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We’ve turned 180 degrees to look west from the entrance - and there’s Joshua!  You can see the piano Papa gave Mom when she turned 21, and the mirror we put in the frame Mom Selby bought and stored in her garage forever…..  Beyond the closet are the doors to the kitchen (left) and garage (right) with the laundry room at the far end.
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East wall of living room from entry…can you tell we love books?  Thor’s wing chair (we’re perfectly happy storing it, sweet son!) and the (slip-covered - thanks, Loretta) living room furniture we bought in 1988 for the house we built at The Homestead.  Also a lovely gas fireplace that operates on a thermostat, thank you very much.
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We’ve moved across the room now - on the wall at left are three of my Grandfather Viktor’s B&W prints of California in the ‘30s and ‘40s.  The red/black blanket is the one we bought for the (night) train ride from the coast in Peru to Lake Titicaca at 12,000 feet elevation.
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We’re standing in front of the fireplace and looking more or less west - the entry is to the right.  This wall has a couple of “vintage” paintings that I got as a pre-teen, plus two from Papa and Nenek that Cairns painted in Penang.  The rest are paintings, lithographs and photographs done by people that we have known - even if for a short time.  You can also see Papa’s surgery chair - the one he used for decades in his Ukiah office for tonsillectomies and other minor surgeries, plus splinter removal, ophthamological procedures, etc.  And on the cedar chest (not visible) I gave Gail for her 21st birthday is the water buffalo that sat on Mom’s piano for so many years at Papa’s house. 

Notice also that you can see the wall we added after we moved in.  If you look at the granite counter with its pretty wooden supports, it’s a dead giveaway as to where the wall ended earlier!    That’s the kitchen back there, with the “dining room” to the left (which is south).
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Turning somewhat to the left, you can see the dining room table and cabinet - the table was Gail’s Mom’s and the cabinet is one that got abandoned in Uncle Dean’s Moving and Storage in St. Helena.  Aunt Jean used it for a few years and then gave it to us when she had her cabinetry built in.  A friend in Tennessee (thanks, Steve) who is a pretty serious “antiquer” looked at it and says that it was likely “home-made” from wood salvaged from packing crates and other such sources.  We love it.  The high chairs were bought at Southeast Salvage in Chattanooga after we saw similar ones in a catalog for $350. These were made in Indonesia from a model taken over there to the factory, and reimported in pieces to be sold for less than $100.00 each.  We’ll move up closer, now:
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Much the same, but the dining chair on the left is one of two that I still have from Papa and Nenek’s house on Standley Street in Ukiah - they had a number of them, all covered in a funny brown (early form of) naugahyde back in the ‘50s.  You can also see a new piece of furniture on the left - we got it at Cost Plus World Market right here in Chico.  The door leads to the western bedrooms and bath, plus a lovely linen closet.
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We’re looking north - the front door is to the right down the hall that you can see under the clock - you’d pass the piano to get there.  That door is to the garage, and to the left is the laundry room.  Here you can see the utensil rack and the pottery canisters that we got for our wedding - Gail will remember who gave each of them to us.  Also the spice rack that was (I think) the first object that I made for her….in Fort Collins while I was in graduate school, using turnings and dowel from Tolliver’s Hardware Store.  Apparently gone now (see Steve’s comment on Dec. 1, 2010).....

