More gardening

We're slowly working on getting the house back to normal, or as normal as it was before we started painting the living and dining rooms. The work crew has repainted those rooms, plus the hallways and ceilings in those three areas. It all looks fantastic, so much brighter and more cheerful than the dull tan color the prior owners left.

The spare bathroom is painted, and the new bathtub will be installed Wednesday. Then Stace can get to work tiling the shower area, and then the floor.

Since the bathroom wasn't ready for us to start working over the weekend, we tackled a small project in the front yard. The front of the house lacked colorful plants, and the dirt in front of the house between the two bushes was a weed breeding ground. We dug out the weeds and a lot of the dirt, and then laid the black weed-blocking plastic and bark.

Cora helped out by sweeping up the dirt.


We then put up a trellis and planted some jasmine (including one we've had in a pot for years, at the condo) and a few red rose bushes. Let's cross our fingers all the plants take! It's been very hot lately. My mom gave us help with this project, and in the back yard, where she put some new flowers in the pots.

And on the topic of gardening, Cora is holding the second zucchini we've enjoyed from our garden. She's also investigating a green tomato she found on the ground under the plant. We noticed today that a few of the cherry tomatoes are just starting to turn orange.

Ambition

I was pushing Cora in the swings when I noticed a beautiful hawk flying overhead, near enough to see clearly. I pointed it out to her.

Cora: "When Cora's older, Cora will fly high in the sky! Cora will have wings!"

Nature Center

Some pictures from our weekend fun of celebrating Stacey's birthday and Father's Day!
We had more of a "fun" day on Saturday, when we spent the morning at Placerita Canyon Nature Center (where we had Cora's first birthday gathering). The nature center had been closed for a refurbishment for over a year, and Saturday hosted a big grand reopening event.

Cora panned for gold (see her official certificate, as she holds the "gold" in the baggie). She also got to feel various animal pelts from a Native American display, and color, and check out live lizards and birds of prey.

On Saturday night, we had dinner out with my parents, to celebrate the occasions and hear about their recent trip to Italy. They had a great time, of course! Who wouldn't, in Italy?

Stace enjoyed speaking to his parents, Dean and Jen and Nan on the web cam on Sunday. It was really nice seeing them all together, and getting caught up. Cora entertained everyone by playing in her box castle (see photo - complete with curtain door!).

Later, we worked in the yard and then picked out new paint for the spare bathroom, kind of a sage green that we think will go really nicely with the tile we've chosen. And then we got ice cream, and later ate dinner on our new patio table! We were thrilled to find a great price on a tile-top table and chairs at JC Penney on Friday night. I need to take some photos, but you can see the model here.

Cora's favorite game at the moment involves pretending to bring us different sorts of food. She'll ask what you want, and then go several steps away, get it, and bring it back. She usually offers me coffee; she knows her mummy!

She enjoys this game at home, in the back yard, and at the playground, where she will bring us wood chips or sand as the "food." She has a microwave, and she will put the food in the microwave (the slide, if we're in the backyard), and push the buttons, and then warn us that the food is really hot. She speaks throughout the game; she's a total chatterbox these days.

For some reason, she always specifies that she is getting us clean food: "Daddy, do you want some food? I go get some clean food for you."

Cora and Stace have been taking a swimming lessons this week and last week. It's a two-week course, a half-hour three days each week. Cora loves it, and is doing quite good with blowing bubbles, going underwater, and using her arms and legs. (The last photo of our bathing beauty is from her first dip of the year, in the hotel swimming pool.)

And now, time for a couple of stories.
We are cracking down on Cora saying "Noooo!" to Stace (and other adults, but particularly Daddy) when it's not appropriate.
For example, when Dad comes home and says, "Hello, Cora," Cora should not shout "no" at him. And, if Stace sings a silly song or dances a silly dance, or tries to kiss her on the top of the head, no more "no!!!"
We've told her that it is OK for her to say, "That's silly, Daddy," when he does something silly, and she has started saying that new phrase.
So, cut to Sunday afternoon, when Stace is greeting her after her nap, on his own birthday. He says to her, "Hello!" and she doesn't really respond. He tells her that she could say. in response, "Hello, Daddy. Happy Birthday."
So he tries again: "Hello, Cora!"
Now Cora looks at him and yells, "That's silly!!!"

