The House Project

Late January - We closed on the house with the seller late Saturday afternoon and spent the rest of the day looking it over.  Sunday morning we went to Mass at 9:00 and then went back to Dan's to change into our work clothes.  Our goal this day was to clean the kitchen (the cabinets and appliances were covered with years of grease - the elderly owner just did not keep it clean).  Our seller had cleaned off the first layers.  Jan came over with her cleaning supplies and helped out.  We wanted to get all the grease off before the next day's project - scraping off the dirty popcorn ceilings throughout the house. We had decided that this was the only time we would ever have the time (and an empty house) to get it done.
Monday we taped and plastic covered everything, walls and floors and I started with the guest bathroom.  I found that spraying water on the ceiling only made it goopy, so we put on our goggles and face masks and dry scraped it.  Monday we got the two bathrooms and guest bedroom scraped. Tuesday we scraped the master bedroom and kitchen/living room area.  Wednesday morning we cleaned up a lot of the ceiling dust before we had to leave. That day we met some of Gary's cousins for lunch in Florence.  Dan and Joe joined us, we had a great meal at the Greek restaurant, Mt. Athos and a nice visit.  We headed back to Good Life and unpacked.  After scraping ceilings for a couple days, we were stiff and sore, so we made a visit to the park's hot tub that night before bed.

A clean kitchen, until.......

Dirty, ugly popcorn ceiling

After scraping, before painting

Cleaning up ceiling dust

Sieverding boys and McMahon girls

The next weekend we headed back to the "Junction" to continue our remodeling.  With the ceilings scraped, we now had to put drywall primer on them before we could paint. First we caulked the opening between the walls and ceilings, then painted the ceilings in the smaller rooms.  That night we finished working and we got to Dan's in time to watch the last fifteen minutes of the Super Bowl. Monday we finished putting on primer and then painted all the ceilings, except for the kitchen/living room.  Jan helped and then she and Wally made supper for us.  Tuesday we painted the ceiling in the big area and then installed indoor/outdoor carpet on the deck.  That night W&J had us over for supper with another couple from the park.
Wednesday - Gary stayed at the casa and did outside work, caulking and painting the back of the house, weed control in the yard and put flashing on the deck and deck ramp. I had a ticket to go with the girls from Saddlebrooke (Deb, Lisa, Doris, & Krista) on the bus to the infamous Tucson Gem Show. This show is held throughout the city, vendors come in to all the event centers and hotels with their stones and gems, and jewelry for sale.  We spent the day looking and learning about all the different gems and the beautiful jewelry.  I had never been to the Gem Show, the others knew what and where they wanted to shop and what to look for.  When the bus returned to Saddlebrooke, Gary and I headed home to Mesa.

Fresh painted ceiling, our own version of orange peel texture

Deck surface before waterproofing and carpet

Feb. 7-8, we did not leave the park to work on the house.  We stayed in town and I went thrift store shopping  and Gary enjoyed the pool. Sunday we went to Mass at the St. Brigid Church, the parish some of our neighbors in the park.  The Mass was so full we sat in folding chairs in the back. The priest celebrating was visiting from Iowa and had been at parishes in West Des Moines and was currently pastor in Bellevue, IA.  He said he knew many of the people that were snowbirds there in Mesa and had them stand up.  There were quite a few! The people sitting next to us were from Bellevue, where Gary's Dad's family had come from.  We ran more house errands that afternoon.  Monday morning I went to the water aerobics class at the park and we enjoyed the pool in the afternoon. Tuesday afternoon we drove down to Gilbert to meet our friends from South Dakota, John and Wendy. They have a house in Queen Creek, so we met in Gilbert for supper.  It was great to catch up with them and hear about their family.  Wednesday we went to the weekly Country Store event at the park, then back home to catch up on the computer and mending.  We went to our block Happy Hour gathering that afternoon and got ready for our work days.

Mid February - it is Valentine's Day!  We went back to the house after working at the park on Saturday.  A little more of a challenge to drive back to the "Junction", the Tucson Renaissance occurs in February and March and takes place along our highway route from Mesa, before we reached Florence.  A bottleneck traffic jam occurred each weekend, our waiting time ranged from fifteen to thirty-five minutes on some of the weekends.  We had bought a queen air mattress and stayed at the house for the first time that night.  Saturday night and Sunday we cleaned up and prepared for priming the yellow and green walls in the house.  Sunday we took out the vent over the stove and installed a microwave.  We went to Deb & Joe's Sunday night for their holiday barbeque with our group of friends.  Monday and Tuesday, we primed all the walls and then the kitchen was the first room to get painted.  Tuesday night we went to Brian and Krista's to play dominoes.  We enjoy playing cards, dice and dominoes with them.  Wednesday AM, Gary helped Joe and Deb with some furniture moves and then we went to noon Mass at Santa Catalina for Ash Wednesday before returning to Mesa.  We enjoyed the pool and hot tub that night.

