Wendy & Gary's New Chapter

Author: Gary Kessler

  • October 18th, 2025

    Wow, it’s been a while since I posted anything. We’ve been really busy with house activities since the last post. We’re at that stage where everything is inside except for the stucco color coat and some doors and window stuff. So, let me bring y’all up to speed.

    Since the last post, it’s been crazy. I’ll start the the fun stuff. We’ve had drywall and taping done, and the painters have painted the entire inside of the house the first coat. We have interior doors stained and finished along with the frames. They look amazing. We made an interesting choice for the hallway ceiling on a suggestion from our contractor. She thought a tongue and groove ceiling would be a statement – so we put in a tongue and groove ceiling, stained to match the woodwork. It looks incredible and is a design statement. We finally got the front door windows which allowed us to get the front door installed. The stucco guys have patched in the front door, garage door and base coated the kiva fireplace. We’re ready for the color coat. We also picked up the outdoor sconces from Southwest Lighting. They will be amazing.

    We had picked out all the tile and flooring, but when we went to order the supplier was out of stock on most of the tile and the flooring had been discontinued. The supplier wasn’t in control of his stock and had no idea of what was available or not available. We changed to a supplier suggested by our contractor, and we’re really happy. Choices are slightly different, but much better, I think. We’re ordering flooring and tile on Monday next week with the goal to start in a couple of weeks.

    We got cabinets delivered on Thursday, and our builder installed everything he could. The manufacturer shorted us two big cabinets which are critical path as they need to be installed before we can do flooring. Our supplier is working on getting them prioritized. Other than that issue, the cabinets are amazing and really beautiful. They will be a statement. The cool thing is that they come with a 100-year warranty. Each cabinet has a serial number, so if anything goes wrong, we call the company, give them the serial number and they replace whatever we need. Crazy good warranty.

    We’ve picked out and ordered all out lighting. Now we’re getting all the switches, outlets and plates which are a bunch! We have power to the house now, so all we need is the switches and outlets along with the lightening. Once we done with that and the flooring, then the appliances get installed. The last thing will be the plumbing, which can’t wait for. I really want to get out washer and dryer put in place so we can at least do laundry over at the house and not my brother-in-laws house. Just easier and simpler. Once all that is done, the painters will return and put on one more coat of paint after the HVAC mini splits are installed and we’re ready to go.

    Of course, we have a garage door and opener to install, but that will wait until we have the junction box populated. Interesting design flaws in our house. The architect put a Canale (water drain) right over where the meter and disconnects are located, so when it rains, water is all over the box. A short would take out the transformer – so we had to put in gutters to collect the water and drain it out away from the transformer. It takes away from the house design, but we’ll make the gutters match the stucco and they will blend into the wall. We also need to start working on the outdoor cabinets and cooking area so we can get those finished for the housewarming BBQ before it gets too cold. I need to have the workshop cleaned out so I have some room.

    We’re getting close and I think we’ll have a certificate of occupancy sometime in the first few weeks of December. As I’m paying for finishing this with 401k monies, my taxes next year are going to be painful. And with a 30% tax deduction, 50k becomes 70k which depletes things pretty quickly. I think we’ll finish this so there’s no mortgage and we’ll take out a small HELOC to finish the pool and landscaping which will give us a tax deduction. All-in-all it’s not been a terrible experience, but it is organized chaos and I’m glad that we’re on site to manage the questions, progress and other things that come up daily.

    One thing about our property is the mud. When it rains here, the soil is very slow to absorb the water so when the contractors come, it turns everything into a muddy mess. I’ve spread about 2″ of base coat dirt over the parking and driveway, which helps, but it’s still soft underneath and there’s huge tire tracks and some standing water. Once we’re done, I’m going to have someone come in a fix the soft mud areas and create a good driveway and parking areas. I’ve talked to my contractor and asked her to focus the spend on the items and work that we need to get a certificate of occupancy as soon as possible. Then we can spread the non-essential work into next year to reduce our tax burden and ease the spending. We still have some residual costs for furniture, bedding, blinds and household essentials. It’ll be a bit before we completely settled in, but it’s exciting now.

    Jaret, our youngest, is done with fire season. We’re looking forward to him coming back here for a few months to help out with the move getting us settled into the house. He’s missing his dog, so that reunion will be worth filming. I think he’ll probably stay in the trailer when he’s here, but he’ll be welcome in the house. His help will be welcome in getting this stuff out of the workshop.

    End of October, I’m heading to Seattle for a long weekend with my kids and grandkids. Looking forward to going out on Halloween with my grandkids and spending time with my kids too. I want to talk to Lucas about my diabetes and let him know that he’s not along in the family and grandpa has diabetes too. And I’ll help him understand the difference between my diabetes and his version.

