October 30, 2018 - School For Sale

The Emigrant Gap School is finally going up for sale.  The school has been closed for about 3 years now and the building has not been maintained since then.  A few years ago there was a break-in that left a broken window and debris scattered inside the building.  I added some plywood to the window to keep as many critters (and creeps) out as possible.

The land was donated by Mr Cortopassi back between 1925 and 1940.  He and Mr Hyatt of the Mercantile put up the funds to build the one room school house.  It replaced an old clapboard school house that was located across the street.

I toured the building last week to check the condition.  Whoever purchases it will need to redo the Kitchen (currently galley style and pretty yucky) and Bathroom (the bathrooms are currently set up as boy and girl with stalls and sinks),  remove and rebuild the shower room (which is currently in a pretty rotted out lean-to attached to the building) and add 2/10 supports,wiring, etc to the attic to allow for bedrooms (there are no bedrooms in the building) and build a staircase up to the attic.  The windows are all single pane but they have a great view of the woods behind the school.  The worst issue is that the land in front of the school (street side) belongs to the state, so access could become an issue at some time.  Also the well and pump may not be located on the school property. The crawl space basement appears to be in good shape.  And it does have a metal roof, pretty much a requirement in our snow country.  Though I think one of the stove pipes (there is no stove) has fallen down).  The property is under 1 acre.

Of course, we would be the best candidates to purchase the school due to it's land locked location  - but we already have to maintain an 11 bedroom 5 1/2 bathroom building that has much work that still needs to be done.  I personally do not wish to maintain another building.  We had hoped one of our nieces or nephews would like to purchase it - but it looks like they are going to pass (too much work, too little land).  So - we will probably be looking at new neighbors in the future.

The road down to the property is on our land and has been narrowed since we needed to move the portable off the property line - so we may be building a garage next to it, which may make the school even more land locked.  They are asking $179,000 for the building which seems a bit high with all the work that needs to be done.

October 21, 2018 - Autumn Weekend with Friends

Another great weekend at the Gap with longtime friends Niki, Patrick, Karen, Larry and Rodger.  Mostly good food, good talk and great wine.  On Saturday, after a very late breakfast and some cajoling of Jim from me, we took a trip over the the Fairground in Grass Valley to attend a Craft Fair. The fair was rather small - but everyone (except me) managed to find something.  Jim bought a handcrafted Birdhouse for Orinda.  It is really nice (probably too nice to put outside in the weather).

Saturday night was Jim's Chicken Masala which - of course was a big hit.  Karen, Larry and Rodger had to leave after dinner.

Niki, Patrick, Jim and I headed to the Hardware Store in Colfax (Jim can not get through a weekend without doing some kind of project).  On the way back, we drove through Dutch Flat and got to tour the Dutch Flat Hotel.  It was sold about 1 year ago to someone who lives in Grass Valley.  Glad it went to a foothills person rather than someone from the Bay Area (I know that sounds bad - since we are from the Bay - but the Rainbow Lodge was sold to someone from the Bay and they have not reopened it as a Restaurant/Bar/Hotel).  Anyway - Niki and Patrick got to roam through the building and loved it.

Our final trip was to our falls.  I have never been to the falls in Autumn.  It was quite lovely with all the dogwoods turning colors.  Though I decided not to climb down the cliff to the bottom of the falls (wrong shoes), everyone else did and took some really nice photos.

Niki and Patrick got on the road before nightfall, and Jim did his small project and left for home around 7 pm.  I stayed on (of course) since we had an appointment with Amerigas to re-hook up our propane to the game room.  And, as always, there was clean up to do.