Bathroom Update

So much progress the last two weeks!

Tony and his son finished the shower and floor and did a wonderful job. I'm very pleased with our choice of tile, too, thankfully.

We have a niche with a shelf, and a corner shelf (not quite wide enough to be a seat, but great for shaving legs or drying off). 

The drain is so fancy! There's a key to lift off the tiled cover, and underneath is a cup to catch stray hair.

We had the plumber investigate why we've had trouble with our toilet blocking up, and it turns out the pipe was angled incorrectly. While we had no flooring, he drilled out the cement and put in a new pipe. Later, he installed a new toilet, as well. All works so much better now.

We then had our new shower door installed; I love the rain glass, since we have such hard water that stains clear glass so easily.

We absolutely love our new shower, and after a month of not having one at home, we deeply appreciate it again!

I painted the shiplap boards we'll install vertically on the lower half of the bathroom. Figuring out the right creamy white for the top half of the room took a little trial and error, but we got it done.

Stace built our new vanity cabinet, and you can see the hole for the tall cabinet he's building.

Also, the girls' bathroom is coming along - vanity back in, plumbing hooked up, mirror and light fixture back in. Seb can again demand water from the sink.

Catio Project - and a New Project

We have a new project, one we've been thinking about and planning for a few months. The netting and framework will become a catio, or safe outdoor enclosure for our cats. 

Here, you see Stace in engineer-mode, staring at his project, and thinking hard. 

 

Cora lent a hand for a bit. We've been blessed with beautiful weather, so we can work on the project and it's not too hot.

Here is where it will go, with the cats entering via a cat flap in the screen in the dining room window, on the left. 

Also this week, I worked on the 2024 and 2025 blog books, cleaned, and baked. Stace and I rewatched Wolf Hall, and he watched a lot of World Cup games.

We also went to Ellie's dance recital - we especially had to show up for our dancer, since Grandma and Grandpa were in Alaska.

With Violet gone, Evie had to hang out with Cora! (I promise she was happy; I just caught her looking angry.)

Cora had a friend in town from out of state, so she hung out with this friend group from her first high school.

And then...

...This happened.

While Stace was outside working on the catio, I heard a dripping in the bathroom. It sounded like someone left the tub faucet on, but we don't use the tub. I looked up and saw two streams of water flowing down from the ceiling onto the tub and floor.

Uh oh. 

Stace turned off the water and began clearing up six bags of wet insulation from the attic around a pipe that had burst.

The orange circle shows where the copper elbow is, on a joist, which it had evidently been rubbing on all these years.

As the ceiling began looking worse, Stace propped it up with a stick. We had a mitigation company come out on Sunday, and learned we'll need to demo both bathrooms because the drywall and the studs behind them are soaked. Then, high-powered fans and a dehumidifier will be brought in to dry out the internal structure.

We did NOT have this on our bingo card this year.

Needless to say, the catio is on an indefinite hiatus.

Once Violet was back, we went out to dinner as a family, for Stace's birthday. 

On his actual birthday, Violet, Stace and I started off on our summer road trip to Nevada. Stay tuned for more!

New Paint

Over the weekend, we completed a long-awaited project - we painted the back of the house, where the addition's new stucco didn't dry to match the rest of the house.

Over a few midweek evenings, Stace filled cracks in the stucco (not a problem in the new stucco, but there were some in the older sections). He then used a borrowed pressure washer to clean the surfaces. Nick and I moved everything away from the house in Friday

And on Saturday morning, Stace masked off the windows, doors and lights, and began cutting in the primer.

Melanie and Nick came over to help, as a thank you to Stace for all of his help installing shelves and curtain rods. On Saturday, we got the two sides primed. It wasn't a fun job, in the heat, trying to get the paint into the thick texture and crevices. And it took five gallons! I had to run to the paint store to buy more, midway through.

 Thankfully, it was much cooler on Sunday morning, even misty, and the color coat went on so much easier than the primer had. 

Our happy crew, nearly done!

Much better!

Meanwhile, Ellie colored, watched television, and the girls took her to the park on Sunday. Then Cora thought of introducing her to Castle Crashers on the PS4, and they had a great time playing together.

While moving things around near the house, in the mulch, we found this green lynx spider - beautiful! Never seen one of these before.

And we also found this woodlouse spider, which eats woodlice, or rolly-polly bugs! Interesting! 

So glad to have this job out of the way... so we can move onto my goal of constructing a catio outside against the dining room wall!

Master Bedroom

 We refreshed our bedroom with new flooring, baseboards and a colored accent wall behind our headboard. We love the results! 

Here's the before... carpeting was installed some 16 years ago, and had served us well. 

During...
So much effort to empty the room - I emptied the floor of the closet, and Stace and I worked together to move the dressers to the garage. Then it was on to the bed. Thankfully, we have the lovely new Murphy bed in the playroom, which was super comfortable.