    Well, time to sign off for a while. Need to feed the dogs, get dinner ready and get in a walk. Take care everyone and I’ll post again after I get back from Seattle.

  • September 26th, 2025

    Clearly, I’m not one of those bloggers who can write about something every day, it’s just too much work for me…. I’m trying to blog about our journey in New Mexico about every 10 days or so and I’m terrible at that also. Anyway, let’s dive into what’s going on here in NM.

    The house is coming along nicely as you can see from the above photo. This is the “brown coat” of stucco, which is the base coat for the house. Once this cures after about 10 days, then the color coat is applied. Inside the house, there is a lot of activity. The walls are taped and textured now. Our painter has started with the primer and painting of the house. He’s also staining the rest of the beams, internal and exterior. We had a delivery of tongue and groove ceiling for the patio yesterday, so that needs to be stained along with the doors and baseboard. We ordered the baseboards and discovered that because they do door framing differently now by using bullnose, so all the baseboard has to have a rounded baseboard piece to meet up with the door frame. These small pieces are $4.00 each and we need 40 of them!!!

    We had the septic installed this week, so one more step closer to being able to take a shower! Cabinets will go in the week of October 13th and then flooring right after. We have ordered all the tile and Quartz for the countertops, so waiting on cabinets to get installed. All the electrical is ready, I just need PNM to make the connections to the house and install the meter at some point. Our plumbing will be one of the last things to happen. We’re still sorting out the landscaping concepts, but I think we have a pretty good idea of how we want things to finish out. I have a LOT OF DIRT left over from the septic, so I’m going to move it next week and start working on the landscaping and drainage. Our appliances are in storage with our supplier until we get cabinets and electrical installed.

    I still have a few bills to pay. We’re still without a front door because of Pella. Never, never, never use Pella windows. While the reserve windows are good, the rest of their product line is crap. And they don’t make their own doors, so the doors don’t match the windows! For the money you pay, they don’t provide the quality of product. Our GC is hoping to get the windows for the front door next week, and we still need the one broken window in the master replaced. Pella shipped the wrong size initially. One point about fiberglass windows and stucco. When the stucco crew puts on the chicken wire base, they often beat up the corners of the windows. With the exterior being fiberglass, it exposes the fibers as in the picture below.

    Window Corner damage

    After the color coat is on, Pella is going to come out and clean up all the windows, install the screens and ensure all the windows are working properly. I have some acrylic paint pens the match the exterior color, which I’m going to use to cover up the white under coating. That should make my happy. She’s seriously annoyed and notices all the small details – which I’m thankful for. I think she’s going on the social media war path with Pella and all the issues we’ve had with them. Again, avoid using them if at all possible. There are so many other good providers that will give you a better product.

    Other things going on in our journey. I believe I mentioned last time that Wendy has a new job at PNM as a sourcing manager, which is karma. Now she’s asking me all sorts of questions about electric utility things, and SHE’S INTERESTED!! We attended the NM wine festival last month. Kinda lame and clearly not the same caliber as what they do in Washington, but the quality of the wine and the grapes isn’t to our tastes either. NM wines don’t have the same character and body as Washington and California wines. They tend to be very fruit forward (i.e. sweeter) than what we’re used to. There are a couple of wineries that we’re going to try out that are near us, but it’s not like Walla Walla, Washington wine country.

    The New Mexico ballon festival is starting next week for 10 days. It’s an amazing event with hundreds of balloons and people attending and beautiful balloons every day they can fly. With the mornings and evenings being much cooler, they have been flying balloons in the “ABQ box”. The “box” is a unique wind pattern that is a square wind flow at different altitudes. High altitude (1k ft or higher) takes you south, then around 400 ft, the wind drifts your north again, so you end up landing back where you started.

    Hot Air Balloon

    This balloon was drifting near our property yesterday. We see a lot of them this way during this time of year. Last year we had a couple land on our property. We were not here then, but my brother-in-law wasn’t happy about it. He needs to lighten up. We’d have served the coffee and champagne!!

    Our monsoon season officially comes to and end this weekend, so rain and storms will become less frequent. It’s been a pretty light monsoon season, so water and plants are going to have a rough time. I was hoping for more consistent rain so I could get the dirt areas planted with grass, but that isn’t going to happen. We’ll landscape and gravel the areas that are muddy and build out a driveway in November, so the cars do get the sticky mud all over them that stains. I’m going to do a bunch of dirt work next week with my father-in-laws tractor to level out the bumps and move the excess dirt from the septic. With the cooler days, it’s a lot easier to yardwork done.

