View looking up the main driveway.
As I mentioned late last week, updates will be predictable for at least the next week. Other than videos and a few jeeps, the story line will be updates the challenges and successes of getting the “eWilly HQ” up and running.
We are making progress, slowly. Our hope was to fully move in by May 1, but life keeps throwing obstacles in our path. For example, on Wednesday Ann tripped on a sidewalk lip at the local mall (an issue that had already been reported to mall maintenance, but not yet fixed) and fell into a light pole. She was hurt bad enough (partly body pain and partly just pissed that it happened), that she asked me to come get her. That laid her up for two days.
Additionally, the sellers were delayed getting out, limiting us on what we could do this past week. They were finally out Wednesday, so we began moving stuff in the truck and jeep into the shop and house garage. These frequent trips coincided with various chores (like alternating the pasture watering).
Before we beginning to move stuff inside the house, we wanted to bug/flea bomb it as a precaution for our dogs, then began cleaning. Once we began cleaning, we learned just how dirty the place still was. For example, we have a commercial quality floor shampooer that was bringing up lumps of dog hair out of the master bedroom carpet. This extra deep cleaning will delay us, as we are going to have to hire someone to professionally clean most of the house as we have our hands full with other issues.
Being spring, the lawn, the pasture grass, and the weeds are growing rapidly (seller didn’t get a chance to spray anything before moving). We wished we could have moved-in last month, as that would have given us a lead time to get moved-in, then deal with how best to manage the property. But, the water’s under the bridge on that. Once we get the tools and resources we need, managing the property will be much easier.
On the plus side, we now understand how the house irrigation and the pasture irrigation systems work (with nothing broken as promised). So, everything is getting watered and growing well, though a little too well, as this means we need to buy a better mower (for about 1.5 acres of lawn) OR get a tractor with a mowing attachment.
In addition, we are finding all kinds of treasures amongst the network of small buildings and lean-tos. For example, I was looking for a cart to help move stuff and thought I might need to buy one, but, while looking around yesterday, I discovered we have a shopping cart (based on the color, probably a missing Walmart cart). That worked great for moving stuff!
Here’s some pics of the shop and the outbuildings. The building we call “the shop” consists of a front shop that is 35′ wide by about 40′ deep. The remainder of the building contains a 15’x20′ back shop with its own garage door, a 15’x20′ apartment, and the upstairs storage’. Pictured is the front shop:
Next to the shop is this lean-top that is partially built atop a former garage (that also has an interior room) moved to this location and placed atop a cement slab by the original owner of the property. This architectural wonder has a bunch of salvageable material, but needs rebuilding. It is a future project.
