LET THE PACKING BEGIN

  It was a busy weekend. 

Thankfully, the weather cooperated and my mowing last weekend worked out great because...

...the grass has not even grown.  In fact, areas are turning brown (lack of rain/seasonal).

But we're OK with that.  Here in a month or so, it's ALL going to be a mess, ha.

The weather was cool which was good and so I had to figure out a plan of attack on how to start tackling the house contents.

We have this new storage unit and that will be for the majority of what we are keeping.  Mostly the big furniture.  It's 10x15 (and climate controlled).

I decided that instead of making half a dozen trips back and forth there, I would just start sorting and packing, starting by taking all the pictures/artwork off the walls (that we're keeping) and put them aside.  Then I started emptying drawers.  All the kitchen drawers and then any furniture that had drawers and again, what we're keeping, I stored in boxes.

Then I started on the closets and got all three emptied and sorted.  I filled up two contractor bags with trash, and used another one to put soft goods in, pillows from the couches, some loose blankets and throws, etc.  We'll bring those back into town so they'll be safe from mice.  We're not keeping any of the curtains.

We figured the barn is a good place for the pictures and flat items.  The hottest part of the year is over and let's be honest, with the house not having a/c or heat, the barn is just as good as the house has been. Plus when the house is done, it'll be easy to bring things back, a little at a time.

So I got all of those items moved to the porch and backed the truck up, loaded it a few times and drove it to the barn to unload it.  Here's a picture from the last trip, ha.  It worked great and we still have room in the barn for more stuff.  We'll see what all we can put in there.  The more we can put in there, the easier (and less crowded) it will be in the storage unit.

All we need to do is keep packing and sorting. A couple more weekends and we'll be done (and if we have to take a day off during the week, we will).

Speaking of boxes and packing supplies, we have been amassing a large amount of packing stuff from, you guessed it, the downstairs "trash to treasure area" at the building, ha.

Here was a recent haul.  Found several boxes, packing paper and even two giant rolls of bubble wrap.  All we had to buy was a roll of packing tape, ha.  It'll all come in handy for the farm now and later next year for the apartment when we move to the new house.

Things are getting real!

GOOD FOOD AND HOBART SUNDAY

Almost October!  Where DOES the time go?  Today is time for some good food and some Hobart!

I found this at the store the other day:

Had no idea that Tony Chachere's had a no salt seasoning blend.  We tried it...

2nd Man used it on some Mahi-Mahi and pan seared it with just a bit of olive oil and oh my gosh it was so good.  He served it over couscous with mixed veggies.  It was a complete meal and so delicious.

And here is Hobart...sometimes he sleeps in the chair on his afghan and sometimes he sleeps on the floor next to it.  Cats are like that, choosing wherever they feel comfortable.  And of course we let him, because...

#notspoiled
 

OFF TO THE FARM FOR PACKING

We dodged the bullet with Helene but wow, what a horrible storm for those in the path.  Sending our thoughts to everyone affected.

Today, it's off to the farm to get started on sorting through things.  No mowing, since no rain this week and best of all, COOLER WEATHER!  We'll open the windows and let the breeze blow through.  Should be a nice day for that.  We got our storage unit and it's time to put Bill the Farm Truck to work!  The goal today is to get all the pictures and wall art we are keeping, moved into storage as well as all the soft products (pillows, quilts, blankets, etc).  We may be back out tomorrow to start boxing up more stuff.

As always, we are hoping you all have a great start to your weekend!

PUTTING UP NECTARINES

Nothing like some plump, juicy, fresh nectarines!

 We had a half dozen, and you know me, since they were super ripe, my first instinct was to put them up for future use!

First, I pitted them and sliced them up.

Then I put them in the freezer overnight (on parchment so they wouldn't be stuck to the pan) and popped them off the next morning.

Then I vacuum sealed them and put them back in the freezer, ready for the next time.

Nectarine cobbler?  Anyone have something cool to do with nectarines or do you just use them as you might if you had peaces?

MASTER BATHROOM NEW HOUSE TEASER

 OK so last week we promised to move inside.  Of course, we know a lot of you are waiting to see kitchen choices, ha, but that will require two or three posts alone (and don't even get us started on our pantry!).

