A New Home for Therapy

Did I mention we were afraid to tell our kids? Since the fiasco with the last motorhome and how we had crowed about being free of it, we were certain our kids would not understand. They were likely to call us crazy and insist we were wasting our money. And so that thinking led us straight to the name for our new Lazy Daze: Therapy. When the kids call us crazy our rejoinder is: that’s okay, we’re in Therapy. And we freely admit we are off our rockers – which at our age is a good thing. We could sit around in our rockers from now until we die and watch soap operas and eat bon-bons, but would we be any better off? I don’t think so.

Oh yeah, there's some rot there!





This photo shows the arborvitae (and the
milk cartons we used to layout the width
of the proposed shelter!)



Before we could put up a shelter, we had to cut down a row of old arbovitae hedges.  We used to have these hedges the entire length of the driveway and it was very nice.  The hedge provided a lot of privacy and gave us nothing but green to look at; no roofs or fences!  Then the neighbor closest to the street needed to replace his fence and couldn't get to it because of the big arborvitae.  So we took half of the row out.  Now we have to take the rest out as they are so old they are leaning over.  We have to prop them up with boards and I think they are mostly rotten.  Hate to see them go, but, oh well!

RV Shelter materials

We got our materials delivered today and a new RV shelter should be completely up by the end of next week. We are making it 14’X36’ so there will be a little walk around space inside. It is a carport type shelter and not a garage because we hope it will not be parked here long enough to really warrant a full garage.

When we made the decision to put up a cover, Russ was concerned about the whole process. We live in Lane County Oregon outside of the city limits of Eugene, but within the urban growth boundary. Lane County is famously hard to work with and the reputation of the city is not much better. Russ didn’t know which agency to start with and was dreading the process.

Here’s where we get real. Russ has diabetes. He also struggles with some emotional issues, some related to dealing with a chronic illness and some just part of his genetic make-up. The point is, he hates dealing with hard issues. His mind tends to always go to the worst case scenario and he can quickly enumerate all the reasons something will not work or all the problems we will encounter. He gets so worked up that he sometimes gives up before he ever gets started. And so it seemed ‘twould be with the RV shelter.

Finally, I stepped in and made a few phone calls and did some online research. Turns out that because we are in the urban growth boundary, we have to deal with the city. Now here’s where Russ’s compulsiveness holds us in good stead. Years ago we had an old fuel tank removed from the property (this used to be a farm but was all sold off except our ½ acre). Russ still had the plot plan that was professionally rendered at that time. He also still has the original 1960’s blue-prints that we got from the original owner when we bought this place in 1976….but that’s another story. We took the plot plan along with the information from the shelter company down to the city and talked to a very nice woman. She told us what else we needed, and when we got those documents together, Russ took them back to the city.

Some officious, “i” dotter and “t” crosser took his application and had all kinds of questions and set up all kinds of road-blocks. We would have to provide gutters and drainage to the storm sewer. Russ argued that it was in the middle of a gravel driveway that had been rained on in the same place for eons. If the motorhome were parked there without a shelter, we would not have gutters and storm drainage! There were several other nit-picky things, including talk about a trip to the county for some kind of approval. We were told the process would take up to two weeks – wonderful, since the permits costs were going up in about 3 days. Russ finally asked to speak with the woman we had met at our initial trip to the permit office. She took all the information and was very gracious. Long story short: We had the permit in hand the very next day, and no need for gutters and downspouts!

What’s important about this is not that we conquered the City of Eugene but that Russ did it himself. He did not get discouraged and walk out of the office. He successfully argued his points and saw that he could stand up to City Hall. He saw that things are usually not as bad as they seem and perseverance pays off. He is acting as our own contractor in all of this process and doing a darn good job of it too. His confidence has improved and because of this success, has been able to tackle some other onerous tasks as well. It’s all good.

Each hole is about 18" deep

Today sixteen holes were drilled for the concrete footings. Monday those holes will be inspected and then filled with concrete and lag bolts. After that, the process goes very quickly and we should have a new home for Therapy completed by next week. Do you think the kids will notice a 14’X36’ metal RV shelter in the driveway?

So, you see, Therapy is working already. I can hardly wait to see what the future holds. We are not too old to change and we are NOT too old to enjoy what is left of our lives. We are: Off our rockers and into Therapy.
Happy Travels and God’s Blessings.