Drywalling the Den - Day 1 and 2

We had the opportunity to do some work on Melissa and Adam's place and jumped at the chance.  We left on Thursday morning and thought our project would take a couple or three days.  The task at hand was to remove the painted-over paneling in their basement den and put up new drywall.

No problem - we've done that and have some Habitat experience.  But---we learned lots and we turned our 3 day project into 7 days.

First thing was the removal of baseboards and paneling.

One thing we learned was that we need to put down paper on the flooring for the project.  No matter how careful we were, by the time we removed paneling and brought in the 4' x 8' sheets of drywall, there were a few blemishes on the floor.

It was later than it should have been but we got the paper and put it down.

We started this project Thursday afternoon when we arrived.  The weather forecast called for rain on Friday, so we needed to buy the drywall and figure out a way to get it from Home Depot to the house.

Putting in on top of the CRV or their Subaru was not an option but Home Depot had a truck we rented for an hour.

We picked out some sheets that were not damaged and moved them from the stack to the carts in the store.

We picked up some drywall supplies including a 3 gallon bucket of joint compound (who needs 3 gallons? - we are only doing one room!)  

[We do!  As it turned out we used almost all of it.  Hard to imagine, but the goal is to have zero seams in the walls or spots where one can see where some taping occurred.  To do that, it takes 2 or 3 or 4 sessions of filling, sanding, smoothing, filling, sanding, smoothing (with a wet washcloth.)].

Once we got the drywall and supplies through checkout, I went and got the Home Depot truck we rented for an hour and then loaded them onto the back.  A passerby was nice enough to help load the 12 sheets.  But we couldn't take him home so the unloading was left up to us.

We parked near the curb and figured out a method to get them off the truck one at a time.

It worked well.  The hard part was carrying the sheet from the curb to the back door of their place.  It was about 50 yards.

12 trips later, we got it all inside!

I could not have done it with out this little guy.

We stacked it neatly against a wall and then took the truck back in record time.  I only had to rent the truck for an hour so it was very reasonable.

After we took the truck back we got ready to hang the new dry wall.  We'll show that next post.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

March is Whizzing By

Can't believe we are already into Daylight Savings Time with March Madness right around the corner.  And MLB Spring Training in full swing.

Looks like things here in Virginia Beach are looking up.  The last two days have been in the 60's which seems like summer weather almost!

Its hard to believe we went from this:

To this in about 10 days:

It was another nice day yesterday when we took Brooks for a walk around the neighborhood.

At a little over 3 weeks old, he's getting the hang of getting out and being mobile.  And he's starting to focus on objects a little farther away.  He's a pretty easy going guy most of the time and quite an amazing little person.

We've tried to balance our time over at Kelly and Jon's so we can help out and it hasn't been an every day all day thing.  Jon's back to work and Kelly is figuring out a routine and we are glad to give her a break.  I remember getting up some during those nightly feedings and it does take its toll, no matter what age.

So - speaking of whizzing-- a couple of weeks ago Brooks got me!  I've been pretty lucky with the diaper changing and he's been cooperating just fine.  But not that time.

Then a couple of days ago - he got Pam

He's had a couple of real doosies and yesterday he must have felt left out or something.

I think we have to quit getting the diapers with holes in them!

That's all this time on the Roadrunner Chronicles.  Thanks for joining us!

Roadrunner Financials - February 2015

Roadrunner Recap

We spent the entire month parked at our spot at the JEB Little Creek Amphibious Base MWR Campground.  It was freezing cold plenty of nights but we learned to keep warm and plug up drafts in the Roadrunner and had no real issues.

Good News Areas We Are Under Budget

The biggest gains (savings) in our budget continue to be on Diesel and car fuel, and in campground fees.
Biggest Expenses
Our biggest expenses were for eating:  groceries and eating out.  We had a good month on the pocket book so that was nice.

Large One Time Cost Item
Our largest purchases were for new hiking boots for Pam that were low cut ($95.39) and for a box of cigars (It's a Boy!) to commemorate Brooks arrival ($69.49).  Both were good purchases.  When it comes to feet comfort, one has to get some shoes that are sturdy and fit well.  On the cigars for Jon to pass out after Brooks arrived -- well, no questions on that one!

Monthly Average

Our monthly averages are in a good place at the moment.  Since we have been in one place for a couple of months, we are trending in the right direction.  We are very happy with our $2275 in spending and the average of $3775 over the last eight months since June of 2014.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Chillin in Virginia Beach

This week marks our tenth week in Virginia Beach.  Its been a mix of different kinds of weather and we have learned that we are not such pansies after all.  We have toughened up some and can do this.

Yesterday my early morning job was to dump the tanks.  I had stowed the sewer hose but could not find the hole in the ground until I poked around and dug it out.

The day before, I had to carefully get up on top of the Roadrunner and remove the snow.  Its not good to have the snow on top settle over the slide outs and freeze on top of the toppers.

I have removed 5" or more of snow from the top of the Roadrunner twice now.  The first time I used my long car ice scraper and 1/2 of a broom.

The snow was wet and I spent most of my 3 hours up there on my hands and knew slowly pushing the snow off the top.  The toppers were a little more of a challenge, but I slowly go the job done.

Two days ago when I tried to get on top it was just too slippery and the snow wasn't moving.  So I got down and gave it another try later in the day.

Much better.  This time I delicately and slowly used our plastic snow shovel. It took a while as I went very slowly.  The next few days are going to be warmer.  Today we have a high forecast for 33 degrees and a low of 26.  But it fluctuates the next 10 days before we are through with the cold winter weather.

