Making an entrance, part 2

By late-afternoon on Friday, Gerald and J.C. were ready to install our entrance sign. J.C. had to park his pick-up under the poles to make the extension ladder reach.










He attached one side first.













Then the other.













This is the back...













...and the front.

A watershed event

When we returned to the land, it felt like the seasons had turned during our short absence. It was warm--nearly 80 degrees on Friday. There were buds on the deciduous trees and the grass was greening up.









Gerald had picked up a new toilet seat. (It turns out that Kohler toilets are not compatible with other brands.) The first thing he did when we got there was install the seat, then we finally had a flush toilet! It's hard to express what a big moment that was for us.








It was spring break and J.C. was off from his day job as school bus driver, so he came up on Friday and helped Gerald install the transition piece of the flue pipe for the wood-burning fireplace. The hole Paul had drilled in the ceiling didn't line up with the pipe from the fireplace, so a special part had to be ordered. It took most of the day to get it done.

Slow progress inside and out

We had driven up to the land last week for a quick Monday-Tuesday trip. I had an interview in Peach Springs on , and left before dawn on Tuesday for Peach Springs and returned around 7 p.m. to pick up Gerald and head for home. Meanwhile, he made another attempt at a plumbing and electrical inspection, which we failed miserably again.

So we came back on Friday. Gerald had started the siding on the east side of the house while I was at Peach Springs and we picked up where he left off on Friday. We made good progress, and I predicted that we would finish the siding before lunch on Saturday. We didn't, but we did get this far.


J.C. was there on Saturday to work on the plumbing and electrical. One exciting development was that we got approval to seat a toilet! This is J.C. doing that work. Unfortunately, the hardware for the toilet seat didn't fit, so we have to return it during the upcoming week.








Meanwhile, the staple gun malfunctioned, and we weren't able to finish the siding. We still had a couple of boards to install over the southernmost window, and most of the bats. But we got pretty far. Here's how it looked by the time we headed back home.