Adding to the excitement of Heidi's birth the 28th of Feb, was the earthquake in Chile. This is my sea wall after the tide came in and went out 4 times in one hour - that's 7 minutes for it to come in and 7 minutes for it to retreat, sucking out all the sand. The small wall laying in the sand was pulled over and the sea wall that is standing is now exposed down to the timbers that framed it's foundation. We lost about 3 feet of sand!

We are adding improvements to the old house, hopefully it will attract a buyer.

Julie and Eva had to come for Heidi's Birth, Feb 28th!. Sadie and Eva mostly ignored the birth and had a good time together.

Trying to cut down an 80 ft. dead tree, 24 inch diameter, was not easy. It will make lots of fire wood for June Lake.

Well, the old tree finally went over in the dark. After 10 hours of chopping, Wes and Tom were so surprised when it went they were speechless and forgot to yell 'Timber!!'

A great visit with Wes and Ginnie at June Lake.

Pictures from the last few days. The terra cotta floor in the kitchen in a herring bone pattern. A view of the bath tub tile in the guest bath. They pored the outside concrete in the area between the garage and living room, also built the low wall separating it from the front door area. The long curved step on the beach works well as a step or a sitting bench. The steps will remain colored concrete, the deck will be stone tiles as will the other area.

A few pics from June Lake with the cousins - Hayden,Sadie and Eva. They loved their water backpacks. Eva would wade in any water - no matter how cold!

Saturday morning and the painters are there - along with the plaster men doing the garage. The outdoor stairway is finished to the room over the garage and a shot of the bathroom

Sadie and Hayden went to the puppet show last week at Balboa Park.  Sadie got her Ernie puppet to take home!

When you build a house your have to have your crews work sequentially.  Like the painters have to stain and varnish the kitchen and bath cabinets before the floors go in.  The painters have too many other jobs they scheduled and the cabinets are not done and monday they want to start the floors. The painters say they will have full crews work on sat and sun to get it done.  I'll go over there tomorrow morning and see if they are there.  Thankfully, we have an excellent foreman, Dan, who keeps on top of everyone.  The whole house is now complete with a color stucco coat, they do the garage next week.  WE have having the hardest time deciding on what to do with the driveway.  Scaffolding comes down as soon as the garage has a finish stucco color, then we start the outside areas, stone,concret,planters - we have to decided like now!

The plaster isn't dry yet and it looks funny.  I couldn't wait to take a picture, they had just put it on and closed for the day.  Today I'll get another picture of it and see if it lightens some.  It is a 'Santa Barbara' finish, smooth, like an interior wall.  The color is an antique cream color, hopefully it will have variations in the color caused from the 'burnishing' technique of applying it.