Woo Hoo!!!!

Western civilization is saved!!!

In other important news, it's hot and humid in Florida. Who knew. All it takes to be drenched in sweat is walking out on the front porch. I'm working on getting out earlier in the morning to do the yard work, then spending the afternoon hiding indoors.

We made some progress yesterday on the interior work. There is still a lot of small bits here and there, but all the big stuff is on the walls. I need to find someone with a truck to haul leftovers back to Home Depot. The guy I used last time is out of town. I could rent the Home Depot truck, but that would take big chunk of the returns. Regardless, whatever money we end up with will immediately be used to buy a load of patio blocks for under the clothesline, and maybe the beginnings of a new planting bed. Now that all the snowbirds have flown north, I should be able to find plenty of seconds at the concrete place.

A couple quick shots of how things stand:

We still need to piece in around the windows and back door, and I can't do anything behind the hot water heater until all the plumbing gets relocated. The other "hole" next to the TV will be a large, built-in cabinet with book shelves facing the living area, storage facing the laundry area to the rear of the Florida room, and a place to stash all the computer bits and pieces to get them out of the way. The entire room will get a 90° twist with the TV going on the outside wall and the couch going against the trailer. Once the cabinet is built, the giant, hulking bookcase that doesn't fit anywhere goes on Craigslist. That will basically double the space in the Florida room and make it much easier to navigate. Eventually, the TV will end up hanging on the wall, but for now, it will continue to sit on its current piece of furniture. I may shove some furniture around at some point this week just to try things out.

Once the last of the plywood is up, I'm calling it quits for a while on the interior. We need to redo the water and waste lines on the inside and finish up a number of outside projects first, then we'll finish up with drywall, trim, paint, etc. There are some tricky bits I need to mull over thanks to the fact the the outside walls change thickness several times which will make the drywall and finish work a nightmare. The cabinet/bookshelf will disguise one of those transitions, but I still need to deal with the slider, windows and back door areas. I have a basic idea what I'm going to do, but I need to stare at it a while to get all the details set in my head. Setting patio blocks and making planting beds is something that will give me plenty of "mull time."

Meanwhile, our "guy" is supposed to call me to set up a time to come out and talk to us about getting our siding on the trailer. The park requires us to get that done in a year; technically it's been over a year since we bought it, but less than a year since we officially moved in. No one has come down here and jumped on us yet, probably because the new management is still settling in and cleaning up the debris left by the previous administration. And because we are literally in the furthest back corner of the park; most people that have lived here for years have no idea we even exist. In any case, with some luck, our place should have a pretty new skin on the outside in a few weeks.

As usual, I'll toss some pictures up here once things start to happen.