February, 2015

"On the road again...."

Tic-toc, tic-toc, the calendar tells us that new adventures await us in Europe so it is time to go. Finishing our big winter project just days before our departure gave us the opportunity for some emergency relaxation (!!!) before we drove off. We made good use of the time to visit our favorite local haunts, enjoy some friend's company and bask in the glory of a job well done.

Remember this?

Well, this is how it turned out. Next year a deck is planned to enjoy the outside of the see through 2 sided fireplace.

Finally, we packed and headed out on our road trip. Once again, we drove across the country, this time in our pickup, with the goal of leaving it at the Island as our replacement vehicle for the one we drove back home in California last October. Taking advantage of the opportunity to get a bunch of stuff from California to the Island that we could not have taken on the plane was a bonus.

Along the way we stopped in Las Vegas to visit friends for a few days. Vegas is big on food and we have a real hard time convincing our French friends that Americans don't overdo it on portion control in our restaurant meals when they see us order something as simple as a little pot pie.

The restaurant's idea of a single portion

Next on our road show was Phoenix to visit our favorite aunt's and uncle's and New Orleans to visit daughter Kami. We lucked out to be there for the opening of Mardi Gras. This was our first time attending the festivities and we were not disappointed. Mardi Gras is like stepping into the 'Star Wars' bar scene, but with everyone on drugs. It is a celebration of excess, the weird and twisted.

 

Mardi Gras in New Orleans with Kami. This guy was tame compared to the revelers

What I didn't know was that Mardi Gras is not just the parade you see on TV that winds it's way through Bourbon St. but a series of over 35 parades that wind through different neighborhoods over a period of two weeks. These people know how to party! While few communities allow open containers on city streets, here it is all but mandatory.

The trash left behind after everyone has gone home for each of these parades is astounding. We had trouble driving across a boulevard that was nearly knee deep in trash in some places. The clean up crews are serious though and it is all gone within hours. Finally, we wined and dined, toured the city and it's museums and it was off we go.

City's landmark Oak tree

Same tree, in perspective

Then, it was put the pedal to the metal to make a ... eh... "beeline" for the Bee. As we arrived in the area we went into thermal shock as to the temperature difference from a few days previous. We left California on a sunny 77 degree day (25 C) and arrived to a head snapping snowy minus 26 degrees [with wind chill ] (-34C) , a 100  degree spread. It reconfirmed why I left this climate 38 years ago and cannot fathom living here on purpose. They would have to just shoot me.

This is just wrong

It was colder than your ex's heart. Colder than a witch's  breast in a brass bra. Colder than a... (Janice just said "Enough! They get the idea") Once there, we stored our vehicle for the next 4 months and disappeared faster than someone in the witness protection program.
Thinking I was real clever, I thought to take advantage of Our February 14th departure this morning to score points with Janice. I told my bride that I would take her to Paris for Valentine's day. "Big deal" she said. "We go there every year."

The rest of the story...

This circus show happened days before our departure from California just across our fence on our neighbors property. First reported as a horse falling into a sink hole, the authorities became curious as to why such a large hole was covered with plywood and a thin layer of dirt. Our neighbor reportedly had no knowledge of it's existence and thought perhaps a previous owner had dug it out.

The authorities became suspicious though when they observed that the "hole" actually had a tunnel of sorts -with lights- that branched off toward a small storage shed in the middle of their field. The area soon had a number of long haired, bearded scruffy types emerging from law enforcement vehicles showing a great deal of interest in the discovery. When they insisted to have a peek in the shed, a staircase was found inside leading to the tunnel. 

So where do you put all this dirt that was dug up? Well, like in the movie "The Great Escape" it was hidden in plain view by spreading it about nearby, creating a volleyball court. Could all of this have disrupted the enterprising operation of an  ...eh... "underground" pharmaceutical facility? We report, you decide.

January, 2015

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.

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.

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.

