Myvidaloca's Weblog

Well since I last posted- lots has happened. This has been the week of mishaps ending with Larry getting Food Poisoning.

First let me update you- last Friday Larry heard what might be one of the best excuses for a helper not showing up- BH called and said his ass was on fire and he could not work- can you say gaulded???? Youngsters may know it as Monkey Butt- actually our Atwoods carries Anti Monkey Butt powder- watch out it may be in your Christmas Stocking.

On Tuesday I was over there trying to overcome my fishbowl feeling by getting more used to the lot and all of a sudden BH stepped on a nail, He was bent over and grabbed me and said get it out- I pulled the 2 x 4 with nails out of his foot and asked if he had a tetanus shot, he said no so we sent him off to the base to get one- come to find out he still had 8 years to go on his last one, but it is always better to be safe. Rough week for BH and it was hot as hell- He hung in there like a trooper and I  am very appreciative that he helped Larry.

They got the shed all resided, fence is down and stacked. Here is BH working on the fence.The small comment in corner says – See the house, see how close the house is, I hope these nice people don’t look out windows a lot.

This last week has been hot, hot, hot as in 95 – 100 Larry seemed determined to prove he could hack the heat- well he can, better than anyone I know. He has learned to pace himself better which is good.

He has already bled on the shed, so this is now like home, I don’t think we have ever had a project that he has not got his blood on. Must be a rite of passage. Here he is up ladder working on the corner of the shed- you will notice he is very comfortable up the ladder. He also got all the trash piled up, sold some stuff on craig’s list to help pay for he new walk door. Figured out how crooked the roof, well actually the whole building his.He had put the cleats up for the shelves and noticed that anything you put on a shelf would roll East – fast. So a number of blue words later and about an hour and a half of work, they were fixed- in other words they are not crooked to to offset the crooked building.

He made massive amounts of trash and called to have it hauled off, well his old trash hauler had an accident and was in really bad shape so they gave us the name of someone else. Well let’s just say he got it hauled off but it cost a small fortune. Bannon was not a happy camper – but the trash was gone.

So the lot is now cleared, building cut down and rebuilt, we also Kilzed the dog piss side of the shed, works btw… trash is hauled off and concrete is cut- ready to haul. MR will be out soon to break up and haul off the concrete- this will make backyard look much bigger and better. I will post about today’s adventure tomorrow..

Ready to go

both the lot and me.. I have spent the last couple of mornings over at the lot and it has helped. I can hear the birds and the leaves and that helps. Worries about the barking dogs is better- does not seem to be as many as I feared. The traffic noise is about the same and actually there is less road traffic on that street.  I used the magnet to pick up some nails while Larry and Bobby finished siding the shed and picking up. Bobby did have to make a quick run to the base- he stepped on a nail and said he did not think he had ever had a tetanus shot, so we sent him to get one.

This morning Larry took the chainsaw over and trimmed trees much to my horror- he always cuts more than I want. Sometimes I just tell him I will walk away so I don’t have to watch.

While he did that I painted a one end of the shed inside with Kilz- someone had a dog penned up in that end and it smells like dog piss – so we thought some kilz would help the smell and make the shed a little lighter inside. It helped a lot.

Then this afternoon Rodriquez called and was ready to pull posts- so while I rested Larry went over in the 100 degree heat and chained the posts and pulled them. He will knock the concrete off and reuse what he can on the south fence.

We did come to one major decision today- the trees will just not survive a move now in this heat. Larry also does not want the concrete to crack a lot so we have put off starting the house till the 1st couple weeks in September. It will be cooler and we have nothing pushing us to do this ASAP.  This puts us listing the house after the new year, not a great time but it will work and if we had to move twice and move into a rental it would cost us about 5-6k- so staying here is fine. I only want to move one more time- besides this gives me more time to sort and shitcan. Still not sure what all I have to get rid of -but I know its a bunch.

Will post more pics tomorrow.

Well, I had to take a run up to Kansas City to attend the All America Cities to see what that was all about. Had a very interesting trip and learned a lot. We ate at some awesome restaurants and I did very well Gluten Free, maybe not so well on the 6oz limit per meal, so downed a protein drink for supper. But believe me, the food was well worth it and to be able to go out and eat GF just like normal folks is priceless.

Ok, subject of the day- Larry stayed here and worked in the heat Thursday with Bobby, Friday Bobby had called it quits, I think the weather got the better of him. I am starting to come to better terms about the smaller yard, I can envision some courtyard gardens type dwarf plants, some taller plantings along the new fence lines and then a stream area- dry of course but for drainage. Then some more plantings in front of that and some walkways.

See it makes a bigger space or will once the concrete is taken up. the fence on your left will be taken out and moved about 5 feet out. This will make the side yard about 14-15 foot wide which makes me much happier.  The big tree you see behind Larry stays. there will be a large hosta bed around the base of it and maybe a tree ring seat…Asking for that AFTER he gets house built..

