Our shed will be arriving soon – sometime in February, I think.  It will be plopped down on our site with no additional foundation work.  Four of the six hurricane tie-down points will be on pavers and two will be on grass.  I was initially concerned about this, thinking that the corner on grass might be vulnerable to settling.  And I might be right about that, but it seems to not be an issue for everyone else – the majority of the sheds in the park have one corner or more sitting on grass.  Besides, it is just a shed, so if I need to jack it up a bit I can do it myself with the 10-ton hydraulic jack that I carry with me wherever we go.

But some other prep work was needed.  We had to get the electric service run from the pedestal (and meter) on the right side of the site over to the left side, near where the shed will be.  We are going to need electricity in the shed.  More electricity than we need in the RV.  The shed will be wired for 80 amps or more while the RV has only 50.  The power is needed for the washer/dryer, the A/C and the on-demand water heater.

Our GC, Roger, said that a conduit is typically run under the site before the concrete is poured in anticipation of this.  But because our site was modified to have pavers instead of concrete and because the pavers were extended to be as wide as possible – wider than the typical concrete pad – he was concerned that he would have to dig up some pavers to find the end of the conduit.  Dollar signs started running through my head.  Fortunately, that turned out to be unnecessary as the marker for the end of the conduit was found hidden under a bush.

So Roger ran wire through the conduit and extended the conduit to the location where the back left corner of the shed will land.  He also ran the TV cable from the pedestal, through the bushes to the same location.  I was puzzled why he did this as I have no intention of watching TV in the shed.  But he said that residents typically put their cable TV modem and wireless routers in the shed.  Makes sense.  I am glad he took the initiative.

Maybe I can mount my third TV on the outside of the shed…

Our RV park has nearly completed the fourth and final stage of its development – the addition of about 50 new sites. They were supposed to be ready for occupancy on Jan 1, but as with most construction projects there have been problems and delays. The most significant problem was Hurricane Michael. The arrival of the hurricane in October did no direct damage to the park, but drew all of the utility workers north to repair the damage. As a result, the new section is not wired for electricity yet. In desperation the developer has installed a generator that will provide electrical service to half of the new sites. I guess half the revenue is better than none.

So, on New Year’s Day, the first RVs took up residence in the new section. After months of looking at nothing but empty sites it was nice to see the area being used. But apparently the generator was having some problems. Four of the first seven occupants complained of some kind of electrical issue.

The park greeted the rigs arriving on New Year’s Day with a cookout – free burgers and hot dogs. It was a nice gesture and a beautiful day. I volunteered to help with the grilling and Jett volunteered to help with the greeting.

Jett and I have been volunteering a lot at our new home. It is a good way to meet our neighbors and is fun, too. Mostly. Cleanup from the Thanksgiving dinner was a lot of work – over 2 hours. Prepping for the New Year’s Eve dinner (mostly preparing the 240 baked potatoes) was only about an hour. Decorating for NYE – both taking down the Christmas decorations and putting up the New Year’s Eve decorations – was in the middle at about 90 minutes. My primary contribution was putting up the shiny gold foil backdrop on the stage where the band would play. That was an hour spent on the ladder, pressing the self-stick backing to the wall. It looked great when I finished.

It didn’t look so great yesterday when I poked my head into the ballroom. It had all fallen down.

Epic fail.

Somebody put it back up, with stickpins, so it looks good again. But it still feels like a fail to me.