The Magic of an Ordinary Day

getting out

We are having our usual spring/winter dance here in the mountains.  Wintry last weekend.  Spring-ish yesterday.  And today it's snowing again.  Uuhhhgg!

We took advantage of the 60+ degree day yesterday and did a ton of yard work.  Mostly we pruned the apple, peach and apricot trees that are totally out of control (and probably haven't been pruned in 10 years, if ever).  We also trimmed down the huge lilac bushes, roses, oaks and cedars.  And because I never get to my end of the year tear-down of my vegetable garden I did that, too. 

It was a great day.  Hannah was out with us all day, and we even had a picnic lunch outside complete instead of going inside to eat.  It was so nice to have a little sun on our faces, do some physical work outside and just get out of the house. 

Hannah had fun climbing the peach tree.  I don't think she's ever climbed a tree before, and this one is perfect -- not too high up, but plenty of branches to hold on to. 

And here's my hardworking hubby, who is actually quite cute, too:

In honor of Halloween

Our neighborhood spider has decided to set up residence on our new window.  I haven't decided what to do about him yet--it's been so windy that his web is blown away every night.  One one hand it's pretty and educational for Hannah (and hopefully she won't have the creeps about spiders that I do) but on the other hand...the web is huge and so is the spider!  Here's a (blurry, sorry) picture of him, and he's about as big as Hannah's head!  Yuck.

home improvements, part one million

We got our new energy-efficient windows installed on Friday, and -- man, what a difference!!!  We have this great pop out window in the living room that looks over the yard and the mountains beyond that, and it had this window style that broke it up into little pieces.  Circa the 1970's.  It was U-G-L-Y and drafty.  So while we got the rest of the drafty, single glass ugly windows with busted up screens replaced, we redid the livingroom window, too. 

Dwayne is now working hard at pulling out the ugly light fixture that was hanging in there, repairing the ceiling, insulating around the window (now there's a thought to whoever built this bump out!), texturing, painting and finishing the sash.  He's been a busy boy this weekend.

Here is the new window (the ceiling/sash, etc is all tore up in the photo)...

And here is the old window (this photo was taken when we did the walk-through before closing on our house)...

And can I just say "Holy Cow!!!!!"  Look how much Hannah has grown!  She looked so cute in that little coat and the chukka boots, though, didn't she?

popcorn, plumbing and everyday life

We've just been working and working at home.

Hannah is getting better every day in preschool, and I was greeted by big smiles from her teachers yesterday and reports that she is coming out of her shell and joining in more activities, and playing with a little boy named Evan.  Well, Evan is really cute so I can see that she has good taste!  She always comes home from school, has a huge lunch and naps.  She hasn't napped regularly in months.  Probably all that great stimulation at school is tuckering her out.

Here she is yesterday...she fell asleep watching cartoons after having her afternoon snack.  She was so funny, she hung on to that box of popcorn for almost the whole nap!

Our other issue is our plumbing and water heater.  Another "what were they thinking????!!!!" previous homeowner moment when black gunk came out of our faucets and we realized we probably needed to drain and clean the hot water heater (which also hasn't been functioning well since the black gunk incident).  Apparently when you live in an area with very high mineral content in your well, you need to drain and clean the hot water tank and the heating element in there on a yearly basis.  Like how you have to clean your coffee maker.  Only with 40 gallons of water.

The "what the hell" moment came when we realized that, although the previous owners had replaced the water heater not long ago, the put it in the basement, where there are no drains.  So now for us to do the yearly maintenance, we will have to shlepp 40 gallons of water up the stairs in buckets to drain that tank.  Why didn't they put it in the utility room where the washer and dryer are?  They plumbed that tank wrong anyway when they installed it -- which we discovered last winter and spent about $500 to get it right -- so why not just do it right, and put it in a spot where it is easily accessible?  Aaaarghhhhhhh!!!

So that's what we'll be doing this afternoon after Dwayne gets up from sleeping.  It sounds like so much fun, doesn't it? 

some tidbits

Nothing really on my mind, just doing some projects and cooking.  Whenever I get home from a trip I go on a major cooking spree.

Dwayne and I made better use of our partially finished basement yesterday when we dragged the old leather couch down there, and rearranged/repositioned my craft area.  Hannah has her art stuff down there and some toys so she is all set.  Since I've taken up jewelry making, the lighting wasn't cutting it any more, so we adjusted things.  It will serve us well until we get this room finished off plus it's nice and cool down there. 

On a cooking note, I discovered a fabulous way to make corn...honey chipotle grilled corn from Sunset magazine.  It was incredible---rich, a little sweet, a little hot.  Total yum!  Try it, seriously, you'll never go back.

Anyone who knows me knows I'm not a huge meat eater, but lately I have been chowing down on beef and blue cheese.  I had it twice this week --- in pasta and a rolled steak stuffed with blue cheese I made this week.  That's more red meat than I usually eat in a month. 

