Crunch Time

It’s been absolutely wild around the job site lately. We’ve been on the countdown to obtain all the city inspections and pass things for the Certificate of Occupancy and there’s been just myriad problems daily. We’re both working long hours with no breaks for days off. 

Since last time, I lost my phone on the job and then someone stole it so I had to buy a cheap replacement. I figured losing one $700 phone was enough. I am not all that pleased with the replacement and you must bear with poor quality photos until I get back to my regular digital camera which I left in WI. Now I know why the huge difference in cell phone prices. The new one doesn’t appear to have image stabilization either, so I end up tossing half of the photos out as totally unusable. 

I have been totally on the punch list end of things now for about two weeks and putting in way more hours than I ever intended. I have an Excel sheet I work from to fill in while I’m in the unit; then after doing so many my eyes swim from looking for defects, I go into the office and type and print them for posting in each unit. I am known on the floor as the blue tape lady that everyone hates to see coming! By now I have nearly all the units finished but I’m still working on the common areas and ancillary rooms. Once the subs do the corrections I will check the units again and then also do them again after final clean, which has already also started. I am also in charge of running that crew and checking on their work.

Much has been accomplished this week but I 
wasn’t able to get many up to date photos with all that is going on. For three days, I was running a three-guy team of temp workers doing all the grunt, oddball work of cleanup and pickup, vacuuming endless hallways of newly laid carpet, etc. I’m glad that’s over; dealing with mindless and mostly lazy workers was worse than herding cats as they say. 

In between all this commotion, our daughter Rachael got married to Eric in a private ceremony at the courthouse where they live in Texas. They did however, dress up and had professional photos taken and they looked stunning. They seem over the moon so we are very happy for them.

That’s about it for now but I will follow up soon (I hope) with some further finished pictures as the building is finally finalized and furnished. We are getting so anxious to finally get this over with and leave Yuma; you have no idea!

A Long Time Coming

My title refers to several items, one of which is that I haven’t meant for this update to be so late. All I got for Christmas, actually a week before, was terribly sick with the flu which has morphed into something the doctors don’t know what it is (bronchitis, pneumonia?) which keeps me coughing and so lacking in energy it’s all I can do to make it through the day without spending half of it in bed. I never get the flu so it was surprising this year when Marc got it and promptly passed it along to me a couple days later. Even the tough guy landed in bed and missed work. All I know, is that it seems since arriving in Yuma I’ve been nothing but sick. Can one be sick of being sick??

Given diligent advertising this season and managing lots of looky-loos, the miracle finally happened that a buyer came forth (finally) for our lot. A week later it was closed and all the worry and expense of that is off our backs. We’ll hope all goes well on that since we are carrying the financing for up to ten years but at least by offering non-qualifying owner terms I am convinced it helped it sell. Once this project is finalized, our ties to Yuma will be gone and I for one, do not wish to ever return. I am tired of the heat, the dust, unending desert and the lack of green and water. Put me back in the forest where I am most comfortable!

The project is making leaps and bounds to being finished and Marc is hopeful that can occur by late January. I still have yet to start any of the punch list portion of my job so I’m still just the clean-up as my depleted body will allow me. I suspect it will be February sometime when we make our move to the next project, in Mesquite, NV. Somewhere in there, Marc is due a vacation but we don’t as yet have a time frame. We intend to take the small RV somewhere along the coast and do some clamming and crabbing, our favorite pastime. By the end of March I should be up to my mother’s in Bend until I head my buggy east for WI in late April.

Despite the difficulties of our job-site living, the winter seems to be flying by. Not having enjoyed any of it however, I am seriously questioning if it pays for me to come west next winter or just to hunker down at home. The travel west is boring and difficult by myself with the cats, and I miss my home and low-key lifestyle that is rural Wisconsin. Surprisingly, I now also miss having weather—endless sunshine and warmth is not appealing to me as a steady diet. When it’s 80 degrees in January, supposedly Yuma’s “coldest” month, what’s left for the rest of the year? 

