Post party mayhem

Hey Decker, what do you think is in that bag? Oh, I don't know Riley. It's tied up in a bag so I think you are supposed to leave it alone. I know, I know, but it smells so good.... Riley, don't, no, really, you shouldn't do that! Uh oh. Well, since you opened it, I might as well help you explore the contents....

It was fun!

This is a picture of my camera. It was sitting in this exact spot, on the counter during the open house, and we were going to take all kinds of wonderful photos. Well, lets just say I was having too much fun hosting and it sat idle the entire time. So, while I have zero photos to share with you, I can tell you it was a great day.

The weather was perfect, the food was good (at least I think so) and it was great to show the house to so many people who have had to endure us talking about it this past year.

We started at 2:00 and wound up the day around 10:00 with just the neighbors. We were also thrilled that a couple of friends from Pasadena surprised us and showed up. They had seen the house before and during, and it was nice they got a chance to see the "after."

Thanks to everybody who came and made it a great afternoon!

One down, one to go!

This may not look like much a feat, but trust me, it was. We spent a couple of hours yesterday working in the garage and this was the fruits of our labor. Nice :) We could have spent 8 hours sorting stuff out, but had a time limit and did pretty good. We'll continue on and maybe in another month we'll have both back in.

In other news - the Pergola is done (I know, I know, pictures!) and it looks good. It just took a bit of tweaking but we are very happy with it now. I also got the guest room closet doors up yesterday, so that project is done.

The only big thing we are waiting on right now is the added support for the side gate. It might go up this week, if it's done, but I'm not counting on it....

A bit of excitement

This was the view from my office window this morning. A fire broke out on the north end of campus, in the hills just above the horse unit. It spread up the hills and at one point, there were two helicopters dumping water, and three airplanes dropping retardant. It was quite the event and lasted for a couple of hours. It's still smoking, but seems to be under control now. I don't think we were in any danger because the wind was pushing it up the hill, away from us, but still, when you see those flames...

Closet "doors" finally

I got the closet doors - which are actually sliding panels - up in the master bedroom yesterday. For you Ikea fans, these are Kvartal. At the outset, it looked complicated, as the directions were 13 pages long, and in true Ikea fashion, had no words - just pictures. However, once I looked at all the parts & figured out the general principal, it was actually very easy. The only bummer is that we under-bought by three parts for the guest room. Fortunately, we have a friend driving up from SoCal Thursday and she is going to stop and get them for us. Then, we can be done with the closets.

I like the panels. They look really nice and they work pretty well. Maybe not as easy as curtains or real doors, but they work fine & the price to look ratio is great. The aluminum & glass doors we wanted were $1200 a closet; these panels were about $75 a closet. We might get the aluminum & glass doors someday, but for now, these work/look just fine.

The Shins

We met Lisa, her sister Sandra & her friend Quin in Santa Barbara last night to see The Shins. It was a great show - one of the best I've seen in a while. Really enjoyed it. Here's the requisite crappy phone-camera picture for you to enjoy ;-)

I actually have a house update photo for you tomorrow....

Yard sale day

Our friend Peter changing the doorbell in between customers. Its now yellow instead of green.

Two things

First, we had some friends over for dinner last night, and we are happy to report that even with the leaf in the dining room table, we still have plenty of space to get around the table. Very nice :)

Second, apparently there was another shark sighting. Sigh. Not trying to scare you all, but thought you might find it interesting. Read about it here: Here fishy fishy.....

Fall is in the air

I just took this picture outside my office. The Liquid Amber trees you see on the right are about the extent of the fall color we get around here. I take that back - the grapes are beautiful too. Anyway, I think this is a nice view and thought I'd share it with you.

No earth shaking house news. The yard sale is Saturday and I'm looking forward to getting some room in the garage!

Monday update

We had a list of projects a mile long we wanted to attack this weekend. Lets just say we made "moderate" progress :) We did get the TV hung on the wall, which was a big accomplishment, and we did get Jeff's closet organize, so that was good. We can't complain though - the weather was beautiful, and I got to surf both days.

In exciting non house news - the power went out Saturday night at 9:00 and stayed out until after midnight. I guess a transformer blew & most of Cayucos was out. Boy, do we take electricity for granted. And then there was this article in the Tribune this morning: Yikes. I was out of the water by then, and surfing about a mile south anyway....

I need to take a picture of the pergola and get some input from you all. We feel it needs tweaking, but just don't know what.....