Hannah is doing well, although she had one of her waking up in the middle of the night and staying awake for 2 hours thing last night so I'm a little tired.  She has pretty much given up naps altogether so I hope she's not super cranky later this evening.

I scrapped two pages yesterday!  I was so excited to have all that room in the basement I just got down there and played around yesterday.  I have been in such a funk since Dick got sick and died, I haven't done more than complete my design team requirements at Scrap Muse.  Hopefully the creative juices will be flowing better from now on. 

Happy Fourth, everyone!

We are having a little family gathering here today, just the Schnebergers and us.  It's been beastly hot here and Albuquerque broke 100 degrees yesterday, so we are having it up here.  Just a no-fuss, no-indoor cooking meal of hamburgers, bratwurst, Asian cole slaw, fruit and ice cream bars for desert. 

It's been quite toasty here as well, and yesterday when Hannah and I were playing in her new Dora sprinkler (not as fun as that giraffe pool, but still a nice cool-down) I noticed it was 97 degrees.  The thing is, we live in New Mexico and don't have an air conditioner (or as they have here, Swamp Coolers).  Because of the elevation we are at, it usually isn't that warm, and there was only a few days a year we would like one.  Yesterday was one of them.

Anyway, I had gotten some drumsticks at the store...a nostalgic favorite of mine.  I remember being a kid at Lake Gilmore and getting a nickel for a drumstick at the "store" there were you could play foosball, buy an ice cream and store the fish you caught. 

Hannah loved it...

Also, by request, here is a photo of our living room "mostly" done (it's empty because I took the photo the day the carpet got installed)...

The only "before" photos I have on hand is from Christmas this last year, when Mom and Dick were here.  Here's the red wall, crappy carpeting and weird brown paint on the cabinets...

And here's the multi-colored wall---bright white paint over knotty pine, and Dick's leaning against the bottom section of the awful, ugly built-in we removed...

Okay, on orders from Deb from ScrapMuse I am updating my blog!  Here's all the news that is fit to print...

We finished up our dining room, except for laying the hardwood floor.  We'll have to get to that after the Holidays.  I think trying to squeeze it in before Christmas would be a little much. 

Here are some before photos.  The first is from the MLS listing (that's why it's so small/blurry) and the second one is Phillip helping us take down the wallpaper.

and here it is after.   We stripped the wallpaper and boarder, replaced the chair rail, replaced the light fixture and all the plugs, put trim around the ceilings and painted. 

We had our maiden voyage dinner party in our new dining room last night.  Jean, my travel nurse friend, was with us for two very quick days and then we invited Don, Candi and Phillip over for homemade pasta with a fresh tomato sauce and grilled shrimp.  I also made this pear salad from epicurious.com.  It was really delicious.  We had a great time with great friends.   We ended up playing "Worst Case Scenario" game which is really fun.  Considering there were three nurses, a veterinarian and a high school student (who are all into the outdoors!) all the teams did well. 

warning: previous homeowner vent

Considering we moved in here six months ago and the first thing we did was gut the kitchen, I think I am overdue for a "previous homeowner" vent.

Really, what the hell were they thinking??  As Laura on Project Runway would say, "We've got some serious ugly going on here."

I'll focus today's vent solely on their bad taste in paint colors. 

kitchen= navy blue, white cupboards and really ugly grape/vine wallpaper
living room=bright white paint (over real knotty pine paneling--the horrors!) and one red wall
two bedrooms=a neutral cream in one, a coffee with cream color in another.  The only two rooms that are really livable from a paint standpoint
office=navy blue and bright white

I saved the most hideous one for last.  The main bathroom.  The walls are an olivey-yellowish green that is best described by my mother as "calf shit green."  Accent that with a bright pine green on the cupboards and inside door.  Huge mirror with those line of Hollywood dressing room lights.  The tiling, thankfully, is  a fairly neutral cream color---it must have been there when they moved in.  Yellow linoleum floor.   Seashell sink...if you were alive in the 70's you know what I'm talking about.  Oh, and I forgot to mention that, because the ceilings aren't short enough as it is, they painted the ceiling that horrid calf shit color.  To add to the cave-like ambiance. 

I hate that room.  I'm just getting to it now, frankly, because it frightens me too much to spend that much time there.

Well, today I am priming the whole room, and later I will paint a soft green ("desert grass") on the walls and for now we will paint the cabinets the nice vanilla ice cream color we are doing on the rest of the trim in the house.  At some point we will replace the vanity, sink and cupboards but we are hoping some paint will get us through the next few years in relative comfort. 

A pox on the ugly house color painters!!!

Okay.  I feel better now, thanks.

edited to add:  photos of the offending bathroom colors on my photo blog.

backsplash

Dwayne has broken out of his cold-induced haze and is putting up the backsplash in our kitchen.  It comes in a sheet all connected together with mesh in the back, and he is just gluing it on now. There are extra tiles on the counter that he needs to cut to fit. 

We need to do the final touches on this room so we can move on to the dining roon. 

My daily walk

I love my daily walk.  I have a one-mile loop that I do twice around so I get 2 miles in. It really is lovely, forest and meadows, lots of wild flowers and a little church at the top of the loop.  I took my cameral with me today...

