California Coast (09-13-15)

Taking the truck camper, we headed over to the California coast for the weekend.  The occasion was our friend Kirk’s 60th birthday.  A weekend full of fun was in store for us.  We began with dinner at a “bring your own wine” restaurant.

We only had one bottle of wine, but I have never seen a bottle that big!  I think we determined that it was the equivalent of 5 bottles of wine.  Good thing we had designated drivers!

The following day we walked along the coastline before heading to yet another restaurant for lunch.  I must say that I really enjoyed the fact that the ocean is within a day’s drive of Havasu.

The actual party was held at a winery and was chock full of activities.  Hay rides were on the agenda once we’d had our fill of food.  This is the only hay ride I have ever been on that made stops along the way to refill your wine glass.

Wine tasting, karaoke, and dancing rounded out the evening.

After a great time with friends, we headed back to Havasu to check on the house.

House Update

The dry wall is up, taped and textured, ready for the painters to show up next week.

The interior doors were next on the agenda.  They will be fitted into the frames, and then removed again to be painted.

We met with the cabinet maker and made decisions regarding shelving and specialty cabinets.  We’ll have a custom trash cabinet near the kitchen table for example. Deciding how many shelves every closet should get had us chanting “whatever the model house has”.

Meanwhile, outside, our septic system installation is in progress.

The backyard is quite dug up right now.  They can’t backfill it until the city comes out and approves the septic system.   That should happen on Monday.  Once they finish, two things can happen.  We can start building the wall that we are going to do ourselves, and the pool company can come and dig the pool.

 

 

There is one more important piece of information!  We met with the builder about the progress on the house, and he told us that the house will be turned over to us before Thanksgiving!!

We have been in contact with the moving companies, and we probably won’t be able to time it in such a way that we guarantee our furniture will be here before Thanksgiving, but at least we’ll have access to the house!

Payson and Phoenix (09-07-15)

Labor Day Weekend.  What to do.  Many full time RVers know to avoid moving on this weekend if at all possible.  When we were boaters, we parked ourselves before the weekend, and didn’t move until it was over.  But these days, we travel in a truck camper, so theoretically, its easier to find places to park.

We started the weekend by heading to Phoenix. No One heads to Phoenix on Labor Day weekend, so finding a place to park was easy (Thanks for the tip, Sandie!)  Our goal was to window shop at MSI, a major supplier of tile, stone and  granite, etc. More on that later.

We are easily entertained when driving 300 miles in one day.  The shine on this tanker was quite impressive, and we enjoyed watching our reflection in the mirror like finish.






















Once our errands were complete, we headed for the hills of Payson, looking for relief from the heat.
Tonto Natural Bridge State Park was our first destination.  This park is so popular, we had to wait about 30 minutes just to enter, because the parking lots were full.  Once there, it was a fairly short hike down the trail to the base of the bridge.


This is one of the world’s largest travertine bridges, standing 150 feet wide, and 183 feet tall.  It’s a great hike for kids, with tons of exploring, and even the opportunity to swim. 





Back up on top, there were several viewpoints available to check out the bridge.  After an hour or so, the crowds got to us so we took off to find a place to spend the night.






Nearby Apache Sitgreaves National Forest has quite a bit of boon docking available, but again the crowds were quite amazing, even considering that it was a holiday weekend.

We did find a secluded spot to spend the night , but our hiking plans for the next day were abandoned when we couldn’t find a parking spot any where near a trail head. Soooooo, we headed back to Phoenix.

Doesn’t Dozer look like he’s a little nervous walking on a high shelf?

In reality, he was on the floor, stalking imaginary mice.

Since we knew we were headed to Phoenix, we had checked the inventory of the Phoenix Sears Outlet, and lo and behold, they had something we wanted. The oven we want is a GE Profile series 5000- but we had noted that if the 7050 model was on sale at a great price, we would really prefer that one.  Well, this Sears had the 9050 model on sale for less than the 5000 model. This store is a “scratch and dent” store so there is one small scratch on the bottom and that was it.

