Back to the punch list...

Electric, entire house rewire $16,000
Electric, rewire & move welder & plasma only $945
(found a fab electrician whom I trust,)

Trees, trim & feed $3180
(includes one Eucalyptus on deaths door)

April 3rd, 2011

Wall Update: got the wood ply installed. We had HD rip the sheets and Jeff had to do some routing. This job warranted finally purchasing a router - yippee!! Sanding + Wood Conditioner + Red Mahogany Stain. It's a dark bedroom but I think it matches. Jeff did a stellar job of fitting the panels tightly. Gotta admire the craftsmanship of Mr Griffin as we do these things - the home is pretty tight and with all wood, you cannot cover errors like one can with drywall.

Also moved some seedlings into the bed in front. We'll see...

There are 3 squash!

New Rule: No Weed Whackers at The Griffin House. Period.
We arrived back from breakfast to a shattered sliding glass door. Lawn guy. Sigh.

Working on the the sliders again this weekend. Decided to also take on the glue lam beams that are in serious need of resealing - they are splitting... Noticed a little pine-needle bird's nest at the east side of our patio this morning, mentioned it to Jeff. Was walking around a ladder on the west side of said patio and screamed as I stepped on a baby bird. (Birds terrify me, they used to dive-bomb me at college all the time - it was a conspiracy amongst them).

So, Jeff picked up the baby bird and nest and carried it down to Mike, our neighbor who rehabs and saves all the birds we find in our yard. He told Jeff he's not doing rehab anymore, gave Jeff a cage and a cup of Science Diet with instructions "Soak the kibble in water and feed it with an eye dropper". HUH? Crap. So, now we have a baby pigeon to take care of.... It actually loves me and chirps at the sound of my voice. We tried to feed it then set it in the yard and waited...hoping a responsible parent would show up. No such luck. But I called "Little bird, little bird" and it walked across the yard to me. :)

Anyways, I sanded my booty off today, even with 50grit - it took hours. I am going to be SO SORE for the next 2 days and I've got sawdust snot.

Punch List

Our five sliders have been hanging over my head since we had them installed, like SIX years ago. They are Pella's and they were only offered in raw wood. I thought "no big deal, we can do this". Well, we did one and it was a total pain so the other four sliders have sat unstained.

When I quit my job in 2005, the first thing I did with my new-found time was start working on them again. I got all of the stationary stuff stained on three doors but never got around to removing the doors and actually doing the slider. The one in our bedroom still needs to be done in it's entirety. It's just such a pain with all of the prep work. So, my resolution is to get these done. Baby steps. One per weekend. So there it is. In writing and published. I have to get it done now, right?

Here's door #1/4. Before, after 1 coat of stain, and before sealing. I did three coats, alternating between dark walnut and cherry. Will seal with Tung Oil tomorrow.

I also resealed the concrete floor in the bathroom... Finished Tung Oiling the walls and ceiling... (old sink below, the disgusting rusted out overflow drain is not visible in this shot)

Ocho enjoying the Toto.

Busy with the house the past two weekends. Jeff was wonderful and cut down two Palo Verdes and one dying Bottlebrush two weekends ago, while it was raining. Then the following weekend, he brought home the come-along and pulled the stumps out. As you can see, Trigger helped on the stump end by digging :) He was a muddy mess but had so much fun being so true to his doggie-ness.

Jeff's bloody noggin, the Palo Verdes are nasty with thorns.

We also replaced the sink in our guest bathroom, finally. We intended to rebuild the vanity and get a new countertop at the same time but hell's bells, I cannot wait any longer. The plumbing and holes in the wall under the sink are ridiculuous but we'll fix that when we replace the vanity. I cannot even put into words how happy this makes me.

My little bean wondering what's with this chick hogging up his couch.

Crashed out...

Skylights Con't.

Before:

We had these skylights put in YEARS ago. I told the contractor repeatedly - "quote the job complete, we want nothing to do, we are getting married the month following". What were we left with? Drywalled shafts. We painted four of the skylight shafts a month or more ago. There is one more large custom one to still do. Finally getting around to the trim on the four we painted...

After:

I have been working on these after work every day, I am also doing Tung Oil on the ceilings and will probably do the bathroom walls as well.

Well, termites are back again, same place as before but two tubes this time. AZ Organic came out Friday and treated again.... I am beginning to wonder if we should've gone with the less expensive, toxic chemical treatment instead?

Also, we are still trying to find sweet Badger a forever home. He is very sweet and playful but I caught him at an adorable docile moment here. He looks right at home, doesn't he?

And here are some pics from our trip to Steele Indian School Park a few weeks ago.