Guest bath

Our first priority was to put together a working shower as the alternative was a hose attached to a porch post. Since we had already installed a toilet in the guest bath, we started there.

I "buttered" the tiles and Gerald "stuck" them. It took us a couple of days. On the third day we grouted. Gerald smeared and I wiped. It was unexpectedly tiring. At the end of the day, we were both beat, but looking forward to our reward.

What we hadn't anticipated was that we couldn't seal the grout for 72 hours. Then we couldn't use the sealer for 72 hours more. Having lived with ourselves for a few days, the "outdoor shower" was looking pretty good. It would have felt nice on a warm, sunny day. Of course, it was cloudy, cool and breezy most of the time we were there. Let's just say our showers were brisk and brief.

While the grout was setting, we put up the bead board. It was our intention to finish the entire room, but we realized after it was all cut that we were working with two different patterns and we didn't have enough to complete the job with either one. Note to self: check to make sure you have enough of what you need before you start. We made a trip to Prescott to both Lowes and Home Depot. Neither had the right pattern. We still haven't found it.

Nonetheless, we did what we could. It was my job to spackle the nail holes and seams and paint.

Once that was done, we moved our vanity in place and Gerald hooked it up. We had bought this old oak dresser and fitted it with a sink and faucet.

We also bought this piece of tempered glass for the shower which we thought was in keeping with the look we wanted and would have the benefit of allowing light to pass through.

We still had work to do. We needed moldings at the top, over the seam in the bead board and around the entrance to the shower, but it was starting to look like a bathroom in a house.

On the last day, Gerald and J.C. installed the shower fixtures, and our shower was done. The next time we come up, we can get clean and comfortable after a hard day's work.

Electrical

Now that we had passed our electrical inspection, one of our goals was to install some lighting and get rid of the maze of extension cords we had been relying on.

I worked on installing electrical outlets. I figure by the end of the week, I had installed 35, just on the first floor. That didn't count the ones J.C. installed.

I had always believed you can't have too many outlets. Now I wasn't sure.

As soon as the rain ended, Gerald got busy with the landscape lighting. We wanted to highlight some of the boulders and pines near the house.

Bubba helped.

That night we enjoyed the results which, unfortunately, didn't photograph well.

Gerald also installed some of the exterior fixtures, which we were pleased with.

By the end of the week, we had lighting in the bathroom and over where the kitchen sink would ultimately go. We also installed two ceiling fans. Gerald noted that we had only 11 more ceiling fans to install.

Summer Rains

We came back with the intention of staying for several days to gain momentum.

When we arrived the sky was cloudy, but dry. That was good, not only because the roads get so bad in the rain, but also because we had a lot of stuff to unload and much of it was in the back of the truck, unprotected.

We had hardly gotten unpacked when it started to rain. Gerald and I stopped what we were doing and headed out to the porch to watch the rain and hear it beat on the tin roof.

Within minutes, it was raining hard. Gerald shouted to me over the sound that hail might be so loud as to run us off the porch.

About that time, it started to hail. Hard. Big bullets of hail about the size of Garbanzo beans. They fell so fast that soon the ground was covered with them.

Then the hail turned to rain again. Within minutes, all the washes were running.

It stopped as suddenly as it started. The sun illuminated the droplets on the trees and gave everything a beautiful, magical quality.

Wasp season

All summer, we had marveled at how much improved the wasp situation was. We had some wasps, of course, but nothing like the great swarms of the year before. Then, about two weeks ago they were back.

We had to get his and hers fly swatters because they got so pesky. We must have made a comic sight, both sitting on the porch, swatting madly.

Then I swatted my coffee off the table. That brought them all and kicked off what has come to be called the great wasp massacre. Thousands of wasps lost their lives. Or at least several, as Gerald is fond of saying.

We had to take action. We looked all around the house under the porch to try to find the nest. They were especially thick near the garage and the back door, but we couldn't find anything.

Not knowing what else to do, we reset the traps that had worked so well before. We cut off the tops of bottles and inverted the tops inside the bottoms and filled them with sugar water. The wasps are drawn to the sugar water and fly in but can't get out. We found that Gatorade bottles worked better than 2-liter soda bottles because the mouths are wider. We set several traps, including three near the garage where they were most concentrated. By the end of the weekend, there were noticeably fewer flying around.

Free at last

When we arrived at the land, we were glad to see Juan had started grading the roads, which were in pretty bad shape after the summer rains.

It didn't take long to do the few little things we needed to do to get ready for the inspection. I caulked a few holes in the floor and Gerald framed in the flue on the upstairs fireplace.

On Friday morning, Gerald busied himself with the guest shower and we waited for the inspector. About noon, Gerald took a break and we talked about having lunch. Then we heard the inspector's truck.