The main obstacle would be transport back to Havasu, but we’d had the foresight to put the hitch on the truck.  So, we rented the smallest U-Haul available. (although that sounds simple, its a whole other story…..)

We wracked our brains trying to think of something else we could buy, but in the end, the oven was the only cargo in the trailer.

We had an uneventful trek back to Lake Havasu with our treasure, and saved over $1000 on the oven!

House Update

Phoenix is where MS International is located, and MS International is where everyone in Havasu gets their stone and tile.  We’ve been struggling to come up with a back splash that we really like for the kitchen, and stonework we like for the exterior, and had decided a trip to Phoenix was warranted.   As a bonus, we got to check out the granite we want.

Blue Pearl is a little different, since it’s more in the gray tones than brown, but we already have a table made with blue pearl and we know we like it.

We arrived at MSI late in the day Friday, but we thought we’d have all day Saturday to wander around.  We didn’t realize they were closed all weekend. Thank goodness we decided to get a head start by taking a peek on Friday!

Luckily we saw a backsplash we liked right away.

There is a corresponding stone pattern that we can use as an accent on the front exterior of the house ( this picture really doesn’t do it justice) and to tie it all together, we will also use this stone on the spa surround.

We have very few decisions left to make.  I hope we don’t get bored, with no shopping to do.  Just kidding- once the septic is in, (hopefully next week) we can start our own projects on the exterior of the house.  The first one will be to build a small (30’ high) stacked wall along the side of the property.

Back at the house, the drywall is coming along.

The Sheetrock is all up, and the taping is done. They have started the sanding, but that will go fast because the  walls will be textured.   Wes says they will paint the interior next week!

The stilts look like fun- I can just picture myself landing gracefully on the floor if I try them!

As if the progress on the interior wasn’t enough, they are simultaneously working on the exterior.

“Brown coat” is what they call the first layer of stucco. They literally spray on the cement and then smooth it out to the texture they want.

It took a full two days to do the entire house. 

There was quite a good sized crew working on the stucco…

It kind of looks nice, until it starts to dry….then it looks blotchy.  They have to water it for 30 days so that the cement doesn’t dry too fast, and crack.

The final color, a light sandy color,  as seen here, won’t be added until close to the very end, so that it doesn’t get damaged.

Speaking of the very end, we had a short conversation with Wes about an estimated move in day.  Although he wouldn’t commit, he did say we were about a “long two months” away, which means we might be in the house by Thanksgiving!

Grand Canyon National Park (09-01-15)

Pictures don’t even begin to do justice to the phenomenon that we call the “Grand Canyon”.

Paul and I have both been here before, but it’s been quite a few years.  When I went online and saw that there was an opening in the RV park , we booked it for the weekend.

Our first day in the park we just wandered over to the edge of the canyon and took in the views.  The canyon is so deep there are very few spots where you can actually see the Colorado River:

Meanwhile, back at the campground, Dozer took in the views as well. If we thought he got excited when a dog walked by, that was nothing compared to when all the elk walked by….

It’s actually pretty common for female elk to head towards the campgrounds.  At least no one is shooting at them, and they can give birth in peace!  We saw several mamas with their calves.

The first order of the weekend was to determine what trails to hike. The most famous trail is Bright Angel Trail.

It travels from the rim down to the bottom of the canyon. We looked over the edge at the 4800 ft drop and thought…….”no thanks”.   Actually, there are signs all over the place that warn against attempting to go down, and all the way up, in one day.  And to stay at the bottom of the canyon requires making reservations months in advance.  Oh well… maybe next time. 

Instead, Paul looked over at the South Kaibab Trail and got very excited about hiking this ridge line trail.





Although you can hike it all the way to the bottom ( if you have reservations) its quite common to hike down to Skeleton Point and back up.  That was fine with us. (We started at the black arrow and stopped at the white arrow).




