Leslie and David's Wanderings: 10 May – 7 June 2026 Alot completed!

We are STILL working through the punch list with the builder. It has been 12 and a half months since we signed the contract to build this house and it is still not complete! Leslie ended up staying with her sister for two weeks to get her over the hump from her surgeries. Once she got home she went on a decorating binge! The HVAC people have been in twice to adjust the system to attempt to reduce the humidity in the house. We bought a dehumidifier from Amazon which got lost in the shipment to us, so we had to cancel that one and order another that also was delayed in shipment. The builder finally sent someone out to close the portal between the garage attic and the main house attic. That produced a noticeable reduction in the humidity in the house. Once we got the dehumidifier and set it up, we were able to pull the humidity in the house from the high 70% down to the upper 40%. Just the first few days we pulled 10 gallons out of the house! This had a noticeable impact on reducing the floor buckling. But we still had them come in and put a transition with an expansion joint between the primary bedroom and the hallway. That immediately fixed the floors in the primary bedroom and the hallway. After a few days, the floors in the foyer were noticeable better, but it identified a different issue. Instead of the floor panels being pushed up widthwise, the ones in the foyer were now showing they were being pushed up lengthwise. There is also some lengthwise buckling by the fireplace in line with the foyer. The floor guys are coming back this week to see what they can do to alleviate that issue. We found that the circuit breaker for the outlets in the primary bedroom kept popping when it should not have. David called the electricians that he had developed a working relationship with early on and they came out the next day to replace the faulty circuit breaker. Much faster than going through our builder. We noticed our pots were getting a lot of soot on them from the propane stove indicating the fuel/air mixture is not right. Either they did not put in the correct valve for propane (IE they have a natural gas valve inside) or it needs to be adjusted. The builder is supposed to get the appliance installers out to look at it. We still have issues with the door locks that need to get resolved and some issues with the masonry work on the outside that needs fixing (they still have not fixed that conduit that we have been on them about since last September). One evening we saw a big Tom Wild Turkey in our backyard in full display mode trying to woo three hens. We had seen the turkey around the neighborhood and even in our back yard before, but not with his feathers all fluffed out. David mowed the majority of the 2 acre lot with the hand mower over the last few weeks. We had hoped that when the native grasses got cut they would go dormant for the summer, but it just reinvigorated them to grow. We decided to spend some more of our savings and get a lawn tractor a few months earlier than we had planned. We got a Toro Timesaver Zero Turn lawnmower with a 54 inch deck. Where David had spent six hours mowing each time with the hand mower, that lawnmower did it in only 2 hours! We also started laying out new flower beds in the from that the tractor will be a big help with hauling material. Besides which it is fun to drive! We put up Plantation Shutters put up in the front windows, curtains on the back windows and got pictures/paintings put up on the walls. We found places of honor for our family heirlooms to remind us of where we came from and the sacrifices made to bring us to this point. It’s starting to feel more like home. We have adapted quickly to having all the extra room! We have unpacked the Wanderer and gave it a thorough cleaning so it is ready for our next trip. We are thinking this fall we may take the wanderer out to Big Bend for an extended visit to our favorite National Park,. Meantime, we are planning to visit family this summer, but not with the Wanderer since RV sites are hard to come by in the summers up north if you don’t make reservations early.