Upper West Side? Left Bank? The Heights?

We have mostly settled into the cabin. We still have loads of exterior work to do and some of the interior furniture is temporary (and to be replaced with items from he house in Corrales if we ever do sell it) but the whole place is now a functioning home, especially since the refrigerator and stove have been delivered.

In some ways we have come full circle: from our small apartments in New York and now to a small cabin in New Mexico albeit via a side trip through two other houses, each larger than the last (and with the last one, the B&B, being truly large). And our furniture has come full circle too. Our old cast iron bed from our New York days now sits in our bedroom in the cabin. It had been residing in Susan’s sister’s (Tanja) guest bedroom after we upgraded to first a queen, and then a king and is the perfect size for us in the new place.

The kitchen table and chairs are also from the New York apartment after also having been vacationing in Tanja’s house. It is a lucky thing we didn’t discard them and that Tanja has no more need for them as she is in the process of moving herself.

As for the title of this post, I was thinking about the geography of Madrid and the section we are in. Clearly we are not downtown (roughly the areas along the highway and more specifically the section closest to the Mine Shaft Tavern) but it would be hard to call it the suburbs since we are clearly in town and are walking distance to everything.

We are north-ish and on the western border of town, which would correspond to Manhattan’s Upper West Side if one were to use that kind of terminology. And with all of our New York furniture having joined us, that might almost be apt. But only for us.

One neighbor gleefully calls the area the Left Bank, given that we are separated from the bulk of town by a dry arroyo. I rather like that description. Another, on seeing our renovations, thinks that we’re becoming the “tony” part of town. Since we’re quite elevated, maybe “The Heights” would work.

Of course we need no further description than that we are on “Back Road” since the town is tiny and everyone knows where everything is.

Quick update on the lawsuit:

Nothing big to note except that I received a call from another attorney representing another client of the evil s.o.b. who defrauded me. He believes that the whole thing is a scam and that the evil s.o.b. (my words, not his) is a crook. He was pleased that I had started litigation (well, arbitration) and was going to call my attorney to see if we could all have a sharing of the minds.

First Night In The Cabin (Posted on July 4)

Last night we made our move into the cabin. We still don’t have a fridge or stove, but the plumbing works and the windows have been “treated.” Even at a somewhat slight 600 sq ft it is a tremendous improvement over the back of the gallery.

It is now time to focus our attention on the outside. First I have to get the place really dog-ready which means installing the doggy door and a fenced area for them to use for their “business.” This will be trickier than it otherwise might be since the yard in question is solid rock and so setting posts is out of the question. But I have a plan that will work very well and will share it anon (when my plan has been proven the right one).

I will also have to put in a ramp to the deck since poor old Clint is not longer able to climb stairs and he loves hanging out on the deck.

After the dog-ready business, we will have to paint the trim and stain the new wood. We’ve picked up all the supplies so all we need to do is the actual work.

And there are some other odds and ends such a burying several exposed PVC pipes that risk being frozen over the winter (something that apparently did happen previously). And I will have to put up a chicken coop so that we can move the ladies up here from Corrales.

Of course, Susan has some master plan about getting the rest of the front yard cleaned up and landscaped in some way. I will likely play some role in that since in a previous life I must have been a very bad man.

It is not without setbacks

The latest accomplishments have included:

· Finishing the painting

· Refinishing the floors

· Installing the toilet

· Installing most baseboards

· Bringing in the vanity

The painting went very well and we decided on a neat color scheme for the pitched area in the living room. The baseboards were a bit tricky with how uneven everything is in the cabin. We ultimately decided to try refinishing the floor chemically rather than by sanding it down and redoing all of it. While not perfect, it is a big improvement.

The vanity proved the old adage: measure twice, cut once. When we had our pals at Ghost Town Trading Company make us the vanity, we were very careful to measure out the space into which it needs to go. And we did that part o.k.

However we forgot that the bathroom door is a very odd size – both short and narrow. It didn’t cross my mind that a 25-inch wide vanity would have a hard time fitting through the opening. But at 24-inches, it proved impossible. So this morning I removed the frame to get the vanity in and will spend this evening (or maybe tomorrow morning) building a new one.