 

The trail extends out onto a ridge, and drops in elevation 2300 feet. The views were spectacular!

There is a sign along the way the cautions: “Going down is optional, coming up is mandatory”.  Many hiking trails lead with the difficult part- going up, and finish with the easy part- coming down.  The sign was a reminder that difficult part of this trail lies ahead.

After a few hours, and about 3 miles, we reached Skeleton Point, and enjoyed the view of the canyon below.

We took a lunch break as the mules, making the trek up from the bottom, passed us on the trail.  For those who don’t like to hike, you can ride a mule down into the bottom of the canyon, and back up again.

We chatted with several people along the way.  This  couple trudged along at about the same pace that we did. By the time we were headed back up, the sun was beating down on us and we were glad we had a lot of water.

The steepest part of the trail (going down) was at the beginning, which meant, of course, that it was also the steepest (going up) at the end.

The day after our hike down South Kaibab Trail, we decided to “take it easy” and wander the Rim Trail. Relatively flat, the Rim Trail traverses more than 20 miles of the rim of the Grand Canyon. There are plenty of opportunities to scare your significant other by stepping out onto an interesting looking ledge.

 

There is a shuttle bus that stops every mile or so along the rim, which makes it accessible to most people.  We could walk for a few miles, then take a shuttle for a stop or two, and then get

 off and walk again.  We ended up walking 6 miles.

On our last day in the heart of the park, the weather took a turn. The rain and thunderstorms moved in.  It didn’t “dampen” our enjoyment of the park though. 

We love storms, and watching them come across the canyon was awesome. The rumble of the thunder echoed through the canyon.

We got drenched, and there were a few times that the umbrella couldn’t quite protect my good camera, so I switched to my smaller one. Mostly I took videos anyway, waiting for a decent bolt of lightning, like this one:





There was never a shortage of people willing to take a picture for you, like this squinty one, taken at the Desert Watch Tower, on the way out of the park.

277 miles of the Colorado River run through the Grand Canyon. Its not actually  a pretty river at this point- there is a lot of sediment turning the water brown- but it is incredible to realize that something as innocuous as water carved this immense canyon.

 

  I thoroughly enjoyed our 4 days at the Grand Canyon, and love the fact that it’s less than a 3 hour drive from Havasu. Although it was warm during the day, usually in the low 80s, it cooled off to the low 50s at night, making it a great summer destination for  us.

House Update

As Paul so eloquently put it- we have electricity! I think it’s cool that he got a picture of it while it was all zeros!  THAT will never happen again!

Just before we left for the Grand Canyon, they were working on putting in the insulation.  Some of it is sheets, some of it is blown in.







We purposely chose a builder who builds an Energy Star rated home, and good insulation is a key factor. We’ve found out just how key insulation can be, this summer. With the extreme temperatures we’ve had, our very well insulated Mobile Suites has maintained an interior temperature of about 74-76 degrees.  Not bad for a 5th wheel!


While we were at Grand Canyon, we were pretty excited to hear from Wes that the sheet rocking had begun!







It will take about two weeks to finish the sheet rocking, but once the nailing is done, we will be getting our first coat of stucco (called Brown Coat) on the exterior of the house.

Paul and I are always shopping and trying to make decisions about what we want in the house.  Today we finally chose the accent tile for the showers. The large tile is the floor tile, which will also be the wall tile in the shower.  The two small squares are the travertine, which will be the floor tile in the Master walk in shower.  The other accent piece will be in both the guest shower and the master shower.

 

Whew. It may seem like its a simple, almost plain set up, but we chose it only after considering everything  from brightly colored glass to granite inlays.

One major decision that we made last week was the pool contractor!  We signed a contract with Advantage Pools.   Of course, with that decision came more choices we had to make.  We chose the pool accent color easily.  The blue tile is the accent tile and the round piece is what the  Margarita table will look like.

 

We still have to choose the stonework that will surround the spa- but we are thinking we want it to match the stonework in the front of the house, so we have to see if we can find something that works for both.