After waking up late (and having to recover from the previous evening's festivities), Rodney and Arlyn spent the day at home, painting and playing Wraith of the Lich King Classic.

Jim Smith was nice enough to bring over and let me borrow his ladder. My ladders were no where high enough to reach the high places on the landing. And yes...I am wearing flip-flops.

With about half of the landing painted, work on the guest room began. The following images were taken on January 3, 2024 when the carpet was removed.

The following was purchased for this room.

These images were taken on February 5, 2024. About one month after the carpet was removed.

Vine and Jim, Arlyn and I attended the Crest Theater to watch the tribute band Steelin' Dan perform.

It is time to tackle the landing.

When we moved into the house in 2011, the landing became our computer center. It had not been changed since then. These images are from the past and illustrate the time and effort involved.

Arlyn and I spent three days, disassembling all the desks and equipment on the landing, preparing for the upcoming paint job.

Where did all the desks and computer equipment go? It was completely moved into one of the guest rooms (namely Amber's old room). From there, the server, equipment, chairs and various other tech devices were set up. This room was selected as the backup computer room because there is an Ethernet drop in that room.

Painting on the landing has been completed. It cleaned up very nicely.

The following was purchased for this room.

On Monday night, March 4, 2024, Arlyn and Rodney boarded an EVA Airlines jet bound for Taipei, Taiwan. At Taipei, they continued their journey to Cebu City.

Itinerary
Airline: EVA Air
Flight: EVA BR17
Departs: San Francisco (SFO) Terminal I at 11:30 PM on Monday 3/4/2024
Arrives: Taiwan Taoyuan International (TPE) Terminal 2 at 05:35 AM on Wednesday 3/6/2024
14h 05m flight duration

Layover: 2h 45m at Taiwan Taoyuan International (TPE)

Flight: EVA BR281
Departs: Taiwan Taoyuan International (TPE) Terminal 2 at 8:20 AM on Wednesday 3/6/2024
Arrives: Cebu International (CEB) Terminal 2 at 11:15 AM on Friday 3/6/2024
2h 55m flight duration

Flight was booked directly on the EVA Air website on 11/3/2023 for $993.40/person.

They spent one night at the newly opened Fairfield by Marriott Cebu Mandaue City.

The next morning, they continued on to Tacloban.

Itinerary
Airline: Philippine Airlines
Flight: PR2234
Departs: Cebu (CEB) Terminal 1 at 11:10 AM on Thursday 3/7/2024
Arrives: Tacloban (TAC) at 12:05 PM on Thursday 3/7/2024
55m flight duration

Flight was booked directly on the Philippine Airlines website on 11/28/2023 for $57.81/person.

The flight from Cebu to Tacloban was delayed by about three hours due to the need to swap out planes as an issue was found on another aircraft.

On Sunday, March 17, they made the two hour drive from Bolusao to Tacloban to fly back to Cebu.

Itinerary
Airline: Philippine Airlines
Flight: PR2235
Departs: Tacloban (TAC) at 12:25 PM on Sunday 3/17/2024
Arrives: Cebu (CEB) Terminal 1 at 13:25 PM on Sunday 3/17/2024
1h flight duration

They spent one night at the newly opened Fairfield by Marriott Cebu Mandaue City.

The next morning, they returned back to the Mactan Cebu airport to return home.

Itinerary
Airline: EVA Air
Flight: EVA BR282
Departs: Cebu International (CEB) Terminal 2 at 12:30 PM on Monday 3/18/2024
Arrives: Taiwan Taoyuan International (TPE) Terminal 2 at 15:20 PM on Monday 3/18/2024
2h 55m flight duration

Layover: 4h 30m at Taiwan Taoyuan International (TPE)

Flight: EVA BR18
Departs: Taiwan Taoyuan International (TPE) Terminal 2 at 19:50 PM on Monday 3/18/2024
Arrives: San Francisco (SFO) Terminal I at 16:00 PM on Monday 3/18/2024
11h 10m flight duration

Work on the landing was completed. The quarter-round moulding was installed, caulked and painted.

