Plus’s and Minus’s

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They say there plus’s and minus’s to almost everything and this year that’s been the case with the weather here in the Pacific NW.  I’ve lived in this area most of my life and I can only remember one year … Continue reading →

Kennedy

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Kennedy Lee is two days old in this picture and has absolutely captured our hearts. She was born May 13th and came into the world showing she knew how to express her opinion. Since then she has been teaching her … Continue reading →

Take Me With You

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Goodreads rates this story 4.12 stars and has excellent reviews for it. I found it by a recommendation from a friend. Fortunately Catherine Ryan Hyde has a backlist because I just ordered two more of her books. So give me … Continue reading →

Benches

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Happy First day of Spring. Nancy sent me an email with pictures of benches yesterday and I so enjoyed it I decided to share. This wasn’t what I intended to blog on, but I’m getting a late start on composing … Continue reading →

Jamaica 2017

This is our second year in Jamaica and again it didn’t disappoint. The view of the cruise liners is right off our balcony. The weather is in the 80’s but most days there is a warm breeze that makes walking into town nice.

This year there are six of us and we have the villa which is a 3 bedroom, 3 bath plus a powder room. Balcony wraps around to include the bedrooms and a common area with big table, bar, and couch.

The pictures don’t do it justice.

 

In addition we had a roof patio with lots of room and a lap pool.   So easy to get spoiled with this one.

 

 

 

 

 

Last year we were so busy we didn’t get out to tour Rose Hall an old sugar plantation and home to the White Witch.   Kris in particular could hardly wait for this year to see it.   She even bought a book in the airport last year on Rose Hall and the White Witch.   The tour was even scarier after reading the book. And, of course we took the night tour. More then once it had me spooked to the point my feet engaged before my brain.   Here’s one of the websites with lots of pictures.

And a picture of our group just before the tour began and we still all had dry pants.

Jamaica remains one of our favorite places.  Love the weather, the people and all the decadent amenities.

Last 2016 Project

I seem to do the same thing with time and accomplishments as I do with money. That is, at the end of the year I think where did it go. At one point when I was down about not getting anything done, Laurie suggested I do a ‘did it list’ to go along with my always ‘to do list’. Does it sound like I’m a list maker? Big time, sometimes I think I have lists for lists. 🙂

Okay I’m regressing here.   I do make daily lists, but a few years ago I put the major things down for the year. Looking back on 2016 I didn’t do so bad. I even got in 3 really great trips. Now, just to make it clear I’m not talking about ‘making this world a better place’ type of accomplishments though I hope I leave it a little better than if I hadn’t been here. This is secular type things, (ie. Trips, new furniture, etc. ).   So this fall I got the itch to do one last project for the year. As many of you know I moved into this place in January 2013 and it was pre-owned. Even though it had some nice upgrades I wanted to changes some things.

One thing was to re do the master bath. Take out the white, poorly laid tile shower, and put in granite or quartz bathroom counters. Now this is a small room so I thought hey how big a job can it be.   “Silly me.”

#1. It was expensive. I wanted a solid material to replace the tile and a pony type wall so I don’t need to clean water spots off glass. I settled on a material called Piedrafina. It pretty much is to marble what quartz is to granite. The main thing is the ease of maintenance (cleaning).

#2. It isn’t a fast job. They scheduled two weeks. At the end of three everything was still a mess.

#3. It was messy. They should have put up plastic for shields. They didn’t and I had a layer of dust over everything. They cut material in the garage, what a mess.

#4. There was missed communication.   The model shower in their showroom had a pony wall with wrap around Piedrafina. It turned out they designed mine with a sheetrock wall on the one side. And, they didn’t allow for it to be finished. When the job was done I had an exposed sheetrock wall open at the bottom showing the studs. I hadn’t intended to paint until next year but that changed. Thankfully I hired a separate painter who is fantastic. He not only painted the bath and bedroom he cleaned and painted the garage.    🙂 🙂

The last project of the year, that started out to be a medium sized one, turned into a major headache.   It will take a few months before I’m ready to even think of the next one. Well that is except for our trip to Jamaica that’s different.   Maybe I should just plan a year of travel and let house projects sit for awhile.

The pictures don’t do it justice. But it gives an idea of what it looks like.

 

 

 

Winter Solstice

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Today, Winter solstice, is one of my favorite days of the year. From this day until June the days will start being longer. I took the picture here yesterday around 5:00. It’s dark out there, really dark. I’m not a … Continue reading →