and it begins...

Man -- and woman -- with tools attack trailer. More at 11.

So far we have removed the closet in the second bedroom (office) and the overhead cabinet in the laundry room (where it was prohibiting the installation of the stacked washer-dryer.

On Friday we learned that the propane company would NOT give us a tank as long as there was a "non-mobile home approved" propane water heater. We had been warned about this, but there was no way to keep them from looking at it. I am not even sure the company that had been supplying would have done it, being a new account -- but my name not coming up in all three credit bureaus messes up any low level attempt to get a credit history on me, which they required, and I was not happy with their "keep-full only" policy, as I am used to -- and prefer -- monitoring my own use and giving them a call when the tank is in need of filling.

The new company will do that... but at the expense of having to pull the gas water heater and swap it for electric. I am NOT happy with this, as it ties us more into the grid. But we got a smaller one and one of the less expensive units, just to hold the line while we decide how we are going to go with this place. We had been doing pretty good in energy conservation by turning the water heater ON a couple of hours before bath time, and off after the bath/shower, using the residual heated water for dish and hand-washing on the between days. We are investigating an on-demand water heater, but at present the budget won't go that far and the electric would need more oomph too.

So, today we swap out the water heater. It had been on the list for yesterday, but K was totally wiped from our long trip to town the preceeding day and was unable to be out of bed for most of the day. I putzed around and then taped and painted the first coat on the Craft room. It will need a second coat, to fully cover the purple that had been on the walls. That is also on my list for today, along with touching base with the Museum in NC to get started on their yearbook project.

I have also made a committment to walk about on the back half of the property and pull some of the growth that is most near the small birch trees that are trying to grow, a little at a time.