Chapter 95...Re-Installing A Corner Shower

Off Grid...Chapter 95 We had one big project this week and the rest of the time we had to take care of the things that seem to just come up in life. Monday We woke up to a very cold and rainy day today. I don't think Mother Nature can make up her mind, lol. Yesterday we noticed that our one Jeep tire has a slow leak and the spare tire has no air left. Those are the last 2 original tires on the Jeep. Time to get them changed. Mike and I go into town to see about 1 new tire and plugging one of them for a spare. The tire place has to order a matching tire for us but they will have it tomorrow. Later on, back at home, we get a call from UPS. They have our replacement shower for us and they want to deliver it tomorrow. Wow, that was quick. I thought they were shipping it today. Tuesday- We waited for the call from UPS and met the freight truck on the highway where we loaded up the shower onto our trailer. We brought it back to the house, opened it, ad checked it out. It looks good. We got the new floor piece, which is the part that cracked on us...apparently the company didn't make it sturdy enough...but at least they stood by their product and sent us a new one. We also got the new side walls because when we tear out the old walls they will most likely be destroyed. I know what we will be doing tonight, lol. Next we go into town and get the tire replaced. They can't fix either of the 2 original tires to use as a spare so we order another new one. Back at home Mike gets all of the tools he thinks we need to take out the old shower. Hopefully this goes well because once we start we have no shower until the new one is on and all of the caulk is dry. At least we have water. Mike starts out by unscrewing the door. The door is off. Then he unscrews the old track And pulls it off Next Mike starts to work on the walls...which have been screwed and glued to the sheetrock. Mike tearing out the walls and I'm sure some sheertrock with them. We get the old walls out. Then he takes off the foam that was glued on the wall. Finally we get to the part that was broken, the base. The base was glued in and it's giving grief trying to get it out. We are trying to pry it out without ruining our floor. Mike tearing the base apart so we can take it out. We had to take a back board out which was screwed and glued. Oops, looks like Mike has some sheetrock repair again. Mike always said he would hate to be the one to take houses apart after the "glue" craze and he is right. More damage will be done from the glue than anything else. Mike gets that repaired and now we can see if the new shower base and walls fit. We get the new base in place and then we get the walls. It looks good. We take it all back out so Mike can cut the holes for the hot and cold water handles. That is always a scary thing...one mistake and the whole shower wall is destroyed. Mike does good....I wasn't worried at all, lol. Mike does some more patching and repairing. We bring the 2 new wall panels into the bathroom. I hold them at a right angle while Mike screws them together. Next he puts glue on the back of the walls. Once the new base is installed we put the walls in. Then Mike reinstalls the track and then we out the door back on. Five hours later and it looks exactly the way it was except we have no crack in the floor, lol. Mike does some caulking and we have to let it dry 24-48 hours. We are going to give it some extra time. Mike will spend some more time patching and re painting the walls where the old shower came out. Yay...our new shower is in...but we can't use it yet. Wednesday Ugh!!! Another trip to town. This time we have an appointment to have our windshield replaced. It started out as 2 chips but over this cold winter those 2 little chips really spread. So we drop it off and wait. We have no choice but wait since this is our only car. A few hours later we get to go home. Back at home a man showed up for the big wind generator...and he bought it. Mike does some repair work on the bathroom walls. Thursday- Today we ran to do errands in the small town. We also stopped at the old property to see how the new owner is doing. He has been mowing it and I'm sure he was grumbling about it the whole time, lol. Back at home Howard, the cow man, asked us if we saw the bull. He didn't come when they brought feed...that is not a good sign. I'm guessing one of our neighbors has some new cows who enticed our bull. Anyway, Howard will be back later with his wife ad son to check the fence line. Another man showed up and bought our tow bar. Woo hoo. I know I can't advertise here but I used a free online service to sell stuff and I am amazed with how much stuff we got rid of...and we had some odd ball stuff, lol. I got a picture of the babies by themselves. I guess the mother's felt they are old enough to be on their own. I tried to get close but they have no interest. Later that afternoon Howard, Ivalee, and Eric showed up to look for the bull. Mike took th 4-wheeler and went up to help them. I stayed at the house and did the mowing and some gardening. Apparently Ivalee got lost in the woods on the other side. They kept calling and calling for her. I think she was gone for an hour or so. She finally found them and Mike said he didn't say a work while her husband and son teased her. She must have been scared. Anyway, they found the bull...finally and got him back on our property and then they repaired the fence where he got out. They were there until after dark. Friday- We were useless today, lol. Saturday- Yay, we can take showers but the caulk in the drain didn't dry. Well at least I feel human again. Mike took me to the yard sales and to the Farmer's Market. It's still to early for anything good. We got back home and Mike took out the still wet caulk and put in a better caulk that he had, While he did that I did some laundry and the washer made a funny noise. Uh oh. Mike came in to check it and there was a leak inside our water pump closet. Now what? Sure enough our pump is leaking. Luckily Mike thinks ahead and we have a second new pump as a back up. He replaces the water pump. We will call the company on Monday since it's supposed to have a 3 year warranty and it's leaking at the seam. Sunday- Our solar building gets really hot and Mike wants to help cool it. We already have a fan for the inverter but it's not enough. Mike wants to cut some holes in the floor for some cool air to get in. He cuts the floor with a jigsaw first. And then he uses the reciprocating saw. Next he screws wire on top to keep any critters out. He cuts one more hole and adds wire to that. Now we have 2 holes to let more air into the building. And Mike did the weed whacking for me and then he blew off the grass. What a guy I planted a few more things in my garden. It will really shape up later this month. That's all for this week's story. I know it was short but sometimes you just have to take care of other things. Mike and I will be going to NY to visit family for a few days.  Lisa:)

