Following is a not-so-brief update on our Spring and early Summer activities. As it turns out, this is the longest period we have been home for as long as I can recall.
We left our Florida home at The Great
Outdoors (TGO) on April 15. That's a little earlier than we usually
leave, but the
Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour. was having a viewing at the
Lucas Theatre for the Arts in Savannah. Dorcas' friends
Dianne and Mark live in Pooler GA, just off a Savannah I-95 exit and
invited us to spend the night in their cul-de-sac. They have a new
45' Entregra motor home and have 50 amp service at their
home. SWEET! We invited them to the film festival and we all went
to town and ate at the
The Olde Pink House before the show. Great southern food and a bonus, the house is haunted! We spent a 2
nd
night on the cul-de-sac, and the next day we did a trolley tour of
Savannah. Among other things, we saw Forrest Gump's bench. Savannah
is about half way between home and TGO. Mark and Dianne have said we
could spend the night there any time. So, it looks like we have a
new traditional stop-over when going to and from Florida.
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| Our Florida Home at TGO |
An added benefit of getting home a
little early from Florida is that we could enjoy our azaleas first
hand. In most previous years friends and neighbors have sent us
photos saying “Your azaleas sure are pretty. You should be here!”
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| Azaleas in bloom at the Whitley abode |
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| Sidney and Matilda lounging with the azaleas |
Dorcas and I travelled to Alaska in
2011, and we had a great time. For the last year or so we have been
planning to return in 2016, 5 years after our first trip. But our
schedule would be tight. We arrived home from Florida on April 17.
If we were going to Alaska we wanted to leave the first week in May.
That just didn't leave a lot of time to get ready, plus we had a
number of conflicting events upcoming. We both had jury summons for
the time we would be gone, and I had a must-do appointment with my
ophthalmologist, which would likely require some follow-up visits.
Resurfacing our 33 year-old deck was at the top of the list, and we
were not going to Alaska before it was done. At some point, probably
while re-surfacing the deck, we decided that Alaska was a non-starter
this year. After we made that decision it was like a weight had been
lifted. We made alternate plans for a trip departing later in the
summer, that should be a really good trip. More on that later.
The Deck Project
Over 10 years ago so-called friends had
been commenting on the terrible shape our deck was in, and that we
should do something. The deck was built in 1983, the year our house
was built, and there were plenty of rotting deck planks and nails
that wouldn't stay put. Thankfully the joists and the railings were
in pretty good shape; just fairly weathered, It was time to do
something. I had bought the lumber back in October last year, but we
weren't able to get to it before leaving for Florida. In Florida, my
friend Hank, suggested I would be happier using an impact driver,
rather than a drill. So before leaving Florida I went to my go-to
on-line hardware store (eBay) and bought a cordless Hitachi impact
driver, which uses the same li-ion batteries as my other cordless
Hitachi tools.
So, starting the 3rd week in
April we tore into it, literally. The first task was to move my
radial arm saw from the basement to the deck, no small chore. I had
2 options: 1) take it apart and take it through the house or 2) haul
it up from the lower drive way and over the deck rail. I chose
option 1, which in hindsight was probably the wrong choice. It took
most of a day to move the saw.
Next we started pulling up boards. Our
plan was to start at the edge next to the house and remove 2-3 rows,
than put down a new row. The rows next to the house were in pretty
good shape, and the nails were tight in the joists. That end of the
deck is better sheltered from sun and rain. Pulling up the old
boards and hammering out the nails was probably the hardest part of
the job. Cutting and screwing down the new boards was relatively
easy. All told it took us about a week, including long and frequent
breaks to escape the heat and to attend to a few other crucial
errands during that time (Pickleball). It looks great, I think.
Dorcas was a HUGE help. I had big fun hauling the debris to the
landfill. I kept some of the best scrap and made some outside work
tables for behind the house.
