Nothing Happening Here

 Its mid summer and we haven't done much of anything besides work and be home. 

Lan bought a cool dune buggy last week, a 1972 Meyers Manx.

Its really just the tub and a few parts. There is no title so he's looking for a 1968 VW Beetle to use the tub and rear running gear. 

OK, this thing needs a LOT.

We're hoping to leave in at the Pioche house when we're there so we'll have a desert runabout.

Amble has been in training for 2 months, shes got 1 month left before I bring her home. Next week I'll go to Prosser and watch her work, then have a lesson myself. I'm really excited for this new hobby in my life, give me something I can do with my girl over the winter. I also want to get a completely new harness for her, NOT leather. 

I've been working on making a cover for the covered wagon. I'm using a 12x15 cotton drop cloth from Harbor Freight and its taking a while as its heavy material and I'm making it all up as I go along. I did watch 1 video that explained enough to get me through a tough spot but its only about half sewn. I need to add the straps on the sides to hold it onto the bottom of the wagon, I need to add ties inside to keep the bows aligned, I need to add about 18" of material to the front because even though I measured AT LEAST 3 times, I still somehow made it too effin short front to back. Thats OK, I can fix it. 

I'm also adding a shade section for the front, in nice not too hot weather it can be rolled back out of the way.  I need to make seat covers because even though its got nice think seats, they are vinyl and I think maybe I'd like cloth, even if its just to keep the effin cats from fucking scratching them.

Work wise I'm making more money than I ever thought I'd make, $35,000 in the first 6 months of the year and it will increase significantly in the second half; I've been getting OT almost every week and we just got a $2 per hour raise. 

We're planning on going to Pioche at the end of September for 2 weeks, been planning on this since before we left there in June. Lans dad came over last week to tell us he had bought tickets to go to Hawaii for the same 2 weeks with his sister and I DO NOT hold it against him in any way, he needs a break too, but I do not want to have to stay and care for Jean. 

Jean is bedridden and can't get out now. Shes losing interest in food and is losing weight, she speaks well but doesn't remember much. When she gets confused she starts to sing a song about her dog and I will redirect her but Terry is tired of hearing it for the billionth time.  IF I do end up caring for her, I'll do 1 week & then fly down to Las Vegas.

Both Lan and I have signed up for FMLA so that if & when Terry needs a respite day, one of us can provide it for him.

I'm not supposed to get weeks off for vacations in the summer, its against the rules for on-calls, but one of my supervisors told me to say I'm caring for her while my FIL is away and just go to Pioche anyway and I'm seriously thinking about doing just that. 

 

First Trip As Our New House

Here we are, working in the 90* temps on the new house in Pioche, sweating our butts off. 

The house needs absolutely everything done to it and we hope we're up for the challenge.

This is what we saw when we arrived, the front door wide open. It was locked, but it didn't stay closed. 

Lan had to reframe the entire front wall and door to get it straight and he put in a deadbolt that keeps it closed. 

Looking from the front door looking to the left, this is the view. Vines taking over the Cressent berry bushes and Toms house

To the right is the pile of wood from inside the house that the previous owners removed and we added to. Every single 2x4 had many nails in it, none we were worth trying to save to make into sawhorses. 

This is the view from across the road toward our house

And this is the area between the fence and road. We have been told the is county property but we want to ask the county itself. If its ours we will move the fence out there. I'd like to have a better fence or no fence at all but it seems everyone in town like fences.

This is inside the house just before we left it. We had purchased all new matching cordless tools so they all use the same batteries to make the work go easier. Before we left, Lan buried them behind the old insulation. UGH. 

If you look closely, you can see that he built that whole front wall. The right side wall still needs support, its got dry rot for about 12 feet and no 2x4s so he will go back in September to do a good amount of work to get it set up for winter.  

