Chapter 43...Indoor Construction Is Done

Off Grid...Chapter 43 This week was a big accomplishment for Mike and I. We finished the "construction" on the inside of the house. Woo hoo. Now that's what I call a happy new year. Monday 12-29 After the busy week last week doing ceiling and sheetrock we ended up with bags and bags of garbage. So first thing this morning it's off to the dump. It will be so nice to get the house emptied out and cleaned up. On our way back home we stopped at the local furniture store to look for a day bed or a sofa bed. Oh no, we are looking for furniture again. Yuk. They didn't have many options in the store and we looked through all their catalogs. Boy they make some ugly stuff, LOL.  We aren't sure because we don't like that the second bed doesn't pop up. Then we went back home dropped the trailer off, made some coffee, and headed back to town again. While Mike went to an appointment he dropped me at the library. My favorite place. We got home late but now it's time to get serious and get the last of the house done. We emptied out the office including all the tools, the work bench, a ladder, all the paint, etc. and put it all in the living area. Now we are ready to sand and paint. Tuesday 12-30 I walked out of the bedroom this morning and it looked like a tornado hit. We have to get done because this mess will drive us crazy. Mike and I both go into the office with our sanding paper and close the door(to try and limit the dust throughout the house). First we cover the electrical components and the cabinets with sheets for protection and then we get to work. Mike is on the ladder sanding high and I am sanding low. You know what that means? It means I am getting covered in spackle dust. We finish sanding both closets and it looks like a whiteout. We take a break, close the door, and let the dust settle. On to the bathroom to do the same thing. We take everything out and cover up the rest. We finish the sanding in there and go back to the office. In the office we start a major clean up. We sweep down the walls, sweep the floors, and then mop the floor. Next we clean up the bathroom and Mike puts the last coat of spackle on the closets. We wait until late that night for the spackle to dry and we do it all again. Another dusty mess but we are done with sanding and spackling. Woo hoo. Mike condensed all the spackle into a smaller container and got rid of the big 5 gallon bucket. He also finished installing all of the floor trim. We get all the supplies ready and Mike starts painting the first coat with the tinted drywall primer. He paints both closets in the office and the bathroom closet. After the primer dries he goes back and paints the last coat with the interior paint. While Mike was painting I followed along with a bucket of water to clean up any spills and drips. It goes much faster with us working together. Wednesday 12-31 We are done with the closets and they look good. Next Mike cuts out the extra shelves for my pantry and I re-do it. Yeah, I got rid of the plastic containers. Now that most of the work is done we can take almost all of the tools out of the house and up to the building. We need to empty out and do a major clean to get rid of all the construction dust. I start cleaning the back rooms while Mike brings stuff up to the building. Then he helps me move the furniture out of the living room so I can really clean. Wow it's starting to look like a Mike and Lisa house which means it looks like no one lives here, lol. Just the way we like with everything put away and in it's place. Thursday 1-1 Wow it's the first day of the New Year and everything is neat and clean. We got a call from our old neighbor from NC. Our property used to back up to her property when we lived there years ago. Anyway she stopped by with her grandson for a visit. It was great to see Marsha and Jacob. We haven't seen her in about a year so we had a nice time. She brought our first housewarming gift a very nice painting that she painted. Friday 1-2 Today we drove to the bigger town to look for a desk, more daybed options and more accessories for the house. We stopped at 8 different stores and we bombed out. We bought absolutely nothing. I guess it was a bad time to go being it was right after the holidays. We will have to wait for a re-stock of items in the stores. It's just the same old, same old. Saturday 1-3 Today was a mixed day. It wasn't nice enough to work outside and we didn't have much to do inside. Mike started out by going around the house and caulking all the floor trim. Next he screwed down my counter top from underneath. Something we never finished. Then he caulked the kitchen counter top. I also asked Mike if he could look at the kitchen clock to see if he could take it apart and paint the hands. The clock has a silver background and silver hands. We can't read it. So my miracle man took it apart and painted the hands black. Ah much better. Now I can see the clock. Next Mike took all the 5 gallon buckets of paint and strained the paint and poured it into smaller containers. Everyday we get more and more organized. Sunday 1-4 We woke up and it was raining but after breakfast the sun came out and it was beautiful. Time to open up the doors and air out. Mike got the nice weather bug and he disappeared outside. I stayed in doing laundry and I cleaned my armoire and organized my clothes. Howard and his son, Eric showed up to feed the cows so Mike went down to talk with them. It was a nice relaxing day. Our office is complete except for the furniture and the floor trim still needs touch up paint. This is the area for the day bed. And the area for our desk. Things will really be slowing down for us until the weather breaks. We have a ton of projects to do outside. We need just a few nice days in a row. I hope you enjoyed our story. I know things are slowing down but I will keep you updated.  Lisa

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.

