Today's project

Is to pack and get ready for our house to have a big pretty termite tent over it on Thursday.  What a pain in the neck! They give you these cellophane bags specially designed to keep the gas that kills all living things from getting into your foods with specific instructions that all boxes of food need to go into them

Cept they are fragile. Well, not really fragile expect for when a cereal or pasta box corner hits the side of the bag it goes right through it. They gave us 100 bags and said "oh, that's enough for a family of 9" and I said "Can I have more, anyway?" and it's a good thing, because at the rate I've popped or broken them I still might need more.  I'm getting about 5 bags done for every 2 popped. Oh, yeah- you have to double bag everything. And that includes toothpaste, vitamins and all other things you might put into your mouth.  Oh, yeah, and I joined Costco last week. I didn't think I went overboard on buying stuff but now realize maybe the week before we were having our house tented wasn't exactly the best timing for buying warehouse size boxes and bags of granola bars, peppers, veggies, and flour.

I'm actually glad we're not doing this the day before we are getting on a plane. I think I'd spin myself into OCD orbit. As it is I'm packing beach and pool stuff, food, clothes, toiletries and the dog and all her stuff to last for 3 days. I can imagine how much more spazzy I'd be if I was packing for our plane trip, too. That was the original plan, but the termite company said they needed to do it sooner than August.

And there's still unresolved issues there. When they were messing around in the attic last week someone one stepped off the attic joist and cracked our ceiling. And not only did they crack it, they cracked it where it is super vaulted and where we had just had it textured and painted it in the fix-the-house-project.  That seems to be the theme of this house- any company we hire here has some sort of problem.

The non-company hired help outside has been working out well. The cement pad is in for the shed, the brand-spanking-new backyard sprinkler system is working. It's amazing how fast things can be doine when you have 2 people working on it full time who aren't trying to keep the kids out of danger and from destroying work already done.

It's been unseasonably hot, so I've been keeping the kids mostly inside anyway. Because they can cause a whole lot of damage and because it's just plain old too hot to run around outside for long. I'd let them play with the hose except all it does is make mud that gets on everything. They did have a water gun fight. And as soon as we check into the hotel next to the pool I can guarantee you the weather will be unseasonably cool. That's how this works, ya know.

So my break is over. Back to filling and breaking those dumb cellophane bags...

Nothing New

No really. It's been an uneventful week. Our hired help has been making quick work of the landscaping project. One of our neighbors saw our backhoe last week and came up and asked if they could have the dirt we would be removing for the pool they thought we were putting in. I was a bit disappointed that we weren't putting in a pool, too, but we did manage to donate a bit of dirt after all the moving of dirt around.

Let me tell you... the 18 houses between us are just *thrilled* to pieces that he drove his tractor up and down the street picking up dirt from our house and delivering it to his.  I'm sure they're scratching their heads and wondering if they can come up with an ordinance against such redneck activities.

But until then... We've made nice with the neighbor with the apple pies and made them an apple pie to ensure the constant supply of apples landing on our doorstep. I thought apples need a hard frost to grow, but apparently there is some (I shudder to wonder if it's genetically mutated) granny smith apple tree that grows here. And it's a more mushy apple than one I'd love to pick and munch off a tree from New England it's just perfect to make my most favorite thing with apples- apple pie and apple crisp.

And yeah, they're ripe now. I know. Weird California growing seasons.

We discovered we had 2 peach trees in our back yard on the other side of the fence, but the ground squirrels ate all buy 1 measley peach which they couldn't reach. I declare war on them. My old WW2 vet neighbor we call "the warden" admitted to me that you can kill them with the pellets you can shoot from a bb gun. I thought that was a fabulous idea and debate getting one for Joey although the phrase "you'll shoot your eye out" comes to mind and the realization that it wouldn't be his eye that gets shot out.

We still have a leaking pipe or two which will be replaced or fixed this week. Or so I'm told.

I've commandeered the Civic for my own personal use since S and J are spending the month in CT. It's been nice having a zippy little car. Really nice. I wish they made it in a hatch back version with an optional 3rd row seat.  And Larry's been using the truck to get all the supplies and parts at Home Depot that we've been needing this month.

And yeah, the van still needs to be fixed. I parked it across the street and down a bit in front of a neighbor's house while all the landscaping has been getting done. Better than in our driveway and put it on cinder blocks. I'm only partly kidding. 