Stove vent and kitchen walls before

Microwave installed and painting completed

Looks much better

Feb. 21 - This weekend we drove down via Queen Creek to avoid the traffic jams. After Mass that afternoon we had supper with W&J. We stayed at the house now, since we had a clean bedroom and the airbed. Sunday - we took a day off and went on a hike with Deb & Joe on the Pima Canyon trail.  We had hiked it in early December, they had never been there.  It was a beautiful day, we enjoyed hiking in the desert again.  Afterward, we had a "recovery" refreshement and lunch at the San Carlos Grill. That night Wally made lamb chislic - I had not had that since I was in grade school and lived next to the auction barn on Hwy 16. Yumm! We also shared a bottle of champagne to celebrate our anniversary.  Monday we deep cleaned the refrigerator and dishwasher to get rid of all the sheetrock dust and then removed all the mobile home wall strips in all the rooms. (Because of the necessity to transport mobile homes, they put wall strips over the wallboard seams in mobile homes, because of the movement of transport.) Joe had experience sheetrock taping in South Dakota and was willing to do the job for us. Tuesday morning we packed up and went back to Mesa - we had to work that night for the February Manager's party.

Pima Canyon Hikers

Strips removed in the living room

Wall strips off in master bedroom

Feb. 28 - we worked at the park longer than planned because of Party Wagon deliveries.  We headed south to Gilbert, planning to buy a dining room set, only to find out someone beat us by 1/2 hour. We picked up Papa Murphy's pizzas (our first since October) and went to the house.  With a real oven there, we can bake the large pizzas and so we introduced W&J to the deliciousness of Papa Murphy's. Ah, Classic Italian - we love you!  Sunday afternoon I stripped paint off door jams, Gary worked on outside projects and we had steak supper with W&J.  (They were so gracious to feed us all those weekends!)  Monday we had to scrape and sand all the seam areas to have them smooth for drywall taping. Then we had to prime each seam area to be ready for Joe to tape. Tuesday we finished those projects, put our airbed away and covered all the floors so Joe could do the taping and sanding.  We went back to Mesa Tuesday afternoon and Gary went to a meeting with the RVIC RV Inspectors that night in a nearby RV park.  Wednesday we did laundry, caught up on book work, enjoyed the pool and visited with our neighbors.

Our agave and its little pup

Sunset on the Catalinas

Another amazing sunset

March - we waited until after Mass on Sunday to go back to the house.  When we arrived, Joe was there working on the taping.  That night, we had a wonderful evening at Krista and Brian's home - her sister and husband were there visiting from Winnipeg. We had met them the year before, it was great to catch up.  Monday I finished stripping all the door frames, luckily they were laminate material that the paint came right off of, when we scrubbed them with TSP.  Gary and Jan worked outside stripping the paint off all the room doors.  Tuesday, Gary primed and painted the doors while Jan and I went thrift store shopping.  Back at the house, I primed most of the inner door jams.  Dan made supper for us that night.  Wednesday we went back to Mesa in the morning and went to our dentist appointments in the afternoon in Mesa.  That night we went to a gathering at Greg & Linda's, a barbeque with all the other workampers. It was fun to visit with the couples that worked on the Mon-Wed shift.

Paint washing off door trim

The green paint is almost gone!

Mar. 14 - When we arrived at the house, Joe was just finishing the final work on the walls.  Thank you Joe! Sunday I did some touch up sanding and then we primed the repaired areas.  Monday and Tuesday we primed and painted the walls in the main rooms.  I started in the master bedroom experimenting with the texture application I was hoping to use throughout the house.   It was a powdered fine texture mixture added to the paint, but when I used it in the master bedroom it dried as a sand texture and we were looking for more texture than that.  Scrapped that idea, so then we painted all the rooms except the big room area, with a first and second coat.

