There are Wild Things Roaming around our House

There are wild things about the house in Tucson.  Because it is still open in the back-wildlife are starting to invade.  We had to scare a baby screech owl away that thought it had made a fine place to rest at night in our new air-conditioning duct in our bedroom.  So far, we have scared it out of its lovely space twice.  We are jealous of him.  He got to sleep in our bedroom.  We have not seen it for 9 months.  

This is the time of the year when you start to see things up close and personal in Tucson.  We discovered a swarm of honeybees next to our car this week.  Though we have sent out messages, no beekeepers have come to collect them.  If we had still been in Portland, Oregon the local beekeepers would have made a "bee"line to the house to get them.  Here there does not seem to be much interest.

We are just adjusting to being in Tucson, but not being in Tucson.  This week, we welcomed friends from Portland, Oregon and took them up to Mt. Lemmon.  So nice to see Karlen and Karin.  Our youngest daughter and their daughter went through Mandarin Immersion for all 13 years of school,and graduated fluent in Mandarin.  We met during academic events, parties, dinners, sporting events, happy and some sad times.  But always the girls stay connected with the large group of kids that took Mandarin all those years.  Now we are all retired and guess what?  Still meeting up.  So delightful to see them for the day.  We will be back in Portland and they will continue to come out here for vacation.  They next time, they can spend time in the hot tub with us.  

This last week, we opened a bottle of Copper River Ranchers Red wine and sat out on the porch to watch the sunset.  I felt like I was home having some wine and cheese before dinner.  Oh wait I was.  

We also went to Hamilton the musical at the Centennial Hall on the campus of University of Arizona.  This is usually how we celebrate the holiday season (wherever we are).  I can't tell you how wonderful that musical was.  I need to get the lyrics to the songs, so I can actually understand everything.  The musical included some really cool facts about that time in history, but I was so busy enjoying the music, I missed some of them.  

It has been a busy week and we are  getting ready to travel again.  We will be travelling up to Tempe, AZ to visit and cook dinner for #3 and #4.  They are excited to get a home-cooked meal in the dorm apartment.  I am just sorry we were not having the dinner in the Tucson house, but we will make the best of it.  After that we will be making our way to California.  I hope we survive the gas prices there.  

A House is not a Home-if there is no ceiling...correct?

This week, we squeaked by several plumbing leaks.  We thought we were going to have to change up the piping all the way out to the septic tank, however the rusting stopped at the u-joint at the end of the bathroom...but we had to chew up quite a bit of concrete and dig a bunch of dirt till we found it.  Good thing that our plumber on site is really good, so he knows how far he has to go to meet code.  

My partner began looking at the ceiling after we pulled down drywall from a bedroom wall to soundproof it with foam.  There was termite and roof damage.  He made a decision to take down the whole ceiling and see if there were any leaks or more termites.  Of course we found 2 ceiling leaks in the bedrooms.  Have you ever heard the "renovation scream?"  It is somewhere between a sci-fi scream and sob.  I am so frustrated with all these things we keep finding wrong in the 50+ ya home that was never protected from termites or taken care of.  This last week, we got the disgruntling news that we would not be able to move in until after the New Year. For me, it was more of a grieving and acceptance--get on with it- kind of a thing. But for my partner, who has a really strong sense of "home" in the house he lives in...it was pretty maddening.  I was well trained as a Peace Corps volunteer some 35+ years ago that we are only on this Earth a short while and I have always questioned whether we really do own anything anyway.  It helps me when things like this happen.  

On the plus side, our front doors went in this week, and they are awesome.  Really changes the appearance of the house.  So today,  I got out our patio furniture and cushions for friends who are going to come see our not-yet-home house.  I unburied the teak oil and oiled the wood and put the cushions together, then sat there for a while enjoying the feeling of "being on the porch."  It gives me pleasure to know that I will be doing this for the rest of my life in between all my travels. 

This week has a been a delightful one here in Tucson.  I finally found a local beer called Barrio Rojo that has a nice aftertaste.  We paired that with Angry Calamari found at local restaurant Risky Business that is  close to our house.  Interestingly, I don't know why we have not been there.  They have great salads too. We continue to find really cool places here in Tucson, but I still have a bit of the Nomad in me so we will be heading  out to Tempe, AZ for Thanksgiving with some of our kids and then off to CA to explore places unknown.  

Meanwhile Back in Tucson

 

We arrived home to some scary stuff.  The beams were still not incorporated into the house for our renovation.  Apparently the contractor, engineer, and draftsman are going round and round about putting in an I-beam for the the back of the house.  I have been told that these beams are so strong, they go into skyscrapers.  Needless to say, the contactor thought it was overkill.  So he waited for 2 months to make a decision, while we were travelling around.  I was not a happy camper.  I have house guests and family coming for Christmas this year.  So, finally the contractor just bit the bullet and put in what the engineer was requesting.  