    Well, for now I think that’s about everything. I need to get ready for the day and open the gate for the contractors. It’s cloudy today so it’ll be cooler – thinking I’ll take out the Can-Am this morning and explore the desert more. Maybe ride out the mountains.

    Take care everyone and have a great day. Enjoy each moment because it’s the only time you’ll experience that moment.

    More later.

  • September 16th, 2025

    Man, it’s been a while since I posted. Lot’s going on with the house. Interesting part of the build, there’s work occurring inside the house that’s not visible, i.e. drywall, taping and spackling and doing some cleanup work. The Pella guys were here yesterday. They did a good job of fixing the windows and they look much better. They fixed one of the broken ones except the bedroom window – which they will come back and fix once it comes in.

    Last week, they did trench for the electrical and water. Here’s a picture:

    Utility trenches waiting on inspections.

    The trenches need to be inspected, so we’re waiting on that before we cover the trenches. Hoping that happens this week.

    Today is the start of the outside stucco, they will be brown coating which is the base coat of the stucco. Once set and cured, then they do the color coat after everything is done inside. We should be done with the inside work and plaster next week. Then we can start with the electrical and painting. We’re meeting with the tile guys again Saturday to confirm all the materials and rooms. It’s starting to come together and it’s feeling like a house. We’re pretty excited to get in the house and out of the trailer.

    We’ve been going to church lately. I felt like something was missing as I get older, and Wendy likes going to church, so I thought it might be a good time to try church again. I’m thinking that it’ll help us build roots in the community – which it’s doing. And thinking it will help me build friends than relationships that are durable and lasting. I’m volunteering to be an election official just to get me out of the trailer.

    Wendy has started her new job at PNM. I think she’s enjoying it as she doesn’t have to deal with people and she’s an individual contributor. Funny thing is that she understands the conversations and all the technical terms they use. She must have been listening to me at some point. Too funny. She does ask me about terms and lingo occasionally – which is good because I want to help her be successful.

    Well, I need to get going today as there’s lots going on at the house and I do have some Itron work to do…. I’m going to do a walk thru of the house with all the wall board up and a drone shot of the brown coat to post later.

    Take care everyone.

  • August 27th, 2025

    Monsoon season sunset

    It’s been a bit since I last posted. Couple of weeks or so. Thought I’d post up progress on the house and what’s been going on with us as we adjust to living in New Mexico.

    First, the house. Things are progressing quickly. We’re still hoping to make a Thanksgiving move-in date. It’s going to be close. Drywall is getting hung this week. All the interior framed walls have been insulated. Interior doors are here; frames are in and stained. Drywall should be done this week, then the team comes in and does plaster and texture. Here’s a picture of the current state of the dining room/drybar area. The brown stuff is sound insulation installed in the framed areas.

    Drybar area

    We’re getting the power trench dug this week and the buried pipes marked. We have cabinets on order, appliances are in storage with the vendor and I’ll be putting down some $$ for the lighting package. Our GC is dealing with the flooring and carpet. Pella will be here second week in September to fix all the windows and install the front door. The house is wrapped and ready for stucco – so that’s in flight.

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    We’re waiting on the Septic company to get back to us and schedule septic install. Then we’ll get water installed and painting started.

    Things are starting to come together and it’s exciting. Thank goodness because I’m NOT A TRAILER PERSON. Living in the 5th wheel has been an experience, but I’m ready for my house and living like real people. Wendy is super excited. We bought Amish bedroom furniture and an Amish entertainment center. We still have to buy a bed and a living room television so there’s more monies. We did settle on Ethan Allan living room sofa and chairs for the kitchen island eating area. We have a fabricator for the kitchen counters and the quartz picked out. Once we get most of the interior stuff done, then we’ll level out the building pad and start work on the retaining wall to keep the pad stable and define a “yard area”. We’ll probably do a cinder block wall and stucco.

    On a personal level, Wendy secured a new job with PNM the power company that I used to work for. It’s significantly better than where she’s currently working and close to home. She’s excited and I think she’ll like it a lot more with a lot less stress and drama. We’ve started going to a local church that’s small and has a lot of locals. Since my brother-in-law is recovering from his lung and heart issues, we haven’t gone out to breakfast, so we decided to invest time in our spiritual needs and become more rooted in the community. It’s very helpful for my mental health and our marriage.