Master bedroom - before

Master bedroom - after

Living room all seams done and walls primed

Mar. 21 - After work, we went to one of the patio sales at the park. Another workamper had this sale and we bought a queen sized air mattress stand!  Got our bed up off the floor.  We drove to the house, unpacked and then went to 4:00 Mass at Santa Catalina.  As the house was still covered with plastic and the bed was not set up, we stayed with Deb & Joe the first two nights.  We had a pizza supper and a great visit with them.  Saturday I had seen a bathroom vanity including a banjo countertop and sink just the right size for our master bath.  I contacted the seller Sunday morning and we drove to west Tucson to pick it up.  A great find, giving us more storage in the vanity and more countertop space.  Luckily it fit in our car and we headed home.  So, the project that day was to take out the old vanity - a bigger project that we thought because we had to clean up under it and buy and install supplies to pack rat proof the large hole around the pipes.  We got the vanity in and set the countertop on - then realized that with the banjo shape countertop, the new high toilet the seller had installed was too high - the countertop cleared it, but we would not be able to get the tank cover off. Darn!  Enough for the day, that night we had a great evening at Lisa & Jeff's house, delicious lasagna! The next morning we called the ReStore in Tucson and found out they had some low profile toilets - Gary determined that was our solution.  I headed into Tucson and picked up the toilet, (they were half price that day!) then made stops at Home Depot and the grocery store.  Gary worked on painting the dining/living room area and then installed the toilet when I got back.  Tuesday and Wednesday we finished all the second coats of paint, and cleaned up all the plastic, finally!

Master bath before

Master bathroom done!

End of March - We had determined that we would replace the guest bath vanity, so that week after work we looked around the Mesa area for a different one.  Not finding anything at the resale places, we stopped at Home Depot on our way out of town and found the vanity/sink combo and a tri-door medicine cabinet for the master bath.  We installed the medicine cabinet that afternoon and went for supper to the Ells and another couple staying at the park.  Sunday we went to early Mass and then after lunch installed the guest bathroom vanity, a smaller job this time and it worked out really well. I spent part of the day caulking around our showers and the new countertops.  Our Canadian friends, Krista and Brian came over to see our place and brought refreshments to share.  They were leaving on Thursday to return to their home in Kelowna, British Columbia for the summer months.  Monday Gary worked in the yard before packing up to return to Mesa.  He had been assigned his first RV Inspection in Mesa for Tuesday.  He went back to pick up supplies and get ready for his 9:00 appointment.  I finished caulking and did touch up painting.  That night W&J had me over for supper. Tuesday I sanded and painted some of the laminated door trim that we had stripped the yellow and green paint off of.  Gary spent the morning doing the motorhome inspection and then drove back to the house to finish his reports.  We have very strong Internet signal at the "Junction", better than we did at the park in Mesa. The next morning we mailed the oil and fluid samples from the inspection, packed up and went back to Mesa.

Guest Bathroom - before

Before - purple bead curtains!

Guest Bathroom - After

Holy Week/Easter - Saturday we got to the house and just relaxed before going to the Vigil Mass at Santa Catalina.  Easter morning we went to the 7:30 Mass at St. Mark's Parish, a little further away for us.  They have a new church we had not seen, we had been to the smaller building in the years before with Dan and Joyce.  Back home, we had breakfast and read the Sunday paper.  We each did a couple small jobs in the house, before getting ready to go to Easter lunch with family and friends at 2:00 PM in Saddlebrooke.  We went to the Easter buffet at the Mountain View clubhouse, good food and a big selection of brunch, lunch and dessert :) items to choose from. Afterward, Leo and Doris came to see our new place.  Wally and Jan came over too and we had a fun afternoon together. Monday I finished painting the remaining door trim and Gary fixed the leak under our kitchen sink. W&J brought tacos and we had supper on the deck.  Tuesday we ran errands, went to the Goose, the estate sale place, the grocery store and hardware store.  Back home I prepared food for our evening party and we cleaned the house.  That night, Lisa & Jeff, Deb & Joe, W&J, and Dan and Connie came over to see the house and for munchies and pizza supper on the deck. An open house/sunset viewing party!  Wednesday morning, we packed up everything we wanted to go back in the motorhome because this was our last four days stay at the house.  The next week we would leave Mesa and head north.  We stopped and said goodbye to Wally & Jan, they were leaving for a trip to Hawaii that week.  We would not see them again until the summer when they plan to stop at our park in Montana.  On the way back to Mesa, we stopped in Coolidge to pay our electric bill at the office there and then did a Sam's stop in Gilbert.

Easter Lunch Bunch

Before - Dining/living room

After

After all the work - clean and ready for furniture!

