Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Magic Carpet Ride


This is what is now the back of the cabin-use to be the front. It faces the wonderful view. Eventually there will be another window and a small deck.

Well Chris had wished he took a magic carpet ride earlier this week after he helped Ken rip out the seriously glued down carpet. Ah yes and of course no power yet so it was hot. But they started at 7 am when it was a cool 80 something. Yes it crippled his hands for a day or two.

Well earlier, I told you about the amazing guy that moved the building-he had a wooden leg and could do more than a person with two regular legs.


We are surely on small town time. Still waiting on the local electric company to hook us up-any day now......it is so stinkin hot you can only do so much-at least us wimps that is.

This weekend, if I don't pass out from heat stroke I plan to texture the walls. Not a pro at this but it will be an improvement. I also plan to hit the lake in the boat once the blazing sun sets.

We got the bed yesterday. Otherwise Craigslist finds are slim pickens these days.

Stay tuned. Oh yes-Chris said he loves to work in the blazing heat and would love to do more every day! Great weight loss program. Hey at least it is in the shade and on occasion you get a nice strong blast of a breeze blowing that cool 90-105 degree air over your sweaty body. But as they say, everything is relative, and that blast of hot air feels good!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Slowly but surely

Thought I lucked out and had wood for the deck. Guy emailed us that he had 8 ft long 2X6s. Drive 25 miles only to find they are only 6 ft. Hmmmmm sound familiar! Anyway, so happy to have found my shower as I thought it would be the most difficult. Next major step is having the electricity hooked up. If we don't do this we will have heat strokes. It was well over 100 today and is suppose to stay that way for the rest of the week. Not much progress will happen in this heat wave. On the bright side-grass doesn't grow when it is this hot!

I still have to figure out what in the heck I am going to do about flooring. I am thinking we will put peel and stick tiles in the bathroom and for now leave the carpet in the cabin. Later we can deal with ripping it up.

We are awaiting help to build a few walls-challenge is that we need openings for doors-oh no that means we really have to measure and be exact. Well maybe not-isn't that why they make shims??

Ken is getting off lucky. He thought electric company would not run power to house but about 25 feet away. Which mean he had one long ditch to dig in this heat. To his surprise the guy from the company called today and said no problem we can take it to the house. Power+air conditioning=progress. Soon little grasshopper-patience.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Not much progress this weekend

Well-figured out the floor plan and where the windows go. Also figured out the building is not quite level so not sure what we will do about that. It is only off in one corner but it is driving me crazy! It was hotter than Hades so we did not do much. Once we have power and AC we might be able to get after it. Decided the carpet has to go and that we will need to texture the walls-guess I might as well learn how!.

I did score a few items on craigslist-

New vanity cabinet, sink, faucet, and mirror all brand new $50

Backsplash $10

Stainless steel kitchen sink with faucet $10

Today's find-new still in box shower stall with doors $200 (most I have had to spend booohooo but this one is $500 at Lowes and Home depot and I sure did not want to buy a nasty used one.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Hello darkness my old friend


It is now dark.    The mover backs up and makes several turns and then nothing.  He has lost so much transmission fluid he can't go anymore.  We need more transmission fluid.

 It is almost 9 pm, we are in very small town, will the only auto parts store in town  still be open?    Without transmission fluid this baby is not going anywhere else on the lot.

My husband takes off and, of course, the auto part store is closed.   Okay-I am not a fan of Wal Mart but thank goodness there is one here and they are open 24 hours.   My husband (30 minutes later) brings back 10 quarts of transmission fluid.  In a bunch of fluid  goes and the truck is in action again.  It is DARK.  The building is BIG. We are in a wooded area and I am thinking soon we will see all kinds of things slithering like SNAKES, SCORPIONS etc.  No slithering things show up-hmm guess the endless smell of leaking transmission fluid has kept all the animals away!  Or, maybe, they are in the woods watching this thinking what idiots we humans are.   

The building is finally going into position.   The poor guys doing this-it is now after 10 pm and they are working by truck lights and flash lights.  This is the last picture I got as I had to get home.  My husband stayed and helped them "level" the building.  They all left at about midnight.

I say    "Let the transformation begin".   


Stuck in the middle with you


It is now closing in on 7:30 pm. Darkness is not our friend. Oblvious to what it takes to move a building at this point we thing-ok all he has to do is get this down here, whip it around back it in and put a few blocks under it.

Wrong.

Well-the truck makes the turn and the neck of the trailer hits the gravel and gets stuck! Great now what! They decide only one option-detach the truck, move the "stronger truck", aka broken transmission truck, into place to pull it out. This change of trucks takes another 45 mintues because they can't get the hitch to go on the truck.

Finally, they get the truck hooked up.  Now to get it to move.  The driver starts it pulls forward and the truck shuts off.  This happens three times.  The sun is long gone.  You can smell his transmission fluid-he just keeps putting more into to keep it going.   One last shot and he gets it going and pulls it down taking out part of a tree and a small part of the roof!   I for one was no where near it as it came down the small hill.  Hey, but at least it is no longer in the street.









The big move



The first photo shows where they have to put this building. And yesterday was the day that the building would find it way to our wooded lot. It was suppose to arrive no later than 4 pm. 4 came and went with the mover telling us no problem on the way. Well, they had a few problems starting with the 2 escort guys no showed. So he had to scramble and find new ones, which just happen to cost us another $300.

They finally get rolling 3 hours later than scheduled and about one hour into the trip his transmission on his truck starts to leak! Mind you the building weighs 10,000 lbs. I am not a car mechanic but even I know this is really bad. 

Now he had to find someone else with a truck that could haul this thing. Hours later they are back and on the road, snaking their way through every back road the transporation department could come up with. You see if you move a building this size, the state department of transportation must approve the move and they give you the route. Apparently, they used the most difficult, longest route possible doubling what would be the normal distance between the locations.

Well the day progresses, hours go by. My husband and I who have been patiently awaiting our baby decided we are going to go into town and get something to eat. It is now 6 hours past when it was due to arrive.

We are driving down the main road and what do we see coming over the hill-the big building! YAHOO. But the challenges only continue.  They follow us to our lot-little do we know what has occurred already and what else will happen.

The picture above is the building arriving on our street!! Now for the next challenge.

Monday, July 14, 2008

From Ugly Duckling to Beautiful Weekend Cabin

This all started when we bought this lot to store our boat.    We were tired of giving money to the boat storage people.  We became more tired of giving them our money when we saw  how much money they wanted to purchase they boat storage area.     My husband was happy we found lot cheap-yes we paid only $3K for .7 of an acre!

Well-then I had a vision-find a portable building and convert it to a cabin.  You see, I love to decorate.   We love to do projects.  Notice I said we!   So our journey has begun.  Hope you enjoy the trip of trials and tribulations.  You will see how you can find about anything at garage sales or craiglist.

While I hope to spend as little money as possible I will probably break down and buy a new frig.  Just need a small one and need one that is energy efficient.