Hampton Remodel (August/September 2010)

Remodeling a home is no small feat. Nor is it inexpensive! At least I had a wonderful contractor that didn't charge me an arm and a leg. This is the house my dad bought back in the 70s. He rented it mostly to family. His Aunt Rita lived there until she couldn't care for herself any more. My sister and her family lived there for a little while and my dad lived there for many years too. My daughter Roxanne has lived there since dad passed away in 2004. We did a few things to fix it up with plans to do others but this last July Leland got a great job up in Portland, Oregon. With the house vacant, it was a good time to give it the over haul it badly needed. This is the original before picture.













These next two pictures are of the entry and then the living room. They are crisp and clean with new paint and new floorings. New walls too as the old wallboard was so brittle. We tore it down, put up insulation and then new wallboard.

 Now we come to two pictures are of the bedroom area. The first is looking in through the doorway into the living room. The furnace is one of two main items that are about the only old things left but we had a professional give it a check up. The second picture looks toward the bathroom. The cupboard is a nice addition. The bottom door houses the new water heater while the top door is a nice spacious area for towels, linens or whatever.

Be careful you don't fall down the 'stair' looking at these next two pictures! The half stair from bedroom to the bathroom, laundry and closet area has been a great joke in the family. My contractor had the plumbing brought up to code and turned in the laundry area so how the washer can face out instead of being sideways. I gave him free rein in the bathtub surround area and I love what he came up with. I still think it's amazing that there were tiles out to match the old bathtub. It's the old iron type covered with porcelain. That thing will last forever.

  

I love the plumbing company my contractor used; Day and Night Plumbing. I'd had the plumbing in the kitchen worked on before and that plumber couldn't make it any different than to stick out into the room. The picture here of the kitchen sink area shows the skinny cabinet that covers the plumbing that Day and Night was able to hide behind it. I love that skinny cabinet! Love all the new cabinets. Most were done prior to this remodel. The cabinets with the glass doors were added at my contractors suggestion and they look great!

Finally, the outside of the home. New soffeting, new gutters and drains, new door opening and new paint. It's a very nice little cottage home that my daughter Sonia now calls home.

They're Growing!

July 9th Richard borrowed a friends truck, rented a tractor and went to the property to scrape a fence line/firebreak. The job was not without it's trials and only got half done.
As you can see, the area can be a little rugged and there was the learning curve on how to drive this bucking bronco of a tractor but the biggest problem was that the tractor lost a tire. Yep, it shimmied and shook and the tire came off the rim. Can't do anything with a gimpy tractor. Richard had to stay the night knowing nothing more would get accomplished and pondering how to get the tractor back on it's trailer without damaging things further. Once morning came he got that accomplished and drove back to town, got the tire fixed and didn't even get charged for anything, including the use of the tractor! He'll try again later in the summer. For now, everything is going well with the plants. they are growing and a few even had berries which were quickly munched by the local birds and rabbits.

Dang Cows!

Yesterday, hubby and I went out to the property. For a couple weeks now, we've had problems with a herd of cows breaking our newly placed irrigation system. Last week when he went up to fix another break, he built a little cage around the two valves the cows kept breaking. That has worked wonders and the cows have moved on but one valve was still leaking and the lines needed to be checked for placement. Oh man, it was so windy yesterday. I bet we had gusts in the afternoon of 25-30mph. I had to finally take refuge in the car to keep my contacts from grinding the dust in my eyes.

Back to the task at hand... while Richard fixed the pipes, I walked the lines. The first two were pretty good but the third was all out of place and needed a lot of fixing. Obviously it had been tripped over by many cows. The rest of the lines needed about 25% of the placements fixed. The bushes and trees are all doing fairly well. I'd say we maybe only lost one plant to the cows tromping although several had been squished. It looks like all of the tree lines are doing well. The Service berry lines have quite varied responses to their environment. Some are doing well and some look quite dead and then there is every variation in-between. We may need to replace up to 20% of those. Here's a look at how they're all doing.
This is a service berry. Those who helped plant may remember a couple little tiny things that we planted to just give it a chance. Yah, this is one of those.
This is one of the nice healthy Service berry plants that already has its flowers.This one didn't turn out too clear... dang wind! But it shows how animals eat the tips off.
Dad found a good use for the cactus... holding the line in place!
Cow-patties do a good job of that too.Here is the Elderberry leafing out. All of them looked pretty good. There were a couple that looked all dried up and hopeless but then I saw one that had a bud leafing out below the dried up part.
This a such a cute flower on this cactus that Richard was protecting. Almost looks like daisies. There are lots of things beginning to flower on the property. In a couple weeks, it will look so beautiful with all of its different flowers. You'll have to come out and look close though cuz it's all smaller than the sage.

