The Unveiling.... interior house photos

Dining room

Kitchen through doorway

Living room- featuring artwork by Tristan above the  fireplace

Other side of living room

Entering front door- bedroom hallway to the right, dining room to immediate left 

Gorgeous tile medallion

Half bath

Guest bath- and yes that sign does point toward the beach ( which is  12 miles  away straight as the crow flies)

No towel bar in bathroom so World Market provided this shelf. Dave loved the fact that he had to drill new holes in the shelf to hang it. I guess the distance between studs is different in India?!

Primary guest room- book early for best choice of dates :)

Secondary guest room

This guest room features Tristan's artwork and the basket of tourist info.

Built in shelves in Dave's office

Dave's office

The fireplace he uses to keep toasty

Master bath

MY whirlpool tub

Master bedroom

Shared fireplace with Dave's office.

View from kitchen window

Dinette nook

Sitting room off of the dinette and kitchen- otherwise known as Kristi's  beach office

Awesome coffee table I found at the secondhand store. Dave wanted to know what was wrong with the other coffee table?

Other side of sitting area. Shared fireplace with living room.

Obviously the kitchen

5 burner gas stove top. 

Baby iceplants. These will become ground cover.

My latest find.

Random thoughts

For awhile now I have been keeping a mental list of amusing (at least to me) things to write in this blog. I usually stick to a subject matter but these bits are just screaming to be released so here goes (and no I do not have voices in my head).

 - You know you live in CA when the refuse company gives you a wheeled recycle bin the same size as the garbage bin! And you know you are being a good Californian when your recycle bin fills up sooner than your garbage bin. And of course the cans and plastic bottles you are squirreling away in your garage because THEY are worth 5-10 cents each!

-  I love the cute little lizards/geckos that always scurry away when I disturb their sunbathing on our patios.

-  Dave has now come to realize that when I head to Joe's Hardware I will come home with at least 1 plant in addition to the paintbrush, D-con, picture hangers, or whatever else I went for.  I can't help that they make me walk through the garden center to enter the store! And who can resist all the flowers that are annuals in colder climates are perennials here.... Fallbrook apparently is the magical place where all plants grow- Calla lilies, Easter lillies, Pointsettias planted outside- really?!

- I am the proud owner of a San Diego county library card. So to checkout your items you scan your card and set your entire stack on the special counter. And all the titles pop up on the screen! How cool is that!

This is a picture from our India trip showing these people trimming the grass with hand shears! I am kind of like them now.... there is a curved area around the fountain wall that the mower can't get so I use the hand shears. If the grassy part of the yard were bigger it would be worth the effort to get the weed whacker out.

- Did you know that paint loses it's sheen over time? Let's just say that I have spent much time and effort trying to match the paint in this house. I really like all the paint colors so I just needed to touch up all the spackled holes, scuffed baseboards, fireplace mantels, etc. Well, let me tell you that there is no paint sheen halfway between flat and eggshell- so please don't comment on the shiny spots on our walls. I did totally repaint the main guest room because it looked diseased!
- I was warned about the creeping fig.... it is the vine on the front part of our house. Apparently if you don't show it who is the boss it will overtake you and strangle you in your bed some night. I have mastered it for now but everything grows year round out here...
- Apparently I am an oddity out here because I clean my own house and do my own yard work.... a young hispanic man pedaled his bike down our driveway when I was out in the yard. He said "I am looking for work." After trying to talk to him I realized that was all the English he knew. So I figured Estaban was not going be able to help me figure out how much fertilizer to use on my palm trees. Thank you but I will do it myself!

Now it is Thursday so I guess I best finish this post...

