SUNDAYS WITH CELIA VOL 57

Hello and welcome to Sundays With Celia Vol 57. I know it’s been a long while since I have joined you here on Sundays, and for that I apologize. I hope to make a more regular appearance in your Sunday inbox going forward.

Looking Back On Sunday

It has been a very busy time for me and I have lots to share. The project that has taken the bulk of my time has been The House On Victoria Court, my latest fixer-upper. This week I managed to share 2 of the completed rooms in the house, The Bunk Room…

and The Living Room.

In these posts I shared the step-by-step transformation of each room, showing the ugly BEFORE photos and the lovely (hope you agree) AFTER photos. In a previous post I also shared with you the kitchen renovation here.

The House On Victoria Court is now finished and on the market. I’ll be sharing more of it next week so please stay tuned. To tour our Lake Arrowhead, California Charmer in person contact my real estate agent, Lynne Wilson.

My Next Renovation Project

Now that we have completed the renovation of The House On Victoria Court I have turned my attention to renovating the dock we purchased last summer. We acquired our Lake Arrowhead dock at the very end of the season so there was not sufficient time to work on it before the winter set in. So this year, just as soon as the weather permitted, I wanted to tackle fixing up the dock house and landing. As you can see from these BEFORE photos, it was in need of repair.

The vegetation had grown out-of-control and covered our little beach. But we have now painted, cleaned up, repaired and added furniture, producing a whole new appearance. I’ve even been sewing slip covers for the cushions that go on our dock furniture. Please check in here next week for much more of my dock renovation project.

Getting Ready For The Big Day

As I’ve mentioned previously, our son will be getting married here at our Lake Arrowhead home in early September. Turns out I’ve been tasked with much of the planning, which has also taken a great deal of my time of late.

But there’s nothing like hosting a big event to prompt some home improvement projects. When we built our Mediterranean style home I decided I wanted a front walkway lined in small polished stones instead of concrete. I felt the pebble pathway was more authentic European.

As it turns out the stones were impractical during the winter, making clearing a path through snow to our front door impossible.

So, we decided to remedy that situation by installing a cement walkway. Plus we wanted to have an inviting front entryway for the wedding. So, I have been working with my contractor all week to design and frame the new walkway. We will be pouring cement on Tuesday. I think I’m gonna like it. We will also be sprucing up the yard with additional new plantings.

Celebrating My Birthday On Sunday

I turned another year older recently and my father took me out to lunch to celebrate. We went to a relatively new LA hotspot called Obicà Mozzarella Bar & Pizza Cucina located in West Hollywood on Sunset Blvd.

Having spent a lot of time in Italy I’m a bit of an Italian food snob, preferring only authentic Italian. As it turns out, Obicà is a transplant from Italy where the company has 10 restaurants dotting the country. They also have 5 restaurant outposts in the UK & Japan, and now 5 in the US . I found their food, and their service (our waiter was from Northern Italy) to be the real deal and really enjoyed my meal. We started, of course, with the name-sake Mozzarella Bar, which consisted of Smoked Fresh & Imported Buffalo Mozzarella, Fresh Burrata, assorted cured meats, pizza bread, olives, pesto sauce and a delicious eggplant sauce.

It was accompanied by an assortment of delicious fresh bread served in a cute little brown paper bag.

Among the main dishes we tried was this delicious Merluzzo, which is wild-caught black cod fish cooked in a cherry tomato, potato, olive, caper and fresh oregano sauce. It was delightful!

My husband ordered this yummy pizza which was made with roasted bell peppers, sausage and smoked buffalo mozzarella cheese. I loved the smoky flavor the cheese imparted into the pizza.

I think if I lived closer to this restaurant I’d surly become a regular. If you are in the LA area I’d highly recommend it.

A Birthday Trip To North Carolina

My birthday celebrations didn’t end with lunch at Obicà.

My husband took me on a trip to River Dunes, North Carolina, and my DC dwelling son came down and joined us for a long weekend. We stayed in one of their absolutely DARLING rental cottages. I’ll be sharing much more about my exciting low-country adventure soon.

So there you have it: SUNDAYS WITH CELIA VOL 57

Thanks so much for dropping in! 

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All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Unless otherwise noted, all photos are the original property of Celia Becker @ www.AfterOrangeCounty.com and may not be reproduced without specific permission.