Until we have actual construction pics to share, we figure this is a good way to stretch that waiting time out and we'll share different rooms of the house.

The master bath was pretty standard, two sinks, water closet (or toilet room as we call it, ha) and a tub and/or shower.  We opted for a large walk in shower, no tub (but a tub in the guest bath). 

It will look similar to this but with some changes.  It will be 6 feet long and 4 feet wide and it will go up to the 9 foot ceiling.

We chose this tile for the majority of the bathroom.

It'll look like this on the floor...

And like this in the shower itself.  We also changed the plans to have this tile go all the way to the ceiling.  Normally, it stops around the top of the window height.  As the designer said, doing it all the way up gives a lot of drama for just a little more money.  We did the same in the guest bath (though it's a tub/shower combo more on that in another post).

The shower floor will have this tile...

...we liked the complimentary color and the shape will add some texture (and the matte finish some grip).  We even had to choose grout.  Ironically, the picture we showed above this one, shows the way it will look, color-wise of course.

Now the standard shower has a corner seat exactly like this.  Let's be honest, does this look like something that would be comfortable to sit on?  LOL!

So we are having a full length bench put across one end (the end opposite the shower head).  It'll be nice to sit down in a hot shower and just let the water run, but I told 2nd Man, no sleeping in the shower!

And if you are going to sit down, it might be nice to have a handheld faucet, so we had the regular shower head changed to a dual use like this.  That way, we can use the handheld portion to make it easier.  Heck, who knows, we might be washing a dog in there someday and a handheld faucet would be one of those moments where we say "We wish we had done this..."

And speaking of "we wish we had done this..."

We are doing this: who doesn't want to stand in the rain?!  We are having a rain shower head installed above the shower!  We will be able to turn on a separate faucet and have water fall down like a rain.  It will be center mounted, between two lights.  It's been one of our dreams for a long time and while it was a splurge (due to having extra plumbing run overhead) it is one we hope is worth it.

We do have the window like this as well.  It doesn't open, it's just to let some light into the bathroom and still have privacy.  It'll be nice to be in the shower and look at the weather outside.  It's almost 8 feet up from the outside so only Bigfoot can look in, ha!

We also thought ahead to our older ages, ha, and are having an ADA compliant grab bar put on the wall of the shower, 18" long and in easy reach of the bench or the shower head.  More elsewhere.

Here is what we did on the plans...

...and this is what it will look like in real life (almost). Ours will have different colors.  For cabinets, we are having this extra one put in the middle, we've never been a big fan of a giant, long countertop (in the bathroom anyway) and let's be honest, storage is always important.  Also, the mirrors will be framed to match the cabinet color, similar to above but rectangle.

Speaking of cabinets...

We are going with the gray and this design.  We didn't want brown wood tones, so we opted for this slightly more modern feel with clean (Shaker) lines.  this picture looks darker, it's a lighter gray.  The hardware will be slightly different as well.

For countertops (in the bathrooms only), we chose this color and texture.  It's made to mimic soapstone.  It's called 'concrete gray' but it's more like a dark, charcoal gray/closer to black, well, like soapstone!

That's about it for the master bath. We chose brushed nickel/stainless for fixtures, we got the elongated toilet instead of the smaller one and chose to have cabinets above the toilet, again for all important storage.

These are the colors all together (but not the brown granite, that's the table they were on at the builder, ha).  You can see the lighter gray cabinet color in this picture.  Wall paint color will be a shade of white.

That's it for the master bathroom!

Hope you enjoyed the 'virtual tour'.

WEEKEND AND EYES ON THE GULF AGAIN

It was a hot day Saturday, with feels like temps still over 100.  Ugh.  With a chance of rain later this week (see bottom of post), I had to decide to either mow now or skip it and take my chances.

I decided to mow.

Not too bad, it is short now and not growing much.

Here's another angle.

Nice and neat once again.

It was about normal compared to other mows as far as distance but faster since it wasn't very thick.

