We have been living the new lifestyle of RV life on the West Olive property for one week now. It can best be described as a week of organization. When we moved household belongings from Centerton to the new house, we pretty much did a dump and run. Everything to the garage or the RV. This of course created zero space in which to live or work. We easily could have been featured on an episode of Hoarding: Buried Alive!
We prioritized the week in terms of health and safety. This meant getting some field fence up to create a secure place for the three dogs so they didn’t have to be kept in the RV 24/7. We then turned to getting the washer and dryer hooked up and the utility sink re-hooked up in the basement. We created a clean-ish area where we could wash dishes and clothes (see pics in basement gallery.) Next, we got the basement bathroom fully cleaned and painted and fixed the shower so it worked. With new daylight bulbs above the sink and a bright shower curtain, it is a relative oasis in an otherwise scary-ish basement (see pic in basement gallery) as long as you don’t look up! Finally, we installed some motion detector lighting between the RV and the house so that early morning and late night trips to the bathroom or laundry are safer.
Laura spent one afternoon raking leaves from the pool patio area. It was about a mountain’s worth! But this makes for a much better spa experience than wading through knee-high leaves at night in flip flops!! Peder mounted our solar-powered yard lights around the top of the fence enclosure which makes for great ambiance at night. It’s pretty cool sitting in the spa at night listening to the city sounds and looking at the stars. We can just imagine how much better it will be when the pool area is finished. Laura’s and Matthew’s other chores were to organize the RV and the basement storage room. Meanwhile, Peder focused on the garage. It took about 3 days, but there is finally “a place for everything and everything in its place.” We definitely should have bought stock in plastic totes!
We closed the chapter on the demo phase of the house with the removal of the third dumpster! Matthew spent the good part of one day raking all the gravel and dirt around the driveway where the dumpsters were parked and used a magnet sweeper to ensure all of the roof nails, screws and pieces of metal were removed. It is amazing how many missed the dumpsters and were just waiting for an unsuspecting tire.
The room above the garage is almost complete with Peder installing all the trim today. The carpet is scheduled to be installed this coming Monday, so we should be able to move furniture up there either Monday night or early Tuesday. On Tuesday, our main contractor, Carlos, will also start painting the exterior of the house. The choice to paint or not paint was a big one. While we kind of like the old-style brick, it is just that…old. It definitely dates the house and touring other older brick homes in Rogers and Bentonville shows that painting is probably the right decision from an eventual resale point of view. We found an inspiration house and are going for similar colors. We already had the roof done in Rustic Slate and all the trim, facia and gutters in black. The house color Laura chose is Sherwin Williams White Flour (SW 7102). We have the Pella sales rep coming next week as well to measure and give us a quote on black-trim windows.
Olive Pit 2 Perfect 