As soon as the construction was finished on our porch two little birds decided to build their nest under it. It’s a good thing we don’t use the front door very often, because these parents are very protective, and they …
Aside from a paint job, our porch restoration is completed. Hopefully this summer we can get the house painted, while there isn’t any landscaping around it to have to work around. A pair of little birds have already made the …
Today is the bicycle tour of the lost coast, so that means our annual helicopter training, and of course the best part, the helicopter ride above Ferndale. This year I sat on the other side to the chopper, so I …
Our porch received the roof and the newel posts in the last couple of days. It sure is nice being able to go out our front door again. Not only do we have steps from the porch, but the ground …
Here’s the beginning of our new porch. Bill and George from Del Biaggio Construction have been working on it the last few days. We need to get some spindles and balusters ordered before it can be completed, but I’m liking …
This is a similar house in Ferndale that we will be using as a model for the new porch construction. From the historical pictures that we have of our house, it’s pretty close to what was originally there, and we …
At least the front porch that is. Work started today on the demolition of our front porch. Last year after I was digging it out of the mud I noticed a bunch of dry rot in the newel posts, and …
Today they poured a slab for the beginning of our driveway. The rest of the driveway will get poured when we get back to working on the garage. But it will at least be nice to have this portion paved.
Yesterday they poured the cement for the base, and this morning they took the forms off. The recessed panels in the concrete echo the panels on the bay windows rather nicely. They were going to work on the front path …
We first met Henry Del Biaggio when I took some pictures of a bull in a flood plain by his house. When we later invited Henry and his wife Carol over to play pinochle, Carol told us she would try …
The rain finally stopped, and so the work on our front fence finally began. Since it doesn’t look like the county is going to be fixing the flooding problem any time soon, we are building a retaining wall in the …
As we left for work this morning I noticed a large puddle of water on our porch floor. We had been experiencing a small intermittent leak from the exhaust pipe for the heater and I had planned to fix it …
After viewing the backyard, I was prepared for the worst in the front yard, and found it. It’s been very cold in addition to the heavy rain, so we’ve been keeping our fingers crossed for snow. So far the only …
You start a new year all positive, hoping it’s going to be better than the previous year. (Which last year wasn’t that great, so it shouldn’t be hard to beat.) For me this positive attitude lasted until I got out …
After surveying some of the problems from the flood, we’ve decided to take down our porch and rebuild it back to the way it was originally. But right now with its peeling paint, missing balusters, and abundance of weeds, all …
Ferndale is the spider capital of the world. Someone once explained it thus, “Ferndale has cows, flies like cows, spiders eat flies, so Ferndale is the perfect spot for spiders.” While the blimp was flying over, Lori was busy washing …
Sometimes I think life would be much easier without indoor plumbing. The last few weekends I’ve been having to repair something or other. First it was the toilet that was leaking. Then it was the valve that stuck in our …
Last night we had a medical call and during the call the assistant chief mentioned that there would be helicopter training this morning and they would page us for it. They set off the page about 5 minutes before we …
Back to our front yard. While I had Rich and his tractor here, I had him pull out the two holly bushes that were in the front. We still need to do a bunch of clean up and regrading in …
This new feature of our yard is either: A copy of San Jose’s Quezacoatl statue. The result of having visions of aliens landing near some strange mountain. Half the recipe of a female mud wresting tournament. A brand new volcano. …
Here’s what the culvert in front of our house looked like upon our return from Mexico. It appears there was one more storm that dumped even more silt in our front yard. The culvert was about two and a half …
After a nice breakfast of eggs benedict, Lori and I opened our presents. I guess the family figured out I was under a bit of stress lately, and all of the presents are greatly appreciated as they are all wonderful …
We had a full day without rain today! It gave me some time to start cleaning up some of the mess the storm left. My first task was to try to recover the power cords for the Chistmas lights, but …
I promised myself a day off today so that I could put up our Christmas lights and go watch Katy’s ballet program. Heavy rain started falling yesterday, and it continued today. Even so, I spent the morning putting lights up …
Thursday was a very busy day for me schedule wise. As mentioned before, I started the day with my ambulance ride along. Then I had a photoshoot at the Gingerbread Mansion, which I had to break into two sessions in …
This photo is the front porch, and Maxine Goff is sitting on the left. Today I had my ride along with an ambulance crew as part of my EMT class requirements. Unfortunately for me, everybody decided to stay safe and …
Saturday we had our first portrait client, Maxine Goff, a Ferndaler who wanted a picture for her grandkids and greatgrandkids that showed her with her white hair. (She mentioned it had been awhile since she had had her portrait taken.) …
Lori and I drove out to Cottonwood to pick up this 1917 Florence parlor stove. Cottonwood is just south of Redding, so it was a 3.5 hour drive each way. We weren’t sure if we were even going to be …
Here’s another example of the power of magnification. Ok, so you all recognize the house. The interesting thing though is that I took the picture from a spot about 3/4 of a mile away, the top of the hill where …
Here’s what the crown molding and picture rail looks like that we installed yesterday. Wow, two home improvement projects in one week! I must be getting back into the swing of things. The room already looks greatly improved and more …
Once again the forecast for snow didn’t materialize. We only got a bit of hail in the morning. Then it sort of cleared up which allowed Lowell and I to work on installing the crown molding in the parlor without …
