My final task for the day was washin both cars. Again that darn dust made them look more used than usual.

Tomorrow, a change of pace. We’re headed to Reno for a break. Lou and Dawn made a nice dinner of everything that might spoil in the refrigerator, mostly vegetables. We packed for the trip. We'’re taking the car over and will be staying two nights. Again a trip without the RV. What’s wrong with us. Just practicality. It’s cheaper to stay in the motel than to pay for gas though not as comfortable in a hotel bed.

It now looks like we won’t be getting out in the RV until at least early October. i really can’t wait but there are things to be done here first.

http://donwood.org/wp1/2008/08/19/pesky-pebble/ http://donwood.org/wp1/2008/08/19/pesky-pebble/#comments Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:08:06 +0000 Don Home http://donwood.org/wp1/2008/08/19/pesky-pebble/ Tuesday: (08/19) I had a doctors appointment in Santa Clara this morning. It’s been two weeks since the last check on the pesky pebble’s (my kidney stone’s) travels. It hasn’t moved in these past two weeks. It gets four more weeks to move out or the surgeons will evict it. That doesn’t sound like fun to me. Very fortunately it hasn’t been bothering me.

I picked up Dawn at her class and we went by the Super Chinese Buffet in San Jose for lunch then I dropped her off in Mountain View to go to the Book Buyer’s book store there. Lou had a doctors appoint there so she picked her up after the appointment.

Tomorrow is garbage day, sometimes known as Wednesday to some. I had two almost empty compost barrels that I thought should be filled. Lou and I had discussed removing our apricot tree because the two main branches have rotted away to the point they may fall. Underneath one is our reading bench so that might be problematic. I whittled all the little branches up and deposited them in the bins. My little battery powered chain saw may have to work for a few days at trying to cut up the main branches which each are about 8 inches in diameter but the rest is in the bins. Or almost so. I actually left a few of the newer branches to see if there might be a tree left in there after I remove the big old guys.

Lou and Dawn also went vegetable shopping. Our dinner was pop corn and blue cheese and bacon potato salad. An odd combination but very good.

Oh, and surprise! The Bigfoot “find” announced a few days ago here was a fake.

Wednesday: (08/20) Lou had her doll class and Dawn her class and of course i have no class at all.

I worked in the back yard removing bricks and chipping the grout from them. I needed to trench through them for one of the drain inlets for a down spout and they also need re-leveling. So I’ll be removing all of them installing the drain pipe the reinstaalling and also expanding the area of the brick patio. I also started sawing the patio to instaall the other drain inlet. I have to remove about 6 inches by 21 feet of concrete. In addition to the drain inlets for the down spouts I’ll install some drains for the patio as well.

Since the saw blade needs to cool quite often, I mixed working on the brick removal with pruning the apricot tree. I sawed off the big branches that remained from the revious pruning. It took four battery charges to chop it all up but now it is quote a bit smaller and shaped nicely. Hopefully it survives.

Thursday: (08/21) Breakfast at The Country Gourmet Cafe in Mountain View. Lou and Dawn had a Salmon Omelet and I had a Field Mushroom Omelet. All very good.

From there we did a little shopping. Lou’s fixing the bed so we needed new pillows which she had seen at Costco. We also stopped by Orchard Supply Hardware for a plant saucer and some “tree seal” to seal the apricot tree where I severely pruned it.

When we got home they were hooking up power to the new house across the street. Always some good show.

We learned our neighbors camping trip to Yosemite was cut short There was a bicycle accident and the neighbors knee didn’t fair well. They came back home days early and surgery is upcoming. It doesn’t sound like fun. We watched one of their sons while they were off to the doctor and I had the duty to assemble a new child seat for the car pool vehicle. It looks like today isn’t a working day?

We went over to the neighbors for dinner. Having three young children seems like a real challenge. It was nice to visit and nice to be able to say good night.

Friday: (08/22) I broke out more of the bricks having decided to remove them all to level and adjust the grade instead of just putting in the drain pipe. I cleaned all the grout off the bricks by chipping away. Unfortunately some of the grout was really good having had too much cement added to the mix so the work went slowly but eventually was completed.

