Wow. With my home PC packed and in Iowa, it has been hard for me to keep up with happenings and events. I am at work, after hours, to get this post done.
I made another trip to Iowa over Christmas. It was great to be with Pam again, and we accomplished many items she had on her “to do” list.
We hung a door in Pam’s bedroom. Wall art was hung in the halls, as was Pam’s cross-cut saw that she inherited from her grandparents home. Many items were unpacked in the medial room, including stereo equipment such as my reel-to-reel deck. While the gear needs to be cabled in to operate, it was a relief to get some of the boxes emptied and recycle the cardboard.
A major project for this trip was to install a separation wall under the steps that would keep the dogs out of the cat area. Pam had been using a large piece of cardboard to close off the place where she put cat food, water, and the liter boxes, but that arrangement has serious drawbacks and was difficult to use.
Using some bead-board doors from storage cabinets in the basement, we closed off the area under the steps, complete with an arch for the cats to use to access the food and boxes, and retained a hinged door at one end for human access.
Sounds like a simple job but it was not. I had to search through the storage area to find my saws and other tools, then we had to take the bead-board doors off some old cabinets located in the basement. To get the angle of the steps right we made a cardboard template to use to cut the wood. In the end it turned out OK but still needs some “tweaking” and trim to finish off the edges. Still, it is a much better arrangement that using the cardboard.
A highlight of the trip was getting Pam and her two brothers, Larry and Craig, plus her sister, Becky, together for a sit-down and talk session. We all met at a Rocky Rocco’s Pizza place in the La Crosse area and enjoyed a good talking session and really good pizza.
All-in-all it was a good trip. I had taken the Honda, but had packed in quite a few items such as a floor lamp, summer clothing, some more “garage” items, and other odds and ends. The return trip saw me going through a bunch of weather including snow, sleet, fog, blowing snow, and wind. I made it OK, though, and returned to De Beque without incident.
In De Beque, I have been working to make the place HUD and FHA compliant. This involves foundation work, title work, skirting work, and painting but we want to appeal to the widest range of buyers possible. Whole process has been a PIA.
I will try to make these posts on a bit more regular basis but nothing is guaranteed!
That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!
Addendum:
Deb (Thanks for the note!) asked about the status of my moving to Iowa so I thought I would make a few comments on that.
The plan was for me to work until the house sold. We have a buyer and the original closing date was set for December 20th. However, the lender put up some requirements that we are still working to fill. These included some foundation work (tie downs) and, more recently, replacement or repair of the existing skirting which has some holes in it.
One of the photos above shows the axles that had to be removed from underneath the home, a HUD requirement since 2001. Since we used a conventional loan when we bought the place the HUD and FHA requirements were not an issue, but the but now they are. So, a number of projects had to be undertaken to bring the place up the lender’s standards. Even though the place was set up in 1994, there is no grandfather clause so we now have to meet current standards.
So, I am still in Colorado, working to pay the mortgage and arranging to get these other projects done. It may take several weeks.
Another concern is my right shoulder, which I injured last spring but is acting up again. I have an appointment with a shoulder specialist on January 23rd and may have to have rotator cuff surgery to fix it. If so, I will need a place to recuperate and it will have to be in Be Beque for insurance reasons.