Saturday, after our last shift of work at the park, we packed up everything we wanted to take from the motorhome and leave at the house until fall.  At the house we put things away and did a little touch up painting. That night Dan had Joe & Deb and us over for a farewell supper.  Connie was in Wisconsin visiting her family.  Monday morning, we took the air bed down and put everything away in the house until we return in the fall. Then we went back to Mesa and unpacked.  That night our friends, Chris and Kirsten came by for refreshments and light supper.  They had been staying and working in the area with their new business, Island Noodles.  It is a food trailer franchise they take to events and sell fresh stir fry vegetable dishes. We had met them with RVillage last February and they worked the Sugar Beet harvest in North Dakota with us last October. It was great to see them and get caught up with each other!!

Bed deflated - leaving the house for the season

Spring flowers in the desert

As we looked back, we were amazed at how fast our time went in Mesa, but after writing this we realized how much we did working on the house on our days off.  But what an improvement we made and we know we will enjoy the house much more when we return in the fall.  The project and fun then will be to furnish it and make it ready for us and ready to have guests.

Our mulberry tree in late January - every fall the branches are cut way back.

Starting to leaf out - mid-March

April 13th, our last day, it will give us great shade after growing out

This is how the branches will grow out.

Workamping at Good Life - Winter 2015

Because I am months behind on the blog, this will be a summary of our park job in Mesa.  Our work schedule days were Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Thursdays -  Gary and I cleaned the shuffleboard courts each week at 7:30 AM, then went to help the others set up the meeting rooms for IPad and watercolor painting classes.  We would take down tables & chairs in the card room for an exercise class and then set up the social hall for a quilting class.  Then we were off for an hour, coming back at noon to change the setups in the rooms for bunco, ping pong and setups for the afternoon Happy Hour.  After 5:00, one couple would change the card room setups for the evening Pinochle and Texas Holdem games and clean up after Happy Hour.

Breezeway to pool

Breezeway area for patio parties

Fridays – We would start at 8:00.  The card room was reset for the morning Blue Grass Jam session, chairs for the musicians and chairs for the audience members.  We would reset the Saguaro Room for the EMS ladies, who gave blood pressure checks each week.  We would set the social hall for workshops or for special lunches the groups or park would be having that day.  At 12:30 we were back to reset for social bridge, Euchre, and the Patio party for Happy Hour.  Then we would do the big Bingo setup in the ballroom.  All three couples worked on that.  (By the end of January, the other workampers that started on our shift were reassigned to other needs, so it was just the six of us.)  After the Patio party, one couple would come back in for ½ hour to clean up and setup for the duplicate bridge group for Saturday morning.

Bingo setup in the ballroom

Saturdays – Our shift was usually 8:00 – 10:30 or 11:00.  We would work together with the other couples to clear the card room for another exercise class, set up the Saguaro Room for a Weight Watchers meeting, and then at 9:30 we could begin taking down the Bingo/Pancake Breakfast setup in the ballroom and set up for the Saturday night dance.

Each of our three days, one or two couples would go and make the Party Wagon deliveries.  The Party Wagon was a nice amenity the park provided.  A resident could fill out a request form to have 6’ tables, folding chairs, garbage cans, coffee makers and lawn games delivered to their site when they wanted to entertain.  We would deliver the order on the morning requested and then pick up the items on the day requested.  The Party Wagon was a trailer pulled by a Good Life pickup truck and was filled with folding 6’ tables, composite folding chairs and the other items.  On really busy weekends (or days), we would get more chairs and tables from the sports complex supply.  There was a day or two that all the chairs were used and also we had to take 8’ tables from the ballroom.  The Party Wagon deliveries usually took longer then our scheduled hours, but was part of our duties.

The Party Wagon

Every day, one of the couples checked the sports complex area every morning to clean up tables and empty the garbage cans.  The sports complex was a very nice outside area for small groups and events and next to the pickle ball and bocce courts. All the tables had umbrellas and three gas firepits for the residents to use. The park hosted the happy hour patio parties there on Mondays and Thursdays.  Many residents used the complex in the afternoons and evenings for gatherings.

Bocce ball court/Pickle ball courts at the end

Sports complex & stage

Relaxing at the fire pit

The big event we worked for each month was the Manager’s Happy Hour.  The park hosted an evening each month and provided live bands, free appetizers, wine and beer as a thank you to the residents for staying at the park.  It was a ticketed event and held in three different areas of the park, the ballroom, the breezeway and the sports complex.  In January and March, this event was held on Thursdays, which was our work day.  In February it was on a Tuesday and we were required to be there to help serve the event.  Special setup, special decorating and we had to wear our white shirts and black pants to help serve that night.  After the three hour event, we helped clean up and the next morning took it all down.  The March party was called the “Going Away Party”, as most residents left at the end of March or the first week of April.

