Summer Vacation

This was supposed to have posted two months ago but it didn't so I'll share now.

We hooked up the new to us trailer on May 29th, 2020 and hit the road.

2014 Skyline 17' Nomad. Dinette folds down to a queen bed, 2 bunks, bathroom (toilet, tub, shower),

2 burner stove, sink, heater, A/C, power awning.

We paid $4,000 for this gem & are COMPLETELY happy with it.

We were gone for two weeks, from Washington to Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, 

Montana, Idaho & Washington. 

We had to go to Cody, Wyoming to get the title for the trailer filled out completely & properly as it wasn't done the first go around. Since the tabs expired 

THE DAY WE LEFT TOWN, 

we got 2 trip permits from the Washington DOT. The rest of the time we weren't worried about getting pulled over.

This spot was in Wallace, Idaho. As soon as we got set up it started to POUR, thunder & lightening. Awesome storm. Woke up to another storm in the morning.

We visited Yellowstone National Park on our way to Cody, then again on our way back into Montana. At the park we were lucky to see Moose, a lone Wolf, Bison, Elk, a black bear sitting in the woods, deer & a lot of birds. We didn't get to see any Grizzlies.

We were also extremely lucky because they only just opened the park 3 days previous to our visit, all National parks had been closed due to Covid19. We encountered very few people, no traffic and when Old Faithful was getting ready to go off, there were maybe 300 people all together not the 3000 that are usually there on a summer day.

They had all the campgrounds closed so we had to stay outside the park but that was OK, we hadn't planned on going in advance so had no reservations.

The places we did stay were still pretty dang nice.

This was about the 5th night of our trip & the first place where we were allowed to have a campfire.

The only problem we really had was the alternator on the truck went out & we had to drive into Sand Point, Idaho from Thompson Falls, Montana & then back without the truck dying & leaving us stranded. With the new part in hand & a solar panel charging the batteries, we made it back right at dusk. Truck was fine after that.

OK, not fine. Since then the BRAKE idiot light has been on & we can't figure that out. Its not affecting the truck brakes & the trailer brakes don't seem to work anyway.

Since then, we have gone on a couple other trips:

Vance Creek Bridge

Camped at Brown Creek camp ground

Took a day trip to Spider Lake on the Olympic Peninsula

John Henry slept so well that night

Last week we drove hwy 410 to Naches and bought 4 tons of hay.

Coming home with the hay over Chinook Pass, we decided we really do need a new truck. This old Dodge was only going 25MPH up the mountain & in the olden days it would have been going up at the speed limit. We had to stop & let it cool down, just a mile from the summit.

A Little Update

The master bathroom is going well, we've got the new double vanity installed & the under sink leak fixed. I had anticipated this & put down a puppy piddle pad, glad I did. 

The vanity top came with a 4 inch tall back splash but since it fits PERFECTLY into the area, we'll need something on the side walls also. So we picked out a matching tile to go up about 12 inches on the sides & above the backsplash. 

We're putting shiplap on the back wall, I've already painted the wall & the boards, cut them to size and they are ready to go onto the walls. 

A mirror has been purchased, its just wide enough to fill the area & we'll put a frame made from the flooring around it to match.

There is very little painting left to do in the master bath, just a bit on the ceiling & around the tub. Then we'll put new caulking around it.

The flooring looks very nice, its a gray & the vanity is brown. I like both together, they aren't too much of one color. The flooring is also waterproof so we won't be worrying about wet floors.

Two Empty Bedrooms

With our roommate gone, we have decided to do a pretty big project in the house, maybe bigger than the kitchen work but to me seems smaller.

This is our old room, we had it for 4 years, since we moved into the house. This photo is taken standing in the door that goes into the room. We're adding another bathroom upstairs and this area, to the right of the blue line, will be the new bathroom. We've already removed the white (who puts white carpet in a farm house bedroom???) carpet and I've done some painting so the red wall is gone.

The door on the right, shown here removed, goes into the old bathroom that was a jack & Jill bath. That will now be the master bath and connected to the other bedroom still.

Plumbing shown here before pipes were added.

