Chapter 24...Walls And Corner Shower

Off Grid...Chapter 24 It's time for another chapter out of our life. We hope you enjoy! Thursday 8-28-08 Today was catch up day. We hooked the trailer to the jeep and loaded up all the household and construction garbage. We took everything to the dump and now we are about 400 pounds lighter. After Mike talked to the man at the dump for about 10 minutes we stopped at our old property to clear out the shed. While we were there one of our old neighbors stopped by to visit and she brought 2 bags of fresh green beans and tomatoes. Yum. I gave her some books and magazines in return. Then Mike took me to the library, one of my favorite places. I love to read and I haven't been to the library in weeks. I donated some books and magazines and checked out 2 "really good" new books. I can't wait to start reading them. After the library we stopped at the flooring store to set an appointment for them to come and measure the rooms in our house. We are using Armstrong's Natural Fusion x3000 line in Mediterranean Walnut for the entire house. We installed this flooring in our motorhome 2 years ago and we love the look of it and how easy it is to take care of. The man at the flooring store talked with us for about 1/2 hour. He knows some people that we know and we heard a short family history. Our final stop for the day was the grocery store. I ran into a woman from NY, you can't miss the accent(and I mean that in a nice way). It turns out I've heard about her because she knows David, at the farm supply, and his family. She also lives on the same road as Mike's daughter. Basically, I'm just trying to paint a picture of small town life. Everyone here lives at a slower pace and spends the time talking to you and asking about you. It's really nice- just don't always expect to get back home quickly, lol. Most people here either know each other or they know a relative of the person you know. Friday 8-29-08 This morning we got up and I could see some blue skies poking through the clouds. This is a really good sign because we can start working on the house again. I went online to look for furniture and I found a dining table set that Mike and I both really like. I thought it was great until I called and found out the price was just for the table. That's insane. There is a "huge" mark up on furniture and as soon as you buy it you can't even recoup half your money. That, to me, is a lousy investment. Needless to say it was very disappointing. Mike was down at the house spackling. He did all the high spots in the bedroom. He also spackled all the high spots that I couldn't do. He used the "dreaded" scaffold. I keep trying to use it but I'm a big chicken. It must be because I know I'm clumsy. Mike doing the high spots. He also had to use the corner tape and spackle all the transoms on both sides. After breakfast it was still sunny so we went to town to pick up more sheet rock, joint compound, and my "very own" spackling tools. Ah, now Mike and I can spackle together. We got back home and Mike continued to spackle. He has used a 5 gallon container of joint compound. We will probably use 2 more, yuk! Saturday 8-30-08 Now that we got more sheet rock, we went down to the house and installed all of it except for 2 small pieces behind the shower wall. We have to install the shower and the plumbing first. We also installed the water line for the outside faucet. This is what we started with today. And this is what we did. Sheet rock around the patio door. Later on we went back down to the house and worked on the front concrete corners of the house. They are 2 small pieces that we had to cover with sheet rock. We put glue on the concrete, installed the precut-cut sheet rock, and then screwed in a 2x4 across each one to hold them until the glue dries. We also added an additional electric outlet where the stove will be. We had to snake the wire through the wall and connect into a "remodel" box. It's a good thing we don't have insulation on that wall. It was very easy to find the wire. Sunday 8-31-08 Mike went down to the house and he was determined to get the shower installed. This is our shower base. And the walls. It took a lot of time because he had to chisel out some concrete around the drain, install the drain, and then glue and install the shower base. Then he had to cut 1x3's and screw them into the wall so the shower walls could be screwed into that. While Mike was doing that I was using my new spackling tools. I spackled everything I could reach in the living room using the regular ladder. I also, for the first time, spackled the patio door jams using corner tape. This is how it is done. First you measure and cut the corner tape to fit your corner. Then you spackle the corner. Then you put the corner tape on with the metal facing into the corner and smooth it out. Now you should have a nice crisp corner. Let it dry, sand and re spackle if needed. I didn't do bad but Mike still does it better and much faster. Mike got the shower stall and base installed. And the doors. He tried to install the faucet but we are missing a part so he came out to help me with the other patio door.  I think all the spackling is done. Now we have to start sanding.