Category: house

It Wasn’t Even A Dark and Snowy Night( yet)…

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Jim and I went to the local supermarket, where I spent my late spring/early summer working, and decided to rectify the ingredient staple list that was cruising on empty.

Did I mention everyone else was out buying eggs, bread and milk?
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With apologies to Simon and Garfunkel, the parking lot at the market was indeed mirroring” a hazy shady of winter.”I got in and picked up my sugar, vanilla and anise, along with a few other staples like coffee creamer, yogurt,eggs,sour cream and Yukon gold potatoes, and managed to escape none the worse for wear.

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So for all my friends who read this, please,make sure you have something to keep you cozy and warm, even if it comes in a bottle, and if you have pets, keep them inside, make sure you’re ready for this stretch of weather.

Stay Safe!

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Ode to Vacant Ground

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The above sold sign shows only the top, as I didn’t want to give the realtor any publicity or advertisement.

I always say that they are not making vacant ground any more.I was sad to see a little piece of ground here went to settlement today and now is officially sold.It is an odd size lot, and I met the owners today.They intend to build a raised rancher and a two car garage on currently**well, at least in summer** green lot.They told me they are going to try to save most of the trees there, and I would only hope they can. There are some beautiful oaks and mature holly trees on the land.

When we first moved part-time down here,we settled where we did due to the fact that it was a little bit like being in the mountains and you walk a few blocks to the bay.Now, another little corner of green is on its’ way out.The area by us, the next town down, has hardly any trees and it looks lie suburbia.The area has no character in it at all.

Here’s hoping that our little corner of the world stays that way-green!

Heartbeat

It’s St. Valentine’s Day.

I know a lot of single friends and there are all sorts of witty sayings going around on Facebook to either jab at those without a mate, or to commiserate with them.I feel for single folks, as I was one for 42 years and do remember what it is like.

For the past 15 years, I have been blessed to have Jim in my life.It was the classic 42 year-old spinster and the 48 year-old bachelor and yet here we are, almost 13 years later in our marriage, and it is safe to say that Jim still makes my heart skip a beat.

It’s funny,because I went to see 50 Shades of Grey with my neighbor last night, as Jim deemed it a chick thing.Yet for all the images conjured up by the movie,my best friend, lover and husband is indeed the one who makes my heart still skip a beat.We haven’t gone through children, only fur kids which can be up there with human children,deaths of parents,selling houses, moving, buying houses,jobs,retirement,illnesses, and, well, you catch my drift.We are on the road to hopefully growing old together,hoping that we are that blessed to accomplish that.

If you are reading this and single,I would tell you to hang in there if you are still looking, or good for you if you are comfortable in your current situation.If you are married like me, I hope you had a marvelous St.Valentine’s day.Savor love all 365 days a year, not just today.If you have lost your love one,cherish their memory!

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Moon over Racetrack

I titled this post after walking up the street from my neighbor and took a quick shot on the phone.

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It seemed appropriate that the moon illuminated the house, as today marks one month that I am officially retired.Shedding light on a new life as this moon is on the house, well, it has been an adventure so far.

It has been fabulous not to deal with the expressway, the buses, the fellow commuters,..I could go on and on. I miss some of the folks that I worked with, and the nice part is, they know who they are.I am sure there are just as many folks who couldn’t give a hoot that I am gone, or even realize that I am gone. Uh, news flash,folks…who cares? I don’t.

Being in a new stage of life gives you new appreciation of age and of time.When you need to do things through the day, you wonder however did you accomplish things when you worked.People would constantly ask me if I was bored.Gee, when I get a free minute I’ll let you know.Age comes into play when you actually realize some places start giving senior citizen discounts at 55.Not too shabby.

The moon is my friend. It has given me light on retirement, and hopefully it will continue to guide my way.

Working out the glitches

We are going through the house and trying to put some things away this weekend.

There’s a pile for the attic, and we have made a few bags of donations to the local church, but how can you work at putting things away when you have to be a math major? Sure, there is common sense that x amount of handbags can only fit in such a spot.As my work career is not that far behind me at this point, and maybe, just maybe a job will be in my future, how do you figure out what you’d need without hiding it out in an attic.

You can go on-line and find out storage solutions and, honestly?There are the two of us and two dogs.Then there are 12+years of marriage to weed through and prior life things to keep.

I’d like to think that I don’t have to hurry about this, although it would be nice to have the house shape up a little better. A few short tables or bookcases, things of that sort, but in the meanwhile, working out the glitches seems to be the next step.

Stay tuned.

The Beat goes on….

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Another Thursday night.

Well, not another. It’s November. My oldest nephew turns 27 on Tuesday.I remember when Matt and I were best of buddies, and I could carry him on my shoulders, and we played “zoomie cars”.**sigh**

I can’t believe it.

I also can’t believe I have reached a kind of short timer status on the job. It’s surreal as I sit here and think about that.

Fortunately, Zush has a vet appointment with our new vet on Saturday morning as we march forward with maintaining good health for all of us as we approach our new life. It’s kind of weird to even type that, but in a good way.