·          

Outside view before. The pop out houses the fireplace in the sunken living room.

Sunken living room in early December. Chimney used to go up the middle of center window.

5 days before Christmas

Honey, call the police. Someone stole our wall!!!

At least I can SEE the beach from here...

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. 

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.

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.

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.

The exterior will mirror image the interior wall and is a work in progress. Gotta hurry up, we leave for France in 14 days. Unrepentant, Janice is now outside designing a deck that "we" will build next year upon our return. 

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...

December, 2014

PLAN BEE

For some time now we have been yammering about this big-o-honkin article about the island that was to appear in Cottage Life magazine. The writer and photographers spent 3 days each separately with us the summer before last, getting their story together, and it was finally published last month. 

It is what I am told the magazine world calls a 'puff piece',  a 10 page feature spread intended to keep the summer cottage folks fires burning in anticipation of Spring. With a million readers, it gets quite a bit of coverage in the cottage community. I have reproduced it here although some enlargement of the text might be required to actually read it. ( Ctrl and + key)

Granddaughter Kayla blowing bubbles on our dock

At the risk of driving this thing into the ground even though at this point I think I already have, we got word that the televised segment that was shot this past summer at the Bee by the Cottage Life Television Network (as opposed to the magazine folks), aired on December 9th and it is being syndicated internationally. We thought it turned out pretty well and we have a You Tube version of it here for you to see HERE. How our little bit of paradise has generated this kind of attention is beyond us.

Mothers world

Last fall we spent some time just before we left putting Janice's mothers affairs in order after she lost her husband Vern. Over the summer she decided it was time to move into a senior retirement home here in San Luis Obispo. She packed her clothes and a few pieces of furniture and moved out of her double wide mobile home. 

She then waited for our arrival in November for us to empty the house of its furnishings and contents and to put it up for sale. We spent the better part of two weeks working daily to get it done, then checked that box and moved onto doing the maintenance that our own home needed before tackling our big project for this season. 

Meanwhile,  we unloaded the furniture we had brought on our trailer from New York and a piece we could not live without that we found in Idaho while visiting our favorite son Wesley. We are thrilled with the new acquisitions as they fit into the eclectic decor that our home here demands.

Remember this from last month?

Well, here it is. The wood is Blue Pine.

Last June, we asked our sawyer friend who had built a few pieces of future for us at the Bee, if he could find us a piece similar to what we had seen in a shop in California. We wanted to take it and a one of a kind office desk we had commissioned him to make for us, back to California on our little trailer. 

Weeks later, he called and said that he thought that he had found it. We drove 10 miles out into the woods with him and walked through a muddy field to find what you see below. It is a Red Cedar stump, or is it a root gone wild still stuck in the ground? Of course, it was perfect! Wouldn't everyone want one of these?

By September it was ready to go. Having drug that thing and the live edge Butternut and Ash desk all through hell and gone across the country to get home, it was a done deal.

Command central, where all the brain work occurs.

This is our new wine rack. What you see is an optical illusion as you see it reflected in the 10 foot high ( 3+ meter) mirror behind it with a view of part of the kitchen seen in the mirror also. I point this out so you don't think that we are bigger lushes than we already are.

Here is to a Merry Christmas and a happy New year.

November, 2014

My boss lied to me

10 years ago this month, my boss lied to me. He told me that retirement would be "Great!". The truth is that it has been nothing short of spectacular. I get up most mornings and pinch myself, wondering if I will wake up and suddenly discover that it is all just a dream. We have been blessed beyond anything we deserve and we will continue to milk this thing until we are pushing up daisies and the party is over. As the Irish would say "May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you're dead"

To add to the festivities, we had our final (?) mortgage burning party this month. It is the third in 30 years. The grass looks greener, the carpet feels softer under our feet, the birds sing louder, the sky is bluer...you get the idea. There is a sense of freedom and security in knowing that for the first time in your life you owe absolutely nothing to anyone for anything. Amen.