The Cal-Am parks have about six entertainment evenings throughout their parks and this year the concert held at our Good Life park was The Little River Band.  We set up for it that day and the park gave us comp tickets to attend that evening.  There were two shows, one at 4:00 and the other at 7:00.  Great music and a great time – we were part of the very few during the concert that stood and even danced!

We were the last workamper couple on our shift to leave.  Regina and Mike left mid-March and Marty and Mary left the end of March.  The events really slowed down in April, we spent our last days doing cleanup projects for the park and had a few Party Wagon deliveries those two weeks. 

We spent time with one workamper couple, Greg and Linda.  This was their second year at the park. Greg worked on security and Linda worked at the Activities desk.  We found we were members of the same club - they had lost their 16 year old son in an accident, as we had.  We went out to eat one night with them to The Organ Stop, a pizza parlor in Mesa that has one of the largest pipe organs in the country.  The organist could play anything, the lights and the instruments hanging throughout the building were amazing to watch.  The pizza was very good as well, it is a great place for any age group.  The young were requesting Disney songs, we heard the theme from Frozen, show tunes and patriotic arrangements.  We heard him play Happy Birthday about 20 times while we were there.
On April 14, Mike's birthday, Greg and Linda celebrated Mike with us and introduced us to In N' Out Burger, a great burger place with fresh cut fries. We shared our stories and grew from sharing with each other.

The Organ Stop - Mesa, AZ

We enjoyed our months at the park.  We met great couples, both residents and the other workampers.  Many of them we will keep in contact with and will plan to see next year when we return to Arizona.  Our boss was great to work with and the amenities at the park were awesome.  We learned more about the Mesa/Phoenix area and will explore more next year.

Our home on Hummingbird Lane

Love the palm trees!

Blooming cactus in early April

Working at Good Life

Quartzite Visit

Sunday - We packed up and headed west through Phoenix for our first visit to Quartzite.  We met W&J at the rest stop near Tonopah, AZ and then followed them to find a camping spot near the town.  Quartzite is known as the "RV Boondocking Mecca" during the winter months.  The town is surrounded by land owned by the BLM, Bureau of Land Management, on which RV's are allowed to camp free for two weeks at a time, then they must move to another spot for another two weeks, etc.  There are no hookups = no electricity, no water and no sewer hookups on the BLM land.  The RV'ers pay to fill up with water and dump their tanks at nearby parks.  In January, Quartzite is the host to a Sports, Vacation and RV show, billed as "the world's largest gathering of RV's".  Vendors of anything related to or needed by RV'ers set up booths to sell their products and educate the customers about what they need.  Flea markets are also set up in the area and then in February there have a Gem and Rock show.  Some RV'ers stay for months in the area during the winter, enjoying the group gatherings, free camping and/or solitude of the desert.
Since we were staying closer this year, we decided to experience Quartzite.  As we drove on the interstate to reach our exit, we saw hundreds of RVs parked in the desert as we got closer to town.  W&J had been there the year before, so they led us to a camping spot and we set up our two rigs next to each other.  Just like the pictures we had seen on many blogs, we parked among many other RVs camping.  Nearby, we saw a group of RVs circled like a wagon train of the old west, a group of friends joining together for the event and a nightly campfire.
After setting up, we took our car and went and visited Bill and Darla, our friends from working at RVillage and the Sugar Beet Harvest.  They were staying in a small RV park near town.  It was great to see them and catch up on the months we had been apart.  Back to our rig, we enjoyed supper with W&J and the beautiful sunset.

Following W&J to Quartzite

Our parking site

Sunset at Quartzite

The sunset reflected on our motorhome

Monday - I made breakfast for all of us and then we headed to town to see all the treasures of the Quartzite event.  We walked through about half of the big tent, which quickly wore us out.  We went back to our rigs for lunch and a nap.  Later we went back and went through some of the smaller vendor tents. Back home again for supper and an evening of enjoying the stars.

Campers in the desert - flags for friends to see

Sunset shining on the mountains

Tuesday - Up earlier, we had breakfast and headed in to town to see the exhibits.  We walked through some of the motorhomes for sale there.  We stopped and enjoyed some ice cream.  Then we went in to finish seeing the booths in the big tent.  I bought a floor swiffer, it has several microfiber pads that can be used for dry or wet mopping.  Back home for lunch, then Gary and I went to visit our friends, Leslie and Chris, who we had worked with in Oregon at the Wildwood Rec Area.  They were working in the Boulder City area this winter again, so had come down for a week at Quartzite.  We found their site west of Quartzite, they were parked in a more remote area there.  We had a great visit and caught up on our time apart since we left Oregon in August.  Back to our motorhome, we had supper and enjoyed the evening with W&J.