Saturday: (08/23) Today was a play day. We went downtown to a street art fair. We really wanted to see the chalk art drawn on the pavement. Before we left we stopped for a late lunch at the New York Cheese Cake Factory sharing a pistachio chocolate swirl cheesecake, Cesar salad, and a shepherds pie. We always start with the desert first. You never know when you might get full and if you have to leave something we don’t want it to be desert.

I did get the car loaded for a dump run which included getting the old wooden bench under the apricot tree into the car.  It’s rotted a bit and looked pretty bad but there really wasn’t too much danger of it collapsing. it was an 8 inch thick, 18 inch wide, and 8 feet long piece of redwood. It was the former sign to the downtown Palo Alto library that we’ve enjoyed for the past 15 years or so. It was a nice place to sit and read or enjoy tea or breakfast. We’ll miss it a lot.

Sunday: (08/24) We started the day with a visit to the dump I worked all day sawing the concrete on the patio and breaking it out. That 75 pound breaker bar gets heavy after a while.

About 5pm I cleaned up and we went back downtown to view the complete chalk drawings on the street. Every thing was good and many great! Since the Art show ended at 6pm and they started removing everything to be able to open the streets we didn’t want to be late so i ate dinner of an grilled open face chicken and tomato sandwich. Lou and Dawn had enjoyed theirs early as i was cleaning up.

Dawn was off to school early. ParaTransit was late and she ended up getting to class late.

Lou and I did a shopping run, both hardware and food. First stop was the Post Office to get some 2 cent stamps to help use up the 55 39 cent stamps we still have. We bought a roll of 100 stamps a few weeks before the rate went up and of course before the forever stamps as well. We don’t use too many stamps any more. Of course there was a problem. The post office was very busy and they were out of stamps in the vending machine. If only the USPS could be more like the UPS! They need some competition.

Next stop, a look around the home salvage store. Lou can’t pass without stopping and I tend to not want to stop but I’m the one who found something.  I looked through the used molding and found a nice bundle of fluted molding. The door and window molding in our house is five fluted and my find is also five fluted but is slightly different being slightly recessed convex. It looks close enough and will be used in the garage for the door and window.
Lou’s replacing some of the Venetian blinds  that showed too much age. We looked at Ikea but didn’t like the styles nor the price so we then went by Home Depot and found our usual $5 blinds. I also found a new carbide tipped saw blade for my 6.5″ hand saw. They are hard to find. Most store only have 7.25 and 10 inch blades?

By now we were hungry so we stopped at the Chipolte restaurant in Mountain View for lunch. We’ve always wanted to try it out but haven’t until now. We each had carnitas bowls which were very good. We’ll be back.

From lunch, Lou walked across the street to Costco to look while I hit Orchard Supply Hardware. I could have purchased what I needed at Home Depot but I prefer OSH for two reasons. They provide a little more service like loading the car and I prefer to use one source so that when I return the 25% of unused items they can all go to one place. I just wish THIS OSH was better stocked. i picked up some  drain pipe to complete the connection of the last two remaining down spouts to our drain system and to complete the french drain around the house. Only about 30 feet to go but it’s all through paved areas so next step is to do some concrete removal.

Our final stops, because of refrigeration needs, were the markets. We started with a stop at Trader Joe’s and followed that with a visit to Safeway. We didn’t do the vegetable shopping at the Milk Pail because Lou and Dawn will be away until Wednesday. Lou will do that on her way home.

I needed to fix her Internet access at her apartment. It’s been acting up due to the buggy Microsoft upgrades that killed the Zone Alarm firewall. It was easy enough to fix with an upgrade to both. The Internet connection has also been intermittent running a day or two then requiring a power cycle of everything to connect again. Even that didn’t work the other day for Dawn, so here I am. That problem hopefully disappeared with the re-seating all the cables because the next thing will be replacing the DSL modem. Now, be nice!

It was also a typical day in Palo Alto.

There was a news conference here about finding a dead Bigfoot. A guy here is marketing the “find” for the people who “found” it in Georgia. I’m not surprised that the news conference was here but am surprised that a Bigfoot, with that hairy body, would choose to live in Georgia, a place noted for high humidity and hot summers. It probably died of heat exhaustion?

