Last Post of the Year!

Over Thanksgiving, we house-sat/kitty-sat for our friend & neighbor Jon. While there, I quietly coveted his couch while we watched movies, hoping that one day I, too, may have such a fine couch. Then, a couple weeks ago, Jon told us he was buying a new couch, & offered us the old one, without even knowing about my secret desires. A Christmas Miracle! He brought it over to Mars last night, along with a very nice coffee table that also happens to be a perfectly sized dining room table for our tatami matted dining room. Thank you very very much, Jon!

I tried to take some photos of the rooms this morning with my phone, but it's overcast & they just don't look good. I will charge up my real camera today & snap some pictures. I will take a photo of the roses blooming on the Monster Rose Bushes in the backyard, too. These photos will have to wait until the 3rd to be posted, however -- after working too hard over the past week, my hands are aching, so I'm avoiding all computers for the next 4 days, making this my last post of 2011.

Before I sign off, I will leave you with an assortment of random photos that I haven't had a chance to post yet.



The Neighborhood:

We live on a very large hill. First, to get up to the main drag of the little village-like part of the neighborhood:




Then, from the main drag, up another hill to get to the house:

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The Plumbing:

Shiny shiny!



We had to put in a new water heater because the old one was, well, old & inefficient, & also, worse, it was not sufficiently high off the floor per safety regulations, & it was not vented correctly -- it was vented on a downward slope instead of upward, which is dangerous on its own, but also caused the basement door to hit the vent pipe every time you opened or closed the door. Poor Jackie, living with an unsafe water heater! We also put in washer & dryer hookups (the washer was upstairs, & there was previously no dryer, just a clothesline), & replace the old main gas line in the house. The PG&E guy told me that he goes into a lot of houses where old gas lines are just about to fail, so it was a good move to make, & we'll be in good shape for another 50 years.

The city inspector says job well done!



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A Little Bit of Elbow Grease:

In an ideal world, we would have painted the walls, & stripped the built-in & trim, etc etc etc before we moved in, but that couldn't happen for several unavoidable, but ultimately boring reasons that I won't go into here. We did get a chance to try stripping some stuff, though, to test out our idea of taking off the pink trim paint (& the zillion layers underneath) & restoring the old wood underneath.

Looks promising!



The rest of the trim will have to wait, because Job Number One -- finishing unpacking -- is just a lot more important for sanity's sake, but we are going to finish stripping the built-in in the next month. Here's Adrienne, starting the job:




Lastly, I tried taking off one of the sheets of wood paneling to see what's underneath. As it turns out, it's more wood paneling:


I thought about trying to take that piece off, too, just because I was fascinated to find out what was next, but I decided that maybe it was best to leave well enough alone & just paint over it for now. Whenever we get around to painting. In 2012.


Onward to 2012! Thank you to everyone who has been so generous with good wishes & crossed fingers (& paws) & advice & housewarming gifts & every possible kind of support along the way! Happy New Year!