    We’re slowly finding doctors and dentists. I now have a good endocrinologist and cardiologist locally. I haven’t spent enough time finding a primary care doctor, but I’ll get that done this week, hopefully. My endocrinologist in Seattle put me on Ozempic, so I’ve lost a lot of weight (175 -> 157) and my blood pressure is way down. My diabetes is better and improving, but I need to start exercising on a regular basis and so resistance training. The Ozempic has reduced my lean muscle mass some, so I look a bit like a skeleton. Wendy isn’t happy with how much weight I’ve lost. With resistance training, it’ll restore the lost muscle mass. Still haven’t reviewed my echocardiogram with my cardiologist, but I read the results which seem positive. I’ve been taking MitoQ to help reduce and repair some of the hardening of the arteries. It seems to help but I won’t know until I talk to the cardiologist.

    Once we’re in the house, I’m going to get involved in some shooting sports, specifically sporting clays. I think it’ll help me get more rooted in the community. The sporting clay shooters meet on Wednesday for breakfast before they go to the range. Sounds like fun and a chance to make some new acquaintances.

    I’m planning on going to full retirement right after the first of the year. I think it’s time, and I will have the shop empty, so I can start building out my office and doing wood working. And there will be a lot of landscaping to complete. I can ride on Wendy’s medical and vision insurance and supplement with Medicare and a gap insurance plan. There will be plenty to do around the property, and I do need to get the pasture fenced.

    Harp, our Wheaten Terrier has been having issues with arthritis. We took him to the vet and they gave him a shot of Librela Blue which really helped him. It’s good for about 3 – 4 weeks before he needs another one. He’s at 3.5 weeks from his first shot, so I can tell he needs another one. I’ll take him in this Friday. He’s getting up there now. He’s 11 going on 12, so we have a little more time with him and we intend to spoil him until we can’t. His passing will be really hard on Wendy and I. He’s such a wonderful dog. We are parenting Juni, which is Jaret’s labradoodle, but she’ll leave when Jaret comes to NM this October to pick up his stuff. He’s moving to Utah and becoming a resident. That’s a whole different story, but a good one….finally!!!!

    Well, that’s about everything for now. There’s always little stuff going on, but generally life is trending in the right direction and we’re fortunate that everyone and everything is healthy for now.

    Have a good week and labor day. We all work too hard, and need to work on being present for our loved ones. I’m so fortunate to have a wonder wife, daughter and sons. I miss them. I’m hoping I can make a trip up to Seattle and spend some time with my family and reconnect with our grandkids.

    Take care –

  • August 12th, 2025

    Sunset tonight

    It’s been almost a month since I last posted. Time flies when your old and having fun…

    So many things have happened since my last post. Let’s start with the house. Not much has been going on from the outside but a lot has happened on the inside. All the electrical is wired, inspections passed and now for the insulation and drywall. We’ve charted a path with Pella about the windows. We’ll see how the results are once all the pieces are in place. We have updated door hardware coming and have ordered all the interior doors. The Pella sliders are amazing and will look incredible. I’m kind of pissed at us for deviating from the recommended windows, but we’ll learn. The painters are working on staining the beams and the insulation guys start tomorrow with insulating all the interior walls. The foam guy came today and foamed in all the cracks with closed cell foam to stop air loss. We’re still trying to get the front door sorted out with Pella. The local Pella team sez the current front door won’t work as delivered. The corporate team sez it’ll work fine. I’m letting my contractor and architect work out the problem with Pella. They’ve been less than helpful. The local people are awesome, the corporate people are terrible. I wouldn’t recommend Pella unless you don’t have a window choice. Nice windows, terrible customer service and support.

    We’ve paid for the new bed and entertainment center, all built by the Amish who work with Simply Amish. Beautiful stuff and will last forever. We’ve picked out a sofa and dining chairs for the kitchen bar. We still need to buy a mattress, but that will wait for a couple of months until we get closer to occupancy. Lots of little stuff to worry about. We finally have a connection plan for power, and that’s getting spun up. Giant pain in the ass working with PNM, which is going to be Wendy’s new employer and my old employer. We have to put up a private pole, run the lateral up the pole and wire it over to the power pole (that I also own and has the transformer I bought) so they can hook it up. PITA!! Hopefully next week that will start. We still have the septic to install, but that should be pretty quick and easy.

    As the house is sitting on a 3′ building pad, there is a bit of an uphill climb to get to the front door. I think we’re going to build a 3 1/2′ retaining wall around the property with cement blocks and then stucco it. I’ll install steps at the appropriate location for access to the original ground level. That’s a ways out.

    Personally, I’m so ready to get out of this trailer and into the house. The main A/C unit fan went out, so we’re running the two alternate units. The units are able to cool down the RV to 90 degrees when it’s 110 degrees outside, so not a great temp gradient but at least it’s not terrible. The mobile RV repair people are going to replace the entire A/C unit as fan motors are not available since they come from China and are tariffed at 80%. And we all know that we pay for that, not China – so thank you President Trump. The man has no idea about the real world and is a complete moron about how things work in reality. Sorry, one of my sore subjects. Stupid people.

