Family Time

The last three months have been all about family.  We arrived in the southern California desert on December 4th.  We got reconnected with Kean’s folks and spent a quite Christmas, New Year’s Eve (at least until midnight on the East Coast) and Super Bowl with them.  We did whatever chores they had for us and of course, Kean was their tech support.

Also during this time we had the RV body damage repaired, had the RV weighed, fixed the broken dryer (again), fixed the broken bed (again) and also did some home remodeling.  We had always hated the uncomfortable sofa in the RV so we decided to replace it with some theater seating.  We decided to do this project here because we had a garage that we could put the sofa in after it was removed from the RV and before I could sell in on Craig’s List.  I researched around and found some that we could try out at Best Buy.  We ordered them and then the fun began.  I have chronicled the process in photos so you can see what the process looked like from start to finish.  First we unboxed the seats and carried one in to make sure we could get in through the RV door.  We measured several times in the store but you know how that goes.  Once we brought the chair in we started to disassemble the sofa.  Remember that had to go out that door also.  Once we got that disconnected and out to the garage we brought the other chair in and started the work to make a regular house recliner into an RV recliner.  Since the chairs would be sitting on the slide platform, Kean needed to add wheels to the front to not only aid in the slide mechanism but to level the chairs where they would be sitting.  So with the wheels installed and a painted trim piece added to cover the wheels, Kean set out to bolt the chairs to the floor.  You can’t have anything moving around when you are traveling down the road, now can you.  Next we had to work on the cosmetics.  With the sofa removal, there was a hole in the side of the kitchen cabinet and some heating ductwork was now exposed.  Kean cut a piece of plywood to create a new side of the cabinet and then built some cabinetry to cover the ductwork.  I was in charge of staining.  All in all it took a couple of weeks but the finished product turned out pretty nice.  And the chairs are really comfortable.  Now Kean falls asleep at 7:30 pm instead of 8:30 pm. 🙂

With the chores behind us it was time to party! Kean’s cousin Scott and his wife Anne came to stay with us for a few days before they toured other parts of southern California. Since we had the casita we could easily host them. They got to experience how we spend our winters and I know they had a hard time returning to the nasty Philadelphia weather. They had one day of rain in two weeks. Heck we only had one day of rain in three months. Anyway, they enjoyed the amenities at the casita like the pool and the hot tub and were able to ride our bikes around the community. WE joined them for a day trip to Joshua Tree to climb around on some boulders while watching the real climbers do their thing. We were even able to do a day trip to Mission Bay to meet up with them after they left us. They also joined us along with Kean’s sister Karyn and her husband Rick to do an Escape Room adventure and dinner after. Fun times were had by all.

We are now camped out in Pala CA. Not much around here but a nice central location to get back to the desert for a day trip and also to the coast. We drove out to Carlsbad and Oceanside to see the sights and have dinner with some old friends. We visited the Museum of Making Music which was pretty cool, saw the beach cottage that was in the movie Top Gun, and took a sunset walk on the Oceanside pier.

The last thing we did before we left the desert was to host a family and friends party that I called “Let’s Make A Memory”. And that we did. It was a wonderful night where I was able to get Kean’s parents, their kids & spouses, grandkids and their significant others, and their friends together. Even Scott and Anne were able to join us so that the East Coast Westcotts were represented. We even snuck in a birthday cake for his Mom Grete to celebrate her 83th. The photo at the top of the post was taken at the party.