Two-Story Outhouse and Other Hilarious Observations

September 8, 2021 

Two-Story Outhouse

Although economic, a two-story outhouse would be a bit unpleasant for those in the ground floor stall. I didn't realize how many of these have been built over the years. Who woulda thunk? With a simple google search I found all kinds of them with comical, satirical and a sometimes questionable label or tagline; all in the name of humor. The funny thing is how many people go through the effort to build these and take pictures. Know what's even crazier? They did it all before the internet! Imagine making something or doing something before it was possible to share it with millions of strangers across the globe. That's weird. I know both of my readers agree. 

Two-Story Indoor Outhouse

What does a two-story outhouse have to do with our project in Sierra Vista? THAT is a fantastic and very insightful and timely question you asked. We uncovered the same thing at Thunder Mountain! Take a closer look at the pic above. Do you see what I saw? The drain goes right into the 1st floor unit. Can you imagine the mess this would have created? Good thing we were there to figure this out. I mean, what did they do before we arrived? 

This pic is taken in our new kitchen where the toilet used to be. When I peered down the hole I chuckled and this whole blog idea began to take shape. In actuality, as you likely have already determined, the waste really didn't drop to the lower unit. That would be disturbing. If it had I am sure we would have learned this during our inspection. We do have thorough inspections after all. 

The workers have removed the toilets, the piping and the sinks in these areas. Then we will cap off the drains right there in the wall and the system will continue to work as designed. Only now we will have less toilets to drain. 35 less to be exact. 

Sink Hole

Something I discovered in my tour today was a sink hole. Now, this is different than a sinkhole. Way different. It's a good thing we don't have a sinkhole in our building as that would be unfortunate. No, what we have here is where the sink would drain and run down into the same waste pipe as the toilet. Now it is merely a hole to the ground floor unit. The crew will add rebar and then fill it in with concrete. If you look through the rectangle hole you will see some new framing to the left in the downstairs unit. This is furred out so we can add drywall and kitchen cabinets in that spot. 

Open Floor Plan

As we walked into this unit today we noticed the wall had fallen over. It's true. In the wind it completely collapsed. No worries though because we were taking it out anyway. What had happened was the construction crew removed the windows including the covered window which we uncovered. And, the stucco was left dangling. There was nothing to hold the stucco in place as the framing had been removed. In came a little wind and out went a little wall. An open floor plan indeed! The first step to the parking lot is a big one. Be careful. 

Open Floor Plan - An Outside View

Hey! The cabinets are in! Kind of. They were delivered. So they are technically in. But, they are not installed. They are all in one of the vacant units. This is super exciting so we will not have any delays as far these supplies go. There are supply chain issues across the globe. Our crew is doing all they can to make sure these are not the bottleneck. Bottlenecks are fascinating and not always bad. In fact, they can be used to control production, improve outcomes and ultimately increase profits. Let me know if you would like to know more and we can sit down to discuss some day. Preferably over a decent cup of coffee. No Starbucks, please. 

Cabinets are "IN"

Oh, and the windows are in too. They too are in but not installed...yet. They currently reside in a unit as well. They are not, however, commingling with the cabinets. (Hey! Why is "commingling" spelled with two m's? Mingle - to become mixed. Commingle - to mingle together. To me there is an unnecessary "m". Change my mind.) Back to the present: We are keeping them separate; most likely due to space. But, that is only a guess on my part. If all goes as planned, the window installation should begin next week. It will be fantastic to share the updates in a couple weeks showing the installed windows in place. Certainly more exciting than the picture below:

Windows are "IN"

Our occupancy is fluctuating, as it will with 30-day rentals. We are pushing as much as we can for 30-day rentals and have been serving a segment of the rental market which is being underserved. That is where we come in. Currently there are 10 occupied with 2 pre-approved and 2 move outs by the end of September. As of this morning there are 15 applicants to process and pre-screen with credit and background checks! That's really awesome!

We are pleased with the crews we have and the current momentum. What a fantastic team!

And that is our project from my corner of the globe ~Bruce