Greetings from Carlsbad

We're finally getting settled in for our two week-stay. It didn't take long to set up our two collapsible "sports benches" and the inflatable queen bed from Costco. We also had to unpack our 5 plastic plates, 4 plastic bowls, and about 4 plastic cups along with our coffee maker, filters, and two bags of coffee. Then there was our two pots, one large frying pan (my favorite that I found in the cupboard in the RV trailer), paring knife, spatula, can-opener, etc. It's been very much like camping, but with in-door bathrooms, refrigerator, microwave, etc. Of course the laptop, printer, TV, and DVD player go without saying. Oh yeah, I forgot Steve's paint spraying machine, and the ladders and tools, which have come in very handy. Can you believe we got it all in the Mazda! I had to be convinced. That's probably what made it happen.

The first big project was facing the painting job. We started with the bedroom that must have belonged to the artistic, expressive daughter. One wall was bright rose, and the others a kind of gun-metal blue. So we loaded up the paint sprayer with latex primer. I was spared most of the details, but the primer seemed to be a bit heavy for the machine. It probably didn't help that our neighbor stopped by just as we were firing it up, so we let it rest a few minutes while we visited, and then it was clogged by the time we got back to it. Anyway, to make a long story a bit shorter, we managed to paint the bedroom with the sprayer, including primer and the final coat of cream (to go with the rest of the house) and also including ceiling.

We spent the next couple of days strategizing about the rest of the house. The vaulted ceilings must be 15 feet high at center. The dilemma was whether to try to do the ceilings, and if so whether to use the same color as the walls or try to keep a clean line between the walls and white ceilings. Well, after mulling it over (as only we can do), and after I took the shop-vac to the walls and especially upper corners and ceilings, we determined that the former paint job was in pretty good condition, if we could only match the color, we might get by with touching it up. After buying two $25 gallons failed attempts to match the walls, one was too light and one was too dark. We finally mixed the two together on a ratio of one dark to two light, and got a perfect match. Are we lucky, or what!!

In the meantime, we were also mulling the decisions related to the floors/carpets, etc. Our next-door neighbors did a pretty easy sell job on the slate tiles. We got bids for two options, and settled on the one that included all rooms but the kitchen and bathrooms. Then the fun began, as we agreed to pull up the old carpet as part of the deal. We also had to decide whether we could be ready for Brian and crew to start this Monday or next. At first we told him that we wouldn't be ready until next Monday (still thinking we needed to paint everything first). Then after we matched the paint (on Saturday) we went running next door looking for him to tell him we could be ready by this Monday. Our first plan was to put all of our stuff in one bedroom and live there until the rest of the floor was done and then move out. But as we picked up carpeting and found a few cracks in the floor, and knowing that filling the cracks was the first prep step, we decided to get all the carpet up in the first go-around. Brian and Ian (the crew) were already hammering out the old tile in the entry and bringing in their equipment. So then we started moving everything out to the patio and lawn. When we had that mostly accomplished, Bruno came by. He's the lawn-maintenance guy. We made a deal with him to help us destroy the bamboo crop in our side yard, and also found out it was his day to mow. Then all the stuff I had just moved out to the yard had to be moved else-where. It was not a big deal, but I was glad we only had a car-full of stuff at that point.

Now the floors are all bare, scraped, and patched, and we moved the bed back into the master bedroom, so we can stay here until the rest of the tile is laid, and it feels pretty settled.

By about our second day we drove down Carlsbad Avenue for the first time, and was I surprised to see the beach and boardwalk, etc. It was way more beautiful than I remembered it. The next day we actually walked down in the late afternoon. The beach was covered with people divided into sections for swimming and sections for surfing. The boardwalk went almost the whole distance of the city, and it's all public with bathrooms, outdoor showers and lifeguards on duty. What a gem!!

We've sampled a couple of restaurants, and so far, the food has been excellent. We are very convenient to Costco, and an easy walk to Vons. We're just about three blocks from I-5, but can't hear the traffic. I don't know how that can be, but it's true. We occasionally hear the whistle of the commuter coastal train. The house is much nicer than I remembered, and will be even nicer after the tile is installed. The backyard is completely fenced, and there is total privacy except out the living room windows.

Bottom line, there is everything here except proximity to the people we care about and want to be near. We really look forward to finding a way to make it more accessible to family at some time in the future, hopefully not too far out.

Well there's still lots of work to be done, and I'm set on actually getting in the water one of these days.