Life is but a beach chair…

Today I went out roaming the lovely city that I call home. That’s right my friend, LONG BEACH! I love this place! What more could you ask for? A large city, great little neighborhoods, diversity, great shopping, restaraunts, beach, sun, palm trees…

Of course, by the picture, I was at the beach. What a better place to be on a 70 degree Sunday afternoon. I haven’t really been playing/practicing with my camera. So, what the hell. Good time to be by myself and enjoy the scenery. Smell the fresh air, wind in my ear lobes, sun in my devilish blue eyes. Unwind from the stress of work, extreme home make over and let it all go!

Real funny story. When I was little…the fam would occassionally drive down ocean. My mom or sister would say, it’s such a clear day I can see all the way to Catalina. I would look out the car window to see what they were talking about. All I saw was what I now know is the OIL ISLAND. I would think to myself, you can always see it, it’s just right there! What a wee, unassuming child! HA!

I jus liked this shot.

This is the building that was recently on the news. Just heard news of a fire in a high rise on Ocean. We thought it was Yari’s building and were worried about her. Luckily it wasnt her building. Tragedy of the story is that a man jumped out of his window near the top of the building. Notice the boarded up windows. I think that would be the worst way to die. I cannot blame him for jumping. YIKES!

This Old House…

Jabari and I both had Friday off. What a better time to tear some shit up? The dumpster arrived at 7am. What a relief; we didnt have to wait 4 hours for that mug. Right away we started tearing out the carpet and pads. Most of the hardwood is in good repair. But each room has a major problem. Good thing we are covering it back up. Buuut, under the lovely orangish brown carpet in the family room? MMmhhm, there was forest green and ivory, peel n stick linoleum tiles. Niiiiice! No worries, we bought a tile bully. Just scrape em up, right? Not at all. After 2 days of scraping and back aches…we found a power scraper at HD (Home Depot; our new favorite place). That thing peeled the tiles off like butta. Lets see what else did we do? Totally demo’d the kitchen, extended the archway from the living room to the dining room and the archway from the dining room to the family room, cut down all the trees in the backyard, tore out the swing set, broke down the hideous planter boxes, dispersed the dirt, removed all the 1/4 rounds, washed the walls in the LR, tried to clean the fireplace (more work needed), cut all the branches off the fan palm in the front yard, cut all the dead palm frons off the side trees, took down the green mesh from the purgola and knocked down the bar. I think that’s it.

The first day we were on our own. Day 2 of demo, the 562 riders came through. Ben was a big help. That’s him amidst the fruit trees below… Day 3 of demo Susie and Steve came out. yaaaaay, what a big help. Love you guys!

Tearing out drywall is soooo messy. We continually had to sweep. Not to mention the amount that gets in your nose, mouth and hair. Grrrr. Note to self; don’t take pictures when the drywall dust is flying all around. Just because you can’t really see it, doesnt mean its not really there. i.e. all the lil white specks in the picture.

One last thing. We paid $400 for the dumpster that we thought we would NOT be able to fill up. BULLSHIT! We filled that mug up to the brim. Not to mention the fact that we got got on Saturday nite. Some fools cleaned out their garage and put all their junk in our bin. Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanks. But we got smart. Put a piece of plywood on top and jump on it to compact the trash. That was fun to watch!

More to come…

mixed emotions!

OK, so I admit that I drive down Cedar a few times a week to check the status of the old house. On most days, I see; 14 cars in the driveway, one on the grass, wires in the front window from a TV blocking the beautiful window, grass taller than my knees, unkempt bushes and foliage. Just an overall sad state of affairs. Buuuut, last week I passed by and it looked mighty scarce. No cars, no people and no window coverings. I thought that was super odd. But whatever!

Today, I drive by and see a FOR SALE sign in the kitchen window. My heart starts racing. I immediately call Sara and text Steve. I had to share the news. We were all tripping out. But the nosey Miss Katy HAD to know more. So, I text my trusty real estate agent, Edgar. He’s on it. I also call Jennifer to look it up on ZIPREALTY.COM. She found nothing. Edgar found nothing. Hmmmmm…what a mystery.

After work, I drove back by to investigate myself. It was indeed a FOR SALE sign. Next to it was a type written NOTICE OF ABANDONMENT. And on the dining room window is a NOTICE OF EVICTION. WOW! Our poor house has been through soooo much in the last 3 years. Edgar is checking into whats really going on. Hopefully I will know more details tomorrow. But what I do know is that the folks that lived there…TORE it up. THe back yard is nothing but dirt, a nasty tore up dog house, random trash every where. Inside I could see ruined walls, knobs and fixtures torn off, ruined hard wood floors, etc.

The question is…would I have bought that house instead if the prospect had arisen? I’m kind of torn. I have nothing but memories of that house. It would be cool to get back in there. BUT, the area is not so great, alot of apartments, visions of my mom and it’s time to make NEW memories on Caspian. We are having a great time making Caspian our own. SO, which is the right decision? I’m confused! Too bad, I couldn’t just pick up the CEDAR house and move it to another location. OH WELL!

more demo updates on CASPIAN to come…just gotta upload the pics.

damn the weeds!

OK, so I went to conquer the backyard. CONQUER, I did not! I went semi-prepared; radio, diet coke, gloves, rake for leaves, steel rake, hedge trimmer and trash bags. Ohhhh no, the backyard laughs in the face of such simple tools. I cut all the weeds (which are more like little bushes)! But, there is this green fluffy stuff that was too thick for me to uproot with the steel rake. Grrrr! So, I cut all the weeds, put em in the trash, raked all the leaves from the mystery fruit tree, cleaned up the side walkway and picked up random trash. I am now debating whether we should just get Gloria’s brother to fancy it up for us or if we should tackle it ourselves with stronger, more powerful tools. Jabari and I have to meet Duhon at the house at 6:30 to go over the plans and iron out details. More to come…

bring out the hoe!

GARDEN hoe that is! I am going to try and conquer my backyard this weekend. Oh what a mess! I think I will need a weed wacker, super industrial rake, regular rake, trash bags, gloves and a whole lotta patience. And oh yea, I’m going to see if I can remove the circa 1979, rusty swing set as well.

Jabari will be working…so I’m left to my own devices. As long as I have some music, sodas and sunscreen; I should be ok! I’ll be sure to report back!

Wesssssss Siiiiiide!

As of Friday, March 30th, 2007 I am an official homeowner. I am not sure how that feels yet. I’m sure I’ll feel the sting when we pay the first mortgage. I am super excited to start the renovations. I can begin to see it in my head. All our friends have been so supportive in wanting to help. We just have to get our estimates in order and see what we CAN do. There’s so much that we WANT to do, but we are not sure what is feasible right now.

We went looking at grills today. Gotta keep the workers fed and happy, ya know? So far almost everybody has been by to see it. Still waiting on Beth, Sara, Jennifer and Auts. Everyone’s response has been about the amount of potential the place has, how big the yard is and how much we will love it when it’s complete.

I can’t wait. We have a dude coming out Tuesday morning to take a look. Keep ya posted!