Welcome Home

We came home from a great little trip to Colorado – for the Annual MFL Ski Day.  Sadly, we both came home sick.  Eli = very sick.  kca = about to get very sick.  Even more sadly, we came home to a kitchen sink that wouldn’t drain, a dishwasher that was backed up with nasty sitting water, and water all over the kitchen subfloor.  Great.  We bought a 50 foot snake and were unsuccessful at clearing the pipes while both coughing and sneezing and sniffling and feeling awful to begin with.  My advice to all of you is never to have serious plumbing issues come up when you’re seriously sick.

(Dismantling underneath the sink to snake it)

We went another week without a working kitchen sink, which meant Eli would cook and kca would transport all dishes and full pots of water down to the basement sink to do dishes.  No fun.

MC was able to work on the pipes for a few hours the following weekend until…Success!  We have a working kitchen sink and dishwasher!  I feel like I’m starting to sound like a broken record when I say:  going without something for awhile sure makes you appreciate it when you have it back.

MC didn’t say much while snaking and snaking and snaking except when he had to get into our cabinets for access to a pipe: “you guys think you have enough Tupperware?”

Rolling a Tree

We have a great palm tree in our backyard.  Great because it’s a great tree, and great because I grew up in a place where we didn’t have palm trees.  So NOOO!!! is my answer when anyone says we should just get rid of it because it will be in the way of the deck stairs. 

(Existing palm tree location)

We decide to transplant it.  Eli digs and digs and digs.  And digs and digs and digs. Every once in awhile I give a shout out from my indoor electrical projects and checking on Little Dude to see how Eli (and the tree) are doing. I don’t know how many hours of digging Eli did.  I just know it was A LOT of hours of digging.

(Digging)

(More digging)

(New hole it will go in)

(You find weird things like buried red panty hose when you dig in an old yard?)

Finally, I’m asked to come help.  We tug and push and see-saw the thing away from its own root system until – AH-HA – it’s down! 

(Timber!)

(Timber!!)

(Tough roots)

Now time to lift it out of its old hole and into its new one.  1-2-3-LIFT.  Nothing.  Okay, really…1-2-3-LIIIIIIFT!  Nothing.  Won’t budge.  What happens next is what Eli has described to a few people as “kca getting into that yoga/harnessing qi mode.”  For me, it was just like “this tree has to move and it has to move now.  So here goes all I’ve got.”  I squatted down, wrapped myself around the 3-foot-diameter palm tree root-ball, and did an internal 1-2-3-LIFT.  And lifted it out of its hole! 

(It’s out)

1-2-3-LIFT wasn’t any easier to carry it over to its new spot, so we proceeded to roll the palm tree across the entire yard.  1-2-3-ROLL…the shift the direction of the roll…another 1-2-3-ROLL…shift again…you get the idea.  The path is clear for the deck stairs, and the tree has a new home where it really does look nice.  Hopefully it’ll live after all that.

(Its new spot)

Light it UP

kca reporting again:
This time on a topic of house remodeling that I know well: Lighting.  Ha.

Like everything else, working on lighting has been quite the project at our little Sunkisty, as we know call it (I believe SLL came up with that one, in all fairness.)  As a lighting designer, I would describe the home when we moved in as Dingy.  Dark.  Dim.  Gross. 

(Dingy, dark, dim house before new lighting)

(Typical recessed square ceiling fixture)

Unless the sun was shining hotly and brightly through one of the big windows, you couldn’t see a damn thing.  Each room was lighted with an 8” x 8” recessed square fixture.  Each room’s fixture had a different kind of glass lens that effectively cut out any light you might have used to see yourself in a mirror, see what you’re making for dinner, or see what you’re eating for dinner.  We plugged in lots of lamps and worklights to supplement our lighting until I began tearing out fixtures and replacing them. 

I replaced all of our outlets, installed GFIs where required, and put dimmers in to replace the previous light switches that felt like circuit breakers themselves and were nicely plated with tinfoil.  Seriously, tin foil.  Leftover-DIY-Job #2,457.  Onto light fixtures themselves…

You’ve seen the bathroom fixture conversion – hot little chandelier and sconce numbers.

(Getting up in the attic)

(Good arm workout: hanging a fixture)

(Finished!)

(Vanity sconces too!)

The guest bedroom got another cute little fixture.  Eli has knocked my patchjob, which I agree is kind of poor.  It’s hard going from a giant hole to a little one just big enough for a 4” junction box.  Maybe I’ll sand and re-texture at some point (it’s at the bottom of a very long list.)

(Securing j-box)

(Fixture hung)

The kitchen fixtures were quite the task – three large recessed fixtures became three surface-mounted fixtures.  Again, tough j-box-installing and drywall patching jobs for someone who’s new to that.  We’ll come back to these when the kitchen is done (someday.)

The master bedroom lighting project was the biggest yet.  First, notice the placement of the not only ineffective but also large recessed hole in the ceiling.  Not centered.  Not relating to anything.  Just in a weird spot.

(Weird recessed fixture location)

I spent a few hours up in the attic pulling out the existing fixture housing, junction-boxing the wires from the existing fixtures, and running new wires to a new junction box in the CENTER of the room (my center was done more haphazardly than Eli’s would have been done, but Eli doesn’t know that until reading this.) 

(Cutting the CENTERED hole in the ceiling)

And we got another fun little fixture that does a great job lighting the room and is on a dimmer (lovely.) 

(New Bedroom Fixture)

This is the first project on which I thought: “Wow, that took less time than I anticipated it would (when does that ever happen?!)” However, I thought too soon.  As I was wrapping up, poor little Dude seemed to re-paralyze/injure himself post-hernia surgery.  We spent the rest of the weekend at the pet emergency hospital.  Update: the sweet little guy is doing great.  The ugly square drywall patch has yet to be mudded and sanded.

 (Patch to be worked on)

“Maybe this weekend”…most commonly-used statement around these parts.

KnockOuts

The wall between the kitchen and living room has been permanently knocked out!  Without full knowledge of codes and inspections, I had gone to town at knocking out this wall back in November when my dad was helping with the kitchen.  Sadly, we learned we had to re-drywall what I had just pulled out for an inspection.  Talk about a waste of time and materials.  But we passed inspection and now the wall is down and finished out for good!  The best part will be our view from the dining room table we’ll have out onto the deck and beyond – to the beautiful Bay.  Mmmm.

To see what was mostly Eli’s vision, see the OLD and NEW floor plans to understand which walls were knocked out and how it will change things around.

(Old Floorplan)

(Old Wall - View from Living)

(KnockOut in Progress)

(New Open Floorplan)

(New View from Dining)

 (New View from Living)

(New View from Kitchen)

It's Getting Hot in Here

We have heat!!!!   And a thermostat that lets you turn the heat to whatever temperature you so choose.  And warm air that blows out of each and every register.  AND a differential between the way outside and inside air feels.  Amazing.  I’ve said this before (and recently): If you ever want to appreciate something, live without it for a little while.  Or be thankful you live in California instead of Colorado when you don’t have a furnace during the Winter.  It took a new furnace, but it was worth it.

Anyone Want a Big-Giant Mirror?

We decided it was time to take the Christmas decorations down. Oh, and the giant mirror above the fireplace while we were at it.  Now THAT was a project, imagining all the things that could happen if we dropped the 5foot by 8 foot mirror, or what would happen if…we dropped the giant mirror.  With only a small chip out of it, we got it safely down to the basement and wondered who might want a big giant mirror.  Then we decided it will become our future home-gym mirror.

(Mirror here)

(Mirror gone)

We’ll update you as we prime and paint and as we continue work on the living room!