We intend, God willing, to complete our quest to visit all 63 US National Parks. Get the passport stamp. See the sights. Take the pictures.
This is not a simple quest. It will take us to Alaska, Maine, Florida, California, American Samoa and many points in between. We will see the biggest hole in the ground. The biggest mountain in the US. Stalagmites. Wildlife. The tallest trees. Smoky Mountains. Smoky fumaroles. Water that shoots out of the ground. Lava that shoots out of the ground.
We want to see it all. To do that, we have to get there. So here are the rules of the road, 2026 version. We’ll see if more travel causes any necessary adjustments.
We just returned from our first “official,” dedicated National Park trip. With this trip, we have now visited – with the passport stamps to verify – 12x of the 63x National Parks. These rules will govern our next few years of adventure as we visit 51x more:
Figure Out How To Pack. Mrs M and I have profoundly different philosophies about packing. If you know us, you know that this applies to most things that we can disagree about. But it does apply specifically to packing, and you need a trip or 2 to figure out what you want to do. 1 suitcase? 2? Travel with a cooler? Travel light? Heavy? Very heavy? You have to find your happy place. And then the pack mule will have to carry it (ask me how I know).
Minimize Bags of Stuff. We travel very heavy. A minimum of 3 suitcases into the hotel every night. My camera backpack. Her pillow. The cooler. And … all of her bags. Her standard on the last trip was 3 bags of food, water bottles, and who knows what else. Drives me nuts. Bags do not transport well. They get lost in the car. They fall off of luggage carts (ask me how I know). I believe in rolling suitcases and plastic storage containers in the car. I do not believe in, trust, or accept bags.
Beware The Cooler Trap. We travel with ice in a cooler. That means that we travel with water in a cooler. Last trip, we decided we needed two coolers, and one was an old Igloo 6-pack with a rotating lid. It fell off the luggage cart: I swear it was lodged firmly in place between 2 suitcases. It wasn’t. Water & ice was all over the hotel lobby.
(ed. note) Be kind to all people you meet on the trip. You never know when strangers will have to clean up your mess.
Trip Planning Is An Art. And you may want to use a map. Planning this trip … I didn’t know that Carlsbad Cavern & Guadalupe Mountains National Parks were within an easy hour’s drive of each other. When I finally discovered this nugget, I adjusted hotels so we could stay in one hotel for 3 nights … arriving after driving on night 1, going to Guadalupe on day 2, and then visiting the Cavern on day 3. Not changing hotels for a day or 3 is a luxury; don’t miss your chances.
Don’t Eat Chinese Food In Omaha. Simply, you are on the road and don’t know where all of the best restaurants are. Eat like a native, or eat like a veteran of franchised food. Don’t eat food that you don’t know why it’s there. You may regret it (ask us how we know).
(ed. note) Don’t eat Chinese food in Phoenix, either.
(ed. note 2) Don’t eat Mexican food in Lompoc … unless they are pork belly tacos masquerading as bar food. They were scrumptious.
Don’t Trust Strangers To Know Your Palate. Because they don’t. What some hotel clerk thinks is a GREAT restaurant may not match your wife’s discerning taste buds. And yes, you can ask me how I know.
Comfort Has A Cost. The Alternative Is Worse. We have stayed in hotels of every grade. We don’t like really expensive hotels when you come back to the hotel dirty & dusty from the hike. We don’t like really cheap motels. Finding that middle ground … tricky. Very few hotels reliably have 2 comfortable chairs in a room. Most have zero. Comfort has a cost … and is seldom reliably obtained. Unfortunately.
(ed. note) Drury Hotels are our current fave. IYKYK.
“Free” Breakfasts Are Not Free. There is no free breakfast: you pay for it. I admit it: we often stay at hotels with a “free” breakfast such as Holiday Inn Express or Best Western Inns. We find them affordable, dependable and, uh, reasonable for us. Usually. But their breakfasts really are sometimes not great and do not work for me 3 days in a row. The worst are the dreaded plastic cheese omelettes at HIE that require a muffin, hot sauce, and some sausage to make them at all edible. Assuming the muffin, hot sauce and sausage are edible.
Crowd Sourcing Restaurants Can Work. Mrs M researches restaurants exhaustively before we hit town. We often try to have 1 good meal a day, and research usually works fine. But. Crowd sourcing information is only as good as the crowd. We have found that some restaurants – especially Mexican food, it seems – just are not rated according to our, uh, view of what is good Mexican food.