And then there is our wonderful city. They stole all the newspaper machines downtown for our newest (third) newspaper the Palo Alto Daily Post. The city said they received a complaint from one of the other papers about the fact the new paper didn’t have a permit to place the machines on the city sidewalks. Turns out they applied months ago but still haven’t gotten one. The machines were delivered to the papers door step. The newspaper immediately reinstalled them. This will likely end up costing us tax payers a bundle. There’s little doubt the City is in the wrong here.

One of Dawn’s high school friends,Abdul, is in town. He’s now studying law in London and is home visiting and working on his dissertation. We all went over to a local Mexican restaurant to have some of their advertised $1 margaritas during happy hour. Nothing like a good cheap drink. Actually, it was nothing like a cheap drink, nor a happy hour. We “failed” to mention we wanted the “house” margaritas so they were $6.50 drinks instead. This was our first visit there in about 15 years. They changed all their recipes then and their food went from excellent to poor so we haven’t been back, until now. They won’t need to hold a table for us, we won’t be back for at least another 15 years. Did I mention it’s in Palo Alto.

We really do like this city but there are some peculiarities here, but of course, we’re one of them as well.

One of Dawns school counselors and her niece came over just before the gang returned. We all visited a while and then picked up a couple of pizzas for dinner. It was a good opportunity to use a two for one pizza coupon for our local Pizz’a Chicago parlor.

Saturday: (07/16) Lou and Dawn went to their usual weekend rummage and garage sale tour. Abdul was off visiting other friends.

While Lou, Dawn and Abdul went to a picnic hosted by the Vista Center For The Blind I tinkered on the house some putting the house numbers on, repairing the door bell switch and adjusting the position of one of the drain inlets for a down spout so they connected. The mail box slot in the garage wall got in the way so the down spout was relocated. I thought it would look better straight so I told the installers I’d align it later so make the downspout straight. That was enough work so I tinkered at the computer the rest of the afternoon.

About 4pm we all headed up to the San Mateo County Fair. It’s been one of the better citified fairs in the bay area. We enjoyed our visit but it looks like this fair is dying like most of the other bay area fairs. Seems like to have a good fair you need to have some farming and its all but totally gone around here.

Sunday: (08/17) We enjoyed breakfast under the arbor and just before noon Abdul was off to other destinations.

Not a busy day today. We all tinkered around. Dawn made a corn tomallito for desert. It’s that corn pudding like thing you get at Chevy’s restaurant.

While watching the work in back by the fountain a humming bird paid a visit, and this time, I had my camera. The shot on the right was spoiled by the triceratops that lives there.

Today, they completed the North side of the house, most of the rest of the front and prepared half the South side. In addition, they fabricated the rain gutters. There were three guys here all day until after 7pm and two guys who dropped the three off picked up some material here at the house and returned to their shop, in Sacramento, to bend the gutters. Now that’s a long drive to get to the shop and back here to pick up the other installers.

While we waited for the crew to arrive we modified our 4 wheeled bike by removing the top and baby seat. This makes it much lighter and it looks nice, more like a sports care rather than a family wagon. It’s our Italian Sports Car since it is made in Italy.

Tomorrow, with five workers, they should finish, almost. The almost is because they ran out of the gingerbread scalloped shingle siding used on the upper front areas. That may delay actual completion but they may be finished otherwise tomorrow. Now that’s fast!

Thursday, the garage door should be installed as well so then we may be through with all ths mess getting the place spruced up.

Tuesday: (08/12) I was up about 6:30 intending to take a shower before the installers showed up.

Lou and Dawn are off to San Jose for Lou’s doll class and Dawn’s meetings.
Today, for the first time, they showed up early at about 7:15. I had to remind them that they couldn’t start work until 8:00 per a city ordinance but that didn’t slow them much but they just moved things and didn’t use hammers of power tools so we didn’t get caught. The end result was they finished everything and departed about 4:15. The scalloped shingles are still awaiting parts but should arrive in a week or so.

The last piece, except for the back ordered shingles, is being installed above left. The service area (above right) turned out very neat.

The side of the garage and the new hot water shelter. The almost complete siding project above right.

