Diary of a Manor - Day Two

We woke up comparatively bright and early, both suffering from a bit of a hangover. We had two meetings scheduled with contractors. First was Ed Flores, an arborist, with whom we traversed the property, identifying trees and deciding what needed to be done. It's a lot but he can also manage the overgrowth, pruning, digging up unwanted vegetation, etc. It's sure to be expensive but needs it. We can and will do a lot but we have neither the skills nor the expertise to know how to do most of it right. Then we met with David Leff, an architect, to discuss the house. He encouraged us to keep it and build what we want from its bones. We were happy to hear that. It will also be a lot of work and again, sure to be expensive, but we are anxious for the house to be updated. We spent a lot of time roaming about the property. Had to get back to the coastside early because we had wine work to do down here. Clay's also taking a course through UC Davis, and had a paper due, so he isn't getting a lot of down time. Well, no down time.

Diary of a Manor - Day One

Today we drove up to Piglet Manor, the first day as owners. As owners, we spent most of our time at Home Depot and WalMart. There always seems to be things we forgot, and that after spending over $500 at Target and Cosco in SSF. The house suddenly didn't seem so funky, even though we knew it was. It seems like when you put your own spirit into it and call it home, no matter for how long, you want to defend it against people who would call it a POS, like me. Clay bought a shop vac and vacuumed all the corners and sills. The little house was clean, just unlived in, so the spiders had been busy. We tried to make some sense of all the stuff we brought up and then prepared to go out to dinner. We're on well water and the shower head was so clogged with minerals that only two little, razor-sharp streams of water came out. I washed what I could and called it good. We have a lovely dinner at Zazu, drank too much wine, and went to bed.