He reiterates that she could say hello, but she insists on only greeting him with "That's silly."

And my story. Sometimes I will firmly tell Cora to "stop it." And sometimes, she will turn and say the same words back to me. So I, with more firmness, tell her that she is not to speak to me that way, that she is to treat me respectfully.
So a couple of times in the past week, I tell her to stop it - once was when she was kicking her legs during a diaper change. She then said, "Stop it. (pause) Cora. Stop it, Cora. I say, 'Stop it Cora,' Mummy. I say, 'Stop it Cora.' "
She is too smart!
And along that line, I was sad to walk into the bathroom the other day to find her quickly shutting my drawer. She was trying to hide the fact that she had her finger in my hand cream. It's not exactly a big no-no, as I will share it with her, but normally I want her to ask me first. It was sad to see her trying to hide something for the first time.

Creating a blank slate

HOME.

Such a great word, such a great place. Stace, Cora and I are so thankful for God's protection of our house. The electrician who fixed the wiring today reiterated how lucky we are that the whole place didn't go up in flames.

We appreciated our house when we moved in last year, after living in such a tiny apartment and feeling so glad to have been able to sell our condo in a down market. But that really pales in comparison to our gratitude now, moving back in, knowing how it so easily could have gone a different way.

The construction team was here bright and early Wednesday removing the bath/shower, tile floor and ceiling. Today the electrician fixed the wiring and another worker painted out the attic to kill off the smoke smell, and then put in the drywall for the new ceiling. On Friday we'll have new insulation sprayed into the attic.

And of course, now that we're in the middle of rebuilding the bathroom, we realize that we never took any good photos of the ghastly state it was in when we bought the house.

Top photo shows one of the two good-sized areas of missing paint on the wall (I'm trying to show the size with my hand.)
Second photo shows the continued quality of workmanship with the paint job - see the peeling paint along the corner? And the painter's tape left up along the ceiling, some of which was holding up long dark hairs. Classy. There are many other details of how bad it was, but I'll spare you.

Next three photos show the current state, with the room becoming a blank slate. First photo shows where the cabinet, sink and mirror will go. Next shows the tub/shower area, freshly painted with the odor-killing paint. Then the attic and half the new ceiling, before the second big piece of drywall was installed to complete the ceiling. You can see the new housing for a new extractor fan.

Lastly, our clothes and linens arrived today from the dry cleaning company. There are another eight boxes in our bedroom. I have my work cut out for me! Another blessing for us is the fact that I don't work outside the home. I can't imagine how much harder this experience would have been if I had been trying to get Cora off to day care and myself off to work while staying in the hotel, not to mention dealing with moving back into our home in a couple of hours in the evening.

In Cora news, we started the next session of our "My Buddy and Me" city class on Wednesday, and Cora and Stace have started taking parent/child swimming lessons. Fun stuff!

And for more fun stuff, watch the video - this is from England, with Stace teaching Cora to talk English, and to talk Somerset with the final phrase.
(For my American readers who are unfamiliar, Somerset is a rural southwestern county, with a distinctive manner of speaking that you don't hear very often on English programs we get here in the States. "How be on" means "How are you?")

Progress

To my regular readers, I regret not blogging much lately. We don't have free in-room internet at the hotel, and so carving out blog time this week has been difficult. Stace agreed to put Cora down so I could go downstairs this (Sunday) evening and use the free wi-fi in the hotel lobby/restaurant to post a few updates.

The good news is, we should be moving home Tuesday. One thing is for sure, we're moving out of this hotel on Tuesday - they're fully booked from then through the rest of the week, so our checkout is definite.

As of Friday, all the contents of our house had been cleaned. As in, every single thing in our house. A crew of three ladies have been there full-time for seven working days. The carpets and floors will be cleaned Monday, and we plan to move back in Tuesday after checkout.