Grandmom’s gifts of Danish Christmas plates are over the door of our wonderful pantry.  There is more stuff on top of the cabinets, but you can’t really see them….....who was that cheering?  Shame on you!
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Now we’re looking at the new wall, with the matching cabinet made and hung by the cabinetmaker who did the original work.  They put in a second electrical outlet on that wall, as well.  Very nice, now.
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We’re looking west now, at the gas range - the grids are flat and continuous across all four burners, so it’s perfect for canning.
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Pantry door - beside which you see a bit of “bean art” that I think was made by one of the kids in grade school.  Next, we look inside:
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VERY efficient, with half-shelves, baskets, drawer sets, etc.  We can live a month on this, I think.  On the lower right is Nenek’s (1950 model) Kitchenaid mixer….which once required a new cord, but that’s been it…still working perfectly.
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Here’s the only part of my office Gail wants me to show you….I’m sorting boxes of books from the garage because she won’t let me put in any new bookshelves.  We have to rid ourselves of LOTS of books…which is most likely a good thing, even if a bit painful.  It’s taking longer than either of us likes, but I’m making progress.  I have photos and pictures on all four walls, and still use Papa’s elephant leg wastebasket, the 5-gallon water bottle penny collector, bird paintings and drawings by Glen Wahlman, Uncle Don’s Highway 50 sign, etc.  Fun place for sightseeing!!
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Here’s your guestroom, should you favor us with a visit.  Maitland’s painting on the far wall, Gail’s childhood maple bedstead, one of Papa’s old chairs, and one of Mom Selby’s bathroom mirrors.  Above the chair is Grandaddy Joe’s marriage certificate, believe it or not!!
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Guest bathroom, with wedding photographs and memorabilia.  Nice tile counter and floor; shower/bath to the left.  The window faces west, and looks out on our neighbor’s house and backyard - thus the translucent glass.
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We’ve left the western bedroom “wing”, headed north through the kitchen and then turned west to the laundry room - isn’t it GREAT?!  Our house in Bend didn’t have a laundry sink, and we’re VERY glad to have one, again…..  You can see the “South American bag” hanger on the right…lots of different styles and materials.
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Now we’ve moved over to the northeast corner of the house and Gail’s office.  Colorful South American textiles on two walls, homemade desk, lamp that Mom got us in Mendocino, and Victor’s futon.  Plus the wastebasket - which we bought the second year we were married and used upside-down as a stool in our “single-car-garage-sized” apartment in Angwin. 
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This is the “powder room” bath….again, beautiful tile throughout.  And lots of S. American memorabilia plus a lovely saints set that Cindy gave us once upon a time…...
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This is the master bedroom, with (against the east wall) our Eastlake Victorian bedstead we bought the year we got back from Bolivia and have slept in ever since - if you look carefully, you can see that I’ve modified it to take a king-sized mattress, which would probably bemuse the maker!  On the far wall are Papa’s British Medical and Surgical licenses, that made him legal when he went out to Penang in 1921 or so…plus I’m using Papa’s medicine cabinet for my bedside table.  This is a lovely room - out of sight are my Grandmom’s secretary and an ancient rocking chair from Gail’s family, both to the right.  Finally:
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the Master Bath.  Windows are south and east above the whirlpool tub.  The wonderful tile double-shower (door) can be seen in the mirror behind the orchid.  Also the enormous cabinet - this house has oodles of storage.

And that’s that…I’m not allowed to show the garage, yet - have to clear the books, sell what we can and donate the rest.  Then get the gardening stuff put away, and generally have it ready for the car.  This will occur during 2012, for sure! 

Hope you’ve enjoyed the online tour—now come and stay a day or more with us.

Next day, I was back at FoodMaxx to pick up bananas or something, and there was the same display of peppers beside the entrance….only this time, the price was FIVE peppers for one dollar…..

What’s a guy to do?  I got a plastic bag and picked out five of the biggest and freshest peppers I could find, figuring that I could chop and freeze them, at the worst.  Actually, I’m going to go online and see if I can find a recipe for soup made of red peppers….

Anyhow, when I saw the produce guy, I asked him about the pricing, and he said they had four bins of peppers in back, and would continue to drop the price until they sold them all.  I asked him if there were still peppers on Sunday would FoodMaxx pay me to take them away, and he smiled…..

So, when I got home, I put the five peppers alongside the four peppers from the day before, and here’s the photo of the nine peppers:
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That’s not an illusion—they really ARE that large.  In fact, the four peppers weighed about 1 pound…..while the five peppers weigh about 3.25 pounds!!

I’ve used two of them making spicy garlic eggplant (thanks to Candy and Victor for the eggplant), and I’m posting our favorite of the two recipes below.  Gail is going to stuff and bake the remaining three giant peppers…..and this afternoon, Ben and Brenna brought us a couple of cups of chopped green and red peppers that were left over from a taco bar at their house!!

We’re inundated with peppers at the moment - not a bad place to be!  Herewith, the recipe:
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Spicy Eggplant – modified from Yan Can Cook http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/spicy-eggplant-recipe2/index.html 
I like more sauce, so what’s here is double the original amount - just right.

Ingredients

Sauce:    
¼ cup chicken broth
2 Tbs hoisin sauce
2 Tbs Low sodium soy sauce
1 Tbs + 1 tsp rice vinegar
2 tsp dark brown sugar
¼ Cup plum sauce
2 tsp chili garlic sauce (more if you like a kick)
½ tsp ground black pepper

4 Chinese eggplants (about 1 pound), stems removed
Vegetable oil (I use toasted sesame)
1 Tbs minced garlic
2 Tbs minced ginger
2-4 green onions, cut into 2-inch lengths
¼ #  chicken apple sausage, chopped small (optional)
1-2 Cups thinly sliced red, green, orange peppers
½ Cup chopped cilantro leaves and/or sliced green onions
1 tsp corn starch stirred into 2Tbs water

Directions

Sauce: Combine sauce ingredients in a small bowl; mix well.

With a vegetable peeler, remove 1-inch strips of the eggplant skin, leaving a 1-inch strip of skin in between. Cut the eggplant into fourths lengthwise, then cut each section crosswise into 3-inch pieces.