This is the single vanity we found, perfect for a farm house bathroom. 

That left side is a barn door slider.

We purchased the double sink for the master bath.

Here is a side view with the vanity in its approximate position. The toilet to its left & the shower on very left. 

The brown door is going to be removed & replaced with a sliding barn door like we have downstairs. 

I like this blue paint but might not use it now. We'll see.

She's Moving!

I'm holding my breath & crossing my fingers, she said she's moving next week. I'll do whatever I can to help her on her way. I mean, I'm not co-signing or paying for anything, but I'll help her move her shit to her new residence.
Monday & Tuesday are the big days. yippee.
She's got 2 places, one is $800 for a bedroom in a shared home, the woman has a day care & kids are there all day and into the evening.
Second place is with a married couple and is a bit cheaper. She hasn't been to see it yet & isn't sure of the location.
I told her the handyman will be here February 3rd & she's got to be out before then.

Room Mates

Our room mate, my niece, sucks. Actually, all roomies suck. But she's real sucky because she thinks its OK to not pay us rent. She's paid a whopping $1300 these last 10 months. She's living in our home, using a bedroom (2 when her son was here), our electricity, our internet, our heat, our kitchen & dishes. She comes into and out of our gate and takes up a parking spot in our yard.

Last summer while her son was here for 2.5 months & she was working, I babysat if I was home. Even if she was home, I was babysitting because she would be too lazy to care for him. She didn't do shit with him except took him to the zoo twice, one of those times for only 1 hour and she knew it would be closing soon.  Her idea of playing is to put him in his room & her in her other room & they play an online video game together. We live 6 miles from an excellent swimming lake but she never took him, not once. She didn't fill his pool for him & she didn't ride bikes with him even though we had given her a nice mtn bike & I bought him a kids bike.

I've been telling her repeatedly that she needs to move out & I've told her that we're going to need that room when we begin remodeling the bathroom & adding the new one. I was trying to get an idea if there could be damage to the wall that's inside her room when we demo the cabinet & she thinks I was spying on her. There's no reason to spy on her, I know she's not hiding anything.

At least she isn't a drunk, isn't on drugs and isn't having parties when we're not home.

Last month she got turned down for a rental house & I had given a great referral. Two days ago she told me she had given my name again for another house & today the gal called & I told her, "don't rent to her". A house is for someone who will pay their rent, in full, before the due date. She's got NO intention of doing that. A house is for people who have done their time in crappy apartments, saved up money and are ready to move up to the next level, whether it be a nicer apartment, a house or buying their first home.

She's at the bottom of renting & all she's fit to get into is Mariners Glen apartments but when I told her to go there she said she doesn't want to live somewhere horrible. OK then. I'll give that apartment a GLOWING referral for her but no place else.

But she's not staying here, either. Her boyfriend can shit or get off the pot or she can move to Florida to live with him & his sisters. But come February, she's better get her ass out of here. She said she's got $750 saved up towards a house so if she's not moved out I'll tell her to go stay at a hotel.

Its time to have the internet/wifi password changed and the power to her room cut off. I bought her a heated throw blanket & she still has the small heater on all the fucking time, on MY pocketbook.

We had snow this morning.

Good & Bad News

Good News First:

We had the handyman over the other day to give us info on putting in a new bathroom upstairs; 

he said he can totally do all we want, for $65 per hour. He said what we're asking for will take about three 8 hour days so... about $1720 after tax.

Here is a very rough drawing of what its like now. I've never liked the Jack & Jill bathroom 

but its better than none & better than walking down the hall.

What we've been doing previously to having a room mate was our bed was in this room & our clothes were in the other room & we would go downstairs to shower & get dressed. We did that so the person sleeping wouldn't get woken up by the noise of the person getting ready for work.

The current bedroom measures 13.5 X 14.5 and the bathroom is 12.5 X 5, 

there are about 4 feet on either side of the window and the closets are 2 feet deep.

The future bedroom will measure 13.5 X 9.5 and the new bathroom will be 12.5 X 5, 

we'll need to install a smaller window and remove one closet.