- Any ideas where I put my 2 biggest salad bowls and the toilet brush? The toilet brush may have gotten tossed at that the last place. The salad bowls were unpacked but where are they?
- I love my bathtub. And that is all I have to say.
- Usually when I go to the grocery store and am horrified about how little I got for my $. When I go to my produce stand under the blue tarp I am pleased at how much I can buy for $15.00 : 8 avocados, 1 bunch of little bananas, 2 bags of lemons, 1 bag of limes, 3 passion fruit, 2 mangos and 10# tangerines!
- We have been drinking fresh squeezed lemonade by the gallon. I decided I needed to make a lemon meringe (sp?) pie. I have made many pies in my day but this was the first lemon.... turned out awesome.  It probably turned out so well because it was Bonita's special recipe. We shared it with Ron&Videll and Duane&Verla. R & V used to live 3 miles away from us in Waukesha and babysat our boys. And we went to meeting in their home. Who would have thought that they would be living in AZ and visiting us in CA?!

- That is all for now- I must food gather since Shane and Nikelle are coming. Very excited!

From mountains/snow to ocean/sand all in 1 day!

 For all those who were afraid we would miss having 4 seasons here in CA.... We drove less than 1 hour from our house and we were at 5000 ft elevation and there was plenty of snow! This is Mount Palomar  - to get to it we drove straight east through several Indian reservations and groves of citrus. The road was especially fun in the Mini- of course the driver always enjoys it a bit more than the passenger. Dave did mention that he liked my sound effects. I wonder how genuine he was?

Snow started at about 4000 ft.

It was a very cloudy day with drizzle when we left home but now at 5000 ft we were above the clouds. Those are all clouds behind Dave. On a clear day you can see the ocean!

Stunning self portrait- ha!

Snowball fight anyone?

False advertising- never saw the mountain lion...

Scorched tree from the fires in 2007?

All alone on top of the world

Starting to clear a bit-more ground visible.

Smallest post office I've ever seen!

Then over to Del Mar for the sport show and a nap by the ocean.
How cool is that to see snow and the ocean all in 1 day?!

I love my job!

Walking up to the front door

 I came to the stunning conclusion today that I love my job! My title is SAHW.... translation you say.... "Stay At Home Wife". For all of you who wondered if I would get bored "not working"- I am working very hard and loving it. I actually have time to get projects done around the house, garden, cook, and take care of Dave :).  When I was working part time I never felt like I had time to get everything done and as Dave became busier in his job I tried to do even more. Well, now I have time to whip this house and yard in order. I also love Sunday nights because I know I don't have to get up at 3:50 AM the next morning. I have time and more patience and I happily tell Dave that yes I think he should go golfing. He is working very hard and deserves to have some play time.
  I thought I would take you on a tour of our yard. There are a lot of pictures and this isn't even everything in the yard! So here goes....

Our beautiful fountain that calls you to sit down and relax!

Approaching our courtyard 

A favorite place to sit for lunch to bask in the sun and listen to the fountain

Rose trellis gate at the far end of our front yard

"Bottlebrush" bushes along our sidewalk

Looking down at our house from the upper flower bed. FYI- I found out you need to be part mountain goat to walk on that slope to weed it! The dead looking tree to the right is 1 of 5 trees called "Liquid Amber"- they turn a brilliant red in the Fall and shed their leaves. So we will have Fall here!

Familiar faces that won't get planted next year- they need too much water

Love all these in our yard!

One of 13 palm trees of various types that we now own.

California pepper tree I believe

What I see from the kitchen window

I call this the "Daisy Tree"

The "daisies"

Grapefruit

Lemon waiting to ripen. We also have an orange, tangerine, and figtree

The baby fig tree

Even pine cones!

I recognize these flowers- geraniums grow like weeds- often on the road banks

Yucca

Smells like an evergreen but has little purple flowers

That was just a sampling of our yard. You gardeners are excited and the rest of you fell asleep about 3 pictures into the tour. I have been adding plants already: Mandeville, Jasmine, and 3 huge flats of ice plant. Dave asks me immediately, "How much water do they need?" And my frugal self is pleased to answer, " They are succulents and very drought tolerant. " So on we go with this CA life!