Sunset build, Season 2, Episode 2

You know what they say about best laid plans…our plan was to hit the ground running, work hard May through the end of June and be done with the major stuff by July 1. Huh. Here’s the update.

 

The split air (our heat and air conditioning source) motherboard arrived and Greg replaced. Nope. We went back and forth about whether or not to have a professional look at it. He called all the HVAC folks in Homer and Soldotna (we’re half way between). Homer folks said they didn’t travel that far north. Soldotna folks said they didn’t travel that far south. He talked to Home Depot and they told him that he could bring it back and order a new one and try again. As he was taking it apart to return, he discovered a motherboard “reset” button. Guess what happened when he pushed it? Our split air is running like a charm! What a win.

 

Then there is our 4’ x 6’ replacement window saga. We have now reordered it three times. One has yet to arrive. First—lost. Second—they cancelled the order and didn’t tell us. Third—we were assured would arrive no later than July 1. On July 2 Greg called Anderson Windows and had to get a little confrontational…way outside his comfort zone. Today (3^rd) we got confirmation of its location. It is still in Washington. Sigh. Hopefully it will arrive in two weeks so we can finish the inside and move our living room furniture in. Fingers and toes crossed.

 

I took a week off to be in Oregon with Hannah & Andi the week before their wedding. Hannah bought stuff to replace a corner shower in October. I told her if she did all the demolition work before I got there, we could probably complete before the wedding. That was a little optimistic on my part. First hiccup was finding that the shower drain was not in the same place on the new shower pan as the old shower pan. Greg is our plumber. But he wasn’t there so we cut out the floorboard and I did my first ever plumbing job—moved that drain by cutting out the old pipes and replacing! Another skill in my toolbelt (which I never care to do again). Oops. That put us a day behind to start. We put up backer board. We mortared. We tiled (with some cool pebble sheets). We installed a beautiful rounded glass sliding door. It was a charge for me to get to do a big project like this with Hannah (& Andi who step in at clench times). We all worked well together and there was much grace. And then it was time for the wedding!

 

What a joyous, hopeful ceremony among a beautiful community of family & friends. So happy to get to celebrate AND the bonus is a beautiful daughter-in-law! The next day I finished the tiling and Greg started the grouting, but alas, we didn’t have enough grout to finish the project so had to leave the finish work for two capable women.

Back to Alaska and our projects. Finished the storage room. Installed the vanity finishing the bathroom. Greg is pretty darn close to completing the drywall work in his garage. Then there will be shelves to be built before he can move ALL his tools in. I have been spending time in the yard. We have an elderberry forest I’m trying to tame. Have planted lilacs, delphinium, & bachelor buttons. Cleaned up a raspberry patch. Built a strawberry bed.

 

Bottom line is that we said we were going to hit it hard until July 1. We did. There are still things to do but we are going to do them at a little bit more relaxed pace. Taylor is coming for July 4. Next week we are going camping for 4-5 days with our former neighbors from Kenai. We’ll work a week then it will be time for summer camp with the grands. Maybe all the big stuff (window installation, move in rest of stuff, garage, front porch) will be done by August 1? Stay tuned.

Pictures