Getting the winter house spruced up.

Now that we are back for a spel at our winter plcae it was time to get busy to work.
We ordered a center swing partion patio door that will lead to the deck.
It needed to be a special order since we were replacing two of the four windows in the living room that face east onto 
the deck not a standarde replacement size. It must be slow at the door factory since it was made and arrived in about 
half the time quoted.  Time to get in gear and get her placed I guess.

So a few pictures of the mess that used to be the living room.

Checking out what was above the windows. No headers just 2X4s all the way up between each window. 
But there were hurricane straps. In AZ? 

Below the center windows had power runs so Terry had to rerun them down and under the floor and back up again on the other side. 
While at it he added an outside deck light with dimmer switch inside.  Had fun fishing the walls.

This wall was  put up to carry the load since a load bearing header needed to be placed above where the door will go.

You can see the door is is place after much help from our neighbor to help lift it up on the deck and get it in place. One heavy sucker.
Plactic to help keep down the dust since drywall had to be removed. We, I mean Terry did cut a hole in the wall after all and remove two windows.

There were four windows but now a double door and two windows.  One section does not open and the other swings in.
There will be a slidding screen door on the outside.

Hello, come on in!
This is gunna be so nice when done.  Their are blinds built inside the UV sealed door windows.
Now have to replcace drywall and trim. But the hard work is done. 
Thanks to Terry the carpenter.
 
 

Saturday Oct 6

We came a long way baby.
.
Now that we are back at our winter property in AZ that is.  First things first how did we get from there to here?
Cochiti Lake was nice and Terry did get to take the light rail once again to Santa Fe.
 

But hitchitch set in and off we moved on down I-25 to Socorro on west on US 60 past the VLA National Radio
Astronomy Observatory

Datil south on HW 12 to Acache Creek where we stopped for the night at a forest seervice campground by the same name.
10 campsites at 6400 feet above sea level provides some nice alternative to New Mexico's frequently HOT southwestern lower elevations. Plenty of tall ponderosa pine trees provide shade for the campground.

We had been having trouble with our Honda 3000 generator as the electric starter went out at Creede, CO and on this AM at this campground we could not get it to start.  The pull starter was getting very hard to pull so we gave up.  We would be alright as we were going to head to Safford, AZ to the state park which has electric and then we woudl be back in Benson and could get it serviced for later use in Quartrzsite when spend part of the winter boondocking again in the LTVA.

It felt like we were in Montana instead of western central New Mexico.

Let me tell ya the drive and roads in western central NM are something else. 
Long stretches of wide open nothing and then hills and curves to get the kunckles turning white. 
 

The highway had no shoulders and was not smooth as the 5er took a beating. 

But later on the main road HW 78 heading into AZ was the killer I had forgotten about.  And to think we had 2/3 tank of fresh water. 
Yes we did stop after the worst part and let most of it drain out along the roadside. A little to late but what the hell...it made me feel better.

Looking west into AZ.

We landed in Safford, AZ at the Roper state park campground which has a hot spring which Terry took advantage of twice.  The park was almost empty mid week. We stayed two nights  wanted to explore the area.  Yes another mountain drive... 

The road heading up to Mt Graham on the Swift Trail Parkway  east of Safford, AZ

We didn't make it all the way to the top...  Sometimes ya just got to say enough is enough.
 

We have landed in our winter home and fought getting through the summer grass growth to get the 5er leveled so we could start unloading things into the house.  All was well with the house... just get settled... first thing was to get the computers inside and hooked up. Union Contract deadline Saturday.  Since I do the Des Moines local web site need to be up to speed in reporting it all.  I had called the Wi-Max internet service to get back online when we would get here and when I booted my desktop was on line.  How cool was that.  The housed looked nice with no broken windows or sky lights.  Got the water and power  turned on and turned on the faucets and flushed the stools. No stink from dryed out spectic lines.  We had placed plastic over the stools to keep water from drying them up. It worked and also put veggie oil in the other drains to keep them from drying up.  Aren't we so smart...
 

This has now been mowed and the sprinkler is working overtime as when cut the bottom was brown. 

Terry insisted on mowing a path to the RV door so he would not have to walk through it.  Snakes in the grass ya know.  Non to be found.
In great fashion our key for the gate fence didn't seem to work... so our neighbor had to come over with his spare key we gave him to let us on our own property. 
We are feeling fine and are happy and healthy as you can get at our age...

A look at the next project... There are four windows in the living room that look to the east out on the new 12 X 24 deck.  Now we (I mean Terry) will be ripping out the two center windows and installing patio doors.  And looking to get new carepet throughout. Oh and don't forget we are going to price out a inground pool. 

 

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