Wednesday - breakfast and then secured everything in the motorhome for our return to Mesa.  W&J pulled out early, they had 5+ hours drive to the "Junction".  We had about two and a half hours.  A little more traffic on a Wednesday through Phoenix, but arrived safely and set ourselves up again for our stay and work in the park.  We returned in time for our block Happy Hour party, Don and Dana hosted that week.

Thursday - back to work.  Shuffleboard court, then set up for the rooms.  Leanne called and asked us if we would man the hotdog cart.  The cart comes from the Val Vista Park.  A couple from there usually run the cart, but they were short handed with their workampers because of illnesses.  The couple that usually mans the cart delivered it to us and instructed us on to run it.  It was a cooler, windy day, so we had to keep the condiments, plates, napkins, etc. from blowing away.  We had a good time running the cart, got to visit with residents from the park we had not met before.  We were on the cart from 11:00 until 1:00.  Then they came and picked up the cart again.  Later that afternoon we set up the card rooms again.

Hotdog king!

Friday - Regular routine.  On our times off, we packed up our clothes and other supplies so that we could go to the "Junction" on Saturday after we were done.

Saturday - we helped take down the bingo/pancake breakfast tables and chairs and then set up for the evening dance.  We were done at 10:30, we went back to the motorhome and loaded our things in the car to go.  We were to meet the seller of our Casa at 3:00 at the Junction.  We stopped at Home Depot and picked up supplies to begin our remodeling of the house.  It takes an hour and a half to drive from our park in Mesa to the Junction. Since we arrived about an hour before we were to meet the seller, we went to Saddlebrooke to three estate sales that Dan and Jan had told us about.  At the second sale, we bought a queen bed frame and at the third sale, we bought a shop vac.  Back at the Junction, we did our walk through and closed on the sale of our Casa.  After the seller left, we looked through the entire house and the yard and took many pictures - our "before" remodeling shots.  If only the seller had not had painting done after he bought it - the rooms are all colored in bright yellow and split pea green.  Our living room has both colors!  We had supper with W& J and then went to stay with Dan that evening and for our four days in the area.

Bright yellow walls

Isn't this a lovely green?

Week Two at Good Life

Sunday - we went to Mass this week at All Saints Church.  We are trying to find a church home with good music.  This was a larger church than the week before and had a cantor and pianist that morning.  We picked up groceries on the way home and had a quiet day at home.

Monday - Gary worked outside on projects and I took down our Christmas decorations and cleaned.  The air was still cooler, but warmed up in the afternoons, before cooling quickly again at night.  The park was having a "Prom Night" dinner and dance.  We did not go, but got to see our neighbors and friends all dressed up in long gowns and tuxs for the event.  As we rode our bikes around that evening, we saw other couples dressed up and one even sitting on the back of a convertible to take them to the dance.

Tuesday - we worked on the computer doing financials and catching up the blog for December.  We ran a few errands and enjoyed the day.

Wednesday - we had breakfast and then drove south of Mesa, Gilbert and Queen Creek to Coolidge, AZ.  Gary had researched and found that we needed to go to the BIA office there to get set up our electricity billing for the Casa.  It was our first drive through Gilbert and the areas south of Mesa.  As we left the urban area to reach Coolidge, we drove into heavy fog.  In the desert??  They have irrigated fields there and the moisture and cool air combination created the fog.  It was pretty thick for a while, let up gradually as we reached Coolidge.  On the drive back, the fog had cleared.  We stopped and shopped at the Sam's Club in Gilbert before going home.  At 4:00 we went across the street to our 26th Street block's Happy Hour gathering.  Every week someone on the block hosts the Happy Hour gathering from 4:00 to 5:00 pm, providing munchies for those attending.  Everyone brings their own chairs and beverage.  Ken and Vi hosted this week.  It was a great time to get to know everyone on our block, Vi had us all tell our names and where we were from.  Most everyone else was from Canada, but a there was a couple from Wisconsin and a couple renting from Michigan.  One lady, Florence, is 90+ and has been coming to the park for 32 years, living here year round for the last eight years.  Everyone goes home after 5:00.  Some of the group, the Canadians, play cards at the clubhouse later that night.  We had a little supper and then went up to the ballroom to watch the Wednesday night movie.  This week it was "Million Dollar Arm".  It was a good movie, about recruiting and training two young men from India to be baseball pitchers in America.