(ed. note) Mrs M grew up eating the best tacos in Belleville, IL. Draw from that what you will.
(ed. note 2) I grew up thinking food came in 2 varieties: truck stop and home cooking. Draw from that what you will.
Embrace the Technology in Your Car. Honest. We bought a Subaru Ascent as our official Senior Citizen Touring Car, and have visited 5x National Parks in it so far. 12k miles on it. Works great. A feature I did not trust at first is cruise control, coupled with a sensor that automatically slows your car when a slower car is sensed ahead of you in your lane. I am getting used to this … and if you don’t pay attention, your car slows and you’re suddenly going 55 in a 70. But the feature does actually help you navigate highway traffic very effectively.
(ed. note) Self driving tech is not always my favorite, though. When the car tries to yank you back into your lane, I am not a fan. That feature is turned off. I will steer, thank you.
Embrace AI in Travel Planning. We are still playing with different options … and computers and their algorithms are not always your friend. But, if you tell your favorite AI what you are trying to do on your trip, it can help you narrow the field of choices before you commit to anything. Mrs M found an app called WanderLog, and it is our current planning buddy.
Listen To Those Around You. Last trip, we were eating dinner after a long day driving 660 miles. Day 1. A nearby couple talked about their day. On quest to drive Rt 66 from start to finish, they had driven just 47-1/2 miles in their day. Who do you think had more fun that day?
(ed. note) We adjusted our itinerary to have more shorter days. It’s like the road to Hanna, which we did on our last trip to Maui … it’s about the journey, not the destination.
Go See The Bats. We went to Carlsbad Caverns, and Mrs M SO wanted to return to the Park and see the bats fly out of the cave at dusk. Alas, it turned cloudy & wet, so the bats took a night off. I never would have chosen a bat expedition, but I was smart enough to tell the Lady, “Yes, dear.” We have to go back. Or find another bat cave.
Yes, we know there’s a war on. Yes, we know gas is expensive. But … isn’t it really about where you are buying from? Here is what we paid for each tank of Unleaded on our 4,000+ mile journey:
3/20, Chevron, Barstow, CA, $6.099
I usually avoid this brand for cheaper alternatives … but I had my credit card # stolen at another station in Barstow a few years back, and I am brand loyal to this station now.
3/20, Chuck Sandoval, INC (?), Williams, AZ = $4.899
Mobil station. We only came here because the station down the street was under construction & didn’t have bathrooms. That was $0.80 cheaper per gallon … and the bathrooms were not worth it. One of the worst.
3/21, Mr Gas, Edgewood, NM = $3.699
3/22, Love’s, Erick, OK = $3.299
3/22, Casey’s, Blackwell, OK = $3.149
No, we didn’t have the pizza.
3/23, Store #1323, Faucett, MO = $3.299
The store brand was Pilot … not on the receipt
3/24, Sam’s, Liberty, MO = $3.199
Mrs M is set up with the app, which I had never used before. Easiest transaction of the trip … scan the QR code, use the app with the pre-loaded card to pay for it, and you are golden.
3/26, QuikTrip, Excelsior Springs, MO = $3.279
3/29, Love’s, Hinton, OK = $3.149
Receipt did not print at all. Nothing on the paper I was issued.
3/29, Buc-ee’s, Amarillo, TX = $3.099
Buy the gas, stay for the merch.
3/30, Circle K, Albuquerque, NM = $3.969
Receipt printed, but illegible
3/30, Pilot, Bellemont, AZ = $4.199
3/31, Pilot, Lake Havasu, AZ = $4.199
4/2, Pilot, Castaic, CA = $5.799
No receipt printed. This station is supposed to be one of the least expensive in Castaic, where we now live. Worst experience at the pump of the entire trip. Multiple pumps were blocked by passenger vans with … tourists? … that were on a break, going into the store, then eating street tacos & blocking pumps until they were ready to go. I had to move locations twice before I found a pump that actually became available while I was there. And I still had to pay California prices.
14 tanks of gas. Compare it to flying, and even with hotels … the prices are not that different. Time is the big factor, and we took the time.
We did not “shop” much for gas … when we needed it, we bought it at interstate-friendly stations. Prices did seem to increase during the 13 days we were on the road; the posted prices for diesel were getting close to $7 near the end of our trip. That should scare us all; prices for everything go up when diesel prices go up.