The inspector was there for nearly two hours, and it went very well. There were a few things we still needed to do: install a firebreak and some flashing for the upstairs fireplace, which he said we could do for the next inspection.

Also, we had not resolved the issue of how to heat the place. Our plans called for a furnace, but we were leaning toward thermostatically controlled gas stoves. If we did that, we needed to get the approval of the planning office and change our plans accordingly. Until we did so, we could not pass our combo inspection. But he signed off on everything else: plumbing, electrical, solar hot water. This was very good news. It meant we could connect electrical outlets and plumbing fixtures, and skin, insulate and finish walls. We were ecstatic.

It called for a celebration, so we popped a cork and some microwave popcorn (an excellent pairing, according to friends who would know, and we had to agree).

The next day, Gerald went back to the shower, while J.C. worked on connecting lights and outlets. J.C. showed me how to install outlets, and that's how I spent the afternoon.

Preparing for inspection (again)

Thursday had been unusually hot. It was 95 degrees in the late afternoon. Friday was also hot, and we had spent much of it in Prescott in the Planning Office getting the loft fireplace added to the plans. Our inspector had said the reason he was really pushing us to get it done now, is that it would cost us $300 if we added it later. So we were surprised when it cost us $300 anyway. $302 and change, to be exact.

While we were at Rumors Friday night for dinner, it started to rain pretty hard, so we rushed home to enjoy the rain on the tin porch roof only to find that our land was dry. It was disappointing, not only because we didn't get any rain, but if we had stayed put we could have enjoyed it.

On Saturday, J.C. was supposed to come up and so was Dave, the shop manager at Gerald's business. The plan was to get the flue installed on the loft fireplace and complete the fix for the missing I joist. Our engineer had returned from India and revised the fix according to what we had already done, but it would require some additional screws from the roof. When we woke up, it was cloudy, but no rain.

Dave called just as he was pulling into Yarnell to say it had rained all night at his house and all the way up until he reached the top of the hill at Yarnell. He almost didn't come because he was sure the project was going to be called for rain. But he came anyway.

Then, about the time he arrived with donuts, it started to rain. We were all sure the day would be shot, but then it quit. It had rained just enough to cool things off, and the clouds kept everything pretty comfortable. Since the bulk of the work would be done in the loft, which tended to be hot, and the rest on the roof, it was the perfect weather.

J.C. did some last-minute wiring, while Dave got to work on the flue.

Then Gerald and Dave built a higher platform for the fireplace and the three of them set it in place. It had taken a crane to put it in place the first time, so needless to say, it was very heavy.

Unlike the first fireplace, this flue went together easily.

Then J.C. and Dave went up on the roof to complete the fix for the missing joist.

Gerald got out all his paperwork, including past inspection correction notices and he and J.C. went over everything to make sure nothing got overlooked. They did a couple of additional little fixes and we were done.

It was a shorter day than we had expected. The weather was perfect. Everything went well. We all left in high spirits.

Barricading Bubba

Gerald and I were at our wits' end about Bubba.

When we first got the land, Gerald had a dream that we took him there and he disappeared down a badger hole, but he'd been a model dog for more than a year.

Then last weekend, he started disappearing for hours at a time as soon as he had finished his dinner. So Thursday evening, after he ate, I suggested we put up the barricades.

Gerald had to put something down in the garage and was going to block off the garage access when he got back. That was the last we saw of Bubba.

We had dinner reservations at Rumors, so when Bubba didn't show up about a half hour before, we started calling.

No response.

Gerald was sure he'd come when we started the truck. But he didn't.

We canceled our reservations and ate at the house. Meanwhile, Bubba finally showed up after dark.

We made dinner reservations for the next night and agreed that this time we would be quicker with the barricades.

On Friday night, about 15 minutes before Bubba's dinner time, he disappeared. We were floored. Bubba is never late for dinner. He usually starts staring at us about an hour before dinner and doesn't stop until he's fed. But he was gone.

I decided my attitude would be Little Bo Peep, as in "leave them alone and they'll come home." I was even prepared to go to dinner without him. Besides, we didn't have any more food for dinner.

Bubba showed up about 6 p.m., in plenty of time for us to get to Rumors for dinner. He ate, then went directly to the west porch, walked around the barricade and jumped off. I watched him do it. We got him back in, and Gerald beefed up the barricade, as in the photo above.

As we watched, Bubba looked like he was going to jump off the side of the porch, which was even higher off the ground. So Gerald erected barricades on that side.

Then, Bubba got so brazen that he knocked down part of the barricade and jumped off, with Gerald standing right there! Here he is getting mad at me for taking this photo instead of chasing the dog.

It was back to the barricades for Gerald.

Here's how the west side of the porch looked once it was done.

And here's Bubba still trying to find a way out. Sheesh!