First Car for Adriana

Last weekend John and Olivia went to pick up a new car for Adriana. Olivia kept it hidden for a few days, but it was too much of a secret once Wednesday came around and sat in the garage when Adriana came home from school in the afternoon. Like with her sisters, this will undoubtedly free up Olivia’s time, and Adriana is already a self-proclaimed “great driver.”

John spent the weekend in Denmark while chasing that 3MM award with United. He spent time with his mom and saw great friends on Friday and Saturday. Unfortunately, Denmark had some of the worst winds in six years while he was there, and it was sometimes hard to walk outside when not protected by buildings. Still very cold there, but lovely to be out after 15+ hours on planes.

The winds have also been strong at home. We cleaned the yard more than once and are still looking for an excellent leaf vacuum for all the oak leaves that lands on the turf. Unfortunately, the pool sage continued, and we had to write a stern letter to get the acid wash of the plaster scheduled. We will have an update next time. The hot tub is also giving us trouble, and we can’t wait to get is all fixed. The pool cover is also acting up. “Aicham!” to quote Mr. Kim from Kim’s Convenience.

20230219: View from 8F – Copenhagen to Frankfurt

Prepping the garden

We’re still waiting for the pool water to do its magic and harden the plaster. The calcium deposits are still present, and we can see tracks from the pool robot. We trust the company behind it, and they’ve told us to be patient for a week or two. It does look a bit better but also darker than we had expected.

Outside that, the pool and patio are pretty much finished. However, we need the coping done, and there’s a tile that, unfortunately, was chipped, which will also need replacement.

The garden is coming along nicely. Plants and trees were ordered Tuesday and will be delivered on Monday. The crew found good spots for the existing pots and worked hard to get the Buddha head water feature back in place and connected. Josh and his team got the electrical feed rigged, and we got the fire table and BBQ set up. Things are slowly getting back to normal.

We had the house power-washed. Looks so much better without all the dust, marks, and spiderwebs. The Christmas lights went up the day after although we’ll leave them off for a few more weeks.

Power-washing the house

Pool equipment connected

The patio is still being worked on. The last full-size tiles are in place; from here on out, any remaining stones will need to be cut. For that reason, it was good to see our contraction bringing in a tile cutter – certainly an upgrade from the little drill they have used up until now.

The pool equipment is mostly connected. We enjoyed the changing LED lights for a couple of nights, and rumor has it that the jets in the hot tub were connected for a little bit as well. We are looking forward to getting trained in the coming week.

John and Olivia continued their talks with the landscape designer and gardener and got some numbers for the remaining work. Quite a mouthful, and not sure what to do…

The weekend was spent in Boston celebrating Rob and Patricia tying the knot. Great weather and a lot of walking in the historic part of town. Good to see the east coast friends while exercising the dancing moves.

Closer and close…