Planting Trees

This last weekend the family spent a good deal of time at our property. We went thinking we'd spend two days planting trees and bushes. That didn't happen. There was the mondo watering system to build first. That took more than the two days but on day three, there was enough done to start planting. This tree is a Nanking Cherry and was the first tree planted on the property next to that cute little emitter on the hose. Richard worked all day Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to get the watering system completed to where it actually waters. There have been many bumps along the way. There are 8 - 500' lengths of hose to plant along. We have 400 trees/bushes so they are planted about every 10' and we have two lines planted so that's about 100 plants with 300 to go.

The weather is forcing us to take a break but we hope to be back at it and get the rest planted this coming Saturday. Then we can start planning our play time!

Solar Panels or Bust!

Not long after James returned from AIT, he started going up to our property with dad. His friend and fellow soldier, Private Hemsley, went with them the first time. They put in all those bolt thingees you see in the picture.

Then on the second trip, the rails were attached and bolted in. This was all quite the project because this is a very steep roof on the shed. They also had more bolt things to put up. If I remember right, it took two trips to get all the rails up.

Then came the panels. Fortunately dad was able to take a couple days off of work while it was good weather. The solar panels took two days to get them all up, bolted to the rails, and wired into the electrical box that will run the solar pump down in the well.

After all this work, the pay-off was that when everything was bolted and clamped down, taped and screwed and the switch flipped, it worked and watered flowed at about 4 gallons/minute. Not bad for solar panels that hadn't seen the sun until they were brought out of their box and put on the roof.

Some of the funniest stories came out of the little Country Store in Fruitland. There is a little lady, Charlotte, that runs it. The Country Store also has tables and chairs if you'd like to sit and get a bit of lunch. Charlotte will come take your order and another gal makes it. Charlotte is so funny tho. She has quite a dry sense of humor and the best poker face around. She really likes people to enjoy their food and eat it all. Once James didn't eat all of his fries and she drilled him on why. Another time Leland ordered a very large meal and Charlotte told him he was too little to eat all that. She was right and she didn't let him live it down the next time he ate there... said she was gonna have to babysit him! She's quite a hoot.

Thar be cement in them thar hills!

Flowing water to follow, probably by the end of the summer. However, that doesn't mean a bathroom. This last Friday we met (and paid) three groups of men up at 'the property'. The first group were dirt diggers and movers. The second group were cement layers and finishers. The third was in a group by himself... he was the cement truck driver.

During the week, the cement guys had laid out the forms in the places we wanted. The dirt guys came early on friday to build up the dirt so that the leveled forms wouldn't have cement running out from the bottom. We got their while this was happening so James pitched right in with our rake and helped get the job done. Just in time too. The cement guys came about 10am and laid out the rebar to strenghten the cement then the cement truck arrived about 10:30am.

All the men were really nice, hard-working fellows. The older gentleman on the cement crew sure looked familiar to me (like maybe he was someone I met through my dads connections). His cousin captured our funny bones. This fellow was so fun and looked like he should be on one of those cowboy greeting cards. He told us funny stories like this one: "Dang it's hot in Missouri. Why it was so hot the corn started popping right off the cobs. So much corn popped all the cows thought it was snowing and do you know them cows laid down and froze to death!"

I took the opportunity to take some pictures of things I wanted. When I was out to the property after our family camp, I was looking for the birdhouse and birdfeeder that Natasha and Emma painted. James had hung them up just before we left that day and I didn't get a chance to take pictures. I hadn't been able to find them both for some reason and we'd been pressed for time. Friday I found them both. I'm not sure there are birds small enough out there to make a home out of this one, or the ceder one I'd bought but they sure did empty the bird feeder. Now that I know where everything is, I'll have to get more bird seed and fill them up.

I also took pictures of the trench that was dug. Part of the dirt groups job was to dig this trench from the well to the tank pad. We had three cement pads poured: shed pad, water tank pad, and a trailer pad for the trailer we hope to have someday. The distance from the well to the tank pad is about 210 feet. When I thought of a trench to lay pipe, I was thinking more of the type you'd dig through your yard to put in PVC. This thing is more like a war zone trench. It's certainly big enough to fit nice young soldiers in... just see exibit A where my soldier is in the trench. James was carefully chipping the cement casing away from the well so we can drill a hole for a pitless adapter. It's some dad-gummed thing we have to have to get water out of it and into pipes below ground level so everything doesn't just freeze and break.

