Month: December 2023

A new year, a new you.

12/29/2023  It’s almost a new year and with that comes another trip around the sun for me. Birthdays, it’s a love-hate relationship. I hate growing older but I prefer it to the alternative. That was my fathers’ outlook on aging. And as always, he was correct.

I’m grateful for my health and grateful that I am still active. I strive daily to keep moving. That’s not to say I don’t have downtime and often covet those afternoon snoozes, because I do. All I have to say to the boys is, let’s take a nap. They’re on the bed waiting for me. But on the flip side, if I walk into the laundry room, they’re waiting to get their leashes for a walk. Speaking of walking, we average 3.5 miles a day, we walk twice a day, every day. When it was warmer weather but not dreadfully hot, we were walking three times a day. I have been doing this daily since January of 2020. The only break I had was 3 weeks with my ankle surgery. My low average is 25 miles a week. 25 X 52 = 1300/year x 4 years is 5200 miles of walking. Why am I not thinner?

FB just reminded me that it was 4 years ago Dec 28th that I left Roatan to move back to the US. Four years and three states later, here I am.

Bill moved me here and went back to KY on Sept 10th. He came back here on Dec 9th with the idiot Highway. He has been working on the house. I bought all new blinds, a garbage disposal, new flooring for the master bedroom and bathroom, new quarter round for the floors with the new LVP, a new double sink vanity with 2 new black faucets, a new toilet and a new freestanding bathtub with a black freestanding faucet. So far the master bedroom and closet have new flooring. The guy I hired was referred by my neighbor. I am not a fan of his so far and if he doesn’t show up tomorrow, I will be much less of a fan. UGH.

The horribly dated jetted tub. It’s getting torn out along with the ugly tile. I don’t always keep my stool in there.
The vanity is so old, I got a nice dark wood one to replace this. The cabinet on the wall is already at Goodwill.

The flooring will match the LVP in the bedroom, the halls and the living room.

We also plan to redo the guest bath, and the floors in both extra bedrooms and the kitchen. The kitchen will be a huge redo.

The high overhang will go away as will the tile backsplash. I have a new sink and countertop picked out. I haven’t even looked for tile.
I also plan to paint the cupboards and possibly put down a tile floor. Trace is really good at laying tile and he wants to do a cool floor in here.
Dec. 21st was a hard day for me. It was a year that we put Gringo down. I’m not sure I’ll ever get over that. These two, I don’t know what I would do without them. I swear they don’t know they’re dogs. They’re looking out the bedroom window waiting for the dog next door to come out.
Barrio is a nervous guy. He carries these toys around for what seems like hours.
Max is just cool and handsome and really bossy.

I drug my Christmas tree downstairs and put it up before Thanksgiving. I honestly think it was the prettiest Christmas tree I’ve ever had. I took it down today (12/29).

I lost momentum. It sat like this for over a week., stool, tree skirt and boxes everywhere. You can see the lights are only partially on the tree too.
I found some tree decorations I kind of forgot about and stuck them in the tree. It was beautiful.
It’s so festive.
I’m really happy I hung on to the funky decoration things. I’m usually the kind of person who tosses stuff and then regrets my hasty actions.
This alcove above the fireplace has no function. Prior owners had their TV up here. (We’re going to move my TV up here and rearrange the living room). I might not like it. Eventually, the fireplace will get new tile too.
I bought a few sets of bottle brush trees at Target and did a little lighted forest up here.
I’m really surprised that Max shares the chair with Highway.
The fireplace was hooked up in September but I was too paranoid to turn it on. The morning after Bill and Highway arrived, Bill decided to turn it on AT 4:30 A FREAKING M. The fireplace has never been used and there was dust/dirt, shit on the logs. ALL THE SMOKE ALARMS WERE GOING OFF IN THE HOUSE, AT 4:30AM. The dogs were freaking out, the loud chirping kills their ears.

It actually took a few more times until we could turn it on without the alarms going off. Now it’s nice to have it because I usually keep the furnace off unless it drops below 40 degrees.

There are huge fields behind our house, surrounded by woods. I could never get out there because the gate was locked and I had no key. Bill cut the lock off one day so I walked the dogs out there. They were so happy, no leashes and deer shit to eat.
They love the woods and fields to run in. We wandered in the woods a little and then walked all around the edge of the field.

The next day Bill and Highway joined us for a walk. Just as we were headed back, a truck came down the path behind our fence and a guy got out. He looked like he was part of the Duck Dynasty. He was not happy that we were out there. He said we were chasing the deer away and he wouldn’t be able to kill one. He said he spends thousands of dollars to hunt back there, he feeds the deer and then hunts them. Isn’t that illegal? He claims the deer wouldn’t come around if they smelled dogs and people. I wanted to tell him that in KY the deer must be stupid because the dogs can chase the deer on a Tuesday morning and the deer are back that afternoon. He must have smarter deer. He asked us to stay out until Jan 1 when the season is over. I apologized and said no problem at all. Whatever….

Bill brought the pressure washer with him and we cleaned the siding that was mildew covered and the screened-in porch. Then Bill dug the pavers out of the garden (previously he cut all the boxwood back to the ground) and I pressure-washed the pavers. Then he placed them back as a border. We’re going to get landscape fabric, cover this mess up, and mulch over it. The boxwood will come back.

You can see a few pavers here, they were black with mildew.
Back breaking work
Nice and clean pavers
I just had a little dirt on me. My glasses were covered too.
What a difference. I’m not going to plant here like I did in KY. I spent way too much money to then turn around and list the house. Here I just want to make it have Curb Appeal.

Bill just went to get pizza for dinner. Max hit me, it’s dinner time and I’m obviously not moving quickly enough towards the kitchen to feed him.

Happy New Year everyone!!  XOXOXO

 

Eclectic Twist

Design And Live Outside the Lines