TIME OUT!!!

This past Tuesday Dan and I finally had a day off together. (Thanks Veterans!) We saved most of this day for a relaxing trip to our favorite local spot, Crystal Cove beach in Newport. After breakfast Dan and I packed a few things and drove 25 minutes to Newport and spent the morning walking along the cliffs with the blue ocean splashing below. We walked barefooted in the soft, wet sand, searched for the most unique looking shells, laughed at the funny little crabs in the tide pools, and laid down on our towels resting in the sun listening to the crashing waves. There were no ghetto blasters, no traffic noise, no little kids screaming, no teenagers casually using profanity. . . it was a marvelous day. After a few hours of relaxation we drove to the Shake Shack and shared a cookie dough milkshake before our drive back to reality. Today I am glad I live in California.

There is a little Miss Havisham in us all!

During our recent move Dan and I purged many things that we no longer needed. In the midst of sorting I came across a bridesmaid's bouquet from my wedding over five years ago and also the lemon leaves from the bouquet of white roses that Dan used to propose to me six years ago. They were a dusty, frail shadow of their former selves; crusty, brown, and frail. I had held on to them long after they lost their beauty because I wanted to hold on to the memories that they represent. At last after I lingered over them I decided to snap a few pictures and toss them in the trash. While unlike Miss Havisham my momentos represented pleasant memories, they still held me hostage. Don't get me wrong. . .I'm all for keepsakes. But when you keep smelly, messy dead flowers in your house for years, you've gone a little too far! I never want to be a slave to my stuff.

Fire!

Hello Everyone! One of the things we were warned about when we moved to Chino was the fierce wind that blows through the valley on occasion. In the first wind storm about a month ago we lost many trees around the neighborhood and the hay at the dairy next to our house caught on fire. We couldn't believe how loud the wind can howl. For the past two days we have had our second big wind storm and unfortunately it is helping to spread fire throughout the Los Angeles area. I took a quick picture of the Corona/Yorba Linda fire from the window of the third story loft. I am so sad for the hundreds of families that have lost their homes to the fires.

We're back!

Time has been precious of late. Every moment we don't spend at work is spent unpacking and finishing the rennovations at the Long Beach house. The Chino house is awesome and Dan and I feel so blessed. We still don't have a next door neighbor but all our other neighbors are so nice. I'll have to post some pictures later.

It is finally done!

Today I took the day off work to head to Chino so that Dan and I could do the first inspection of our finished house. The most amazing thing to me about purchasing a new home is that it comes with customer service and a warranty. Dave, our customer service agent, walked us through the house to explain how everything works and help us create a punch list for the construction manager so that he can fix all the little imperfections. It took us over three hours to do this but halfway through the tour our selling agent, Melissa, surprised us with a lunch in our new kitchen! So today Dan and I hosted our first party in our new house with the customer service agent, selling agent, and all the construction managers! Too bad we didn't have any seats for them. Next Monday, Sept. 29th, we close escrow and get our keys. I seriously can't believe this is happening! The packing has been a lot of work but the end result will be SO worth it. We can't wait for company!

Canopy Row Cottage

P.S. Sorry for all the typos; I did this quickly and I'm too busy to go back and fix it!

A tale of two houses. . .

We are moving in two weeks and this past week we (mostly Dan) embarked on the adventure of finding renters for our Long Beach house. Tomorrow we will hopefully sign a sweet little family to a two-year lease on our house. Our Chino house will be finished by this Friday (Sept. 19th) and then we get to begin to move!

It has been interesting having strangers come walk through your house scrutinizing it. I thought it would be difficult to find people to pay the $2400 price tag but we had 15 walk throughs in five days! The things that people most liked about our house were the colors of the walls, the backyard oasis (as Dan calls it in our rental ad), the loft space, and the fireplace. The things most people didn't like were the things I don't like about the house: how small the two bedrooms are, lack of a closet in the master bedroom (which technically declassifies it as a bedroom), and that the pool isn't heated. We will have to rectify the closet situation sometime in the future and I would still like to upgrade the kitchen space a bit with tiled floors, new appliances, and granite countertops. But for now our renters seem extremely happy with the property. I think they love the neighborhood.

Well tomorrow I get to go to Chino to check on the progress on Canopy Row Cottage (as I so fondly now call our new house). The floors, countertops, and other details have been installed since we've last been there. I'll post some new pictures soon after we get back from our visit.