NEW HOUSE TEASER DOOR CHOICES

 Who knew you had to choose doors and windows?  I mean, we just thought, yep, it comes with doors and windows, how much do we need to decide?  Apparently a few things, ha.

First up the doors:

Of these three designs, we liked the first one, the horizontal smooth the most.  Didn't really like the roundtop either plank or without.  Kind of ranch or log cabin vibes.  We thought the horizontal smooth that we liked might just be a bit contemporary.

Then we were shown three more.

The 6 panel textured was nixed right away, too formal.  So in the end, it was the last one, the two panel square top smooth.  The design looks like the doors we had in our last house and still conveys old.

2 Panel Square Top Smooth ✅

We had to decide on two things after this choice; hollow core vs solid core and then 6 feet or 8 feet tall.  With our ceilings being 9 1/2 feet, we felt 8 foot tall doors would be nice and large and make a great statement.

8 foot tall ✅

Then it was a no brainer for the other choice, we wanted solid core doors.  Our house in Houston had them (being built in the 1920's) and our apartment has a couple of hollow core doors, and we just don't like the lightweight feel of those.  With them being so much taller, it would be noticeable in the feel of opening and closing a door.

Solid core ✅ 

Then we were told "but wait, one more thing...what kind of doorknobs do you want?"  In a perfect world, we would have loved glass doorknobs like we had at our old house.  They didn't have that option though.

I don't have the pictures of the options, there were colors and round knobs and curved levers, but in the end, we chose this style:

It's a lever style with a square backing.  Contemporary but also kind of old school in a way.  One advantage is that when your hands are full, you can use your elbow to open a door.  Hey, you never know!

We could always upgrade later to glass doorknobs and swap them out after we close and move in.

Square Plate Lever Style ✅

Oh, and what color?  We have decided on black doors.  We know, probably not for everyone but with the colors we chose for the interior rooms, we think black doors will look pretty.  Kind of like this:

It looks cool, even when paired with wood furniture.  It's kind of new and old at the same time.

Here's another look.  Again, clean, contemporary but classic at the same time.

Black doors ✅

The color we chose is Sherwin Williams Tricorn Black.  It's a black black and will be very dramatic.  As luck would have it, when I was looking for photo examples of black doors to show y'all, check this out:

This is our door style WITH the lever handle like we chose AND in Tricorn black.  Wished they had a wider-angle picture but hey, we'll have it in real life in a few months and then you'll really get to see it, ha. 

Anyway, that was our door journey.  Next time, WINDOWS.  Who knew there were so many choices for that too!

FOLLOW YOUR HEART VEGENAISE REVIEW

New house teaser coming soon, sorry it's been a busy weekend and yesterday was crazy.  Had this post ready and it was easier to put up.

We've made a few recipes lately and mentioned the heart healthy mayo that we found.  Several of you have asked what we used.

I bought it on a whim one day after looking at the label and wow, are we glad.

It is called "Follow Your Heart Original Vegenaise".  Now of course, we're not vegans, but this just fits perfectly into our new way of eating.  I will admit, one of the things I missed, a lot, is mayo.  When I saw this, I figured, well, let me try it.

We were so surprised when we opened it.  It looks like mayo and is just as creamy and spreadable.  No difference in texture or appearance, maybe slightly whiter as opposed to an off white (because those use eggs with yolk).

We wish we could convey how much this tastes like mayo.  If you gave this to me in a blind taste test, I would think, it's not my usual brand, maybe like the difference between Hellman's vs Blue Plate vs Duke's vs this. You'd think it's mayo for sure, you just wouldn't be sure what brand.  It's not too sour, not too sweet, it's hits the right, mild, pleasant taste spot.  We think it tastes amazing!

Per TBSP.:  0.5 gram of saturated fat vs 6 in the mayo we used to use!  Sodium is 70mg, less than normal and 0 carbs.  No dairy, no eggs, no cholesterol and no preservatives.

It's more expensive of course (why is everything good for you more expensive, sigh) but we don't use much so it lasts us a while. 

Of course, we're still adapting things like this to our moderation method of eating and so we don't eat it regularly of course.  Because it's made with oil (and has to be) it does still have fat, so we have to watch that (moderation) but regular fat you just have to watch the totals for the day and a smear here or there won't hurt.  The good thing for us is that when we change a recipe that has used mayo, now we can use this.  For example, the casserole I made that used 1/4 cup of mayonnaise I can now substitute this.  1/4 cup is 4 TBSP so this adds only 2 grams of saturated fat vs 24 grams (!) of the regular mayo.  That's a win/win.