Chapter 23...Walls And Spackling

Off Grid...Chapter 23 Back to the week of 8-25-08. Monday 8-25-08 This morning Mike ordered all of our appliances and our fireplace. Now we are getting close. We went down to the house and started working on the "last" wall for the house. We haven't been able to build that wall because we had all of our sheet rock boards leaning against it. After we got that wall up Mike started wiring our living room, our last room(yeah), for electrical. This room is a little tricky because we need the regular wiring in the walls for the outlets and switches, our overhead light, plus an outside receptacle for an outside light. He also put in an outside spicket for water. I would like to get a couple of solar lights for the outside of the house but my experience with those lights has been bad. The last ones we had didn't work very well. Does anyone know of any "good" solar lights? Mike is also putting the outlet for the TV and satellite on their own switch. This way we can turn the switch off and "no" electric will be used. We don't want any phantom/ghost voltage in the house. That is when you turn things off when they are still plugged into the outlet and they "still" draw electric. Next Mike started working on the wiring nightmare in our main breaker box. It's dark in here because we are getting much needed rain. This area has all the wires from all of our rooms hanging there waiting to be hooked up. Mike now has to wire each of the rooms into their own circuit breaker. Today he did the office/bedroom. After lunch we went back down to the house and started working on the doorways "again!". We finally got all 3 of the transoms in. This is me cutting smaller pieces of sheet rock for the transoms. Here I am putting the last of the insulation in. Tuesday 8-26-08 It's been raining all night and most of yesterday. We had to start the generator to charge our batteries for more electric. Because we have no sun our panels aren't producing any power. Mike is already thinking we need more panels so our batteries can store more juice. Our whole solar system will be trial and error until we figure out exactly what we need. Mike likes it this way because when there is a new problem he just learns more about it. We went down to the house to install the sheet rock in the living room, our final room. Here's Mike starting on the first wall. We installed 5 pieces of sheet rock. We were doing really well and then we ran out of sheet rock. We are short about 6 sheets for the whole house. That really stinks because all day today and for the next few days it will be raining which means we can't get anymore sheet rock. We need a dry day to go pick it up. At least the plants and trees are happy. We desperately needed rain and this is a good soaking rain. We have installed a total of 65 pieces of sheet rock. Can I tell you how sick I am of sheet rock? Keep reminding me how much money we are saving! It gets very boring after so long. Mike also wired the master bedroom and the dining room into the main breaker box. Then we installed the door for the bathroom. Now all 3 doors are installed. I know it only took us about 3 weeks to do 3 doors but hey, we've been busy with other things. At least we accomplish something everyday. We couldn't get much more done today because we are out of material and it's too damp to spread the sheet rock mud. Tomorrow's another day. Wednesday 8-27-08 Everything outside is a soggy mess from all of the rain so we made a trip to Lowe's and the tile store. We stopped at the tile store first so I could pick out tile for my kitchen counter top. The store had well over 100 tiles and I couldn't find a single one that I liked. I didn't realize I was so picky. They had all the "trendy" natural stone, travertine, and granite tiles. I don't like any of those because I like symmetry and clean lines. All the natural stones and granites have way too many variations and speckles per tile. It's just not my taste. Oh well. Then we went to Lowe's and I actually found a special order tile called Byzantine Gold polished porcelain that I like. Amazing. I am going to order that because it is very clean and neat looking. Now I have to work on designing a back splash. Any ideas? I'm thinking about cutting our tile down to 6 inches and using that with a fancy border along the counters. But I don't know what to do by the sink and stove. Do you go all the way up to the cabinets? Help me out here. I've never done a back splash before. I think we also found a nice interior color for the walls of the house. It's Valspar and it's called Pale Glow. There are way too many color choices out there. It is not fun trying to find one. We might paint the bedrooms a bright white just because we have no windows. After Lowe's we stopped at a furniture store. We need everything new because we haven't lived in a house for 3 1/2 years. We didn't find anything. Oh this is going to be fun ha, ha. Have you all figured out that Mike and I don't like shopping. We would rather stay home in our own little world. Anyway it looks like we are going to have to make the "big" trip down to Hickory, NC(the furniture capital of the world) for furniture. I hope it won't be too bad when we go. Wish us luck on that trip. We got back home and we checked our roads after all that rain. With the last ditch line everything held up well. Our road stayed in place, yeah. We had no washouts so that is a really good sign. Our smaller ditch up top did really well also. We only have a little soft ground on our walkway down to the house. We went down to the house and did a little more work. Mike worked on more electrical and I did some spackling. That's all for today. This week we have to make a huge dump run and order our flooring. As always, I hope you are all enjoying the story. Lisa and Mike

