Baseball!!

We've got 2 KC Royals in the house!! This year, both boys landed with the same name for teams. Kyle is playing in Rookie league and Gavin is playing T-ball. They were excited to wear the same uniform and are loving baseball so far. We're so glad they are having fun, learning the sport, and are both members of great teams led by great coaches. Spring is busy, but it is so, so good!! 

Opening Day was 3 weeks ago. The start of the season means I'm driving the boys to 2 different locations for practice twice a week and our Saturdays are mainly spent at the ball fields.

Gavin's very 1st at bat! :)

The first baseman of the other team is our neighbor and Gavin's friend!! The boys were so excited to see each other and had to be reminded there was a game going on! :)

Gavin was lookin' "baseball ready."

Over at Kyle's game, he got to try out a few positions, including catcher.

 Up at the plate, swinging well.

 Coming home to his cheering fans. ;)

The boys are looking good out there and it's fun to see all the growth a year makes! 

Pictures of Home

Happy Saturday morning! It's my favorite... no obligations or responsibilities except enjoy the morning with the family. :) It's these nice, sunny mornings that I get to appreciate so many beautiful views.  Currently, in house news, I've been playing with furniture placement around the house and Ru is in the middle of a roof/fascia project out back. 

We have 2 long rectangles on either side of the fireplace and we have to be careful the room doesn't appear to be a bowling alley. Having the couch scooted far off the wall, for the piano, helped considerably. The plan is still to buy a different couch, in an L shape, so you can face the fireplace and also face the T.V. mounted up on the side wall. I also wanted a full 360 degree of possibly seating areas. In this first scenario, we need a longer, different colored rug plus the L-shaped couch and a new, more modern coffee table. 

In scenario #2, we still need the L-shaped couch, but the rug fits the space better here and I do like being able to see the piano more. The open space is really fun. 

 Still looks slightly crowded when I take the picture farther away.

But up close, the space appears more open. 

 

I'm currently typing from this end of the dining table. I love my view outside. I'm super excited about all those doors and trim getting painted soon, too!

Over in the guest house, I added a bed cover, new sheets, and a few bolder accents.

In order to accommodate my Grandma's favorite piece of furniture, her sewing machine, I moved my cedar chest to the side wall where I think it fits better. (This came from my late Grandmother, I got this when I was 16 and had no idea how I would eventually use it. Now I do. ;) The bench that used to be there is now at the foot of the bed.

 This piece fits under the window much better and the curtains can more easily close.

 Outside, Ru is currently taking off an entire side of fascia to replace it. Can you spy him?

While he's hard at work, I'm getting ready to head to my friend's wedding rehearsal! It's a beautiful weekend in beautiful San Diego! Have a great weekend, everyone!

10 House Projects

From A to Z, most to least important, Rudy has handled it all. With each project he tackles, I think I say the same thing... that there's no square inch of this house he hasn't touched and figured out. Here's a look back at some of the projects we've tackled (in no particular order).

Project #1:

I used to spend just about every day watering some part of our front and back yards, having to turn on four valves per side, each one about 7 minutes apart. I love being out in the yard, but it was a bit much during the work week. That is, until Rudy figured out how to rewire the automatic timer system. After figuring out the front, including deleting some of the heads and solving numerous sprinkler head issues, he felt ready to tackle the larger project in the backyard. This whole project would have cost us $800 but thanks to Rudy, we got it done for just the price of some parts. Now, the entire watering system can be controlled by phone. :) Didn't realize just how much I'd appreciate the extra time saved by not having to water. 

Almost always, Rudy involves the boys and they enjoy helping Daddy. They helped him on this one by digging up a path for the pipes and wires to connect from the power source to the valves that existed in two different places. I'm simplifying the job just for brevity's sake, but in spite of all that was involved, Ru and the boys knocked this one out in an afternoon.  

All done! Minus a little clean-up, that is.

Project #2:

Ru has been working tirelessly on prepping the exterior of the home for paint. The estimates we got prior to all the prep work were sky high. So, Ru has been working on sanding down layers and layers of paint, repairing broken or termite eaten boards, and filling in any gaps with bondo. This is a very typical "before" shot. 

 

All sanded down

Patched up

And primed! He does good work, that man of mine.

Here are a few shots that show the difference between his work and where he has left to finish.

I really wish we had a before shot of the whole front, but even if we did, its so hard to really show all the time and effort put in to this project.

The top fascia is done, as is the bottom wooden part of the window ledge. That part was the worst of the entire exterior.  Ru pressure washed the brick (the red already showed before), so the front is all ready now. Oh, we relocated a huge palm tree that covered over half of this window, so now it looks better and also allows a lot more light to enter the house. He's currently working on the fascia of the back side of the house, inching us closer and closer to the part I've been most excited about. :)

Project #3:

The back of the house had an upper layer of green stucco that came out farther than the rest of the side of the house. Here's an old picture that shows what I'm talking about. 

