January 2012 – Page 2 – Moision Madness

Projects, Week 4

January 8, 2012 by Christy

Week 4 brought the end of the extreme dustiness in the kitchen (and the rest of the house). Yay! The floors were repaired, sanded and then covered up to be refinished in a few weeks when everything else is done. The painter came in Thursday, Friday and Saturday to primer and paint. The breakfast nook is repainted to match the kitchen color, and the kitchen is ready for cabinet installation which, barring any problems, starts tomorrow. Here’s how we’re looking today.

One big development is that they took down the plastic separating the kitchen from the rest of the house. For some reason it made me very happy to have my hallway back.

In the yards, there was a lot of digging this week as the guys take out the old sprinkler system and get ready for a new one.

They also did a lot of work on the dry stream bed. Here’s where it starts — to catch the rain from the downspout at the front of the house.

Bruce is, as I write this, building a wooden bridge where the path crosses over the stream. The stream then winds around the palm tree.

And empties into first a large pool and then a small one (via an underground pipe) if there is overflow.

In the backyard, they outlined the area that will have lawn and started working on the sprinkler system.

And we met with the City historical inspector about tearing down the wall. They won’t let us tear down the part that appears to be original (and is connected to the house) but the part that’s obviously new construction is OK to go. So, goodbye wall; hello, 15 feet of extra space! Bruce has his work cut out for him building a new fence.

Saturday Morning iPad

January 8, 2012 by Christy

When I was a kid, Saturday morning was all about cartoons (although I was more of a Land of the Lost kind of girl). For my boys, it’s the iPad games that they crave. First thing yesterday morning, Ezra made sure it was the weekend and when I confirmed his suspicions, he begged for the ipad. At least for a while, they played quite cooperatively.

Finn and the Landscapers

January 8, 2012 by Christy

Finn’s new favorite pastime is hanging out with Victor and his team of landscapers. If we’re at home, he wants to be out there with the guys. And if we have to leave, he’s always very concerned about what time we’ll be back to make sure he’ll get to see the guys before they leave for the day. I keep telling Victor to shoo him away if he’s bothering them, but he never does and it even looks like he enjoys having Finn around to “help” and chat.

After school on Friday, I made Finn a snack and before I knew it he was outside eating, chatting and watching Victor work on the dry stream bed.

Then he decided he wanted to dig, so he gave us a long monologue about which shovel he needed, ended up bringing out two, and got to work.

Yesterday, the boys decided they’d like a mud pit (probably spurred on by the muddy areas the workers had created to make the trench-digging easier). Bruce and I didn’t want the boys to be in the way so we asked Victor where would be a good place. Victor then added some dirt to build up a dam in part of the dry stream bed and made the mud pit for them.

They were in heaven.

Busy Week

January 8, 2012 by Christy

We got a slow start back to school this week when, on Monday night, Ezra had a bout whatever stomach bug Bruce was fighting. Luckily it was nowhere near as intense and only lasted a day, but it still meant he missed the first day back to school. The day off gave him a chance to protect his penguin drawing on the chalkboard with this message.

I like the eraser in a circle with a line through it.

Later in the afternoon he was feeling fine and he and Finn went out to help the landscapers in the backyard. Luckily all of the workers are good sports when it comes to having some “help.”

On Wednesday, finally, everyone was back — even me since I got scheduled to be snack parent in Finn’s class. I didn’t take many photos, but got this one of Finn and his best friends Charlie and Kai discussing some important details.

Projects, Week 3

January 1, 2012 by Christy

We’ve come to the end of Week 3 of the kitchen and landscaping redos. The kitchen now looks like a room again — rough electrical and plumbing, as well as drywall are complete. (Next up, I think, is sanding the floors and then cabinet installation.)

Underneath the drywall, we left a little time capsule for the next family to take on a kitchen remodel — a letter and a space shuttle toy since this is the last year of the space shuttle.

The giant hole for the new window is patched along with the holes left after the two old electrical boxes were removed.

As for the landscaping, they’ve placed the boulders for the rock “wall” in the front (to be filled in with plants).

They finished lining one of the pathways with smaller rocks. It’ll be filled in with decomposed granite.

And they started digging the trench for the dry stream bed which will capture rain water for irrigation.

In the back, they finished digging out all the old weedy grass and preparing for new grass and pathways.