Off to Undisclosed in the mid-day, hanging out with ourselves,and our new neighbors, and getting ourselves immersed in a different way of life.I am praying it’ll be a smooth transition for all of us.

Be it ever so humble

We are working our way up the food chain.

We moved.

We moved things into a storage locker.

We moved into the house.

Time to get boxes out of the closets, empty them, and put some things into the attic until we need them.

It was a good way to spend a rainy Saturday.There is nothing like the sense of accomplishment to know that some things never have to be packed or unpacked again.The sense that you have finally found a right spot or space for things to be stored in, neatly.Sure there are things that actually will need storage within the house, such as a book shelf and the like.

It’s starting to really feel like home.

Yay!

Below is a picture for my friend B, who looks for pictures I usually post for the weekend showing the girls “going home”.Well, B? This picture is the one of the girls, going through the front door at home.

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Living out of a suitcase…sort of

Our home of twelve years was sold last June.

I’m not due to retire until this coming January, God willing.

I’m living at my late parent’s house. it is truly transitional housing.

What does this spell?

My handbag is my life.

Women accessorize.It’s a given. Fashion’s fifth avenue has more than enough magazines where you can blink and you still won’t miss the newest handbags on the editorial fashion pages, if not the ads.We are taught that it is an extension of ourselves. Sure it is, until we have our first chiropractic visit or physical therapy trying to regain a normal state in our shoulders, arms or back.Yes, you, reading this rubbing your sore shoulder. You know what I am talking about.

Most working women have their lives, to some degree in a handbag.After all, we carry them, we keep our transit fares in them, our building passes in them, house keys in them, make-up in them, cell phone, e-reader, and so on, and so on…you catch my drift?

Well, being between two houses, I am in a constant state of,” Oh, I might need this:I’ll put it in my bag.” That’s starts one thing, and as Jim likes to call it, you end up having an avalanche effect.For example, as soon as I post this blog, I have to figure out to get a few pounds off the handbag.**chuckling**I know many women, myself included, who could clean out their handbag twice weekly and still wake up in the morning wondering what gremlin got in and throws even more stuff in our handbags.

I thought I was saying something when I went to a Vera Bradley bag, thinking cloth has to be lighter than leather.Yeah, right.The material doesn’t matter,when you put your belongings into it.

I am going to post this, and then,well, my handbag is not the fabric of the picture below but it is of this style, which of course, is so serviceable that Vera Bradley discontinued it!**sigh**
I will go and try to lighten the load.Of course, it goes without saying that I look forward to the time I’ll be living in our new home and won’t need my “stuff’ clogging up my handbag.

Feel free to share your handbag stories with me. I’m all ears.

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Autumn Saturday

It was a good day here in Undisclosed.

We spent a good deal of the time working on things around the house. I got a chance to catch up on some laundry and actually clean the house.Imagine that.Cleaning MY house.It’s been fifteen months since I’ve been able to say that-clean MY house.

Feels good.

The girls got out a lot for fresh air and sunshine and we all got out for a good family walk. We are in tonight vegging out for rest. We are actually getting a chance to charge ourselves up for the week.

Enjoy what’s left of your weekend!

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Hack-hack….

I have started hacking away all of a sudden.

It starts as soon as I leave the house in the morning.

I saw what it was this morning…

RAG WEED.

Talk about your warm and fuzzy childhood moments.As soon as I realized what it was, I heard my Mom talking to me.

” Whenever it was time to go back to school, you always came down with a ” cold”. Finally I took you to the doctor who said to me you had hay fever.”

Jeez, Mom, that would explain the amount of handkerchiefs you sent me to school with, tucked away in my uniform blouse sleeve.Thanks, Mom. I always wondered about that.

I thought of something I recently saw posted on Facebook. It went something to the effect of your Mother never leaves you.

What a comforting thought.Miss you every day,Mom.

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Changing of the guard….

Undisclosed Deux has just lost its peep-show status.

Our windows are now covered by Roman blinds, and we are so happy with them.The colors we chose work well with the house, so we are happy with that.It’s incredible how far we have come from the old house. I joking said to Jim this morning that we need to go out and look at house colors and roof colors…it doesn’t seem that long ago that we were doing that.

Time marches on!**Thank God!**

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The saga continues…

I think the fall( #2) of last week has really caught up with me.A trip to the doctor is definitely in order, because the pain is kind of gripping.

We have come back up for another week of trying to cross things off our list: it’s amazing the things that pile up when you are working toward moving.The physicality of boxes- moving, opening, trashing is becoming an art in itself.

The donation pile was worthwhile, and there will be more to follow what was given this weekend. You never realize how long it takes until you actually have to deal with it.It would help if we actually had some furniture to put some of the stuff in: the amount of boxes would be down even more.

What a job! When we are done, I’ll party!

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So there’s this house, see..

.and I am here hanging out.

First wash and dryer loads were done successfully today.YAY! That marked a step in the right direction. It was as if I kind of said this is my house, and I am here. It was kind of a liberating thing.

