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texxgadgetLast year, SHaron Son & I were up at her dads (Sully the Printer) place at willits,
every weekend from the start of May til mid Aug.
This year we dropped back to once a month.
I am the one with knowledge of building codes, and a better knowledge of building skills than Don.
Im also someone who wakes up around 0600 and am ready to start working then up there.
They prefer to set the alarm for 7, get out of bed 0830, and lounge around til noon.
Ive now chased enough poison oak up there, I seem to be developing more resistance to it.
Last year, after much work, we got a functional, locking door on the guesthouse,
got permanent water running, and managed to finally unclog all the drains.
We are able to KIND of get around in the main house.
The tenants who were supposed to be doing light maintenance didnt.
There is over 12 years of defrayed maintenance to get caught up.
The first tenants actually trashed the place and the second bunch didnt
do squat to maintain the place, but have managed to accumulate over 3 dozen cars,
Cthulu only knows how many tires, lots of junk, and is seems they have been slowly
mining the place for appliances.
In the main house, the range, washer & dryer ended up being stripped for metal value.
I did find 5 dead fridges in the mainhouse kitchen.
I personally tested, and hauled them out to the junk pile.
Guest house washer dryer and fridge also mined for metal.
In their defense, after a LOT of pushback, they eventually cleared 2 windrows of garbage
and hauled it to the dump.
Each wind row was about 4-5 ft tall and about 50 ft long.
Basically 12 years of garbage.
They are only still there because they actually DO make sure strangers dont wander into the property.
After that, we had Faire season.
This year, the plan was to concentrate on painting
It didnt work out that way.
The current tennant moved 3 of her sons on the property without checking with Sharon.
1 of them was TOTALLY useless and never did anything. He has now left.
1 is mostly useless and has now moved his girfriend in after Sharon told them no more new residents.
The third son, is the only one with a job, hes trying to get his life back together,
and he is WILLING to do work, but cant do it all.
Being that he is from a different father, he doesnt get treated well.
Since he has a job, they others think he owes them money.
His share of the utilities has a surcharge on it because hes employed.
Since he is willing to do maintenance, we decided we needed to improve his accomodations.
He was staying in a room tagged to the back of the mainhouse.
We restarted electrical on the main house so that he could get off the shared electrical bill.
This also enabled us to recover the indoor Romex that had been run on the ground outdoors to
run a sungle outlet in his room.
This enraged his mom & brother, because they couldnt profit off his electrical anymore.
Next we needed to get him hot water so he didnt have to go over to the "Studio" to shower.
Sharons step grandad was an artist and had a studio.
His mom is in there now having converted it into a living space, if you can call it that.
The hot water heater for the guest house had already been hijacked by the studio a few years when they
needed a new one.
Sharon reaally wanted to go with tankless water heater.
Keep in mind, Sharon is the landlady and shes the only one on the site who doesnt have hot water,
and only recently got full time running water.
The problem with tankless heaters is that the auto shut off if a minimum number of gallons
per minute arent flowing through. This is a safety feature.
Off the top of my head, Ill guess that the whole place only gets 1-2 gal per minute.
We finally had to install a normal tank type water heater in the main house.
At this point, Charles no longer has to shower in the studio,
no longer pays a surcharge for his electricity.
and no longer has to flush his toilet with a bucket.
The latest panic came when a funny smell around behind the mainhouse and flushing the toilet created runoff.
I knew we would have to deal with septic, but hoped it would be a while.
It was now at the top of the critical list.
I also vaguely knew the septic for the guestouse was out in front,
only knowing about the mainhouse septic by following the river and digging out the concrete lid.
I dug out both lids early in the morning before it got stupid hot.
The guesthouse septic seems to be in good shape. Its lid is covered by a steel plate.
We had avoided the top of it, not knowing what kind of lid, and not wanting a swim.
I narrowly avoided a riding a front end loader into one in college, and still have no desire to go swimming.
The only thing going into it is the toilet, with the sinks going to a greywater system.
After 12 years, it should be pumped, eventually, but its OK for now.
The sediment in the main house septic was up to the top.
The good news is that it smells like properly functioning septic, and again, only toilets go to this septic.
Well running septics have a special smell, not at all like an overflowing toilet.
We got it pumped out last trip, but having gotten this full, the drainfield is probably full of sediment.
This means that for now, it is a holding tank.
Last fall, the pressure booster pump failed and nobody saw fit to tell us.
We might have been able to fix it then, before it totally failed.
Last year, the first few trips were day trips until we had a functional door and were
able to flush the toilet.