After they left, I vacuumed the yard of all the Styrofoam dust and searched for lost nails and screws.  That took a while even though when they left the yard was actually pretty clean, by contractor standards. I also reinstalled the fencing next to the house.

Wednesday: (08/13) Play day. Tomorrow the garage door will be installed but today nobody here but me. I did some final work on the fence replacement. It now is free standing and needed a metal brace. It used to be attached to the house.

With the work done I updated this blog and otherwise took it easy. When I did finally venture out, I stopped for a hair cut at the Stanford barber shop then at Chaves Market in Redwood City for a very late lunch or early dinner? I enjoyed my usual super carnitas burrito. Next stop, get gas. What a pleseant surprise, only $4.15/gal. Best price in many months.

I then stopped by Target looking for stuff, nothing found there. Next stop was Redwood Supply, a hiker/camper supply store. I was looking for new hiking boots and new shoes. I found my usual sketchers loafers but didn’t like the hiking boots I tried on.

Next stop was Big Lots, the discount store for some cannded fruit and some energy drinks. I indulge the ocassional Red Bull enrgy drink bu they’re a bit costly. It’s what’s in the drink that’s important and Big Lots has a number of other similiar drinks  for 1/4 the price. I’m not drinking the Red Bull because it tastes good or quenches the thirst but to get me moving again. The other drinks seem to all work as well.

Next stop the Orchard Supply Hardware store. I needed a new faucet and a few other things. I cruised through the Costco next door as well and picked up a berry sundae. It was rather hot before that.

On the way home I walked the Stanford Mall. I haven’t been there in a while. It’s a nice place to walk. Nice flowers and fountains. Then it was tome to head home. Enough fun.

Thursday: (08/14) The garage door installer arrived about 8:38 for his 8am appointment. He did a very good job installing the new door. An advantage of getting the new door was that we had to cleanup the garage so he’d have room to install the door. The garage is actually mostly Lou’s pottery shop except for the laundry area. It hasn’t been cleaned in quite a while, our usual method, wait until desperately needed.

The installer departed about 12:38 leaving a nicely installed new garage door. Quite an inprovement.

I was busy cleaning up my study to provide access to the windows for replacement. The room was piled floor to ceiling with stuff but the closet was empty. I went to Home Depot and got a shelf and installed it in the closet. I had intended to make my own but that intention is several years old so the quick fix is the purchase method. I installed the shelf and cleaned up most of the day.

The contractor called and asked to start the siding Wednesday so both projects may be finished this week.

I repaired the doorbell which hasn’t worked for years. What would you expect at an electricians house? Actually quite a productive day but there is much to do before Wednesday. Tomorrow starts with a doctors visit then back to work.

Tuesday: (08/05) Busy day made busier by the unexpected early arrival of the siding folks tomorrow.

I started the day with a followup visit to the doctor. My little kidney stone hasn’t been seen these past two weeks but fortunately I’ve been feeling good waiting for it to show it’s face. It’s almost ready to pop out but that knowledge doesn’t make me worry less waiting for the fun to start again.

I treated myself to a Chinese buffet lunch near the hospital before heading home. It was one I haven’t tried before called the Super Buffet on Saratoga Avenue in San Jose. Real good.

I had to finish a few things before tomorrow. I repaired several vent screens. Don’t want any critters moving in.

I also repaired all the rafter ends that had been sawed or rather hacked off to provide clearance for the old patio cover. I installed new end pieces so the siding and soffit can be installed correctly. I’m sure, if the contractor did it, it wouldn’t be as good, especially since they hadn’t seen the problem because when they were here before the patio cover was still in place. I also cleaned up and put away a lot of stuff that had accumulated on the patio.

I finished up just before 9pm and then picked up dinner at our local beanery Taco El Grullense getting a nice super nachos.

Wednesday: (08/06) While I waited for the contractor to show up I did a few last minute things. I removed the fencing that was against the house. Again, I know what the contractors best friend, the sawsall, can do to fence and I prefer a little better removal which allows reinstaallation after the contractor leaves. I also remembered to move a couple of big planters that were against the house that have bougainvilleas. That can be a sticky job but wasn’t bad other than the weight of 30 gallons of dirt.