I put Zen Machine 2 up and we shall see if it's the last time he comes out this season or not.  A lot of that that depends on the weather, because, here we go again:

New storm is brewing in the Gulf.  SO far, it looks like it will end up East of us, but we are still in the middle of "not a zero threat".

If it rains, it'll be too wet to mow next weekend and if it doesn't, then I won't have to mow again since it's nice and short and going dormant.  Then, next weekend we can focus on packing up the house (we are falling behind on that).  It was just too hot this weekend to do the yard work AND be inside the house packing.

And hey, if the storm misses us, next weekend it's supposed to be cool!  Woo hoo!

Fingers crossed!

GOOD FOOD AND HOBART SUNDAY

 Yesterday was hot and there may be a change in the weather but more on all that tomorrow.  Today though, it's time for some good food and some Hobart!

2nd Man whipped up some guisado (guisado is any Mexican style stewed, low and slow, meat in sauce).  He made this one with some fresh ground chili powder from New Mexico that my boss brought back for us.  We served it over brown (Mexican style) rice and topped it all with a little avocado and cilantro.  Oh, and we had a salad before. A delicious meal to end the day for sure.

Here is Hobart sleeping in one of "his" usual spots, next to 2nd Man on the couch on "his" soft fuzzy blanket...

OOPS!  BUSTED!  I was taking pictures of Hobart sleeping and he woke up and looked at me like "um, hello?!? I'm sleeping here!".  I let him go back to sleep of course, because...

#notspoiled

OFF TO THE FARM ON THIS HOT DAY

Off to the farm for some possible mowing and some packing of stuff.  Also get full access to the storage unit today that we got last weekend.  They had to get it ready for us so now we can make a few trips in the truck back and forth (it's only a couple miles from the farm) and so that will be nice.

What won't be nice is the weather.  Well, sunny and clear so that part is good but also hot and humid.  They say this may be the last blast of Summer and I'm ok with that for sure!

More later, hope you have a fabulous weekend!

 

HOW DO THESE WORK

Saw these at the store a couple of months back and meant to post about it but forgot...

Apparently waxed amaryllis is a thing.  They don't require water or soil (which is amazing by itself) but are, from what we've read, a one shot item.  You put them on your desk or table in the sunlight and they bloom and do their thing with flowers and then it's done.  The roots are removed prior to waxing, so I think even taking off the wax won't help.  So, do you just throw them away?  It seems kind of cool but wasteful at the same time, LOL.  Amaryllis flowers are so pretty.

Anyway ever had one of these?

NEW HOUSE TEASER DOORWAY FOR INDOOR OUTDOOR SPACE

Last week we talked about the screened in porch, but how do we get out there you might ask?

A small door like this?  Normally, in our floor plan, there is a door on the side of the dining room going out onto the porch and the living room only has windows that look out onto the porch.

We decided to make a change and we're having something special done.

Above is our floorpan.

From the family room to the screened in porch, we are changing it and going to have a sliding wall!  Well, a door, but more or less, it's like a wall that opens.  We lose a little wall space in the living room on each side of the standard windows, but we think a wall of glass is a good tradeoff for that, ha!

Here is a view of what they'll look like from the outside (we won't have the side windows) and ours will be white so they blend in with the wall color.

Here it is from the inside (minus THIS amazing view, LOL).  This is from the company's brochure.  They are double paned insulated and will be 8 feet tall and 16 feet wide from end to end.  Each section is 4 feet and while they don't open the full width, when the two middle doors slide apart, we will have an 8-foot-wide opening onto the porch!

A little bit like this, only ours will open onto a screened porch.  This way, when the weather is nice, it will give us an "indoor/outdoor" vibe for the space.  We can slide open the wall of windows and have the living room extend outside onto the porch, without worry of bugs in the house (and get a cool breeze at the same time).  

We want to get a large, L-shaped sectional and then face the opening of the "L" to this wall so it's one large space when opened.  We might do a couple of chairs on the open side that can be moved around as needed.  Of course in the end, it's mostly just us so we can do whatever makes us comfortable, ha.

We are so excited, we're getting things we've always dreamed about!

Next week we'll move inside!