Yes, the most expensive gas is in California, by a lot. We pay close to $2/gallon in taxes. Beyond that, gas refineries (Chevron, Valero) are closing in California due to the anti-business regulatory climate (per the Chevron CEO), so we are now literally importing our gasoline from a refinery in Bermuda, I am told. Somebody has to pay for that. And that someone is all of the people that drive in California … $8/gallon is projected for this summer.
Thankfully, the trips we have planned this year are mainly not in California. I recommend that for anyone that cares about the price of transportation.
I am – at long last – on the cusp of getting your special orders done. This is my humble attempt to update you and apologize. Again.
I lost my way in 2025, without question. We sold the familial home of 37 years, bought another home with no 2nd story … and then decided to remodel the new home with me as acting general contractor. I began to juggle balls.
Lots of them.
The remodel consumed me, as such things do, and it became my obsessive focus in April of last year. We moved into the house during the still-active remodel in late May. The woodshop in the old house got shut down … but the new shop didn’t get up until September. Sort of. It’s still sort of up today. Cabinetry is not built. There is no storage. None.
Black Walnut, right on top. 2 days to find this.
Dust collection is almost done … but the temporary connection to my table saw is still zip tied, leaning, and not that good at sucking, honestly. Hand tools & supplies are always a challenge to locate. I’ve bought 2x sets of drill bits (and still haven’t found my old ones). I can’t find anything, truly. I lost my black walnut stash this week. 2 days went by. I looked everywhere to find the lumber … in the corner behind the band saw, right where I put it. Along with some Hard Maple I didn’t know I had.
It hasn’t been pretty.
In November, both of my knees went into an arthritic crisis, apparently. Walking became a huge issue for 3 weeks. Standing … not possible. More time I was not in the shop because my knees insisted I sit down and put my feet up. Beyond scaring the hell out of me, I learned to take it easier and nursed my knees back to health. They are largely back, but I certainly baby them more than I did when I was running marathons 15+ years ago (and my knees were *never* an issue then. Go figure.)
As many of you know, I have been powerfully distracted by some of my other prominent roles … PaPa was needed to help with Sloane, as Little Girl’s geriatric pregnancy put her in the Dr’s office 3x every week in the final weeks. Good news: Grandchild #4 is here, everyone is healthy, but I now miss breakfasts with Sloane. So, a happy ending, but Papa was not in the shop as much as I was during my old normal.
New normal? Not there yet. That’s the problem.
Then my mother’s health took a turn for the worse, and I traveled to see her in Missouri a couple of times this year. She lived a long and fruitful life, and helping my sister, brother-in-law and mother over the last few months was treasured time that was well spent. Mom saw her 96th birthday, and died 11 days ago. I will now be traveling to Missouri as needed to help sell her house & do the tasks that need to be done. Her Celebration of Life is on April 18.
While helping with my mother, obviously, I was not in the shop.
Which brings me to my oldest special order. It was from Mom: she wanted me to make the box to hold her ashes. I, of course, accepted the order. The box is now complete, and it was one of the hardest things to make I have ever done. Oh, the design was simple. Joinery not that challenging. But I found it impossible to work with tears in my eyes, so it took a while to finish the box. It is now in the truck, ready for me to drive it to Missouri.
Which brings me to my remaining special orders. The required time is set aside, irrevocably. The pieces are picked, processed, glued up and smoothed. I still have some CNC work on some of these pieces. Some sanding. Finishing. But my plan is to be done done done with these pieces and ship them out next week. Honest.
I have accepted one more order, for a Soap Drying Rack, that is next up after these pieces … and my return from my 3rd trip to Missouri this year.
Moving forward, I believe I will shut down my website for the rest of the year. I have made promises, you see, to the Lady of the house. I am to build a bed, nightstands, dresser, garden bench … plus a new office & master closet for me. If I don’t block out the business … I’ll never get to the personal. I know me.
I am committed to 3x events this year: April’s KHTS Home & Garden Show. November’s Boutique Fantastique at Saugus High. And, December’s Santa’s Art Shop in Ridgecrest. I will be there. And maybe, just maybe … you’ll see the grand return of Mrs M’s Handmade in the 4th quarter. But her product offerings … as well as mine … are very much TBD. Stay tuned for those updates.