Of course, there is that occasional sandwich where mustard just won't do. 

But it sure is nice to have that tomato and mayo sandwich on occasion (it's a Southern thing, LOL). 

GOOD FOOD AND HOBART SUNDAY

Another week has flown by.  It's hot.  But there's always time for good food and Hobart!  The other night was our anniversary and while we'll go out later for a special dinner, every dinner at home is special, ha.

2nd Man made oven roasted pork chops that we marinate in this orange pepper seasoning for a couple of days before,   It's so good.  Then he used to make white rice with corn and jalapeños and now he's adapted it to brown rice with the same ingredients and it's so yummy.  We started with a salad too, we eat salads with almost every meal now.

We had to have dessert for the special occasion, so for portion control, we had cake balls and I bought some Halo Top ice cream (only 1 gram of saturated fat per serving, which was 1/2 the pint, we only had 1/4, ha).

Hobart was unimpressed.  There were some towels on the floor for laundry and he found them and took over.  Slept there for a couple of hours and it made me have to wait to do those towels later. We let him because...

#notspoiled

LUCITE TUBE TRASH TO TREASURE

 Didn't finish the post for the new house teaser so I'll put this up that we had ready to go.  We'll resume regular new house updates next week.

Regular readers know that I have a favorite place to look for bargains...our downstairs trash area!  Our building has trash chutes on every floor and they feed into a separate room, but for boxes and other things that people can't put in the chute, there is an area (indoor) near the loading dock where people can put the things they don't want.  I've found quite a few cool items over the last few years.

So recently, I found this.  What is it?  I'm not exactly sure!  Ha!  It's a long lucite tube, I know that much.  Almost 5' long (tall?) and about 12" in diameter.  It's thick lucite too, a good 1/4" or more thick.  You know when you see something and you just KNOW it could be useful?  Well, yeah...

...I snatched it up and took it to the farm.  2nd Man said "what are you going to do with that?"

"I don't know but I want it!"  LOL!

Hmm, mount it to a base and put lights inside?  Sealing up the bottom and try to grow something in there like a terrarium? It doesn't take up any space in the barn, in fact I put it up in the rafters so it's OK, I may not know yet, but that's half the fun.  And this time next year, I'll be out there staring at it and going "hmm..."

Any random thoughts on a use/project?

TWENTY FIVE YEARS

 Together...

25 years ago this week, we went on our first date and here we are, a quarter century later!  Where does the time go?  It's a big milestone of course, but we've both agreed to no gifts right now.  I mean, we are building a house, so there IS that, ha.

We'll have a simple dinner tonight (pork chops and corn on the cob with salad is on the menu) but soon, we will splurge and go to our anniversary place for fried chicken.  We haven't had fried chicken of any kind since before my heart attack so we figured a splurge once a year is OK.  I even asked my doctor on my last visit and, as he said, "don't miss out on what you enjoy, just do it with moderation".  I said "so fried chicken once a year?" and he said "ABSOLUTELY...once every couple of months if you want it, your numbers are very good".  We won't do that, but once a year seems fair.

For those new to the blog or missed it a couple years go, you can read THE STORY OF US HERE

A phrase we always like to say is "It's just the two of us and that's all that matters".  Family is not always there and neither of us have our parents so in the end, that's really all that matters (and sweet Hobart of course, for as long as we have him!).  

"New House Teaser" will be on Friday...

ANOTHER HOT WEEKEND IN THE BOOKS

Hot weekend.  Ugh.

I said I wouldn't mow, but I needed to get the mower out to go around the barn/shed so that I could edge, and also do the orchard area.  Since I was on the mower, I decided to go ahead and mow the driveway and the front yard.  It'll give me a head start.

It was only 30 minutes so that's better than normal.  But then I had to edge. The shed and barn were out of control so I started that.

The picture above is from a couple of weeks ago.  The back was even worse, ha.  It was a lot of work in the heat.  I had to mow first, then cut the thicker stuff by hand, then slowly edge around it.  After I edged, I had to use the mower to clean it up some more and then I edged the stray pieces and finally sprayed some vinegar around to keep the weeds at bay, for a bit anyway.

Here is the after for the barn.  So much neater.

Here is the mower shed.  Also much neater.