On Tuesday evening, our new mattresses will be delivered - we had to replace all the mattresses, because of the smoke. Our set was quite old, so I'm glad for the excuse to get new ones. I'm also looking to buy all new bed pillows, because they also have been counted as losses. Our large sleeper-sofa also will be discarded, because it can't be adequately cleaned. Somer's spot is on the sofa, and she was covered in soot, so she left quite a dark stain in the couple of days she was in the house before we got back into town.

This little "staycation" has been fun, but we all really can't wait to get home. For Cora and me, it's been over a month since we've been home!

It will feel like moving in again, since all our possessions have been cleaned and put back, and not generally where we had them. Not complaining, just stating. I'll have my work cut out for the rest of the week.

How's Cora been?

I'm so impressed with how Cora has handled our topsy-turvy life lately.

Partly to reward her, and to have some weekend fun before we're super busy remodeling the bathroom in our spare time, we took her back to the zoo Saturday.

She was very excited about our trip, and while there it was tough to contain her. The L.A. Zoo is quite spread-out and hilly, but Cora had enough energy to walk for nearly our entire visit. When Stace would ask if she wanted to see the (fill in an animal name), she would shout "Yeah! Yay, yay, yay!" and start jumping or dancing.

When we checked out the kangaroos, she decided to show them how to jump, since they weren't jumping. She also snuggled up to Daddy on our way to the exit. Maybe she'll turn out to be a daddy's girl after all!

I was surprised we managed to leave Minnie and Pooh Bear in the car while at the zoo. These two have been her constant companions for the last week-plus. She talks to them constantly, and makes up scenarios for them to play. This photo is from the hotel hallway on our way to our (cooked to order) breakfast the other morning.

Another hallway story - Cora's imagination is getting more active. The other day she said there was a dinosaur down the hall! We needed to walk fast!

When I asked what color it was, she said, "Red. And green and brown and blue." Other Thomas the Tank Engine fans might recognize that sequence of colors - it's from the theme song, the colors of the engines. Cora loves singing that song.

And speaking of songs, Cora's favorite "real" song is from U2's latest album, "Get on Your Boots." A couple of months ago, I had it on and was impressed when she started singing along. Now, she asks for it whenever we're in the car.

A couple of days ago, we were in the car and the song ended. She asked for it again, and then again, and then again. When I refused to put it on one more time, and instead moved on to the next track she kept yelling, "I don't like this song! Get on your boots!"

I then put the radio on, and she kept saying, "Not this one! I don't like this one!" Then I switched to AM to hear the traffic, since we were soon to be getting on the freeway. More protests. Until I switched to KFI, where the news was just starting. I'm a KFI girl, so Cora is very used to hearing it on in the car.
She quieted down, and then said, "I like this one, Mummy." That's the first time she's ever mentioned the radio station. I guess she really does notice what I have on!

Cora likes to talk about the sequence of events. She often says things like, "When Cora wake up (from nap,) Cora go to park." And she makes us laugh with her pronouncements about the future: "When Cora gets older, Cora will drink coffee," "When Cora gets older, Cora will wear makeup," and "When Cora gets older, Cora will go to school."

Her pronunciation of her name has evolved from "Dora" to "Tora." I'm sure we'll be hearing the hard "c" soon. And we'll surely cry. She already has switched so many "baby" words for the "right" words.

One last Cora tidbit - she might have two English-speaking parents, but Stace and I obviously have our own ways of putting things. One minor difference is that we Americans typically use the word "hug," while the English will say "cuddle." Cora lately has been asking for "huddles," with her arms wide open to us. I also hear her using that new word when chatting with Minnie and Pooh Bear. So, in our house, huddle it is.

New doors, new pipes

Here's a shot of our new sliding glass doors! We're thrilled with how they look and operate. The workers were very professional, and quick. Both doors were in and done in about six hours.

And if we didn't have enough house stuff to think about and do, Stace has been busy doing more irrigation/plumbing work. We had noticed over the past month that parts of our front yard lawn were yellowing. Stace tried to adjust the sprinklers, and the pressure didn't seem quite right.

Then, a few days ago, we had a stream of water flowing from where the pipes come out of the ground, near the garage. He dug it up and found that the old metal pipe, which wasn't replaced when the house had copper pipes installed, had corroded and busted.