So dear friends, there you have it. I have juggled far too many balls and am ashamed that so many of them were dropped. My special order backlog, though, is about to get handled. God willing.
Thank you so much for your patience. I don’t deserve it. I must do better as I search for my new normal.
And, yes, I heard the hysterical laughter as I typed the last sentence.
We approach the culinary summit of the year … in Mrs M’s dream kitchen. She had a thought. Could she get an old cutting board that I have (huh?) to use an electric knife on? WHAT?
I do give her credit that she learned her lesson and knows she cannot use an ELECTRIC SAW on her cutting board. But, she thought I had “old cutting boards” just laying around that she could destroy with her ELECTRIC SAW? No.
Well, she wondered out loud, could I just make her a board “out of scrap” so she could cube the bread for her renowned stuffing easily? So, a board out of scrap.
She doesn’t know me at all.
The board was made. It’s a 2-sided, no-foot light weight board to abuse as she wishes. I would have preferred more time and bread board ends on a cutting board this thin … but ’twas not to be. After all, this is just for her to destroy.
Black Walnut for the win. 15x21x.75″ A board good enough for her to destroy. After all, her stuffing is at stake.
Since I was in the shop and hungry, I re-surfaced & oiled her main board, sous chef board and the cheese slicer for good measure. Big doings in the Mowry kitchen this week. I am at her service: I don’t starve that way.
Mrs M’s Go To Cutting Board. 16″x21″x1-1/4″. Edge Grain. Goncalo Alves, Black Walnut, Honey Locust, Jatoba & Cherry. The board just got a rare tune-up … and will be 12 years old this Christmas.
The above board is the first cutting board I ever made. Hardwood for the win.
The companion sous chef board is smaller, lighter and had blown a foot. After the footectomy, I replaced all 4 feet. The small feet that I install (1/4″ thick) on small boards & serving pieces do fail – especially when pushed, not lifted. I’ve tried many sources; can’t find better feet. Let me know if you ever need a new set if you have had a failure.
Our cheese slicer also needed a quick resurfacing … and a footectomy. The slicer now has a smooth top and 4 new feet.
If you find your cutting board(s) need some love after your big doings this week, I am happy to resurface your board for free. It takes me about 10 minutes.
The truck needed gas, so I did what you do. I looked at the marquee for a local Shell Oil that was on my way … and it said the price for Cash/Debit was $4.19/gallon (I live in California. I am used to paying the highest gasoline prices in America.)
But I digress.
I took out my debit card, waved the RFID chip at the reader, and was approved directly. Off we go. As I got the nozzle into the tank and started the fill-up, I looked back at the pump … and now it said $4.29.
What the hell?
OK, I was in a mood. I can be that guy. As Val Kilmer’s Doc Holliday said in Tombstone, “I’ll be your huckleberry.”
I had been reading accounts of businesses putting in ghost charges without warning. Restaurants charging “mandatory” “tip” fees. Stuff like that. But on this day, I’m not playing.
The marquee was crystal clear: debit cards = cash price. I used a debit card but was charged the “credit” price.
I finished the fill-up and walked into the gas station’s store. Waited in line. Walked up to the register and told the young lady I needed to talk to the manager. She said OK and walked over to get him.
I explained the situation … and the manager seemed to have heard it before. He did immediately agree to refund the $2.10 I was overcharged, as he explained that this was a pump setting that he did not control.
I suggested the owner must control it … but no, he said it was Shell corporate, who charges the credit price automatically for “tap & pay” transactions. If only I had inserted the card into the pump reader, THEN I would have been charged the debit price (he said). But since I did the tap & pay thing, the higher rate applied.
Not that this was disclosed. Not that this was how they marketed their rates to the unsuspecting public. And speaking as a retailer selling handmade serving pieces & such in Mr M’s Woodshop … I know I am charged the exact same credit card fees when my customer uses tap & pay, inserts their card into the chip reader, or when they swipe their card in the reader. The fee is the same for me … but mighty Shell is trying to game the system to add a 10 cent/gallon ghost charge for their unsuspecting customers.
Caveat emptor: let the buyer beware.
I HATE when retailers lie to their customers. I’m rather obsessed with this idea – always have been. Sellers either believe their customers are smart or stupid … and they treat them accordingly. I am in favor of sellers that respect me … and will not do business with those that don’t.
The transaction was 12:28pm on 8/20/2025 at the Shell Oil station, 31786 The Old Road, Castaic, CA 91384. Yes, I have the receipt.