I purchased a bunch of car window cover sun shades that I hung in these windows that really worked to cut the heat and I'm glad I thought of that. That window A/C unit over there still works too. All the windows have storm windows too so the broken ones have glass as well. ALL the windows will be replaced. They all measure 2x4 currently but I want MUCH bigger ones especially in the front of the house. Small windows SUCK. 

I know that we can install windows ourselves and we can do them one at a time as we build the walls. I'll just make it a point of purchasing one window a month or something and taking them with us as we go down there to work. Heck. the whole house will only have 6-8 windows in it.

I want a nicer door too.

 

Its Ours!

We have made the payment and its officially our house and now we have to figure out what the heck we're going to do with it.

We're driving down this next week to spend some time there & probably build so interior supporting walls. We'll only have 2.5 days at the house so we won't get a lot done.

We have decided to take Soren down with us because he's never been on a vacation. I'll take my bike for him to ride and he can own the town. He can help us do a little cleaning up and work too.

I've bought him a bunch of toys and snacks. 

I've also bought chewable Dramamine so in case he gets car sick he can eat one & it will make him better; it will also make him sleep.

I want to get rid of all the old insulation, its ruined from the dope/drugs that were used inside the house while it was a rental.

I have so much stuff here for the house that we need to take down there but its going to be a very tight squeeze.

Just called my FIL, hes going to let us take his RV and we'll have plenty of room AND nice clean places to sleep. We could even pull the small trailer behind it for hauling shit to the dump.

BUT 

We could haul that same trailer behind the escape too and put some crap on it and have room in the car for us. Pulling a trailer is slower.

The Escape alone will cost about $450 in fuel

The RV would be about $950

The escape pulling the trailer would probably cost about $200 more in fuel and take longer and we're not even sure the escape can do it. Its got a lot of miles on it and already having a few issues.

So I guess I'm going to be purchasing the tabs ($125) for the RV and filling it with gas.

And water, I've gotta fill it with water too.

 

We're Buying It

We made an offer that they declined but they came down by 10k, we upped our offer and they said we're too far off. We waited a week then I made an offer of $63,000 and they accepted. This last week we have been docusigning forms, going to the bank, making lots of calls and stressing out.

The money will be wired to the title company on Monday or Tuesday and the following week we will be heading down there for a week to see how much of a mess it really is.

The little room on the side of the house is a bathroom which we'll remove and that chimney needs to be knocked down too.

The blue wall is the utility room and it and the kitchen both will be removed. The door on the right side goes down to the basement and that will be moved somewhere else.

Back of bathroom and side of kitchen & utility room, all going to be removed.

So we're going to be left with this main room, 19 x 24. I've drawn up about 50 different ways we could make this into a livable space and its doable but going to be tiny. Thats OK for a vacation home.

Bathroom which is going to go away.

Utility room, which is going away.

Kitchen, also going away.  Asshats already removed and sold the sink.

This is a CLOSE drawing but not totally accurate.

These trees are apricots

All this wood from the inside of the house needs to be disposed of because they were doing drugs in the house. I don't want to live in a meth house.

More junk to get rid of.

This is an old foundation, we might add a garage or another tiny home.

Because there's a hose going through the yard here, I'm taking a water shut-off tool to leave down there so no more pipes will freeze and neighbors won't be using water on our dime. 

I'm hoping we can level out the yard some and get rid of a lot of the rocks.

All I can think of is SPIDERS.

We *THINK* the property line is along the wood poles along the ground. Eventually we'll put up a fence to keep our dogs in and people out. They can walk around the block instead of through our property. 

We'll be driving down in the Escape on Saturday June 8th, leaving at 9PM.  Hoping to reach Yakima by midnight, Leave Yakima at 6am and reach Boise by noon and to Pioche by 8PM Sunday.  We'll see, it's so hard to drive straight through without getting outside to walk and stretch our legs. Plus, we can't get into the house before Monday at the very earliest since we still have 1 more paper to sign & it has to be notarized. We might end up having to go into Las Vegas and I wanted to avoid that place if necessary.