The daughters

Two of our girls had a big month.The big news from Mandy is that she will soon be a married woman. Her guy Markus popped the question on Halloween and after being together for 11 years, she decided he was a keeper.

Next was daughter Kami who got a big write up from a firm that supplies the props for decorating the sets for the film industry, among others. Kami's current project is working on the set of American Horror Story. You can see more pictures and read the whole article about her career HERE

Naturally, we are proud of all our girls.

 

  California or bust (part II)

We left off last month mid way during our drive home from the Island. We did have the opportunity to re-visit the "Crazy Horse" memorial, the world's largest mountain carving, located in the Black Hills of South Dakota. If you are not familiar with the site, it is located minutes away from Mount Rushmore with its gigantic carving of 4 of our presidents figures in a mountain. 'Crazy Horse' is another mountain carving only on a much larger scale.

Here you can see where the horse's head will be carved.
 His outstretched arm will be 263' (80m) long

Foreground shows what the finished carving will look like. The hole you see in the background in the mountain below the face is 90' (30m) tall and is the opening 
under the armpit. The entire carving will be 641' (195m) long and 563' (171m) tall.

To put the size in perspective, all four of the presidents figures on Mount Rushmore easily fit within this Indians face. This privately funded project was begun by one man in 1948, but now has hundreds of workers and is a multi generational project. We last visited 20 years ago and could see little difference in spite of the year round work. I am always encouraged by those who tackle projects bigger than mine.

Next on the travel agenda was Amy's family, north of Seattle Washington near the Canadian border. The visit was the usual circus show with 5 grand kids crawling all over us. A fun time was had by all. 

The final stop before the race home was to be daughter Cassie's family by the Oregon state line. I say was to be, because a funny thing happened to our best laid plans. They went up in smoke.

The first of 5 U haul loads

We arrived at a moment when there was a little family drama and had to move her and the kids into an apartment nearby. The process of coordinating and pulling this little stunt off took the better part of two weeks, but during our visit we were subjected to a little weather event.

 Its OK, we survived the tornado!

We were in her house during a severe storm when we saw the wind blow some insulation over the roof of Cassie's house onto the street. A localized tornado had ripped roofs off buildings, launched large yard toys through windows, uprooted trees and sent shocked residents scrambling just two streets away from us. Yikes!

This is all that's left of a trampoline that was thrown
 through a house on a neighboring street.

Just as we were winding down our time with Cassie, we found out that grandson Alex would soon be released from the hospital (now out of his coma)  and his family was unsure as to where he would go as he is still suffering from a traumatic brain injury and is clearly unable to be on his own.

Visiting Alex

With two kids in need at opposite ends of the state, the solution was to leave Janice with Cassie to help her get settled in and for me to head back north 200 miles to Amy's for a week. This was to help my son in law Vance build a room addition to their modular home and make room for Alex when he arrives. 

This porch area was to be converted into a bedroom

View of the porch facing the house

Removing deck and ceiling to insulate

Let the games begin... Christopher helping by handing me screws

Last day when I left. Only drywall, paint and furniture left to do

Home sweet home 

We arrived home 3 weeks later than planned after covering over 6,000 miles (9700 km). The house was in great kit but it is obvious that no one takes care of your property as well as you do. It was time for us to clean up, fix up and well...what else? Renovate, of course! 

This year we have some small projects planned but one biggie for sure. We are planning to tear out an 11' X 17' wall (4M X 5M)  and replace a fireplace and a whole bank of windows. We plan to begin this part of the project January 1, minutes after the kids who will come to visit for Christmas leave.

We did get our trailer load of furniture we brought back from upstate New York home, and this morning we also took delivery of a 350 pound (160 K) piece you can see below that we had shipped from Montana while we were there. We should have it unwrapped to do a little show and tell next month.

Meanwhile, we will entertain and catch up with friends, enjoy the sunny warm weather, hang out at the beach and do what we Californians do.