We bought a new house!

We just bought a new house!

It's hard to describe how surreal it feels, but we've been told we own it and I see a big huge mortgage in my online banking, so it must be true.

First some logistics, We are going to keep our old house and rent it out, we still like it a lot. Part of the deal with buying the new house would be that we would let the current owner stay in there and rent it back from us until February. That's why over there on the right of this website you see a countdown until we can move into our new house.

It's twice the size of our current place and has wonderful views of the ocean and town. It's close to parks and schools and my daughter will be able to walk to her (new) friends houses and school and ride her bike right out of the house. It's close to swimming and bike trails and beautiful.

Obviously it won't look this nice once our ratty old cat destroyed furniture moves in, but it'll still be awesome.

Did I mention the kitchen, because it is awesome and wifey can cook up a storm in there for sure! There is no pool (we didn't want one where we live) and it has a two car garage for the bikes.

It's move in ready and very well maintained. We want to put in a few bay windows and do a little painting but it's pretty much ready to go.

I also want to epoxy the garage floor and put in the same cabinets we put it at our current house.

Every time we visit we find something new that makes us love it more and more. Last time it was the little sponge holder in those fake drawers in front of the sink, the filing cabinet filled with receipts and owners manuals for everything in the house (just like we would do!) and the built in closet organizer in my daughter's room. I keep having these moments where I work out something new about it that fills me with joy, like being able to call someone up and they will deliver pizza! and not feeling trapped in our house on rainy days because we're worried there will be a big accident on the highway and we won't be able to get home. 99 days to go!

Sunflowers are looking up!

The sunflowers are looking up this year! They're at 6ft right now and don't even have their yellow and black heads on yet. Here's hoping they survive before the gophers/rabbits come over and eat them!

2009 - 2010 rainfall: 49.68"

July 1st marks the end of the rainfall season and this year was much better than last year. Last year we got 35" of rain, this year we had 15" more with a total of 49.68. We had some really heavy storms with over 12" in a 24 hour period and some prolonged time of rain, but nothing we couldn't handle.

Field Guide Extravaganza

It's been a while since I posted some nature pictures from the house. This scorpion was hanging out under my daughter's sand box. I was on the deck by the pool, when I went to move it I found a gazillion termites nomming away and this scorpion. I was able to go get my camera, cut out the wood and turn it over and he was still there. Got quite a few pictures, the best were with my canon point and shoot in digital macro mode.

A spider we found in the pool. He was dead I think.

There's been an awful skunk smell for the last week or so, then we finally saw a skunk carcass in the neighbors yard, it was easy to see, it's where all the flied were (yuk!). Not long after, two Turkey Vultures showed up to nom it.

Just today I was pulling up weeds when this 24" long king snake got pretty upset with me and started shaking his tail at me. It even rattled. It was super scary.

On a foggy summer morning the spider webs look pretty awesome. This one's quite the mess in our orange tree.

This is more like it and stretches from our orange tree to our lemon tree.

This one reminds me of the article about how different drugs affect the webs of spiders.


As usual I'm now adding these pictures to the Field Guide Album as I find them.

Owl House

Here's something else that's been gathering dust in the garage. I got out my huge ladder and screwed this thing to the big tree out front. We can't see the box from the house since I wanted it to be not north facing, but it's easy enough to go and peek and and it's even possible we could set up an owl cam from the studio above the garage. Now we just need some owls to come live in it.

I found the Owl Shack FAQ a useful reference (even though this isn't an own shack).

I'll let you know if anyone moves in.

Outside motion light

I've had it for over 4 years I think, from before my daughter was born and from when my Mother-in-Law used to stay in the guest house.

Today I dug out the box and installed it. It was easy, not quite straightforward but nothing complicated. Put some caulk around the top and sides to try and keep any rain out. Now hopefully I need to be awake when it's dark to go try it, with the sun coming up at 5 and going down at 9 it's hard to find a good time to test it.

I'm your biggest fan!

While I had two months off last year it was my goal to install a ceiling fan in our bedroom. I never got it done although I did have the fan purchased. This weekend I finally found the time, it was either that or try and work out why my wife's bike was creaking... Fan won.

I cut a hole in the middle of the ceiling, put in the fan box thingy and set up all the wiring. It all went pretty well. Only hiccup was that I was sure that the wire from the switch was live, but it turns out it was live before the switch and I had to run a little bit more wire, but that made the wiring of the light in the closet a little easier.

This switch used to light up the closet, now there is a motion sensor on the closet light and this fancy thing controls the fan. I'm not sure about the dimming function and the fluorescent light. When everything is off, the light still lights up a teeny tiny bit, I need to work on that a bit more, but generally everything is working great! It sure is great on these hot summer nights.

It's also good to get the fan box out of the garage.