Positive Progress!

Today we actually accomplished some things and made progress on several projects. Both sets of parents were there early this morning to help us. Mike and our dads worked on the sprinkler system our front to replace all the irrigation valves and add shut off valves from the main water line. They managed to fix that up (although it started to drip as we left tonight).

We had a chance to talk to some of our neighbors about the work being done and what we had to fix. They said the previous owners were not out often and probably had no idea it was leaking. But somebody replaced tiles that were loosened by water. They all reassured us the HOA wasn't as strict as it seemed on paper and that we shouldn't have a problem getting approval for what we needed. They said the previous family was nice but after the husband died they didn't see them much outside. They seemed happy to have a young family move in and it seems everyone knows everyone. 

Mom and I worked on finishing up the kitchen while Anne played with Katherine outside. We were able to get all of the kitchen assembled and food in the refrigerator and pantry. The pantry is so big we don't know what to do with all the space! Not all of the cupboards are full but we are still missing a few boxes in the garage. Mike also got the entrance light up and working, Bob working more on the bar area leak and the hot water heater. although that will have to continue tomorrow. Anne also worked on clearing the junipers on the north side of the house where a fence will go.

Dad and I got a dozen new brass rainbird heads and replaced all of them throughout the backyard.We tried to reset the irrigation system timing and found that setting #1 is half the lawn and the front plants, #2 is the other half the lawn and #3 is the back lawn. The remaining settings #4-7 didn't make anything work. So we have to look at the wiring between the irrigation control panel and the backyard control valves. The back irrigation box can be run on "manual" to run the back sprinklers but the box fills up with water at a rate of about 0.5" a minute. Plus its a big wooden box that is decomposing so we have to replace it with a plastic christy box.

When we did run the back sprinklers, with new heads, on manual we had to go around and adjust the sprinkler heads. The rainbirds can go up to 360 degrees and some of them were set that way originally. Luckily it was a warm day so we didn't mind getting wet. Bree did have to run the "sprinkler gauntlet" up the stairs to make adjustments. The sprinklers across the top of the ivy can actually reach halfway across the patio. While crawling around the hill we found abandoned irrigation lines so we suspect that an old system was just abandoned. Mike found an old valve near the bottom of the stairs and when he turned it water spouted out of a nearby drain. That's a project for another day. We have one sprinkler head not behaving properly and one pipe that doesn't appear to work at all. That may be part of the old system; we will have to dig to find out.

The water heater still leaks so we have a hose running from it to the side of the house. Mike tried to quickly fix one of the garage door openers but despite fairly simple directions it wasn't working. We're going to try again another day. We know we have to replace one of them, we're hoping we don't have to replace more. As we were leaving Mike took a look at the irrigation valves to see how they were holding up after cycling them when we tried to fix the sprinkler timing. One valve was dripping ... we're hoping its just a bad valve. So we have to cut that apart tomorrow night after work and try to replace it.

We actually left "early" today around 5pm and got home in time to actually have dinner with the family. We are running out of things that can be done without the emptying the garage or ripping up the yard. We hope to get the baseboards Monday or Tuesday so we can paint them at night. Its back to work for us tomorrow but Bob will be by to continue working on the bar re-piping.