Brown White Gray

Our Casita has going from Brown (wood) to white (Styrofoam) to Gray (scratch coat) on the outside. As far as the inside, the drywaller has come and gone. He did the final sanding of the texture coat this morning. I was expecting to get right in and do a primer coat today but the stucco guys showed up.

After they were done with the scratch coat I just had enough time to get in and clean up all the sanding and drywall dust and do a little masking. Tomorrow I will be doing the primer coat. I will give the primer a day to dry then do the final paint. I have the tile guy scheduled for Monday so I need to get the painting done before then. The scratch coat stucco needs about a week to dry before they do the final brown coat. I still have switches, light fixtures, vanity, and toilet to install but it’s getting close.

Friends

We had company today. Some friends from a rally we go to stopped by to visit. They are staying in the park for one night then they are back on the road. We gave them a tour of Lake Havasu and the resort then we had a nice dinner.

Note the heater at the back of the table. It’s still a bit cool here this time of year.

The drywallers did a texture coat on the inside of our Casita today. This means it is ready for me to paint. I hate painting but this shouldn’t be too bad since I don’t have to worry about getting paint on places I shouldn’t. Susan and I went out the other day and picked out the tile for the floor and tub backsplash, lamp fixtures, ceiling fans, and picked up a few other accessories.

We have arrived

We have arrived back in Lake Havasu. We had a great week traveling with our friends. I like these getaways…Heck I just like to travel. We will be here for about 3 weeks then off again.

They have come a long way with our casita. The drywall is installed, the stucco wrap is in place, and the tiles set on the roof to load it. They load the roof a few days before applying the stucco so it won’t crack from the load. They were going to apply the scratch coat but it rained here the other day. I am sure they will be back tomorrow. If they keep up this progress, I will be able to get a few things done before we take off again.

Back in Quartzsite

We are back in Quartzsite again. We just weren’t ready to head back to Havasu yet. Besides it is about 5.5 hours from Tucson to Havasu and only 4 to Quartzsite so Quartzsite it was. Of course we had to spend more money while here. I picked up a really cool pot from Indonesia for our Casita. Tomorrow we will head back to Havasu.

Wildlife Museum

Today was a rainy drizzly wet day. We weren’t sure what to do because of the rain so we jumped in the truck and consulted the GPS’s POIs. That’s Points Of Interest for those of you with no GPS experience. The GPS suggested the Wildlife Museum so off we headed.

This place was pretty cool, full of bugs, critters, and wildlife. I guess GPS is good for other things than just getting you there. On the way up we stopped at a couple of viewpoints.

Can you imagine someone would graffiti a cactus?

I spotted my first cactus wild flower for the year.

We are checked out and tomorrow we are out of here. We haven’t really decided if we are heading back to Quartzsite or back to Havasu. I guess we will know when we get close.

Saguaro National Park

Today we first headed down to Tubac. This is a town that is full of artsy type shops that have Very Expensive stuff. Some of the stuff was pretty cool like turquoise inlayed wood tables but not on my budget.

After lunch we headed over to the Saguaro National Park. Now this is more our speed. This is a 9 mile drive through park with more cactus than you can imagine.

Since it was rainy most of the day, a drive through was perfect. This is a really cool place.

People that say the desert is dry and barren have not seen anything like this.

Benson / Tombstone

Today we took the drive down to Benson. Benson is about 40 miles south of Tucson and the home of the Kartchner Caverns. We have been there about 4 years ago and liked it so much we just wanted to show our friends.

Since these caverns are living caverns, that’s to say they are still wet, dripping and developing, the scientists use it for research so they are constantly discovering new things about it. We learned things that were unknown 4 years ago when we were there last.

From the Caverns in Benson we traveled another 30 miles down to Tombstone.

You may have heard of Tombstone from some of the western movies. This is where legendary men like Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, Bat Masterson, and Johnny Ringo walked the streets back in he 1800s.

Much of the town has been rebuilt but a lot of it is original right down to the buildings paint and boardwalks.
Not sure what is in store for tomorrow since rain is in the forcast.

Moved on to Tucson

Yesterday we left Quartzsite and arrived in Tucson shortly after noon.

We are now at the Beaudry RV Park. We got settled in and went over to the Beaudry RV dealer to check out some of the motorhomes. Being that they are in chapter 11 they are willing to take just about any offer to move inventory. Some of their last year models are going for close to ½ price. To bad we aren’t in the market for a new motorhome.
Today we headed over to the Pima Air & Space Museum. The Museum was quite impressive. They have Docents that were pilots that actual flew some of the aircraft during the wars so they had some interesting bits of fact.