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| The beginning of the project |
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| What a mess! |
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| See that rotted wood? UGH! |
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| Almost done |
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| Finished!!! |
The Shed
I have been wanting a storage shed for
some time. My biggest hesitation regarded where I would put it. Our
lot is fairly steep in the back, there are some trees, and I figured
setting up a shed would be difficult. One day in late June I was on
Peters Creek Parkway and pulled into the Leonard USA lot to do some
window shopping for sheds. I liked what I saw there; the prices
seemed reasonable and the price included delivery and set up. They
said the 4-foot rise on the back end would not be a problem. A few
days later Dorcas and I went back and placed an order. We ordered a
10' x 16' metal building with a few options: a 7' roll-up door and
metal studs on 16” center (as opposed to 32” on center.) The
shed was a custom job and delivery would be in about 2 weeks ( i.e.
forever!)
The good news: I finally got the call
that my shed could be delivered today. The bad news: on that day we
were camping at Stone Mountain State Park. I asked when they could
deliver again, if I didn't take it today: answer about a week
(another forever!) Dorcas was out hiking and unreachable by phone.
So I made a command decision and rushed off the mountain in the
Element towards home.
The shed arrived about an hour after I got home. The guy had a pretty slick trailer with a movable bed and an articulated tongue. He was able to back down the drive and put the shed within inches of my stakes. There was only one mishap. Before the building was completely off the trailer, they jacked up the rear end and placed the rear on some blocks, so it would be somewhat level before moving out the trailer. When pulling the trailer out, the shed fell off the blocks and the blocks punched a hole through the floor. Crap! They were able to get it level and set up in about an hour and a half. I then got in the car and drove back to Stone Mountain.
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| Pretty cool trailer |
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| My back woods are pretty steep |
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| Finally all leveled up |
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| Improved ventilation |
Over the next week or so I began
modifying the building:
Built a 3' work table along the
back wall.
Installed racks for hanging tools
Installed and bolted metal
shelving to the wall
Installed steel cable tie-downs
A few days later a guy from Leonard USA
came and replaced the broken floor panel. Unfortunately, he didn't
bring paint. A few days after that another guy came by and
re-painted the floor.
At some point the electrician arrived.
They made a 24” trench from the house to the shed and bored under
the driveway. They installed ump-teen outlets, inside and out, and
installed an LED motion light over the door. I also found a few
electrical projects for them in the house, since they were here.
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| The sure made a mess of my new lawn |
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| A trencher is an amazing tool |
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| Electricians at work |
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| Fully outfitted |
My remaining projects are to replace my
temporary ramp with a permanent ramp and to add lattice to the
underside of the building. Dorcas says I need air conditioning and
DirecTV to be complete.
Motor Home Maintenance and Repairs
I do as much
maintenance and repairs on the coach as I can. Obviously I like to
save $$$, but just as important, I enjoy the satisfaction and
confidence of knowing I can do it. I like to understand how things
work. I have fixed a lot of things on the road that would have
interrupted our trip if I had to call a repairman or get towed.
- Changed engine oil and filter. This
would cost over $400 at a diesel repair shop, but the parts cost me a
little less than $100.
- Changed the oil and fluid for Allison
transmission. The fluid alone costs about $45 per gallon, and it
takes about 4.25 gallons. Not a terribly difficult job, just messy.
- Replaced the switch that illuminates a
dash panel warning light telling the driver that the outside step has
not fully retracted. This red warning light has been irritating me
for years. The hardest part of this task was finding the part.
- Installed a device on the
refrigerator boiler that monitors the boiler temperature and shuts
down the fridge when the boiler gets too hot. Gas absorption
refrigerators used in RVs are very sensitive to unlevel operation.
Operating while unlevel can quickly overheat the boiler resulting in
permanent and fatal damage to the cooling unit. When the boiler
cools, the device will restart the fridge.
With labor rates at $120/hr at RV shops
and about $90/hr at diesel shops. I will do as many repairs as I can
as long as I can.
OK, that brings us up to date with most
of our major projects. Oh yeah, I spent some time making our bird
feeders more squirrel resistant. Also, we both spent a lot of time
in the basement (it sure is cool down there!) disposing of junk and
organizing. It helped that I could now move all my gasoline power
equipment out into the new shed. Dorcas says I can't buy any more
industrial shelving. We took the motor home up to Stone Mountain State Park for 4 nights nights and paddled with the Lumber River Canoe Club for their annual picnic at Princess Anne.
On July 10 we left home for our big
summer trip. We are currently in Shenandoah National Park, where internet service is practically nonexistent. In my next post I will
share a new chapter in The Adventures of Dorcas and Myron.
