It's a celebration

 

Let there be grass!

 

Landscaping fun time!

 

The home stretch

 

Getting Closer...

 

The hammer drill

After completing the first section of the deck prior to mother's day weekend I took it easy and worked on the connecting section of the deck. I learned this weekend the importance of having the right tools for the job. A co-worker of mine, Mike, was generous enough to let me borrow his hammer drill. The only problem was the fact that it had seen better days, and was not nearly as hammerlicious as it was in it's youth. Even with the assitance of the elder hammer drill it took several minutes to drill through the concrete block and sink the anchors for the deck.

After beating myself to death holding the drill up in a futile attempt to punch a hole through cinder blocks I decided I had get a new drill. The only drills in my possesion were hand me downs from my father and father in law, all of them being older than I was at the time.



After doing some preliminary research online I found the drill that I wanted. A 7/8th inch hammer drill made by Bosh. This has to be the best $199 I have spent in a long time. Rather than 4-5 mintues drilling a hole in concrete, this new drill too 4-5 seconds. Absolutely amazing.

Here is a glorious photo of my blessed hammer drill. My only regret is that I didn't purchase this handy tool earlier. However, my mom and dad pointed out that I would not have appreciated the drill as much without first suffering as I attempted to drill holes without the new tool. Knowing what I know now I don't really care, I am just happy to have it's service now. Anyone in the market I would highly recomment Bosh hammer drills :-D




Like I said previously this was Mother's Day weekend. I just did some preliminary layout work. The following photos just show some other angles of the work completed. 

Ginormous Deck Phase 1 complete

I have to give a lot of credit to my father for giving me the layout for the deck. He had the idea how to lay out the support and decking, both of which I think were great ideas. Using deck blocks and mounting support beams on the exterior walls saved a lot of work.

I can't discuss the construction without also thanking my childhood friend Jason enough. He is not handy by any definition, but repeatedly volunteered and worked under rather extreme conditions for nearly two months. The deck could not have been completed in time without his hard work and I can not thank him enough for his efforts.

Jason was not the only friend that helped with the construction. In one afternoon, Jason, Nick and I laid the deck for over 3/4 of this section of the deck. It was a LOT of work and it was very, very hot that day.

Here is a nice action photo of Nick screwing down some of the deck. In high school he had some experience building docks down in Stuart, FL. He gave me some great pointers during construction and I can not thank him enough for the asstiance he gave during this project. He insisted that it was just pre-payment for my help to hang drywall in the room above his garage, but he still went above and beyond.











Here is a nice photo of the first section of the deck after completion. In the background is a nice portabel gazebo we used for shade that Melissa's parents gave us. It really came in handy during construction even though we failed to take advantage of it once the sun was beating down on us. I didn't think it was possible to get this much work done in a single afternoon, but Nick and Jason proved me wrong. If only we were more than a third of the way done :-\ 

Ginormous Deck Phase 1

It all started with six little words, "Hey honey, let's build a deck". Sure no problem. I have never actually done anything like this but it can't be that hard can it? All I have to do is throw down some joists and run some 5/4 x 6 across the top of them. Easy.

"So where do you want me to build a deck?" I ask. "Just over the patio where the grill is... and connect it to the other patio where we have the gazebo." Okay. I don't think Melissa really understood the magnitude of the project she was suggesting, not that I didn't think it was a great idea. Her schedule for completing this task was over the weekend, maybe extending into the next week briefly.

I knew this was an unrealistic expectation but I could not convince her on my own. Slowly but surely after talking with several people who have actually tackled similar projects did we become aware of the amount of work involved. First came the realization of the scale of the deck that was suggested. With the assitance of the handy Lowe's deck building utility a design was born that was just shy of 800 sq ft. That's a lot of wood.

It was good to hear from others to readjust Melssia's expectations as to the time frame involved in undertaking such a task. At one of Mel's co-worker's gathering I was discussing the project with someone else that had done a similar project recently. His deck was more complicated technically since he had all kinds of crazy octagon shaped sections and our design was just squares and rectangles, it still took him over 5 weeks to complete the project. Oh my.


This was good to have other people indicate a much more significant timeframe for the completion of the project. Frequently if I am the only one to say that it will take a lot longer than what she expects my words fall on deaf ears. It's always good to have others back me up on the amount of time required to do the job properly.

