Johnny's Trip to California

Never one to pass up a chance to work on "projects" at one of the kids' homes, Johnny spent a week this month in California. With help from Steve and Munazza, he redid a bathroom floor (which involved more than the floor), readied the garage for cabinets, helped the kids with building more pieces for their parkour course... and did "play" things, too.

In fact, the first day he arrived they all attended a music fest with this Beatles' impersonation ...

 
And a dance class at a new studio... with one of their favorite teachers from the recently closed studio...   That's Kestrel in blue...

 Back home, the kids were sorting their school papers from the past year. Johnny told them it would be easier if they wore their "sorting hats" from Griffindor House. So they did...

Then it was project time. First, the bathroom.

These are "before" photos of the floor with the rug and toilet removed...

And then the new subfloor...

And Steve laying the tile...

Munazza finished up the last two squares...

Looks nice, but the subfloor did not stick the way it was supposed to, so Johnny and Steve had to take tiles up and add nails to the flooring.

All this took a lot of Grandpa's time and at a family meeting, the kids said he wasn't spending any time with them, so... the next day they all worked on the kids' parkour course.

Cedrus is rounding the edges on an adjustable ramp for one of the obstacles that was a little too high to vault over...

And here is the completed ramp...

Kestrel is working on a triangular seat for their play structure, now known as the literary corner, I think. It's where they sit and read (among other places.) Kestrel, especially, is a bookworm... much like his father before him.

Cedrus painting the seat...

Cedrus tries out the seat...

Kestrel is removing nails and bolts from boards to repurpose them for a later use.

Working with Grandpa is fun but... tide pools are fun, too! So they spent a day at the beach...

Cedrus practiced cartwheels on the sand...

And participating in the Fink family tradition of jumping a bull kelp...

At a park nearby was a wonderful old Magnolia tree for climbing...

 Johnny took no photos of the garage project. He said that Munazza and Steve did a monumental job of getting tools/etc. sorted and out of the way of the wall that Johnny insulated and drywalled. Two big cabinets and a set of shelves will go there. Eventually, the garage will be a game room as well as tool and laundry and storage room.

Always more projects. Johnny will be ready for more. He had a great time.

I was sure glad to see him when he returned on Amtrak. The farm had projects waiting for him, too...