The only weird part is when you are used to old stuff and noises and now you have new equipment and noises and you realize how behind the times**kind of**you are.Plus the fact that I never really paid attention to noises because they were pretty much the same.

I have been on the laptop futzing around and I have knitting in the corner I should be working on, books I can be reading…I’d go outside but the polar vortex tells me otherwise.

Stay warm, friend!

All new

You’ll never guess where I am.

Nope.Not at my usual corner where I try to type this at.

I am in Undisclosed Deux, sitting at my Corian counter in the kitchen and it really feels great. It also feels a little surreal, knowing all of the angst that we put into this place, but it feels great.

We stopped at the local grocery and I bought some staples for here and there is actually stuff in our brand new refrigerator.Not one like we bought twelve years ago in a scratch and dent spot that looked pretty good, i.e., you couldn’t tell where we got it but my brand new, freezer on the bottom, refrigerator on top appliance,

It’s kind of funny that when we first moved here into the old house it was a blizzard and here we are on the first weekend** kind of** in the new spot, there is snow on the ground and temperatures that I don’t even want to think about.

Guess a new journey has begun.

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Principles of Heat

We are down at Undisclosed Deux and it was quite damp last night.We have two up and working outlets,so we used one to get heat for the cottage last night.

Problem is, the floor man is due to come in this morning and put hardwood floors in the kitchen.I have learned that hardwood is very temperamental and should be only be set down in a certain temperature.By us having heat last night,I have my doubts that it’ll get done today.
The only saving grace is we are up in the city next weekend, so the heat, no doubt, will be on full steam.The painters are due to give the interior one more coat,so I am sure they will be happy to have heat.

Good thing we are in no hurry to get in here.**HAH**

It ain’t over…

…until it’s over.

Well, we thought we were done with picking out things needed for the construction of
of the house.

HAH!

It seems we forgot tile for the bottom of the shower-silly us! So on the way down
today, we have to stop yet again and pick out tile so the shower, I guess, can actually get started. Never mind the fact that we have no heat or electric yet…but there will be tile!

Oh, did I mention I’ll be getting the gray hair from this covered this Saturday?

Just thought I’d throw that in under the paint category…lol.

Quiet Time

My girls gently woke me this morning: one with her pants, and the other with her paws.

I respect leaky plumbing…lol

As Jim is the one they normally would go to, I figured it was my turn to get them out.
It is a breezy late evening, with a wind blowing through the trees. I have a beautiful
Japanese Maple in the front of the house, and even in the darkness, the color of the
leaves are brilliant.I think it is one of the reasons my father liked this house.

When we get down to the new house we’ll have a front lawn to landscape.As we both are
lovers of trees, I am sure that they will a major part of the front lawn. We often
drive in the area and take in what we like and don’t care for in front of other
homes.Ideally, I hope to convey the same sense of quiet and color that I get on this
front lawn.

A piece of it will surely reflect my folks influence on my gardening tastes:of that,
you can be sure.

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It’s an Omen…..

We picked out colors for the house.

A plum color for the bathrooms, a green/tan mix( hard to actually describe)
for the guest bedrooms, a teal for our bedroom, and….golden retriever
for the kitchen and rest of the house.

We had rich colors in our last home; it was a Victorian and the colors
suited it. This being our, hopefully, last, easy house, well, we felt
the gold was a warm color to welcome folks in and keep our earthy colors.

Plus, the fact that it was “golden retriever”, well…it had me agreeing
with it-no problem!

November is here…

…and the weather outside, color on leaves not withstanding, is more reminiscent of
March.

Go figure!

A busy morning on tap for us gals, both my four=legged and me, so we can do our
household chores and go down to Undisclosed Location II with Jim.

Uh, let me rephrase that…

We’ll, no doubt, spend time in the tile store, major box hardware stores, in’
addition to trying to kick back and relax over the weekend. We’ll see how
far things have hopefully progressed and what decisions need to be finalized
and put to bed.Jim,from the beginning, has said, once we make the decision
on x, y, or z, we have made it and that’s that.I have to keep that in my
mind constantly because it has been a seemingly long process.

Enjoy your Friday!

Water, water…

if only electric would join the party.

Our neighbor from Undisclosed called to let us know they connected our water
to the house, and that the hardwood floor was being delivered today. If you
know anything about hardwood, it needs to get acclimated to a warm house before
it can get put down.Now if only the HVAC folks would join in.

Will keep you posted, that is if I have any mind left from dealing
with this….lol

Color me confused…

To follow yesterdays’ post about drywall, We decided today to
change a main color of choice for a bit of the house.

We wanted to make the house light, since we had rich colors
in the last house.Turns out the color we picked was a little
too light.I think I found out where all English majors went
for a job-they come up with paint color names.

Ocean Breeze
Vanilla Latte
Flirtation
Optimism
French Market
Baby Toes
Change of Heart

I wonder why the just don’t name them after the 64 crayola
colors…lol.