There have President Kennedy’s Air Force One, an SR-71, several B-52 bombers, and many others. From there we caught a tour bus over to the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.

This is where they store thousands of military aircraft. Some are there for future use, some are used for parts, and others are being disassembled for scrap. One of the interesting things is that this is where they are cutting up B-52s in agreement with the arms treaty. They have a giant guillotine that chops them up, and then they paint a big number on top and the Russian satellite flies over to take inventory. Then they do the same with their planes and our satellites take inventory of theirs.
We have 3 more days here and plan to do more touring of the area.

Quartzsite

We are now in Quartzsite Arizona with some friends.

If you don’t know about Quartzsite, this is a small town that swells from a few thousand to a couple of hundred thousand this time of year.

There are RVs as far as the eye can see out into the desert. One of the reasons they are here is because this time of year Quartzsite host a big RV show with tents full of vendors and all kinds of gadgets. Quartzsite is also known as the largest swap meet. We did nothing but Walk and Eat all day long. We are just stopping by for a night on our way to Tucson. We will spend a week using Tucson as a base camp while we tour the area. Just a little getaway from the Casita for a while.

We got doors

Not too much has been happening on the Casita lately.

The doors arrived so we got them mounted today. We got the doors but the door windows haven’t arrived yet. Those dark areas in the doors are just holes right now. There was a leak in the plumbing so it didn’t pass inspection. The leaks are repaired so they will be calling for another inspection soon.

Yesterday we headed over to Laughlin with some friends. We went to check out the Sam’s Club in Bullhead City since that is the closes to us here in Havasu. Didn’t see anything we couldn’t live without so we left and headed over the river to the casino’s to look for a good Buffet for dinner. If you are looking for a good buffet in Laughlin head on over to the Harrah’s. While in Laughlin we checked on some camping for the River Bike Run in March. Man! They really jack up the priced for something like that.

Electric is in

The rough electric was installed today.

The contractor said he is calling for an inspection Monday and then the drywall is going in next. This thing is coming together pretty quick. I just hope the progress keeps up this pace.

I went to Lowes today to check out light fixtures, cabinets, countertops, bathroom fixtures and other items. Good thing I allowed for these things in my budget. These things can really add up fast.

Ghost town

I took the day off from the casita yesterday and went on a 4 wheel drive with 14 other vehicles from the resort to a ghost town east of Parker called Swansea.

Swansea was a gold and copper mining community back in the 1907 to 1924 time frame.

There isn’t much left due to neglect and the weather but it was still interesting. To think that someone discovered gold and copper 27 miles out in the middle of the desert and a town was started is hard to imagine.

When I got back, not much was done on the casita. The tub got installed and they moved the shelf in the water heater cabinet to make room for the water softener. They found a commercial 30 gallon water heater that is much shouter than the one I was going to buy. This is the only way it would fit but they made it work.

Today the plumber finished up the rough plumbing

and even though it looks like chaos it’s pretty straightforward.

More changes

Some rough plumbing went in today but now I want to make some changes.

Not too serious and this is the time to make them since the walls are still exposed. The original plan was to have the water heater in a cabinet so we don’t have to look at it.

The plumbing for the water softener, since I don’t intend to install one was going on the outside of the water heater cabinet. I wasn’t too concerned about the plumbing location of the softener since I wasn’t going to install one. Well I found out that I may be able to stack them both in the Water heater cabinet, which makes more sense, and if I ever do want to install the softener it will be out of the way. Tomorrow I will break the news to the plumber so he can make the changes. Hopefully it will be acceptable.

The framers have left

The framing is done and it all passed inspection.

They added my arches to the patio today. It looks kind of rough but will look real nice after the stucco.
I talked to the plumber today and he will start tomorrow morning. It should only take a day to rough in the plumbing.

It’s coming along

Tomorrow is inspection day. The framing is pretty much done and they are getting an inspection tomorrow.

The plumbing is going in next so the plumber came by to see what needs to be done. I bought the tub today so they can set the locations for drain and faucets. It’s kind of exciting to see my plans coming to life. It’s looking good so far.

Moved again

We have moved again today.

This should be our last move until we head out for NASCAR in February. It is so nice to have friends here that let us use their lots for free.

Our Casita is getting closer everyday. I went up today and took more pictures and measurements so I will know where all the studs are in the walls before they cover them up. I plan to take pictures of the plumbing and electrical too.