Place wok (or pan) over high heat until hot. Add 1 tablespoon oil and swirl to coat the sides. Add the garlic, ginger, dried chiles and green onion; cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Add a bit of oil, then ground meat and cook, breaking up pieces with back of a spoon, until brown and crumbly.

Add oil if needed, then eggplant and sauté five minutes, stirring. 

Add sauce - simmer 12 min.

Add sliced peppers, simmer another 3 minutes. 

Stir cornstarch mixture, pour into pot, stir and heat until thickened. 

Stir in chopped cilantro and/or green onions.

Serve.

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Every room was stuffed with boxed…..our offices almost unusable!
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We kept the kitchen clear, but we had to eat at the raised deck because the dining room was solid boxes.
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We couldn’t hook up the washer and dryer because the plumbing needed work…that’s in, now.
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The major “sanctuary” in the house was the Master Bedroom, although even here the boxes lined one wall….
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and this photo doesn’t make it look much different than the rest of the house…..but it was.

More recently, we’ve had the sheetrock guys in to extend our wall in the kitchen, and the cabinet has been ordered for next week.  This is how it looked from the living room…..
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And they were still working in the kitchen
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Today the texture guy was in, and he made REAL changes!
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This was up to prevent the sprayer from texturing the furniture, the floor, and everything else in the room.  In the kitchen, he was taping up protection
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Pretty quick, we’ll have the paint on that wall…..and the cabinet man (you talk to the owner himself at Armstrong Cabinets in Chico) says he’ll be hanging our new cabinet (matching the old one already up there) next week.

Things are coming together!

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Back in January when we started looking, this house was well above our price limit and we didn’t even look at it.  In the last three to four months, it’s come down by about 15% and our offer is for about 80% of what they were asking in January.  But, we’re offering about $150/foot, which is a fair price in this market….so we’ll see.

Turning around and looking out from the front door, the view is lovely…and it will not change (unless some trees die), since we’re looking at the Blue Oak Preserve.  No houses over there, at any rate.
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Stepping in through the front door, we see a bright, open, and high-ceilinged space.  The back of the house is oriented to the south and a little bit east, so we’ll be getting sunshine all winter long.  Notice the breakfast area in the background - it will be our dining room - and the granite “shelf” that marks the edge of the kitchen.
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Just to the left is the Master Suite and a front bedroom and bath.  We’ll look at that, later.

To the right we see what will be Gail’s “piano room”, as well as a hall down to the laundry room. 
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Just look out the front window!  We’ll have a nice comfy chair in here so we can sit and meditate on the view of trees and sky!
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You can see that dying oak tree I mentioned earlier….but more pleasantly, our lovely front patio, as well.  In summer, this will be a nice spot, since it’s on the north, and is protected from the western sun by our garage, and the two-story house next door.

Back inside, we look down the hall to the laundry room, with the door to the garage on the right, and the arch leading to the kitchen on the left.
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It’s a WONDERFUL laundry room, with loads of storage cupboards AND a laundry sink! 
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Back in the hall, we look south into the kitchen and the dining area beyond.
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If we walk forward and look to the left, we see the fireplace/heater (gas, not wood) and the living area.
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Looking back to the north, we see the relation of the kitchen to the front door and the door to the garage.
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Here’s the oven/refrigerator space/range on the west wall
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and here’s the other side, including the WONDERFUL pantry!  If we get this house, we’ll extend the wall on straight ahead to make a space for a second wall cabinet, and block the view of the kitchen sink from the front door.  I’ll have to move the light fixture, but that shouldn’t be a big problem—shifting the ceiling insulation will be a pain, but otherwise no trouble.
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Turning around in this spot, we see the hall with the bathroom straight ahead, and bedrooms to the left and right.
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Bedrooms and bath on this side are pretty standard - on the right will be our dedicated guest room, with a nice window that has a view of our neighbor directly to the west, but a wonderful sky to the south.
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The south bedroom to the left will be my office, and here’s MY view
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It looks a bit like the seal on the double-paned window has been lost.  And those ARE vacant lots that could get built on….but my estimate of house position would leave my view down the street intact, and we can actually see the house that Laura and Leslie are renting down there on the right.

Back in the living room, we can see the front door - and to the right is the hall leading to the other two bedrooms
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The front bedroom will be Gail’s office, where we’ll also keep the TV and a futon for those times when we have excess guests.
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and since this room is on the north, it has “the view”
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Here’s the generic bathroom - although it’s got wonderful tile surfaces.  The other one is very similar.
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FINALLY….the master bedroom!
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Looking back, you see the nice big closet
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Here’s the Master Bath
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It’s really quite beautiful.  As you exit the Bath, there’s a door to the back patio, too. 

And here’s the back yard
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Since the back yard is on the south, I’m dreaming of ESPALIERED PEACH TREES and grape vines on those walls.  There’s space back here for a blueberry bush or two, some mini-dwarf apples in a hedge…maybe a fig tree (planted in a drum buried in the soil to limit the tree’s size).

