This weekend felt extremely busy, but looking back it does not seem like we did all that much.
Saturday we finally got out and tested the sprinkler system. The prior owner had mapped it out for us, but strangely lost the map prior to moving out. So we’ve been watering by hand since we move in back in April, which not surprisingly has been a bit sporadic and some of our plants are starting to show it. Saturday morning, Steve went on to Google maps and printed a satelite photo of the house. We started with zone one on our sprinkler box and started filling in the map. The box has the capability to handle 18 zones, 8 through 18 of which currently do absolutely nothing as far as we can tell. Also, none of them control the backyard, which clearly has a drip system throughout. We figured out later that there is a hose that connects to the drip system and apparently the prior owner just hooked it up manually to the spigot on the side of the house whenever she did that watering. In any event, the drip hoses have seen better days. There are multiple splits in the main line and almost nothing comes out the actual drip points, so it’s going to need some overhauling.
Saturday afternoon, we went shopping for a birthday present for our now 5-year-old friend, Abby. As much as I loved Toys ‘r’ Us when I was a kid, I really dislike it now. I never imagined it would be so hard to shop for a 5-year-old! We picked out something we hoped she would like and moved on to our next errands: JC Penney to check out window treatments and Home Depot for some yard stuff.
Penney’s was kind of a disappointment. We have tall ceilings in our family room, so we needed some lengthy curtains, and it seemed they mostly only had standard 84 inch panels, which was too short. But still, we got an idea of what they had, and were able to order some online later that evening. I’ve had a backache for the past few days and I needed to go home and lay down, so we skipped HD.
Sunday we spent an awful lot of time doing just general chores, which had been put off all week long (we should know better). Then, of course, the birthday party, and finally home to relax. Sort of. I did not feel like watching my sixth auto race of the weekend, so I pulled out our leftover paint and slapped a coat on the upstairs bathroom while Steve watched Indy car from Sears Point Raceway. Probably not the best thing for my back, but really there is only so much racing I can take.
And that’s about it. I’m certain there will be much more to come on the sprinkler system, as that needs a lot of work. And I’ve been taking pictures of the bathroom as I go, so I’ll be posting those as soon as I can download them from my camera and re-size them for posting. Because I know the three of you reading this are on the edge of your seat just waiting to see our upstairs bathroom.
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it’s interesting how your former house owner thought she had a working sprinkler system. one man’s working is another man’s disaster. we were told all kinds of wonderful things and would you like to keep this piece of furniture (which you were offered also), etc. i think they might have even told us that we were probably sitting on a gold mine too (although with the housing prices going up the way they did it might have been somewhat true). everything taken with a grain of salt. and remember next time (if there should be a next time) to see everything work. 20/20 hindsight. there must be more than three of us reading this. i find it interesting.
We probably should’ve been a little more careful, because as it turns out she’s a big liar. She disclosed that some of the front sprinklers were not working (not that the back was not really operational at all!). At our inspection we also learned that the downstairs AC was not functioning. Fixing these items was a condition of purchase, and she agreed to fix them (it became part of the contract). She had guys out working on the sprinklers, and maybe they are better than they were in that all the heads pop out and actually spray water, but they aren’t exactly accurate. With the AC, well, if fixed means it still won’t turn on, I guess she did that.