Thursday - back to work.  Pretty much the same schedule again, shuffleboard courts and room setups.  We have split shifts because of the change in activities during the day, so we went home for a couple hours then back in at noon to change room set ups for the afternoon card games.  We set out chairs and clean up tables on Thursdays at the Sports Complex patio, where they have the park happy hour from 3:00-5:00 PM.  Afterward, we or one of the other workamper couples have to clean up the area and put the chairs away. This week, the ball team was having a "Pork Chop Dinner" as a fundraiser for their group, so we set up the social hall room for that event.  Back home, we started working on packing up the motorhome to be mobile again.  We will be going to Quartzite, AZ with W&J, leaving on Sunday.

Friday - After the regular morning routine, we took down the dinner setup in the social hall and set up for the "Quilt til You Wilt".  Once a month, the quilters group takes over the entire room and works on their quilts together all day.  They bring food to share and the park provides the coffee, lemonade, pop and water for them.  Later that day, we did the Bingo setup and the patio setup for the Karaoke for happy hour.  That night, we decided to leave the compound and drove to a restaurant in Gilbert for a burger and a beer.

Saturday - Mary and Marty have been assigned the shuffleboard courts for Saturdays now.  This Saturday, the park sales office was having their big open house, so we helped Leanne haul coffee, lemonade, plates, napkins, and cups to the sales models.  On the same Saturday each month of the sales open house, they allow the residents to have patio sales - miniature rummage sales at their own lots.  It made for an active morning, there were many people moving around to check out the sales.  The Bingo/Pancake Breakfast setup can not be taken down until 9:30 each week, so our group set the other rooms first and then does that big job.
Back home, we finished organizing the motorhome and I made a grocery run for our trip.  We went to Mass at 4:30 and then had supper and visited the pool.

First Week in Mesa

Sorry for the delay with the blog.  As you will read, we have been busy in our first months of 2015!

Monday - We went in to meet with our supervisor, thinking we were to get the workamper orientation presentation from the activities director.  She was not in, so Leanne had us finish filling out paperwork and told us she would send us the work schedule for our days that week by email.  "Report to work on Thursday morning" were our instructions, so we went home to do other things.  Just before noon, I went to the Functional Fitness class.  The park personal fitness trainer lead the class, it was a good one for toning and balance.  That afternoon we went to the pool.  The air temperature was still cooler, but with the heated pools and getting out of the wind, we were able to enjoy sitting in the sun.

This park has 1100 sites, about 80% of them are park models (small manufactured homes for seasonal living) owned privately or by the park.  The other 25% are RV/Fifth Wheel/Trailer sites.  They told us that over 75% of the snowbirds here are from Canada. The others are mostly from the upper Midwest, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and about 40 couples from South Dakota.  Because of all the people, the park has an incredible amount of classes and activities for everyone to participate in.  Exercise classes (and a well appointed fitness room), over 10 different card games, bunco, dominos, quilting, bands and choruses, groups for biking, hiking, pool, bocce ball, golf, horseshoes, pickle ball, ping pong, tennis, softball and shuffleboard, health classes, and dances one or two times a week.  You could be involved constantly about 12 hours a day if you wanted to.  And then there is all the socializing each afternoon, either at the clubhouse or in the neighborhoods. Each snowbird park in the area also has a huge Bingo night, some people go from park to park and play every night. So if you have ever wondered what snowbirds do all winter in Arizona, they do a lot! Probably more than they do at their homes the rest of the year.

Tuesday - We had breakfast and headed to Tucson and the Junction.  Wally and Jan (W&J - our friends at the Junction) had called the night before and told us the mobile home we really liked at the park was for sale - again!  We had looked at it last year and others in the park, just to know what they were like.  This was the particular lot and floorplan layout we liked the best, recognizing it needed some work and updating.  It was still for sale when we arrived in November, but was sold to a gentleman in December.
They called because he was selling it and at a price too good to dismiss, so we decided we should take another look.  He showed us around and we saw the improvement work he had done on it since he purchased it in December.
We had lunch and talked it over and agreed we really liked it and it would allow us to have a little more room in the winter months to live and have room for visitors to stay with us.  We made arrangements to buy it with the seller and headed back home to Mesa.  Our heads were spinning, thinking about the whole deal and what we would update to make it a home for us. A new challenge!
 

Our new desert Casa

Nice deck for sunset viewing

Our Catalina Mountains view

Wednesday - After a better night's sleep than the night before, we spent the day researching ideas for the new house (to be called our desert Casa), got things ready for our work days and enjoyed the pool again.