The centerpiece of the kitchen is the large island Mrs M wanted. How big is it?
As big as it could be.
We wanted the island to be surrounded by a 42″ aisle on all sides. And we didn’t want a seam in the island counter top … we wanted it to be one piece of stone. We found a quartzite slab from Brazil that we liked, and it delivered an island that is 10′-6″ x 5′. That is 52-1/2 square feet, and the google machine tells me that a quartzite slab that size that is 2 centimeters thick would weigh over 1,000 pounds.
The all-knowing google also says “professional installation required.” You got that right.
A crew of 8 showed up to move the vertical slab from the truck, across the driveway, up 3 steps, through the living room … and then transform it into a horizontal showpiece on top of Mrs M’s island.
It was the best show in town last week.
This is about to get real.2 tubes of caulk dispensed in about 30 seconds.Note the long stiffening rods held on with suction cups. No bending allowed.Everybody ready?Slowly … Then it went fast.Watch your fingers!Tweaking…It’s done.And then tension released.Drilling, plumbing … all to come.
This is the master vanity. Also, the dish washing area. Mirrors will get hung on the wall. Paint & electric … finishing work to come.
When I last wrote you, I eagerly anticipated getting the master bath (AKA primary bath. Discussed below) together in the next week. (cue laugh track) Here we are, after 18 days and we just got the functional vanity in the our bathroom.
If you have remodeled your house, you know where I’m going with this. The process is impossibly long. It is unexpectedly painful. And, eventually, the couple begins to divide the marital assets.
Our Master Bathroom Vanity was installed. It had sinks. It had water. It had drains. It had drawers. So, Mrs M claimed a sink. And she claimed a drawer beneath that sink. Apparently.
I recognized this as the opening of negotiations that would have life-long import. Time to recognize our new status and claim what is mine.
He said: “I see that you have claimed a sink.”
She said: … (editor’s note: Thus began a 2 minute speech on the value of the sink she chose, why she chose it and why she began putting stuff in the drawer below. She included other supposedly relevant information. The speech was 2 minutes. I have no idea what she said.)
He said: “So you want the sink on the right.”
She said: “Yes.” (editor’s note: Ah, clarity. That elusive muse that haunts my every waking minute)
He said: “I want a drawer.”
She said: “Why do you need a drawer? You don’t need a drawer.”
He said: “I need a place to put my stuff without having to search for it and fight to open the drawer because of all of your stuff. I want a drawer.”
She said: “You don’t need a drawer. You don’t have that much stuff.”
He said: “I want a drawer beneath my sink. I can store my stuff there.”
She said: “So you’ll keep all of your deodorant, shampoo & hair spray there?” (editor’s note: this is the end of the list of my toiletries. 3 items, with back ups.)
He said: “Yes, I’ll keep my stuff in my drawer.”
She said: “I have researched containers to help us organize things in the drawers. But you don’t need a drawer. You don’t have that much stuff.”
He said: “I would be OK if you put shared items, like Q-Tips, in my drawer. But nothing else.
She said: “We’ll see.”
He said: “I want a drawer for my stuff.”
She … changed the subject. No confirmation.
I want a drawer.
Mrs M’s drawer. Before her new, mythical organization tools. Apparently.
This is my drawer, if you believe possession is the same as ownership. The glaring asymmetry of the drawer cut-out is because the drain pipe had to avoid the earthquake sheer wall, so the drain has a longer diagonal run under the left sink than the more direct run under the right sink, which was claimed by Mrs M because it had more storage space. Her ultimate evil plan, I expect.
The lower drawers are not affected by the plumbing. Storage galore.
LeftRight
The Master Controversy
Early on in our house hunt, I (again) learned that I was not with it. Not current. Out of fashion. Old. All of that.
“Master Suite,” “Master Bedroom,” “Master Bathroom” … are all hopelessly out of date. Today’s society has no Masters. Only Primaries. Apparently.
News to me.
And since I am old and resistant to change, I will forever say we have a Master Bedroom. Not a Primary Bedroom. Deal with it.
We bought a perfectly lovely home and then tore it up.
Flooring. Cabinetry. Bathrooms. It all had to go. Remodeling is not for the faint of heart.
Truly.
Perhaps nothing was harder to face than the master bathroom. Learned much, I did.
