Visalia: not exactly the vacation spot you think of first

I spent a few days in Visalia last week. Joel, somewhat overwhelmed with work, school, parenting, etc., welcomed the offering of maternal help to get his new house put in some semblance of order.

Joel's bought a really great house. It's a 1500 square foot home that was originally listed as a 4bed/2bath. As soon as escrow closed he knocked down a weirdly constructed wall that created the 4th bedroom, turning that part of the house back into the den it should be. He also tiled both bathrooms before moving in!

While Joel was at work Thursday and Friday, I had no shortage of tasks to keep me busy. There were carpets to clean, loads and loads of laundry to wash, and some minor electrical issues to be repaired (which explains the meticulous heart-shaped post-it note numbering system you see all over the walls in the slideshow). Since they just moved in and she has already moved out but doesn't yet have anywhere to put all of her worldly goods, the garage is chock full of stuff to be sorted/boxed/tossed/organized. Think of these as "before" shots...




Joel picked Landon up from Cindy on Friday afternoon and had him until Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately for me, Landon was napping when it came time for me to head back home on Sunday. I didn't get to snarfle him goodbye and missed him and his daddy by the time I got a block away!