Home repair

It's been just over 3 weeks since we discovered the leak in T's bathroom. The first week was playing email and phone tag with the builder and then the subcontractor. The beginning of the second week the subcontractor came out to evaluate the situation and he spent quite a bit of time tracking down the source of the leak. I was pretty convinced that this was his way of trying to make it be something we would be responsible for rather than a problem caused by the original construction. He was very thorough and after about 3 hours determined that water was entering the house through the utility line conduit pipes. He thought that was an error in the original construction and submitted his report to that effect. The rest of the second week was spent waiting to find out whether the builder would take responsibility. I called on Friday and learned that the builder was taking responsibility and that the sub would be back on Tuesday.

This is now the third week. The sub returned on Tuesday and he and 2 of his workers spent about 4 hours ripping out the vanity and closet and toilet. They tracked the tubing and capped off ends, sucked out residual water, ripped out wallboard, insulation, where it existed, and clean up the mess. They returned Wednesday to finish cleaning up, apply anti-mold chemicals and begin reconstruction. Thursday was spent finishing the walls and applying texturizing. They are scheduled to return on Monday.

In the meantime on Wednesday the sub's sub inadvertently cut the cable connections (read TV, Internet and phone) to our neighbor's house and he arrived on our doorstep at 8PM demanding that we try to get our contractor to come back and fix it that night. Didn't happen - but they did get the cable company to come out the next morning and now all's right with the world. Sigh!

Rocket launch

This is what the media had to say about today's rocket launch. Vandenberg is about 50 miles from us and we can see liftoff from our back yard. We generally only get to see the contrail like the first picture.
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) - The largest rocket ever launched from the West Coast has blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base with a classified defense satellite as its payload.

The 235-foot-tall Delta 4 Heavy Launch Vehicle lifted off from the central California coast at 1:10 p.m. Thursday.

Preparing for the launch took three years and $100 million in infrastructure upgrades at Vandenberg, 130 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

The launch is being conducted for the National Reconnaissance Office. No details of the payload have been released.

It's the fifth launch of a Delta 4 Heavy overall. The other four launches were at Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Home repair is moving along....

The sub contractor hired by our builders has returned for a second day. Yesterday they traced the leak, vacuumed up the water, drained the conduits, removed the cabinets, tore out the wallboard and insulation and set up a fan to help dry out the area. Today they are back to spray/kill any mold, put in insulation, put in a door to permit viewing and access to the area, putting up wallboard and taping. They are supposed to come back tomorrow to reinforce and sand. Then on Friday they will paint the first coat and hopefully finish next week. Keeping fingers crossed.

Delightful

This is day 4 in our string of beautiful summerlike weather. Ahhhh....it's really like paradise. The weather is better now than it was all last summer! Tomorrow the repair construction company is supposed to start work on repairing the leak in the bathroom wall in T's bathroom. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Wow! what perfect weather

The weather the last 3 days has been AMAZING! It's a great reminder about why we moved here. The rest of the country is dealing with feet of snow and in CT below zero temperatures. It has been in the 70s for the last 3 days with more of these on the way. It is better weather than we had all summer which was a little on the cool side. I am not one for the heat so I loved it but it would have been nice to have a little less fog last summer. At the moment T and I are just reveling in our good fortune and trying to get as much enjoyment out of nature's weather gift to the Central Coast of California!

Snow in San Luis Obispo!

Over 15 tons of snow will be piled high on Chorro St. between Marsh and Higuera St. This is one of our biggest family events at Farmers’ Market bringing over 500 families Downtown. Back East they are buried under 2 feet of snow and many schools are still closed and some people still don't have power. Here in San Luis Obispo the temperatures were in the 70s today and it was snow day at the Farmers Market. They do this every year so families who don't have an opportunity to see or play in the snow during the winter don't miss out!

Boy are we lucky!

The weather headlines from around the country and around the world are pretty dire today. There is extreme cold in the middle of the country, snow in the south even in unheard of snow in Alabama, Georgia and then more in the Carolinas and a convergence of twos storms converging in the northeast as a nor'easter. Add to that the tsunami like floods in Australia - well, it's kind of bad weather overload. I don't want to hear a single complaint from anyone around here about it being "cold" - read 50s to 60s with prospects of sunny warm weather in the 70s forecast for the weekend. Of course we all know the weather forecasters can't even tell what it's going to do the next 4 hours, why would we believe them about weather 4 and 5 days from now!!! We are SO lucky to live where we live :)