The 22-year old bathroom had a small shower, an old Jacuzzi tub and a 2-sink counter with a make-up mirror & bench in the middle. It all had to go. We decided we wanted a soaker tub, a larger walk-in shower with a bench, and no make-up station.
This remodel would get intense.
First, we had a plan. To scale. It answered a lot of questions … but not all of them, we found.
This almost-to-scale graph paper sketch drove our design, start to finish. It may not be state of the art … but it’s MY state of the art. And, it was good enough. Almost.
A couple of issues came up almost immediately … this plan moved the shower head to a different wall and the shower drain next to the wall. This plan also moved the bathtub drain and and plumbing fixtures. I had no idea what this would mean.
No idea.
Here is the Post Tension Slab warning, stamped in the concrete in a front corner of the garage. That message is now covered up with epoxy. Ooopsie.
We bought a house with a post tension slab. A notice to that effect was stamped in the concrete in the corner of the garage. Unusual, I thought. Well, not really. Just outside of my experience. Thankfully, the plumber & the contractor/groomsman knew what they were doing. We would need to hire a radar guy.
Huh?
A post tension slab is often used on hillsides (we are) to create a more stable slab of concrete to build on (just about all Southern California homes are slab construction). Posts are set on the edges of the concrete, and then a cable is stretched between posts to form a grid pattern. Yes, rebar is often put in concrete, and that’s not what this is. This is … cables. Under tension. In a grid pattern throughout the slab.
OK, but here’s the important part. One must not cut a cable. Ever. Cut a cable UNDER TENSION and bad things will happen. The cable can whip out of the concrete and cut whatever is in its path. People die. Walls crack.
You know, bad things.
So, you want to move drains? You want to move plumbing? You have to scan the post tension slab to locate where the cables are as one MUST NOT cut a cable. And have no fear, the contractor knew a guy.
This guy showed up with a tablet and what looked like a really big mouse, about the size of 2 fists … and preceded to move the mouse over the floor to magically find the cables and how deep they were. You could tell the size & depth of the things in the slab easily. This information was then painted onto the concrete so we would know what we were dealing with.
Our bathroom.
Then the concrete got cut and the plumbers dug *around & under* the cables to see what’s what. That resulted in our bathroom beginning to look like a … construction zone with piles of dirt in the room and a fog of concrete dust wafting throughout the house. For days. Oh, the dust. My spiffy new table saw, still not assembled, was stored in the empty master bedroom (where would you keep it?), and the cardboard boxes got coated in an unbelievable layer of dust.
And that’s where it got weird. Post tension cables are laid out in a grid, but we had one forming what looked like a triangle at the corner of the house. Odd, that. The plumbers kept digging … and they came to a frayed end of the cable. In the middle of my bathroom.
Bad things happen when you cut a cable. But they didn’t cut it. They swear. They found the END of a cable that was loose in the concrete. That frayed end was rusted, actually, so visually it was clear this was not a freshly severed end.
OK, decision time. What do you do?
After consulting with the groomsman and the plumber … we just kept swimming. We didn’t cut the cable. Nothing bad happened. Keep moving forward. The plumbers kept digging. But it felt like we broke our house.
To make sure the drain & tub filler plumbing would fit around the post tension cables, I CNC’d a rough tub template so everyone could see the fit. The manufacturer was no help, so I became a woodworker again.
Then we find that my plumbing purchase … my extensive plumbing purchase … did not include the necessary rough out kit for the tub filler. What is that, exactly? No clue. But it is what gets buried in the concrete to mount the tub filler assembly to. OK, great. We need one. Where is it? Oh, and we need it NOW.
I talked to our main plumbing fixture source, and he located a rough out kit that was only 30 miles away. I hopped in the truck, got it, delivered it, and got on with my day. That’s important, because that day, of all days, was my set up day for the KHTS Home & Garden Show in Santa Clarita, one of my key annual events which is sponsored by “your hometown radio station” that happens to be in our hometown. I was setting up a rare triple booth, all in, and I had to drop everything to go get this missing rough out kit. I did it, then returned to the event to set up my booth. It was a long day.
It was Friday, April 25.
So, here we are at the end of June and we have not progressed much, it seems. We still don’t have a shower. We haven’t used the tub, though it is functional at this point. Stone is not done. Walls are not painted. Plumbing, cabinetry, stone … those 3 trades may get finished next week. Here’s where we are, 4 months after we bought our forever home.