And we had another possible disaster about the vanity even prior to the discovery about the door. Yesterday afternoon I was stopped at a red light in Rio Rancho (on route to Corrales) and some tipsy idiot rear-ended me. Now, I had the trailer hitched to the back of my Rav4 so he actually plowed into that rather than into “me” per se, and I was relieved at the time to notice no immediate damage (his front bumper was smashed). But this morning we discovered that we could not get the trailer unhitched and the vanity was only removable from the interior of the Rav4 via the rear door (which cannot be opened with the trailer on the hitch.

Happily with the judicious use of a hammer and some swearing we got the mess untangled and seem to be back in business.

In answer to your question about whether I obtained the other driver’s information the answer is: No, I didn’t. Not only because I did not see any obvious damage, but also because I would have done no good: he obviously would not have had insurance (as is often the case in New Mexico) and whatever damage was done, I would never have been able to get him to cover without a great deal of expense and aggravation.

We still have work to do. The windows need some form of blinds and the rest of the plumbing needs to be plumbed (vanity, kitchen sink). We also need to get what furniture we can in place before we really settle in. And Susan is going to find us a suitable refrigerator and stove.

Of course then we need to move on to the outside work, of which there is a tremendous amount. Thankfully we will have moved in and settled.

Update: Final throes, turned the corner, and other war rhetoric edition.

Originally posted on my other site on June 16, 2008 (oops)

This should be the final few days that we have a crew working with us on the cabin. All of the serious construction will be done and Susan and I will move on with all the finish work.

So far the cabin project has entailed (more or less in order):

• Gutting the kitchen of all cabinets and removing the West (outside) wall of the kitchen entirely. Removing the drywall from the North wall, reframing it and adding insulation. Moving the plumbing from the corner to a more reasonable location – actually replacing the plumbing entirely

• Tearing out the closet from the already undersized bedroom

• Gutting the bathroom, including removing the rotting floor

• Adding a kitchen-nook and laundry room to the West of the kitchen where that wall once was. Adding a window and an outside door. Cladding the new room with recycled barn wood initially dedicated to the stalled straw bale house project.

• While adding the roof, fix all the leaks in the old roof (thankfully it rained or we were going to take a hose to it.)

• Filling in the crawlspace under the bathroom with sand and adding a brick floor.

• Adding 4 support posts under the cabin and jacking it up ever so slightly. One of these supports is under the brick chimney, which had been held up by 2x4s, wishful thinking and inertia.

• New plumbing for the bathroom and a new saltillo-tile shower.

• Replacing all windows (most were broken open or sealed shut and all were generations-old, single-pane things.)

• Adding supports to the sagging bay window and replacing all glass with thermal pane windows.

• Tearing off outside batons from board and baton construction. Furring out the walls with 2x2s and adding rigid foam insulation. Furring out this with another layer of 2x2s and adding more rigid foam insulation. Tyvek paper for the outside.

• Adding new outside cladding: 1x12 boards cut to match specs. (we have 2 more days of this.)

• Rewiring the entire house, removing old mouse chewed, singed, and otherwise unfortunate wiring, putting in new breakers, adding 240-volt outlets for stove and dryer. Adding outlets to code (with, gasp, now more than one outlet in the bedroom!)

• Replacing rotted floorboards in kitchen and replacing them.

• Installing new light fixtures and new fans.

• Painting 75% of the inside with primer. Painting kitchen and bathroom.

So now we are in the final stretch. There remains plenty of painting, inside and out. The kitchen needs cabinets and sink and the bathroom needs the toilet installed and the sink and vanity put in. The floors need help and we are torn between seeing how well we can clean them versus having to sand them down and refinishing them. We also need to put in new baseboards and thresholds.

We also need to figure out what to do about the front door. It is an odd size and a standard door will never fit. Most likely we will need a custom door and will have to find out if anyone builds them for reasonable sums (I’ve gotten quotes through the big box stores and it is highway robbery.)

We also will have to re-hook up the propane tank (and have the tank inspected: it came with the cabin but has not been used in years.)

This is where we are at and what we have accomplished. It is an amazing amount when you look at it.

The Bionic Cabin: We can rebuild it. Make it stronger, warmer, sounder.

The renovation of the cabin continues and we’ve reached a fork in the road. Do we move in once the cabin is “livable” or do we wait until every last detail is complete? This is a harder question to answer than might seem as first read. The last detail that I am writing about is the re-cladding of the outside with the addition of much desired insulation.

