Team Mario Returns

Our next trip was dedicated to installing our flooring.

I was so much work installing the first six boards that Gerald decided to call Mario and Robert. Gerald would cut and feed boards and Mario and Robert could install them. Mario is a good worker, and fast. We figured they'd get it done in a fraction of the time it would take us.

But it was slow going, even for them.

They worked until 8 o'clock or so in the evening and had just gotten to the point where they were laying boards from the guest room into the master.

Mario, Robert and Gerald got back to work about 7 a.m. the next morning and made pretty good progress. By noon, they had completed most of the guest room and all of the living room and were working in the master.

What a difference a floor makes. With every milestone, I kept expecting our place to transform itself from a construction site to a home. Nothing ever did. Not the walls, the appliances, the installation of the kitchen cabinets. Until the floor. Now, for the first time it looked like a house to me. Of course, moving the tools out of the guest room probably helped.

By the time Mario and Robert called it quits, nearly all the floor was laid in the master, which Gerald felt he could finish up.

In addition to a little in the master, we had a couple of feet left to lay in the guest bedroom. We think we'll have enough wood to finish, but it will be close.

Ranch animals

Here's Gerald with one of our chickens.

Well, not really. But he keeps threatening to bring this guy home.

As for these guys, they were starting to make themselves a little too much at home for our comfort.

We're Baaaack!

We haven't blogged for a couple of months, but that doesn't mean we haven't been busy.

Though October and into November, we had been working furiously to get through our final inspection by Dec. 1. We had a couple who wanted to rent our primary home, and that was their target move-in date. It seemed difficult, but doable.

We worked hard at home packing and moving our things. We worked equally hard at the land to get our final inspection.

Then two things happened. About a month before the target date, the couple told us they couldn't afford to rent our house after all. Secondly, our building inspector broke his wrist and was out of work for about six weeks. It was all for the best. Without a final inspection, we couldn't have moved in by the target date. In a way, it was good news. It took the pressure off.

In the meanwhile, we kept working. In the next seven posts, I'll bring you up to date.

One of the first things was to finish the fireplace downstairs. Gerald settled on a rough slate, cutting tall vertical pieces for the face.

Gerald finished the last bit at the end of the day. He clipped this board in place to support the tile above.

When he was done, he worried that the board was blocking the vents in the metal and we might not be able to have a fire.

So he moved the board up, hoping that by anchoring the board on top of the tiles would keep them in place.

But it didn't. The tiles started to slide down into the fireplace opening. There are no pictures of this. You can imagine why. The air was blue as we tried to push the tiles back into position. Eventually, we pulled them all down, scraped them clean and reset them.

We tried to put every tile back as Gerald had so carefully placed it. I thought it looked just as well, but Gerald could tell the difference. He was a little disappointed.

I thought it looked great.

Master of the Closet Universe

Next, Gerald tackled the closet in the master bedroom. He had an idea he'd been playing with for the floor. Starting with small samples, he took pieces of MDF, textured it with thinned down drywall mud and layered various types and colors of paint and glaze until he was satisfied with the results.

Then he laid down MDF on the closet floor, and mud and taped the seams, then textured a layer of mud.

He painted that with ochre-colored paint. When that was dry, he sprayed a coat of glaze in a contrasting color using a spray bottle. Then he wiped it over the painted surface with a rag.

The final step was to apply two coats of sealer with a roller. The results reminded us of a concrete floor at home. We loved it.

That done, we moved the built-in cabinets back in and installed them. We also assembled a shoe cabinet (left), which would keep our shoes clean and free of scorpions and other pests (very important!). After that was installed, Gerald cut clothing rods and shelves.

Master Bath

In between coats of paint and glaze in the closet, Gerald worked on the master bathroom.

For the shower floor, he installed river rock in webbed panels, and grouted it.

He also starting laying tile on the floor. We had bought honed slate, which looked really beautiful.

J.C. installed the toilet.

With the floor in place, Gerald started working on the tub surround. It was tough job and took a long time, like a puzzle with lots of little pieces.

J.C. installed the fixtures in the tub. Bath fixtures turned out to be incredibly expensive. We saved some money by using a kitchen faucet, which had the advantage of having a pull-out sprayer. We decided that might come in handy for washing hair or pets.

Where the Wild Things Are

During this time we saw lots of creatures, like this herd of javelina just off our porch.

One day, Gerald reached into a box of screws and felt a pain. I found him in the utility room looking for what he thought must have been a metal splinter. His whole thumb was in pain. I told him I thought he must have been bitten by something. He looked in the box and found this scorpion.

Then he found another.

Here's his poor thumb. It was the same one he cut the tip off of on the table saw.

Not long after that, this scorpion just walked out into the middle of our living room. We couldn't believe it. We thought scorpions hibernated in winter and only came out at night. But here was evidence to the contrary.

Snow Day!

On the Wednesday between Christmas and New Year's, it snowed. It snowed all day and into the following day. Yarnell got seven inches. That seemed about right to us.

Of course, we had to take a day off of work and play.

Here's the house...

the "yard"...

and the meadow.

It was fun to try to decipher the animal tracks.

A cold front followed the snow, which "marooned" us for days.

We didn't mind. We had plenty of food and firewood.

Our Fine Feathered Friends

Santa brought me a bird feeder for Christmas.

This was our first "customer."

She kept shooing this dark-eyed junco off the feeder.

The birds spilled seed all over the porch, which drew the attention of three chipmunks. Gerald named them "Larry, Moe and Curly."

They were pretty fun to watch.

We had some other bird visitors, like this Gila woodpecker. It was the first we'd seen up there.

Inspection Day!

The next weekend, we went shopping. We were looking for a piece of furniture, we could use for a bar and to hide our electronics. We found this circa 1840's dry sink at an antiques shop in Prescott.

With our inspector finally back on the job, we also called for our final inspection. We were first on our inspector's list on Monday morning.

We didn't expect to pass the first time, and we didn't. But our list was fairly short and very doable. When he left, we were very confident we could pass, and soon.