Our Neighbors Must LOVE Us

We were awakened at 7:15 a few days ago by the brain-jarring sounds of a jack hammer; construction going on at a home behind our temp location. I can only imagine what our Durango neighbors are dealing with. This year, we're thinking holiday gifts for everyone within a 1/4 mile radius of our home - maybe IPODs with high quality headphones.

The drywall continues to crumble, along with it all of the mistakes made in the original design of the Durango house. That photo you see? No, that's not Iraq - that's what's left of the backyard water feature/fire pit that seemed so totally out of place and oversized for the back yard. We certainly won't miss that little number.

I want to welcome the Marrokal Design Team to my blog - that's them in the photo with Jay and me. We are very excited to be working with such talented people, who are promising to deliver a fantastic home to us ON SCHEDULE. Once I can pin down the landscape team, I'll get their photo posted, too. And soon, I hope to add one more person to the design team to help close the gaps on so many important details - my friend and design pro Rachel Pavilack, who helped us turn our Pittsburgh home into an award-winning showcase! We won't let a little thing like your location in Wheeling, West Virginia get in the way of designing our new San Diego project, will we Rachel?

Be sure to take special note of our new open air skylights in the photos! Parts of the roof are slowly being peeled away in an effort to change some of the roof lines (and ceiling treatments) in the house. Good thing it never rains in Southern California.

This week, excavation work will begin for the endless swimming pool (of course the pool ends, silly, but the swimming doesn't) and framing new spaces continues. Windows will be ordered, the front door has been selected, and cabinet layout will soon be determined. I also have a date with the plumbing company to finalize all sinks, tubs, faucets, & towel racks this week.

I've also posted a photo or two of our temp home - nice swimming pool - unheated, so not much fun to get into this time of year. Jay brought be an old wetsuit of his to try on so I could possibly take a dip one of these days. We'll see about that.

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Remodel Begins!

Week one of our house remodel in Del Mar has ended. Huge progress was made in removing walls, cabinets, countertops, landscape and appliances. The critters in the neighborhood are (sadly) scrambling to find new shelter. I swear I saw a hummingbird throwing its finger at me as it hovered around what used to be a huge malaluka tree in our front yard; a place where it typically drank the nectar from its branches and leaves. Spiders are now taking up residence in our mailbox and newly adorned yard sculpture (porta john), since the bushes and hedges are gone. The hummingbirds - I feel badly about. The hell with the spiders.

It was a hectic week of moving into our temp home, a few blocks away, unpacking and setting up shop so I could get busy with work, and Jay could return to training for the upcoming 1/2 Ironman World Championship. Cousin Tracy flew in from Vegas for the weekend - great fun! and Jay's sister Jeanne, her husband, and their two kids also dropped by to watch the Steelers game, view the worksite, and bring Jay a birthday cake. It was a great visit!

The temp home is comfy, however, we discovered a bit of a water problem in the guest bedroom (thanks, Tracy!), but landlords are on the ball and work is being done to fix it.

Later this week, Jay and I will meet with contractors to finalize windows, kitchen and bath cabinets, and our front door design and specs.

So far, so good.