The cabin is currently woefully under-insulated and much of the exterior wood is in bad shape. We are considering “furring” out the walls with some 2x4s, adding insulation and then re-cladding the outside with new wood. If we do undertake this project, it would behoove us to replace the windows as part of the project so that they could be more flush with the new exterior rather that with the old, so that there won’t be an odd lip at every one.

But if we do the windows at the same time as the cladding, we can’t really move in until then. The alternative of doing the windows now and the cladding later would allow us to move in, but then we have the lip problem.

In the meantime we are ready to start painting, putting in fixtures and sanding down the floors. Work work work. But it’s going to be very cute when it is done.

Update on the lawsuit.

One of the other clients of the thieving builder has asked to join us and make a mini class-action suit out of it and we are happy to do so. While it might mean that we won’t be able to collect as much (if anything) at least we can split costs and demonstrate a pattern to the arbitrator. And when I go to CID to file my complaint – something they won’t consider until after the civil case is resolved – it will have that much more weight.

I wonder if the fact that the other client is from out of state could allow us to call in the FBI? I will take any help I can get.

Riding Rabbit Ranch

Eventually the project will recommence in earnest on the 30-acres, but only after the lawsuit is settled, the house in Corrales is sold, and we have lived comfortably in the miners’ cabin in Madrid for some time. We need a break from the madness of doing too many things at a time and really need a more sensible routine. How long all this will take is anyone’s guess, but hopefully we will be in a position to make at least baby strides soon.

One of the baby strides happened this week. The 30-acre spread has been in need of a name other than “the land” or “the property.” It will need a name not only because we need to call it something, but also because we would like to put a sign at the end of the drive other than “305”.

And the name we’ve chosen is a perfect fit for the place. One of the more remarkable things about the wilderness out there is the population of extremely huge jackrabbits that inhabit the area. These rabbits are so very large that at first glance one might think that they are coyotes. Seriously, they are huge. I have been calling them “riding rabbits” since as far as I can tell it might be possible to saddle one and go for a spin…. Well, at least a child could go for a spin, not me.

So yesterday Susan came up with the name for the property: Riding Rabbit Ranch. It’s perfect.

Temporary. As in over 100 years old.

So work has commenced on the miner’s cabin that we are remodeling into a livable space. The kitchen and bath have been gutted to the bones and we are putting in the foundation for the laundry/eating nook.

Some 100 years ago or so the original one-room shack was built on the hillside. The way they built that room was simple: stack a bunch of rocks with a small amount of adobe mud between them, and set the cabin on top. At some point they added a kitchen and bedroom. Then what was the porch for this set-up was enclosed as part of the main room. Finally, after tiring of using the outhouse, someone added a bathroom, though made out of cinderblocks and only tentatively connected to the main body of the house. Aside from that room, the rest of the cabin just sits on the piles of rocks, threatening a careening down the hill.

I am going to guess that the bathroom was added sometime in the past 20 years and until that time the outhouse was the “facility” for the place. But I could be wrong and the bath only added much more recently given that the Old Church next door (now a private residence) was the location of a local public restroom and “hippy bath”. In any event, it is the only part of the structure with anything resembling a foundation. When a couple of the workers discovered that the old brick chimney was being held up by some pieces of 2x4 that rested on a floor joist they took shelter – only briefly but to great comedic effect – by running away and hiding in the bathroom.

In addition to having to shore up the chimney, we will have to retrofit a frame for the kitchen walls as they are made up of long, flat boards without the benefit of studs. When we ripped off the drywall we discovered we could see daylight between those boards and the outside wall has a definite bowed out shape to it. On the bright side… ok, there is no bright side.

I am also going to add additional foundation support to the north wall and to the main beam under the house. I am going to use some fairly massive 6 inch cedar posts we bought for use in the aborted house project. Rather than have them sit uselessly out on the property I might as well use them for something.

Should I tell you about the pack rat nest under the bathroom shower? They were all dead. Gruesome scene, really. And they had packed in a plastic toy tarantula among their treasures. Just to freak us all out.

I was relaying all the work that we are going to do to the house to a long-time local resident. His response: What did you expect? All these cabins were built as temporary homes while the miners worked the mine.”

100 plus years is a long temporary.