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Back in the day.
Our kids grew up in this house and one of the big events was Christmas. Halloween was special too because we turned the outside of our house into a 33 foot high pumpkin by stringing orange lights down from the center of the rooftop under a 4 foot high green lighted stem at the top.
But for Christmas... we went all out. It would take me three days to string over a 1000 lights all over the dome. Our kids loved it because we had people drive up our driveway just too see it all up close. Small airplanes would circle overhead at night to take it all in. Because of our location at the top of the hill, you could see the house from the freeway, a mile away. I only stopped doing this once all the kids left. This was considered serious stuff, or at least as serious as
things ever get in a state where average people boast of their Kim Kardashian
sightings.
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| Left to right: Himself, Kami, Kayla, Cassie and Ryan |
With Kami and Cassie joining us for the holidays this year (plus Kayla and Ryan, of course) we had to at least provide them with the requisite Christmas tree of their childhood memories. I would have never heard the end of it had we not. Janice and I went out to our local tree farm and picked a 13 footer (4.30 M) and it did not disappoint. Over the holidays we managed to go swimming, visit the area, eat, drink and chase Ryan around non stop.
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| The play area we built for our children. Now, the grand kids play in it. |
Show and tell
Last winter, we had planned to put in a new fireplace in our sunken living room after we re-roofed the house. The center window above the fireplace was 1 1/2" too low to fit any unit we wanted, so we called the manufacturer and tried every trick in the book to make it fit but it was a no go. Undaunted, Janice simply said "No problem, you, will simply tear out the entire 12 X 17 foot wall (4 X 4.30 M), re-frame it, replace all the windows with new ones of a different size and install the new fireplace we want!"
With my best interests at heart, Janice began to worry that I might get a sunburn hanging out at the beach too much. As much as it pained her to interrupt my non-stop
tanning and surfing, she decided it was time for me to get to work. I am not clear what the difference is between my being in the sun working on the house and my being in the sun hanging out at the beach, but I guess she knows best.
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| Outside view before. The pop out houses the fireplace in the sunken living room. |
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| Sunken living room in early December. Chimney used to go up the middle of center window. |
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| 5 days before Christmas |
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| Honey, call the police. Someone stole our wall!!! |
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| At least I can SEE the beach from here... |
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| Hurry, the kids are coming.... |
The plan had two phases. Phase one was to have the new wall re-framed with new windows in and weather proofed by Christmas. All the framing was exposed but we were safe from the elements and animals simply walking through the open wall. It was close, but we made it. Then it was a mad rush to clean up an ungodly mess, put all the furniture back in place and put the Christmas tree up right before the kids arrived.
Did I get help? Well, yes I did. I hired a guy who was as useless as the day was long. I needed someone to help lift a few heavy long beams and to raise the large heavy windows in place. That he did with me. Beyond that I had him paint part of the 3 bar wood fence that surrounds our 3 acre property. Like the Golden Gate bridge, as soon as you're done painting it, it is time to start over. For years it was a task for misbehaving children to help them get an attitude adjustment, the Laprade version of a re-education camp. This was the limit of his skill set.
The experience is one of the big reasons we do so much of the manual labor ourselves. Aside from never being able to afford all we do if we had it done, I have been disappointed by an awful lot of the work we have hired out, as little as it may be.
Did I get help? Well, yes I did. I hired a guy who was as useless as the day was long. I needed someone to help lift a few heavy long beams and to raise the large heavy windows in place. That he did with me. Beyond that I had him paint part of the 3 bar wood fence that surrounds our 3 acre property. Like the Golden Gate bridge, as soon as you're done painting it, it is time to start over. For years it was a task for misbehaving children to help them get an attitude adjustment, the Laprade version of a re-education camp. This was the limit of his skill set.
The experience is one of the big reasons we do so much of the manual labor ourselves. Aside from never being able to afford all we do if we had it done, I have been disappointed by an awful lot of the work we have hired out, as little as it may be.
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| New Years day. Framing, insulation and new windows in. Not much else. |
We had a week of frivolity with the kids and the moment they left, we pulled all the furniture back out, covered everything with drop cloths and started phase two: finishing the job. This consisted of covering both the inside and outside walls with 1/2" cement board and rustic slate split face stone facing as well as the installation of the fireplace. This is the Readers Digest version of the task. The real deal consists of considerably more.
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| Building the custom Honduran Mahogany window frames. What a pleasure it is to be able to work in my shop equipped with a planer, jointer, table and radial arm saw, grinder, drill press, band saw, sanders of all types, yada, yada, yada. |
On time and almost within budget, the finished project includes a two sided see through flue-less fireplace.
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| The incoming air is drawn in through the slots on the side of the face of the unit and vents through the slots seen at the top of the exterior. |
Aside from tearing out walls, fireplaces and windows, this is the time in the life of owning a home that appliances are drawing their last breaths and need to be replaced. Since they were all purchased when the house was new, it stands to reason that they are all about due for replacing roughly at the same time when they begin to reach their 'sell by' date. This is a cycle we have gone through once before but its that time again. This winter it was the dryer, dishwasher and fireplace. Gotta try to keep up...