So that explains the lack of pressure; we must have had a small leak for a while before it finally gave way.
Stace dug up the rest of the pipe and replaced it. On Sunday he tested it out, and the pressure was strong. I'm so proud of my husband! He can do anything!

Update

We start with a happy photo of our vegetable garden. It was fun for me, having been away for more than two weeks, to see the amazing growth of our zucchini, tomatoes and grape vine. We should have plenty of fruit from the first two, in the near future. We can't expect fruit from the grape vine, because they produce on the prior year's branches, and we planted it as a very young vine.

Next, here are two photos of our house from this weekend, after the cleaners have worked on it Thursday and Friday. All the couches and mattresses are gone for cleaning, and much of our stuff is gone too, or in bags, labeled for cleaning. Two large air purifiers are in the house; you can see one in the living room.

When Cora first went in, she said, "Where's my playroom?" She has been a bit out-of-sorts since we came home to live in a hotel, and has been attached to her Minnie Mouse doll like never before. She wants to go home, but understands that the house is dirty and we can't go home until it is clean. (We haven't mentioned the fire to her.) She is sleeping fine in our hotel, which is a large suite, thankfully; I'm glad this is all happening now and not a year ago, when she really struggled to sleep outside her own crib.

Lastly, you can see our clean Somerset. We had her groomed Thursday, and she came back to the hotel sporting two bows and a bandanna. I don't think she liked it very much, but it gave us a laugh.

Our hotel is very, very nice, and we are loving the free, cooked-to-order breakfasts each morning. We also have enjoyed the complimentary drinks from the bar in the evenings.

The suite is probably the same size as the little apartment we rented when we were in between homes, so we are living it up, in a way.

Stace and I spent a number of hours Saturday looking at bathroom options at Lowes and Home Depot, and have a good idea of what we want to use for our remodel. Cora stayed with Grandpa and Auntie Mel, overnight, so we could devote some time to the shopping and to each other. It was great having our first night without Cora since she was born! And she did very well, I was glad to hear.

An overly warm welcome home

After a great flight home on Monday, when Cora was an angel for 10 of the 10 1/2 hours, we returned to find greasy soot covering every inch of the interior of our house.

My parents went by our house Saturday evening to feed Somer, and discovered the after-effects of an electrical fire in the spare bathroom, somehow sparked by a broken extractor fan. The air-conditioning system sent the smoke and soot throughout the house. Thank God, not much actually caught alight, or we obviously could have lost the house, and our dear Somer. She survived the smoke and is a bit sooty, but otherwise OK.

We left our London hotel (where we stayed one night before flying home) to move into another hotel in SClarita. And today, we're moving hotels because the one we checked into is fully booked from today through the weekend. We'll be out of the house for at least a week, maybe longer, depending on how long it takes the restoration cleaners to do their thing. Then will start construction on the spare bathroom.

On Tuesday, a dry cleaning company came and removed every item of clothing and linen from the house - including everything in the drawers and closets, because of the smell. We also met with the cleaning company, which is the company who cleaned the Pentagon after 9/11, and a contractor for the bathroom repair work, along with the insurance adjuster.

Just like when I had my car accident, I am looking at this experience from a grateful perspective. The Lord has protected us again - the firefighters who responded to my parents' call said we are super fortunate the house didn't go up. If there had been attic insulation near the fan, it probably would have. And we know how glad we are that Somer is OK! This is an inconvenience to be sure, but that is all. And our bathroom remodel will be done a bit sooner than it would have been! Our homeowners' insurance is coming through to cover what we need, so we should be out very little out-of-pocket.

It's a bit surreal walking around the house; in most of the rooms, you don't notice the soot, until you move an item and see the color difference underneath it. Even in our silverware drawer, when you open it and lift a spoon, you can see the soot. The smell of smoke is really strong in the spare bathroom and in the back bedrooms.

I'm meeting the electrician this afternoon to get the house OK'd to put the power back on. Then the cleanup work will start tomorrow, when we'll meet with another contractor to get a second estimate.

We'll keep you all posted on the progress.