This photo of our custom-built natural gas "BBQ Galore Grand Turbo" was taken as the landscapers were completing the installation. The brick and tile structure also incorporates areas for a built-in refrigerator, trash receptacle, and paper towel holder (as well as storage area under...
...the 6-burner BBQ). The BBQ also has a two-burner side unit and a rotisserie for cooking chickens or roasts. The view of the lake while cooking is GREAT!
This is Steve's FIRST COOK-OFF on the new BBQ....
We are exceptionally pleased with the night-time landscape lighting done by the contractor. The goal was to 'light the home and plants' and to NOT have any lights shinning outward so as to be seen from the street. This image was taken just after sunset while the sky was still slightly lighted...
...while this photo was taken just after dark. We feel the contractor did an exceptionally good job illuminating the structure and surrounding plants and trees within the funding constraints we had given him. In short, our house certainly stands out well at night in our tract of 66 new homes!
This is a view of the rear yard and gazebo as seen from the jacuzzi at night.
From the other side of the rear yard, this is the fire pit as well as the lighted trees and foliage across the rear of the house.
In June 2008, we finally were ready to have our 'New Home' welcoming party and invited about 30 people to the event. It had been a long time since Steve & Lena had hosted a full-blown dinner event for this number of people (more than 20 attended)...
...but we managed to get all the goodies out in a timely manner. In addition to Dave and Gretchen (who came down from Newport Beach), we had several of our neighbors along with our Real Estate agent...
...the Landscape Contractor, and a number of local friends. Charlene (center) is trying to decide between chicken, ribs, chili, shrimp, or salad. On the left are our neighbor, Jamie, and another friend, Joan.
In the foreground is Alan, our Realtor, with Nina and her daughter. In the rear are our friends Duke and Yolando with Lena.
This is a 'key-player' who we invited to this event: Our Landscaper Contractor, Anatoliy and his wife, Galina.
Some of the people had elected to forego the air-conditioned house (it was HOT the day of the party!) and to eat their food outside in the gazebo. In the center of this photo (in the dark shirt) is Dave, our next-door neighbor (with his wife, Jamie, and their new baby in the rear).
In the center of this group shot is Angie, the realtor who sold us this house. Everything considered, we feel our party went off quite well and people seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves, BUT, a party of this size is NOT something we would want to do every month!
One day Lena and I drove to Del Mar for coffee and happened to stop in an art store there which was going out of business. We initially bought this large oil painting by an Italian, Antonio, for our formal dining room area. In this photo, the people from the art shop are starting to hang this huge paintiing.
When they came to hang the oil painting, they also brought several other art works including this lithograph, "Marriage," by Marc Chagall with which Steve simply fell in love. Lena took advantage of the 'sale prices' and surprised Steve by buying "Marriage" for his birthday!
Steve also LOVED this other lithograph titled "Carmen" by the same famous Russian artist (Marc Chagall) and we ended up buying it as well.
This is how our formal dining area looks after both the large oil painting by Antonio and the "Carmen" lithograph by Marc Chagall were hung.
Lena had always wanted one of the antique Russian religious icons her Grand-mother had left her parents, but, her mother has kept all of them for herself. So, during a trip to Moscow in March, Lena bought one of the modern wooden and bronze 'reproductions' for our home.
Dee Bogart surprised us with a visit in July when she was able to stop and see our new house while she was out this way from her home in Maryland.We really enjoyed seeing her again and hope that she and her husband, Jim, will get back out this way.
This is why Steve has to squeeze himself into only 25% of our Queen-size bed...Lena and Kisha fully occupy the other 75% of the bed!
In October 2008, California was experiencing a number of wildfires. One day while Steve was working on the computer, he suddenly realized that a helicopter was flying very, VERY low over our house. It stopped to hover over the lake located 100 yards behind our house and dipped its hose to take on a load of water. Within minutes of it's...

...departure, a 2nd helo dropped down over our 'Ivy Gate' tract and circled our home on it's approach to the lake. This photo of the helo's departure also shows the smoke from the fire located on the back-side of a hill only about a half-mile away to our North-East.

While we have no canyons or heavy vegetation in the immediate vicinity of our home that are conducive to wild fires, it is comforting to have this lake next to our home 'just in case!' Click this link to see a movie shot from our back yard of a helo APPROACHING the lake by flying over our neighbor's house.

With 2 helicopters in service and the fire only a half-mile away, the round-trip flight times were short.

Click this link to see a movie of a helo DEPARTING the lake after taking on water.

This map provides an illustration of the fire's area relative to our home.
This is the composition of our Christmas wreath, angel, and Joker decorations (or 'props') for our 'Christmas 2008' photo which we mailed out 'electronically.'
Since we had never eaten in this area during the 16 months we have lived in the house, Lena decided to decorate our formal dining area first for the Christmas Photo and to then slightly rearrange the same decorations to...
...use this same table for entertaining friends we planned to have over during the holidays.
By moving the Angel to one end of the table and shifting the Joker to the other end, we could use the center seats to serve dinner to 4...or even 6...guests.
The coffee table in front of the fireplace in the formal 'living room' section of the house provided a nice area to display gifts.
Lena, of course, simply had to change the decor on the island in the kitchen...
...by adding Christmas decorations, colorful gourmet cookies, and other tasty treats.
We treated Duke and Yolando (and ourselves!) to one of COSTCO's 'prime-cut' Standing Rib Roasts along with Lena's special baked potatoes, corn-on-the-cob, cheese bread....
and salad----all of which turned out exceptionally well! Steve was especially pleased with being able to find the higher 'prime-cut' quality of Rib Roast (with bone still in).
To round out the meal, we served RED VELVET LAYERED CAKE with ICE CREAM!

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