Finally, here’s the lovely garage - with space for my little chest freezer, plus shelves, cabinets, and a workbench - even for the CAR on one side!
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And that’s the house at 1941 Preservation Oak Drive.
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This may be the house the Lord has in mind for us—say a prayer that if it is, things move quickly.  We’re REALLY anxious to get down here, and live near our lovely grandgirls
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However, I was grabbed by the ELLE MAGAZINE REVIEW from which they pulled a quote for a large poster in the lobby of the theater.  Here’s a selection :

Fukunaga is a cinematographer turned director, and the thoughtful way he cuts back and forth in time keeps the story moving even while augmenting it and further piquing our curiosity. But what emerges most vividly is Jane herself. It’s her story, after all, but on-screen she has seldom been allowed to fully claim it—her sympathetic goody-two-shoes character overshadowed by that dubious object of desire, the far more vivid Rochester, smoldering away on the battlements….instead of a satanically tormented hero, we see a flawed, unhappy man trapped by a life-blighting circumstance.

That’s what Brontë saw too. It being the Victorian era, she had to sign her novel with a man’s name, Currer Bell, but she was a bold spirit nonetheless, and for all her demure exterior, so is Wasikowska’s Jane. Wasikowska (21 years old)… ...owns this part—it’s her Jane, and Brontë’s as well. For starters, she’s reserved rather than meek, and she speaks her mind as needed. She also solves the problem of the heroine’s famous lack of beauty, which defies Victorian and movie conventions alike. With Wasikowska seemingly devoid of makeup, cinematographer Adriano Goldman’s camera finds the plain-yet-luminous features that make her the beacon of light and moral courage that Rochester craves. Better yet, she perfectly dispenses the soft-spoken but mischievous wit that makes Jane someone we want to know as much as he does….

Like the original, his Jane Eyre is a love story, as fiercely intelligent as it is passionate. He uncovers what the bodice rippers miss: that these lovers are equals and, as such, equally deeply felt aspects of their creator.

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I think this review gets it just about right - I read the book long (LONG) ago, and I’ve seen at least one of the earlier movies, but I hadn’t cared much for Jane Eyre, and I didn’t really remember the story too clearly (except for the crazy lady in the attic!).  It didn’t matter - this version gives us all the important dialogue, and it’s got the important aspects of the story as Bronte wrote it - rather than being “translated” into something that someone thinks will appeal more to the audience than the original.  I walked out of the theater marveling that a young woman, writing from an ISOLATED PARSONAGE in the Yorkshire Dales, could have such insight into the human condition. 

This movie is magnificent (my opinion, of course—yours may differ!)  As a BLOG AT MOVIFONE.COM put it:

What’s really remarkable, however, is how decidedly modern it feels, regardless of its period dress and Victorian set pieces. It’s the anti-period piece, period piece—but not through modernization. It seems timeless and modern because, ironically, of its commitment to the novel’s subtleties. Fukunaga is not mesmerized by some suffocating adoration of tight corsets, so the meat of the work is what’s on display—the feminist strength, the chilling undercurrents.

And though it’s all wrapped in a period package, it hits so distinctly on human truths, and evokes such modern concerns, that it’s a film that transcends its genre. It’s an evocation of the text, rather than a visual summary. Our Todd Gilchrist wrote: “in Cary Fukunaga’s interpretation of the Charlotte Bronte classic, you can almost see the text exploding with energy as the actors bring it to life—which is why even audiences disinclined to embrace period pictures or laborious literary adaptations will find themselves enchanted, even perhaps swooning in ‘Jane Eyre.‘“

So…..even if you couldn’t stand your high school English class when they made you read this story, or you groaned and rolled your eyes through that movie with Rochester pacing about the set “smoldering”....GO SEE THIS MOVIE!

We’re looking north, here.  The back gate is open, and when it’s raining (this is perhaps 72 hours after the storm had passed), water from the pool flows over the sidewalk, is dammed up by the foundation wall for the fence, and so proceeds through the gate and onto the property. 
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Water levels here are considerably lower than during the actual rainstorm, when the pool on the patio lapped against the house within an inch or so of crossing the threshold of the back door!  From the patio, the water exits left along the side of the house:
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It’s dammed up by the fence at the far end of this photo, and the pool is augmented by water flowing off the roof through the downspouts.  On the other side of the fence:
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is the electrical panel up on the wall.  You should have seen the home inspector’s face when he saw this - we built up the blocks and plank for him, but he wasn’t terribly happy poking around in that panel while balancing on the blocks!  I don’t know WHAT the meter reader thinks!

