Projects, Rentals, Uncles and More

Ma here. Meet the Rentals! Who are the Rentals you ask? Well, of course, the Rentals are parents, the paRental types… Here specifically are my Rentals. They flew all the way from sunny Florida to visit Off-Kilter Acres.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Rentals, let me fill ya in. Pops just loves, loves, loves projects. To the point that we are required to have projects lined out for completion while they are here. Pops gets bored without projects you see, and if we don’t keep him busy, well, he’ll just get bored and leave in less than a week. Terrible problem to have, I know. I tell ya though, that man can work most people a third of his age into the ground. We are always exhausted after they come, but the memories we make  together are so worth it. Mom is always chief bottle washer. If I even touch a dish in the sink, I am soundly scolded.

First poject on the agenda was to finish the wall on the room in the pavilliano and to build a Pa-sized workbench. Pa and Pops first lined the wall with Tyvek we had layin around. Then they used some particle board we had stacked up on skids to skin it with. Thanks, Honest Mike for your contribution to Off-Kilter Acres. Pops was quite pleased with the results. So much so that when happy hour rolled around, he placed Pa’s chair on top of it. Pa, of course, bein his ornery self played right along and hopped on up, took his seat and had a cold one.

Meet Dean, Frank & Sammy. Prior to finising the wall, they called the open room home (more on that later). It was a safe place for Coalie to keep her babies until they grew big enough to run away from danger. They all decided the bottom shelf of Pa’s new workbench made a fine resting place.

Bein’s it’s only a couple times a year Mom & Pops make the trek north, I extended an invite to Uncle Hotrod and Uncle Bigfoot to come visit the OKA during their stay.

Uncle Hotrod is quite literally the coolest man I know! He arrived first, and quickly put his expertise to work by allowing Pa & Pops to help him install a new more energy efficient air conditioning unit.

They took out our old, battered, energy hog (sorry, no pics), ran new copper lines, and installed this bad boy. It was a nice hot day for the install, and we surely appreciated the new unit.

Snoop Hoggy Hogg, the resident house pig was so hot he took to laying in his water dish. He was also very grateful to Uncle Hotrod.

Uncle Bigfoot arrived the next day in his fancy new truck towing his travel trailer. That man is a veritable dog whisperer. He promptly began spoiling not only the dogs, but every single animal residing on Off-Kilter Acres. I’m glad to report that not once during his visit did we hear the phrase “Shitter’s Full!”. I have to admit though that every morning Giselle left him goat skittles right outside his front door… and you know what? He didn’t even complain, he’s the best! Uncle Hotrod could only stay a couple of days, since he’s so important and all, he had to get back to his regular job. Uncle Bigfoot stayed on for close to a week.

Pops’ next projects was to help us get the Pavilliano a little more organized, we needed storage space. So Pops was more than happy to put Uncle Bigfoot and Fish Taco to work building some heavy duty shelves. They used random wood that we have ammassed over the last four years. Any time someone offers us their “leftovers” we are more than happy to take the stuff off their hands. Everything from leftover cabinetry, to frames for pouring concrete, to old wood shipping crates, we are happy to have it all. We are by no means wealthy, so each item we are “gifted” is truly a blessing. Each item will enable us to achieve another dream on the OKA. In this case, all of this wood, and all the hard work helped me achieve the dream of getting a big majority of this stuff out of my house. Now Pops is the man! He can take something that someone else thinks is useless and transform it into something beautiful.

Fish Taco really helped a lot, and lucky for him (or maybe more for Pops and Uncle Bigfoot) he was drafted to climb into the rafters to help secure shelves and supports in the hard to reach places.  In the end, we had so much storage space that we could not only see the floor, but we were also able to empty out most everything that had been in what had been the open room in the pavilliano.

Gaps and crevices filled with expanding foam

Pops installing lower cabinet and countertop

Upper cabinets waiting to be hung

Now that we were able to clean most of the stuff out of the room, and it was walled in, it was time to get the inside done. Mom and I first used expanding foam to fill every gap and crevice. If you are at all familiar with the dreaded red wasp, you know they just love building their homes in places like that, not to mention they are angry, mean insects. Since Pa is allergic, we wanted to insure that no little waspies could even think about calling the room home. Pops then used the lower cabinets and countertop we saved from our kitchen remodel last fall. We did run into small snag, though. Remember me mentioning the kitties calling this room home? Well specifically Coalie hid them in the lower cabinet. We were forced to halt all work on the room when she decided to carry her babies into the cabinet and feed them their lunch. After lunch, we were able to get back to work. The upper cabinets are sitting on two large and very heavy folding tables gifted to us by Uncle Hotrod. They make great staging and working areas. Yes, we are saving the terlet (also from Uncle Hotrod) for when one in the house fails.

Pa and Pops hung the upper cabinets, and Mom and I went to organizing. I was so thrilled to get all these cabinets, nuts, screws, bolts, nails, and so much more out of our bedroom. Everything is now all in one place and organized. The days of running all the way back into the house to get a specific screw or bolt size are no more. It is great, I tell ya! The only “wish” left for the pavilliano is to get electric run out there. Maybe one day, but that electric wire and a breaker box are expensive, so for now we still run 100 feet of extension cord from the house.

Next, Pops finished out the four windows he put in the house last fall. He used 1×4’s we got from Honest Mike to frame the windows up. I took a picture of the kitchen window here. That window is decorated with a crocheted curtain Mom made me for my birthday last year – I love it! On the sides are rip curtains we made together last fall when Pops installed the windows.

Our bedroom

Guest bedroom

Fish Taco’s bedroom

Uncle Hotrod also brought us some ceiling fans that he replaced in his new home. We got four, two of which were flush mount, and couldn’t be used in our caravan. We gifted those to Uncle Bigfoot, as he said he could sure use them. Pops bought Fish Taco a new one for his room, and installed the three fans in bedrooms. We all sure slept better with the fans running. Not bad for a couple week’s work, huh?

Well, we did have a fun day. One day we went to the Tulsa Zoo.

Mom & Pops still hold hands – How great is that?

All too soon it was time for the Rentals to leave. We sure do look forward to their visits, and cherish the time we have to spend with them. The day they arrive is the absolute best, but the day they leave is always a sad one for us. That is the day we start looking forward to their next visit. Hopefully next time they come Uncle Hotrod and Uncle Bigfoot will be able to come back as well. Heck, maybe even more of the fam damily can come. Only time will tell though.

Now to get back to work on our never ending list of projects on the OKA.

With that, I’m out!

Ma

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