Welcoming Committee

When we returned to the land, we were met by creatures great and small.

This horse, one of a small group, met us on the road just off the highway.

This cow and her very young calf were at the seasonal stock pond on our property.

JDK's crew had been there while we were away. Our closet, textured and ready to paint was a welcome sight.

Gerald and I spent the first day doing various odds and ends in preparation for our final inspection. Gerald adjusted the self-closing hinges on the fire door in the garage, and built and installed this fire door leading to our crawl space.

Moving Toward the Final Inspection

JC arrived early the next morning. He spent the first part of the morning installing the porch gates he had welded...

And changing out the back porch steps so they would meet code.

Meanwhile, we needed to get the ground ready for site work. That meant we needed to find somewhere to put our flooring, which was stacked outside the back door.

Gerald had the idea of stacking it on the deck. But first we had to do something with all the piles of scrap that had accumulated.

By lunch time, we had cut and stacked all the scrap and moved several piles of flooring off the ground and onto the deck.

We absolutely loved having a nice, clean deck. If only it would stay that way....

I can hardly wait for the time our porch is just a porch and the only thing I have to worry about sweeping up inside is dirt and not sawdust and construction debris.

Now that the place is beginning to look and feel like a home, I confess I long to organize kitchen utensils instead of tools and nails.

Hands on Deck

After lunch, J.C. helped Gerald with the west end porch.

By the end of the day, they had gotten as much done as we planned. Because we're still using part of the porch for construction, Gerald will nail down OSB on the remaining portion of the porch for now.

While they were doing that, I went upstairs to paint. I had asked Gerald to bring up enough paint for the upstairs so I could work on it in pieces when Gerald was working on things I couldn't help with.

I surprised both of us by getting it all done. I was very happy with the color and the way the space felt when it was done.

Next, I'll work on the bead board in this room, which will eventually be my office. It makes me almost giddy to think that it's just a little bead board and a floor away from being ready to occupy.

By the end of the weekend, we expected to need just one more day to finish up everything we needed for the final. We left with the hope of calling for an inspection the following week.

After all the time we've spent, it was hard to believe we were finally at this point.

Housekeeping Details

On our next trip, we spent the first day on housekeeping details.

First, we hung the print that would hide our TV above the downstairs fireplace.

We spent the rest of the day installing cabinets in the kitchen and master bathroom. With these cabinets in place, the only "hole" left to fill on the wall is the one for the vent hood.

Inching Closer Toward the Final Inspection

The rest of the time, we spent covering the rest of the studs and insulation as required for the final.

We had left one part of the north wall undone until we decided whether we wanted to finish it with brick or the natural wood we had used elsewhere. We settled on the brick. So Gerald sheeting the remaining wall with plywood.

The other area was the guest room closet. We put that off until last because it was holding all of our tools.

Gerald dismantled the shelves.

But not before we had relocated the tools unto folding tables. We took the tools and equipment we were finished with down to the garage and still managed to fill up three tables.

Gerald was able to tape and apply the first coat of mud before we left.

We had hoped to get to the crawl space opening, but had to leave it for the next trip. We hope that with JC's help we can get everything done for the final with the exception of the site work next time. We'll see....

The Amazing Team Mario

On our last trip, JC told us that he had commitments for the next two Saturdays. Gerald and I were trying to get our final inspection passed before Dec. 1, so that had us concerned.

When we talked about what to do about that, we remembered Mario. Mario had been a foreman on our framing crew. We had also hired him and an assistant to do some of the siding. He was fast and he was good.

He always liked to work two days, and he came with an assistant, which meant a bit more money. But we felt it was worth it. So Gerald called and it turned out that he was available. He showed up at about 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, with his son Robert. The first thing they did was to install our fireplace mantle.

That done, Gerald went to work on building and installing a box to hold our TV.

Our original plan was to face the fireplace with slate. But for a number of reasons, we decided to do slate only below the mantle and to use some of the wain-edge siding we had left over above it.

Gerald installed the first few courses.

And Mario took over to install the high parts.

An Assist

While Gerald was working on the fireplace, Mario and Robert installed the fire door in the garage.

That done, they went to work on facing the pony walls, which we decided to side with the same wain-edge siding we used on the fireplace.

By the end of the day, they had finished two of three pony walls.

The last task for the day was to take off the stickers on the center dormer windows, both inside and out.

Aside from the challenges of the dizzying height on the inside and the problem of getting out on the roof to get the stickers off the outside, we didn't think this was a job that would be a hard one.

The inside stickers came off easily enough. But the outside was another story. They had been in place for so long that the weather had cemented them in place. The plastic came off in tiny bits and left a coat of glue on the window. It was well after 6 p.m. by the time they were done.

But what a day!

Mario & Son, Day 2

Mario and Robert were at work a little after 6 a.m. the next morning siding the upstairs fireplace. They started so early that they had to use a floor lamp for light.

By the time I got back from church, they were gone. But they had finished the fireplace, the third and final pony wall...

and helped Gerald install the wood trim on the kitchen side of the stairs.