I’ll let you know if we have a good week. Maybe a lot will get done … like stone work, cabinetry & plumbing. Maybe.
We do have a functional toilet in the master … that is actually a bidet. That’s a French word for an appliance designed in Japan and manufactured in Viet Nam. Pretty fancy for a small town boy that remembers running water being put in the house. We only had an outhouse at home until I was 13.
Back to our computer-driven automatic toilet thingy. It knows when you approach and opens the lid. Do your business, and it will clean you up, flush when you arise and close the lid as you run away. Or maybe that’s just me.
Mrs M wanted to go fancy and who am I to say no? She has actually used the bidet. Me? Nope. I’m still too scared.
If you are interested in bidets, here is a review of the one we bought. As far as I’m concerned, watching it to see all of the, uh, creative language used to describe the process is worth your time. I think it’s laugh out loud funny.
So, we bought it. We had our Unicorn. Now, what to do with it?
It was clear that we needed some transformation to make our forever home. I started making lists. Lots of lists.
What did we want?
New kitchen with island.
Custom cabinets throughout the house.
Creation of a new walk-in pantry between the kitchen & the hallway. Kudos to Kim, our superstar real estate agent, that saw the opportunity to build this pantry by converting a space that had a built-in television. We added found space on the other side of the back wall, that had some cabinetry in the hallway … delivering a space that is 4’x6′. Perfect for a pantry.
New appliances for the new dream kitchen.
New plumbing fixtures for the new bathrooms.
Recessed lighting + ceiling fans in all rooms.
Smart controls for appliances, lighting, thermostat, sprinklers … and more.
Finally, the home’s 3 car garage would become a 1 car garage for Mrs M, and a 2-car garage shop for me.
A new table saw. And, at long last, a miter saw to easily break down lumber.
So then I started making spreadsheets. Lots of spreadsheets.
We met with our first contractor before we had the keys. That didn’t work out. He was in a transition – building his new shop/retail location, we were still developing the plan, we didn’t have possession yet … no. Strike 1.
Lots of planning went into every room … or in this case, shop. I get a purpose-built space that has the tools & space for the work I actually do. I can break down a 4’x8′ sheet of plywood, or cut a 12′ long board without breaking a sweat. In the shop. Without moving tools. Without using the driveway.
We met our 2nd contractor on February 28, the day we took possession. This was a big idea guy that had a particular way he wanted to do a big job like ours. Big job. Very professional presentation from the jump. I met all of the sub contractors he would recommend to us, and then the wheels started to come off. The cabinet guy was on vacation and could not meet with us for a week. And we lost a week before we even got started.
OK, that happens. But then this cabinet maker came back to meet with us, and couldn’t commit to a time he could begin construction. After several days, we got his quote (he accidentally sent it to us directly. Oopsie.) Then we got the entire consolidated quote from the general contractor a few days later.
The quote was over our projected budget, but more importantly, there was no promise of timing AT ALL. No projected date to begin. Just … approve this budget and we will talk about it.
Uh, no. I was in sales my whole life, and as we saw with Williams Homes, when sales techniques annoy me, I run for the hills. Strike 2.
I started to look for tradesmen myself. Then, I finally listened to our son-in-law. He knew a guy.
This guy, whom I met when Little Girl married son-in-law, was a childhood friend that grew up to be a contractor. And a groomsman, for that matter.
It happens. And life-long friends can be a wonderful thing.
Contractor #3 promised to introduce me to the right people. He would help & advise, but I would be left to supervise the process that we were oh, so invested in.
I began to stitch together a team. Some vendors were recommended to me, some we found on our own. All were available to begin work … soon. Very soon.
I created floorplans. Worklists. Ideas to be incorporated into each room.
We hired crews for garage door opener installation, epoxy floor installation, kitchen demo, plumbing, stone work, electrical, cabinetry, HVAC, roofing, chimney service, paint, carpet, and a keymaster. We bought appliances, plumbing fixtures, tile and stone slabs. We chose colors. We bought carpet.
It was the Fall of ’24, and we were distraught by the difficulty of buying a new house. We made up a priority list:
A single story home. We talked about going smaller, but we decided to stick with a 4+3: 4 bedrooms, 3 baths. Converting 2 bedrooms would make an office for me and an office today or a hobby room for Mrs M in her retirement, and still leave a guest room for our visitors.
