Melinda noted last week that you can tell which of us posted the blog just by the length of the blog. Yes, I am the more verbose.
See Thursday for a list of what we wanted to do between Friday night and Sunday night. We got the vast majority of it done plus some minor items that were not on the list including going through 5 cans of "Great Stuff" expanding foam to insulate all the tiny spaces like where the water pipes come into the kitchen sink and dishwasher. That took two hours just by itself!
I was right. Installing the child-proof locks on the sliding glass doors was the most challenging thing. We ended up with a simple solution that left only a 1/2" hole in the metal railing on the inside of the door, but that took a lot of creative thinking between myself and a good friend of mine, Edison.
Edison and Stella Chiu have become good friends of ours and, in fact, we ate traditional Chinese food (definitely NOT the "Americanized" version) over at their house on Friday. I cannot tell you exactly what everything was, but it involved a boiling wok filled with water, oil and seasoning that sat on the center of the table (similar to the boiling chicken broth fondue we had just last weekend at "The Melting Pot" but without the chicken broth). Using one set of chopsticks and a little wire net, we individually put in several different types of carefully prepared fish dishes as well as steak, beef, shrimp and lots of vegetables. Stella did a wonderful job and the setting was divine. It is always a cultural treat to dine with Edison and Stella. We enjoyed the meal and, as always, the wonderful conversation.
It took over seven hours Saturday and Sunday with three VERY hard working guys from our landscaping company (the guys who normally just mow our yard) to do major cleaning up outside including getting rid of all the weeds, reshaping all the bushes, pruning the trees, cutting the grass very short and ripping out all the dead or very weak plants out of two of the gardens. A third small herb garden we took back to just St. Augustine grass. We don't do well with herb gardens. Tuesday the crew returns in-force with a truckload of river rock, "Oklahoma Stone," several large bushes and ornamental grass (for edging around the pool). We hope to have pictures on here by Wednesday. We got an incredible deal on all of this, in part because this is definitely off season (yet the perfect time to plant bushes). We are excited!
Here are the only things on the old list that are now moved to the new list.
- Install the rest of the child-proof latches and magnetic locks throughout the house
- Buy and install a new door knob with key lock for the washer and dryer room
- Set up the wireless printer
- Get Mrs. Potato Head
- Get a buoy or safety throw for the pool
- Stop the minor washing machine connection leak
- Wait for the big Fire Marshal Inspection
- Wait for the wife of the landscaping owner (who is a housecleaner) to come by to give us a quote on JUST detail cleaning all the floors and bathrooms on Tuesday (we just don't have time before the City Health Inspection on Wednesday)
- Wait for the two electrical companies to give us bids on installing canned lights in the playroom (formerly the "study") since there are NO overhead lights -- just a switch to turn on a lamp that is in an awkward location
More excitement to follow!
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