the great before and after......

Ian's front door in Los Angeles, on the edge of Marnia del Rey and Venice, needed a bit of an overhaul according to his frustrated architect.  Those are his words, not mine - he could tell his friends that his mom and Robert were working on it but he used the terms frustrated architect.  I was not frustrated, but having a great time getting my hands dirty.  We returned to LA as Ian said he had pneumonia.  We found out it was the type that allowed him to go to parties and that we didn't have to play parent, however, we did anyway, with laundry and food and cleaning.  If that wasn't enough, we decided to redo the front of the house - we have been watching too much HGTV and DIY and tore out the lawn, sketched some ideas on a scratch pad and went to Home Depot.  Several times.  And Ace hardware, which is called B & B here, one of our favorite stores.   Several times.



Robert framed the "engawa" - deck to you haoles, while I worked under the apricot tree in the back, on some paintings that had been giving me trouble. Robert was having fun, the neighbors were having fun, the youth in the house was having fun - so I decided to join him after he framed the deck and to dig holes, clean out the front garden and visit Home Depot Garden Center.  We got muddy, as we had to soak the ground to get the grass out, or even dig the holes for the plants.  Ian was given the decision to make between a "sophisticated" design or cottage style with a bunch of white roses and lavendar.  He chose sophisticated, despite saying that he wasn't and neither was the house. 
Robert also beefed up the 4 x 4 on the porch, which wasn't really, as well as build a small "trellis" to frame the opening.  Ian said it all looked sort of Oriental - my comment was unprintable.



Paving stones with bark, a lot of left over river rock that had been stashed at the side of the house, some lavendar, festcue(?) along the fake stream, and other plants to blend in with the wild front garden of ferns and banana palm.  We manged to do the whole thing, while building up his compost with garden junk, for a small amount.  The neighbors kept stopping by - probably wanting to be part of the mud act when we were taking out the grass at the garden area.  Robert and I slept ten hours after the project was done, and are back on the road tomorrow, heading north again, singing along with Willie Nelson.