On The Right Track

We are getting closer to having the house on the market. This weekend we cleaned everything out of our attic, it was a monumental task! We have years of collecting junk in the attic, now sitting in the garage. Cheryl is going through the stuff as is the rest of the family. We are sorting things into the famous three piles,  keep in the motorhome, sell or give away and storage.

Our realtor met with us last week and gave us suggestions on what we need to do to the house in preparation for selling. I then met with a highly recommended contractor to get a bid on the work, mostly flooring, sheetrock repairs and painting. We are hoping the house will be on the market by July at the most.

In the meantime we are busy emptying out the house. The small items first, then the furniture, much to our surprise the realtor recommends we let her show the house empty. She told us that way the potential buyers would not see a home "personalized" to our liking, but see a home they can easily change to their liking. I hope she is right.

I will try to keep everyone informed of our progress. Until next time...... God Bless

PREPPING THE STICKS AND BRICKS TO SELL

A giant step towards our retirement and the start of our fulltime travels has been taken! This past Monday morning the crew to repair the foundation on the sticks and bricks arrived.

First thought? Wow all the money I am paying for these repairs and this is it? The crew arrived in a ton and a half truck pulling the above trailer. I don't know what exactly I was expecting, for the price maybe a bunch of heavy equipment, cranes, dozers and a battalion of hardened construction workers in hard hats?

No heavy equipment, or battalion of construction workers, just three guys with shovels, a heavy duty compressor, welder and a lot of  steel piers with accessories.

However, all said and done, it was a hard working crew of three and it was evident this was not their first rodeo. They worked diligently to dig through roots, around gas lines and electric lines to achieve the depth needed to install the pier systems.

The contraption pictured above is installed underneath the foundation footing.

Two hydraulic cylinders are bolted to the contraption and lots of hydraulic lines attached.

The steel piers are then installed into the hole for them in the contraption (hope I am not being too technical here).

Once the steel piers are in the contraption, they use a big compressor attached to the hydraulic cylinders to push the piers into the ground. Additional lengths are added (joints are similar to those used on tent poles) until the guage in the picture above reads 3,000 psi. The depth of the piers ranged between 25 foot to the deepest one was 28 foot.  Once all the piers have been installed to the proper depth for the strength needed, the "super" compressor is attached to all piers by hoses. Each hydraulic cyclinder on each pier is adjusted to the pressure needed to raise that pier (thus raising the house) to the hieght pre-determined by my engineer. I say "my" engineer, because I think for the amount of money involved, I bought him.

Anyway, the house was raised, it is all level now.  Best part, it carries a lifetime warranty and is certified by "my" engineer as structurally sound. Our next step is to make minor repairs to our interior walls and ceilings, moving a house around tends to make some minor cracking in a few places.

We have a realtor coming over this afternoon to meet with us. She may be able to advise us on what else we need to do to the house to sell it. I will try to keep you informed as our journey unfolds.

Until next time, God bless us all.............................

STILL STRIVING FOR OUR DREAM

I have not posted in a while, it seemed that our lives have become somewhat hectic to say the least. I don't know if I am describing it correctly or not, but it also seems our lives have become confusing.

However we are still working towards our dream, getting our "sticks and bricks" ready to sale, going through our "stuff", and going to work every day to ensure we have the funding to follow through with our plans (house repairs are very expensive).

We are living in "Big Red", our motorhome, while all this is taking place. We usually pack up our essentials from Big Red on Friday afternoons (everything we need to sleep, eat, bath, etc.) and head to the sticks and bricks to try and accomplish some repairs or sort through years of stuff trying to decide what to get rid of and what to keep/store. Sunday afternoons we end up packing up our essentials to head back to Big Red for another week of work.

The contractors are coming Monday to start the foundation repairs, then we can really get the other minor repairs (some sheetrock work is not so minor) accomplished, some new flooring installed and finally a FOR SALE sign out front! I think life will be much simpler after that? I will try to post more often as we progress, for now I need to get off this computer and start sorting out my tools in the garage. Until next time..........