Raindrops, schmaindrops.

I'm slightly sleepy today. Severe rain and windstorms all last night. Pitter patter on the new concrete roof deck is much louder than the old wood one. Coupled with the relentless flapping of plastic that protects the back windows.


It rained so much overnight that the new sump pump and catch basin started to float away. That's just wrong. So wrong.


Peeing cherubs doing it's thing. Multiply this by 5 spouts. And that's a lot of gatorade.


Pool filled to the brim and overflowing.


The gushing river in front of my north driveway. Need to be careful when backing the car out. This is one time where it makes sense to have the ground clearance of an SUV in Southern California.


Same gushing river downstream at the south driveway. It's undermining the neighbor's trees. This is why I hate cheap gardeners. They like to leave bare dirt to make their lives easier.

Rain drops keep falling on my head

I'm home on vacation. Which normally is a relaxing thing. However, 10 people running around, hammering, sawing, and digging isn't very relaxing. Loud noises really bother me. It may seem sacriligeous, but I was hoping that they would slow down construction for a while, so I can have some peace.


Walled in. Weather forecast calls for cold and rain soon. So they're sealing up the back of the house every afternoon when they're done for the day. Doors and windows MIA. As are the slate tiles. Toilet is still in it's box downstairs. Nobody wants to carry it upstairs.


My idea for a little shelf above the window to make the soffit more useful. Useful for displaying taxidermy daschunds.

Lifecycle of a raindrop.


Pretend you are a rain drop and instead of clear skies and views of the Angeles National Forest, you have clouds and bone chilling cold.


Splat. Fallen on the balcony. Ouchie. There's steel mesh underneath the mortar coating to interfere with cell phone reception. This will be tiled over with slate and then the raindrops will go pitter patter.


And then the raindrops drain through the scuppers. Those metal spouts that stickout out in the middle. Part of me wants to put peeing cherubs where the scuppers are, but sadly, the budget is running on fumes. Besides, one cherub is interesting. Two cherubs may be ironic. But three cherubs, well, that's crossed over into old lady with french poodle territory.


From there, the rain falls into the sunken patio. Same slate here, but instead of pitter patter, it'll be more sploosh sploosh from the peeing cherubs. And then into the drain where the lost socks go to hide.


Tunneling underneath walkway. Gurgle gurgle. Let's hope nothing ever gets stuck in here. Because then our little raindrops will back up and flood the house.


And we make a left turn at the gas meter. No left turn blinkers required. A good thing too, because my car has a problem with making left turns right now.


Into the water catch basin. Otherwise known as mosquito breeding pit. There's a 1/3 horsepower sump pump inside that pumps the water out the other side. It's rated for non-potable water and effluence less than 1/2'' in diameter. Which is probably the size that a 1/3 horse would produce. Try not to picture what 1/2 inch effluence looks like. Or a 1/3 sized horse. Anyway. Raindrop. You're a raindrop.


When the water level gets high enough, it gets spit out through another pipe, underneath the roots of the Night Blooming Jessamine. Underneath the sprinkler pipe. This sound is most likely a whirr whirr. Which is probably more pleasant than the sound if there were 1/2 inch effluence being pumped out.


Under the fence and daylight again, to water the orange tree and continue down the driveway, to the street, past the "Flooded" sign, and into the storm drains.

So concludes the life of a rain drop. The End.

Twas the weekend before Xmas

Good bye banana wallpaper. I held you so dear.
But it's time for a change, to bring in a new year.


The view for the tub is sadly much wasted.
Since Davy takes showers, instead of sitting there... um... basted.


Putting back the living room ceiling, what a big chore.
All this dust is bad for breathing, and it clogs up my pores.


Another view of drywall, we've seen it before.
That's all I have pictures for, since I have no back door.


Kitchen walls being prepped for cabinets to be hung.
Getting ready to store spices from near and far flung.


Walkway is done, stucco will be going on soon.
And then outdoor speakers to hear a good tune.


A jumble of wiring, still needs to be sorted.
I fixed the cable myself, the rest of it aborted.


The patio base is poured, almost ready for slate tile.
Let's hope they hurry up, and get rid of the dirt pile.

All this rhyming kind of makes me a dork,
But when kitchen's all finished, I'll make some yummy pork.

Filling in

Insulated from the elements. Sans doors or windows.


Sloping the patio into the drain. Still no answers as to where this drain leads to. Though the drain is large enough to suck in small animals and the occasional lost child.


