Life Transplanet

There seems to be a theme lately. Things break and sometimes we fix them and sometimes we have someone else fix it. I suppose that I like to pick my battles.

We were over at one of the rentals and the current tenants are moving out at the end of the month. The management company we hired suggested that the yard be cleaned up a bit. Mulch, weed removal and turning on the sprinklers. All pretty basic stuff. When we were working over there, we noticed that they had the AC on (compressor outside was running). It wasn’t a very hot day, and we wouldn’t have had our AC on, but we just kept about our yard work and didn’t think much about it.   Cassie was a weed pulling, rose and tree triming machine!

One thing about Colorado is we have tenacious weeds.  They grow even when it’s hot and there is no water.  As a result anytime we put down rocks or mulch the standard operating procedure is to put down some kind of weed barrier.  The landscaping stores sell a fabric that is supposed to keep the weeds down.  And it does…For a while.  Then the fabric starts to break down, or the weeds just start growing in the fabric.  I’ve come to find that it’s worthless as a weed deterrent.

Plastic was used along the fence, landscape fabric on the left

Instead what I have found works really well is the thickest plastic you can find.  It seems to last years and NO weeds come up thru it.   I removed a bunch of rocks, removed the remaining fabric and put down the plastic weed barrier then put the rocks back.  It’s quite a bit of work, but it should be good to go for a number of years now.

After all the rock was moved back in place with plastic instead of the fabric

After we put the mulch down in other areas of the yard,  the fertilizer and replaced the fabric with plastic we noticed that the A/C compressor was still running!  I figured this indicated a problem so we took a closer look.  There was ice forming on the coolant line!  I have no idea how long it had been running for, but it needed closer inspection.

Ice Growing on the Compressor Line!

I found that the blower motor on the furnace wasn’t running!  This caused air to not move across the AC coil which meant that it just iced up both outside and inside! Who know how long that AC had been running and not shutting off! Good thing we just happened to be working at the property. The tenants were clueless!

I looked up some info on the internet and from previous experience I figured it was the run capacitor.   They are prone to failure, but also are the cheapest/easiest part to replace.  I pulled the capacitor and got a replacement at a local store here in Greeley.  Rick’s Appliance.  The guy who works there/owns it, Rick, is super honest and every time I’ve gone in the store he has been very helpful.  So for $6 I got a new capacitor.

Run Capacitor for the Blower Motor

I got to the house the next day and the ice had melted off the AC parts and I threw in the new capacitor.  Turned the furnace on and….fan still wouldn’t kick on.  The blower motor fan just buzzed.  I did get it to start by pushing it by hand once but it never worked on its own.  I figured the next part to replace was the motor.

Finding HVAC parts is I think, intentionally hard to do online.  It’s as if they have their own club and if you’re not in it, you aren’t going to find what you need online.   They want you to pay someone to fix your stuff. I found a motor at a place near work.  It cost $80 and is a universal Mars motor.  I was a bit skeptical about using an aftermarket part; I almost always want to get a direct original equipment manufacturer (OEM) replacement.  This causes less hassle with things that don’t fit correct or that might have small differences.  In this case however it was nearly impossible and would have cost ~$400.

Blower Motor in the Furnace

I put the motor in, wired it up and turned it on.  Worked like a charm!  It did take my time and $86 total (plus tax) but I learned a lot in the process and I had time to do it.  There was no great rush or pressure since the weather here is between seasons and we don’t need AC or Heat. Estimated cost to hire an HVAC person to do what I did: $500!

And it was quite apparent what had caused the motor to burn out: the furnace filter hadn’t been changed in a year! The filter was all bent and sucked inward. Remember to change your filters often, monthly even, if you use your furnace year-round.

Yep, back in the garage on the floor with my blue shirt on..lol

All in all it was a productive few days.  We saved a lot of money by doing things ourselves and we had the time to do it.  I think I want to turn the old motor from the furnace into an electric wind generator.  We’ll see.  As is I am learning all about furnaces and that’s something I won’t need in Rincon…but it never hurts to learn.

The Honda Civic is small but can hold quite a bit! (removing debris from the yard)

Having chickens in your backyard is not exactly the easiest way to have a beautiful backyard. They love to scratch and peck, make dust bathing areas, and poop on the back porch. They also love to eat new seedlings and anything that has been freshly planted is prime for scratching (and, often, destroying) in the search for some good worms and bugs.

But with a little work, you can still have a nice area to hang out with your roaming little pocket raptors. Just spray the poop with a hose (no need to pick it up as it is free fertilizer), and encourage an area that you wouldn’t mind being a dust bath. There are also a few strong plants that can survive the onslaught of super hot fertilizer (chicken poop), and lots of disruptions. In fact, I would say if these plants can survive with chickens around, they are probably some of the most hardy plants around. And they are pretty too!

Chickens in the iris bed

Irises

Irises are very hardy plants and they look really pretty even when they are not in bloom. The spikes create a sort of tropical background. Then when the flowers bloom, it’s even more beautiful. Because they grow in clumps, it is difficult for the chickens to get in there and destroy them. When they spread and get too overgrown, you can separate the root rhizomes and plant them in new areas. I recommend planting them pretty close together to create the chicken deterrent effect.

The chickens and Schnoodle near the irises

Roses

Roses are both gorgeously fragrant and chicken-hardy. Because of their thorns, they are not messed with by the chickens.We have about 8 rose bushes in the backyard!

Rose bush and chickens

Others

Spreading plants like mint and daisies also do pretty well around chickens. Our comfrey plants are virtually unkillable, so if you like comfrey for its composting benefits and bumblebees, that’s another great choice. Raspberries, strawberries and other spreading plants that provide food also work, but you have to keep the chickens from eating the fruit! And surprisingly enough, regular old grass does remarkably well with chickens as long as you keep the number of chickens to a manageable number.