So as we were incorporating the beam and pulling back the sheetrock, we all noticed a lot of shaved rafters...not good.  The termite damage was so extensive in the back room and kitchen that 8 of 12 rafters had to be replaced.  Meanwhile the time is ticking away.  Our landscape and pool guys cannot get started until the support beam (constructed) were taken down. All this work was finally finished up on Friday.  

View of the "open" space on the back side of the house

If I have to look at the positive side, it likely means we will be getting in the van for another couple of weeks, as I cannot see the house being finished by Dec. 1.  If there is a last Hail Mary out there --please give me an indication, but I am not seeing the house finished until around Dec. 15-21.  Thank goodness it is warm in this area.  I am planning a trip to Joshua Tree and the California Coast. and then rounding down the southern side of AZ.  It should be fun.

I have also been down the last three days as I just completed the COVID-19 Pfizer booster.  I am sure if I had not taken the vaccine--I would have died from the virus.  My response all three times has been off the wall for 3 days...and then everything goes back to normal.  I finally got a chance to make the chicken soup that I had been planning and it tasted pretty good after sleeping for 3 days.

Lahaina Town, Maui back to Tucson

 I spent  in time in Lahaina Town on Maui this last week.  This is a small old-time whaling town that was originally the capital of Hawaii.  This town is about 5 miles from the Papakea Resort where we were staying.  It is so small that you have to get there early in the morning to find parking.  There are several public parking lots, but you can only stay parked for 3 hours....though locals indicated there is no one to monitor that in town. 

Lahaina provided several opportunities for fun including a sunset cruise

We ate some really good fish, did some serious Christmas shopping, and spent time looking at the art galleries.  We actually brought home several pieces of art from this town.  We booked a snorkeling tour to go to the neighboring island Lanai and a sunset pupu (snacks) cruise.  These trips turned out to be the highlight of our trip.  Maui definitely has a lot to offer, but the expense of living on Maui is outrageous.  There were plenty of people camping at the beach "permanently."  It is also hard to get on and off the island.  

Above and in Haleakala's Crater (in the clouds)

We also spent time up on Haleakala National Park, which is a volcano on Maui.  It is a spectacular piece of federal real estate, giving one a sense of being in the clouds.  We were also able to visit Hosmer's Grove, a botanical disaster of a bunch of tree species that are non-native.  However, coming down to meet this grove is a native Ohia tree grove within a riparian area.  We were able to see I'iwi, a bright red honeycreeper that migrates there when the Ohia trees begin to flower as they eat the nectar.  They were too fast to photograph, but I included a picture from the interpretive sign to show you all how gorgeous they are.  

Hawaiian Honeycreeper (I'iwi)

We said goodbye to the beauty of Maui and flew home to Tucson.  Both sunset and sunrise over Maui have similar colors...go figure.  As we lifted off of Maui early in the morning, the sunrise was just beginning.  

Both sunset and sunrise have similar colors on Maui

Meanwhile back home "Little R" our Winnebago Revel was in the shop for fixing that darn automatic door.  It took them forever to figure out that the door just needed to be adjusted (somewhat like a normal door).  We flew back into Tucson that last couple of days, to find out the house is still not being worked on.  For those of you with simple mathematics-the engineer wants the contractor to put in 2*8 beams steel.  The contractor does not have enough space to put that in the ceiling.  He is suggesting 2*6 size.  The engineer is suggesting 2*7 as a compromise, but they have to special order from Wisconsin for this, delaying the house renovation further.  We compromised by putting in the 2*8 beams and "wrapping" the drywall around the extra one inch of beam. There is also an additional cost of 10K for this special order, so much discussion has taken place.  We are in an Airbnb for the month and my partner is not happy about that either, but on the other hand I go with the glass being half full. This gives us additional time to explore Arizona during the cooler season.  The hosts are terrific and very interesting.  They live and play in their van for much of the year too.

My goal this month is to start to build some solid community around me in Tucson. I am realizing as I get older that this is so important.  That social aspect of aging keeps your mind young.  Keep tuned while I go about this.  Today, I spent time with some lovely ladies making succulent arrangements.  I really miss gardening in my home and this little gathering reduced my isolation in town and gave me a hit of gardening.  It is funny, though I am enjoying being home, I am already planning the next trip with "Little R."  We are going to explore camp hosting this next spring and summer for a large park or state park in Florida and/or Alaska. I am excited about this.  It is one of my retirement dreams.