Fortunately, as I sit here, at noon, waiting for the contractor, who was supposed to arrive at 10, I have good entertainment. They are finishing up the house being built across the street. They are installing the paving stone driveway today.

It works every time! The contractor arrived at 1210 with his truck very over loaded with most of the material. These workers, like most of the people working on the house across the street, live in the valley around Sacramento. The price of gas has to be hurting them. The foreman across the street says he spends $350 a week on gas. Glad I’m not doing that!

After dropping off the load, they left to go to Home Depot to get the lumber that was needed, another truck load. So, work didn’t start until near 2pm but even with the delays, they nearly prepared two sides of the house with furring. At this rate they should finish fairly quickly.

Lou picked up a Pizz’a Chicago pizza for dinner.

Thursday: (08/07) We expected both the return of the siding folks and for the window installers to arrive about 8am. The window installers  arrived near 9am while the siding installers arrived just before noon.

All the windows except the garage were installed today and a little of the touch-up work done today. The garage window could not be installed because it’s 13″ too narrow. Oops! In addition, we learned that the door is not yet available. They don’t schedule the installation until all material is in. The installer confirmed all th material was in the day before but when he arrived to pickup the windows and door, the door had left the building. So it’s on order again, hopefully with front of the line privilege. The windows look great!

Even with such a late arrival, the siding guys completed the most difficult part, the area above of sun room. They had to brace the roof to allow to work on the weak tin roof. They also have some missing material like more than half the vent covers. That may make them have to stop until they get them since all the other work rises from the vents.

Lou and Dawn whipped up a cranberry Asian pear pie. The pears come from Dawn’s pair tree in the front yard. The poor little tree is overloaded with fruit this year. Dawn planted this tree from a seed she saved from a pear our neighbor gave her. It’s probably 10 years old now but due to not getting out of a pot into the ground for a few years, it’s only about two inches in diameter and has only had a max of 17 pears before. This year there are more like 71.

My job is photo journalist. I’m taking hundreds of pictures some of which will end up being posted here when th job is  done.

Friday: (08/08/08) This is supposed to be a lucky day, who knows?

Everybody showed up by 9am today. The window installers did their touch-up. The windows look quite nice. The before picture above left is quite different from the finished windows and siding on the right above. They left about 2pm. They still have the one window that was too small and the front door to install when they both arrive later

I learned that this same siding installation crew is working on installing siding at Pier 39, a tourist trap shopping center on a wharf in San Francisco. Now that is a BIG project. They’re doing a great job here. Today they finished a lot of the front and the side of the garage. That was with three people working today. There were only two installers the previous two days. Obviously, this is going to take a few more days. They do have most of the most difficult parts done. They even started the “ginger bread” scalloped shingles on the upper front. They look nice.

You can see how hard we are working watching all the work.

Saturday: (08/09) I started the day by setting up Dawn’s desktop computer to use the wireless network. The cable that used to go to her computer exited via the study window. I haven’t been up to crawling under the house to relocate it so I went wireless. All our laptops are anyway so why not the desktops too? I’ll also have to reinstall my outside WiFi hotspot antenna some day as well. For now some of the neighbors may have to connect elsewhere.

I spent the rest of the day preparing for painting some areas that may not be covered by the siding or trim. It’s much more difficult to paint the small exposed areas after the siding is up. The problem areas are around the doors and the two windows we didn’t replace as well as the electric and telephone services. I also built a box to cover the sprinkler valves on the front of the house. Before quitting for the day, I primed all but the windows. This kind of work I could easily do without. I hate painting as is evident by the look of the house before we started.

Dawn worked at making some paper. She’s wanted to do it for a while and we saved a lot of the shredded paper from the junk mail which she then placed on one of the screens from the windows that were replaced.

Lou worked on her dolls. She and Dawn also went grocery shopping. We usually do that on Thursdays but were too absorbed by the work on the house.

Sunday: (08/10) We started the day with a nice breakfast of peach blintzes and smoked sausage then went to the Palo Alto Farmers Market for a look. We don’t usually get much there because the prices are so high but we do enjoy visiting and looking around.

More painting. Everything got it’s color coat of paint today.