    Okay, it’s August so I’m a little more than half way through the year. That means retirement is closer. I’m going to retire 1/20 as that will make me 73 years old and I want to have my own time now. I’m planning on learning some Spanish, playing golf and focusing on playing guitar. I think I’ll finish my drone pilot license and do some pickup work. I’m going to make an appointment with a lawyer here to get our living will and family trust set up in accordance with NM law. I think I’m going to title the land and house to the trust, and probably all the vehicles.

    We thought we were going to lose our baby Harp on Sunday. He was lethargic and not eating or drinking. Having been down that path with 3 other dogs, we were going down the rathole of losing Harp too soon. Turns out, Harp was having an arthritis flair up and he was in pain. The Vet prescribed a shot, did a blood test and x-rays on Harp. He’s healthy, passed the ultrasound with flying colors. The meds are starting to take effect and he’s showing improvement. I thank the Lord that Harp is still here and will be for a while. I’m grateful.

    Well it’s time for bed. I’ll post more after the wall board is up and the house is ready for stucco. 3 more months!!

    Take care everyone.

  • July 25th, 2025

    Monsoon sunset

    Well, it’s Friday. Time to post since it’s been a while since my last post. Today is 9 years since my Dad passed. I miss him terribly. I miss my Mom and my brother too. It’s hard being away from my kids and grandkids. I miss them all. Even though we didn’t see them much while we lived in Seattle, it was always good for me when we did see them. And we had the option of planning something, which we never did often. If I had advice, I’d say stay close to your family, it brings satisfaction and keeps your mental health positive. Okay, enough wallowing.

    Let’s see, the last couple of weeks have been busy. It seems like we have a weekend free and it gets swallowed up. So let’s start with the house. Electrical is on its way to being done, hopefully today. We will not lack for outlets, lights or switches!!! Our stucco guy started work today on the house. I expect to have the house wrapped over the next week. We got the Kiva fireplace installed yesterday. Turns out that the design our architect used for the chimney isn’t to code. The spark arrester at the end of the chimney needs to be either out in the open or if it’s enclosed, then the enclosure needs to be metal. Soooo, that means we need to remove the wood enclosure and fabricate a metal version. Here’s picture. The red circle is the part that needs replacing.

    South view

    So, we’re working on finding a fabrication shop that can provide a chimney cap that replicates the style. Frankly, a chimney cap would be better than the original approach. A chimney cap will provide rain protection and keep the critters out of the chimney space. Guaranteed that a bird would nest up there. Still nothing from Pella about the windows. Wendy is livid and so am I. We’re close to having the windows ripped out and replaced by Anderson or something else that is better. The downside is that would set the schedule back 6 weeks. And the front door is a debacle. Our contractor isn’t comfortable with how it goes together or that it will have any structural integrity. Our architect wants to try it and see how it goes. I’m not keen on that approach as I don’t want any more digging into the SIP panels to make fixes for crappy manufacturing.

    Alright enough with the house for now. Hoping to get electrical rough in inspection done next week, Pella repairs done and doors installed. The sliders should be delivered next week. We should also finalize the cabinets next week. My last lighting quote was 20k, most of it was lighted medicine cabinets for the 3/4 and master bathrooms. With the lack of space, we needed the lighted mirrors and medicine cabinets – especially in the 3/4 bath.

    So, we took my brother-in-law to the hospital last Sunday. His oxygen level was at 62%. The emergency room doctor told him that if he had waited, he would have passed out and died. Fortunately, they got him on oxygen and are working on getting the excess water out of his legs and lungs. He as congestive heart failure due to his weight. His hospital doctor was very straight forward with him. Told him that if he doesn’t take this seriously and make changes, he was going to send him home and free up bed space because why waste it on someone who isn’t interested in helping themselves. I think that shook my brother-in-law up, a lot. He’s working on getting his O2 levels up so he can start walking with us. Our goal is to take the side-by-sides to Red River at the end of next month. Hoping that works out. This is why we moved here – to take care of Wendy’s family now.

    It’s been hot here even though monsoon season cools off in the evening. Makes it difficult for me to get much done during the day as I get too hot. Freaking aging sucks from the standpoint of being active. I have to get stuff done in the morning or evening. Things will cool off in September. I’m going to try and get our well water analyzed on Monday just so I know what’s in the water and if I need to filter it. We’ve been drinking it with a charcoal filter since we arrived here, and the water tastes good. More worried about chemicals that you can taste, like arsenic.