We couldnt find the water shutoff.
I figured out how to run a hose from the hosebib at the studio to back feed the guest house through
its hose bib.
This gave us a working toilet. We were now able to do an overnight with a camp stove.
We eventually got the power turned on for the guesthouse, but with a history of past electrical problems,
we only enabled kitchen and porch light circuits.
This enabled us to run a minifridge that i found out in the junk pile.
Mid Aug 2019 was our last weekend up there before faire season.
That was when I found this capped off piece of pipe at the booster pump.
An unscheduled hardware run later, we were free of the garden hose and the guest house had cold water full time.
In Feb, we were stuck indoors with a snow storm, I got in the attic and started working on getting
the inside lighting circuit sorted out with Don manning the braker panel.
I found several "open neutral" problems.
Sharon returned from the story to find working lights and a couple outlets outside of the kitchen.
The main house hot water and the flooring (Don was the expert on the flooring) and a few other capers
have delayed start on the painting.
We are dealing with peeling paint and really need to jump on this now.
Ive managed to start diagnosing a number of sash window woes.
Last trip, I FINALLY found the water meter for the place, and the city water shut off, 1/4 mi up US 101
from our driveway.
This weekend, we were supposed to try using a water blaster to strip paint,
and for us to add a tee in the line near the meter to measure pressure and gal/min.
We were hoping to start clearing brush where we THINK the drainfield is and do a number of smaller capers.
If we can find the end of the drainfield, we can pressure wash the inside of the line,
load heck out of it with high count bacteria and maybe rejuvenate the gravel bed without digging up the field.
Unfortunately, the smoke in the bay area has Sharon on the sick list, so I dont know when we are going to try again.
Its supposed to be 100 in Willits on Sunday. On the same day, Concord is supposed to hit 110.
Whats frustrating, is that the tenants are staying there for free in return for keeping the place clean,
and they arent doing that.
For the last 5 months, Ive witnessed Sharon telling them that the roofs are to be swept of leaves,
decks swept, and bruch trimmed 20ft radius of all buildings.
It doesnt happen, and I have to clear brush (doing their jobs) in order for me to do my job.
Sharon is losing patience with me complaining about them.
Im waiting for her to lose her patience with them.
Meanwhile the job search is going abysmally and Im out of money.
Maybe i should just go jump off the roof.
every weekend from the start of May til mid Aug.
This year we dropped back to once a month.
I am the one with knowledge of building codes, and a better knowledge of building skills than Don.
Im also someone who wakes up around 0600 and am ready to start working then up there.
They prefer to set the alarm for 7, get out of bed 0830, and lounge around til noon.
Ive now chased enough poison oak up there, I seem to be developing more resistance to it.
Last year, after much work, we got a functional, locking door on the guesthouse,
got permanent water running, and managed to finally unclog all the drains.
We are able to KIND of get around in the main house.
The tenants who were supposed to be doing light maintenance didnt.
There is over 12 years of defrayed maintenance to get caught up.
The first tenants actually trashed the place and the second bunch didnt
do squat to maintain the place, but have managed to accumulate over 3 dozen cars,
Cthulu only knows how many tires, lots of junk, and is seems they have been slowly
mining the place for appliances.
In the main house, the range, washer & dryer ended up being stripped for metal value.
I did find 5 dead fridges in the mainhouse kitchen.
I personally tested, and hauled them out to the junk pile.
Guest house washer dryer and fridge also mined for metal.
In their defense, after a LOT of pushback, they eventually cleared 2 windrows of garbage
and hauled it to the dump.
Each wind row was about 4-5 ft tall and about 50 ft long.
Basically 12 years of garbage.
They are only still there because they actually DO make sure strangers dont wander into the property.
After that, we had Faire season.
This year, the plan was to concentrate on painting
It didnt work out that way.
The current tennant moved 3 of her sons on the property without checking with Sharon.
1 of them was TOTALLY useless and never did anything. He has now left.
1 is mostly useless and has now moved his girfriend in after Sharon told them no more new residents.
The third son, is the only one with a job, hes trying to get his life back together,
and he is WILLING to do work, but cant do it all.
Being that he is from a different father, he doesnt get treated well.
Since he has a job, they others think he owes them money.
His share of the utilities has a surcharge on it because hes employed.
Since he is willing to do maintenance, we decided we needed to improve his accomodations.
He was staying in a room tagged to the back of the mainhouse.
We restarted electrical on the main house so that he could get off the shared electrical bill.
This also enabled us to recover the indoor Romex that had been run on the ground outdoors to
run a sungle outlet in his room.
