Category: remodel

Its hard to believe that we have been in our house going on 7 years!! When we first moved in we did a flurry of home improvements. New AC, new shutters, new water heater, new water conditioner. New furniture, appliances  Painted the exterior,  pavers in front and back, landscaped the back yard. New hot tub. 

WHEW

After all that we were happy to sit back and enjoy. I thought we were done.  But over time the home improvement ideas started up and started to grow. Last month we had a walk in shower installed in our bathroom. Much needed and much over due. turned out great!

This month its Granite counter tops! We had been wanting to do away with the Formica countertop and mis matched brown granite island. We shopped around and decided on “viscount white” granite. They just finished the backsplash yesterday. Turned out better that what he hoped for.  

The houses are coming!! The houses are coming!!

Unfortunately for any nature loving person, the construction of 500 houses next to Coyote Hills has begun. A few weeks ago the Patterson Family finally got to sell the last of old Patterson Ranch to developers,  and for the last few weeks, double loaders have been making trips back and forth between “phase 1” and the old quarry next to the Dumbarton Bridge.

But get this. The ground study indicated that that top two feet of soil in the new housing development is “TOXIC”. The soil contains decades of toxic who-knows-what that was used when the land was an actual working farm. So part of the “deal” was that they would remove the top two feet of soil and dump it in the old quarry,  a hundreds feet deep pit that sits next to the toll plaza at Dumbarton Bridge.

But get this!! The pit where they are dumping the toxic soil will someday be a park!  The city of Fremont is letting developer fill the pit with toxic soil that someday your kids and grand-kids will be playing at and swimming in. Luckily for us the toxic stuff will settle to the bottom.  At least thats what they say. Good luck with that!

On our saturday ride we went to the top of skunk hill to see it for ourselves. Truck after truck pulls up to the pit and dumps the toxic soil. Oh, and since it was another windy day in Fremont, that toxic dirt and dust was blowing right into Fremont!!!!

While up there I took a 360 video view. Check it out by clicking here.

We also noticed a little make-shift memorial just off  the single track up on skunk hill. Just a couple of pictures and a can of Arizona Ice Tea, along with some nicely placed rocks to keep everything together. We paid our respects and carried on.

They say its the little thing in life that makes things interesting.  We have been riding out to Coyote Hills and Alameda Creek for years now. These days and weather permitting , we take an old levee road out to “no man’s land” where the old salt ponds meet the San Francisco Bay. Whenever we get out this far we usually take a break.  Someone else had set up some old pieces of washed up scrap  wood  to create a makeshift bench.  We started to call it the “bus stop”.  This is the same spot where we have seen seals bobbing around during high tide. Also saw a couple of sharks trolling in the shallows just a few weeks ago, and tons of birds feeding and flying when the tide is out.   The last few times we’ve been out there and the tide is out, we set up a little game of  “hit the ring”.  There is a stick sticking up out of the mud, we found an old rusty metal ring and balanced the ring on the wood. Then we would stand up on the levee road and throw rocks or sticks and try to knock the ring off the stick. Click here to watch video.  We have come to call this activity the “Olhone games”  after the local native American tribe that used to inhabit this land.   There are times when we get out to the bus stop and the tide is in, the wood is underwater and metal ring on the bay floor.   Whenever the tide is out and we set up the ring, we hope that its still “up”  next time we ride out there. So we rode out there yesterday.  A muddy ride to say the least.  We get about half way out the levee road and the rain from the recent storms had turned part of the trail into slop. Mud started to cake up on the tires (and everything else! ) and at some point we were only going forward because we were afraid to stop for fear we couldn’t get going again! It eventually got a little better, and as we rode up on the bus stop we could see the metal ring still hanging, only this time way out in the water!  The  ring was barely hanging on as the waves lapped up against it and the wind blew.  Still pretty cool to realize it had hung there since Saturday with all the wind and tides and rains.   Amazing!

We’ve been doing regular video calls with Kate lately. We even learned how to Take a snapshot from the video feed and save it to our pictures. Its so good to see that smiling face and beautiful blue eyes. She is about half way through “construction wire man” school out there at Sheppard AFB in Wichita Falls Texas. Looking good Flaherty!!