A $0.14 loss

To make a short story long, I went to the doctor's office in early September for my annual check-up.  The only thing I had on my agenda for that visit was to have the doctor freeze off a wart on my hand.  As requested, he froze it and it eventually fell off.  All is good and I move on with life. 

In the mail yesterday, I received two letters.  The first was a welcome surprise: a check for a class action settlement from Toyota for the 'Unintended Acceleration' case.  Just for owning the right car in the right year, I was entitled to $29.86!  Sandi, what are we going to do with this free money?

The next letter I opened was from Providence Health.  My bill for the wart removal 'surgery' came in.  I owe $30. 

A loss of $0.14

The Two became One

Ever since our neighbors took out their wall, Sandi and I have wanted a great-room in our house.   

 

 

So, in June we took out the sheetrock and discovered that it was a load-bearing wall.

 

Weeks and months went by and the studs were still there.  It took us quite awhile to find the right contractor and jump through all the hoops to get a permit.

 

Finally, in September, the wall came out and a beam took its place.

 

Getting the beam to pass inspection was a chore.  I would tell that story here but this is a kid-friendly blog.

 

As much as we like the absence of a wall, the plywood beam lacked certain ascetic qualities.  I bought 'merbau' wood laminate (to match our merbau-laminated floor) and wrapped the sides of the beam.  The bottom of the beam is resawn hemlock stained cherry.  It worked for our floor-boards so we knew it would look good on the beam.  I also patched the floor with the merbau laminate.

 

All that was left was the drywall.

 

I only take care of inconspicuous drywall projects.  The new great-room does not qualify.

 

The drywall contractor took four-hours to join the two rooms in a seamless plane.

 

Now we paint.

 

We took the green color into the old dining room. 

 

Since the ceiling was patched, we had to paint that which required me to repaint the entire ceiling.  I had no idea our ceilings were so yellow until I painted them white.

 

The ceiling looks so much better!

 

And now we are finished!

 

San Diego

After 3 awesome days in Disneyland, we continued our vacation with a road-trip down to San Diego

 

 

Joy and Gabe gave us a tour of Lahoya Beach and Coronado Island.  Joy works at a nice restaurant on Coronado so we went there for dinner Saturday night.

 

 

Happy (early) birthday!

On Sunday, Gabe took us on a tour of his work place, the USS Ronald Regan. 

As you can see from the scaffolding, it is under construction/repair for a few months.  Even with all the pipes and crates it is still an impressive war ship.

 

 

each link weighs 500 lbs

Gabe giving us a tour