Carlsbad Camping

Last weekend we packed up the truck with coolers, a tent, bikes, and firewood for a first camping trip! We headed down to Carlsbad, a state park right on the Pacific Ocean. The campground is on a bluff overlooking the ocean – it was beautiful. We walked down to the beach and climbed over millions of rocks that had been washed shore. Later we went back to the site, stoked up the fire and had brats and of course s’mores for desert.

 

 

On Saturday our good friends Katieanne and Ryan came to join us. The guys spent time throwing rocks on the beach while us girls collected them! We played a very L-O-N-G game of phase 10 around a lantern and then struggled to make our campfire big enough to warm us up. All in all we had a great first camping experience we just a bit bummed about the chilliness.

 

Summertime

As it continues to warm up here in California Mike and I decided we needed a patio in order to help us enjoy our dirt backyard. We had many different ideas. Since we’re the do it ourselves type we thought we could pour our own cement, lay pavers, or maybe do a combination of cement and pavers. As we continued discussing our project we realized that one, we wanted a nice patio and we didn’t know how (or have the equipment) to pour our own cement. Two, we priced out pavers… EXPENSIVE, and time consuming. I wanted a patio to use now, not at the end of summer! So, we asked around and found a general contractor who does patios. He came out did the measuring, laid the forms, dug the holes for the shade structure footings, and eventually poured the concrete. We are immensely pleased with the end result. Bonus we didn’t really have to do a thing. I left for work with no patio and I came home 8 hours later the new owner of a patio.

Forms for the concrete.

Below are the holes that the footings were placed in for the future shade structure.

  

Yay! A Patio!

Now we can enjoy this! Soon to come… patio furniture and a shade structure!

Fresh Air

A couple weeks ago my parents came to visit us and we had a blast! Of course, they ended up helping us with many projects! Mom was willing to get on her hands and knees and do my weekly cleaning – what a treat! Dad helped Mike with the installation of our new bedroom slider door. He also put in window trim around the inside of our front windows. It looks classy now.

The door did not take Mike and Dad too long to complete and as a reward they later went golfing. To install a door you need patience and you need to follow a few simple steps.

Step 1: Take out original slider door. To get the original frame out was tough and took the longest amount of time. They used pry bars, hammers, and their hands to yank it out.

Step 2: Put new door in place to make sure it fits and is level.

Step 3: Use the caulking gun all around the door frame.

 

Step 4: Put door in place, make sure it is level, and screw it in.

Step 5: Install door trim.

 

Thanks Dad for helping us install the door! We love having a slider and screen door that work and I especially love that the room can cool off at night now. Ah, fresh air!

Garden Prep and a Door

 

A few weeks ago Mike and I put close to the finishing touches on the front of the house. Mike dug the weeds out of the parkway and we threw down a bunch of brown mulch. We decided on nixing grass in the front parkway because it seems silly to mow a 2 ft by 4 ft area.

 

Our backyard also has an area that we I decided would be perfect for some raised vegetable garden beds. We are starting the experiment with one garden and we began the prep work by rota-tilling a small 2 ft by 5 ft area.

 

A few days later Mike built a simple box using treated wood. We poured a mixture of dirt in the box and will soon plant tomatoes, cucumber, hot pepper, and cilantro. Yay for fresh veggies! I also bought a few fiber pots to attempt to start some flower seeds. I am hoping to eventually have some white daisies, purple cone flowers, and holly hocks. The seeds though, are taking FOREVER to germinate!

 

Finally, we also painted our front door. No longer is it the tacky original blue color. Now it is a deep chocolate brown that contrasts nicely with the tan!

            

I

love seeing all the progress on our house. Every time we do something it seems more and more like ours!

The Magic of Paint

Last weekend while Mike and I were on the final day of our vacation Mike’s dad surprised us by painting the outside of the house.

We came home on Sunday expecting to see our blue house…

but were welcomed home to this!

 

The next plans for the front of the house include painting the front door brown, planting some flowers, and putting mulch down between the sidewalk and the street. 

We Can See!

The big project for this weekend was replacing 4 front windows: 2 in the garage and 2 in the house. The previous windows were some type of Plexiglas and probably hadn’t been cleaned in 20 years. They were covered in a nasty film. A few weeks ago it poured all day long and the windows fogged up so bad we couldn’t even see our front yard!

When you replace windows there are a few simple steps.

1. take out old window

2. cut the window trim to fit (measure twice!)

3. test if the window fits

4. put exterior adhesive all around the frame

5. Place window in hole and then screw it into the wall

The first two windows we replaced took a long time. By the time we did the living room windows the time it took was cut in half!

 

Notice the awesome black grid lines and the cloudy looking glass.

 

   

I LOVE the difference! And, I love that I can clearly see out the front now!

Lots o’ small things…

Over the last week we have accomplished many things at the house.

1. Ceilings are completely textured and almost ALL painted.

2. Nasty, dirty fireplace is much cleaner. The inside still looks a bit gross but the bricks have improved vastly!

3. Purchased a $40 non running Rota tiller. It is now running!

4. Rota tilled the front yard, laid topsoil, seed, and ground cover. In a few weeks there will be grass!

5. Sprinkler system is now working in the front yard. Mike is also running a pipe to the back yard so he can set up another valve system.

6. House is prepped to be painted. As it was prepped we discovered a few pieces of rotten wood. Better sooner than later right?

7. In the backyard all the old patio stones are moved and are in piles. The soon to be patio area has also been sprayed with round up.

 

8. The office is making progress: no more double doors or closet doors AND it has gone from all my books on the floor to only some of my books on the floor!  

9. Beds are set up in the guest bedrooms.