Happy Birthday Dad!!

Happy Birthday Dad! I just wanted to say how lucky I feel to be the daughter of such a strong, intelligent, kind, hard working, interesting Father. You've been an awesome dad since we arrived, and I have really enjoyed getting to know you better as an adult the last few years. I hope Greg will be a dad like you someday. I love you very much and hope you have a wonderful birthday - and a great birthday weekend at the cabin! (your gift is on it's way)

Big Birthday Hugs,

Mariah

Progress...

Another eventful and productive weekend at the Brink residence. Friday and Saturday all of the floors were removed. We are down to dust, slab, subfloor, and more dust. Very strange. We discovered after the cabinets were removed that the valves for all of our sinks and toilets leak when closed, and needed to be replaced - this was noted in our initial home inspection as well. Apparently the builder heat crimped the rings on to each copper pipe, which shrinks the ring, ensuring the seal between the nut and the valve, and making it literally impossible to pull the rings off without cutting. By the time we determined the issue and purchased a small saw to cut each (15!) ring instead of trying to pull them off, we had been without water for nearly 24 hours. We felt like squatters! At least Patrick was there to lend a hand...

The new valves are beatiful and work like a charm. Our next adventure Saturday morning was sod. There used to be a tree in our front yard, which died while the house was vacant (thanks, Bank). It left a huge stump and hill in the lawn, which we painstakingly removed. Here are two "before" shots and one "after":

Hardly looks like the same yard!! This was 330 sq. feet of sod, which comes in small rolls that are very VERY heavy. It was a dirty job, but we are thrilled to have a lawn we can play on now :)

Back to the indoor projects. We thought that while all of the flooring, plumbing, cabinets, etc. are OUT of the house, why not paint the walls? I selected some colors I am very excited about (pale blues, greens and golden tans), we purchased 14 gallons of paint, and away we went. While I started on the bathroom and laundry room downstairs, Greg patched the damaged drywall around the fireplace where tiles were removed - he did a great job!

Here are some paint pics - this is "ground ginger" I believe, painted in the powder room and laundry room:

Our lives are consumed for the moment with this project, but eventually I'll start posting fun stuff (like our vacation to Grand Cayman in three weeks!!). This week we plan to finish painting, and on Thursday the cabinet installation begins. Our makeshift kitchen currently consists of a fridge, grill and patio furniture, so we plan to do a lot of grilling over the 4th of July weekend. Happy birthday Carlos, Dad, and Grandma!!!

Here are my two new favorite flowers in the front planting bed: Mandevilla and Passionflower, which has a very beautiful and unique fragrance!

Remodel

Today we embark on a major home renovation project!! New dark cherry cabinets, slab granite, and travertine floors are going in the kitchen, the rest of the first story, and the two bathrooms upstairs.

The cabinets were demolished today, floor demo begins Friday, and next week the new cabinets will go in, followed by the Brink's first DIY tile job. Greg purchased 1100 square feet of travertine today, and we are both nervous about getting started, but know the work will be well worth it in the end.

Yard WORK

This weekend, the last of spring, marked the first full weekend in CA that Greg was home without having to leave for a study on Sunday. So I put him to work! The previous weeks while he was away for work, I occupied my time at home in the evenings (still without TV or internet...kind of nice!) pulling weeds and pruning - general but much needed yard clean-up. The stage was finally set for us to add some new life and color, and that's just what we did.

Our accomplishments this weekend included: Sweeping the entire back patio area, hauling a huge truckload of yard debris to the dump, mending the last broken pipe in our sprinkler system, planting 4 small king palms, 4 flowering vines, 3 queen palms, 2 giant bird of paradise plants, 2 star jasmine, a vegetable garden (tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, zucchini, basil), and a variety of bright annual flowers to cheer up our front garden. We also installed four new exterior lights, dug a huge stump out of the front yard and flattened the slope it had created, prepping the yard for the new sod Greg wants to put in tonight.
That amount of digging, ripping, hauling, lifting etc. has left us both a little crippled today, but we'll bounce back...just like our yard!