Now we’ll go out on the street and take a look at the situation from there:
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We’re looking north, here - and 1938 is the second (farthest) house on the right.  ALL of the water flowing across the street, as well as on both sides of the street, is exiting 1938 Preservation Oak.  Remember that this is three or four days after the rain stopped, and runoff from the other properties stopped after the first or second day.  The flow you see continued for at least two or three more days, gradually decreasing…but even after that period, there was slow flow down the right-hand side of the street.  This flow is damaging the verges and gradually undermining the blacktop.  What makes this more serious is that the street is private - owned by the seven lots that line it.  If the City doesn’t solve the drainage problem, they’re going to be asked to repair the street…so it would behoove them to get busy.  This is closer to the front of our house:
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and you can see clearly the water on both sides of the street, plus where it flows from the south and north sides of 1938.  There’s a significant amount of erosion going on:
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as this is occurring each time it rains.  There’s actually more water flowing down the north side of the house
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but it doesn’t have as much stuff to wash out into the street.  Next we’ll return to the back of the house and look at the source of all this runoff.
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This time, look past the pools in front and see the little group of trees to the right of the photo.  Beneath those trees you can see more water, as well as some large boulders - so we’re going to go up the sidewalk to the corner where those boulders are
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The sidewalk you see is around the corner from the part we saw in the previous photograph, and it forms the edge for three pools, which merge into one when it’s raining and the water level rises above the sidewalks.  If you look carefully into the second pool, there is a pair of ducks swimming there
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We laughed at this, but it really isn’t funny.  Now we’ve backed off a bit, and can see both sides of the sidewalk
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I don’t know if the pools we looked at up here ever flow across the walk on the surface, but there is no question that the water is flowing through the soil itself (it’s a very porous volcanic soil lying on top of a lava layer that prevents water from soaking down into the water table), and you can see the result on the surface in this photograph….but the real problem is revealed farther down the hill
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The fence to the left is on the north property line of 1938 Preservation Oak, and it is here that the water from the ponds higher up the hill is emerging.  Most of the flow bubbles up inside the fence
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and from there down the side of the house
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where it is joined by water from the downspouts and flows into the street, as seen earlier. 

The City made a big mistake when (perhaps on purpose) they created a pond on the Oak Preserve
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in which runoff from the Preserve, as well as runoff from the surrounding streets, is collected.  If it was purposeful, they must have intended that this water would gradually seep into the ground, since there is no outlet other than down the hill onto private property.  In fact, the problem for the houses below could have been (and still could be) substantially alleviated by digging a drainage ditch along the sidewalk seen near the top of the photograph, thus diverting the water out to the right and into the canal that flows by the property.

I suspect that even were this project completed, water from the Preserve directly behind the house we’re interested in would still put excess flow onto our patio.  So, we’re working with a landscape contractor, and I envision a collecting box buried under the back gate, with a grill over it to collect water here
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and send it through an underground culvert down the south side of the house, where it would pick up water from the downspouts and carry it to the street…UNLESS the City will give us permission to run our culvert across the street and into the diversion canal.  In that case, the pipe would run across the yard to the north fence
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In this photo, you can see that the first part of the fence to the north has a foundation wall beneath it, which blocks water flow.  To the left of that section of fence is the “spring” of water bubbling up, and that is where a second collection tank would be placed, to collect the water from beyond the fence, add the water from under the eastern gate, and also water from the roof flowing through the downspouts.  It would (I hope) be conducted in an underground culvert to the east bank of the canal where it would be added to the storm-water runoff from the rest of the subdivision.  If that is not allowed, the culvert would end on our street, and runoff conditions would be as they currently stand, with a risk of the City’s liability for damage to the street.

So, that’s where we are—next week, we’ll talk to the contractor and get his bid for fixing the problem on the property.  With that in hand, we’ll approach the bank and make a lower bid for the house.  Then we’ll wait for their response.

Say a prayer - if this is the house for us, everything should work out within a week or so.