So with that non update I need to go water my dirt so it'll be easier to dig up tomorrow. If you ever want to understand mudslides here, you need to come play with our dirt. When it's dry it feels and digs like cement- nearly impossible to get through and feels incredibly solid. Wet it turns to slippery sloshy claylike mud. Weird. But you can slosh it into bricks, let it dry and build a house. Which explains why they did that. Cept it's not so great when it rains. Albeit it rains hardly ever, so guess it's a well calculated gamble.

Alot of pictures

because pictures say 1000 words
The update on the yard can be found here 

As far as "after" on the house, I'm a bit behind on that,but I'll update a few of what we have. Keep inmind that if you can walk without stepping on toys or legos I consider the kid rooms clean.

Boy Bedroom (this is before I go moving any furniture around)

Girl Room (With my camera hound)

Guest Room:
With bed "down" it's a murphy bed and stands up in that case when it's not needed. Cool. huh?

With the bed up looking into the dining room

that closet looking thing on the left is the bed. Those are what's left our our school books

looking from dining room, this is the other 1/2 of the guest room

my new to me washer and dryer. door leads to the garage. yes. It needs door knobs.but right now I'm happy that I have functioning indoor plumbing.

Still to come- pictures of a clean kitchen (ha! you'll be waiting a while)
Dining room
Bathroom (gee I thought I'd taken those...)
Office ( I should show what it really looks like now so when it gets unpacked and clean I can look back and appreciate how far it came)
living room
Master bedroom and recently finished master bathroom

Right now I'm captive in my house with the termite folk. My living room is draped in plastic drop sheets, there is huge tubes blowing in new after sucking out old insulation.  And I think it's 90 degrees. In the house. The attic is probably 190 degrees. .

If you're wondering where I've been

I've been here, up to my eyebrows in chaos.

Lets see... to start.. the big chaos-

We had a water line break in our front yard. So I walked outside and noticed a big puddle. And while people who don't live in CA may see puddles in their yards- here- unless you've actually turned on a faucet- you don't see water. Especially nothing that goes "splash" when you step in it.

And this is the point I should have just told myself that God blessed us with a spring in our front yard much like Moses did when hitting a rock in the desert... but... I didn't.

Instead I got a shovel and dug down 3 feet and found a bunch of white PVC pipe, one of which was spewing out water.

So we turned off the water main and had take out pizza for dinner. I called our home insurance (it came with the house- I myself would never, ever, ever recommend buying it) who said if it wasn't in the foundation, it wasn't their problem.

Then I called 4 or 5 irrigation companies, thinking it was a sprinkler line. The first time one could come out was 4 days later.

Larry (with help) hand dug the pipes out of the front yard and exposed them. There are 3 layers of pipe deep. And while the bottom most one leaked, the top one took some damage in the digging. Both were repaired. The bottom most one by the guy who could come out soonest, the top by Larry who thought I never should have paid the guy to fix the pipe, much less the money he charged. *I* on the other hand just wanted it done and the 3 foot deep trench in the front yard filled back in.

And it could have ended there. Pipe fixed, end of story.

But then that would make a boring blog. And that wouldn't be life here.

Larry decided we needed to "just fix the yard" while we were at it since the front yard was effectively destroyed.  And rented a backhoe. A real live full size backhow. It was 7.5 feet wide. Of course knowing how wide it is is rather important because we have 8 feet between our house and the fence that separates us from our neighbor. (on one side, the other side has less)

So backhoe arrived on the back of a flat bed truck while the neighbors watched at a distance in disbelief. Everyone of them were working in their garages, yards or just walking back and forth to the mailbox 4 or 5 times. No, stealthy they're not.

So the hole was filled in and the wall that attached our house to that 8 foot away wall was taken down by said backhoe- on purpose- so that the backhoe could get into the back yard and dig up the yard. About a day of digging and the dead trees and not dead brushes were pulled up and tossed over the fence with the torn down wall and dirt which was removed to angle the yard away from the house and to dig a part perfectly level for our future shed.

The shed will be the latest home for Little Lions' excess inventory. Dispite my threats to sell, close and/or give away the company its still been hard for me to let go that control. It's finally growing and I kinda want to see where it's going. And I really like the wholesale aspect of it. I realize Larry was right- wholesale is far less time consuming and stressful, so I'm hoping to develop more in that direction.

Right now we've been waiting for them to pick up the backhoe. They were supposed to get it 2 days ago. When Larry called tonight, they said they thought they'd picked it up.( Well... if you don't want it... I'd be happy to keep it -said Larry). This is the same company who needed a driver's license number to be able to rent/deliver equipment and when Larry said it was a VA driver license, they said 'you don't really expect us to deliver to VA, do you?!' and Larry asked 'why? will that be a problem?' 