    I’ve been spending the last couple of weeks doing project management and sourcing for the house. Making decisions about where outlets go, thermostats for the heated flooring and a million other things. Work seems to be getting in the way and I’m seriously contemplating just retiring. I need to get the house built and occupied before I do that. I’m so underutilized at work and have so little responsibility now. If I was challenged or had a position that used my skills where I could see line of sight to results, it’d be awesome. But for now, I’ll keep doing what I’m doing until they don’t want me anymore. Once I retire completely, I’m going to volunteer more, take advantage of my time and golf, read more and learn Spanish (so I can understand what the workers are talking about!) and finally get my Part 107 drone license so I can do gig drone work. I’ll spend more time in the workshop, build out my office in there and do more wood working. There will be a lot of work to do around the property too. Fencing, mowing and building out the landscaping. I don’t think I’ll lack for things to do. I’m actually looking forward to a change of pace. I think it’ll be really good for my mental and physical health. We’ve started trying to attend a local church on Sundays to build more community and a better mental attitude. With the state of our society today, church helps overcome all the negativity and polarization. It provides a better framework for living.

    Well, that’s probably enough for today, Friday. Next week will be a heart test for my cardiologist. Hoping that goes well. I’ll post next Friday and summarize house progress, progress toward starting to build a new life here and anything else that might be interesting.

    Take care and enjoy the weekend.

    -Gary

  • July 17th, 2025

    Our pasture mowing crew.

    Sometimes after a trying day it’s just humbling to go stand in the pasture and watch the goats nibble on the ground cover.

    It’s been a bit since I posted last. As expected the house building is slowing down from a visible perspective. We’re in the rough-in stage now. We’ve got all the plumbing and HVAC rough-in work done, now for the electrical. This is the most difficult as it’s all about where outlets go, switches go, which switch controls what lights, how many switches control the same lights, lights in the bathroom, so on and so on. Lots of small details that need attention.

    An example. We had floodlights on the exterior of the house that were motion activated. After getting the house built and all the intrusions that have been made to the SIP panels, I decided to NOT put in anymore lights on the exterior of the house that would require cutting into the insulation and putting in a lighting can. Instead, we deleted all the exterior cans and floods from the plan and put in two outlets for low voltage lighting to replace the floods. We originally had sconces for hallway lighting, we removed all of those and went with Brio LED cans instead. There have been so many lighting changes, especially after visiting the lighting store, that we finally scrapped the original plan and started over. It’s been an experience trying to get all the lighting right. Once it’s done, you really can’t change it. Locating the outlets for the built-in appliances is a challenge as you have to coordinate with the cabinet maker to make sure everything lines up. It’s crazy.

    Last post I believe I talked about the mess Pella made with the windows. Well, we have a resolution but it’s going to set us back at least two months on the build. Thank you, Pella, for screwing up everything. I will NEVER use Pella again for windows. They have TERRIBLE manufacturing and customer service. Not like I’m every going to build another house….. Here’s the plan, Pella is sending a crew out to inventory the windows, fix what they can and replace what they can’t fix. Problem is the crew won’t start until the 29th of July. So, house wrap, stucco and all the exterior stuff that needs to be done is delayed a couple of months until the windows and doors are installed. And that means the framers will have to reframe the windows and make a mess of the SIP. We’re so pissed off about this. I’m trying to be level-headed about this, but it’s hard. We’ll see what the end resolution is for us.

    Otherwise, things are moving along. The electrician is about 2-3 days away from finishing the rough-in work for the electrical. Monday all the soffit framing will be finished and the doors installed. We’re trying to move and not be too affected by the Pella screwups.

    On a different note, Wendy is interviewing for jobs. Her current job is a mess, and the owner has to micromanage people. Typical startup owner whose business has grown, and he isn’t capable of letting go or trusting people to run their departments. His business will never grow beyond where it’s at now. He’s a genius at organic formulas and creating supplements, but terrible at running the business. He’ll spend a dollar to save a dime, then change his mind again. And his staff thrives on chaos and generates chaos just for the sake of excitement. We’re hoping that she hears something positive end of this week or next.

    It’s been a crazy week. Wendy’s brother called us on Sunday with low blood oxygen level (60) which is fatal if left unattended. We took him to the hospital, and they’ve been treating him. He has congestive heart failure happening because of his weight. 436lbs and he’s 5’10”. His cardiologist has been really straight forward with the impact of his weight on his health. In the past, he’s been really depressed which has contributed to his issues. He’s finally coming out and starting to be more socially connected. We’re hoping this doctor’s tough message to him that if he doesn’t course correct, he’s a dead man, will make an impact. I think it’s making an impact, but time will tell. Hopefully, they let him out on Friday after cleansing all the CO2 and excess blood from his lungs and water in his legs. It isn’t good. He’s on oxygen now, so we’ll see how things play out today and tomorrow. Scary, scary stuff.