Next, the ORANGE-SAGE SWEET POTATOES (with Bacon).
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These are also wonderful….GREAT combination of flavors.  Changes to the recipe, which is at the link, were minor—mainly, I cut only two pounds of potatoes (half of the four pounds called for) and then used the full amount of sauce.  I recommend you do this, too…..it’s REALLY nice.  I haven’t tried it with the crumbled bacon yet, but I have 8 ounces of uncured beef bacon in the refrigerator, and I can’t imagine it will be anything but delicious.  Gail wants me to warn you that this is not suitable for a main dish - it’s intense.  Definitely a side dish.  Wonderful, I assure you.
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Now for dessert…..YUM.  It’s PUMPKIN BREAD PUDDING, and you’re seeing a small portion of the complete pudding because I sent part home with Laura, and EVERYONE (including Alana - who kept opening her mouth and saying Yum until her Mommy stopped feeding her!) was piecing on what was left…..
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I actually did make some changes in the recipe…..I don’t know what happened to our golden raisins, but I substituted a mixture of raisins, craisins, and sour cherries.  I also had no pumpkin pie spice, so substituted 1/4 tsp cloves, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp ginger, and an a total of 2 tsp cinnamon.  It’s wonderful, spice-wise.  Fred Meyer didn’t have challah bread, so I asked the baker and she recommended another egg bread - a sweet dinner roll.  It’s just fine, but I really wonder what it would be like with a good sourdough, and that’s what I’ll try next time.  I also didn’t have any commercial canned pumpkin, so I used some of the Acorn Squash pulp I froze last fall…..it’s a little more watery, so my liquids were off.  Next time, if I use the frozen squash, I’ll cut a half cup out of the 2 cups of 1/2 & 1/2 the recipe calls for. 
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Don’t get me wrong - we all LOVED this pudding….and after reading what went into the Caramel Sauce, I didn’t even make that, so we were eating the pudding plain - it’s really delicious.  Next, I’ll try heating it up and then pouring a little 1/2 & 1/2 over it!  Mmmmmmmmmm.

Besides, look again at that garage wall - it faces south, and there’s a cutout in the driveway at the base, so I’m going to plant grapes there and espalier them all over the wall!  In two or three years, assuming there’s sufficient actual soil in that “planter”, the wall will be covered in lovely cool greenery, and we’ll be picking big beautiful seedless grapes every fall!

Furthermore, it’s got almost everything on our list and more besides….all hard surface floors with NO wall-to-wall carpet anywhere; no lawn to mow, but enough space to grow a few things; three bedrooms and two baths (plus a half); room for the grand piano as well as the dining room table and some living room furniture; south windows in the living area so we have cheery light in the wintertime; storage space (even though it’s in odd places); a garage big enough for the car, the tools and cupboards, the freezer, AND the shelves for canned goods; a tile roof we won’t have to replace or worry about; stucco to keep us cool in summer, etc. etc..

There ARE some downsides - we want to paint it inside and out…although both can wait a bit; we don’t like the kitchen sink - a lovely porcelain two-basin model that many people would swoon for, but we prefer single basin stainless; the kitchen counter surfaces are lovely stone (or porcelain “stone”), but rather dark…we’ll live with them a while and then see; there isn’t much view on the sides of the houses - neighbors are close, although screened with a high fence.  I’ll get some photos to illustrate this next week.  For now, let’s take a tour!
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This gives you an idea of the setting in front…that’s the canal lateral on the left, there are three more lots beyond “our” house on the end, and three more houses on this side.
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Closer up, you can see that the neighbor has planted three trees to screen his driveway so he doesn’t have to look at our place when he comes home at night!  Plus you can see the mud stains on the street from the outflow off our property.  The window is into the dining room, which also has a south window.  It’s the coziest room in the house, and will become a sitting room/playroom/study for Gail when we move in.  We’ll arrange something on the “driveway”, so that it can be a patio when we wish—and string up some kind of shade, so the Chico summers don’t cook us through that west-facing window.  The view out of the house to the front is glorious, though—LOTS of sky and openness.  I’ll get a photo to update you once we’re down there with Laura’s move. 