The backyard is still dirt, tho the hole in the front yard is covered. There is a different perpetual puddle on the concrete which we're both plugging our ears saying "la la la la la" and pretending like we don't see it. Larry says he's going to tackle it next. After he finished the back yard. As long as he completes one project before tackling the next, I won't squawk. Much.

The backyard is now piles of dirt. In theory there is a mostly staked out frame for the theortecial shed, but if you look at it, it's just alot of dirt. some holes. And a big mess. All the old sprinkler pipes are now out of the ground and will need to be fixed. We've called an acquaintance who does landscapes for a living and hope he can help us out out of the goodness of his heart or offer to take over the project for a price we can afford. He'll be here Saturday.

Prior to all this fun, the plan was for the house to be treated for termites this month. XYZ termite company who did our inspection for us to close were chosen for their ability to let us close without delay due to termite damage discovery. But not for their accuracy. Our neighbor had massive work done this past month which prompted us to start looking, found active termite problems got a good inspection and as a result of that will be having our house tented. And treated for all things creapy and crawly. Starting Friday they come to do the attic.

I have some more time on my hands because as of yesterday, the oldest 2 went to spend some time with my parents.  And it's changed the dynamic here. I'll elaborate on it further, but the mess containment, which I had been primarily been blaming on our 3 year old hasn't been nearly as bad as is is with all 4 of them here. And I had a chance to steam clean the couches, area rugs and re-steam clean the guest room.   Tomorrow I tackle the furniture re-arrangement in the boy's room and possibly move the tread mill into the guest room and book shelves out of it. We'll see. 

Well if this blog was a real job, I'd be fired.

Because it's certainly gotten bottom of my priority list.

So.. my little update from where we've been..
The bathroom is done. Almost.
I still need to get some serious scrubbing done on the tub, paint the trim and return all Larry's tools to his side of the garage.. but the floor is clean, including the grout- you'd be surprized what the acid wash tile and grout cleaner can do. It got dirt up from the Regan administration, I think.  While it's still not my first (or second, third, etc) choice for what I'd want for tile and grout, it's clean and functional and that's all that matters right now.

The older 3 have VBS this week, which means I'm getting up at the crack of dawn to get my normal am stuff done before getting the kids out of bed,dressed and dropped off. They love it. Even Sonia who's up for nomination of 'most difficult kid to rouse and get out of bed in the am' bouced out of bed yesterday. Granted, she didn't know how fun VBS was going to be the first am, so I had to bribe her out of bed with fruit loops.

(Note: mom, when you have the kids and need to get them out of bed early and don't want the huge hassle of literally dragging them out of bed, powdered donuts or sugar cereal do wonders. I know you liked to sing to wake us, but to this day if I hear that rise and shine song, it makes me want to throw something at the source of the song. Do not give Joey or JM fruit loops before getting in the car, however because they are absolutely disgusting to clean up once they've gotten car sick. Planes are better and the flight attendants get to do the cleaning. Sugar is the key to smooth sailing for crack of dawn departures here. Children's Bonnine is the key to fewer stops to clean up a car)

So with that random thought and post, I've got to finish my coffee and get moving here.

Mamat o little lions goes DIY

So I haven't been blogging because Larry's been around. Not just around but AROUND. He'd been off work since Memorial day. He went back to work today.

But time off = something productive better get done. And while I was kinda hoping that something productive was going to be a break repair job on my minivan, Larry has decided to finish the bathroom and our website's new cart. And prepare for Armageddon, but that's because he's home and been watching a little too much Glen Beck.

So here's what we've been up to- the bathroom version-
So we have a mater bathroom in this house that hasn't been operational since a month before we moved in. Aside from leaking sinks, a rusted and rotted out sink basin, no shower/bath fixtures and a possible horrible leak in the tub/shower plumbing, I didn't think it needed a major overhaul.

Ok. really I was willing to just live with it because I didn't want to fuss with a major overhaul.

And partway into a minor overhaul of replacing the sink bowls, the prefab counter and sinks went outside to never come back into the house. I'm not 100% sure what happened, exactly, but it didn't go as planned. And it's been that way since December. The upside down sink/counter combo has been my drying rack for my paint trays and rollers in fact.

So.. this week became the "bathroom completion week" on DIY-Bonsall version. Larry pulled down the vintage 1980's florescent light box and tossed it out the window, repaired the drywall and put in can lights. And then textured the drywall (because that's what you do with drywall in CA). He put in new tub/shower fixtures and things were starting to look like a bathroom. Well.. except for the lack of counter and sinks.