Laundry room is done.

After work, Arlyn and I journeyed to Tahoma, CA to return to an Airbnb property that we visited two years ago. Along for thsi trip was Jim and Vine Smith along with Bruce and Tammi Pohlman.

When you compare this trip to the one we took two years ago, the biggest difference was the amount of snow on the ground. There was a significant amount of snow and more was on its way.

Rodney and Arlyn celebrated Rodney's 62nd birthday at the Texas Roadhouse located at Citrus Heights.

Work began on the Master Bedroom flooring on April 20, 2024.

This first set of pictures are of the Master Bedroom taken back in July 2023. This is what it looked like before painting and flooring.

The bedroom was painted on November 11, 2023.

The following was purchased for this room.

Arlyn and I moved the computer lab from the bedroom to the landing.

Work begins in the master closet on Saturday, May 18, 2024.

Staircases can be tricky. There are so many unknowns when working with stairs. And it needs to be done right to ensure safety.

I am glad I hired some guys to do the work. After pulling the carpet and inspecting the treads, we discovered that the treads were too thick for the stair noses. They had to be replaced. This added $200 to the cost of the labor. It was worth it because the workers had to use a car jack to loosen and remove the treads.

These are the 'before' images.

These are the 'after' images.

Two transitions were installed by Dale Madden as he was working on the stairs. The labor was free of charge. But the parts I had to pick up at Floor & Decor.

Only one reducing transition was required. It was cut to cover both thresholds.

The downstairs bathroom was painted to the Off-White color. Since the paint used was paint that was already on hand and nothing was purchased, no cost is involved.

The last, final room to paint was completed.

Meow passed away at 3:30 PM. He was 12 years 9 months old.

The floor refresh of the first floor was going to be too much for me. Tiles needed to be removed, concrete had to be leveled and smoothed and carpet needed to be ripped out. If I tackled the project, it would have taken months. The worked provided by Dale Madden on the stairs was impressive and a good value. Therefore, I gave the job to demolition and install the flooring to Dale.

July 22, 2024: Day 1 saw the removal of all carpet/tile on the ground floor. Six guys labored through the 106 degree heat.

July 23, 2024: Day 2 had the three workers installing the flooring. It was less dusty and noisy. Good progress was made but there is still a lot to do.

July 24, 2024: Day 3 saw great progress on the flooring. After navigating a tricky cut near the side door, they were off to the races.

July 25, 2024: Day 4 saw the arrival of the new baseboards. They were painted in preparation for installation later. The flooring continued for the most part. There were some setbacks as the floor patching was not level causing the flooring to be 'crunchy.' This led to the removal of some flooring to fix the patches. The storage space under the stairs got new flooring too.

July 26, 2024: Day 5 saw the completion of the flooring. However, this was a mixed bag of successes and issues.

I noticed the flooring in the kitchen are was still very 'crunchy', meaning it was floating and there was debris under the planks. When walking on them, you knew something was wrong. In addition, many of the planks that were removed yesterday were reused. There were not inspected properly when they were reused. In the morning sunlight, you could tell the planks were damaged.

When the team arrived that morning, I explained my concerns. The team leader agreed with my concerns and felt compelled to fix the issues. And he did. He and his team pulled all the flooring that was installed yesterday, prepared the concrete floor again and inspected the pulled boards. If the board was damaged, it was set aside for chopping. The team installed the flooring again, taking their time to ensure good fits and proper installation. Now...it looks great.

They left at 11:15 PM. They completed the laying of the planks.

On top of that, at 2:00 PM, I noticed that the HVAC system was no longer blowing cold air. The fan was chugging along, but the temperature was rising in the house. This meant the compressor was not running. Luckily, I had a spare capacitor. Within 15 minutes, I had the damaged capacitor removed and the new one in place. After a couple of anxious minutes, the HVAC system snapped back on and cold air was being released into the house.

It was a long day. One of the workers is returning next week to install the new baseboards.

Oh...and there is DUST everywhere on the first floor.

Three transitions were installed by Dale Madden.