I drove home this evening into an amazing sky: a firey sunset with peach-colored clouds and a long, vertical plume. It was a gratifying afternoon. Dobie (my pooch) and I spent some hours on my “job site”—where I am converting a used portable classroom into a home. This afternoon I was focused on…mud, actually. Mud of two kinds: mud, meaning wet dirt, and mud meaning sheetrock “mud”, the stuff that is applied to “raw” sheetrock (or drywall) before it is painted. More on the latter in a minute.
As to the wet dirt: the operative word here, in reference to my painstaking progress on my project is…wet! As of last Friday, I now have water on my new place. An outside spigot never looked more beautiful than this one.
I turned on the faucet and, voila! This changes my world at the Pixie Plantation. I can finally wash this building and paint it and I can mix the powdered stuff I got at Lowe’s to install tile flooring. Perhaps most exciting of all, I can water my plants!
In order to have water, I needed electricity, since I’m relying on a well to keep me “watered” here. It was Friday two weeks ago, that my electrical guys were able to return to work for me. (See my prior posts for background.) Will, the electrician’s assistant, and his helper, Omar, installed outlets and ran electrical lines in my new place, primarily in the bathroom and kitchen.
It wasn’t until the following Friday that I arrived to find monster trucks and machines and five guys from the power company—all there to bring power to my building!
From a huge spool, they strung cable to the top of the power pole on my property.
Then they dug deep trenches and ran the cable to the power box near my house-to-be. Finally, they got their heads together—literally—and hooked everything up.
Last Saturday, a new contractor, Ray, and his son-in-law, Russ, showed up and began working on my bathroom, taking up where Kermit the contractor left off. (Kermit has been gently, but firmly, dismissed from the job site—at least for the time being.) They constructed walls around the tub area in the bathroom and hung sheetrock.
In the lower right hand side of the picture is a roll of insulation, which I installed in the bathroom walls.
Thursday this week Ray and Russ returned and Russ put “mud” on the seams of the sheetrock. Today, after I sanded most of the areas he had “mudded”, the exterior walls of the bathroom look like this.
You can see that the illumination in the building is the original: intense, white, buzzing fluorescent lights, under which many children toiled to take their tests. Eventually, I will do away with them. For now, they provide the building with a workshop ambiance—quite appropriate to the activity going on! Twenty-two fluorescent lights is a bit much, however, for one little home. But, that’s a problem I’ll solve later.
For now, I’m happy to have light.
And I am thrilled to have water. While Dobie romped this afternoon, I dug holes in the ground, planting some of the bedraggled daylilies, purple coneflower, and other items that have lived in pots at my house for the past three years. The ground is terribly dry and packed hard, so I am using post-hole diggers to make a hole, plopping the plants in the ground, and then making mud (halleluia!) by watering liberally with my hose.
In the next few days these plants and the others will be all cozy with mulch that should help them survive the winter and give them some nutrients, in addition to holding at bay all of the vines and growth I didn’t manage to pull up.
Tired from his romp this afternoon, Dobie is not quite sure what to make of the fact that he’s been allowed to run—sans leash—on the property the last few times he’s made the trip with me. As I write this, he is zonked out on his bed. Time for me to do the same. Tomorrow is likely to be another day in which I’ll sand some more on the sheetrock, apply more mud, dig more holes outside, put in more plants, and water them in.
For some of us, life doesn’t get any better than playing in the mud!
Please also see my writing at http://wrinkledintime.wordpress.com, http://dancetheriver.wordpress.com, and www.elderwomenmusings.com.
20 comments
Comments feed for this article
November 13, 2011 at 8:44 am
Piglet in Portugal
This is wonderful news! I love the name “pixi plantation” 🙂 Dobie, looks such a wonderful companion and he is certainly going to enjoy the space.
Won’t be long before you’re moving in!
November 14, 2011 at 1:29 am
madwomandancing
Thanks, PiP. I do hope it won’t be much longer. There is still much to be done, but, then, I am making progress!
November 14, 2011 at 7:33 am
Piglet in Portugal
Progress is always a step in the right direction 🙂
November 13, 2011 at 2:29 pm
Mary
This chapter in the Pixie Plantation saga was packed with good news, which I enjoyed reading. Once the bathroom is finished, it will be hard for you and Dobie to resist sleeping over. I am already looking forward to the next chapter.
