February was a busy month. After closing on the new house, Ken hired a contractor to remove the popcorn on the ceilings then retexture and repaint them. While that was going on, he and a friend got going on the repairs that *had* to be done before we could move in: replace master bath faucets, replace kitchen faucet, repair master bath toilet, fix half-assed repairs made on hall bath & master bath drains. Not difficult, but you know how plumbing jobs expand… The patio door was also repaired. It just needed new rollers, but the design was such that the entire door needed to be taken apart to get to the rollers. Then the axle grease the previous owner had globbed in the tracks to get it to slide needed to be removed.
I wanted a water softener (AZ water is *hard*!) so he spent some time installing that. I suppose not strictly necessary before moving in but easier to do now. Painting the master bedroom and office came next. Those two rooms would be very difficult to do after the furniture is moved in.
In the meantime, I was at the old house getting it ready to put on the market. That involved triaging things into Goodwill, daughter’s garage sale, trash, and things we didn’t immediately need. The latter was packed up and moved to the new house’s garage. I could make some of the decisions, but Ken was required for others. He was in hyper drive for several weeks between the two houses.
Finally, the old house was staged, put on the market, and had several offers above asking price the first day. Ken accepted the highest one (naturally) and the next highest wanted to be a backup bidder. So, that was settled. Now that we knew the buyers weren’t cash buyers and wanting in immediately, we could settle down and do some more work on the new house that was easier done when empty. i.e. painting, ceiling lamp replacement, switch and outlet replacement. Little things like that are much easier without the furniture.
Finally, everything was ready enough and we moved in on March 13. Ken started tackling all the outside work he wanted to get done before monsoon season hit. My request had been that we get gravel down before the rains came so mud wouldn’t get tracked inside. I’ll just let Ken’s own words describe the result of that request:
Project: Cover dirt in backyard with gravel
Oops! Better get some more dirt to improve drainage away from house.
OK, got dirt.
Oops, better pour some concrete for patio expansion. Concrete done.
Ready to spread dirt?
Nope, better paint block walls before dirt and gravel.
Get sprayer shipped from son's house in Ohio. Done.
Get sprayer repaired because it has not been used in 12 years. Done.
Spray paint walls with 3 coats of paint. Done.
Spread dirt. Done.
Oops, dirt does not settle as much as expected. Remove part of dirt and relocate. Done.
Oops, better put some plastic down over the new dirt. Done.
Spread gravel finally only to find out that the gravel company sold us twice as much as we needed. Have huge pile left over.
My role was much easier. I simply unpacked the boxes, put things away, forgot where I put them, found them again, and put food on the table.
Danny and Ken installing non-soft water line to outside faucets
New cement poured to enlarge and square off the patio
Painting porch roof after repair
New gravel down!
Oh. The old house purchase fell through just before closing. The wife lost her job and they couldn’t wangle things around enough to qualify for the mortgage. Luckily the backup bidders were still interested. Still above asking price but not nearly as much as the first couple. Oh well, it’s done.
[written 12/23/13]
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