    Well, that’s enough craziness for today. I’ll close out now and blog more later once things settle down and move forward on the house.

    Take care and have a good weekend.

  • July 11th, 2024

    Well, this has been an interesting week for the house build. Things never seem to go as planned. When we started picking out materials for our house build, Pella Windows were part of the build package. Generally, our architect recommends a certain line of Pella windows, which are very good windows. In New Mexico, the variation of humidity as much as 50% from day-to-day cause wood to shrink and expand over time. Really hard on musical instruments. We decided to go with fiberglass windows – basically indestructible, requires no maintenance or staining and very clean lines. We checked them out in the show room. They were super nice and easy to manipulate.

    The windows (and front door) showed up on Monday. They didn’t fit in the window frames for the house. The front door came in pieces and wasn’t mulled together at the factory as normal. And the front door, once it’s put together is too big for the opening. As it turns out, Pella didn’t cross check the window sizes against the original windows that came with the package. And the fiberglass windows are more expensive. The framing crew made them fit after dismantling the window frames and reframing. BUT, once the windows were installed it became apparent that the windows were badly built. Scratches, poor miter joints, misaligned casings and generally terrible quality.

    Poor miter joints
    Misaligned casing joints

    So, the architect is working with Pella to determine the resolution, and reduce our blood pressure and anxiety. We’ll see how this works out.

    Yesterday we met with the lighting folks, which changed the entire lighting plan. We’re redoing the lighting plan completely, so our electrician does not have to work with a marked-up plan. Lighting is going to be very cool and transitional.

    The architect discovered that we have a canale that drains right in front of the garage side door. He and our general contractor are working out a solution for the water drainage. We don’t really want water splashing on the house and door, so it needs to be redirected. Fun stuff.

    Electrician is finishing outlets today, and the HVAC guy will be here to do one last vent for the master shower. The we finish up with the lighting rough-in and it’s time to start wall board. We still are waiting for the glass sliders from Pella which should be here end of the month. I’m sure that will require rebuilding the door frames, which is also an issue with our SIP panel maker. Overall, our architect isn’t happy with the panel people as this is rare for them to screw up dimensions. Overall, the windows generally work fine and are easy to use. We’ll have to see how things play out. The house is schedule to get wrapped next week, which will help weatherproof it for monsoon season.

    Organized chaos. That’s what building a house is like. And overcoming all the obstacles and things that come up during the build. It’s definitely challenging and takes a lot of energy. We still need to pick out small stuff, but we’re getting close. We discovered one of Wendy’s old teachers does cabinets. Had we known, we’d have used him as I’m sure they would be cheaper. We’re going to ask him to build the outdoor kitchen and garage cabinets. They should be amazing. Wendy’s cousin had him build their cabinets and they are beautiful.

    Alright, enough for this evening. My beautiful wife is home, so we need to go get some food. Take care and enjoy your evening.

  • July 8th, 2025

    Time for another post as it’s been a while since the last one. As you can see, things have slowed down on the house. We’ve managed to get all the rough-in plumbing done, HVAC rough-in’s done, and all the vents finished. The roofers came on the 4th and sealed up all the penetrations so there is no leaking during the monsoon rains.

    Our HVAC guys will need to move one vent as it’s too close to a Canale. That should happen this week. Yesterday our electrician started, so there was a lot of discussion about where switches are placed, how to power the house, running ethernet cable and small changes. We’re still discussing about fireplaces in the living room. Wendy wants a wall-hung fireplace, and I don’t want one at all. I’d rather use the space for furniture or entertainment center as this house has limited wall space. I can’t see the point of having a fake fireplace in the living room, especially since we have a Kiva fireplace on the patio. I’ll have the electrician wire in an outlet, and we can decide later.

    We got all our windows and doors yesterday. Now our framing crew gets to install them today and tomorrow in 100-degree heat. Totally sucks. As we’re in monsoon season, it’ll be hot for the next few days and then storms move back in on Saturday with rain (which we need). The framing crew needs to do some more soffits down the long hall and a step soffit on the living room outside wall to cover an HVAC setup. I should have eliminated the beams on each wall of the great room which would have made things easier. And we have a Canale that drains over the door to the garage, so we need to move that at some point or figure out a way to redirect the water. 90% of the time it won’t be a problem, but when it rains during the summer, it will be annoying.