I picked most of the remaining Asian pears from Dawns tree, one of the duties of those gifted with height. Lou and Dawn spent the day baking. Peaches were on sale so they made more blintzes to freeze and they also made Asian pear and cranberry pies.

Oh boy, tomorrow the installers are back!

Sunday: (08/03) We visited Rancho San Antonio Park. It’s a multi agency park including a Santa Clara County Park, A City of Mountain View run Deer Hollow Farm and a huge chunk of Midpennsula Regional Open Space District land. These hills have a lot of parkland made up of city parks, open space, County parks, and land trust land. Lots of good hiking. Part of the park is an old farm with gardens and animals.

We love visiting the goats. They have a new calf (6 months old). The calf was born at Hidden Villa, just over the hill in Los Altos which we visited a couple of weeks ago. This farm, and the other city farms in the bay area share animals. It probably makes for better breeding.

Of course there were some flowers. The flower above left is all over the park . It’s on a vine that grows in many of the trees. The berries were on some of the trees. Too bad they aren’t edible.

And then there are the quail, lots of them. Even some chicks.

Monday: (07/28) We, mostly, finished moving back into the laundry room. I did the first load of laundry. It’s nice to have a drain that drains and doesn’t leak, for a change. This house has had several problems with drain pipes that try to send water uphill, not the best method of trying to drain water.

Tuesday: (07/29) I built a platform, a couple of days ago, to support the new cabinets from Ikea over the drain pipe that was attached to the wall surface. Most of the storage below it is usable. The finished laundry room, shown on the right above, looks a lot different. I wish I’d have taken a before picture. It a night and day difference.

The water heater shelter construction begins.

Lou and Dawn were in San Jose all day but returned for dinner. We went up to Redwood City to Harry’s Haufbrau for dinner. We qll had pastrami dinners. A real treat.

Wednesday: (7/30) We were up early, had leftover French toast and bacon for breakfast and were on the road to Paso Robles.

We visited the California Mid State Fair in Paso Robles. We always wanted to visit but never made it to the fair before this. We’ve been hanging around home this summer and we were only going for the day so we drove down in the car with the idea of using a motel if we didn’t feel like returning today. We arrived there before 11am, walked around the grounds a while before any of the buildings opened at noon. It wasn’t crowded as we explored all the animal barns, craft displays and such.

It a nice country fair with animal judging and displays of the things made by local residents. Our own fair is a city fair with little of this.

One of the reasons we haven’t made it to this fair is a concern about the heat. Two years ago we were nearby in Pismo Beach, 30 miles away, during fair time but it was 115 degrees there and mid 70’s at the beach. We passed on the visit at that time. This year it’s in the mid 90’s but quite comfortable. Even the animals are comfy. There are lots of fans and many of these huge evaporative coolers (4 feet square).

We did things backwards (as usual) and parked at the fair but left to go downtown for dinner. I don’t care for fair food, over priced, questionable sanitation and not very good at best, usually. Dawn and Lou wanted a chance to visit a thrift store downtown then we ate at the Downtown Brewery. Lou and Dawn shared a rack of beef ribs and I had a nice hamburger. We also stopped by the library before heading back to the fair on the free shuttle.The fair is one of the best around these parts. Our own Santa Clara County Fair is dead, not even worth a visit. We do like the Watsonville Fair and the Humbolt fair but that’s about it for good fairs in California that we’ve found though we haven’t been to all of them, yet.

It became VERY crowded in the evening. so we headed home about 730pm.

We stopped for gas in San Miguel. Gas was $4.45, still 21 cents less than at home but not as cheap as we’ve seen along the road today, some down to $4.29. But, it’s not worth a tow nor the inconvenience of the crowds around the fair to save a total of $2 on a fill up. It used to be that saving a few cents per gallon meant something but when it’s up in the multiple dollars per gallon saving 20 cents a gallon doesn’t amount to a very high percentage of the egregious purchase price of a tank of gas. I’m not fooled any more by slight reductions in the price of gas now that it’s so high priced. The price is always slower for fall than it is to rise and never drops as far as it rose for the same change in the price of a barrel of oil. But I digress.

Nice trip.

