Gate Tale

After getting quotes from several people to redo our 'too small' RV gates, Ron decided he could handle this himself. It didn't hurt that the neighbor two doors down has welding equipment and offered to help.

First Ron bought and painted 4" square iron posts and dug really deep holes to set them in.


It might have gone faster if he hadn't used a soup ladle. (Seriously, he used a post hole digger. The ladle was just for the finishing touches at the bottom.)


He measured and leveled and braced the posts in place and put 2 1/2 bags of concrete in one hole where he had run into foundation for the wall. He was thinking he could return some of the 5 1/2 bags he had left, but used all of it in the second hole. That post will be there 100 years from now.


He even raked the stones away and did some regrading of the area. (I did help some with that.)


Then Charlie stepped in and welded a new section on each gate half. He did it so quickly I didn't get a picture, but Ron looks pleased.


Next was the painting. We bought two cans - one for each gate - then had to go back for four more.


Then the original boards went back on. I know Ron likes a good puzzle, so I was surprised that he had numbered them when he removed them. That could have been fun finding which board went in each spot. Although you can't really see it in these pictures, the bars are not evenly spaced.


Finally he cut and mounted five new boards in the added sections. Just as a comparison, here's the original gate.


And here's the new and improved 30" wider gate. We figure those new boards will blend right in after one 120 degree summer in Arizona.

Please notice the most amazing thing. In every picture, Ron is smiling! The guy is really having fun with this. As you can see, all I do is take pictures.

Progress

Okay, here comes the stuff that only our good friends and relatives will find even remotely interesting, but I'm posting it anyway.

Our first room is finished! I'm not sure what's the significance that it's the bathroom.


It's complete with a new cute light. I'm trying to sell the original bathroom lights on craigslist and not having any success. I have them listed at $5. I think I'm going to drop the price to free and see what happens.


The painting is finished and the carpeting is installed. This is the view from the AZ room through the opening where the sliding glass door (which I did sell on craigslist) used to be. We're really happy with the way that turned out.


And Ron finished the pass-through from the kitchen into the AZ room. Doesn't it look nice?


We even have some furniture - some from a consignment store, some from craigslist and end tables on loan from Brenda. Note the his and her recliners.


Today our good friend Sally came over to see the house (and us) and I dragged her off to the Mesa Swap Meet (a misnomer since I think the only thing they'll accept as a swap is money.) We did what women do - encouraged each other to buy.

I didn't need much encouragement to take this home. Ron cheerfully hung it next to the front door.


I suppose this is a little crazy, but I thought this guy needed to be in my baby cactus garden. Doesn't he look happy? Sally asked what I was going to name him and I said I don't do that. She asked, "Greeny?" Not only does she read my blog, she even remembers what I write!

She wouldn't buy the gorgeous wall hanging I was pushing on her. But, Sally, let me know if you want me to go back and get it. :-)

First Visitor

We're still working hard. I thought I'd post a picture of me actually doing something. This is my job, spraying anything that dares to pop up in our pristine stones. Who knew that vinegar would kill plants? But I do smell like a salad when I'm done.


We had our first house visitor this past week. Ron's granddaughter Shannon is doing a school project to learn about geography and different places. She sent her little friend Stripey on a journey to visit all the relatives. (Stripey is a zebra. That reminds me of when I was little and we raised parakeets, all of whom were named Greeny.) Anyway we wrote in Stripey's journal and took pictures of his adventures in this foreign environment. It was fun, but I'm afraid we didn't do any sightseeing with him. Since we've been homeowners, we're hardly any fun any more.

Here Ron put him to work touching up the wall around the new counter top.


This was Ron's idea too. Stripey rode up in the fruit picker. He just had to watch out for falling oranges.


He's just a little zebra and you have to watch him constantly or he gets into trouble. Here he learned the hard way that everything in the desert has thorns.

Stripey left today and headed for Omaha. I hope he doesn't get cold.

The Fun Begins

Here are some 'before' and 'during' pictures of the house. I have been told that being tired is no excuse for not updating the blog.

First remember that RV gate that was too narrow for the RV?


No problem for Ron and our neighbor Joe with the 14 pound sledge hammer.


The first thing to go was this cabinet with the lovely orange counter top in the Arizona room (that's like a Florida room, only in Arizona.)


And we also wanted to replace the yellow counter top in the kitchen.


Of course while the counter top was out, we decided to get a new sink - nice huh? And decided to take out the window and make it a pass-thru between the kitchen and Arizona room. It's a slippery slope. Here the counter top and sink are in and the pass-thru is in progress.


This is looking from the living room into the dining room and the sliding glass doors to the AZ room. Inspired by Bertie's house, we decided to remove the door so the rooms will flow together.


Also an 'in progress' picture.


Then I said, "Well, you know, I'd like to update the bathroom lights too." (I told you it was a slippery slope.)


So Ron calmly took down the lights before the painter came.


I confess that I am not a handy person. The house that I lived in for 23 years, I never fixed up until I was moving out when I hired a handy man. But I thought, "How hard can it be to spray paint the blades of a ceiling fan?" I took one of the blades outside and hit it with a blast of paint. It immediately began to run down the blade, so to stop it I tried to wipe it with a paper towel. I was informed this was incorrect. Lost that job.