This enraged his mom & brother, because they couldnt profit off his electrical anymore.
Next we needed to get him hot water so he didnt have to go over to the "Studio" to shower.
Sharons step grandad was an artist and had a studio.
His mom is in there now having converted it into a living space, if you can call it that.
The hot water heater for the guest house had already been hijacked by the studio a few years when they
needed a new one.
Sharon reaally wanted to go with tankless water heater.
Keep in mind, Sharon is the landlady and shes the only one on the site who doesnt have hot water,
and only recently got full time running water.
The problem with tankless heaters is that the auto shut off if a minimum number of gallons
per minute arent flowing through. This is a safety feature.
Off the top of my head, Ill guess that the whole place only gets 1-2 gal per minute.
We finally had to install a normal tank type water heater in the main house.
At this point, Charles no longer has to shower in the studio,
no longer pays a surcharge for his electricity.
and no longer has to flush his toilet with a bucket.
The latest panic came when a funny smell around behind the mainhouse and flushing the toilet created runoff.
I knew we would have to deal with septic, but hoped it would be a while.
It was now at the top of the critical list.
I also vaguely knew the septic for the guestouse was out in front,
only knowing about the mainhouse septic by following the river and digging out the concrete lid.
I dug out both lids early in the morning before it got stupid hot.
The guesthouse septic seems to be in good shape. Its lid is covered by a steel plate.
We had avoided the top of it, not knowing what kind of lid, and not wanting a swim.
I narrowly avoided a riding a front end loader into one in college, and still have no desire to go swimming.
The only thing going into it is the toilet, with the sinks going to a greywater system.
After 12 years, it should be pumped, eventually, but its OK for now.
The sediment in the main house septic was up to the top.
The good news is that it smells like properly functioning septic, and again, only toilets go to this septic.
Well running septics have a special smell, not at all like an overflowing toilet.
We got it pumped out last trip, but having gotten this full, the drainfield is probably full of sediment.
This means that for now, it is a holding tank.
Last fall, the pressure booster pump failed and nobody saw fit to tell us.
We might have been able to fix it then, before it totally failed.
Last year, the first few trips were day trips until we had a functional door and were
able to flush the toilet.
We couldnt find the water shutoff.
I figured out how to run a hose from the hosebib at the studio to back feed the guest house through
its hose bib.
This gave us a working toilet. We were now able to do an overnight with a camp stove.
We eventually got the power turned on for the guesthouse, but with a history of past electrical problems,
we only enabled kitchen and porch light circuits.
This enabled us to run a minifridge that i found out in the junk pile.
Mid Aug 2019 was our last weekend up there before faire season.
That was when I found this capped off piece of pipe at the booster pump.
An unscheduled hardware run later, we were free of the garden hose and the guest house had cold water full time.
In Feb, we were stuck indoors with a snow storm, I got in the attic and started working on getting
the inside lighting circuit sorted out with Don manning the braker panel.
I found several "open neutral" problems.
Sharon returned from the story to find working lights and a couple outlets outside of the kitchen.
The main house hot water and the flooring (Don was the expert on the flooring) and a few other capers
have delayed start on the painting.
We are dealing with peeling paint and really need to jump on this now.
Ive managed to start diagnosing a number of sash window woes.
Last trip, I FINALLY found the water meter for the place, and the city water shut off, 1/4 mi up US 101
from our driveway.
This weekend, we were supposed to try using a water blaster to strip paint,
and for us to add a tee in the line near the meter to measure pressure and gal/min.
We were hoping to start clearing brush where we THINK the drainfield is and do a number of smaller capers.
If we can find the end of the drainfield, we can pressure wash the inside of the line,
load heck out of it with high count bacteria and maybe rejuvenate the gravel bed without digging up the field.
Unfortunately, the smoke in the bay area has Sharon on the sick list, so I dont know when we are going to try again.
Its supposed to be 100 in Willits on Sunday. On the same day, Concord is supposed to hit 110.
Whats frustrating, is that the tenants are staying there for free in return for keeping the place clean,
and they arent doing that.
For the last 5 months, Ive witnessed Sharon telling them that the roofs are to be swept of leaves,
decks swept, and bruch trimmed 20ft radius of all buildings.
It doesnt happen, and I have to clear brush (doing their jobs) in order for me to do my job.
Sharon is losing patience with me complaining about them.
Im waiting for her to lose her patience with them.
Meanwhile the job search is going abysmally and Im out of money.
Maybe i should just go jump off the roof.
