What is happening with our house!
Everywhere I look, something is falling apart.

First it was the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Two crapped out and I had to buy some new ones. Thank goodness for Amazon Prime. I was able to search for the exact ones I needed as they all communicate with each other in different parts of the house… PLUS they had the best price when compared to local shops like Home Deport or even Walmart. At over $30 each, they are not cheap!

But then the fridge electronics stopped working and the dishwasher started acting up! We’ve been living in this home for almost 6 years and then like clockwork, right after the the warranties are over, things are starting to break down. Coincidence??! Hmmmm….

Well part of home ownership is maintenance and repairs. I’ve been pretty good on the maintenance side of things, so I guess it was time to get my hands dirty with the repairs. So went online to do some research and came across Easy Appliance Parts. Wow, they got everything! After a few weeks cross-referencing things, checking prices, and learning what I needed to do to fix a few things, I ordered what I needed. The end result is that our fridge is almost like new (I also fixed the water dispenser), we have a new dishwasher (that was expensive), I replaced/fixed a few hoses, added a water softener system, and replaced the detectors. Well… I actually got the fire depart to replace one of the detectors because it goes into a 16 foot ceiling that is on the stairs. I wasn’t going to balance on a latter to do that again. Taking it down was hard enough!

Oh – and why was the fire department in our house, you ask? Well, they had to replace all the fire sprinklers in the ceiling as they were defective. I guess I can (sort of) add that repair to the list as well, no?!?

But with all the extra little chores around the house, it didn’t deter us from enjoying a nice Easter Brunch next to the ocean at the Ritz Carlton. I love that place! It’s not cheap, but I’d rather not go out for super 3-4 times, just to save enough to eat once at the Ritz during one of their Brunch festivities.

OMG – Amazing!

We spent more nearly 5 hours enjoying our time there. You can go out on the balcony to enjoy to ocean between dishes and there is no rush to leaving. Stay as long as you like, enjoy the grounds, and the huge dessert selection (even though I prefer the oysters and caviar)! Oh – plus it’s free valet parking!

Oh-la-la!

I also had a deal with a hotel chain that was expiring at the end of April, so we spend one night up in Big Bear. We hadn’t been up in the mountains for quit some time, so we decide to do a quick ‘staycation’. The nice part was that our yearly National Parks Pass covered a number of forest locations where we could simply park and go for some relaxing walks. Nice!

We also had the loooong awaited official opening of our Yorba Linda Town Square and it looks like our town is getting its place on the map. We Previously had a Japanese grocery store open up just down the street as well. Now with all these local choices, we don’t need to go all the way to Irvine or Newport to get certain types of food. We even enjoyed an evening of ‘Meat and Sake’ tasting just by getting produce from our local stores!

April was also the month that I started my ground school pilot training. My goal is to complete my ground school before summer so that I can get all the technical things out of the way before getting up in the air. Let’s see how that goes!