November 14, 2011 at 1:32 am
madwomandancing
Thanks, Mary, for your support! Yes, I am imagining taking a bed or bedroll to the place. The travel time really takes a toll sometimes. Thanks for following my saga!
November 13, 2011 at 2:49 pm
Linda Smith (creativelife)
I am loving every update. Water!! You are making instrumental progress Ellen and I’m so proud of your accomplishments. The wonderful pictures just continue to amaze me. You are quite the photographer. Know you are in my thoughts!
November 14, 2011 at 1:33 am
madwomandancing
Linda, thanks so much. I’m going at this one little piece at a time. The discouragement factor is high at times. But, there is progress being made!
November 14, 2011 at 5:36 am
E.C.
Visiting with you at your Pixie Plantation is always filled with fun and inspiration. I love mud, I have such wonderful memories of making mud pies and sculpting mud critters.lol
And I also have mudded and sanded more than a few houses of sheetrock. It’s a super dusty job, but the accomplishment of helping build something is a great feeling.
Congratulations on getting the water and electric hooked up. I know you’re relieved to finally have them. The bathroom looks like it’s coming together nicely too.
I can hardly wait for that special day when you and your handsome Dobie can romp and play and sleep everyday at your charming home. I’m so happy for you. 🙂
November 15, 2011 at 2:57 am
madwomandancing
Oh, E. C., I’m looking forward to that day, also. Yes, the sheetrock sanding and mudding (and especially the sanding) is a messy job. Thanks so much for your ongoing support.
November 14, 2011 at 1:32 pm
lil red hen
New construction is always so exciting; the smell of new wood, the clutter of scraps, ditches filled with pipes!! I’m so excited about your accomplishments! It is difficult to be waiting on the finish project.
You asked about the origin of my post; I have no idea who wrote it. A grandson sent it to me and it had been sent to him; it must be a case of “he said, she said”. 😉 Thanks for you comments about it though.
November 15, 2011 at 2:59 am
madwomandancing
Lil red hen, I’m with you, there is something very exciting about all the new stuff and and the rough materials. I’ve always loved the process of remodeling or construction–even as I gnash my teeth, etc!
November 14, 2011 at 4:26 pm
writingfeemail
It’s such a joy to watch your creativity sparkle with this project. The property looks lovely and the sky – wow! Do you have an end date in mind?
November 15, 2011 at 3:01 am
madwomandancing
Writingfeemail, I would so love to be able to move in (or at least have that as an option) by the end of this year. I am shooting for that. I still have my current house to sell, and everything feels clumsy and a bit scary right now (money-wise). So, I take hope in the beautiful sky and the little things I can control–like putting a plant in the ground!
December 4, 2011 at 8:23 pm
writingfeemail
PS – I’ve just given you the Liebster Award. See today’s post for details and congratulations!
November 14, 2011 at 10:16 pm
ernestine lawson
Love following you – like me looking back.
Water, electricity and dirt – all you need
along with something to sleep on, cooler of food,
tools to work with and gloves – I hardly wear them and should.
You have it made.
Just wait until you can spend the night and flowers emerge
you will really smile…
November 15, 2011 at 3:03 am
madwomandancing
I always smile when I read your comments. I so relate to your words: “water, electricity, dirt–all you need…” Yes, indeed. That is, truly, all I need. And, oh, I do look forward to seeing flowers emerge in the spring!
November 25, 2011 at 7:45 pm
life is a bowl of kibble
Dobie sure looks like he could use a nap 🙂
November 28, 2011 at 6:49 pm
madwomandancing
Yes, you are so right. He could use a nap, and so could I!
December 7, 2011 at 11:23 am
ernestine lawson
I keep checking for a new entry.
You must have a home by now 🙂
Take care.’
Weather in my area rainy and cold.
Nice to be inside more.
Strange for the first time in my life I can sit
and do nothing and not even think.
Took a long time….
December 9, 2011 at 11:28 pm
madwomandancing
Ernestine, thanks so much for checking on me. I’ve been bogged down. So much to do, including family matters. And just flat-out being overwhelmed. I had hoped to have the basic work finished in the building by the end of the year, but it is very unlikely that I’ll make that deadline. Slowly, surely, I’ll get there!