"why do we keep stopping, Mommy?"

home sweet home

It's official.

This house is now really and truly my home.  Why?  Because I missed being here terribly when I was in Las Vegas.  Nothing against a nice long getaway with family, but there were so many things that I missed about being here.

The windchimes singing me to sleep.
The coolness of the evening that makes me want to snuggle under a blanket.
Eating outside for dinner, under the shade of the Oak trees.
My dogs.

We were only away for five days and it seems like the grass grew about a foot, kirby grew about a foot and the place got so much greener than I remember it.  The peaches are turning color, and I can't wait to bite into the first one.  I hope it is that perfect piece of fruit that you come upon once in awhile, fragrant and juicy.  The kind that is best eaten over the sink because the juice is running down your arms.  That's how I always imagined home-grown fruit would taste.  We'll see. 

We're digging into the apples already, even though they are still small.  They are a bit tart still, but turning more red every day.  The dogs love eating the apples, too, and are constantly under the tree catching some shade and rooting around for some fallen apples. 

So Dwayne is mowing the grass today, I am unpacking, and Hannah is catching up on her sleep. 

Random photo Sunday

I'm just going to post some random photos from this afternoon.  I got up from my nap after working on Saturday night and we all went outside and hung out.  I can't explain how much we love just hanging out in the yard.   This place, this 30 year old house, is where we are meant to be.  Total peace and contentment right outside our door. 

Dwayne mowed the lawn this afternoon, and Hannah had to "help"

Hannah and I picked some wildflowers that are outside of our gate, and here was the centerpiece for our supper table:
 

And here's a picture of our puppy, Kirby.  He's getting longer and softer hair, and his tail and haunches are getting all feathery:

As we were wrapping up dinner, these clouds rolled over the mountain.  Typical late afternoon monsoon clouds, just beautiful!  We miss the sunsets here with the crest of the mountains being very close (and west) of us, but the clouds here are fabulous:

Happy Sunday, everyone!

happy post

This will mark the first week of many in which I can get out of bed and go to the kitchen in my underwear first thing in the morning without fear that there is someone in there who doesn't live here.  Yup, things are mostly done here, with just a few odds and ends for the workman to do and some painting and trimming for us to do.  What a relief. 

Other things that are making me happy this week:

• We got some storage cubes  for Hannah's room and are organizing things in there.  We're not all done yet, but there is a lot more space in there.  We're happy that she has a nice large room...it will be easier when we get Maggie in there.
• I can cook again!!  I love my new stove and have been cooking a lot---Dwayne says he should have gotten me a bigger kitchen years ago if he knew how good it would have been.  Heh.
• I downloaded James Bundt's CD Back to Bedlam and the video for You're Beautiful.  Amazing stuff.  Love it.
• Jean's sister Wenda and her son Jake are coming to visit on Monday.  Great people.  It will be fun.
• We booked a short trip to Las Vegas yesterday.  Dwayne's dear Aunt and Uncle live there, and it is Uncle Cooney's 80th birthday in August.  They still haven't meet Hannah yet and we've been trying to figure out when we can drive there, but the drive is just too long for a 2 year old.  So we took advantage of a Southwest Airline special.  It will be great to spend some time with them, they are so fun!  Hopefully Grandma and Grandpa Bean can join us for a few days, too.
• It has really been raining a lot here, monsoon-style.  Hopefully this is the beginning of the season and not just a weather front.  All the trails are closed in the national forest that is close to our house, and we really need to prepare for our Grand Canyon trip in October.   

Here's Hannah in her room with her baby.  She just loves that baby and spends lots of time feeding, diapering and tucking her in.   I think she's showing off a new band-aid.  She considers band-aids to be fashion accessories.

 

a little tequila therapy

We are nearing the end of the kitchen ordeal, and I have to say that I am stunned at the lack of  accountability some people have.  Workers don't show up, things are done wrong and need to be fixed, etc.  The contractor "doesn't know" way too many things.  I mean, isn't he the contractor?  Isn't it his job to know?

Uhg.  We finally decided we just couldn't possibly bitch any more about the situation and brought up boxes of our kitchen stuff and started unpacking.  Then we ordered in sandwiches and I made a pitcher of margaritas.  We needed a total attitude adjustment and had to do something positive before I just started banging my head on a wall.

But don't my countertops look pretty?

one project completed

...a million more to go!  We painted the sun room yesterday and rearranged some stuff.  We still need a big sisal type rug (and eventually to replace the floor) and we are done with one room.  I love the color and it has become a place I want to hang out in, rather than one that I pass through quickly on the way outside.

Here are before and after photos of the sun room.   The before photo is tiny because it was from the MLS listing before we bought the house.

I love the  Pier 1 orbit chair that we have in there.  They are really cute but I didn't think they'd be that much for comfort.  Was I wrong!  It is truly one of the most comfortable chairs I've ever sat it.   I can't wait to sit out there and read a book.