Chapter 78...New House Paint And New Trim

Off Grid...Chapter 78 7-6 Today is another rainy day. We are going to float away with all of this rain this year. Last year it was drought and this year it's floods. Maybe next year we will have something in between, lol. I was supposed to go to the Dentist today but it is way to nasty to go out this morning. Why put yourself into a bad situation when it isn't necessary? I spent the morning getting caught up on the story and uploading all of the pictures. I will never get that far behind again!! After that I worked on writing ads and doing pictures for both of the properties that we are selling. By the time we had breakfast, 11:00am, it stopped raining. It was still way to wet to do any work outside so we took a ride to check on the culvert, which looks great. Then we went over to check on the other property. We really wanted to get some painting done but now we have to wait for everything to dry out. Here is a picture of our 6 new trees that we planted on the back fence. Hopefully we can keep them alive. They have been in shade for 2 years and now they will be in full sun. We'll see how they do. 7-7 I finally made it to town and the Dentist. After the Dentist I also had to stop at the local paper to place our ads. They had an awesome deal. They will run a picture ad in all 4 of their publications for 7 months for $109.00. You can't beat that price. Although it is a tough time for selling real estate here. What a difference one day makes. It is going to be "hot". When I got home, Mike started working on the old trim on the house. Last year we were in such a rush to get the house closed in that we just put up 1x4 trim which was very plain. Now Mike wants a more decorative look. It never bothered me, lol. First Mike takes down the old trim. After all the old trim is off we need to scrape the paint underneath so the surface is smooth. Scraping the paint. It always looks worse before it can look better. We didn't get a lot done but the old trim is down and the house is scraped. Now we are ready to put the new trim on. 7-8 We should really get somewhere today. It's a nice day to work on the trim. First we have to measure and cut the pieces of trim. Then we will screw them into the house. Mike is cutting the trim pieces on an angle so that the pieces will slide together and overlap. The seams will be less noticeable. Cutting the new trim. Mike installing th new bottom trim. After all the trim is up Mike caulks it to protect the seams. 7-9 Yay, it's another beautiful morning. We bought trim for the upper section of the house. This trim is unfinished so we will have to paint it first and then put it on the house. Mike goes up top and gets me set up for painting. Here I am painting the trim. While the trim is drying and I have the paint out I might as well start painting the back of the house. The first coat of green paint is on the back of the house. And the trim dried and also got a second coat of paint. The trim is done and ready to install. Mike and I take the trim pieces down to the front of the house. We predrill the holes in the trim to make it easier to screw into the house. While Mike is on the ladder, I hand him each piece of trim so he can screw them in. Mike is installing the top painted trim. After we get that done, we go inside and I call about our concrete table. It will be ready to pick up this weekend. Woo hoo. 7-10 It looks like rain again so we did some running around. We went to the dump and on the way home we stopped at David's. I talked to the girls about vegetables and gardens which is right up my alley, lol. If it has to do with food I'm in. Next we stopped off to see what Jimmy and his guys were up to. Later on Mike braved the weather and decided to do some caulking. It threatened to rain all day but thankfully it didn't. Now we have to hope it doesn't start now that Mike did the caulking. I hope you all enjoyed another update in the Mike and Lisa world. Lisa