It's almost official!

There are three big things happening in life for us right now.  The first?  Our house!  Escrow is set to close tomorrow.  We have some work to do at the house before we move in.  It's in rather good condition, but it needs to be painted, cleaned, the garage set up to our liking, etc.  The home has been a rental property for a few years, and while move-in ready, there are some upgrades we will make over time.

Right now we are planning to move midway through October.  That gives us a month to perform the painting, then pack, and follow that with the move and unpacking.  I am planning to take some pictures before we move in, so we can share our progress here as we make our upgrades.  Here are some of our more long-term plans:

• Renovate the guest bathroom:  We will do this ourselves, adding tile, putting in a new tub, tiling the walls, and putting in a new pedestal sink to replace the older vanity.  This will be happening in December.
• Put down new hard-wood floors - no time set yet.
• Fully renovate the kitchen - this one will be pretty extensive, as we have several major changes we would like to make if possible.  We will be saving our pennies to hire a contractor and have the job done properly.  No time set yet, probably two years.
• Paint the outside of the house, replace the back screen door, and replace the front outside light.  Probably early next summer?
• Landscaping - this one requires almost an entire post of its own.  In the front, we will be adding trellises with jasmine, and some plantings in the front bed, as well as staining the retaining wall.  In the side, we will be added a gate and a pergola over the seating area, and installing Meow's fountain and custom catnip garden, and a kitchen herb garden.  We will be raising the bed and staining the concrete.  In the backyard, we are going to replace the existing wood retaining wall with stone, build a pergola over the existing patio, add a raised vegetable bed, put in a new walkway, and set up some nice plantings on top of the retaining wall.  Maybe add a small storage building if needed.  We will do this as we can, and put in a more defined timeline later.  

The second thing keeping us busy is Divemaster training.  We passed our exam, and are now in the midst of our qualifications for skills.  Then we have practicums and all the dives we need to complete.  I hope to have this complete by end of Q1 2014.  

The third thing, as always, is work and our professional commitments.  Things are busy, busy, busy at Amgen - for very good reasons.  And my new position is incredibly challenging and engaging.  I am a biologist working in engineering; quite the change.  It is really challenging my very rusty calculus skills.  I'm also hoping to finish up a paper with my post-doctoral lab, and I am serving another year as AWIS LA/VC chapter president.  Jay is really pushing himself with his writing, and while he is not pursuing it as heavily as he originally intended, he still has photography work he is handling.  Plus his required stay-at-home husband work...

We are still trying to make time for fun things.  We went to the LA County Fair in Pomona this weekend.  We walked through as many exhibits as we could, and really marveled at what beautiful things people can make.  It was fun to hold hands, watch the lights and the people screaming on the rides, and smell the fair.  We of course had funnel cake.  We also took a wine tasting class, on the joys of red wine blends.  It was a good weekend.  The next ones will not be quite so colorful, since we will be spending those painting and packing, but I am committed to enjoy the process and remind myself that everything takes its allotted time.