The subdivision CC&Rs say that no structure is to be closer than 30 feet from the street, so I’ve got to check with the City next week—it certainly looks to me as if the garage is encroaching (just a bit!) on that 30 feet, so I want to be assured they won’t come and ask us to demolish it!  Heh.  Let’s go in the house:
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In this view to the east, there is a hall to the left that takes you past a closet and a 1/2 bath to the laundry room and garage access, plus two bedrooms - we’ll see all that, later.  On the right as you go in is the “dining room”, and straight ahead you can see through the living room, which has the kitchen and breakfast area (our dining room) to the right (which is south - see the sunshine pouring in?).  Clear at the back against the east-facing windows we’ll eventually go left to the master suite, and right to the back door and out onto the rear patio.
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Here we have stepped past the dining room and the hall and are looking at the “breakfast bar”, the kitchen and the dining room.  Out the window you can see then fence that shields us from our neighbor’s windows, and through the arch on the far wall is the closet by the back door.  At least part of that is going to be shelves for pantry.
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Here you see the breakfast bar on the right and the living room to the left.  The piano will go in the space immediately left, and there will be a furniture grouping around the fireplace - it’s gas-fired and acts as a heater as well as a visual treat. 
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From the fireplace we see the dining room, the back closet and just the barest slice of the trim around the back door, plus the three glorious windows to the back patio and the Blue Oak Preserve.  This floor is throughout the house, by the way—it’s all PERGO which has come a LONG way since the first laminate went on sale.  Our area rugs are going to look GREAT here.
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Now we’re looking back toward the front of the house - the front door is open and you can see the shine on the floor on the far right - from the dining room through the kitchen and into what will be our “sitting room”. 
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This is the range (the pan-supporting pieces cover the entire surface - pots can’t fall off between burners, which is wonderful for canning) and the refrigerator slot, plus the breakfast bar.  The cupboards have very few drawers, which we bemoan, but I can install pull-out shelves in these base cupboards without much trouble It’s going to be fine.
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On the other side, the ovens, sink, and five lonely drawers, plus the south window.  Truly it’s rather nice…...  To the right you can see the warm afternoon light coming in from the sitting room….
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...which we see here from the arch that leads to the hall and the living room.  We’ll be switching light fixtures with the breakfast area, as it will be our dining room.  The south window is on the left, and west window on the right - the view to the west gives you an idea, but can’t show the enormity of the sky…especially growing up in Ukiah, the “Big Sky” effect of Chico looking west is something I just never experienced.  This room is SO cozy, even in February!
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We’re looking into the house from the front door again…..this time, we’re going to go all the way to the far end of the house and turn left, heading for the Master Suite:
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You can see another closet, backing up the fireplace, and the door to the Master, of which I have NO decent photograph:
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This one will have to do—at least it shows the three beautiful east windows.  Also the higher-than-8-foot ceiling that much of the house has….and the fan that will keep us comfortable in the summer.
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This is the view back toward the entrance, which is in the far left corner.  The closet is nice, although I will modify it considerably:
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and the bathroom is impossible to photograph!  Here’s the left side going in….double sinks with the near one so close to the door, it would be lethal if you were brushing your teeth and someone came in without knocking.  We’ll probably have the door reversed so it swings OUT - that will improve things considerably.
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Opposite the sinks we find:
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a genuine Jacuzzi whirlpool tub!  Wheeeee!

Actually, we had an enormous whirlpool tub for 16 years at 3 College Avenue, and then a reasonably nice one in Tennessee for five years, and we found we didn’t use them a whole lot.  Had we been planning this bath, we’d have done things differently and likely without the Jacuzzi…..but we’ll see how it goes.

Not shown are the toilet (aren’t you disappointed?) and the shower….they’re at the far end of the bathroom, and impossible to photograph properly with the equipment at hand, although we tried!  The shower is particularly nice - lovely tile that looks like stone, and the shower head is in and around a corner so that it looks as though no shower curtain will be required.  More light is definitely needed in there, so we’ll start with brighter bulbs and see if that takes care of it.  I’m hoping.

Leaving the Master Suite, we see the back door on the other side of the house:
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...as well as the closet/pantry alongside.  The back of the house from the walking path looks like this:
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You can see the door we just came out, and the Master Suite over there on the right.  In addition to the three east windows, the Suite also has a single south window opening onto the covered part of the patio.

We’re rather excited about the “popup” with windows up there on the roof.  The hope is that we might be able to put windows into the living room ceiling that would bring light in from these…we’ll see.  I have to crawl around in that attic, I’m afraid!

Something else that is less exciting is also visible here—note the drifts of mulch washed up onto the patio near the house…..  Just in front of the pillars is one of those “swimming pool” drains that runs from one side of the patio to the other, with a plastic strainer covering it - the water is intended to run into the flower bed to the left, where there’s a plastic drain pipe emerging from the ground.  However, the opening is surrounded by the signs of a pool of water, so I’m suspicious that it’s not currently draining anything.

Looking down the “alley” running down the south side of the house
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It’s got LOADS of mulch, which may have been spread, or brought by the water….can’t tell.  But, you can see the downspout from the roof spilling right into this space…..  The really ugly thing is on the far side of the fence at the far end…..
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The light stuff in the middle is the dried mat of algae, and the board is for the meter-readers, I’m pretty sure—- both the gas and the electrical panel are right here.  This doesn’t look good.  On the other hand, this space is directly connected to the little “stream” that carries water along the south property line to the street.  If the City can keep the Preserve run-off from running-off through our lot, I think our problem is solvable.

The NORTH alley, on the other hand….
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had a pool part way along it—this after a week or 10 days without rain!  This needs investigation, as well.  Where is it coming from?  How can we collect and dump it?  Where is a permissible place to direct it?  There is a three-foot right of way for utilities between our lot and the one to the north - on the other side of this fence.  Maybe they’ll run the drain from the Preserve down this corridor and we can dump our extra water into the same drain….we’ll see.  Now, back to the patio and the view from the back door….
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Isn’t that nice?  The morning sun will come up over the Blue Oaks every morning.  Those are nice mature rose bushes on the right, while to the left….
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is the gardening area!  From what I can deduce of how the sunlight will affect this spot in the summer, I’m guessing this will be a great place for herbs and maybe some leaf crops and a few roots.  Experience will teach us, but the major garden is going to be over on brother Dan’s place, anyhow.  More about that once we’ve moved. 

