Plans For Renovations Of Our Home

                                                                9/25/2014

Mallery showed some very different symptoms that we had never seen before, while at our new home. She acted like she couldn't see me, even though she jump up into the lazy boy and never ran into anything. I would call her name, and she would run going in the opposite direction looking for me. A couple of times she ran right past me while I was calling her name. My daughter said she thought since we didn't have any furniture, our voice's were bouncing off the walls, confusing her where we were.

Then the next day she acted just fine.This happened several times. We wondered if maybe she wasn't getting enough oxygen to the brain. She was checked at MSU and they said she still can see, even though they didn't know how much. Mallery slept a lot at our new house.  I covered her with her blanket because the weather had turned cold and she couldn't seem to keep warm like she use to. At night, I would wake up and find her laying up against me whimpering. I would find her blanket and cover her up. Unfortunately she moves a lot during the night and I would wake up to her whimpering once again. So I would find her blanket and cover her up once again. My smart daughter said, "Why don't you put a sweater on her at night". Duh, Why didn't I think of that. We did just that, her coat in fact, and that took care of the problem.

We thought she was so cute in this picture, with her paw covering her nose.

We found ourselves running back and forth from the house to the RV, because half our stuff was in the RV and half was in the house. It was a real headache. By the 3rd or 4th week, we had brought 1/2 of our stuff into the house. I would take Mallery out to the RV sometimes when I went. (Because when I left she would stand by the door and bark constantly until I came back. Barking causes trachea collapse at night). When we got in the RV she didn't want to be there. She kept going to the door and then bark as saying, "Lets go" Joe and I were concerned how she was going to be when we hit the road again.

When we first bought our new home, my plan was to add a 3 season porch out front. After using the guest shower, I decided this bathroom needed to be renovated first.

The shower is smaller then our shower that was in our first motor home. If I were a guest, I would come and in a few days, be ready to head back home.

The toilet is right on top of the vanity sink.

Joe took out the cabinets before we left so it would be a little less gut job for the contractor. He took out the bottom cabinet also, but I took the picture before he took it out. We saved the cabinets because we might use them in the garage or his future man cave.

This wall next to the toilet is going to be knocked out to expand the room.

This hall goes from the kitchen through a laundry area to the back door to the back alley. The guest bath will be extended into this hall past the laundry area. After construction, there will no longer be a back door in this hallway. We have a door in the living room to the deck, a door in the dining room to the deck, and a door going out the side of the house toward the garage. That is the door we always used. We never used the back hallway door. It is always nice to have lots of doors, but 3 is plenty and the 4th will give us space we need for the bathrooms.

The furnace and water softeners are in a closet in this hall. This will be incorporated in the bathroom in a closet.

There is also a fuse box for the new addition of the house in this hall. This fuse box will have to be incorporated into our master bath. If it isn't up to code to be in the bathroom it will have to be put into the bedroom on the other side of this wall.

The laundry will stay and if possible have a door into the guest bath. Of course the original door from the hall in the log cabin part of the house will still have a door into the guest bath also. I enjoyed my washer and dryer while we were in Boyne City so much. I never had enough laundry to fill it up, compared to my RV washer and dryer which I can barely fit a few items in it and everything comes out wrinkled.

This is the small log cabin bedroom that has the fuse box on the other side of the now fake window.

This closet will be removed from the small bedroom to also enlarge the guest bath.

There is a closet just outside the small bedroom and we can either have guest use this closet or some day put a door from the bedroom into this closet also.

This is the master bath.

You do not realize how tight it is until you use it. You literally bump your arms against the shower wall as well as the sink cabinet.

 I have only had a shower available for me in the last 6 years. I really missed taking a bath. I enjoyed 3 long baths while in our house, but the shower leaked. I had to put a towel on the floor next to the shower to absorb the water. Joe tried to chalk it, but it still leaked. Oh well, this bathroom is being gutted also. It is being enlarged into the hall also.

The window will have to be moved as it is where a sink and mirror will be.

In our bedroom we have two nice size closets that run the full length of the bedroom.

On the other side of the bedroom is the bathroom and another closet. (Closet is where the mirror is).

Part of this closet and the closet in the hall will be used to enlarge our master bath also.