Mrs M’s perfect kitchen: Room to cook. An island. A conversation area. The center of the home.
A shop space for me. A place to create. A place to escape from Mrs M.
A nice, quiet location in Castaic or nearby Santa Clarita.
Surprise! That’s almost impossible to find.
Come to find out, single story homes are relatively rare in the Santa Clarita Valley, where larger 2-story homes are built on the standard lots to increase builder profits. In some newer developments now selling in Santa Clarita, all 1-story homes are designated as 55+ senior communities. If you want to live in an all ages neighborhood … that pretty much means you are in a 2-story house.
Unless you go searching for perfection, it seems. When we started I had no idea that a single story home with a great kitchen & some nice shop space would be unusual. Or hard to find.
Oopsie. We were looking for a unicorn.
Kim to the rescue! Our real estate agent automated some email searches for us, and we began getting emails of 1-story homes for sale in our area. We also got emails of all homes for sale in our immediate neighborhood. We supplemented those emails based on the MLS real estate listings with our own searches on Zillow … all of which helped us understand what we were up against.
We went to see some homes.
A 6 acre property up Hasley Canyon … nice in a rural setting. EXCELLENT shop. But this older home’s kitchen didn’t pass muster, and we decided we really didn’t want a large property to take care of.
A lovely, updated home in old Newhall in the style of a Spanish hacienda. Nice 4-car garage I could convert to a shop. But, this older home had additions built on a time or 3, so the layout was just a bit odd. Lovely kitchen, but dark. And, yikes, it was expensive. In the end, it just wasn’t … right. Like Harry Potter trying to use the wrong magic wand. We kept looking.
There was horse property up Placerita Canyon that was interesting. Room to build a shop. But, there were steps to enter and steps to get to the dining room. This became a hard no for that reason … Mrs M has seen houses just not work for her elderly patients because of a step or 2 in the living space. Since this wants to be our forever home, we didn’t want to buy a problem in the making.
Another home in the Placerita Canyon neighborhood popped up, and it was a lovely property. Large lawn + a swimming pool in the back yard. 6 car garage/outbuilding with an RV garage door. But, the living room was actually a converted garage with a 7′ ceiling. Bedrooms were oddly laid out … we thought about it. I worked the numbers. And the house had multiple offers above the asking price immediately, so we just moved on. No 6 car garage for me.
Lovely homes up Hasley Canyon Road (just like the Williams Homes development), but none that were on sale checked off our boxes … those not for sale did not matter, no matter how lovely they appeared to be while on our drive-bys of the neighborhoods we were interested in.
An older home on The Old Road (fitting, that) in Castaic came up, and it had nice parking space for my trailer and little else, actually. There was a bit of property … but it was hillside. It was landscaped, sprinkled … and a fire risk. Hard no.
We visited one of the new developments near us, Tesoro. Single story & 55+ only. Postage stamp yards. I mean, tiny even by LA standards. The driveways in front of the garages were not big enough to park on, it seemed, without covering the sidewalk. The homes were truly lovely … but no.
We drove through the new developments behind Magic Mountain. Several developments are growing here, but none seemed like they were our unicorn. We kept driving.
Time passed. Suddenly, it was January 2025, and we were seemingly no closer to any decisions. Unicorns are rare, after all.
And Mrs M’s knees were not good. She went bionic on January 10 with a TKR: Total Knee Replacement. So, naturally, a nice looking house was found on January 11. I went to see it with Kim, and I was very interested. Mrs M, meanwhile, could barely walk.
So we gave it 48 hours, and her first outing after surgery was to go see what was our unicorn. We put an offer in, endured a very small bidding war with another buyer, and our offer to buy the house was accepted in a week. We closed after a short escrow, and got the keys on February 28.
We developed plans. Big plans. The house was very nice, but needed Velda’s perfect kitchen and updated bathrooms. The shop part of the 3 car garage needed extensive electrical work. Suddenly, we owned 2 houses and a new hobby: making our forever home.
Our new house is fully landscaped, which is a nice relief versus buying new construction. The exterior will be untouched, for now. The interior … we’re going all in.
And just to prove that God has a sense of humor, while we were in escrow, Williams Homes reached out to Kim to say that they were (finally) ready to allow us to buy Lot 76, that Model #9 with a 3-car garage. Sorry, Buttercup. I was a very good prospect for Williams Homes, but now I’m … just not interested in doing business with you.
