Capturing the Old West

Since I have been busting my ass for two solid weeks, when some of the required supplies were ordered but yet to be received, we chose to embark on new adventures instead of new projects. Everyone needs a little rest time and today everything is supposed to be in so we should be working hard again all weekend.

With the offering of some down time, we set off on a great gopher-shooting, pictures capturing day drive through the rolling hills that surround our new home. I have not even taken my camera out of the bag and only a few weeks before this whole hotel adventure I had purchased the Nikon 10.5mm lens but had yet to put it through a real workout and what could be better at trying out a lens with 180 degree field of view than the wide open prairie hills?

So we started to randomly drive through the back roads, and when the light caught my eye we would stop and snap a shot. I spotted an interesting group of trees and pulled into the field so I didn't have to walk as far to get to them. I had waved to a fellow walking back to an old truck as I was pulling up to the field and by the time I had stopped the car and was getting out of the vehicle, he had come up behind me. I walked on over to him and introduced myself as the new owner of the hotel and told him I was there to snap shots of the trees and maybe shoot a gopher or two. After some conversation I mentioned I was looking for some interesting, decrepit buildings he very kindly offered to take us to one of his favorites that was nearby.

First we followed Ray back to his place to drop off our car and join him in his truck. We restocked the beverages and headed out. It wasn't much more than a 15 minute drive to the old homestead which had been deserted for some time now but was once inhabited by a very wealthy rancher who had a fair number of ranch hands, or so it seemed by the number of buildings. The site itself is situated along side a gorgeous little creek and surrounded by mature trees. A delightful retirement location or a place to get away from it all. Certainly it won't be long before someone builds a mansion on the site.

Although much of the house had been destroyed by a combination of vandals and nature, you could see the evidence that it was once a luxurious home. Through the top window of the house, the bathtub still remains and the supply line which we guessed would have pumped water by way of a manual pump instead of having to manually carry water up the stairs as would have been the normal for the time (if you were lucky enough to have a 2-story)

Right along the creek line was a hobbit looking house which was likely used to store ice from the creek and possibly used as a cold storage for food as well since it was built right into the ground. Ray had told us that his daughter had her grad pictures done here and that was why he thought of it when we mentioned taking pictures. He invited us back to his place so we could see some of the pictures from the grad and compare how the place looks in the full greenery of summer. On the way back to the truck I snapped my fav shot (and Nicole's too) of a decrepit wagon. I hear the motto "Wagon's west!!! - ahh screw it, let's stay here" in my head whenever I see this picture :)

Thanks Ray, for a great afternoon. We really enjoyed the company and look forward to chatting some more in the bar real soon....

The bathroom terror

As most know, I am fairly confident with new tasks but this whole reno thing is unchartered territory for me. On top of every single thing that I try being completely new, there is no one around that I know well enough to invite over for a little assistance or guidance. That's what friends are for and I usually trade computer help for assistance with plumbing, electrical, mechanical etc where I am a little more timid. Well for the most part, trading computer work with people that are knowledgeable in the areas I lack is non existent because many do not even have a computer or it may be something that is there if one is forced to write an email.... Anyways, I digress. The point is that most of these stories cover the process of an over haul that is incredibly daunting for me and while many would scoff at the accomplishment, I am proud of each completed project even with any flaws or defect. Most are done with inaduequate tools and only the guesstimate of how things are done. This is especially true for the finer arts of home reno like the finishing touches. I am great at the dismantling, the measuring and cutting of the raw materials but the most improvement has been required and being noticed in the finishing touches.

Well with this bathroom, I did fantastic at removing the damaged dry wall and cutting new peices in but it took me a few tries to master the drywall tape zen. I kept getting bubbles in the tape. If anyone knows the secret in a nutshell, don't bother telling me now because it will make me mad ;) I finally got it pretty smooth and I am going to slap a layer of primer up on it (Actually Nicole has been doing an amazing job at the painting so when I say I, I likely mean Nicole) and then I will be able to determine how much more drywall effort should be spent on the wall. If all goes well I am hoping I can avoid anymore all together because it is messy and an annoying task.