Wouldn't it be funny if they made wallpaper that looked like insulation? It'll be like living in an unfinished house permanently....


This is what you'll look out into when you're behind the stove, stirring the pot of chili and thinking, "...wouldn't it be cool to raise a few chickens."


Cemex brand Victor cement. I can't find the bags with Jimmy Hoffa in them, so Victor will have to do.


Salty crust unveiled. Perfectly marinated concrete. Apparently rock salt makes the correct sized holes for an interesting non-slip concrete texture.

Salt of the earth

Windows! Tacky blue curtains included. These look out into the giant orange tree. You can look at food while you're cooking food.


Boxing out the soffits to hide the jumble of wires and pipes. They're kind of ugly, so I'm having part if it disguised as a shelf.


Drainage for the patio, otherwise the house will flood with one of our nearly famous rainstorms. I have no clue where this drain ends. Probably the same place that lost socks go to.


More piles of dirt. I think I've killed the vacuum cleaner last night, just trying to clean up the bedroom.


The first time the house has seen insulation since it's 1917 birth. It's actually bedroom on the other side, so it's mostly for keeping the noise down instead of regulating the temperature inside. Since you all know of the loud kinky sex that goes on upstairs.


Batts of insulation. Formaldahyde free and encased in paper. Fewer itchies and sneezies.


More concrete. The white stuff on top is actually salt. I have no idea why they salted the concrete steps. Maybe to etch the top so it's not so slippery when wet. Or maybe it's for brining the concrete to make it taste good and moist and tender inside.

Poofy dog

Overdid the weekend again. Must stop the Extreme Gardening. I'm dead tired. An entire day of running around the backyard. Beautiful weather though.

Bonded in a new section of pvc sprinkler pipe. I was testing out the sprinkler system after inactivity due to the heavy rains the past few weeks. Discovered broken section. Good as new now. And I still have all my fingers.


Trimmed the lower branches of the giant fig tree. Fig tree must die. Not at all attractive, destructive roots and all, but the worst part of it is, the figs are inedible nasty. It's such a large overgrown tree that I have to work at it bit by bit. Literally death by a thousand cuts. But I get to play with my wood chipper. Giant brush pile. Reduced to itty bitty pieces. And in a few months, will become compost. Woo Hoo!


When you take a dog to Kendall Shure, the swooshy dog groomer at Shurcut Pet Parlor, the dog comes back with jingle bells and a bag full of dog treats. I was a little insulted, since I've been raising Preston Jewish all this time. Kendall's thing is to do "themed" dog grooming. For Independence Day, Preston came back with a flag bandana. No such treatment when Preston goes to Steve's Dog Laundry.


Heating and air conditioning in a box. The tall one is the variable speed air handler. That's the thing that blows hot and cold air through the ducts. The squat one is the heat pump unit. Which is a reversible air-conditioner. When I want heat, it runs in reverse and takes the heat from outside and brings it inside. No gas pipes, no vents through the roof. Me, I'm plenty gassy and I vent and fume a lot.


Bituminous membrane. I spelled that right on my first try. Think of it as giant duct tape for the roof deck.


Hello living room.


And this is the other side.


Creative duct hiding between the floor joists.


And into the guest room where it makes a left turn and through the closet.


Where it stays out of sight until...


It emerges in the bookshelf. How's that for creative hiding!


Here's the medusa that runs everything. No cheap duct tape here.

Look very closely

Wiring definitely doesn't photograph well. Makes for boring visuals.


Making cherimoya ice cream. So it was 30 degrees outside the other night, what does Davy do? Hhhmmm.... it's butt cold outside. I know! I'll make ice cream.


Pipes and wiring. Ho hum.


More pipes and wiring. La dee dah.


More stairs. I made them do the landing bigger. Because I'm going to need more space to turn around when I'm 300 lbs.


I bought a toilet over the internet. Toto UltraMax 1 piece elongated toilet. With Sanagloss(tm)! It came all the way from Edison NJ, only 8.2 miles from the house I grew up in. It's oddly appropriate I'm getting a toilet from there. It must be kismat. You can buy anything over the internet these days.


This is the superior GMax(tm) commercial grade technology. With 3 1/2'' flush valve. The Lexus of toilets. It basically means I can't fix the toilet with parts from Home Depot. They have this same toilet at the Hyatt Regency Penn's Landing in downtown Philadelphia. So I test drove this model before I bought one.


Something's eating my beans.


Something's eating my bok choy.