We found that this time of year is when construction is at full speed ahead. We called 3 different contractors and it took a week just to hear back from them and another week to just get them in to try to get estimates. While we were waiting for the first 3 to call back, we went to the local Ace Hardware and got recommendations of other contractors. We called 5 more. All of these guys called back relatively quick and we got them in the house much faster. Pretty much everyone of them told us they were extremely busy, but could work on the bathrooms this winter. The first three, that a interior designer recommended, told us they might be able to get to us next summer. These 3 are the expensive contractors who build and remodel the million dollar homes on the lake. We decided they were way above our budget. No one seemed to be able to give us estimates until we could tell them exactly what cabinets, counter tops and faucets we wanted. Before we left, Joe and I spent a ton of time looking at cabinets, counter top, faucet fixtures, and flooring. We still have not picked a contractor because we are waiting for Lowe's, and two other companies that came in and took measurements to get us quotes for the finishings we pick out. It is just crazy how busy all the contractors are in this area. They all told us during the economic recession in 2008, most of the contractors that were not good, had to leave town because there was no business. Now that things are picking up, the ones that are left are very busy. If you want work done in the summer, it is not a problem finding someone. No one wants their summer homes destroyed by contractors during their summer time fun. We are just behind the eight ball at getting on the contractor work list. The last 2 to 3 week while we were in our home , it was cold and rainy. Joe complained a lot and was so glad to leave. It didn't bother me as much, as we were shopping and I can shop in good or bad weather.
Mallery has got her Mojo back. We have been able to get 3 meals a day down her without any digestive issues. It is good to see her more active again and not so weak. She is enjoying the eggs and broccoli added to her Dr recommended dog food. The trick is to get nutrition in her so her immune system can improved. I just hate how she feels so boney when I pet her. I just don't understand how I didn't figure this out. Joe and I just thought she was getting boney because she was getting older. Old people get boney, so I thought dogs got boney also. The clue is when your dog gets boney in just 3 to 4 months, something is wrong. Think cancer!

Kind Of Movin In, More Chores, & Meeting The Neighbors

                                      Sept 20, 2014

Our new home town of Boyne City, has a really nice Farmers Market on Saturday and Wednesday morning. Unfortunately dogs are not allowed, so we didn't stay long. With the new environment changes, of the bus location, and the new house, Mallery had been very needy and anxious. This made me very anxious about leaving her alone for any time at all.

We did get a pot pie from Cook Family Farm. They also sells hormone free beef, chicken, pork, eggs, and cheeses.

It was really good with lots of chicken. Joe thought it needed more peas. (The man who loves meat wants more peas?).  I thought it was perfect.

After about a week, we decided we needed to move our RV bed into the house so we could save on propane. The nights were getting cold and the heat pumps that use electricity only, works with milder weather. When it gets colder, the furnace kicks in and uses propane. We were low on propane, and needed it for when we hit the road. We also didn't want the black tanks filling up before we left, so the move into the house was needed.

We bought a white hard plastic folding table for a kitchen table and put it in the living room since the dining room was already occupied with our big lazy boy chairs. (No this isn't going to be our dining room table in the future. It is just a temporary table that we can use later for other purposes) The living room has no ceiling lights yet, so this room gets dark after sunset. It is not good for evening computer work. The living room became the dining room until we can get an electrician into the house.

Mallery adjusted really fast to the new house, especially the lazy boy chairs, as I am sure it reminds her of our lazy boy in the bus.

It was time for another winterizing chore for these home owners. Joe is thinking, " And why did we buy a house"?

He takes the pump apart, and drains the water out of it and then put it into the shed. This pump, pumps water from the lake to the front yard, for watering the lawn and flowers.

The next part of the chore is to pull in the long hose that sucks lake water to the pump.

Joe is glad the previous owner left behind the waders to make this job more comfortable. Unfortunately the water level had risen considerably this summer from all the snow melt, and rain. The end of the tube was in deeper water than it was when first placed in the spring.

Joe was trying to figure out how the heck he was going to reach down to the bottom of the lake and remove the hose that was threaded through a cement block without getting water in his waders.

" What now boss"?

The Lord is so good to us! Fortunately our neighbor had hired men to take out his dock at the same time, and they saw Joe and I struggling to drag the hose out without removing the cement block. One of the guys who had a wet suit on came over and reached down and removed the hose and pulled up the cement block for Joe. Then they helped Joe and I pull the hose out. Pretty nice guys to help us out for no pay. We had asked our neighbor Bill, who lives across the street, who removes his dock. He never got back to us with the name of the guy. This gave me an opportunity to get his name. When I asked  the owner for his card, he didn't have one with him. He said his business is all word of mouth. I think he is so busy, he just doesn't need anymore jobs.