Then we come to the tiles.... I did great at the layout and spacing but I didn't do amazing the first time around at getting the last of the lino backing off the flooring. Luckily I had no idea how I would do so I bought a whole bunch of extra tile to make up for my mistakes. So the adhesive wasn't as forgiving as I had originally imagined but live and learn. I also think from reading the tile package (who knew good instructions would be right on the pack) that I may be providing too much pressure downward when installing them. Maybe they are supposed to sit sort of on top of the adhesive but for now they are looking really good and as soon as someone in town gets a sponged and some type of grouting tool to wedge the grout into the cracks I will give that a go. For now things are coming along, and once we get some paint on the walls I will be able to install the toilet and the vanity and everything will really start to pull together. For now I feel like this has been the never ending project but I guess it is coming along and it is looking good.

Numerous other improvements over the last little while include:

• Nicole's amazing wallpaper border removal
  
• Nicole's amazing job of painting the hallway
• Re-tile the walk-in cooler with commercial tiles
• Install 4 of 6 toilets
• Clean, Clean, Clean

More to come soon......

Where did all this stuff come from?!

First of all, I'd like to make a point of saying that I am NOT a packrat, despite its runnings in my family genes. Second of all, I would like to say that the two of us have a lot of STUFF! Our big move happened on March 28th...well, officially March 29th, because our movers were fighting a hard wind the whole way and took until 130am to reach us. Then the task of unloading. The picture here shows the cafe room before we inundated it with our gear. So wonderfully clean and spacious...until our 130am-4am unloading extravaganza!...YIKES!

The next morning, we awoke quite early in anticipation of our new home and it's potential...so it was down to work! Over the next few days, we both tackled where we felt most drawn to. I focused on getting our kitchen up and functional. It was bleached and cleaned beyond recognition, then lovingly stocked with our housewares and dry goods. Then I was moved to take on the dreaded basement...(cue dramatic music) More blog to come! Cheers! Nicole

Whew !!! Plumbing, plumbing, plumbing

It has been along time but I did enjoy the disconnection from the wired world. I also used the lack of distraction that the internet usually offers me to accomplish a fair amount of work. It still feels like there is a long way to go but we have certainly made a dent in the place. I will split some of the next posts up and they may not be in perfect chronological order but who cares?

I don't even know where to start. My friend Tom came down a couple of weekends for one night each time and gave me the crash course on plumbing. The building has a whole bunch of copper drain pipes and many of them were corroded right through. As such we replaced them with the standard ABS which I am becoming quite proficient with. I still have a good 20 foot run to do but that will take care of a bunch of it. During Tom's two visits we:

- Installed a toilet (for my training purposes)
- Installed new shutoff valves at every fixture in the place (think $300~ on shutoff valves)
- Installed a new water softener
- Replaced about 15 'Y' sections and 20 misc feet of copper drain pipe
- Replaced faucets, fixed leaks yada yada yada

a small amount of the 15 or so truckloads we took to the dump

So, as an example of a before and after shot of some of my plumbing handiwork here are some bathroom shots. I reused the vanity for the time being as 6 toilets, 5 bathroom sinks and 4 bar sinks plus the water softener didn't come cheap :)

Yummy hard water stains on the left.....

Beautiful and clean toilet and sink with the stainless supply lines to meet all health codes







As of tonight, I have installed 4 of the 6 toilets. I still have to install the sink into the womens washroom and that will be an episode to itself and a toilet, urinal and the sink into the mens.

I will have a whole story on the private bathroom which has been another project I have been working on over the last two weeks but the toilet and sink and new vanity still need to go into there and 4 sinks behind the bar :(

It used to feel never ending but at least I can see the end now... at least of the plumbing!!!