Daisies are great because they spread so eagerly

So what shouldn’t you plant around chickens? Well, pretty much any tender, sensitive or rare plant that you would hate to see stepped on, pecked at or scratched up. For example, our annuals like petunias and marigolds stay on our front porch in containers. Others that haven’t done too well around the chickens have been tulips, daffodils, mums and salvias. Some plants you can cultivate with the chickens in mind. For example, hostas are a little sensitive, but can be planted next to a house wall or corner where the chickens don’t have quite the access to scratching them. Or if you really want a sensitive-type plant, you can put chicken wire near it when it is young or first transplanted and then remove it once they grow full-size. As long as it’s not tasty to the chickens, they will leave most full size plants and trees alone.

Sensitive plants are kept separate from the chickens (in the front)

We keep the salvia (with bee) out front, but a full-grown plant might be ok

You may have noticed that we added a countdown to the sidebar of our site. We are anticipating -if all things go according to plan- that we will be ready to move to Rincon, Puerto Rico by October 2013. In the mean time, we have quite a few things we need to take care of, many of which we are doing right now! So here is our anticipated timeline from now (or April) until October 2013. The winter months will be tough, but I’m sure we’ll be able to find quite a bit that needs to be done even then.

We’re ready to get back to work at our place in Rincon, Puerto Rico (BK with a shovel in the driveway)

The future becomes less and less clear the further out we go, but we have some idea, so here goes:

April 2012- Hire a management company for our rental business. Put one rental property up for sale.
May 2012- New tenant moves into one property. Close on property that was for sale. Tenants in Evans property move out. Move it into management.
June 2012- New tenant for Evans property. Climb first 14er.
July 2012- ? My birthday…Clean out house of any extra stuff/garage sales. New carpet for our house?
August 2012- Trip to Meeker to visit Dad’s grave.
September 2012- ? Party?
October, November, December, January, February, March- Visit Puerto Rico during a winter month, get a little more comfortable there. Take care of back-burner doctor appointments and things like that. Buy a laptop.
April 2013- Possibly move another tenant/property into management.
May 2013- Buy two one-way tickets to paradise!
June 2013- Start selling off our furniture and other household items. Divide into stuff we’ll take, stuff to throw, stuff to sell, and stuff to give away.
July 2013- List and sell 2 out of 3 cars
August 2013- Begin shipping stuff to PR and packing up the other stuff we need. Get Kitty ready for the trip. Relocate the chickens. Schnoodle?
September 2013- Move out of our house. List our house for rent and either move in with family/friends or rent at a short term rental for a month. Give notice at work.
October 2013- Arrive in Rincon sometime mid-October or so.
And on…Let the adventure begin!!

And also to hang out at the beach

A couple of weeks ago our friends Matt and Jamie invited us to hang out at a private lake called Black Hollow where they rent a spot for their RV. We had a great time with them and their family. It was peaceful and nice to be out in nature even if it was still a bit chilly.

Black Hollow is located a little ways past Ault, so we left Greeley the back way and ran into some horses in the road! I guess it’s not just Puerto Rico where you’ll see horses roaming about.

Horses in the road on the way out

When we got there it was practically just our group there!

Black Hollow

Nice country setting

Matt and Jamie’s daughter Hailee took us for a walk around the area (and took this photo)

We also took a ride in the pedal/paddle boat. Silly girl!

I loved the pedal boat and would think it would be great to have something like that in Puerto Rico. Are there pedal boats for the ocean?

Pedaling on the pedalboat

After our walks and exploration, we had a light dinner and then lit a small bonfire.

Bonfire!

As we stood by the fire, we watched as they tried to reel in some fish as the sun set. Apparently, the next day they hooked some pretty big fish.

An idyllic country scene

It was a great day-outing!

We try to do a lot of work ourselves when we can. In the case of the house that we have a contract to sell, this week we just couldn’t. We went through the inspection process and because the buyers are buying with an FHA loan, they had some requirements we had to fix in order for them to get the loan.

Some of these are repairs that were definitely a little past due, others, like drywall in the garage and covering the kitty door seemed a little like overkill. And when we bought the house, most of these were never even mentioned by our home inspector…hmm. In any case, we hired out the work because we didn’t have any time this week; Britton was on call, and we had a quick deadline. But they are all done and will be writing check instead. Our contractor was an old school guy that our real estate agent knew. He made quick and good work of these tasks that would have taken us much longer to do!

Here are some of the before and after pictures of the work he did on the little house. I think they turned out really well!

Kitty/doggie door between garage and house was not allowed due to “firewall” requirements

Door after with kickplate filled with fire retardant

Above the door in the garage was built with wood -another firewall issue apparently

So he put in drywall

The hot water heater vent cap was old and rusty

So he installed a new one

There was an old window on the outside of the garage. Inside the garage it was drywalled in, so it was not useful. The sill was all rotten out.

So he just took it out and sided it.

After it was installed and painted

The siding by the window before- we could slide our hand under it

With the new siding you couldn’t

Another part of the house had some siding problems from leaves and the water soaking the area over time

So there was quite a bit of siding repairs on this side of the house too

After the repairs were made and it was painted

A bit of soffit needed repaired

Soffit repairs after

We’ve come to find that anything can be fixed on a house, it just depends how much you want to spend. These repairs were a bit spendy, but like we said in the post about the car repairs, it really depends on if you want to do it yourself, and if you know how to (and also the time factor). We figured with these repairs, it was just a part of the process to move the closing along. At least we had a cushion to pay for it since the offer was full price. Next major step is the appraisal. As long as that goes fine, we’ll be closing and selling this house in less than 3 weeks! Phew. Selling is much more difficult than buying.