Gerald spent the afternoon installing kitchen cabinets.

Starting on the Ground Floor

The next morning, Gerald and I started on a project he had been itching to do: installing the pine floor.

Gerald had the pine floorboards milled with tongue and groove, like the ceilings. He started by putting a bead of Liquid Nails down for the first board.

Then stapled it in place with this flooring tool.

The tool sat on the lip of the tongue and was loaded with staples. You hit the little black rubber dealie with the rubber mallet and the machine drove a staple in to the floor.

Fitting the boards together was way harder than it looked on the DIY shows. The rubber mallet didn't do the trick. We had to use a sledge hammer against another piece of siding to close up the gaps. It was tiring, difficult work.

After shattering the first board, Gerald improvised a piece of flooring to hammer against that was tapered at the right angle to make the task a little easier. We were able to get about six boards done before we called it quits. Basically, we wanted to be sure the tool worked before we left, so we could begin again in earnest on our next trip.

Baby Steps

On our next trip, JC brought up a deck and stairs he had welded, which we hoped would get us through the final inspection.

Gerald and JC moved away the construction steps...

and put the new ones in place. Unfortunately, JC had modeled them on a set of steps he had at home that, unfortunately, were so short and close together, they would not pass code.

He and Gerald studied the code book together. JC made notes and planned to come back with replacement stairs on his next trip.

Upstairs, downstairs

While we were gone, JDK's crew had come in and installed drywall upstairs. Gerald and I spent most of a day upstairs finishing with the plywood.

JC spent the day welding our interior safety railing. Gerald had discovered that the railing he started closest to the kitchen was too short to pass code.

We talked about the options, including adding a second pipe above the first. In the end, we decided to scrap it and start over.

It took all day, but by the end of the day, JC had the safety barrier all welded. All that remained was for Gerald to add some wood along the bottom on the kitchen side to close the gap.

Moving Up

We didn't do a whole lot new this trip. Mostly, we worked on finishing what we had started: the outside safety railing, primarily, which we got done except for a gate at either end.

While I was at church, Gerald also got some more brick work done, so we could mount upper cabinets.

The only really new thing was upstairs.

We hadn't planned to do anything upstairs for a while, but a call to the inspector confirmed that we needed to have outlet covers on all outlets for the final, upstairs included. Our long-range plan was to have painted, four-foot wainscot and drywall, so we decided to put up plywood around the bottom to attach the wainscot to later. Meanwhile, the plywood would allow us to install outlet covers.

Gerald had found a really good deal on 4x8 sheets of plywood. Apparently it had been used to line the insides of a moving van. Some of it was pretty rough, but we were just going to install beadboard over it, so that didn't matter.

Gerald figured we needed 44 sheets of plywood. So we picked it up using our pickup and carted it all upstairs. That was quite a job.

Gerald was less than pleased to learn that the 4x8 sheets were not actually 4x8, but slightly shorter. That meant that most of them would have to be cut.

Meanwhile, I worked on outlet covers in the master bathroom. The outlet boxes were not installed at the correct alignment to allow for the 1/2-inch drywall. So all the outlets were so far recessed that installing an outlet cover was impossible. And, of course, now that the area was drywalled, the boxes couldn't be accessed. That meant installing washers until the outlets came to the right level. Even with small hands, this was a chore.

The Amazing Brush Machine

We timed this trip to coincide with a visit from the amazing brush machine.

Our neighboring property owner, Bryan Evans, had somehow learned of a guy named Mark from Tennessee who was in the state working a contract with the Prescott National Forest to clear brush.

By all accounts, his brushing equipment was unbelievable. We wanted to see for ourselves.

Here's Bryan and Gerald.

We didn't stay long because we didn't need much convincing. This thing could take down an 8-foot tree just like that, and turn it into mulch. At the same time, he could get right up to pinyon pines and brush all the scrub oak around it without damaging the tree. We invited him to do our house the next day.

At the end of the day, we all had dinner together. Bryan had brought homemade salsa, from garden fresh produce, free-range chicken drumsticks which he cooked to perfection and a delicious seafood salad. Truly, it was a memorable evening.

Mark arrived at our house the next day. In two hours he had cleared everything we wanted. Here's a before picture.

Here's what the same area looked like after he was done. Notice that nothing remains of that pile of debris but mulch.

This is Mark posing in front of his rig after he was finished.

Reason to Celebrate

I had an assignment at the Grand Canyon, and Gerald decided to head to the land while I was there to see what he could get done.

On that trip, he finished out the doorways, cut the last pieces of wall molding, spackled and gave them a first coat of paint.

A couple of weeks later, he brought up the final, semi-gloss coat. I painted the final coat, and then Gerald installed the fixtures.

That marked the completion of our first room.

Here's how it looked when it was done.

Here's the view from the other direction.

We had also been trying to figure out how to light the stairway. Gerald got the idea of using a rope light.

The idea was to hide it underneath a piece of top molding to just create a warm glow.

Here it is before the top molding was installed.

We tried it that night, and it worked perfectly.