Week 51

No physical progress this week, but Mr. Bunkport is now just about ready to install the rain catchment system. We are looking at a time toward the end of next week for that.

In the meantime, there's a rose bush in the yard that we didn't realize is a rose bush, because it hasn't bloomed in the three years we've lived here [update: Susie thinks it's a camellia]. Whatever the reason [and whatever it is], it seems awfully happy now & is blooming like crazy:

(Sorry, New Englanders!)

Week 50

Inching closer to the end!

The kitchen counter got its underside trim this week::

A final patch was put in under the cabinet in the bathroom:

And the garage was cleaned out of unused materials, tools, & stuff for the dump. They also kindly swept and scrubbed the floors. I spent most of Saturday putting shelves back where they belong, and taking things out of storage. It's looking great!

On Sunday, I tried my hand at repairing a patch of broken concrete in the back yard, using what Mr. Bunkport had taught me in Week 40, when I helped him make the bathroom counter, and a tip from my dad. 

Before:

After:

We tried to get Pickles' paw print in there, but unfortunately, with our warm weather today (sorry, New Englanders) it had already set up by the time that she got back from her walk.

Mr. Bunkport also spent time this week designing a rain catchment system for the back of the house, instead of regular gutters that feed into the storm drains. The goal is to be able to use captured rainwater for the garden, instead of having to draw from the tap every time the vegetables are thirsty. Drought, you know. Depending on when the vendor gets him what he needs, it could go up next week or the week after.

Other than that system, there are a couple tiny odds & ends he's addressing, but really that's it. THAT'S IT!

Keep those fingers crossed for us, please!

Week 49

Painting! Done!

Jury duty was spent entirely on-call, so the guys could be here all week painting the back of the house bright blue:

With light grey trim, to complement the white doors and windows:

Meanwhile, the monster rose bush that we moved in Week 4 is so happy that it's blooming:

Next week: Mr. Bunkport will be coming to do final detail work downstairs and in the kitchen. Cross your fingers for us that it all goes smoothly!

Week 48

I'm posting early this week because I just can't believe this. I just can't get over it. California is in the middle of an epic drought. One of the worst droughts on record. A drought that was declared a state of emergency by the governor a whole year ago. And yet our attempts to paint the house have now been rained out twice. Twice. The first time in December, and now this week. The painter came, spent a couple days prepping, and then had to pack up. What are the odds of this? *Sigh.*

Gutters can't go up until after painting is done, so that's on hold, as well. *Sigh.*

It's going to rain all weekend, so the extent of my projects this week will be tacking up the cord for the new landline phone. Safety first, everyone. *Sigh.*

Next week, I have jury duty, so that will determine if anything can proceed, or if everything has to wait until the following week. *Sigh.*

Week 47

Good news! The painter and Mr. Bunkport's final work have been scheduled for next week! This could really be it! Keep your fingers crossed that no one runs into any snags or unforeseen problems. We are so ready to have the garage and yard cleared out of construction materials.

Meanwhile, this week, two things happened:

First, I was at City Hall for something that took only a fraction as long as I thought it would, so I decided to spend some time in the Assessor's office researching previous ownership of the house. Mars is listed in the records as having been built in 1907 -- it may be older, but because City Hall burned down in the earthquake & fire of 1906, everything still standing after the disaster was listed as 1907 in the new city records, along with all the new houses that were going up as people rebuilt the city. I could only go back as far as 1919 in the Assessor's microfiche files, but I was surprised to find ten owners before us, including a Martin family, who sold the house in 1919, and a Portuguese family named Velludo (listed as Velvet in the 1940 census), who bought it in 1925. Interestingly, the house changed hands three times in 1925. The owner previous to us, Jackie, bought it in 1956 -- much earlier than I had thought, and interestingly, she seems to have taken title alone.

My guess that Mr. Davila, whose stuff I found in the old back part of the house during a clean out in 2012, was Jackie's husband was wrong -- he and his wife Mary were actually the owners before Jackie. They bought the house at the end of 1952, and Mr. Davila died in early 1956. His widow sold the house to Jackie in November, 1956. Interesting that she left his stuff down there the whole fifty-five years she lived here.

The other thing that happened this week is that I started the mural at the bottom of the outside stairs. My starting point is a repeating bamboo design I did in school ten years ago:

I sized it up 200% on a copier, and gridded out the space into 8-inch squares:

Then, I poked holes in the copy of the design, & used powdered charcoal and graphite to create outlines on the wall:

Now I just have to sketch the panda in somewhere, and I'll be ready to paint!

That's it for now. Hoping to have some exciting photos to post next week...

Week 46

A few things this week:

First, I hung up this very nice photo of AJ that Jon took while they were in Japan a couple years ago:

It has been in storage since he gave it to her for her birthday last May. About time for it to come out & be seen! I hung it in the sun room part of the kitchen:

Second, AJ lent her Taiko drumming muscles to help me finish the fence/wall thing at the bottom of the stairs:

I also hung up my trusty shovel on the side:

Next step for that project is to get the panda/bamboo mural started.

The weather was beautiful this weekend so we also spent some time working in the yard. AJ positioned some succulents in this planter, to see if they looked good there before transferring them:

And we made another big succulent planter out of old foundation stones that came up out of the pit when they excavated down (the plants go in the spaces between the stones):

Lastly, I put the hammock back out, after more than a year without it:

And this is how I spent the rest of the afternoon:

Next up: I didn't actually schedule the painting & gutters with Mr. Bunkport because I thought it was better to wait a few days for further word on timing on the city paperwork. I'll call him this week, though, because this needs to get rolling.

Week 45

You guys! The plumbing is finished!

Sink!

Toilet!

Tub!

Well, mostly finished. If you look back at the sink, you'll notice that the faucet doesn't really match the tub fixtures (click on the tub picture to see it larger). That is a temporary faucet, put in while we waited for the final one to come in. The final one arrived on Friday, so it's just a matter of swapping it in. The main thing is that we have a fully functional bathroom downstairs, and we have passed the final plumbing inspection:

I think I see our friend Susie, the bath aficionado, on the front steps right now, towel in hand.

We are very excited about this, both because we can now fully use the room downstairs, and because it feels like an enormous milestone: it's one of the three remaining things that we can't do ourselves. The other two are painting the exterior and putting up the gutters (well, we could do those things ourselves, but our being on a ladder 2 stories up seems...unwise). Those are just a matter of scheduling, which I will organize with Mr. Bunkport on Monday. 

After that, we just wait for the paperwork to finish wending its way through the Planning Department, and then get the final inspection done. Even though our to-do list is a mile long (staining the doors downstairs, caulking window trim, repainting part of the bathroom, etc. etc. etc.), that's when I will call this project officially done (and will stop numbering the weeks here): when the final inspection is complete & the permit is finally closed.

In mouse news, it's been a whole week without any new sign of the little devils, so I think I finally conquered them. As further proof, I accidentally left a fresh loaf of bread & a stick of butter on the cutting board overnight -- if they were still getting in, those would have been demolished. Success!

My big project for this weekend is getting better after having come down with bronchitis this week.  I feel much better today, but Dr. AJ has issued strict orders for bed rest. My usual habit is to pick right back up with my projects the minute I feel better, and then, of course, promptly start feeling poorly again, so she may have a point.

Next up: AJ will try out the bathtub this weekend, using the bath bomb that the Martins thoughtfully gave her for Christmas, and I will work on getting better. And then Monday, I will schedule the final work with Mr. Bunkport!