Ru ground all that down and re-stucco'ed the entire top part. 

 He also patched several holes in the wall.

This wall was an eyesore. Ru patched, filled, and prepped the door area in order to re-frame the door to the garage. He also finished the huge patch under the farthest window in this shot.

This project has been done for awhile so all the patchwork has long since dried and it all looks white.

Project #4:

One of the biggest headaches we've been given from this house came from a tiny little drip, drip, drip in the faucet at the bar. This drippage caused us to have the water turned off for multiple days as Ru had to not only fix the issue (pipes burst and created some water damage), but replace and repair all the plumbing, flooring, drywall, plywood, and all electrical wiring. This is what this area looked like for about a week. After 3 days without water, the boys and I went to my parents' house so we could bathe! This house has had it's water turned off many times...and therefore, I now fully appreciate running water. :)

The fact that Rudy knew what to do down here just amazes me. Saves us a lot of money, too.

He turned that madness (above) into this (below). I didn't get pics of floor as he replaced that, but the entire white part you see was replaced with him drywalling, mudding, taping, texturing and priming. The little fridge is back in and the bar area is up and running again.

Project #5:
While this was going on, Ru and Gavin were working on another project outside in a little water heater closet that no longer houses the water heater. It had rotten spots due to termites and the exterior bottom part needed some repair work. After deleting some electrical lines and cleaning this space out, it became a storage area for a tall stack of tubs.

This is what was pulled out...

Termites thrive in CA.

So, Ru replaced every board that needed replacing.

Project #6:
This project occurred back when Ru was sanding down all the front fascia. (Random fact: I really wanted to leave the natural look and add natural accents around the door area and window shutters, but the wood was in such bad condition, our only option was to prime and paint it.). But back to the project, if you look closely, the ceiling of the front entrance overhang was really low. It came in just above the front door. Not only was it lower that we thought it should be, but it was covered in drywall - something no one would ever do to an outside area. (Just another example of how weird some things are/were in this house.) Whelp, we decided to rip it all off and hang shiplap underneath.

You can see how low it is this pic.

Drywall gone and ready for shiplap.

Here's the finished product (sans paint).

As with any project, once you open something up you find there are a few more projects involved...like exposed insulation on the wall above the door. But look at how much more open this area is. The red brick used to be covered as that's how low the ceiling line came down. Even a foot can make a huge difference!

This picture is dark, but it shows Ru doing what he does...all hours of the day.

This job required a ton of extra jobs to fill this and patch that. Kyle was Daddy's helper on this one.

We are currently discussing what we're going to do with this wall...it is now all patched and primed white, but we are considering shiplap to keep consistency with what is now above and to also cover spots that would look better hidden.

Project #7: Pressure washing the exterior walls and side areas. Then, hanging my DIY planter boxes on the side wall so that when you round the corner, you're greeted with some greenery instead of the cinder block wall.

I've since replanted some of my herbs and succulents. These babies can look super cute when given some love

. 

Here's some perspective for where this is. Geez...now I notice more stucco repear needed!

Project #8: Repair toilet leak and plumbing issues and then patch the holes in the walls/baseboards where plumbing repair occurred. While the water was turned off for days, again, the boys sure didn't mind! Ru can make a game out of anything and I always chuckle when I see that he's rubbed off on them...

 Project #9: Repair the stucco on the planter seating area.

Check out the brown areas where stucco has peeled off.

Here's a shot of another angle which shows more of the damage. (Rudy had already pressure washed a lot of it away, so it looks worse here.

We knocked this project out in a few hours last weekend. Ru reapplied the stucco while I followed behind, wiping and cleaning up after him. Easier to clean up while wet. It was an overcast, "cold" morning, so we didn't have to worry about it drying quickly.

 Before cleaning...but my, what a difference. :)

 After cleaning up our mess

Project #10: Repair the side fences from their leaning, hard to open state. Eventually, we will re-fence this whole place, but there are much higher priorities on our list right now, so Ru did a fantastic repair job on all 3 fence doors we have. Here's the front, left side of the gate.

More termite damage.

Swiss Cheese...

For some perspective, this is where those fence doors go. The shorter fence in the background leads to the guest house/jacuzzi area. Someday, we'll make this a nice path of sorts with sensor lighting so guests can come and go easily. Nine months out of the year, we have a beautiful vine that grows along the entire fence, hiding the wood. It's "winter," so the leaves are gone. But I really look forward to spring for the first time in my life, to see the yard bloom! :)

Ru hung this bad boy back up all by himself.

 Yay, Ru! (Also, see the fascia that needs his attention? It never ends!)

So I remember saying something about shorter, more frequent posts...I wanted to get this one in before I go back to work tomorrow, to sort of catch us up. I've left out a bunch of minor fixes and repairs, but I'll do my best to be more regular with this. :)