May 25th 2007

Finally some time off.

With a few days between starting full time at Watsonville and being done with AdvantaCare I am happy to say that I am taking advantage of the time. Yesterday Revel and I climbed Devils Peak in the Ventana wilderness. I have no doubt where the peak got its name. I cannot remember being so tired and weak as I was when I reached the peak. We had a quick lunch due to a problem with flies and then started back amazed at how the 20 minute break for lunch had revived me. The biggest news is that despite my concern that I would be to sore to get out of bed its really not to bad today. The main goal of the trip was to see if Revel had a strong enough pack drive to stay with me and not run off. I am very happy to say that he was great! Sat right next to me when whenever we stopped and lead me all the way back but never more than a minute down the trail. Usually sitting in some shady spot waiting for me. We had a great time.

As I write this I am looking out the window to the back yard where our new hot tub is filling with water. We have a long 12 hour wait for it to get to temperature and then we can jump in. I have a tennis match this evening from 6-8pm so it should be ready by 10pm. Just about right. On the rest of the remodel we have completed the driveway and extended it into the side yard were the shed and the garbage cans are. We have cleaned up the area and should continue to do so. My goal is to get rid of all the junk by the end of the project. In the back we finished the slab for the tub and placed the tub today. We have new hammock posts and a trellis setup for the back corner. When the climbing roses or Wisteria grow over it it should be wonderful. Most of the other work has been cleanup and bringing in the soil that will be the base for the gravel and flagstone walkways.

Dorothy is having a tough week, she has a bad cold and lost a dear friend. Her former co-worker and close friend Kathy Duffy Smart died suddenly over the weekend. Kathy was one of the sweetest, fun girls we knew. She always enjoyed life and we will miss her.

The kids are all doing fine, Gavin is getting bigger and seems to have weathered the cold that has gone around the house without much more than a mild temperature. Teddy is in the hunt for a job and we are all helping with that. Resumes are being put together applications filled out and I have tried numerous times to suggest a haircut but so far he is not willing to go there.

May 15th 2007

The Solar System is done.

The workmen from Borrego packed up there stuff last night and the solar system is completely done. There are still two steps to complete before we can actually turn it on. 1) the City inspector must come out and inspect the system should happen next week. 2) PGE has to do their inspection sometime in the next 2-4 weeks. We should be using solar power by mid-June.

Here is a sequence of pictures of the system.

The house before solar

The new roof with the solar supports

The Panels all installed

The inverter to turn the Solar DC power into house AC power.

Here is the house with completed solar installation.

May 13th 2007

Mother Day 2007

Before I get to the update about what’s happening here let me wish all the Mothers in my life a very Happy Mothers day, and a very special congratulations to Amber who is celebrating her first Mothers Day with Gavin. She is doing such a wonderful job of caring for him. Hopefully Dorothy had a wonderful and relaxing Mother Day. She deserves it after the week we have had.

First the job situation. On May 20th I will work my last day of 14 years at AdvantaCare. It will be a very sad day for me. I really do love homecare, however the profession has changed and my longterm goals will be better severed at this time by being in the hospital. I will start full time at Watsonville Hospital on May 28th. I have been working there 1-2 days a week since April 1st. That is really the reason I have not updated the blog much this month. This was my first two days off in two weeks.

The remodel has been fast and furious this week. The Solar company showed up to start on Monday and decided that the roof was not in good enough condition to install the solar. So we hired a roofer to install a new roof on the section that will get the solar panels. My hats off to Knox Roofing, I called them Monday at 10am, they removed the old roof by 2pm and then they worked with the Solar guys to get the panel supports into the rafters and install the new roof by Wednesday. The Panels are to go up and be tied to the electrical system on Monday, more pictures on that on Tuesday. We spent much of Saturday cleaning out old junk that I did not want laying around after the remodel. Got rid of my lawn mower (no grass in the new plan). The front yard has the driveway set out but we, and several of our neighbors, love the look and decided to have Kai continue the driveway all the way around the house to the shed and back door area. So its not done because we had him order more material. Picture shows where we are so far. Driveway looks huge in the picture but it really is just two car widths. Kai has been held up a little this week with the Solar guys and the Roofers but he has done some grading in the back gotten rid of the mound that was my lawn and brought in some top soil to level the area. Of major importance to me is that he has staked out the location for the cement slab that will be the location of the hot tub. I noticed that the red bags of cement are already there in this picture. While I am very anxious to have this in place I doubt that I would go out in the mess of our current yard to use it. The deck will be coming in the next 10-15 days. Its coming along very nicely, hopefully we won't have any more major non-budgeted items.

The boys are doing fine. Edward finishes his time at Cabrillo College the first week of June. He will move on to a Job training program in July. Teddy is finishing up the junior year and looking for a job. Slowly but he is talking about it. Hopefully it will happen soon. I am slowly getting used to the "Dad can I barrow the car" routine. He is a good driver but it still worries me to have him out with the car.

Revel completed his intermediate obedience class and has received praise from many people on our walks to the beach for his excellent demeanor and behavior. We have come a long way together. Not done, but we have come a long long way. Elda has now started taking Libby to the same trainer and has already made fabulous strides with her. Both Mom and Elda will enjoy the benefits of having an obedient dog that brings joy and love into your life with a lot less frustration and unpredictability. I know that Dorothy and I are way happier with Revel now than three months ago. The contractors absolutely love him.

Enough for now have a safe week and drop me line of you like the blog.

May 1st 2007

My last day off for some time to come. I updated the schedule with May information so Mom you can track it on Google. I am still at AdvantaCare four days a week and starting to work at Watsonville Hospital two days a week. It's a lot of work but the extra cash is coming in handy since with all remodel projects little things keep pooping up that are good ideas. This morning when the driveway was fully removed we checked the water pipe from the meter to the house and found that it is very old, rusty and think that before we lay a beautiful Cooblestone driveway we better replace that so I called the plumber. He will give us an estimate in the morning.

Here are some before and after pictures. My family was granted access to a web album of all the pictures on landscaping project. If you want to be added just let me know I will email you an invitation to the Picasa album.

Here is the driveway as of today. On the left the before and on the right today. No more asphalt! The Camilla which was a bush is now a tree. The basketball hoop goes to the dump with the next trip. All of the stumps, and unfortunately the Margareite and the Peruvian Lilly's are gone. The Cobblestone driveway needs to go from a few feet behind my car to the foot of the Camilla tree. The Pink post is what is left of our porch railing and the ending spot of the driveway. The Driveway will be laid by Friday unless the before mentioned plumbing project gets in the way.

OK, this one was not easy to take. After 20 years of mowing, fertilizing and watering this yard its gone in one day. Not that it was a beautiful yard but thats a lot of weekends of work.

The side looks just as desolate right now no grass. The fence is removable and then reinstalled at night for Revel. There has been no work yet to take out the concrete steps and replace the whole are with the new deck I think that will start in about 7 to 10 days. Speaking of schedules the Solar company has us scheduled for next week for installation. One week to install the system then get PGE to OK it and we can turn on the system and by June we are on Solar electricity for about 80% of our usage. Dorothy is got it down to two paint schemes to choose from for the outside of the house. That should happen at the end of the month. I am worried she has not scheduled that yet. Its always something falling through the tracks.

Before I forget I did get a great picture of Gavin off Teddy's computer. Here it is.