Because of the paint project, we also had to take off the headboard shelves and their contents. Stace did the cutting-in, and we worked together on the main painting.

First coat...

And finished. I love this color, and actually was inspired by a Sherwin-Williams ad that popped up on my Instagram. The color has always been a favorite of ours, as it's the same color as the large framed mirror we've had for 20 years, and the chair we already had in the bedroom corner.

Here, you can see the carpet removed.

The installer had the floors in in just a few hours. It's nice to have some things done for you by professionals who know exactly what they're doing and work quickly. This is the same floor we put into the playroom.

Then, Stace worked on baseboards, and reassembling the bed frame and moving everything back in. It's a bigger job than it looks!

But, well worth it

With these cozy super soft new runners, the room is complete.

I now love being in our room! I'm thrilled with the whole thing, love the paint color on the single wall, and the floors and rugs.

Week in Review

 One of the projects on the list is installing guttering on the back room, and incorporating the new rain barrels we picked up. These ones have the bells and whistles - they have a fine mesh screen at the top so mosquitoes can't get in, and a spigot threaded for a hose, to access the water. Our more decorative wine barrel lacks those advantages.

Stace and Violet worked hard Sunday and got this side finished!

Meanwhile, I spent time with Kelly - we went to see Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and got dinner before heading to Fright Fest. 

Kelly is a friend who has supported Cora in her acting over and over through the years.

The black light was intense where we were taking photos!

We enjoyed our time with Lorraine Lurane, too. It was great catching up with Kelly; we hadn't seen each other since our June trip to the Hollywood Bowl. 

Cora joined her Fright Fest coworkers for bowling after Sunday's shift, and had fun. I'm so happy she's socializing, and enjoying her coworkers enough to want to do so. But it did make for a very late night! She slept a lot of Monday to catch up, after her English class.

Violet and I went back up to DeBellis Farm in Acton on Tuesday after school to pick up half-price pumpkins, with Halloween coming this week. They weren't "cheap" but definitely fair priced, and I love supporting local small businesses.

On Thursday, Violet had her monthly walk with the hiking club at her online school. This time, at the urging of her teacher and office staff, I joined. We walked at Mentryville, and our group included a teacher who is a geology expert. He explained how the area formed, and discussed the strata in the hillside there.

It was a pretty morning!

On Thursday, Stacey had dental work done, so I made potato soup, which would be easy to eat. Then I went to watch Eloise, while her parents went to a candlelight strings concert. Gibby the cat was very relaxed!

Here are the pumpkins Stace and Violet carved. That's about as Halloween as we got this year - Cora was working at Fright Fest (so she had AMAZING makeup and costuming), and Violet didn't dress up or trick-or-treat. Stace and I enjoyed passing out candy with our neighbors - the last few years, we've had the tradition of standing outside together and chatting. This year, Ryan and Sally had a TV out front with the Dodgers' World Series game on. It was fun!

Week in Review

A few weeks ago, Violet's shelf fell off the wall with a big crash. Since then, she and Stace have been working on creating a new shelf, designed by Vi. 

It is now complete, and came out beautifully. 
 

Violet wanted to make sides, to discourage the cats from jumping onto the shelf. She also designed the shape to go with her art plan. One side featured a sunrise, the other showed nighttime, created with an etching tool my mom gave the girls for Christmas.

Violet also got the sewing machine back out, and added lace to these jeans. 

I introduced the cats to Cat TV - it's been a hit. 

(Basically, just put that into your YouTube search, and you'll find lots of options for videos of mice and birds to entertain your cats!)

Evie had to be in the bag! When I posted this photo in a tortie cat group on Facebook, I got over 330 reactions. 

Later, she decided she liked the box better.

This week, I spent time several days helping Christina try to clean the floors of her charity's resource center, after a bit of flooding damaged them. 

I also met up with my other Christina friend for coffee on Saturday morning, and went out with Heather and Maggie on Friday night. It's always nice catching up with friends you haven't seen in months. 

On Saturday, after Cora went to work, Stace, Vi and I went to the annual Art Classic competition, to view the artwork.

Later, Stace and I went to the Catholic church carnival in Newhall, and then to a theatre show.

On Sunday, we went out to visit JT and Jim. Stace helped Jim with a fence project, while Violet, Callie, JT and I had a great day out. We started with a garden center, and then went up Mount Baldy, in the nearby San Gabriel Mountains. 

Violet loves the mountains, and loved being among the big trees near the river. We went into the historic Mt. Baldy Lodge for lunch. Later, we walked around cute downtown Claremont, and Violet bought a corduroy coat and I got tennis shoes at a used clothing store.

We picked up In-n-Out for the guys, and later made our way home. We stopped on the way at a classic diner that features pot pies, recommended by Stace's coworker who lives in the area. We bought these four cold, ready-to-bake pies for the next night's dinner. Yum!