Four more boxes got packed, and the shoulder needed a break. I tried spinning my wheels for a bit but decided that having breakfast would be a more productive use of my time. While cleaning up from that, I got some help from Steve in taking the shower curtain - the pale green one with (dusty) white lace ruffles and tiebacks, a green which has never quite matched the paint - down from where it was wedged outside the real shower curtain, so I could shake off dust, fold it, and after a while tote it and a bunch of other stuff we'd never get rid of at a garage sale, down to the sidewalk along with a "free" sign. It has to go anyway, since we have major plans for making that bathroom functional again before putting the house on the market.
Steve decided between his knees hurting and my shoulder getting enough abuse for a good while, it was time for a change in direction. Time to take a break and look at the information which was emailed to him a couple weeks back on the floor plan for the double-wide we settled on. It may not be everybody's choice, but with the minor adaptations we plan for, its flow of traffic and amount of space will suit us perfectly. Well, after an ADA ramp and a deck of course, both outside.
We found it online a few months back, made some inquiries, were assured they could meet most of our needs, and spelled out which ones we'd have to put in ourselves. For example, no carpeting, no problem. We'd just get one uniform solid floor like would be found in a kitchen, no joints rolling up at the edge of each room. We presume a time will come when Steve is more on wheels than not. Already tripping is a major concern, not just in what happens when landing, but once he's down it's a 911 call to get him upright again. (Knees sure were handy.) I can't do it. Many times even Rich, presuming he's here, can't either by himself. And he won't be up there.
Another example is bathrooms. The plan has one close to each bedroom. Both come with tubs. Both can have showers replace them. The master even gets the bonus of a linen closet to fill that extra space. But we also need higher toilets, and we'd have to put a hold on their factory installation and provide our chosen ones once the home is in place. After that we'll just put in the bidet attachments we find so handy. Oh, and all the grab bars we'll need all over.
Not every option is for accessibility. The blueprint shows a large kitchen/dining/living room open plan, everything else to the ends. We want the island we can get in the kitchen. Steve wants a dishwasher, of course. Can we get an electric stove? Wall oven? (Well, likely no on the oven, handy as it is on bad backs. Try one some time if you get a chance, and imagine yourself pulling a 14 pound turkey in a roaster pan straight out to your chest, then twist to the counter to set it down, rather than lifting it up out of a standard oven on to the counter.)
Then there are sinks. Is the kitchen sink one big one or two smaller? I'm used to two smaller just because one always fills up, but we can usually take that as a clue to transfer to the dishwasher, or if it's full with empty bottles, to squish them for the recycle bin. But a whole large sink full... Oofda!
My personal biggest problem with the blueprints is, when they come in an email, they are pretty unreadable. This little square at the end of the kitchen counter: "smudge smudge". Is that optional Microwave? I hope not. I prefer sacrificing counter space for a low microwave where I don't have to reach up high for the in/out. Especially where I tend to be a little wobbly in the right arm (they always open on the right!) and I could very easily be dumping hot coffee on its way out! Does "smudge-smudge" mean they are moving extra cabinets here? Or the stove? Perhaps a broom closet? I can't tell.
The fridge is easy to read, and so is the gas stove symbol of 4 circles. But if we look in a certain corner of the space designated for dining, there is what looks like very narrow cabinets along the wall. Except in one of the options where they are wider. What the heck? Did they build in shelves? A buffet? A whatchamacallit where you set the food out to the side instead of on the table? Hey, I don't eat that fancy, except in restaurants, and even there it's a pain getting up-down, up-down. Who needs a trail of slopped food across the floor when you can just as easily leave it slopped across the table, and make sure nobody tracks it all over the house before you get a chance to leave the table because you're stuck playing hostess? So maybe it's not that. But it's some thing drawn there, not even bothering with having a label on it.
I spent a bunch of time trying to figure out where the fans were in the ceilings. There are little symbols which look like a squared octogon with 4 short lines sticking out, one each up, down. left, right. Is that a fan? A light in the ceiling? Both? Does anybody even bother with fans up north if you can't move them around in their box? A check of the bathrooms, for surely those have ceiling fans, just to pull out the humidity, gave the same symbols. Sigh. If those are all ceiling lights, then where are the bathroom fans? The master bath is in the middle of the house and doesn't even have a window for venting, or light, so what's going on?
It did occur to me to try to Google blueprint symbols. Ever tried that? I get a whole page of little rectangles, each representing some set of symbols, blueprint or not because why should Google get fussy now about what it sends. Each little rectangle is a chart, just big enough that if you pick the correct one out of 36 or however many charts fit on your page, and hold the page half an inch from your eyeballs, they are even blurrier than the emailed blueprint we've already been going over. Click on one and it's the wrong one. Click on another and that is too. Or at least I think it is, because I still can't find any of the symbols I'm looking for.
Even when I can read the blueprints we got, and can clearly see "opt wsh" and "opt dry" in the utility room inside the back door, so I know this is where laundry will occur, but does the completed home come in with the plumbing and special wiring installed without ordering? They do say "optional". Do we get their appliances? Or do we add our own? I'm actually hoping for the latter, like the toilets. I prefer a few simple choices in type of cycle, temperature of water, size of load. I've seen dials with 18 choices! Holy shit, when did laundry get that complicated????? It gets dirty and smelly, water and soap get it ready for a warm tumble. Done.
I prefer my fridge/freezer to be a side-by-side instead of top/bottom type, and cold water from the door is great. But I'm still fussy after fighting with the one here for ten years. It has an ice maker built in the freezer which sends them out the door when you push the right lever. That is, until about the second or third batch of ice has been made. Then the excess water spraying all around inside coats everything and jams it up. Our plumber couldn't understand it. After all, the water pressure here is only 60 PSI. Pulling the unit away from the wall, he declared it had a reducer in the line and there was nothing more to do. So there is a lot of wasted space inside with the ice maker turned permanently off, in addition to more shelf space being wasted for ice cube trays. After all, we do still like our ice! So I want to choose the right machine!
Actually, all of them! Whoever buys this house gets the washer, dryer, fridge/freezer, dishwasher, gas stove, wall oven, wonderful ceiling fans everywhere, roof AC/furnace and solar panels. Don't let me forget the gas fireplace. We've never used it, and it needs a cleaning before we can turn it on.
We're toying with the idea of leaving the TV and stand behind. It's time for a new one of those, right? This one gives great TV but doesn't hook up to another dozen machines. It's going to be hard to pack anyway. On the way down here we still had its original box. We "didn't need it" after that. It's unwieldy at its best. It's already going to be hard enough getting a proper box to fit Steve's taxidermied walleye so the fins don't break. No, leaving that in AZ is not an option!
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