Papa's Birthday...

So my parents came up for the weekend, and they were a HUGE help in getting a lot of our boxes unpacked and the house organized. My father and I worked in the backyard and got the sprinklers up and running, while Kristin and my mom slaved away over box after box, getting pictures, books, and clothes put away.

It was my dad's birthday, and we celebrated with a big dinner at home. Jack and Olivia came over, and we all had a great time! Kristin also had a special surprise dessert for Papa's birthday... check it out!

Kristin in the kitchen:


Wine and rum, oh my!


Lots of gravy (aka spaghetti sauce) and other goodies on the new stove:


Chowing down:


More beer!


Getting ready for Papa's special dessert:


High-speed whisking...


The tension mounts!


It's Emeril's Coconut-Mango Bread Pudding! With rum flambe!




It looked good...


and tasted even better!!

Filling the hole, laying the sod...

Now that the house is getting the finishing touches, we've turned our attention to the backyard. Kristin and I have been busy working on our sprinklers out back, and changed out a bunch of the old pop-up heads and fixed some leaks in the system. It looks like it's working better, but I want my dad to take a look at it this weekend.

In the meantime, we still have the Great Pit of Carkoon out there to deal with. We had looked at a couple of landscapers for quotes on filling the pit and redoing the backyard, and they wanted thousands of dollars to get the job done!! Instead, Kristin talked to the guys cutting the grass across the street, and they agreed to help us out (for a lot less, too!). We ordered topsoil and sod from Home Depot, and soon enough our driveway was transformed into Bandini Mountain!

Our guys filled the hole with the topsoil, and we had enough left over to cover the front yard as well. I raked and leveled the front and back yards, and then our guys came back and laid down the sod:









Now the former hole looks great! We're calling it "The 19th Hole"!

DAY 66: Moving on in...

So, the house is just about done, and we are moving on in! We had the movers come out last weekend and we said goodbye to the Del Rey Oaks condo. Here are a bunch of pictures of our messy, messy house... grrr!

Kitchen and dining room, with countertops full of spices and food:






Living room/library. Time to fill up those bookshelves!


Family room/media room:


We don't have our TV installed yet, so I'm using my monitor and our construction radio as a makeshift TV for now!


Our bedroom. Notice that the cat has made herself thoroughly comfortable:


Kristin's office:


Our garage looks like that scene at the end of "Raiders of the Lost Ark", with boxes everywhere you look!





Still have some leftover electrical stuff to do, as well as getting the fireplaces and glass doors installed. Plenty to do outside too!!