Week 5

Michelle and I took our yearly trip to Scripps Ranch for the 4th of July parade. This year we brought Benton along. He had fun sitting in the car and waving at the residents as we drove by. The house is moving forward as well. The construction workers installed the door leading out of the shower, a window in the bedroom, and the windows in the kitchen. We are excited about how much light the new windows bring into our living space. We ask the construction workers to save the old window removed from the wall. The window is original from 1937. We are not sure what we are going to do with it, but hopefully it will find a place somewhere in our new home. I painted a blue box on the wall to help us visualize where the  doors leading out of the bathroom will be once they are installed. Michelle and I are working on elevation plans for the kitchen. We are looking at different shapes and sizes of cupboards and cabinets. We are excited about the possibilities. My mom and dad mentioned they have an old pot belly stove in the garage. We are thinking it may make for a great addition to our bedroom. We will have to see if it fits the layout. My mom and dad are taking pictures and drawing illustrations to help us get a better understanding of what it looks like. Hopefully it will keep us warm on the occasionally cold and rainy nights we have in San Diego.

Week 4

1 month of camping and we are still going strong. This morning Michelle was taking care of the bills near the kitchen table and Jack was supervising. Yesterday our doors and windows arrived. The cantina doors for the back wall look very cool! We cannot wait to see them installed. The gas meter was installed yesterday as well. Inside the house, we are starting to see the rough plumbing. You can see where the bathroom sink, toilet, shower, and kitchen sink will go. Very exciting! The plants in the gardens located on the front and back of our house are in good shape. The Ocean Beach Street Fair is scheduled for today. The skys are pretty cloudy but we are expecting lots of people around the neighborhood. Time to go cook breakfast.

Week 3.1

We created an awesome breakfast using Dutch ovens today! Later on we chilled out in the backyard, pick some avocados, & I put my old BMX racing crank on the green cruiser bike. Ready to roll!

Week 3

We are now on to 21 days of camping and things are working out. Construction has begun in the house. They are putting in the walls for the bathroom and bedroom area. We wanted a walk-in shower so they drop the floor of the bathroom 2 inches to accommodate this. SDG and E will move the gas line next week. We are now shopping for appliances. Jack is excited about the new layout.

Week 2

I think the demolition phase of the project is complete. Our house is nothing but four walls. Cesar, the main man when it comes to construction, is working on installing gas pipes under the house. He is using a makeshift table screwed too the floor supports to do his work. I picked Cesar a bag of avocados today.

We spent the weekend camped out in our backyard. We had a nice breakfast with the neighbors. We cooked the meal in our Dutch ovens. It is our second week of camping out and everything seems to be going smoothly. We are getting used to the new routines associated with being outdoors and taking a shower in our backyard.

Week 1

It's been one week since construction on the house began and we are living in a camper behind Ryan and Camilla's house. Things are going well. We are taking showers in our backyard shower and living in the camper. we are using the bathroom in Ryan's house. We think we will turn our second bedroom into a storage area and make our primary bedroom a little bigger. We are excited about the construction and picking out faucets. My back hurts a little from sleeping in the camper and I think I need a sleeping bag liner or otherwise my sleeping bag will start to smell nasty pretty soon. Jack has moved into the backyard as well.

Sailing And Selling

Went for a sail on the bay. Saw a navy ship in dry dock. A seagull followed us during a tack. I recently gave away over 300 avocados then found them on sale for 1.79 each....maybe we should open a roadside stand.

300 Avocados

Michelle and I decided to clean up the backyard a little. We called Trini, our favorite tree trimmer and ask him to help us out.

When we moved into our house ten years ago, one of the first things we noticed about the property was the beautiful avocado tree in the backyard. The house was build in 1939 and we are pretty sure the tree was planted around that time. The tree provides a lot of shade as well as plenty of avocados.

Trini spent the first couple of hours trimming the avocado tree. All of the work was done by hand, no power tools.

We asked him to lighten the canopy. Our goal was to provide some of the plants below with some additional light. Before and after photos are below.

and...

We had the tree trimmed during the month of December because we knew the avocados were ready to be picked. This afternoon we picked 14 bags of avocados. At aprox. 25 units per bag - we harvested around 300 avocados!

While we were at it, we asked Trini to trim up the palm trees. Things are looking pretty good!

Before And After

Below is a photo of the tractor after we cleaned it up. We also cut, sanded, and stained some blocks for it to carry. I think my parents bought this tractor for me when I was about eight years old.

Randomness

combo post. Went out to dinner with our friends Daniel and Richard....his card has a cat paw next to it so I added a Jack photo. Checked the surf and out was out of control so we went to a sports bar which had a cool sign on the jukebox during the Sunday football games. Had some Ice cream with Michelle. I cleaned up an old wooden tractor.