And such a relief.  There's something about seeing it visually all neat and clean that helps the mental angle, like a big weight off myself shoulders.

I got the orchard about halfway done but by then it was just TOO hot to finish.

When I left it was 99 degrees and felt like 111.  No rain in the forecast for the next ten days so I definitely shouldn't need to mow next weekend at all and hope to be able to finish the edging.

2nd Man keeps reminding me, this is the last August I'll be doing this back and forth with no a/c and in the heat of the day. This time next year, we'll be living out there and I can mow the driveway early in the morning, skip a day, mow the yard another day, do the trails another time.  But best of all, I can mow and take a break INSIDE where it's cold, have cold drinks ready and take a shower as needed.

Plus, 2nd Man will have fabulous snacks and lunches and dinners ready whenever I come in.

GOOD FOOD AND HOBART SUNDAY

 It's been a HOT weekend.  I did what I could at the farm yesterday and so today is staying in so we don't OVERDO it.  While I was at the farm, 2nd Man made one of our favorite meals.

We always loved a Sunday pot roast with veggies. Since we don't eat beef anymore, we have started enjoying a roasted chicken with lots of veggies.  We get a large chicken (this was a 7 lb one) and we season it but no oil.  Then we just grab a random assortment of veggies.  We chose: sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, mini peppers, garlic, Brussels sprouts, and for something different this time, fennel bulbs.

We put it all on our largest sheet pan and into the oven they go to roast until done.  We remove the skin when we eat it and it's all on a rack so the fat drains through.  Oh my gosh, it's so good and so satisfying.  We also get to eat on it for two or three days.

Hobart definitely keeps an eye on us when he smells the chicken cooking.  He might be older, but his nose still works well, ha.  Of course, he gets his own little plate of chicken (and sweet potatoes, he loves them).  Because...

#notspoiled

OFF TO THE FARM IN THE HEAT

Hoping I don't have to mow today, it hasn't rained since last week so I might be able to skip.  I want to edge because that it out of control.  I stocked up on fuel and weedeater line so I should be good to go.

Also hope to start sorting through things inside the house.  It's going to have to be packed up soon so that we can get things moving along.

This was yesterday afternoon at 4pm.  100 degrees with a feels like of 118 degrees.

It's definitely Summer in Houston!  I have a cooler full of water and some snacks.

Hope your weekend is off to a great start!

FERAL HOG DAMAGE

Check this out...

I was mowing and saw all this dirt in a remote area of the property.

Going a little further it was extensive...

VERY extensive!

I'll be honest, the area is pretty densely covered in trees and bushes and there are plenty of hiding spots for a sleeping "sounder" (the group name) of wild hogs and it made me nervous.  Mama and her litter and a couple of males, I do not want to round the corner and encounter that. They can be VERY dangerous!

Zen Machine 2 ain't that fast and neither am I!

We're thinking of getting a new trail cam and putting it in that area to see what's going on at night.  These pictures were taken a few weekends ago when I mowed and we haven't seen anything elsewhere since then.

NEW HOUSE TEASER PORCH CEILINGS

 "That seems like an odd choice, wouldn't it just be the house color or something?"

We are doing something different for the porch ceiling.  You all saw the barn red for the main house color, black (ebony) stained front door, and white for window trim, shutters and porch railing.  But for the ceiling, we're going with a pale blue...

It's a Southern thing dating back over a hundred years.  The original color was called "Haint Blue".  They think the word haint was a derivation of "haunt".  The belief being that it reminded spirits of water and so they couldn't cross.  It also meant evil spirits thought it was the sky and they wouldn't enter or cross.  A more recent belief is that the pale blue tricks wasps and spiders and even birds into thinking it's the sky and so they won't build nests (or webs) there.

This will be our porch ceiling.  We'll have recessed lights and working on a really cool option for a fan, if we can pull it off, will save that for a future post.

And this is the color we've chosen:

It's called "atmospheric" (by Sherwin-Williams).  We tried other SW pale blues and settled on this one because it matched so well with our house colors.

We think it will look great and of course keep the porch feeling lighter and brighter.  Now whether or not ANY of that is true (though we have read some blogs where people swear it has stopped wasps), we like things that have a great backstory and tradition.  In the Heights, where we used to live, so many houses that were a hundred years old or more had these original pale blue porch ceilings and new construction homes followed suit. It'll be a fun story to be able to share with guests.

Here is a link to a SOUTHERN LIVING ARTICLE for more info about the history and here is a link to WIKIPEDIA.