I miss hearing downpours on the roof and against the windows, dark clouds scudding across a low sky, the fresh taste and utter quiet of a newly fallen snow. I miss hearing crickets at night, and frogs, and the feel of humidity in my nasal passages and against dry skin. I miss my flower garden, my veggie garden and watching the 30 or so birds that come to visit the feeder and bird bath daily. I miss porch sittin’ with a cold drink watching the traffic go by—often farmers on their tractors. I just wish I could stay home. As bad as it is for me I know it must be ten times worse for Marc, who never gets a day off, a break from the stress of the project, or to see home for any appreciable length of time.

At least we made a giant stride towards getting closer to home by being able to sell the lot, so for that, we are eternally thankful.

The Most Excitement

Unfortunately, with us working everyday (well, I should stipulate mainly Marc) there hasn’t been much doing other than job-related stuff and normal household items like cleaning, laundry and cooking. I go shopping about once a week and that’s the extent of my travels. Sometimes, I sweep for hours on end; other times I just schlep trash and cardboard from the units and common rooms. It’s mind-numbingly boring but at least it gets me out of the trailer for a few hours at a time. 

Marc continues to juggle way too many tasks and personnel and is under heart-breaking amounts of stress and responsibility. Living on site, he never gets a break—he lives with it 24/7. It’s a tough way to make a living—it’s a good thing he’s a tough guy; most I know wouldn’t stand a chance of filling his shoes without breaking. 

Our excitement the other day was in the moving of the huge facility generator, which serves as the power source should the electric grid go down. It’s about 450 kw so should serve its purpose in the event it is needed. Power does occasionally go out in Yuma due to high winds at times. It was pretty interesting seeing the big crane pick it up, swing it upon a flabed trailer for the short trip across the parking area to its permanent home, and then with the electricians threading it down onto its power lines.

Yuma has finally cooled off and it has felt wonderful. Have I said I hate the heat now? My comfort zone is 60’s and 70’s; working in the 80’s & 90’s is just a killer for me now in older age. Marc alas, now has become acclimated to the desert and lately has been, like the other locals, sporting a jacket in the a.m. to be comfortable! 

I continue to field lots of inquiries and looky-loo interest in our lot but no serious takers yet. The bulk of the snowbirds arrive after Christmas and we’re really hoping for more interest. We have no Christmas plans; it will be just another day here on the job but here’s hoping yours is merry and you get to spend it with someone you love!

Working Hard to Make a Living

That’s what I look like after a hard day of slogging through dust and Yuma grit picking up trash or after the end of a long shift of sweeping sheetrock dust and dirt out of the building.

Marc and I have been going like mad dogs since arriving back in Yuma to get the facility ready for its “Sneak Peek”, occurring today. He’s making great progress but several major problems still exist needing to be solved.

I’ll continue to work part time the entire time I am here, especially as we move into the finalizing of the building and all that will need correcting from the sub-contractors, called the punch. I will oversee that—noting the flaws, communicating it to the appropriate sub, and then monitoring to make sure it gets corrected. Half of the building is now at paint stage while the other half is still in frame stage. It’s a huge building; a labyrinth running in all directions. I constantly get turned around when I step into and then back out of a unit. At any given time, there are about 50 guys working in all trades which Marc continually supervises and oversees. He doesn’t get much rest.

Our trip out from WI was uneventful excepting we were both sick. Marc caught a cold on his flight which I was able to fight off for a week before succumbing to it as well. It still hasn’t left me either. We left early on a Tuesday morning, crossing the Mississippi River into MN and then into IA before calling it a day near Des Moines. We had high winds the first three days and some low temps but didn’t quite lose our water as they dipped to 25 degrees at 7000 ft. elevation in northern New Mexico at the Maxwell Wildlife Refuge, one of our freebie camps we had all to ourselves. We spotted Autumn all along the way. Having Marc along made the travel much easier and pleasant and even the cats were as good as they could be given they hate traveling. I must say however; my heart just no longer resides along America’s highways—at least not ones I’ve traversed so many times. It’s become just one big bore to me and something I wish I didn’t have to do. As BB King sings…The thrill is gone. It’s gone away for good.