Mel's dad just laughs when I tell him when she expects this projects to be complete or the amount of money she thinks they will cost.
To be fair, Melissa is always trying to find the cheapest solution to a project and always volunteers her assistance even when its something she has no experience with. It's just that sometimes she is blissfully unaware of just how much she is asking when suggesting a project that we undertake.

Armed with a preliminary blueprint from Lowes and the brainstorming of my father we began to build the monstrosity of the deck. Preparation work was not too terribly difficult. There was a bed of plants of some sort behind the sun room that had to be removed and some roots dug up, but that was about it. I also staked out the area where the deck would go as a guide. It was now time to start building :-) 

La Jolla

La Jolla is beautiful, but very busy and crowded. Initially Melissa and I wanted to stay here rather than in Del Mar, but we are glad we switched locations. Del Mar was much more of a sleepy beach town, that La Jolla. There was definately more to do and lots of over priced places to shop. By staying in Del Mar and visiting La Jolla for dinner and then lunch the next day we got the best of both worlds. We could go out to La Jolla and then come back and relax in the much more laid back area around L'Auburge.



Above you can see the view from the top of La Valencia hotel at the restaraunt Sky Room. The hotel was built in the 1920s and has a very very old school elevator that is not something you see everyday. I'm a big fan of new technology and having to use such an old elevator had some saftey concerns for me.

In the picture to the right you can sort of make out the La Valencia hotel to the left of the giant monstrosity of a condo on the top right. This tower was truely a blight on the face of the coast. I am not opposed to development, but I don't favor hideous architure in any form. There was a similar blight on the coast of Coronado next to the historic hotel.

Friday night we had dinne at the Sky Room, which was recommended as one of the most romantic restaraunts in the San Diego area. The service at this place was so good they fixed problems that I never realized were even an issue. Take for example this handy dandy stool to rest your purse on while you dine. Apparently there is much confusion locating your purse without such a handy device. Melissa was very impressed with this contraption. I know she was just pleased to see how far above and beyond the staff had gone to made our meal and attend to our needs. It was truely an amazing evening and worth every penny.

We arrived a bit early for our dinner and got to enjoy the sunset out on the balcony of the hotel. While we were enjoying the view, a very friendly sea gull made itself comfortable on the table in front of us. I had no idea birds would eat nuts.




La Jolla is also home to what must be one of the most beautiful retirement homes. I can only guess how expensive a room would be but the place was just amazing from our view on the outside. The buildings are on the edge of La Jolla on the beach. There is a big area across the street where seals gather and there are parks all along the coast. Absolutely amazing. Shown below is a view of the place from out on a little pier where you can watch the seals.

Del Mar

Here are some photos of our hotel, L'Auburge Del Mar and the surrounding areas. I don't think anyone actually works in this town since there is a constant sream of people either biking or running. It felt like we were in the middle of a triathalon while we were in Del Mar. Before 7AM on a Friday morning there must have been over 50 surfers already in the water.

There was a great little restaraunt on the corner next to the hotel that was excellent. Even though our waiter thought we were crazy for wanting to sit outside on a rather nippy morning, it was well worth it. The food was fantastic and the service was even better. Breakfast definately made up for a poor dinner. While the food was top notch at J. Taylor's the service was absolutely awful. It was nearly twenty mintues before we ever saw our waiter. I always hate spending a bunch of money on dinner and then just have crappy service. Even if the food is marginal I am much more likely to return to a restaraunt with great service, than one with amazing food and poor service. I just wish more places would figure this out.
Everytime we head out west we say how much we would love to live out there. If it weren't for the little things like having to spend $2.0 for a similar house we currently own, and the not having a job out there I would move out there tommorow. Well the lotto is up to $32 million so maybe I could get a 2,000 sq/ft house with a view.

To give you an idea of just how insane the real estate prices are in this little enclave imagine if you will a 1950 single story 3/3 beach front house on a lot that is 5075 sq. ft. The house is on the beachfront shown on the bottom photo. No doubt this is a beautiful location and a beautiful beach. How much would you say this house is worth? Do I hear $17 million? Well you you said $17,000,000.00 you would be $500,000.00 short of the asking price. Personally I would prefer the view from the nearby cliffs. If you are thinking that you need a bit more space to spread your wings fear not. Just down the beach there is a 10,700 sq. ft. 6/9.5 house on a 42k sq. ft. lot. Best of all if you put down $10 million at a 6% intrest rate your payments will be just under $240,000/month :-D If you are mathematicaly challenged that translates into an asking price of FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS. Ouch.