~ Retired and Starting My Future In The Foothills ~

[Gardengirl 2011]

Good point Sweet Cheeks. I'm usually onto my friends on FB for doing just that too. I'm used to much smaller private forums and never even thought about it.

 

[Kansaseq]

Linda, I hope you are having a wonderful weekend and enjoying your beautiful new house. Thanks so much for sharing your experience with us; I'm really enjoying living vicariously through you

I really wanna live in the mountains now!!

 

[gryeyes]

Well, that's something to consider, Sweet Cheeks - thanks for reminding me about personal security in the rural mountains. I DO have really good next door neighbors on the one side, and have heard positive comments about the neighbor on the other side of my property. Not discounting what you've said at all!

But I gotta report about the contractor who came out today. What a find! My real estate agent AND broker both had nothing but praise for him, and when he walked around looking and listening to what I wanted to do, in what order, and what I wanted "someday," I was really impressed with the amount of time he spent talking, explaining, listening, drawing little pictures in his explanations... He "got" what I was trying to do with that garage and is amused about the intended purpose. (He asked "What's a chicken door?" And nodded sagely when I said it's the door the chickens use to go in and out, so we don't have to leave the "people" door open for them. He added, "I wondered why you kept saying "people door" and now I see you needed to differentiate between the two." I explained I only needed the hole cut, as I have an automatic chicken door... and that was another conversation.)

He was even more amused about the really shoddy condition of the garage electrical .... "work".... done in the past. HHandbasket came over and when we discussed some of the "fixes" he was gonna rectify, she reminded me of the website I told her about some time ago: ThereIfixedit.com - and the contractor wrote it down to check it out. She thinks I should take pictures and submit them to that website; some of the stuff is absolutely laughable. There are two florescent overhead lights hanging from the roof rafters, and they are connected with splices and black tape where somebody cut off the power plugs so they could power them from the Romex cable wired into the open junction boxes. And one support "beam" consists of two two-by-fours NAILED together where they overlap in the middle by six inches. "There! I fixed it!"

I learned how septic tanks and leach fields work. He said not to bother with that commercial stuff they sell to "boost" septic system operation; if I ever have any "old hamburger" I forgot to cook, let it get a bit nastier and then flush IT down the toilet. Happy bacteria, cheap boost, nothing to throw away.

He learned I am more into functional than pretty, when it comes to fixtures and hardware, but I do not like "cheap" for sheer savings.

And the coolest thing was how Dooley, my most suspicious of the two dachshunds, actually LEANED against him and bumped his elbow to get him to pet him some more, when he was sitting on one of the rock terrace walls. Dooley had jumped up next to him, instead of staying just out of reach.

The garage conversion to coop will be completed within two weeks.

I put my sign up.

The rock on the left side is to keep the sign level. ("There! I fixed it!") There's a handy hole for a nail, but it's not in the center of the top....

See my two, fierce protectors in this photo? Zorro is the smaller, brown blur and he's almost 13 years old. Dooley is the larger fellow. VERY fierce, deep bark, quite "houndish" - not like a little doxie at all.

 

[Gardengirl 2011]

Hmmmmm, so might there be a little "interest" there with the contractor??? I mean, heck, he got the aproval of one of your protectors! Which by the way are adorable!

 

[HHandbasket]

Well I cannot say for sure, but after he left, I told Linda I thought the contractor was kinda flirting with her. At the very least, I think he would make a good friend.

I do have to say... Linda had some of her (ahem) lady parts not exactly hidden from view.

And I did fire up Bella Rosa and get her off the ranch and toodled up to Linda's place... EXACTLY 4.0 miles by odometer from my driveway to hers!

For those who do not know what I am talking about when I speak of Bella Rosa, here's a picture of me on Bella Rosa about 11 months ago.

Vroom vroom beep beep!

 

[gryeyes]

Hey, hey, hey! I was COMFY in my denim jumper with deep armholes.. nothing FELL OUT, okay??!!!

Where's that blushing smiley when you need it....

 

[Matthew3590]

Quote:
Oh SNAP!

 

[Happy Chooks]

Congrats Linda!!!! And you can put some yeast down your drain too, it encourages bacteria growth in the septic tank.

 

[Carols Clucks]

Yeast is CHEAP at Costco!

With a last name like Olmstead, bet you get a lot of people stopping by to take a picture of the sign.

 

[gryeyes]

Quote:
Not on my street. It's a dead end road, with only 8 houses. And that sign is up by the house, at the top of a steep circular driveway.

However, I have a specially-ordered metal sign with the same words and a rooster in silhouette that is going to be attached to the soon-to-constructed entrance stanchions over one end of the driveway. That sign will be visible to people driving on our dead end road.

Yes, I do have that particular delusion of grandeur: a sign suitable for a large farm or estate entrance.