Expansion of the Quayle Estate

Well, this is a long and sorted story so pull up a seat and try to understand this insanity. About two years ago we were living what we thought was a semi-normal life. Jim had retired and was watching our grandson every day while our son and his wife, Faye, were both teaching full time. They were living in a nice new home they had built about two years earlier. But, semi-normal life was about to see a little twist (Ha!).

Jan (Bless her dear sweet soul) happened to mention to the kids that it sure would save a lot of time and money if they were to move in with us. We had this huge property that was becoming too much for us to handle by ourselves. They, having such a wonderful new home, were not the least bit interested. So, we were thinking of selling and moving up to the Sierras when Jan retired. While we were looking at mountain real estate Jeff and Faye were thinking about the future. They were wanting to enlarge their family and Faye didn't want to work full time any longer. A few quick calculations showed that this scenario would make finances pretty tight, so guess what??? The next thing we new they had sold their home and moved in with us. Thus began the expansion of the Quayle Estate.

We started by remodeling the existing house. It was in dire need of some help anyway. We totally gutted our master bedroom and bath, reworked electrical, installed additional insulation, added an indoor laundry and closet, removed an old "cottage cheese" ceiling and paneling from the walls, repaired some dry rot, installed all new drywall and texture, installed all new fixtures, new flooring and carpet... and this was just the start! This new master bedroom and bath were to serve as our little apartment for the next fifteen months while we remodeled the rest of the house, tore down the garage, and constructed an 1115 square foot addition.

The new addition was to be finished by the time the new baby arrived. Yep, you heard me right. Jeff and Faye were now expecting baby number two. This gave Jim new motivation and "pressure" because the baby was due in June. Needless to say Jim has yet to experience what real retirement is like. June came and went and we had a precious new baby girl in the house with all kinds of construction going on. It also seemed like every time we turned around there were construction delays. The roof framer decided he didn't want to do it. So, we had to find another one in the peak of the construction season. The doors and windows were delivered too soon and were stacked wrong, so they were ruined and had to be reordered, the electrician decided he was too busy and this was too small a job to waste his time on so he bombed out. Jim ended up doing the entire elecrical job himself. On and on it went. Guess when we finally moved in? Halloween! And we still had things to finish (we still do). But, at least we were settled in by the holidays, and it has been wonderful to finally get back to a "semi-normal" life. What a joke!