And now for something completely different....

OK, so you've probably figured out this isn't our house, or anywhere near Cayucos, for that matter. My friend Lisa sent me this picture and I had to share. This is taken from Belmont Shore (just south of Long Beach, CA) looking East, toward the San Bernadino mountains. It was taken last Saturday, after most of the storm action had ended. What an incredibly clear day, and the snow on the mountains is amazing! Thanks for sharing :) (you can click on the picture for a larger view)

So what's up here? We weathered the storms just fine. Zero problems with water, wind, etc; the house is still dry & intact. The only small problem we had was a mild ant incursion, nothing major, and they seem to have backed off. It's drying out now, but we still have a chance of rain a few days this week.

Of course, two days before it started pouring, I put a bag of "lawn repair" stuff all over. It's a biodegradable paper mulch mixed with seed & fertilizer. It got so wet for 5 days or so, who knows if it will grow. We've watched a number of birds enjoying the seeds though. Sigh. Someday, the lawn will be all better :)

It's a miracle....

Can you believe this? Just a little over a year later, both cars are back in the garage. Just in time for the rain we are expecting this week. There is still some organizing to do, but the bulk of the job is done and we can easily fit both cars in. Yeah!

This weekend, we also applied some additional sealer to some of the trim wood outside. The stuff with the most exposure was starting to fade, and we decided to be proactive & seal it before the rain. It's easy to do, so why not.

Also, the glass for the kitchen cabinets is in the works. They are using a few of the plastic panels as templates, and it could be as early as this week that it all gets replaced with the frosted glass. Things are moving along! Now if the lawn will grow, but I think I'll save that for a separate post...

January Sunset

We made it through the storms of last week without any problems. No leaks, no water intrusion, nada. Needless to say, we are very happy about that :) We didn't get anywhere near the amount of rain they were calling for. I think we got 2" at the most, and they had predicted 4-5. Regardless, we really needed it and the hills are already starting to green up. The weather has turned warm and we've had offshores the past few days. Right now, the forcast is for warm & sunny weather for the next week.

This was a bit of the sunset from the other night. There is probably a dog running around in the picture someplace - you just can see him because of the darkness. Already, I notice that it's light out just a *bit* later. I think it's "walkable" until about 5:40 now, which is nice. That allows plenty of time for an after work beach walk, but not enough for surfing yet. It's usually around Valentine's day that it stays light until about 6:00 and after work surfing is possible again.

Happy Friday :)

Happy New Year!

It was almost a year ago that we were amassing boxes & getting ready to load all our earthly possessions into a Pod. At the time, the task seemed daunting, and I'm so happy we followed through with it and didn't get cold feet at the last minute. It was eight months of moving around, decision making, creative financing, and stress, but as we've said before, it was worth every bit of it.

I'm not one for New Year's resolutions. I never have been, and I'm not about to start this year, but I can say that I'm looking forward to this year quite a bit. We are mostly settled in the house (still need to repaint the master bath, get another car in the garage, re-sod the back yard...) so this year we can focus on other stuff, besides the house. I like that idea :)

I keep thinking I'm going to wind down the blog, and really, I have been for a few months. I don't have much to post (at least about the house anymore) and don't want to subject all of you to general ramblings. But, I think I'll keep at it for a bit longer, and try to give at least one house-related update a week.

Also, our hearts go out to Cinnamon, who's mother passed away on December 29th. You may not know her, but if you've read this blog, you know she's been our biggest commenter. We are sorry for her loss and hope that the new year brings her peace & healing....

So, here's to 2008 and whatever it may hold. We look forward to spending a year in home sweet home :)