Friday morning the local telephone co-op guy arrived–he found our incoming phone line, installed a new phone jack and plugged in the modem. I had ordered a TP-Link AC1900 Long Range Wireless Router. The telephone co-op in Montana supplies the routers they want you to use and you pay a reduced price for those routers. The Arizona co-op didn’t sell routers, they wanted us to rent one for $8/month or buy our own from another vendor—Amazon to the rescue as usual!
The telephone company guy offered to set up our router but I told him, “I’ve got this.” I don’t think I’ve ever had so seamless an experience with a piece of electronic equipment. We plugged in the router, it received the signal from the modem and I connected both computers, both iPads and the iPhone in less than five minutes–done!! I was amazed! The DSL is fast, unlimited and costs $80/month!
Sooooo–I called good ole Verizon this morning and removed our Jetpack from service plus reduced our GBs to 5GBs per month on the iPhone–which leaves us with a $64/month Verizon bill–I’m loving it! The Verizon rep who helped me was amazing–friendly, fast and very understanding! And, while our combined bill of $144/month is almost the same as our previous Verizon bill with their so called unlimited data plan–our new DSL is actually unlimited!
When Emmi and I were taking a morning walk this past week I heard a familiar sound–sandhills honking–I looked up and counted forty sandhill cranes flying south toward Whitewater Draw–no camera that morning!
Sunday morning we went to church and enjoyed seeing all the people we had met last spring. Once we were home, a very nice young couple came to get the gas range we had removed from the guest house. Then the Cowboy decided to tackle another project–demolition time–again! This guest house is on two levels–the previous owners raised the kitchen floor in order to install plumbing underneath the flooring. It appears they later decided to pour another concrete slab making a step from what seemed to be the living area up into the kitchen. You can see that step in the photo below plus the little wall between two doors. This house is small and all those walls make it smaller–so out it came yesterday!
Where the vacuum is sitting was one of the original doorways–the Cowboy is going to close that doorway in with a wall so the bathroom is not so exposed to the living room/dining. Then–the real work begins–we are going to raise the floor in the living/dining area to the height of the kitchen floor so there is no longer a step
We are also almost ready for the drywall work–which means new windows have to be installed. To Tucson we went today. Lumber and plywood for raising the floor and new windows were needed. At Home Depot someone helped the Cowboy pick our order then rolled it outside to the drive-through. When we moved the truck closer so we could load, I went inside and asked if someone could help us–we spent a bundle in there–you would think someone could help. No one showed up so we started to load the truck ourselves. Suddenly there are two young men beside us–fellow customers–one said, “you would think as much money as you spent in there someone would help you load, move out of the way, we will get it for you!!” And they did–loaded all that heavy lumber into our truck, got back in their own truck and left with our heartfelt thanks!!
Lunch then off to the Window Depot–a local business where kind, helpful, cheerful people work–and they loaded our windows for us! We paid a little more for the windows but it was totally worth every penny!
It always feels good to come home after a long day in the city–ahhhhh, peace and quiet!
Restoration Cowboy Style 
Jaw dropped on floor. You are sure ambitious folks. Can’t wait to see this!
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Ambitious or crazy!
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I’ll go with Crazy:) Haha! If you are going to remodel, you need to do it the way you want it. I wouldn’t like that step up either. Can’t wait to see before and finished photos!! Nice to know there are still some nice people around. Too bad Home Depot didn’t have any!
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It’s the big box thing–when Home Depot opened in Billings there were helpful people everywhere–to get you hooked! Yep, I would vote with crazy!
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That’s what we are almost at the point of, raising our step down living room floor and putting down wood floors in 4 areas. Waiting on a gap in time for my husband to get it done. It’s a busy time for construction with holidays coming.
Just be happy your getting this done
before your settled in and lived there for years. Will entail new baseboards and paint for us. Will be nice when it’s over.
Your going to have a snug, lovely home.
Again you are both amazing!
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We just didn’t think that step was a good idea for older people–my Cowboy has to have something to do, he isn’t one of those retirees who can just sit. Golf isn’t his thing, you can only ride ATVs so much, he does read but you can’t read every day, all day–so we remodel!
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Hey, we are practically neighbors! We live on the East side of Tucson, up Bear Canyon. We should get together sometime! We gutted this home and remodeled, including raising the living room floor so we wouldn’t break our necks. Window Depot was heavily used in this remodel too–doors, windows, oil rubbed bronze hardware…they’re a great resource!
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Hey, we are almost neighbors–where is Bear Canyon? We can’t wait to go back to Window Depot–we didn’t look around much as they were busy but next time we will!
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Bear Canyon is a 3 mile stretch off of Tanque Verde, just before you get to the Catalina Highway to Mt. Lemmon. We’re at the end of it on an acre right by the very popular Bear Canyon trail head.
http://tucson.com/lifestyles/recreation/bear-canyon-doesn-t-have-to-mean-crowds/article_da903ad0-8437-5381-a5a8-4f7ccded310a.html
We are about 5 miles from the Home Depot on Broadway, and same distance in the other direction to the Costco on Grant. We’re here part time–still have a 45′ Renegade motorhome (build on a Freightliner HD truck chassis) that I drive towing a 4 door Jeep Renegade–we frequently cross country to the DC area to see our little granddaughters. But we love this place too–love fixing it up, love the quiet, love the view. Would also love to meet you!
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That’s what we love about our little piece of land out here in the sticks–the quiet! I wish we were closer to Tucson but it just wasn’t meant to be.
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That’s going to look great with the wall gone and the floor raised! So exciting seeing it all come together. Nice to have the help of those guys – good people make a day even better.
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We make a little progress every single day it seems. It was amazing to have those guys appear out of nowhere and help us load!
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We’ve had that happen too. Seems there is usually somebody in the parking lot ready and willing to help. Ron is legally blind, so that probably attracts a certain amount of generosity from helpers we don’t even know. We always appreciate it so much!
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We did appreciate it–very much!–makes us feel all is not lost with this world in which we live!
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