You're Gonna Be Hearing A Lot About This!

You see, about a month ago I was asked to be the Stake Wardrobe Coordinator. Since then, I've changed my title to Stake Wardobe Director because I'm having Ward Wardrobe Coordinators called (that means someone else figures out who can help and asks them for me) and it just seems more fitting that I direct them instead of coordinate them.

And why would I be asked to do such a thing? And beyond that, what would I do? And not really having a clue about this, why did I say 'yes'? I was really wondering that myself when I was asked! I was like, 'you've gotta be kidding!' Then, just a couple days later I was at a fireside (spiritual meeting in the evening, usually on Sunday) and afterward this lady comes up to me and says she's a costume designer and that she would be willing to help me with whatever I need. Wow... cool. Now the trick is to figure out what I need.

Through a series of meetings which seemed to make me more and more confused and overwhelmed, I eventually got a clue. This production is not as huge as the 'Day of Celebration' I was a little involved with about 4 years ago but it's pretty big. We anticipate having 3000 kids just in the choir and probably twice that in the different dances. With two LDS temples being built in the Salt Lake valley, it was decided just a few short months ago to involve the youth (ages 12-18) in a celebration of song and dance. Now, this isn't any random song and dance. Each dance segment tells a portion of a story from when the pioneers first arrived here and found the indians who populated this region, to present day. That's a lot of ground to cover. There are about 15 different dances to tell the story. Our little 3-4 minute segment is a re-creation of a town social where a few of the immigrants who came here get together and show off their 'skills'. We have Scottish, Irish and German costuming for our number and that is where I come in. I've been swimming in costumes since last Friday when I picked up the costumes we have been blessed to borrow. I've been counting and measuring and sorting. These pictures show a few of the costumes. Here is the German costume from the back. The tie you see is from an apron that we have to shorten a bit because it totally takes over the front of the costume and you can't see the pretty skirt fabric. We may or may not use the wreath... I haven't decided that yet.

This cute green skirt with the shawl is our Irish outfit. We have a few costumes of another style that we have borrowed but I'm not sure if they will get used or not, or if the two styles will clash. The good news is I was able to pick up a lot of green material to make what we need, FREE! I sure hope we have enough.

The German guys will be in knickers with suspenders to simulate lederhosen like these fine men. Our Scottish guys get to wear kilts and I've been surprised by the number of young men who are willing to wear them. We have about 15! Making the plaid skirts for the girls and the kilts is going to be a fairly big job. I've got about 48 yards of plaid material for the skirts and am hoping for lots of donations (or dollar fabric) for the kilts.

Doesn't this sound like a lot of work? It is but it's so fun! I wouldn't have thought I'd be having this much fun a month ago. I think it's because I remember the other celebration so well and how much fun it was that I'm so excited for this group of kids to have this opportunity to celebrate having these new temples. It helps that James gets a second opportunity to participate in this kind of production. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and it's rare that he gets this second chance.

Unwanted Mental Images!

I can hardly believe what some people will talk about. I work at a nursing home and live with an EMT so not much surprises me. Yesterday I was going about my business at work and had run over to the nurses station. One of my co-workers was coming out of the bathroom in my office as I returned to my desk. He sees me and can't resist telling me how great it is to have the little space heater in the bathroom. Never mind that without our space heaters, the bathroom and offices would be colder than the North Pole. He animatedly continued, "its so great that when you drop your pants the heater warms them up!" Oh Brent! TMI!! La la la la la la la... I can't hear you.

Woo-hoo!!!!!

I've already told my kids and you are about the only ones that read this but... dad/hubby/grandpa/Richard got a job!!!! It's with the state fire marshalls office and he will be training fire/police/etc. around the state. The soon to be boss is already talking about sending dad out to Duchesne a lot and dad was like, 'dude, they're going to pay me to go out to my property? Cool.' Government pay isn't that good but government benefits are. I'm so glad that we will have health/dental insurance for James when he gets back from Basic cuz the army wants his wisdom teeth out. I just hope some doctor trainee doesn't do the job at Basic! Anyway, yay! A job! And dad says it's his dream job. What could be better than that? Dad probably won't start for a couple weeks because they have to do a complete background check on him and getting that paperwork filled out, mailed and returned takes at least a week and a half. Plus, dad and almost boss are at a conference until Friday evening. Yay again! (Think I'm excited?)