I do beg that you will notice that there is NO LAWN at this house!!  Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!  Free at last, and all that!  Here’s the view out our gate:
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This is going to be really beautiful in springtime…...  Looking north, we see
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the pool from which water flows onto our lot and who knows where from there!  Also another really nice scene of oak woodland.  It’s wonderful to have this right behind the house…...

Now let’s go back to the front door and look in again -
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Do you see the vertical space behind the fan?  It connects the higher living room ceiling to the lower ceiling on the back ‘hall”.  THAT is where we might be able to put a “window” that would bring light in from the roof pop-up we saw from the back gate. 

Next, let’s take a look down the hall to the bedroom wing…...
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Note the double-doored closet on the left…right opposite that is the powder-room 1/2-bath.  Straight ahead is Bedroom #1 and to its left is the door to the laundry room and the garage.  There’s a hall to the right back there that leads to Bedroom #2. 

On the right of this picture is a strangely-placed set of adjustable shelves - they’re right there in what is kind of a “hall”, opposite the arch to the dining/sitting room, before you are genuinely “in” the living room.  The shelves are narrow - might fit paperback books, cassette tapes, and maybe CDs or DVDs…..but why would it be HERE?  I figured we could the space for display of art pieces or family photos, but it really doesn’t seem like a great place for such things.  Anyhow, Gail had a brainstorm - we’ll have someone with the requisite skills make us doors from the same beadboard that is on the kitchen cabinets, and then we’ll use the space as a pantry!  Heh.
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This is the powder-room - more “stone” around the sink, and you can see the nice linen cabinet in the mirror.  Turning right into the hall, we see
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the doors to BR #1 on the right and to the laundry room on the left:
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Pretty standard….although no sink, which is not good news.  On the other hand, our current (rental) house doesn’t have one, either.  I’d love to have a sink in the garage, but suspect that it would be quite expensive….we’ll see.  At 3 College Avenue, we had sinks in BOTH the garage and the laundry room—but that’s the advantage of designing and building the house yourself! 
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The guest bath is really nice…in fact, whoever picked the fixtures and tile, etc. did a good job.  And finally, bowing out with a whimper rather than a bang - the guest Bedroom (#2)
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Also fairly standard construction, although those baseboards are much better than the cheap-o stuff in a tract house…and they’re in every single room.

Remember that this may all be moot….issues could come up that we don’t want to deal with.  But, they would have to be major.  The house suits us in so many ways….it really does look like an answer to prayer. 

I’ll take a few more photos when we’re down there next week and update this post with both pictures and a report on the inspections, the chat with the people at City Hall, etc.

Ingredients

•   Nonstick cooking spray
• 4 cups cooked rice
• 1 12-ounce can evaporated milk
• 1 cup milk
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 - 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup raisins, dried cranberries, and/or dried cherries
• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 tablespoon vanilla or vanilla bean paste
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
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Directions

1. Lightly coat the inside of a 3 1/2- or 4-quart slow cooker with cooking spray; set aside.
2. Break eggs into a large bowl and whip a bit. 
3. Add evaporated milk, regular milk, sugar, and water and stir.
4. Add the rice, the raisins and craisins and cherries, the melted butter, the vanilla and cinnamon. Stir. 
5. Transfer mixture to the prepared cooker.
6. Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 3-4 hours. 

And a BONUS:
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Earl’s Easy Apple Dumplings

Prep Time 10 Minutes     Cook Time 40 Minutes
Servings 6                 Difficulty Easy

Ingredients

• 2 whole Granny Smith Apples (other varieties possible - try Rome, or Cox’s Orange Pippin if you can find them.)
• 1 can (16 Oz.) Refrigerated Biscuit Dough
• ½  stick Butter
• 6 Tbs (1/4 cup + 2 Tbs) Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• Cinnamon, To Taste
• 8 oz. apple juice mixed with 4 oz. maple syrup (some folks like to use a can of Mountain Dew instead – I’ve never tried that)

Preparation Instructions

Peel and core apples. Cut each apple into 8 slices each.
Put two slices together top to bottom, and roll them in the dough for one biscuit. 
Place wrapped apples in a 9 x 13 buttered pan.
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Melt the butter, then add sugar and barely stir.    
Add vanilla, stir, and spoon some onto the top of each dumpling.  Use it all.
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Now pour the juice/syrup mixture around the edges of the pan.        
Sprinkle with cinnamon and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.
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Serve with cream or ½ and ½ ; spoon some of the sweet sauces from the pan over the top.
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WARNING: Prepare this dish at your own risk.  It is very hard to stop eating once you start, especially with ice cream.
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The darkness you see on the dumplings isn’t because they’re burnt - that’s the cinnamon and a bit of nutmeg I sprinkled on them.

Yum.