Here is the remodeled shed, a nice little 10 x 16 with a 3 foot walk door on the end. We nixed the 8 foot garage door, yard will not be big enough to use a rider so out it went. Now just picture the shed with shutters on each side of window and a trellis on the right with a clematis climbing up. There is already a lilac shrub on the north side of the building-YAY

The roof type here is called Mansard, not my fave but hubby overruled my idea to tear all the way down and rebuild- only fair since he is providing all the labor. Plans are with Architect now and fence removal and tree moving will be after that, but with this hot humid weather and no help for Larry ti will slow down. We are not in any hurry so that is ok.

Having one more holiday season in this home is just fine by me. It will be my last year to decorate a mantel- new house does not have any fireplaces. Larry has still not told family- I am leaving that up to him. Not sure what the secret part is but no biggie.

Look for more changes next week.

Ok, this is what happens when you give my husband the go ahead and a saw… Larry chalked a line on the roof and took the Circular saw and cut thru, you can actually shake it now- a big wind might bring it down.  Bobby was on the roof throwing shingles off the back. I am a little ok, more than a little peeved at how many tree limbs he managed to break, tear, rip etc.

More than anything tho I am starting to wig- we went over so I could snap these and man do I ever feel like I am in a fish bowl. Where we live now is so nice and private- we see NO ONE, have a large backyard and could run around starkers in the house and no one would see us. Not that anyone would want to look.

I am so having a little OMG what are we doing moment… I keep telling myself the trade off is worth it. Down the road I will be in one place that I can pay to have someone do the yard, it will be a place I can live till I am ready to take that dirt nap. It is going to have lots of niceties- I mean our house was state of the art when we built it but that was 8 years ago and things change.

We have decided to recess the TV into the wall and hide all the associated cords, put the speakers in the wall right behind Larry’s ears-lol. We will also put in a sound system piped to certain rooms, now I do draw the line at outdoor speakers I like to hear nature when I am outside. If we need private we do have 80 acres and a cabin we can go stay at- which I am sure we will be using more for that very reason.

BTW- I know I ramble but this is just how my brain rolls… I am a little psychotic or at least that is my description. I multitask ALOT and have lots and lots of thoughts going thru my head so I will just pour them out as they hit.

This is our backyard now

Do you see any people- Nope and you usually don’t.. It is a beautiful backyard, very green, very peaceful.

However I still believe this is meant to be – another sign could be the house numbers- we are 321 now new number is 213…

Make of it what you will. If you live in town and are used to neighbors let me know how to handle this I mean they are going to hear Bannon and I talking, yelling and we are very affectionate people- kissing hugging etc in public… We are putting fence around most of it but still….

Well, I have decided to blog the whole lot getting, house building job right thru to the new courtyard gardens. Why you may ask???  Well for one because I can and two the main reason, this appears or the plan anyway is this is our last new house period. We will grow old or at least I will because you know Larry does not age. I want to enjoy all the aspects of this process.

Larry and I together can accomplish anything and when we are working and planning a house or a big project of any type it is very enjoyable (most of the time) for both of us.  Hope you join us for this journey.

The story so far- I could not start till lot was a done deal- you will see why..

We have know for a while now that once something were to happen to Larry, I would have to move, I just don’t have the health to keep this sized home and yard up by myself. I had geared my mind for that and was ok, well we have had some friends loose husbands unexpectedly and it really made us think about things. I have been blessed to live in 3 Bannon built homes to date (1st husband and I had Larry as our builder for our custom back in 92) It would be very difficult for me to be satisfied in a cookie cutter house someone else built and would be extremely hard to move away from the floors Larry installed to the complete rooms he has built. Our home is a very personal one as is most couples.

We decided by first part of February that I would start keeping my ears open for a lot but not look real hard or anything- you know just see what was around. Well I May not have the “Faith” per say but I do believe strongly that things are meant to be- you do have to do your part however.

We decided one evening on this and the VERY next morning a Realtor friend of ours called and said I have a lot that Larry might want to build a spec house on. ( Thanks PM).  Well he had no way of knowing that we might be looking at it for ourselves. It had some trees (all but one or two will have to be moved of course), specials were paid off, established quiet (we hope) neighborhood. Basically it fit his criteria- now for mine, I would like more garden area and we are going to lose an awesome view- and we have major privacy here. I will have to learn to adjust. We looked at other lots because even after we put a contract on this lot- it took months for the lender to say yes- not a lender for us but the Sellers Lender, they like most of us have a mortgage on their home and the lender had to agree to release this from that mortgage.

About 2 weeks ago we got the go ahead and closed on the lot last Friday. YAY

In the mean time we had looked at lots all over town to be sure this one was it, we (me) have searched books, online etc for houseplan ideas- which I ended up drawing. We have started searching for finishes in the house and talked ad infinitum about all aspects. I will be sharing most all of that here. If you have never built a home custom before this could be good info for you and if you have it may  hold some new ideas for you as well.  We go over EVERY detail and I do mean every.

So I hope you join us on the journey- ask questions make comments. Live Vicariously…..

Here are first pics- fencing, drainage issues, shed that Larry is cutting in half.

Shed before

Fence and trees