Home And Life Refresh

We promised to each other during the pandemic, when this is all over, we are going full speed with our lives, without hesitation, we will check off all our bucket list. A few years of isolation made us realize “time” is one of the most valuable assets in our lives. It is already more than halfway through this year, and I think we have already accomplished many of our goals. One of them was to travel around the world again, meet the families, and visit places. We went to Denmark in March, Hawaii in May, and Japan in September. In between the trips we had visitors we missed seeing.

At home, we have continued to improve and renovate our rooms and outdoor spaces. The baby area has gone through several modifications since Koa was born. As he grew, the needs around him have also changed.

Koa is now 1 and a half year old and longer than the changing table. He has always liked sleeping between us, but here we made a nice corner for him with his favorite giraffe next to his crib. He naps here twice a day.

The viking ships have never left above Koa’s changing table. Below, I have organized Koa’s daily essentials.

Another room I had a chance to tidy up recently was an office room. I have recently accepted a job offer from the team that does consumer electronics, which I always wanted to go back to. A long story short, it was about time for me to get back into the workforce again after enjoying every bit of being a full-time mom for 5 months since I decided to leave my previous work place.

This room has turned into my new office space. Nicolai has moved down to the room we are currently renovating next to the garage. The desk is facing out the window and there’s plenty of space behind me for Koa and his new nanny to hang out during the day.

Backyard Rennovation

Sometime before I was pregnant with Koa, Nicolai and I had this big project, renovating our backyard and turning it into Uni’s dog run. You cannot imagine how messy this area was when we moved in. Trees and weeds were growing wildly, the big pine tree was saggy and out of control, and wires, pipes, and trash were everywhere. This space has gone through a dramatic transformation.

Here’s the path leading to “Uni’s ranch.” We asked a contractor to build a little planter along the path. We have planted a fig tree and some native Californian plants. Now, growing Thai basils, which we often need to cook Thai curries.

Below are the pictures of before and after. Nicolai and I moved all these gravels to underneath the deck spending many many days. I remember it was endless work to clear up the space. After smoothening out the sand below, we laid out big rolls of grass tarp. We visited a store that specializes in grass tarps so that we can pick the one that blends well into our backyard surrounded by Californian plants.

We bought one of the cheapest woods to assemble the fences but really spent a lot of time choosing the right stain color. The staining process was the most time consuming part but assembly went quite fast with a nail gun. After I found out I was pregnant, Nicolai finished up most of it including the little door, where Uni can walk into her ranch.

The last update was to build the wall where the railroad ties were sitting at the foot of the bedrock underneath the house. The dark finish of the wall blends well with our black and white scheme of the house. We are quite happy with how this space has turned out. During the fall, the warm sunlight casts through our big pine tree. It’s quite amazing to sit here with a cold drink and look out to the other side of the ridge. One of the past summers, and this was before Koa was born, we did an outdoor movie night here at the ranch. We want to do it again maybe when Koa gets a little older. Before that we need to figure out the mosquito situation.

Greetings in Japanese

もう既に9月の終わりに入ってしまいましたね。私たちリトルファミリーは、日本旅行から帰ってきたばかりで、時差ぼけと戦う毎日を過ごしています。今年は３月にデンマーク、５月にハワイ、そして今回の日本帰国と、パンデミック中に出来なかったことを全て詰め込んだような年になりました。この数年何を学んだかというと、人生に躊躇する時間なんてないってこと。あと何十年自分達は病気も怪我もせず元気に過ごせるのだろう、親たちに助けが必要になるまであと何年あるんだろう、こあくんが小さくて一緒に遊んでくれる時期はあとどのくらいあるのだろうと考えた時に、時間というものはとても大切で、待つことを辞めて、できる限り実行していこうと今年の始め、心に決めました。

家のリノベーションは果てしなく続いていますが、新しい仕事も始まったということで（私事ですが、アマゾンに就職いたしました）、子どものエリアや自分の新しいデスクスペースなど最近整えてみました。

本文では、バックヤードのリノベーションについても書きましたが、かなりの時間と労力を費やした場所で、見事にウニちゃんのドッグランに変貌しました。過去にはアウトドアムービーナイトをするなど、敷地内の中で楽しいエリアのひとつです。