Uncle Bob

We are celebrating six months with my brother here in our home and it's actually been kind of fun.

Some people might say, "My home's not set up for a blind person" and lose out on an opportunity like this, but we just figured we'd adapt and learn as we went along. And we have!

For instance, this little three-bedroom house has only one shower and it's in the master bath. All four of us have to share it, but we're flexible and have developed a loose schedule for our showers.

We got some bump dots and they're in various places around the house to guide Uncle Bob to things like his kitchen chair and the two minute microwave button. And we try to put everything back in the the same location.

We do a couple of extra loads of laundry per week for him and take him to activities at the Blind Center three days a week, but he does things for us too. He provides a fresh perspective on life, he washes dishes occasionally, and he does provide quite a bit of entertainment; he can be quite funny. And he's extremely tidy; never leaves a mess and puts everything back in its proper location.

We hope to be moving into the new house soon, where we'll all have more room, but these six months have been good.

New Views

Spring is springing here at Acorn Cottage. Everywhere you look there's something coming into bloom. This flowering cherry is just starting and what a lovely shade of pink it is.

Since we got our permit we've been creating some new views ourselves. Here's the view out the back wall.

A new french door will be about where that piece of plywood is, with a small window to its right.

To make these changes, we had to remove the seventy-year-old, old-growth redwood siding. Handyman found a nail puller online and is carefully removing it piece by piece so we can re-use it.

ps: April is promising to be a beautiful month for the azaleas. You won't want to miss the April Garden Report.

We Have a Permit!

First submitted on January 27th, then going through a picky review process, our permit was approved yesterday and we have it on the jobsite today.

As you can see, it has been approved by several departments and meets numerous building codes to ensure that the new construction saves water, saves energy, is safe for dummies with hairpins, doesn't kill us with carbon monoxide, and doesn't pollute our atmosphere or the landfill. (This is California after all.)

All this for only $929.68.

Gotta have it, but, Ouch! 

In other news, two old people spent hours yesterday tunneling under an existing brick walkway to connect the new sewer line to the existing line.

We had to fight with various water and electrical lines and we discovered that it's difficult to cut roots when they're 2' away inside a tunnel.

We also had to tunnel under the 18" wide foundation, fighting more roots the whole way.

While our two bores didn't match up perfectly, we finally saw light at the end of the tunnel.

In more ways than one today.

New Front Door

Here's our new front door. It's rather plain, but it works for our traditional style. We will paint it a bright color and add other details to dress it up later. The important part is that it opens, closes, and locks easily.

Here is a "during" photo. Everything about this old house is crooked and unlevel, but Handyman deals with it and makes it look good.

He had to make a new threshold, add new hardwood flooring inside, and put all new trim around the outside.

Here is a before photo. Boy, was it a mess!

Electrical Changeover

Something magical happened at our house yesterday. There are suddenly these magic boxes on the walls that allow us to plug in lamps and electrical appliances without a huge extension cord.

Here's the magician who made it happen. He arrived at 9:30, made the changeover, and was gone in 45 minutes. And I am eternally grateful.

Magic has been happening in the gas department too. Handyman installed several feet of very large gas lines from the meter to the various appliances. His overnight pressure test was successful and that system will be ready for a PG&E changeover soon too.

And in other news, I got my resubmittal back from the City with only a couple of revisions, so it looks like we might have a real permit soon!

March Garden Report

The weather here in California has been extremely wet this season. We track our rainy season starting October 1st, and since then we have had 13.85" of rain. Our normal is 10.42", but last year it was only 5.6", so folks are amazed at the difference.

This is wonderful for our garden and water supplies, but folks are getting a little tired of the dreariness. And some folks have been devastated by mud slides; homes and roads entirely washed away.

My eighty five azaleas seem to be enjoying the rain though. (Yes, I said eighty five azaleas.) They are starting to put on their beautiful display.

We have all shades of pink ranging from vibrant magenta to palest pink. And white; we have an abundance of white.

Speaking of white, this evergreen clematis (Clematis armandii) is spilling over our fence in two places, and I've seen volunteers in various places in the garden.

The scent is heavenly and here in our Zone 9 garden, it's quite vigorous. It makes a great screen on a wire or iron fence.

My thirty five camellias, aka Winter's roses, are at the height of their bloom and the ground beneath them is carpeted with spent blossoms. 

The ferns continue to provide plenty of cool green foliage. These squirrel foot ferns are sending out their silver feet in a hidden corner of the garden.

And I found a surprise yesterday. I think these are Bluebells. I believe we'd have more of them if the previous gardeners hadn't dumped 3' of oak leaves in that area. (As we started removing the oak leaves, these bulbs started sprouting up.)

Our March garden has been pretty much what I expected, but with one or two pleasant surprises. We hope your March garden is providing a nice diversion from all this wet weather.