Chapter 22...Kitchen Install

Off Grid...Chapter 22 Going back to Thursday 8-21-08 Today was the the first day all week that it was just Mike and I. We work the best when it is just the two of us. That's how we really like it because, as you all know, we're best friends. We went down to the house and finished stubbing out the plumbing in the bathroom for the water heater. Then we were able to finish installing the smaller pieces of sheet rock in the bathroom. Mike hates installing all the smaller sections because it is very time consuming and it doesn't feel like you get anything done. After a lot of grumbling we "finally" finished the bathroom. Next we started on the kitchen wall. See now that looks like we are getting something done. After we got that wall done Mike showed me how to spackle. This is how it is done. After the sheet rock is installed on the wall studs the seams have to be taped. Then you spread the sheet rock "mud"(very smelly stuff) on the tape and scrape off the excess. You also fill in all the screw holes with mud and scrape that off. Let it all dry about 12 hours, lightly sand it all, and then repeat the whole process 2 more times. So far we haven't done any sanding which means we have a ton of finish work left. Yuk! While I was spackling, Mike was working on the transoms above the doors. We made extra work for ourselves by deciding to put the decorative glass above the doorways but I think Mike and I will be very happy with them. Mike had to cut 2x4's to make a frame for the glass and then he covered it all with sheet rock. The bathroom transom is done. The bedroom transom. Now all we have left is the other bedroom transom. That's for another day. Mike also finished working on the sheet rock for the angled wall that goes into the bedroom and we fixed the bedroom door. This is everything we did today. It was a very good day. Friday- 8-22-08 This morning we went down to the house and started the electrical wiring for the dining area. Mike likes to install wire for each room individually so that each room in the house has it's own circuit breaker. We run wire in all the outlets and switches. Then we run a wire for an overhead light in each room. After that all the wire goes back to the breaker box. The front wall of the dining area is done. Now we only have the living room to do. After the wiring, we started to sheet rock the front wall. This is Mike using a jigsaw on the sheet rock to cut out the electrical boxes. We finished most of the front wall today. We had to stop and go to town. We had to pick up more insulation and also go to our other property to mow. A few hours later we made it back home. Yeah! When we got home Mike's daughter, Nicole, stopped my with her son A.J.. She needed to borrow our compound miter saw so she could finish the trim in her bathroom. A.J. is 10 and really excited about the house. He can't wait to stay over. I briefly explained how the solar works and he was amazed and thought it was very cool that we have no electric bill. After they left, Mike and I moved the kitchen base kitchen cabinets from the 2nd bedroom back into the kitchen. Mike is "really" tired of sheet rock so he wants to do something different. It is taking a long time for the 2 of us to do the sheet rock but we are saving about $45.00( so far we have bought 65 boards) per board for a professional to come in and hang and finish sheet rock. We bought small plastic nail in protectors to put on the bottoms of my base cabinets. We are putting these on because my cabinets aren't solid wood and this will protect the bottoms in case the floor ever gets wet. We got all the cabinets lined up and ready to install tomorrow. Saturday- 8-23-08 This morning we started installing the base cabinets in the kitchen. We installed 6 base cabinets and a utility cabinet. Then we moved on to the upper cabinets. We used the top of the utility cabinet as our marker for the top cabinets. We placed a 2x4 across the top of the utility cabinet and to the corner, made sure it was level, and screwed the 2x4 into the wall. This made it much easier to lift the cabinets up to the 2x4 and screw them in place. Almost finished with the upper cabinets. Later on we finished installing 16 cabinets. We still have one more for above the refrigerator but we have to wait. Sunday- 8-24-08 It was nice walking into the house and seeing all the kitchen cabinets done. It kind of gives you a boost to see some type of finish work on the house. We started off by installing 2 small 2x4' by the corner carousel cabinet. This is in preparation for the installing the plywood on top of the base cabinets for my counter top. We used 2 sheets, 4x8, of 3/4 inch thick finished plywood. We measured the plywood and cut two pieces for each section of the counter. The plywood is now 1 1/2 inches thick and ready for tile. Some people like to use backer board for their counters but we never have and have never had any problems. As Mike likes to say, "If it ain't broke don't fix it". Mike started the template for my kitchen sink. He then drew it onto the counter and used a jigsaw to cut a whole for my sink. This was a very slow process. While he was doing that I did a little more spackling. Mike says I did a good job and that I seem to have a knack for it. I think he just doesn't want to do it ha, ha. Actually I like spackling. Mike says I like a lot of weird jobs when we build. It's OK at least one of us does. This is my sink and faucet installed. Of course we aren't hooked to water yet but it's in. It makes us feel better. I love it. I haven't had a big sink in years. The motor home has a double sink which I hate because I can' fit my big pans in the sink when I wash dishes. I love to cook so I use a lot of bigger pans. I also hate the single lever faucets, again in the motor home. They are a pain to clean because the connections for the levers are really hard to clean "all around them". Next we started on sheet rock again! I can't wait until we are done. At least we had a day away from doing sheet rock. We put up 4 smaller boards and called it quits. We decided to take the rest of the night off and kick some butt tomorrow. Later on we took a ride on the 4-wheeler and on our way back up we saw a raccoon eating apples in one of the apple trees. I love raccoons. They are like little burglars with their masks. A cow was right below the tree where the raccoon was in hopes of a fallen apple. We watched them for awhile. It is amazing how many animals we have on this property. Must be all the apple trees. So now I have more competition for apples. The cows are eating all the apples they can reach and the raccoons are eating the higher apples. I better hurry and start picking. That's all for now. We have a really busy week coming up. We are trying to paint the interior within a couple of weeks, get the flooring done, install the appliances, and do the counter top. We better start ordering everything. I am glad you are all enjoying the story. Have a great day. Lisa and Mike