Note: No, we haven’t given up using the RV. We’re just hanging around home for the remodeling and with the price of gas, we do, at least, consider the most economical way to travel, even taking buses and trains around home for some trips. We do plan to be back on the road for a while by mid September.

Thursday: (07/31) Back home and back at it. Just doing little projects in prep of the siding installation and window replacement. The water heater cabinet is finished.
Friday: (08/01) I installed a new mail slot through the wall. The existing is in the garage door. When the door is replaced, i don’t want it in the door. Lowe’s seems to be acting like an un-concerned vendor. It’s going on 4 weeks now and the door isn’t even scheduled for installation yet. When we stopped by the store, on the second time, we found out it had an unidentifiable hold on the installation. On hold and forgotten is more like it. We think we got it straightened out but still haven’t been contacted about the installation yet. I’ll have to get on their case next week.

For dinner, we went to Chevy’s Fresh Mex restaurant. We had some coupons for a 3.99 second dinner with the purchase on another. We got our two dinners shared among the three of us an brought home enough left overs for another meal. Cheap and exellent food too. That offsets a gallon of gas.

Saturday; (07/19) I was feeling good so finished the plumbing in the laundry room. I don’t really like plumbing but it’s always good to finish any project or portion there of. Now for the cabinets. Lou helped out as needed and worked on her dolls.

Above left, when the dark wood paneling was removed, the old “wall paper” was exposed. It was magazine pictures from the 50’s. The removal of the paneling fixed a minor termite infestation and made the room brighter. Above right, this drain pipe is working extra hard since it drains uphill. What was the “plumber thinking”?

Sunday; (07/20) Lou and I started hanging the dry wall in the laundry room. “Funny” how such a small wall is so time consuming to fit with drywall. Lou took her time fitting the pieces due to all the piping and other obstacles. We have a problem doing projects like this because we don’t do them in a workmanship like manner, we do the properly instead. That takes a little longer. It’s also why we usually don’t hire contractors and do all our own work. We are getting a bit more lazy which is why the siding and windows are being done by a contractor. I hope we aren’t a disappointed.

Monday; (07/21) Dawn returned to San Jose for some appointments. Lou and I finished hanging the dry wall in the laundry room and did the taping.

We stopped by Chevy’s Fresh Mex restaurant for an early dinner using another of their generous coupons.

Tuesday; (07/22) Lou went down to San Jose for her doll class.

I finished the tape and texture of the walls

Wednesday; (07/23) I prime painted the walls. Lou and Dawn made their way home stopping for dinner at the Palo Alto Creamery restaurant.

Thursday; (07/24) Breakfast at the Chavez Market and Taqueria in Redwood City (RWC). We needed some paint for the laundry room project and our local Orchard Supply Hardware (OSH) store has been out of the things we need on too many on our recent visits. Since they aren’t restocking they must be getting ready to close. Too bad, they used to be a good hardware store and still are usually better the the Home Depot and Lowe’s stores. The store OSH in RWC seems better stocked usually. We also stopped by a nursery and Lou and Dawn got an artichoke plant, a papyrus plant and some duck weed for the pond.

Friday: (07/25)  Still at the laundry room.  I built a platform to hold the new Ikea cabinets. The platform covers the drain pipe and allows the cabinet to be against the wall. It also raises the cabinet higher so the doors will swing over the steps into the house. Always something that needs special treatment. Lou and Dawn have been attacking the house cleaning. Our place may become respectable?

Saturday: (07/26) We started assembling the Ikea cabinets for installation in the laundry room. Even though they are probably the best constructed junk cabinets made, they are still cheaply made, the new way of the world. With all the add-ons that make storage easier, they most definitely are NOT cheap. Probably the first and last we get. I prefer real plywood more than sawdust cabinetry.

Doctor Lou, who has a working memory, said “the last time you felt this way and were writhing on the floor in agony, you had a kidney stone.” She was nice enough to drive me to Kaiser’s emergency room where they gave me a shot which fixed the pain, did a CT scan and confirmed Doctor Lou’s diagnosis. Four hours later we were on the way home. A fun evening.

Fortunately, it’s been 10 years or so since that last episode. I’m now taking it easy since I’m now a drugged person. Lou’s taken over my laundry room face lift project. I can’t be trusted near sharp tools and fire.