We finally got our 21 ft Searay that we bought about a month earlier.  We had it delivered to a marina to be winterized, then brought to our pole building. We bought the boat in a town that was about a hour and half away. The purchase agreement was that the previous owner, Judy, would have her son deliver it to us free of charge. A week after we purchased it, Judy called to make arrangements to deliver it. I wanted to wait until we had possession of our home, so that Judy could see our home. She was flipping her present home and I liked what she was doing. I thought she could give me some decorating ideas. The Synder's (the people we bought our home from) would not let us in early, so I could not show the house to Judy until we got possession. When we did get possession of our home, Judy's son was too busy to delivery it, so her nephew said he would deliver it, but only if we paid him for his gas and time. Presently we didn't have a car that could pull a boat so we ended up paying $175 for her nephew to delivery it to us. Judy never came because she had to work, so needless to say Joe was not happy with me. To add to the whole mess we got a call from the nephew and we were told he got a flat tire on the boat trailer. He had to take it to a tire shop and they told us all the tires needed to be replaced. Another unexpected expense of $300. Then to top all this, while the boat was winterized we were told that there was  water leaking into the gear lube. The marina didn't have time to look into the problem , but in the future we need to have them find out where the leak is! As you can imagine stress was rising. Money seems to be flying out the door.

Just a picture of our maple tree down at the lake that was turning yellow and orange. This maple will be removed this winter/spring while we are gone. It is too bad because I love maples, but I also love views. It is the tree or the view. The tree in front of it is a maple also but it hadn't started to turn yet because it doesn't get the sunshine the other one does.

Our weeping willow will get a hair cut this winter/spring also while we are gone.

Just up the alley from us is our nearest neighbors. When you have a dog to walk, you meet your neighbors pretty fast. Mindy and Larry live here and are about our age. Mindy's parents built our log cabin, years ago before Mindy was born.

She showed me this picture of our log cabin built in the 40's.

Before Mindy was born her parents moved to southern Michigan for work and sold the cabin to her grandmothers sister. This is Mindy standing in front of our cabin before it was added on to by the Synders. You can see Mindy's house behind our cabin.

This picture shows the side door of the cabin, which is where our kitchen now enters into the log cabin living room.

This is Mindy (the youngest one) and her sister with either her grandparents or great aunt and uncle, standing in front of our log cabin portion of our home. Note the flower pot in the picture, I will tell you more about it later.

This picture is of Mindy's home which she and Larry purchased from her grandparents in the early 90's. Our house is just down from her house.

Mindy had been spending a lot of  time at their summer home, while we were there. She was painting her lake home grey and white. It had been brown, and I really liked the new look. She and her husband live in Flint Michigan. She had asked if we had seen the shell flower pot anywhere around our property, and if so, if we were ever to sell it, she would love to buy it.

Joe had seen the bottom half behind the pole building and the larger half buried amongst the Snow on the Mountain ground cover on the side of the garage. We told her she was more than welcome to have the pot, because it had a lot of family memories for her. Mindy's grandparents, parents and sister have all gone home to the Lord, making her the matriarch of her family.

Mallery and I or Joe walked this alley 3 to 4 time a day during our 5 week stay in our new home. We met most of the neighbors during our walks. One guy, Lou, who is close to our age, lives at the end of the alley. He brought down a tree lopper the 2nd day we arrived. He saw we were in need of it when we had to cut so many limbs to get the bus tucked away in it's spot. After telling Lou's where we were going for the winter, he said he was planning on going to Gulf Shores, AL. also, but only for a month. His sister has reservations at the Gulf Shores State Park, where we also have reservations. Last year we noticed a lot of Canadians and Michiganders where at the state park in Gulf Shores, AL.

As we go further up the alley, the lake front homes sit higher up the hill with awesome views. They have the views but they don't have the lakefront property like we do.

Here you can see the very thin strip of land that slopes down to the lake, unlike our 100 ft by 40 ft stripe of land next to the lake. The leaves were just starting to change on the other side of  Lake Charlevoix.

We spent many days going furniture shopping. I took Mallery in her kangaroo pouch every where we went. The stores were very dog friendly. We ordered living room furniture from Reid Furniture Co. in Petoskey. Mallery became very well known with our many visits in that store. This picture was taken a block from Reids Furniture Co. in Petoskey, with Little Traverse Bay in the background. Our furniture will arrive this winter but be stored at the Reid warehouse until we are ready for it in the spring
We currently are in Nashville, TN. We have been staying here for a few days before we continue our southward trek.
Mallery is hanging in there, but seems pretty weak. I have been trying to add more protein and veggies to her diet, but she has had 2 bouts of diarrhea and throwing up, which forces me to go back to her low fat, high carb (grain) dog food diet, which her veterinarians recommend when she has these digestive problems. It's 2 steps forward, one step back with her.