Postponinator

Well, sheeeiiiit… It’s been a good news, bad news kind of week.

Yeah, it’s been forever since I wrote here. Been working even longer hours, plus learning a new publishing program. (Does awesome things. Learning curve is killing me. Ugh.) And besides our usual yard-sale extravaganzas, we’ve been working on stuff at the house, slowly but surely.

We finally got the back yard cleaned up, ripped out the tattered chain-link fence, and erected a new galvanized-wire fence so our geriatric canine can parade to his heart’s content. The fence also ensures that javelinas can’t join either him or us. For the record, yes there are javelinas in the neighborhood, even in daytime. Our only borders were marked with a temporary fence – 24 inches tall and plastic. Not much to deter a determined critter. And with the doggy door in back, there was always a risk they’d decide to saunter into the kitchen.

Those things are vicious. Just plain ol’ mean. You definitely don’t want them in your yard, much less your house.

If you’ll recall, this (above) is the yard we moved into. And all that dead grass and rattlesnake-camouflage behind the fence? Also our responsibility to clean, even though it’s technically utility access. Such an inviting outdoor space… It’s hard to see from that photo, but that chain link skeleton in the back included broken links, broken poles, and more waves than a royal wedding.

The gate was the only salvageable thing from the chain link. The rest is new fencing. Obviously still no plants, pavers, or anything else interesting except the storage shed along the far wall. We had plans, mind you – plans. Aaaand you know what they say about the best-laid plans of mice and men? I’ll clue you in. It sometimes goes for women, too.

Last weekend we finally ordered my husband’s prefab shed-cum-workshop, with the understanding they could crane it over our laughably tiny house. And as luck would have it, they had one on the lot that hadn’t already been bought, meaning it had been there a max of 5.72916 seconds. The price had gone up about 1500 bucks from what we were originally quoted a few months ago – which gave me a headache – but I plunked down the credit card, because of course I’m gonna work until I’m at least 115. (Thanks, COVID inflation.)

Then Mr. Crane Operator arrived to give us a quote – which turned out to be a non-quote, because we also have a laughably tiny yard. The only way to crane the thing over our house is for him to park his monster machine in the middle of the neighbor’s landscaping (which, unlike lots of homes in the desert, they actually have.) The neighbors, understandably, said HELL to the no. I would have done the same in their shoes. (I didn’t receive the crane guy’s info until after we paid, FYI. If I had, I’d have called him for his quote first.)

So, we’ll eat the 100-dollar cancellation fee and we move on to Plan B.

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Yes indeed, there is a Plan B, though I view it with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Plan B entails buying a shed kit and G (and help, hopefully) will build it onsite. Now I’ll grant you, it’s only a little over half the price for the same size we were getting or even slightly bigger, which is awesome. But if G’s building it, even if he hires help, it’s going to mean waiting until next winter. And frankly I’m not sure G can do it, even with help. So we might have a shed kit, like a permanent set of giant pick-up sticks, scattered across the back yard.

I love my husband to pieces, but I was already shocked we got the fence done in under a year. He’s elevated procrastination to an art form – a DaVinci-level art form. He also under-estimates the amount if time and effort it takes to do any projects once he does get around to them. The fencing materials were paid by a gift card I won at work, so we took what we’d put back and hired a couple of guys to put it in. Thankfully they 1) showed up, 2) knew what they were doing, and 3) were fast and hard workers. It took them two days, including removal of the old chain link. Once G saw the amount of work involved, he admitted it probably would’ve taken him weeks or months.

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The inside of the house is fortunately in a bit better condition. Our usual M.O. is still in place: find garage-sale goodies, bring home; find better goodies, upgrade at home; and either move the older stuff to another spot or sell it.

When we were still living in the tin box, our  TV resided atop an antique barrister bookcase. Pretty bookcase, but honestly way too small for the TV.

When we moved in here, we rearranged and a vintage drop-leaf walnut table served as our entertainment center. To wit:

My apologies for the picture quality, not to mention the mess. This was taken with my old phone, right after we moved in.

The TV was my $25 yard-sale score (Samsung 55″ smart TV, now coming up on 5 years old.) The walnut table, mid-century chair near the TV, and Lane cedar chest were also yard-sale scores. What it’s harder to see from this picture is how far the TV hung over the sides of the table. It was one stray elbow away from electronics disaster.

This past weekend we bought a vintage – possibly antique – Sahon NY dresser. Much better fit for the television and offers storage for a lot of the crap we tend to accumulate.

We paid a whopping 20 bucks for it. I figured I’d have to fight G because it’s not MCM. As it turned out, when I showed it to him and said, “We’re getting this,” he didn’t blink, just peeled off a bill to pay for it and loaded it into the back of our Kia enclosed skateboard. He didn’t let me know until we got home that he loves it as much as I do – maybe more. Nearly as we can tell, it’s fruitwood burl veneered over solid oak, circa the 1930s or earlier.

We bought this at a yard sale less than a mile from home.

How’s this for irony? When we moved here, as tiny as this community is (literally a one-stop-light town), we assumed yard sales would be almost nonexistent and piss-poor quality. We were hoping Casa Grande – about 50K population and 10 minutes away – would offer us a few deals, even though it’s under half the size of the area we just left. But damned if we don’t find the best buys here in our little corner of Nowhere, USA, in quantities not far removed from what we were finding when we lived on the other side of the Valley. There are claims our population is ~10K here, a claim I take with a grain of salt.  The entire community encompasses 5 square miles, and I find it hard to believe there are 2K people in any one of those miles.

But they’ve got good stuff.

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Incidentally, that last and much-improved picture was taken with my new phone. My Samsung wasn’t all that old, but the bugs… man oh man, the BUUUUGS. I bought a replacement by way of a OnePlus Nord10 about a month ago. Since it was at the low end for what’s considered a mid-price phone, I expected something similar to what I had, in terms of performance, only without the bugs. Let’s just say I was wrong – in all the best ways. I’ll be happy to write a review if y’all like, but I figured no one was that much into gizmos. Heck, I’m crazy glad I upgraded, but even I’m too damned tired to work up any proper sense of huzzah.