New Year's Surprise and Scenery

The face you make when you find water streaming into your new room after popping a bubble of paint...

We had Eloise over New Year's Eve, during a rainstorm, and had pulled down the Murphy bed for her to possibly sleep in. Cora and Violet called us in to check out a weird horizontal line where the drywall tape connecting the panels was clearly visible. Then, we looked up, and saw the bubbling.  

We cleaned up the water, and went directly to the other side in Violet's room, and saw dark discoloration in her ceiling. 

Listening closely, we heard dripping overhead in the corner near her closet.

It was after 11 p.m. and raining, but Stace went up on the roof and found the problem, and thankfully had a workable solution. He sealed up the vent pipe, and the dripping sound ceased.

In the morning, we spoke to our contractor, who told us to drill holes into the ceiling and wall to allow air in, to dry the insides. He said that because it's new drywall, and we have vents in the roof, it'll dry fine.

He'll be by in the next week or so to do the repairs. 

So, it was a very unusual New Year's Eve!

It was fun to have Ellie with us overnight, though. 

Later on New Year's Day, after Melanie and Nick picked up Ellie, we went on a nature walk through an open space past the Placerita Waterfall Trail, across from Golden Valley Ranch. 

More beauty, right here in our valley!

I lightened this one up a ton so you can spot Violet, wearing a black top, inside the blackened trunk of a tree clearly harmed by a past wildfire.

This is the creek we usually can cross at the start of the Waterfall Trail. We weren't wearing wellies so we didn't attempt it.