How To Proceed

OK, so here is our house in Pioche, what it looks like right now.

Living room on the left, kitchen on the right. It is 20' wide across the front.

This is a rough drawing of the house

And this is a rough drawing of what it might look like when we're done rebuilding it.

We're going back to see the house in September or October, we do need to winterize the trailer and get all the measurements and make final plans on how we're going to do next springs demolition of the utility, kitchen & bathroom and THEN we need to get it all covered again so the basement doesn't flood in the winter from any rain and snow. They haven't had much of either for 2 years so they're due for a good amount, I think, this winter.

The bedroom is already framed in and it will be 12'x12' with the closet on the side along the living room, to provide a little sound proofing.

We both want to have a large window out the back of the house to see the views of the valley but as of right now, we're not exactly sure how that's going to work out.

I had so many ideas of things we could do with this house but all those photos are lost and it kinda makes me sick.

 

Over Time Is Done

 We got home on June 5th and I had another week off, but got called in for OT on June 11th. Then starting Sunday June 14th, I worked 6 straight days for that first 60 hours, I had Saturday June 20th off, then another week of 60 hours, 1 day off and this week I worked the last FIFA hours yesterday. I'll work Thursday and Friday for only 40 hours this week.  There were 2 holidays when I got OT so cash wise they were each $1,000 days but I chose Comp days so I'll get more time off. Today & tomorrow are the first 2 days I'll have off together since June 12th & 13th.

What I need to accomplish in these 2 days is:

Get the RV cleaned out and set up for Jeffs visit Monday

Put bedding and stuff out there 

Make sure there is water in it so he can use the toilet if he wants

Shop for snacks and treats, and beer for Jeff

          Shop for gluten free foods since he is intolerant 

Shop for an awesome Birthday gift for Jeff, he will be 66 on Monday

 

On July 11th there will be a memorial for Aunt Rita and there will be far more people there that I don't want to see than the few I do want to see. Until 2 months ago I thought that things were good between Sali and me but then I caught her in a lie so I no longer care to see her. And YES, that's petty but she simply didn't need to lie to me in the first place. 

I wonder how many more family members will die before I see them all again?

 

Back To Work

 We've been home a week and during that time I worked 50 hours, 10 is overtime on a holiday so I'll earn about $1000 that day, now for my second week I'll work 60 hours so worked time is 110 hours plus a holiday, which for the regular holiday time I'll take as comp.

I did not plan on working so much right off the bat but its available and I'm high enough in seniority to get better shifts but honestly I enjoy every position on the dock.  Mostly I sell but traffic and plank are as easy as pie.

All this OT is due to the FIFA in Seattle; they are paying for extra people to be on the dock so I said 

SIGN ME UP!

The OT will be about 70 hours each week through July 10, by the time it's over I'll be wiped out.

Next Trip Planning

We're hoping to take another trip down to Pioche in the fall to winterize and prep for the big demo next spring, when we remove the utility room, kitchen, basement stairs and bathroom.

Here's a diagram of the current house, it measures about 20' wide by 36' deep and the bathroom is 5x5

This is maybe what our future house will look like. This isn't to size but you get the gist.

We still need to figure out how to get into the basement after we remove the stairs down to it.

This section on the left is the bathroom that we will remove, and the brick chimney on the other side, the metal one is already gone. The part on the right is the kitchen & utility and they will be gone too.

Here's a better photo of the chimney

This is the utility room, the door leads to the stairs that go 3 up to the utility room and 7 down to the basement floor; all the blue area will be removed along with the door/stairs,

This is the basement stairs thing. Its all going to go.

We will need to make sure the exterior walls are straight and cover them up with new siding of some kind. Currently the house has stucco on it but we're not sure what we will use on the new sides.

 

After the Trip

We left home at 5pm Thursday May 21, 2026 and drove till we were tired, Friday we woke early and drove to Dugway Geodo Beds, where we spent the entire day digging and found a lot of them, couple 5 gallon buckets full.

Spent the night there, then in the morning we drove to the Topaz dig area and got some but by the time we got there it was very warm and I just wasn't into it. Lan was able to dig some nice small ones right out of the rocks.

Then we headed out and arrived in Pioche at dusk.

Our home when we first saw it this trip.

Lan worked hard to replace two front windows, making them both bigger and straight, and he worked to suck in the side of the house where the stucco wants to bulge out.

Neither of those were easy jobs but both look much better now.

After the stucco was dry I got to paint & since I knew it wasn't going to be an easy job at all, I decided to use the best tools and paint I could afford and I chose 'Pure Turquoise' as the color, or as neighbor Tom says, Brothel Blue.

The 12" boards at the top of the walls are painted white but its old and peeling. I didn't have supplies to clean that up and its probably going to need replacing eventually so I left it alone. The blue is just to protect the walls.

While Lan was working on the windows and walls, I was tearing out the inside walls of the kitchen. I removed all the cupboards and cabinets and took down a lot of the many layers of walls, there was plywood, boards, wallpaper, linoleum and cloth. 

There were a lot of iffy things on the walls so we made sure to use the good filters.

We did a lot of sxs riding too, one day up to the top of Mt Wilson, another trip out to Hackett Ranch and others. We saw a lot of wild horses and that made my heart happy.

We went to neighbor Toms yard sale and paid $50 for the Traeger smoker and have used it twice, for Brisket and ribs. WOW, its fun to use. I'll be cooking another brisket (ok, this one will be a chuck roast) and ribs today. I do need to go to the store for the roast since I didn't think to thaw one of ours.  I'll need another bag of pellets too.

 

We Leave Thursday

 SO MUCH TO DO, 

as there always is right before leaving on vacation.

I've got most of our clothing packed, I will need to wash a couple more loads of laundry, some to wear, others just so they're not sitting here dirty for 2 weeks. 

I've been trying to find an outdoor umbrella style clothesline but none around us and seriously, I do not know why I want one so badly at this time, we haven't ever used enough power to raise the bill more than the minimum monthly charge. I do enjoy saving money, only if its in my head and I LOVE the feel of sun-dried clothing on my body. Our neighbor, Tom, has a clothes line and I'll use that but not for any undies, he already put the kybosh on that.

We do have most of our things packed but that's 89% or 675,329 items.

Yesterday I asked Mom if her offer to give me 'traveling money' still stood; she said yes so I went for a visit. Mom gave me $5,200. Yay, that was awesome BUT

she didn't invite me into the house.

Because Heather and Ashleigh, the 2 total lowlife losers of the family, were there. That hurt.

What I SHOULD Be Doing...

 I should be packing

I should be cleaning

I should be grooming my horses

I should be putting clean clothes on the line

I should be straightening the sewing room

I should be getting all the food together for our trip

I should be putting together a bag of cross stitch things

BUT

What I am doing is sitting here on my butt not doing anything productive