So.. we trotted off to the tile/granite/carpet capital of the area and about 3 stops into our hunt for affordable granite remnant we found our counter top. Last piece of prefab granite for a great deal.
And called the installer/fabricator who puts it in with the sink and drills the holes for them and they were out the same day we called to measure. And they wanted to put in in the next day. Whoa. Talk about fast. Should have gone with them in the kitchen.

Anyway.. it made re-painting (ah hem.. finishing painting since I ran out of paint and didn't like the color so much after I put it on the wall..) a quick priority.

And then the beautiful counter went in and...

It make the rest of the bathroom look trashy.

I mean the dingy tile and the beat and worn cabinets that it was sitting on just looked that much worse. Without a counter on, they didn't look that bad. (ok, well.. we were just used to looking at them) but with counter..  lipstick on a pig...

(no worries, I have pictures somewhere...)

so.. believe it or not it's been 4 hours since I first went to get the camera to add pictures.

Yep.
First I couldn't find the camera.
Then I put a $5 bounty on it for whoever could find it
Then I cleaned out the truck because the last time I had it was at the park with a friend on Sat.
It wasn't in the truck.
And then I remembered the LAST time I met her at the park and brought my camera, I left it in the van accidentally overnight and then it was stolen.
Then I paniced that I lost my 2nd $200 camera in 6 months. Spent a good 30 minutes in a panic over it and the 3 memory card with all my treasured and not so treasured pictures on them that was in my camera case.
Then I upped the bounty to include $5 and cookies and started tearing the house apart
I started with my bedroom
And by the time I got to the kitchen the house was absolutely upside down from the kids also looking for it
And I found a bill that needed to be paid.
Went online to pay it
Told me I wasn't associated with that account
Called the 1-800 line 5 times because I'm really clumbsy with phone trees
Got myself authorized and registered online
And then needed to find the checkbook to add the checking account information...
found that, got back online and see the blog window waiting for me to finish it.

Anyway.. you get the picture..

It's been a busy morning not being productive..

So.. here's the one picture I could find. I'll find the rest some other time. I'll pencil that in for 2013.

Bathroom 1/2 into repair:
New pain, new counter, cabinets sanded down.

Still to be documented:
Backsplash, stain and polyurethane

Still to be done:
Trim paint,
Paint repair for all the damaged spots
Floor needs a serious cleaning

And.. to be determined...
we realized you can SEE through the window that functions as a wall to the outside of the shower. I'll get pictures up but.. if you had a house with a window in your shower/tub.. even if you didn't have any directly behind you neighbors.. would you 'do something' about it?

First of all

To my Mom and Dad:

Please don't use anything you read here as cause for concern. I told you the van is now permanently parked in the drive way until it's fixed. Larry says he'll fix it but he's actually making progress on the bathroom and I don't want him to derail that. I'm driving the truck. It's fine. Quite safe, actually that anything that might hit me will bounce off. Larry has flags he put on the little trailer and I'll put them on the front of it if I need to park in a tight space. You seem to forget it was the only thing I had to drive for 4 months waiting for the van to make it here from VA. I'll survive just fine. In fact it was our sole vehicle our month in FL, too. Given the choice between keeping it or the van, I'd pick the truck everyday. Really we're fine.

Secondly:

I realized what the purpose of the blog is. It was a revelation of sorts.
I thought I'd start it to keep the grandparents up to date on what was going on here, but really it's more just a reflection of life here. And one the grandparents should not read. The antidote to all the 'everything is gum drops and lollipops' blogs which make me nauseous with how lovely and perfect their lives are. This blog is about life.

And it's not all gumdrops and lollipops.Candy really isn't our friend here. In fact most gum here ends up on the bottom of shoes and today, on the bottom of our dog's paw. I have no idea how that happened nor do I have the solution for it.  So.. it's just real life. A little of 'what the kids have done lately' and a little of 'I haven't spoken to an adult in 76 hours and I'll just write to myself online'  there's been less of that with Larry's new and improved hours, so it goes to follow that the blogging has been less.

But fear not.. he will be playing MASH in the desert shortly and I will be here again. Talking to myself and giving others a real picture of life. The one others read and no longer feel like the most inadequate parent because they didn't make the perfect fondant cake for their child's well planned birthday with 40 people in attendance which I made all the food for it myself...  the ones who have laundry piled on the couch and kids with long and dirty fingernails when the 5th nail scrubber and nail clipper go missing.. the ones who show up late for swimming lessons every time. The ones who have a struggle to get library books all returned on time. Those are the ones I keep the company with. Even if they're all just the different sides of myself.