Happpy Thanksgiving!

We got a nice dusting of snow last night, and woke to a bright, sunny day with blue sky and snow-covered trees. It is glorious! All that brush in the background is what we call "snow bush" and is some sort of manzanita. Eventually it lays flat under the weight of the snow on top of it for the winter. My dad loves to shovel, and made sure to take care of the deck before the snow melted it away.

Then Curious Dad drove over our place to see how well the driveway heating worked. It didn't. He and Tim are over there now, working on it. It had been hooked up and was "all done" a week ago. It came on fine with overnight frost, but never turned off. At $4/hour for electricity, we prefer not to have it stay on indefinitely. Tim got the electrician out yesterday (finally) and he said that his guy mixed some wires during the final hook up. He fixed it and said that now we were good to go. But apparently not. And he has no "guy" to blame this time.

My pirate Sea Captain step-brother managed to get some time off and came out to California to grace us with his company for the holiday. No foolin', he is a Coast Guard certified Captain, who operates a sport fishing boat in Jupiter (near Palm Beach), Florida. And a heck of a lotta fun, too.

Meet Captain Lumberjack

At Home in Tahoe

Sorry I have, once again, neglected this blog. I've been very busy in lab, trying to make up for the time when I was sick and unproductive. I also have had some trouble with my new (Intel Core Duo) Macbook Pro. I totally screwed it up by using it for a while, and then migrating everything from my older powerbook. It destroyed my keychain, and the ability to have one, which really messed with my email. I ended up starting fresh, erasing the harddrive and re-installing OS X followed by an immediate migratiion of everything from the old computer. It works just fine now, thank goodness!

Saturday, I drove from Seattle to Lake Tahoe. I got a later start then I wanted, because I had been in lab until 10pm Friday night, and hadn't gotten as much done at home as I needed to. It was a nice drive, because there was no rain. I had dry roads the whole way. And I didn't have the monsters dogs with me. That meant no stops where I wrestle with them, trying to control both at the same time, or take one out, then the other. So, that helped. As soon as I got to I80, north of Sacramento, I went on auto pilot, feeling like I was almost home, and then I really was. At 2:30 am. I love it here no matter what the time, but I was very glad not to find the house invaded by a bear. That would have been a bit too much for me at 2:30am after driving 800+ miles. I awoke about 6:30am, and for some reason went to look out the window. I guess I just wanted to see my home in the daylight. It was on fire! The sky was anyway. Sunrise. So I went downstairs and out to the deck and took a picture so I could share it with you.

This is at my family's cabin, which doesn't have the lake view of our future home. I thought (for maybe a fraction of a picosecond) that I should walk the block down the hill to the lake and that I would get an amaizing shot. Instead, I went back to sleep.

Now, I don't mean to suggest that this is a standard sunrise around here, but I have enjoyed some really beautiful sunrises over The Lake. Seeing as I have always lived on the West Shore, we are prone to beautiful sunrises over the mountains rimming the east shore.

Note the owl on the corner of the deck. He (she?)is protecting the the house from woodpeckers. It hasn't done an outstanding job over the years. I think my dad keeps it as a tribute to his eternal struggle with the "peckers". It makes me smile as I think of the funny stories that come with his War on Peckers.

Today, we went to our house and looked around, talked about our plans, and walked the perimeter discussing the trees. I got to meet the neighbors across the street, and next door. Tim cut some trees down, but I will explain more about that in my next post. I need to snap some pictures.

Tim has scheduled me to meet with our general contractor tomorrow morning and again on Tuesday. He also wants me to meet with the mason and the civil engineer. I might also meet with the window guy, if the timing works out. Tim suggested I drive down to the the "Rock Garden" to look at all their stone products, and get closer to a design for the fireplace. That is in Truckee, a half hour away. On Tuesday, My family will be coming up for the Holiday. I'll see if there is any rest scheduled in there somewhere.

Greetings from Baja California Sur

Greetings from Los Cabos! When we got here, we managed to upgrade our rooms (each couple had one) to a suite with a connecting living room and an amazing view! These pictures are from our balcony. I took the picture of my feet that first night. We have an amazing view of Land's End.

Last night we went to CaboWabo to hear Sammy Hagar and the Waboritas for Sammy's annual birthday bash. It was a great show, which included Mike Anthony, also of Van Halen.


This morning, when I woke up I realized that the view from our bed is also incredible, so I lay there, reading, enjoying the view and appreciating the air-conditioning. It is REALLY hot and muggy out there today.

Ta da...The Grand Stairwell!

Remember the great room? We need to update it. It was a bit dated.

And the dark stairwell?


Here is the architect sketch for what we plan to do to the stairwell. We are going to open up the stairwell and great room by removing part of the wall between them and a small bit of wall at the top of the stairs as well.


Tim has been very industrious in his demolition. He sent me these photos today to show me what he has done. I was delighted when I saw that he had opened up that wall! He has also removed the dark paneling. I think it is glorious! Now I'm looking forward to seeing the railing on the stairs opened up.




I am delighted by it! We are Tim is just interviewing General Contractors and requesting bids. The project hasn't really even started yet, and the house is already transformed! I am amazed by how much work he has done. He's been working nights, so he has a lot of time during the day, but this is above and beyond. Thanks Tim, for all your hard work, and for the pictures that let me see our house.