Thursday - Our first day of work at the park.  We began at 7:30 AM and were trained on how to properly clean the shuffleboard courts.  The leader of the shuffleboard group was there to train us.  Dust mop the lanes, sweep the walkways between the lanes, vacuum up the swept dirt piles, then damp mop each lane twice.  It's all about the sliding of the discs and they play competitively.
Next we removed chairs from the ballrooom floor, to allow the line dancing classes to be there.  Then there were several other rooms to set up for cards, EMS blood pressure checks, musician jam sessions, etc.  The table and chairs duties began.  The day went quickly and we slept well that night.

Friday - Shuffleboard cleaning again and then new room setups for the day.  It was a little cool at 7:30 in the morning, but we warmed up quickly pushing the brooms and mops around.  That afternoon we learned how to do what would be our big weekly setup; Friday night bingo. Tables are set across the entire ballroom to seat almost 500 players, using a marked pole to show how far from the stage the table ends should be, how far apart each table row should be and another mark for the aisle spaces.  Then six chairs to every table.  They do have setup diagrams for us to look at as we learn, so that helped.

On our Thursday, Friday and Saturday crew, there are two other couples and three other men (their wives work in the office).  Luckily, two of them had worked the year before and the months prior to us starting, so they knew how the events should be set up.  Mike and Regina are from St Joe, Missouri and this is their first workamping job.  Marty and Mary retired from Chicago and it is their first time at the park, they have been camp hosts at parks in the summer months.  All of them live at the other end of the park because they have dogs with them, the park is divided with the pet section and those without pets. This park has a very nice dog run that the pet owners really like.

Saturday - This was a shorter day for us.  We cleaned the shuffleboard courts again and then took down all the bingo tables and chairs, after the pancake breakfast was done using them.  Then we learned how to set up for the weekly Saturday night dance.  This was a smaller setup.  Our work day was done at 11:00.  We went home for lunch and then enjoyed the pool and hot tub again in the afternoon.  As we sat at the pool, we watched more campers coming in to the park.  The snowbirds were arriving and all around us we could hear people talking about the cold and snowy weather "back home".

2015 Begins

Thursday - New Year's Day   We woke up to over 6" of snow covering everything.  What a change!  We had seen snow in the desert in some of our other visits through the years, but now it affected us with the motorhome and our scheduled travel for the day.  Gary went out and climbed on the roof, sweeping all the snow off the slide awnings and roof, before we went to Mass.  Luckily, the sun came out mid morning and melted most of the remaining snow and ice off the slides before we had to pull them in to drive out.  We said goodbye to Wally and Jan and left the park about noon.  The roads were all melted and dry by then.  We stopped for gas and propane fill ups, hooked up the car and headed north to Mesa to the Good Life RV Resort for our new job.
Arriving at Good Life, we were escorted to our space and got set up.  It was dry and sunny, but a little chilly air there in Mesa.  We checked in and were told to report the next morning to talk to our supervisor.  A long, busy day with new challenges - we were tired and went to bed.

Snow in the park, even on the palm trees

Snow covered everything

Sun and blue sky - melting has begun

Snow covered mountains - we have never seen this much on them

 Friday - We went in at 9:00 AM to meet our supervisor, Leanne.  We met with her for a short time and then were told we would have orientation at 9:00 on Monday.  She gave us our uniform shirts and name badges.  "Enjoy the park and learn about all the amenities" was our assignment for the weekend.  We spent more time at home, setting up everything for our stay and then rode our bikes around the park to see everything. Our neighbors, Ken & Vi, from across the street welcomed us and invited us to join their group at the park happy hour gathering that afternoon.  They told us who some of the other neighbors on the our street are and where they are from.  Most of them are from Canada - provinces of Alberta and British Columbia and have been coming here for several years. We also have Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowans on our block, so lots in common.
We went to the Happy Hour gathering.  The park hosts one every week day, providing entertainment with live music or karaoke.  The park does not have any concessions, so everyone brings their own beverage and snacks.  We found out line dancing is huge here, they have lessons in the park and many of the ladies were up dancing to every song.  Some songs were good for couple dancing, so we were able to get out on the floor a few times.

Saturday - We spent the day enjoying our new site in the park and watched football.  I went to a walking exercise class in the late morning.  They use videos by Leslie Sansone's, on Saturdays they walk 3-5 miles in the video. We ran errands and picked up groceries and then went to enjoy the heated pool and hot tub that night.

Sunday - We went to Mass at one of the many area churches.  Home again, we watched football and took naps.  That night, we grilled chicken in the NuWave oven and enjoyed sitting outside.

Sunset view from our new site in Mesa