Tag Archives: Hill Mesa Ct.

Arizona, Colorado

We’re late, We’re late, for a very important date… (Casa Grande, AZ)

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It took a lot of work… but we’re finally back on the road!  Goodbye ol’ house 😐

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On Thursday, with the help of my Dad, (Thanks again Dad!) we finished up some last minute details on the house and then concentrated on loading the Harley into the pickup along with any last minute forgotten items.  Back at the Elks Lodge, Stilla had some of her German friends come by the Coach to say goodbye.

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On Friday morning, (our travel day), I found myself up on a ladder trying to get as much ice off the roof as I could.  I had to use a hair-dryer and broom to get the chunks of ice off the slideout awnings so we could retract them.  I gave up trying to get the ice off the roof.  A lot of the snow had melted the previous day and turned into 1 – 2 inch thick ice that stubbornly refused to break up and fall off.

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While I was working on the ice problem, good friend Danny surprised us by stopping by to say goodbye.  Bye Dan! We’ll keep in touch.

We finally decided it was best for Stilla to follow me (at a safe distance) in the truck.  I didn’t want any of the ice chunks falling off and going through the truck windshield.  So, down the road we went… with ice chunks slowly melting and falling onto the highway behind us… goodbye cold Colorado… we’ll see you again when it’s warmer.

It took 70 miles before enough ice had fallen off the roof of the Coach so we could hook up the truck up for towing.  We even stopped at the rest stop just before Pueblo, where I got out the ladder and tried to break up some of the ice, but it was still too thick.

Just as it was becoming dusk, we stopped at the casino/gas station after Santa Fe but before Albuquerque to get fuel and noticed that my running lights weren’t working on the truck.  The brake lights and turn signals were fine, but the driving lights wouldn’t come on.  I’ve had this problem before.  I think it has to do with the Vansco Multiplex system the Coach employs.  I’ll have to work on it once we get to Quartzsite.  Since we didn’t have tail lights on the truck, and I didn’t want to just hook up an emergency flasher light, (which I carry), we decided to spend the night at the casino.

They charge $20 for electrical hook-up at the casino but gave us each a $10 players card.  We enjoyed their buffet for $20 and spent another $20 playing the slots.  Fortunately, we won just a little at the slot machines so we pretty much broke even by spending the night there.

On Saturday morning we got rolling about an hour after the sun had come over the horizon.  We made it to Casa Grande just as it was getting dark again.  Whew!  Time to refresh ourselves for the night, catch up with brother Steve & Cheryl, Mom and Stepdad Jimmy.

This morning, (Sunday), I’ll download the Harley from the truck and upload the ATV which has been stored here at the farm.  Hopefully, we can make it to Quartzsite at a reasonable time this afternoon.  The party already started there and we’re late…  I’ve already heard from some of the Alpine Coach group that are there, hope they saved us a spot in the desert 🙂

 

Arizona, Colorado

There and Back Again (Colorado Springs, CO)

We made the final road trip to Casa Grande on Sunday with “stuff”… made it back to COS on Tuesday.

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Cloud bank coming over mountains near Santa Fe NM

On Sunday: We, (Stilla, Little dog “Coach”, and I), left our house at 6 AM after hooking up the fully-loaded trailer and made it to Casa Grande by 9 PM.  After 15 hours of driving, we met my Mom, Stepdad (Jimmy), Brother Steve and his squeeze (Cheryl), for a late-night dinner at the Iron Skillet Restaurant just South of Casa Grande. The 900 mile trip down here took us 15 hours and we only got 9.2 miles per gallon with the heavy load.  Every time we pull the trailer, it’s like having an open parachute behind you.

After a good night’s sleep at the “dirt farm” in my Mom’s house, we spent Monday recuperating from the trip.  We also downloaded a few items from the trailer to the Conex.  Most items, we left in the trailer.  Then we gave the trailer a good washing with my brother’s pressure washer.  It also took a good amount of carwash soap, buckets and ladders to clean off all the road-grime and magnesium chloride.  That magnesium chloride is nasty stuff.  They put it on the roads for ice control and it’s hard to get off the under-components of your vehicle.  The stainless-steel wrap on the front of the trailer and fenders have spots all over that will have to be buffed out now to get rid of the effects of the stuff.  We parked and locked up the trailer in a safe spot on the farm.  (Thanks Steve, Cheryl, Mom & Jimmy)!