    Saturday we have the cabinet lady coming to do final measurements for the cabinets. And I’ll order all the bathroom trim for the 1/2 bath from her. And finally, we have a meeting with our light fixture person on Thursday at noon to pick through light fixtures, switches and outlets. We still need to find a fireplace option for the living room.

    Generally, things for the house have been pretty mild and not a lot of drama. Most of the drama will be figuring out how to fund the final costs once the funds from the house sale run out. The payment for the windows and doors will pretty much drain things, but we do have funds to finish. It’ll be a question of taking out a small loan or just paying for it out of savings. All about tax advantages.

    On a different note, we are slowly getting settled in the community. Los Lunas isn’t a bustling city like Albuquerque where there is most everything available. We are in a rural area, so there is limited availability for shopping, doctors and vets. We did go to church this last Sunday and I really enjoyed it. Nice people, small congregation and low key. I’d like to figure out a way to make that a weekly thing and still have breakfast with my brother-in-law. I think it would be good for my mental health and attitude to keep going to church. I’ll talk to Wendy and my brother-in-law about moving breakfast to Saturday or early Sunday.

    Today will be too hot to do much in the day. Need to get stuff done in the morning or evening. During the day it’s super-hot and humid during the monsoon season. I know it’s high desert, but 25% – 40% humidity here is killer. Today will just be work stuff and killing the darn fly’s. I’ll need to chat with our electrician to talk about the fireplace in the living room and light switches and outlets.

    Wendy is looking to upgrade her job now that she’s been here a while. Her current company is a revolving door as the owner can’t let people he hires do their job. He and his “circle” micromanage everything. The issue here is that jobs as so “gate kept” that you have to be related to someone or know someone to get the good jobs. She’s been turned down for several jobs where she is the best qualified candidate but didn’t have the right last name (Hispanic) or knew someone. Albuquerque Public Schools is the worst as they actually rewrote a job that was exactly like her job in Washington for Lake Washington School District because she was better than the candidate APS wanted to promote. This place will never grow because they suffocate innovation and reject new thinking and the people who bring that to the table. New Mexico is very ladened in Hispanic and Indian thinking. Arizona, next door, is growing leaps and bounds because they welcome innovation, new thinking and the people who bring that. New Mexico rejects that and continues to embrace legacy thinking and anti-growth. It’ll always be poor but rich with “Heritage” which is another way to say “we don’t want progress”.

    Okay, enough soapbox. I need to get ready for the day. Lots to do.

    Take care everyone.

  • June 30th, 2025

    Last day of June, Wow. It’s gone so fast. House is making progress, just not visible externally. Plumbing is done and inspection is scheduled for this week. Hopefully, HVAC will start today and electrical will start this week. Once we have all that done, then the framers will come back and build out the soffits and move a couple of walls 3/4″ away from the toilets. We have a couple of other modifications that need to happen with a pony wall in the primary bathroom. After the HVAC is done, and all the penetrations are done in the roof (we have a boat load), the roofers will come back and seal them up to make them waterproof.

    Once we’re done with the all the wires, plumbing and HVAC we can start with the wallboard inside. We’ve picked out carpet, flooring and tile for everything. We’re still fine tuning the cabinets, but we have the kitchen appliances purchased and on order. Hoping to get the cabinets ordered second week of July. Then we have to pick out paint, cabinet knobs and stuff. We still haven’t done lightening fixtures but hoping to do that next weekend. This is definitely tiring. Stucco will be the last thing. Still waiting on windows and doors from Pella. They are terrible at delivering.

    Yesterday it was 98 degrees here. Hot with humidity as the monsoons bring afternoon rain which propagates clouds late afternoon. I took our camping chairs to the back patio of the house sat out while watching Wendy’s cousin’s goats in our pasture. Fun. Drove the dogs nuts. Discovered Juni can’t leave the lizards alone. She’s so curious and it drives the lizards crazy. I do need to get after the ants, so I’ll be going to the store to get some ant bait and kill those annoying insects. Ants and flys, two insects that deserve to not be on this planet. I’m sure there are others, but those two. And one of the big ants actually bit me yesterday, which hurt like heck. They are going to die.

    Today is Monday, so it’s laundry day – clothes, towels and sheets. I’ll spend all day doing the laundry, so it’s a wasted day. I was hoping to take out the Can-Am and see if I liked the new windshield. Rick and Wendy tell me that it’ll be awful on a group ride, which it probably will be. Too dusty and constantly cleaning it.

    Well, it’s time to get ready for the day. Need to clean up, feed the dogs and generally get ready for laundry, store run and trying to get stuff done before it gets too hot today. Only in the upper 80’s today but the humidity will be high. More thunderstorms and rain this afternoon. Fun…. Take care. More in a few days.