Its going to be 107* in Vegas, only 89* in Pioche.

 

Going To Check Things Out

We will be leaving Tuesday for a 4 day trip to Pioche to check out that little house. 

The chimney might need to come down, its a Dr Seuse chimney

The blue wall is the utility room and it needs to be removed

This is the main room. They have removed the supporting wall and if you look closely, there don't seem to be any 2x4s going all the way up to the rafters and the exterior walls are bowing

Next 2 photos are the kitchen, it might need to be removed too but we'll figure that out after we see it in person. AND they removed the sink. Assholes.

It looks like the bathroom used to have the washer & dryer in it.

We both agreed to get rid of the tub and put in a shower, then there will be room for a stacked washer & dryer.

We leave Tuesday, fly out at 9:30am and arrive in Las Vegas at noon.  We'll get a car, a jeep, and head to Pioche. We will stay at the Overland Hotel for 2 nights.

On Wednesday at 11 we'll meet the realtor and spend a good amount of time checking out the house. Since we're not buying it thru a bank, it won't need an inspection or appraisal.

I don't know what we're doing Thursday besides driving back to LV and dropping off the car at 9:30am and flying out Friday morning at 6am, which means getting to the airport really fucking early.

 

While We Were Gone

We checked out a couple of houses in the small town we're beginning to love but neither of them was this one. Both the others were huge houses, way too big for what we'd be interested in having as a vacation home or AB&B place.

This little home has been on the market for a long time, about 9 months. it was purchased in 2022 for $45,000 and they started taking it apart to flip it but then the money guy died. Now they're asking $79,000. Thats a joke.

We didn't even drive by this house, not that we know of for sure, but there is NO WAY IN HELL its worth anywhere near that much, especially since all they did was dismantle the guts.

We're talking over financials and might make an offer next week, 

an offer higher than 45 but way lower than 79.

They were obviously going to reuse the same old insulation and they left piles of the old 2x4s in the yard so I'm sure we'd have to dispose of them.

What I like is its in the small town I want to live in, 

its got water, sewer and power and is halfway fenced in. 

If we decide to make an offer it will be contingent on our personal inspection 

and we'd make a cash offer. 

Paying cash should make them go down on how much they want for it.

We would fly down and inspect it and if its acceptable we'd want to sign papers that weekend and own it fast.

If anything happens, like the house sells to someone else before we make an offer, we'd use the cash to rebuild our shop here. It needs an entire new roof and a bunch of walls are pretty bad too. I'd want a new footprint, adding covered parking on the house side for the RVs and a lean-too on the barn side for the tractors and implements.

Fingers crossed. 

I'm just tired of finding places I like & losing them due to procrastination or 'we're not ready'.  

I AM READY. 

 

4,348.4

Thats how many miles we drove on this amazing trip.

9 States: Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Utah, New Mexico, Texas and Arizona 

(not in that order) 

And the country of Mexico.

We had a good time, aside from the truck having issues like a burst air shock, broken brakes, camper being bucked back 6 inches a few times from rough roads.

We saw the 4.8.24 total solar eclipse from Del Rio, Texas for 3 minutes 25 seconds, through the cloudy that parted just in time. It was an amazing sight.

We won't have another total eclipse in the lower 48 for 20 years and I'm planning on being just east of Reno, Nevada for that one. I'll be 81 years old.

I was able to spread some of Dentons ashes at Death Valley, on an overlook into the beautiful park and another vial of ashes during the eclipse, again, in a place of grandeur overlooking a big lake.

We were able to visit Jon and that was a good day. We had planned on driving another 300 miles that day but decided to stay there and spent time in the town on Pioche. We looked at a couple houses that are for sale and I have another small one I really want to buy but we weren't able to see that one as it got dark.

I am ready to invest in my future, in some place we can visit where its warm and there will be places to explore. I'm 61 now, I need to get shit going, its time to retire soon.