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By early April the new room closed to the outside and wrapped in preparation for stucco.  The upper deck also got closed in and wrapped.

There were several sliding doors in our original home construction that turned out not to work well and / or would not make sense with the decisions made for the sunroom.  The doors in the dining room and family room were removed and turned into windows.

Needless to say, these changes had to be made very quickly since they opened the house to the outside elements.

The sliding door on the deck above the garage was changed to a much nicer door.

Then it was time to open the house to the new sunroom.  The kitchen windows and doors on that side were removed and a window in the family room was changed so there was a door.

Likewise, the master bedroom was opened to where the deck had been.

Then it was time for rough electrical, heating, fire sprinkler modifications, insulation and all the other things that are inside the walls and need to get done before the drywall is put in place.

We never got around to building the deck. After experiencing the wind, bugs and country critters, we decided that bringing outdoors to the indoors was the best way to enjoy our “backyard”.  So early February, construction began on our new sunroom as well as a number of other smaller modifications to our home.

After the foundation walls were poured and the forms removed, they discovered that the plans had been misread for what needed to be attached at the corners. The repairs took longer than the initial set up as concrete had to be removed while leaving the rebar in place and additional reinforcement added. A week of nice weather was wasted.

The existing stucco had to be removed in the places where the new construction would attach to the house. Since rain was possible, the process was done leaving the wire and paper in place until the new pieces would connect. This procedure was a lot slower than what would have been done if it was summer and no chance of rain for weeks.

In early March, the windows and exterior doors were delivered, so things could get closed up as quickly as possible.  But a major series of storms were predicted, so plastic wrapping in an effort to protect the construction from the elements.

The winds were stronger than the plastic and things got rather damp.

The winds overnight with the last of that series were strong enough to tip over the port-a-potty.

Another area for the remodel was the deck off the master bedroom.  We decided that it should be enclosed and an extension of the bedroom.  Do the stucco was removed and the surfaces prepared for the changes.

As the process continued and three of the windows are in place it is beginning to see the room taking shape.

By late March the new room has been closed in from the outside.

 

A few weeks ago we decided it was time to trade in our 2005 Toyota Matrix on a new vehicle. The Matrix had been a good car and was relatively problem free.  However, it had over 97,000 miles. The odds of being inconvenienced by a major repair were not getting better. As I liked the style of the Matrix. The combination of the hatchback with fold down seats, allowed for carrying a lot more cargo with ease than could have been done with a sedan. The back seat had enough leg room for normal human adults and the front seat was at a comfortable level for entry and exit. We when out looking for something similar.

We were not planning on looking at hybrid models, but the Ford CMAX caught my eye. It was the most comfortable of the cars we took out for a test drive. And compared to some of the others, had a more open feeling — it did not seem to have too much in the way of blind spots. We are still learning the features of the CMAX and getting used to the experience of driving the hybrid. The options in the dash for display provide second by second feedback on fuel and battery use as well as hints to improve efficiency. At times adjusting one’s driving to improve the score can turn into a game. Plus there are all the improvements that have become standard since our Matrix was new, such as voice activated controls and Bluetooth connections for the cell phone use while driving.

And the most amazing thing — we got the garage cleaned out so we actually can park the car inside for the first time ever!

Yesterday we received .51 inches of rain according to our weather station. That brings the total for 2014 up to .54″ — the additional amount having arrived mid-last week. Normally in this area January is wet and dreary. This year the January weather was more like summer. Actually, it was better than that since it lacked the fog and the nighttime temperatures did not drop as much as they had in August. As show in the photo, we had daytime temperatures into the 80’s in January.

Typically the local hillsides turn green in December. As of the beginning of February they are still brown due to the lack of rain. If one looks around, many trees, both landscape and native, are in serious condition as a result of the drought and may not survive.

The lack of cooler temperatures also has a lot of the garden plants confused. Blackberries are blooming and some of the blueberries have fruit. The 4-in-1 apple tree that was planted last winter is blooming but never dropped its leaves from the past season. Likewise, three out of the four low chill pears are essentially evergreens this year. Most of the stone fruit trees had dropped some percentage of their leaves. However, the retained leaves were anything but pretty, so I finally started removing the stragglers. We only have two more weeks according to the calendar for the fruit trees to get in their “chill hours” and from the looks of things, most will have bloomed before then.

The laptop wasn’t the only item giving us technical trouble over the past few months. The car decided it had some issue with its emission control system.  Of course, that is about all one can get out of the manual that came with the car.  But my spouse had the code reader which provided a little more information indicating that it was a minor issue.  The most likely problem was a gas cap seal that had failed.  It did appear that was not functioning, so we replaced it.  Unfortunately that did not result in the warning light going off. Logistical issues during the summer kept us from taking the car to the local repair shop until a couple weeks ago.  We were concerned it would be a major expense to fix whatever the mystery problem turned out to be, however, we were lucky.  It was only a hose in the system which was leaking.

On the other hand, the glitch in the kitchen was a major hit to the finances.  Our wall oven had gotten progressively cranky.  Every so often while cooking, the upper oven which had a convection feature would decide that there was a problem and start beeping and blinking “F1”. Of course, the troubleshooting section of the owner’s guide said little more than turn off the oven, let it cool and if it happens again, call for service.  At first this meant we would end up having our dinner a bit later than planned since the lower oven still worked.  However, in the past few months it became apparent that the convection was not working correctly (for instance, a fan stayed on that should have gone off).  And then there were the mornings where we found it beeping F1 when we got up.

It was becoming a safety concern and we decided it was time to replace the oven. Given that the oven was by then 21 years old, there was no hope of having the electronics involved replaced.  Our local appliance store was having a customer only special sale, and we went in to see what would work. At first glance, there were lots of choices.  But then reality set in. White was not a favored color.  And the options available in white and only 27″ wide were even fewer.  That still provided several acceptable choices.  However, when we checked the installation information, the situation started looking grim.  Most of the ovens needed 1/4″ more width than was available.  The newer version of what we had would fit the width — but it was over an inch taller on the exposed surfaces and would block the doors above and/or drawer below.  So we got down to one manufacturer  which had an oven that might fit without a complete re-do of the kitchen cabinetry. 

This past weekend we had the new oven installed. It was very, very close. Actually, some of the trim is a smidgen too wide and the drawer in the cabinet to the one side rubs against it as it opens. Other than that, it seems like a nice product.  It has some features that were not available twenty years ago such as a proofing option for allowing bread to rise.  I had to try that out and it worked beautifully.  Now I won’t be limited to the odd shaped loafs that come out of the bread machine. It also has convection in both upper and lower ovens, so in theory I can speed cook in both.  Of course, I doubt if I would have a need to do so.  Hopefully we are good for another twenty years of baking, broiling and roasting.