We'll use the door & frame that goes from this room to the current bathroom & put it on the right, into the new opening made when we take out one closet. The remaining closet is still huge.

We're going to put in a new double vanity in the old bath & matching single in the new, both are getting rubber waterproof click in flooring & both get new toilets and fans.

See the green wall in the original bathroom? If its not a supporting wall, I'd like to remove it completely. All it does is hide the toilet from the sink area & it won't be needed. Removing it will make the bathroom bigger and provide a space for a dirty clothes hamper & scales.

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And Now The Bad News:

Our Septic Design guy told us we can't upgrade our gravity system & would HAVE to put in a completely new pump system at a cost of about $24,000.

That's OK, we didn't want to ruin the lawn and now we can concentrate on the bathrooms.

His name is Frank, a friend of a friend. He quoted us $1,400 for the design & permits, ALL the other companies I spoke with wanted $4,000-$6,000 for the same things. One of the companies was rude to me in an email so she's not getting my money. 

Well, neither is Frank, he's not charging us anything at all.

Promises Broken

I promised to write about England after France, then I didn't do it. I've been so busy, with work, holidays, shopping, more work. Seems every time I turn around I get called in for another shift.

We had a bid in early December for our winter season ( January 5th - March 15th) and I got a 36 hour selling shift. Sue & Lisa decided to go to Bainbridge and Joe made a bonehead mistake & faxed his bid upside down so I lucked out. Don't know how lucky I really am, since the first two days of each week will suck:
Sunday 8:05am-2:05pm
Monday 1:00pm-6:00pm
Tuesday & Wednesday OFF
Thursday midnight-9am
Friday midnight-9am
Saturday 8:25am-3:25pm
Beginning my work week with 2 graves sucks because I'll have to go to bed early on my days off in order to get up at 11:10pm but its guaranteed hours and winter schedule sucks for on-calls.

I HATE graveyards but getting a nice guaranteed paycheck every month for 3 months will be worth it.

We're planning on another home renovation which will include:
Septic Design upgrade from 2 bedroom to 4 bedrooms
Add another bathroom upstairs
Redo master bath upstairs, currently Jack & Jill bath.

This is into the bathroom from the other room, our current bedroom is on the other side of the far door. 

We will AT LEAST replace this dated cabinet, countertop & sinks with something pretty, maybe rustic. I'll be looking for a good used one and hope to find a good quartz countertop with 2 sinks. I'm sure I'll have to buy that new. We can add a nice back splash since we know how now.

I'd like a vanity like this, plain & simple

From our current room into the other bedroom, sinks on the right of this photo

We won't do anything to upgrade the tub/shower enclosure because its practically brand new. It needs a new fan as the old one is original to the house & has a red bulb meant to warm a person and the fan is LOUD. The sky light is awesome.

The floor is vinyl & we're going to get a plastic/rubber click in floating floor & just put it in right over the top of this. 

The new bathroom would be added beside this one, just reversed and instead of a tub we'll put in a standing shower. 

A new toilet is about $200 and I'd like to have a new one in each bathroom. 

I'd like a single pedestal sink in the new bathroom. We do have to figure out either a fan or small window & right now there will be enough room for a window beside the shower.

But I'll totally settle for a single vanity sink.

Our bedroom currently measures 14.5 x 13.5 feet, the new bathroom would take up 5.5 feet, leaving the bedroom 9.5 x 13.5, still plenty big enough for a kids bedroom. A doorway would be put in the wall where a closet is at, the closet would be removed. There is still another large closet in that room. The door that goes from the hallway to our room now would become the new bathroom door.

I don't think the carpet would have to be replaced, just cut down to size and the extra added to the new doorway. 

We would have to move into the other bedroom as we can't  use that room for the bathroom because of hallway doors & permanent walls. The door from our room into the jack & jill would be moved to the closet area so we wouldn't even have to purchase another door.

Its not going to be cheap, I'm figuring upwards of $10k. And while we're at it, we're going to get the septic tank upgraded to a 4 bedroom (currently 2 br) which could run an additional $10k if it all goes well. We can  only hope for that BUT doing these things will increase our homes value and make it a heck of a lot more sellable.