Garage Stereo and “Stuff”

Today’s post will be about “stuff” that has gone on over the last week. Some of it is interesting, some less so, but here is what has occupied our non-working hours this past week.

Weather: It is getting warmer. Much of our yard ice (but not all) has melted and tulips are up. So are a couple of dandelions. Unless these events are harbingers of an early spring, the good weather will be interrupted with more snow and storms. All last week the daytime temps were well above average, sometimes by as much as 17 degrees. While appreciating the improved conditions, we are waiting for the other shoe to drop; March is notorious for bad storms in this part of Colorado.

Garage: I spent several hours revamping my garage storage to make room for an equipment rack to house my garage stereo components. This project entailed moving a lot of stuff around – I had pretty well gotten used to the  existing  layout. However, I wanted to add some protection from dust and dirt for the stereo system.

Here is the cabinet installed but with the door closed:

Equipment rack – door closed

Open the door and – voila! – my stereo system.

Stereo components in cabinet

The rack was a surplus item that received no bids when my business  tried to auction it off – it’s not a standard rack for network gear. It had originally housed a video recording system. I offered to take it home and was given permission to do so. Putting in the shelves involved some alterations to the shelves, time consuming but eventually successful. I can now close the door to help keep dust, dirt, and cat hair off the components.

House Hunt: We took a drive to Montrose and viewed a few more houses. One in particular looked like a possibility; no trees but a 3-car garage, 4 bedrooms, a basement, brick exterior, and a view over a valley and down to the San Juan mountains.

Shavano Valley home

Not quite what we expected; cactus around the place and access through what appeared to be the neighbor’s yard. Literally. The yard had a hog pen (with hogs in it) and equipment on one side of the drive and the house and more junk on the other. The drive was not in real good shape either, with mud and potholes a-plenty. While the house might have been OK, the “unusual” access put this one off our list.

We drove by a couple other houses during this trip, including an in-town four square from 1904 that still has all the original woodwork. Nice place on a corner lot with trees and a 2-car garage behind, but we’re not sure we want to be that close to the neighbors and traffic. Being a block away from the local hospital would have some advantages, but also result in a lot of noise. If we could just find one of these historic homes on acreage with trees!

In about 10 days we will be taking some time off during the week to meet a realtor and arrange to see the inside of a couple of Montrose houses including the Trading Post and the Tulip Circle homes I mentioned in a previous post.  And…an offshoot… there is an old potato warehouse for sale that we may investigate. A warehouse could provide storage and a work area for all my toys if we can’t find anything that has a detached garage or a place to put one. It would be kind of funky (and possibly too expensive) but I’m considering whatever options may present themselves.

So…weekends are busy for us between looking at homes and working at projects. Not terribly exciting, though. But of course there is always the presidential race to provide a range of emotional reactions. While I try to stay away from most political talk in this blog, it it clear that there will be two radically different people up for election this fall regardless of who the parties choose as their candidate.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Does anybody else have a problem with driving through a low-life ramshackle neighbor’s yard to access a $300,000 house? Why would we pay taxes on acreage covered with cacti when we intend to have dogs and cats roaming the property? And these important items are not mentioned in the listing – marketing, ha!

Sometimes house hunting is a drag.

Happy Trails.