’m basically too lazy to sit down and write out an actual list, but if I had, these two things would have been on it.  We finally took the tour of the Hoover Dam.  I’ve been there several times over the years, beginning when I was just a little kid, but I never got the chance to go down into the dam itself.  The tour was incredibly interesting and I still can’t get over what an engineering marvel it is.  And to think, it was designed and built without the aid of any computers.  Amazing!

This photo shows the hydroelectric plant on the Nevada side.  We were told there is a similar plant, with the same number of generators on the Arizona side.

My favorite part of the tour was the ventilation tunnel that supplies fresh air to the inside work spaces of the dam.  The first photo shows several of our fellow tourists at the grate set into the face of the dam.  The second shows the view from that grate once I got to the front of the line.  By the way, that building at the lower right corner of the photo is that power genration plant.

For some reason, I’m fascinated by old prisons.  I’ve toured Alcatraz twice, been to the Montana Territorial prison several times, and visited the old prisons in Wyoming and here in Colorado, but for some reason, I’ve always wanted to see the Arizona Territorial prison in Yuma.  There isn’t much of the original prison left, but it was well worth the trip, and I can put a check mark next to that one if I ever get around to making that list.