I decided the only thing I have some experience with is gardening. So I climbed up the six foot ladder and trimmed the four fruit trees - two orange, one grapefruit, and one lemon. Ron snapped this of me in action. Going up and down the ladder was the worst part. While trimming, I just didn't look down. I think I did a pretty good job.


The real challenge was the lemon tree. As the song says, it's pretty and smells sweet, but they neglected to mention the two inch thorns! Ouch!

(If you look closely, you can see the remains of white paint that I couldn't wash off. But I thought it made me look like I was working hard anyway.)

New House

I was shocked today when I noticed that my last post was February 12th. Where has the time gone? We closed on our new house in Mesa on the 13th - yes, that was Friday the 13th. It's a good thing we're not superstitious. Since then, we've been constantly busy - who's idea was this anyway?

Here's Ron opening the multiple locks on the front door for the first time. I tried to get him to carry me across the threshold, but he had some lame 'bad back' excuse.


He realized he hadn't checked out the attic yet, so he borrowed the neighbor's ladder and up he went. What's up there anyway?


Oh, of course, the TV antenna. How tidy.

More later. . .

RV Creativity

RVers are always looking for ways to conserve, especially those who boondock (park without hookups.) It's always a question of how long our water will last and how long can we go without dumping the holding tanks (lovely topic, but a popular one in the RV world.) Ron has recently made some adaptations to the RV to improve the quality of life while still conserving.

As do a lot of fulltimers, we leave our water heater off unless we have a specific hot water purpose - like a shower. Even the dishes usually are washed with water heated on the stove. Ron especially hated that morning cold water washup and recently did something about it. Following suggestions made by our mechanical genius, our good friend Pete, he installed a timer on the water heater. The timer turns on the water heater automatically first thing in the morning and turns it off 20 minutes later providing nice warm water for those morning ablutions.

He hooked the timer in the water heater circuit at the existing switch. He also put a switch in series with the timer so that the timer system can be manually bypassed. The new timer and switch are in parallel with the existing water heater switch so we can also manually turn on the water heater. The previous explanation is Ron's and if you want any further clarification, you'll have to ask him. All I know is that it works like magic! And it only took us two days to figure out how to program the timer.


The next problem he tackled was how to avoid wasting water while waiting for the hot water to travel from the tank to the sink. Once again he was inspired by Pete's brilliance. First he purchased a 24 volt sprinkler system valve, some tubing, fittings, and a momentary contact switch (yes, that's what he said.) He tapped into the hot water line under the bathroom sink and installed the valve. He then piped the valve output to the city water input line which leads to the fresh water tank. He found 12 volt power nearby and wired to the switch and then to the valve. When the switch is held in the 'on' position, the valve opens and bypasses the water in the hot water line back to the fresh water tank. (Yes, it does work on 12 volts, even though the guy in Home Depot said it never would.) The only imperfection in the system is that the valve diaphragm chatters a bit at shut off, but we can live with that.

Once again if you have any questions, ask Ron.


Although these are both marvelous innovations, they still don't compare with Ron's invention of a little over a year ago. For months, he had been mumbling something about wanting to raise and lower his solar panels from the ground. We all just patted him on the back and said, "Sure, sure." Well, he showed us all. If you haven't seen the video demonstration on Diana's blog, click here to be amazed.

Nooooo!

To answer those of you who asked, Ron and I have no plans to get off the road at this time. After Ron finishes his dental work in April, we'll be off to Kentucky and Tennessee - both are states we haven't spent a lot of time in. Our little Mesa house is just a winter place for us for now, although who knows what will happen in the future.

Almost as shocking as buying a house, we have checked into an RV park for a month. We wanted to face east or south for the morning sun on these cold winter mornings. After looking at the park's few available sites, we took the only one we could fit into. Ron's parking abilities were well tested backing into this spot. I would never have attempted it.

We do face south, but the neighbor's carport shades us in the morning - humm, didn't think about that.

The park has a hiking club and yesterday we joined them for a hike in South Mountain Park. This is a city park right in the middle of the Phoenix metropolis. The mountain rises about 1000 feet above the city and, when the pollution isn't too bad, you can see forever. We drove up to the lookout and were pretty impressed.


With our 'over 55' crowd (some way over), a visit to the restroom is critical before a hike. This was only a 'one-holer' so it took awhile.


Then we were off, but the leader made sure we stopped often to admire the scenery (at least that's why he said we were stopping.)


The most famous landmark on this trail is Fat Man's Pass where you squeeze through these fallen boulders.


This is harder for some people than others. Poor Joe is 6'6" and just a big guy. He ended up backing out and having to find a way around.


Ron, however, made it look easy.


Once through, the hike takes you though lovely Hidden Valley with some additional challenges along the way.


We were so excited to spot these exotic animals along the trail!

It was really a lovely hike and, at about four miles, just long enough and challenging enough to suit us.

Today was our friend Bertie's birthday. She invited us to her gorgeous house where we laughed and carried on with other WIN friends. After all, that is what the WINs do best. It was a very special evening - Happy Birthday, Bertie.