On Monday:  We got a 6 AM start back to Colorado Springs.  What a difference without the trailer (parachute) behind us… we made the 900 mile trip back to COS by 8 PM and we got a much more palatable 14.8 miles per gallon 🙂

On Tuesday:  We picked up my 90 day refill of meds from the Ft Carson hospital that I had requested the week prior and we stopped by Home Depot (again) for a couple last minute things to finish up the house that’s for sale.  I had to special order some 3-toggle light switch plates that they didn’t keep in stock… I needed them to match the others that we had already replaced.  I also finally finished up the carpet and trim pieces on the garage steps, which is yet another home project that I never got around to completing when we lived there.  Now, if the weather would just cooperate, I can finish staining the rear deck and painting the front porch.  These are the last items on our list to complete so we can head South.  Hopefully we can complete this quickly and hit the road with the Urban Escape Vehicle.  We’re late for the Alpine Coach Rally in Quartzsite.

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Looking West from the driveway – For Sale sign in yard.
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inner garage door steps (finally completed trim pieces and tacked down carpet)
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front porch with partially completed concrete paint (using “Restore” product from Home Depot)

With any luck, my next post will be coming to you from the warm Arizona desert 🙂

BTW- If anyone else out there is selling a house, beware of scam artists on Craigslist.  We had someone use our pics and name to represent it as a rental… hoping to con someone into sending them a deposit.  My realtor found and fixed this on Craigslist but not before someone stopped by to look at the “rental”.  I guess these scumbags try to get people to come by and look at the house through the windows, and when contacted, the scumbag says he’s out of town, but if you send him a deposit to secure the rental – he’ll send them the rental contract and keys…  scumbags!

Colorado

House for Sale (Colorado Springs, CO)

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Yay!  We finally got the house on the market.  Link here to Zillow. Or here for the MLS.

1111 Hill Mesa Pic

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It’s been a grueling couple months… Now we can just hope it sells quickly.

Regardless, it’s time to move the Urban Escape Vehicle to warmer climes.  We plan on being in Quartzsite by the 14th or 15th for the Alpine Coach “Desert Rat Rally”.

I still have to make one more trip with the trailer to Casa Grande AZ.  I already loaded it with the final garage stuff (tool boxes, wall lockers, etc.,) and will probably head down in a day or two.  I’ll leave the trailer there this time and come back to get the coach and the Harley… then we’ll be free again!!  Can’t wait.

Colorado

We Can See the End (Colorado Springs, CO)

We are finally getting close to being able to put the house on the market.  The carpet is finally done, I guess the adage; “3rd time is a charm”, is true.  The original carpet guy finally just paid a competitor to order and install the carpet at his expense since we had already paid.  Here’s a view of the stairs in progress.

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And, here’s a picture of the finished stairs for your viewing pleasure.

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The downstairs “family room/game room” looks a little weird with the light brown color carpet (called Honeycomb 201).  It used to have a light blue/gray carpet that complemented the wall colors.  I hope a potential buyer doesn’t “dislike” it.

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This is the bar that we’re including with the house.  I just wasn’t going to remove that back piece off the wall because I anchored it with lag bolts to the studs and ran electrical outlets to it when I originally finished this room.  Removing it would just create too much additional work with drywall, paint and texture issues.

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We had new carpet put in the Master Bedroom and walk-in closet along with the stairs and everywhere downstairs except for one of the bedrooms where we decided to leave our King Size Bedroom set.  We just didn’t want to move it again and figured it might add value and an additional incentive to buy the house for the new-owner(s).

This is the chandelier we put in the dining room.  The old one was just fine, but it was brass.  This was no easy chore due to the extremely high vaulted ceilings.  I even had to make another trip to Home Depot to get more black chain so it wasn’t hanging too high.  It doesn’t look too bad I guess.

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The driveway concrete repair has been the most expensive task so far.  This is where I used to park the Urban Escape Vehicle and the concrete just wasn’t thick enough to handle the weight.  It had some pretty major cracks and had settled in places.  The concrete guys did all the tear out and re-pour in one day.

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We were finally able to paint the Den after I got the tenant’s stuff out.IMG_5446 IMG_5447

Here’s a view out the front Den window looking up the street.  We haven’t been able to easily look out this window for a while due to the “stuff” I had to move out from the former tenant’s.

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We still have to clear the previous tenant’s stuff out of the Master Bath so we can give it a good cleaning and re-caulk where needed.

And there’s some wood-laminate flooring repairs I still need to make in the Great Room… sure glad I kept a couple boxes of the original floorboard.

We still need to finish re-staining the deck also, but that’s contingent on good weather, hopefully it warms up soon.

With any luck, we’ll finally have the house on the market at the beginning of the New Year.

I’ll try to keep you updated.  Stay tuned…