MOWING HUMOR AND THE KINDNESS OF A NEIGHBOR

 Saturday we had our 'color appointment' at the builder (more on that in upcoming posts) and so Sunday was the mowing day.  At the bottom of this post is the kindness of the neighbor.

I was worried it might be too wet to mow...

...this cracked us up when we saw it.  Fortunately it was not too wet, though I did stay off the trails, this weekend anyway.

This was before.  Definitely needed to mow, it's been over two weeks since the last time.

Because I skipped a few areas, it was still a little shorter than normal when it comes to time, but distance was more because I had to mow over the same areas a few times to get it fully cut.

Not the best look but hey, it's done.  I didn't get to edge because, frankly, it was too hot.  With zero chance of rain over the next week, I shouldn't have to mow so next weekend will be tidying things up.  I'll be honest, I wouldn't mind a few weeks without rain.

It was hot, felt like 113 when I left.  But the best part of the day?

I was mowing and "J" from 2nd Family came driving down the driveway and brought a surprise:

She said "here, I worry about you in the heat and so I made you some fresh lemonade!".  How sweet!  It was full of ice and so refreshing.  This was after I had about half of it and realized I needed to take a picture before I consumed it all, ha.

And served in a mason jar, perfection on a hot day!  It really will be wonderful having such a great neighbor.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

COLOR APPOINTMENT TODAY

This is the post we had ready for last Saturday, before we got sick.  We're both 90% recovered and so today, as this posts, we're off to the builder for what they call our first "color appointment".  We meet with a designer for about 3 hours and go over all our choices for tile and cabinets and countertops and flooring and of course...

Paint colors!

They use only Sherwin-Williams so we have lots to choose from.  You may have seen the post last week, we picked the outside colors, that was pretty simple, but the inside is a bit more complicated.

There are SO many colors to choose from.  This is the SW paint 'color wall' like they have in each store.  We went a couple of weeks ago just to get a head start and wow, it can be overwhelming for sure.  Now, the builder will probably have the little flip book with all the colors and different shades of each.

Stay tuned as we show our choices, once we make them of course, ha.  They say this can take two or three visits but we've got a bit of a head start.  We'll also share our tiles and cabinets and countertops once we have those pinned down as well.

On the way back, we'll stop at Costco and pick up some things we're running low on.

Tomorrow I will head to the farm, after this week of monsoon rains, to see how things are.

Hope your weekend is off to a good start!

NEW HOUSE TEASER FRONT DOOR DECISIONS

 We decided on this style of front door.

These are just a couple of pictures from online showing the type of door.  The one above is called a 4 lite over 1 panel door...which is standard but we are going for a larger door so...

...ours will be "6-lite" style.  We love the more vintage look.  We thought about a solid door but we're going with windows in it so we can let light into the foyer.  We would like to have had a double door, but with the size of the foyer, this was the only way to go.  We're also not big on the side windows and figured "let's just do glass IN the door".  We like to be able to see out.  We MAY go with frosted glass or even a vintage wavy glass, that remains to be seen but leaning toward clear.  We can always hang a curtain up on the inside, maybe something breezy and gauzy looking to filter the light.

It's going to be 38 inches wide (for a little more ease of bringing things in and out) and we upgraded to 8 feet tall instead of the standard height. 

It's solid wood (standard was hollow/fiberglass and we wanted something solid) and will be mahogany.  We are doing the ebony black stain for the dramatic look, because 2nd Man's big request was for a black front door.  He's always wanted that and when we saw what it looks like on a red/white barn color house...

  

Well, we loved it.  So black door it is!  Ours will look like this (only with glass in it).

And, many of you know that we're kind of 'tech nerds'...

Well, we upgraded to have the newest biometric front door lock.  Because, well, every farmhouse needs to have some 21st century flare, right?

We can even use our watches to open it.  Never fear, we did a lot of research and it is super safe, but if we decide to just turn it off, it has an old fashioned key deadbolt as well, ha.

We still haven't decided on a screen door or a storm door.  I would love to have a screen door but that would of course take away from the beautiful front door.  We'll have a screen door on the back porch so maybe a storm door?  Again, not sure if we need that.

We figure that even from the inside, it will at least be somewhat dramatic in the foyer.  This would be the inside look (again, not our house, just a sample, ha):

Looks pretty good!  We'll even have lighter colored floors like this (to be decided soon).  And hey, I can still put our wreaths up, ha!