"I have a memory like an elephant. I remember every elephant I've ever met." - Herb Caen.

If the sun is up we're working. If the sun isn't up yet I'm probably working anyway. But over the last four days we've accomplished a lot.

The living room walls were paneling straight out of the 70's but now look like regular walls. I mudded all the grooves and then we sanded them flat. OK, sort of flat. We've decided Pam should not go into a career sanding drywall. But you promise not to look to close at that right hand wall, so it's all good.

After sanding they got a coat of stain blocker/sealer, and then two coats of paint. Pam picked the color, so if you've got a problem with it take it up with her.

I swapped out the dated beige outlets and covers for white which also helps bring this space into the 21st century.

Mobile homes built that far back didn't come with baseboards or window trim. Huh? So when wer'e back next month I'll add that, painted white for a crisp contrast. And I'll paint the front door white to match.

As you can see, we got the flooring all up, too. The top layer was the multi-color sculpted shag. Underneath that a padding that got two gazillion staples to hold it down. Under that the original vinyl (pure 70's). All of that is now GONE, but not without a fight. What remains is a composite in 4x8 sheets over which I'll put the laminate flooring we picked up this afternoon. The cheapest they have, but lifespan isn't an issue. That project, too, will happen in July, DV.

Next, though, comes the ceiling. Don't you just love those faux beams?! I'm not going to try to remove them - who knows what I'd have to do to repair their locations - but I will paint them with a primer and then with the "ceiling white" the whole ceiling will get.

Expect the unexpected. We learned that when restoring our century-old homes in MI. In this case the surprise came behind the front door.

When I pulled up the layers of flooring I could see a dark area that had clearly been wet. Rain from a door left open? Or the cat that seems to have used the carpeting as a litter box? Either way I could see that the composite underlayment was compromised. I discovered just how much when I started poking at it with my mudding knife. Before long I had an opening that...uhm...you can see through all the way to the ground.

I'm not sure what to do about it. The laminate will go over the top, so do I care of a small section is open to the ground? The good news: it's not structural. A mobile home is build on a heavy steel frame. And a fix requires crawling under the thing to access it from the bottom side. I'm not real keen to go spelunking under a 45-year old mobile home. We only plan to live in it for a couple of years, so do I dare take a "what's the worst that can happen?" approach? I've got a month to decide.

We'll leave mid-morning tomorrow for the drive home. That will put us through L.A. about midnight, and this time we won't be pulling the teardrop, which is now stored in Barnette awaiting our return in a month and a quick stay at Silver Falls State Park in northern OR. It's too beautiful there to describe; you need to see it in person.

We're exhausted but feeling good about what got done. And this brief stay has us both convinced living here can't come soon enough. Meals on the porch/deck overlooking our private piece of OR forest are so peaceful. The deer that wandered through was beautiful. The openness and sense of community from everyone we've met so refreshing. And there's interesting stuff to see everywhere.

We went to church yesterday and that's a great story in itself. But it will require another post, and that won't happen until we're home. We have neither cell phone nor internet at MoHo...or anywhere else in Elmira or Veneta. Gonna have to work on that.

Now I'll check some news sites to see what's going on in the world, finish my decaf Americano, and then head back for some sleep in anticipation of tomorrow's 22-hour drive back to AZ.

I'm not sure which place to call home now.