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

Violet and I had a summer adventure day on Thursday. She's taking a summer school class online, so she's not free all day, but we snuck out in the morning to Quigley Canyon and saw two deer. Then, in the afternoon, we went northeast to Agua Dulce, to a market I'd heard about to get drinks.
 

We took our drinks to Vasquez Rocks, where we sat at a table by the nature center to rest and enjoy the view. 

We also chatted with the park employee who cares for the animals there (tortoises and raptors). She was very encouraging to Violet about volunteering at Placerita Nature Center, to gain experience for a future parks job. Vi is very interested, and started looking into it online. She'd enjoy working at Yosemite someday.

Ellie came over for a few hours on Friday, and we played at the little park, along with Legos and Calico Critters.

Also Friday, we had our new air conditioner and furnace installed. I'm very pleased with the company; after several quotes, I know we got a great deal. The air is blowing so cold now!

Also this week, we celebrated Colleen's 60th birthday with a little gathering at their house. I don't have photos, but it was a great night together.

One of the installers, after removing the old one outside, found this clutch of gopher snake eggs! Yikes! He took them home to try to keep them warm and hatch them.

When the A/C guys were done and Ellie had gone home, I met up with Christina and we went to Havana Savannah for coffee and pizza for a late lunch.

On Friday night, Stace played soccer, and Violet and I went to Placerita Nature Center, where the animated film Rango was being shown in the amphitheater. We hadn't seen it (it came out when Vi was tiny), but it was well worth seeing. Johnny Depp plays the main character chameleon; if you like old Westerns, you'll like it.

Tidbits

After returning from taking Sue and Gord to LAX, we stopped at a woman's house to buy a desk off Facebook Marketplace for Violet's room. She'd been looking for a while, and this dark darling with the upper shelf for extra plants fit her style ideas.

Here's the other side of her new and improved room, with a darker grey accent wall on the left side.

After getting the desk, Stace and Vi dropped me off at Dinorah's house, where we had dinner with Sue. It was great catching up - so much to chat about, with our kids all graduating soon. They were all in the same kindergarten class, so we've all known each other over a dozen years.

On Saturday, Stace and I took Vi to Old Town Newhall, where the artists association had planned a special Art Walk event, with various businesses displaying art and offering deals and snacks. 

I forgot to get decent photos until we were at our last stop! But it was a fun event. 

Speaking of art, we saw two plays over the weekend, too. We went with Colleen to see an original comedy at The Main on Friday night, and on Saturday night, Stace and I went to see The Crucible at Canyon High. It was impressive! I'd never seen it, but had heard of it; it's about the Salem Witch Trials.

On Sunday, Stace and Violet filled up some PE hours with a very long bike ride, and Stace used our new Blackstone griddle/grill to make dinner. Our friends Liz and Max redid their backyard and didn't need this lovely appliance anymore, so we were the beneficiaries.  

Addition: Murphy Bed and Solar Tubes

With the room complete, we started on the Murphy bed project.

Getting the bed from the garage to the backyard was a project in itself. My goodness, it was heavy! This is one solid piece of furniture, and we got an amazing deal on it.

Stace had to get all the pieces out to figure out how it went together - I love watching his engineer brain at work. We were able to find a schematic online, which also helped. Then, we were off to Newhall Hardware to find the right screws, nuts and bolts to put it together. (This is how we got such a great deal - the seller had misplaced the bag of bits.)

I hated to paint it, because I liked the color, but we want the finished wall cabinetry to all match. We ordered IKEA cabinets to fit either side for storage and decorative display space.

Winston was helpful as we primed. 

Having three cats - two of which are very active and curious - makes painting projects extra fun!

Here, Cora and Stace are sanding and wiping down the IKEA cabinet pieces. 

Unfortunately, despite using "the right" primer, the first coat scratched off too easily. We had to peel it all off and start over with more sanding and different, even pricier primer.

Nothing like doing a job twice - like painting Violet's walls, too. And the new room's walls, though technically we painted them once, covering over what the contractor did because I didn't like the color I'd chosen. 

The cats loved having the new mattress in the room, as a high perch.

Before I get too far ahead of myself, here's the finished paint color and baseboards in.

The Murphy bed painted and in place!

Next up - finishing the cabinets.
 

Also in recent weeks, Stace finished the solar tubes.

I absolutely love how much daylight they bring in!

We also have one in the girls' bathroom, and one in the kitchen.

Addition: Disruption

 

Although we're past the worst of it, I didn't want to move too far forward without documenting the disarray our whole house was in during the construction.

We moved out all the contents of the playroom, mainly into the garage, and then squeezed in a new Murphy bed when we found a great deal in January.

The MG was out of commission for the duration, used as storage for the outdoor cushions.

Very full, hard to walk around.

All the backyard things were pushed to the south side of the yard.

With Violet's room flooding out, she moved into the living room. We ended up just leaving the bed out all the time rather than packing it up every morning. We just sat on the bed if we watched TV. The cats loved it!

So much dust - this is the kitchen counter, and dust came in from the cracks up above the plywood blocking the window.

Violet's room became a storage room for project stuff, like the big boxes of solar tubes. There was no room in the garage for them.

Violet's furniture ended up in the hallway and dining room.

And random stuff ended up in our bedroom, including the pile of Violet's clothes she was drawing from each morning when she got dressed. She preferred dressing in our room, from the pile, rather than dressing in the bathroom or her empty bedroom.

The PS5 and playroom TV went into Cora's room, so the girls spent a lot of time in there for the two months. The playroom desk went in her room, too, and fits so well we'll keep it there.

Thankfully, Stace and I are both more low-key about clutter, so we weren't stressed out during the construction the way some people would be. And, we both knew it would all be over soon enough - and it was!