Meanwhile, we have been spending some time at Kelly and Jon's with Brooks.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

We're Grandparents!

Kelly and Jon gave us a call early Sunday morning that they were headed to the hospital.  We got there about 8:30 AM and baby Brooks was delivered at 11:33 AM!!  It's hard to explain all the emotions of having our first grand baby.

We never had any inclination that this would be an other than 'ordinary' delivery.  But there were still the normal concerns about this life changing event.  We just tried to hang out in the waiting room and we got periodic updates from Jon.  Then he sent us this text:

Brooks is born!

Not sure how long it will take for him to join the ranks of the bearded ones (like his dad) so they helped him a long with a matching hat and beard combo.  

Then a few minutes later presented a picture of him clean shaven:

After a while, when things calmed down some, we went to see Kelly and Jon and hear all about it.  I noticed how good Kelly looked.  It was no easy task, but she came through having a baby with flying colors!

Brooks had a brief stay in the NICU to assess/monitor his breathing, and later the next day he joined Jon and Kelly in their room.  (He is doing great a home now.)  But back to our story --

The hospital was really great and Pam and I were very impressed.  They have so much more technology to monitor things and record stuff.  I am still amazed at the electronic records.  No more charts hanging on the door for nurses to update.

They let us in to see him pretty quickly and in no time we got to enjoy the little guy.

And we have been enjoying him for the past few days.

I was hoping to upload a few more pictures but am using Picasa 3 and it doesn't want to let me import them from my iPhone.  Anyone else have Picasa 3 issues?  Instead of waiting longer to figure all that out, here's a two more pictures that I was able to grab.

Latest photo while at the doctor office today:

And then his latest award:

He's already an over-achiever!

That's all for this edition of the Roadrunner Chronicles.  Thanks for joining us.

Roadrunner Financials - January 2015

Roadrunner Recap

We spent the whole month parked at our site on the MWR Campground at JEB Little Creek Amphibious Base.
It is not the greatest kept campground, but it is very convenient to Kelly and Jon's place which is 2 miles away.  It started getting bitterly cold and rained a few times which made for a lot of standing water.

Good News Areas We Are Under Budget

Gas and diesel fuel as well as campground fees (at $22/night) contribute to the spending being down.  We like those numbers.

Biggest Expenses
Our biggest spending was for propane (which we hardly ever buy but needed for the sub freezing temps to heat our water and gas furnace), cell phones, and our yearly Amazon Prime membership.

Large One Time Cost Item
At $99 our yearly Amazon Prime Membership fee is worth every penny!  What we save in shipping adds up in a hurry.

Monthly Average

This is another good month for our cumulative monthly averages.  We got down below our target of $4100/month again and hope to keep it there for a while.
After three out of our last five months of being over our budget estimate goals, it is good to be moving into some disciplined? spending.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Hiking the First Landing State Park

We've been here in Virginia Beach for the last couple of months and have had a new routine to say the least.  Sadly, I have not exercised much.  Although I have done a lot more reading and we have been involved with some projects around the Roadrunner, at Kelly and Jon's, Adam and Melissa's and at the local Habitat for Humanity.

On Saturday we changed things up a bit and went to the First Landing State Park for a hike.  The State Park is about five miles from the campground.  In a word - it was fantastic!

It was a very cold but a very clear and beautiful day.  We picked out a short trail and started off on the Bald Cypress Trail.

It was stunningly beautiful and we realize how much we miss our hiking.

Its been a few months since the last one.

We didn't want to overdue it so we settled on the short hike this time and vowed to take some more trails another day.

Thanks for joining us to day on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Organizing with Stackers and Hangers

I'm always looking for new and better ways to organize and I found two things I wanted to show you. Maybe you'll find them helpful.

A few months back I was removing the numbers off the front of Kelly and Jon's house so I could paint the trim.  After painting I was putting them back in place and I took my organizing nuts and bolts tray over to the ladder so I could find the right size nails.  After putting up 2 of the 4 numbers, I knocked the plastic tray of nuts, bolts, nails, etc off the ladder.

It was still usable with some mends with duct tape, but I started looking for a replacement set.  After checking out the usual places like Home Depot, Lowes, Sears and Harbor Freight I decided on this:

These stacking trays are the greatest!  I love how they fit on top of each other and therefore don't slide around.

Next, I like the interlocking capability.  The orange slides on the sides made them lock together and in our case, we have for so they all four lock together.  I can carry 2 or 3 or 4 as one unit which is handy.

It also has a better front orange tab that locks the individual tray.

And they sit well in the corner of the basement bay tray.

Another project was getting shoes off the floor in Pam's side of the closet and in a place where they wouldn't fall off their perch.

She would store them in clothe/cardboard box organizers and when we moved the coach, they would spill forward and scatter.

Not good.  Her idea was to get a cloth shoe bag where she could hang them up in pockets onto the back of the closet.

We hunted a couple of months before she found what she was looking for:

It happened to be the only one left so we got the floor model for $2.50.  A great deal.

Others we had seen were $15 - $50. So we were glad for getting that one.

I measure the where the holes were to hang it on a couple of nails.  But I then decided to put large pieces of velcro across the back and down each side.

The finished shoe holder is holding up and working well.

That's two of the latest ideas we have used to organize nuts and bolts and Pam's shoe in the Roadrunner.

Thanks for stopping by today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  We always appreciate it.  And when you leave comments.