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.

 

Kitchen Dreams

I'd LOVE to have our kitchen end up nice and bright like any of these  

I like the white subway tile and our sink will be below a large window

Our kitchen will be all along a wall, not U shaped like this

I wish for a propane stove

I love these old wooden beams

The high shelving would be useful, IF I have a ladder to get up there

I do not want upper cabinets, I want minimal stuff in the house, since its so small.

That Didn't Last Long

The offer on the house fell through and we were thrilled that happened. 

You see, I don't want to live in a trailer in my In Laws pasture while we look for another home and I've decided I can stay here forever as long as I don't know where we're going to end up. Lan doesn't want to make an offer on another place until we have cash in hand. I had started packing, again, but it was HARD not knowing where my stuff was going to go and for how long. There weren't any good houses available for sale in Idaho or Montana when we were looking.

The people paid for a home/property inspection, found dead mice under the house. Big deal, they were all dead. They had also ruined the insulation but oh well.

Then the people wanted a septic inspection & the guy they chose to do it said one of the two arms had failed & the other had extra stuff added onto it, done illegally by 'some homeowner'. 

The people offered us $25,000 less, saying the drain field would cost them that much to repair. 

We said NO. 

They backed out.

Whew.

We spent $1,600 for our septic guy to come pressure wash out the drain field arms and do video; he said there was no failure, just dirt that you should expect after 40 years. He told us the Distribution Box needed to come up, it had sunken into the clay about 6". The 'illegal' stuff wasn't even there, it is exactly as the county plans were drawn up in 1978. 

We replaced the 'D' box & the pipes connected to it, brought it up to the correct height and put gravel on top to keep it up. Installed 2 risers over the tank openings & got it buried again.

This was in seriously rainy weather, all of it. The 'D' box, pipes & risers cost an additional $800 so we put $2,500 into it all together, just 10% of what they wanted to get out of us.

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So now I'm turning the old dog room into a pantry. It measures 8x8, has this closet inside it. Its also got an outside window, an outside door & a door into the kitchen. I had to clean all the dirty dog dust, dirt, mud and smell out of there. Painted all the walls & trim then started on the closet.

We put in the supports at measurements I found here 

(this Pinterest photo)

It didn't work perfectly since our closet already had the one shelf & dowel but I worked around that. I want 5 gallon buckets to fit under the bottom shelf, I want the top shelves to be a bit smaller so I can use them & they aren't closed off by the ceiling/top of the door area.

I cut all the supports & painted them before I put them up; later I figured out they weren't thick enough & with any weight they would bow & fall. 

So we added more support on the left hand side but Lan put them up before I could paint them. 

That's OK though because I need to paint a couple other spots on the supports too. I hadn't painted the tops because I figured they weren't going to show but once we put the shelves in I discovered a few of the tops will show.

Here are the shelves I got painted today. The color is SHADED GRAY, its the same color as the room trim & on our bedrooms & bathrooms trim upstairs. I've got 1/2" of paint left in the can & still need to paint 2 more shelves and the doors.

These will be painted soon but not tonight.

Same with these doors, they will be painted but I'll need another gallon of the paint. 

Sigh. 

I'd rather get a gallon of the paint, then there is plenty left over for any spots I need to redo upstairs.

This is the door into the pantry from the kitchen.

A can holder similar to this will also be built, it will go on the wall to the right of the window & left of the closet.

I might do another one of these between the door to the kitchen and the outside door, all depends on how many cans I end up getting. There seem to be a lot of them in the kitchen now, stored here & there but I'm sure once I get things organized in the pantry that it will seem bare.

I have a Food Saver vacuum that I use a LOT and now I'll have a place to store all those containers that are currently stashed in various places. I don't feel like this is enough supplies to last very long in case SHIF but it will be better than nothing.

This silly drawing is what it should end up looking like.