The Front Yard

In July of 2018, while we were vacationing in Morro Bay, John Duran and his crew were working hard on our front yard. He informed us about a county grant program that would cover most of the cost of switching to drought-tolerant plants. Kathy and I pictured a yard full of cacti. He came up with this amazing yard with a drip irrigation system. We have diligently cared for it with the help of Joe Ribera, our gardener. We love driving up and realizing that it’s ours.

Then there’s the front door. I had decided it was time to replace it with something newer looking. Kevin Austin (who did our main bath) installed the front door for us. I had picked out a nice, but plain, door. I invited Kathy to come along to pick it up and we ended up coming home with this big glass oval door at about twice the cost I had planned to spend. She was right, though. But there is this problem with Scooter. He watches the glass and starts barking every time he sees motion, relevant or not.

The Backyard

It’s too bad we don’t have any original pictures of this yard. It started off with indoor carpeting covering it. (Yes, they removed the indoor carpet and laid it throughout the backyard.) There was rotting wood on walkways and overgrown bushes, some of which had grown into trees. Over the years since 2005, when we bought it, we have gradually made improvements.

We had a bit of extra money a few months after moving here. We decided to replace the crumbling patio structure that was unsound. The slope of the original patio roof drained towards the house. It has been replaced with a new metal roof and solid upright posts. The slope was pointed away from the house for drainage. It was a tremendous improvement that made the patio usable.

Since our marriage, Kathy has wanted a spa. With the new patio covered, a spa was tucked just around the corner. Fairy gardens and birdhouses started showing up. Alice in Wonderland scenes were by the fence. Every time Kathy found a little extra money, something new appeared in the backyard. Well, then there was the deal we struck that whenever I spent on cars, she could spend an equal amount on her yard. I guess that’s fair but when I spent on a car, I had to consider that I was actually spending twice as much as the car part cost.

Kathy has a “birdhouse garden.” Every time we went vacationing, she brought a birdhouse home as a memoir. We now have more than 50 birdhouses around the backyard and front yard. And the birdhouse garden has grown into a birdhouse yard.

Kathy has always loved outdoor gardening. It is relaxing for her to work with Mother Earth. However, as we have aged, it has become more difficult for her to bend down and dig in the garden. So, for one Christmas, we bought a raised bed garden high enough for her to garden from her folding chair. We later added a second raised bed. And Kathy is in heaven, sitting and digging.

I know this isn’t the end of the story for our backyard. Kathy always has ideas for new creations. But since I’m out of the car game now she can’t count on car money to fund her projects.

The Koi Ponds

Kathy once bought a little plastic pond enclosure at the hardware store to go under the mulberry tree in our backyard. She asked Adam to dig a hole and get it level. She then went into the house. A few hours later, she came out to see two more sons and a 4’ deep hole that was 10’ across. Adam said, “Mom, you want a real pond.” He and his brothers put in the pond liner then lined it with rocks, and we got a pump and filter system for it. And we had “a real pond”. We went to the pet store to buy a few 3″ koi. They looked lost in the big pond. But they grew and had babies. We ultimately ended up with some 30″ koi and over 40 koi who had been born in the pond.

Cleaning the filter system was difficult. Six different filters had to be removed and washed out individually. As we aged, this steadily became more difficult. One day, Adam, who is in the pool equipment business, had a client who wanted a new pump and filter system for his pool. His old system only needed gaskets to work fine, but he insisted on a new system. Adam then called Kathy and asked if she wanted a swimming pool sized filter system for her pond. Of course, she said yes, and it was installed. The pond was crystal clear, where it had always been clouded and a little green before. At a family dinner a few months later, Adam noted that the new filter system could handle a bigger pond. Was she interested? What could she say but yes? So, a second pond was added with a stream connecting them.

A friend called us and asked if we wanted a turtle for our pond. They had adopted a small turtle who showed up in their yard injured. He had lived in an aquarium for years but had now outgrown his home. They wanted to know if Roscoe could move to our pond. They brought Roscoe over and set her (Roscoe turned out to be female) alongside the pond. She looked like she had just discovered heaven and dove into the pond where she has lived since. Later another friend moved from Fresno to a place with freezing winters. She had two turtles that would not fit there. So, we adopted again. We started having baby turtles—lots of them. We finally had to move our only male to another home through Reptile Ron, who does shows for schools. We may have to do that again when the babies reach maturity, and we discover more boys.

We had an accident in 2025 that killed 29 of our 32 adult koi. It was a terrible blow. We bought 20 one-inch butterfly koi to take up residence in the pond. We know they will grow into beautiful homesteaders, but it is still sad to see the nearly empty pond. The butterfly koi are beautiful and the supplier gave us multiple colorings. Give us a few years to come back.

But then we discovered an unexpected bonus. Some of the koi that died had laid eggs before dying. We now have a pond full of tiny koi. All of them never survive, so we are waiting until spring to determine how many we have. But right now there are a lot of them.

The Interior

IIn 2019, I stepped out of the shower in our main bathroom and felt a floor tile cracking under my foot. That is usually not a good sign. I got down and lifted the broken tile, finding that the floor underneath was soaked. We attended church with Kevin Austin, who was a one-man contractor. We asked him to look at the problem. He told us that the shower was about to collapse through the floorboards due to rot. We hired him to gut and update our bathroom, and he got started. This was during the COVID-19 pandemic, and he had to divide his attention between our job and his kids, who were now attending school from home. The job took a bit longer than it would have otherwise. Once he examined the issues, we found that the subfloor was rotted throughout the bathroom with the rot extending more than a foot into our main bedroom, as well as into the floor joists beneath it. The room was gutted. The original shower was small and dark. He expanded it as much as the small bathroom footprint would allow. Special effort was made to assure that we will never have to deal with a leak again.

Delerio Construction acted as general contractor as we upgraded our interior in 2022. They used a subcontractor to replace the plumbing throughout the house and on to the street. We got a tankless water heater and a circulation pump to always have instant hot water.

The kitchen cabinets were a custom build back when we bought the house and were still in great shape. We replaced the hardware to give us a soft close for doors and drawers. The interior got blue paint chosen by Kathy. LVP flooring was placed throughout.

Then there was the fireplace. We were told it was unsafe to use when we bought the house. But Kathy waited patiently until we could correct that. When we hired Delerio they hired a subcontractor to update the fireplace. We just simply said, “Make it work with gas.” We got a large rebate for an enclosure fired by gas. And the sub created this amazing front that exceeded our expectations.

In all we are delighted with the work done by Delerio and their subs. This is our forever home.

Solar Power

We started it in 2014 with some leased solar panels. It made a tremendous difference in our electricity bill, but I wish I had purchased rather than leased the panels. We added more panels in 2022. In 2024, we were still having giant true-up bills. We did as much as our roof would allow us to. On December 31, 2024, we installed 11 additional panels and a battery system, bringing our total to 53 panels and two batteries. Interestingly, the 11 panels we installed at this time produce almost as much electricity as the 42 panels from years before. Technology is always improving. Each day, we purchase a small amount of electricity from PG&E from approximately 3 AM to 8 AM. We sell about twice as much electricity back to them in the afternoon. We buy overnight when rates a low, when in the afternoon the sell rate is its highest. We are happy with the improvement. This will stabilize the future PG&E billings. With a future of fixed retirement income, stabilizing a major expense like this will help.