The New Abode

I believe I mentioned that Honey and I, after years of looking, finally purchased a place in Florida. WOO to the HOO-tie HOO!!!!! We closed the end of March and Honey hired a neighbor man (that we had never met) to go in on a regular schedule to have a look see and flush toilets and such. The Hired Man was a very useful engine, he took some pictures of the homestead, installed a dead bolt, and made a few keys so we could have one up here to ease Honey’s mind. It is a little odd that a fellow we had never met had more access to the place than we did. There can always be an unwanted thought skipping through your brain that you have given access to a shyster and he is hosting wild parties or renting the place out! It was all good and Glen did a fine job 🙂

Honey found out there was a layoff at work in July and said HEY, did I want to go to Florida and do a little work and get the new place a little settled for when we head down there sometime this coming winter? I said sure! We flew into the Fort Myers airport, picked up our rental car, stocked up a few groceries at our friendly neighborhood Wal-Mart, punched in the visitor code at the front gate and Presto, we were in like Flynn.

It was just as we remembered, and we loved it. That’s a good feeling. Honey had some things to take care of that had been uncovered on the home inspection, nothing major. My goal was to paint the spare bedroom and laundry room. The green was far more glowing than this picture presents. This was from the listing and they did an exceptional job of toning it down.

 

The rest of the house is decorated very nicely, so this room was an oddity to me. I don’t get the color, the ginormous flower, the dingleballs on the hand painted lamps. The quilt has bathing suits on it and I had a great idea to just flip it over! The other side was flip flops. That’s not going to work either.

Capri P told me about a color that she was using in her home called Softer Tan by Sherwin Williams. I thought it could be a trial run for my big painting project in The Mitten. The whole time I painted I wasn’t sure if I liked it because the Kryptonite glow from the existing paint was throwing off my groove! See?? It’s weird!!

I LOVED it once it was completed and the lime residue was removed!! Well, except for that quilt.

So much freaking calmer.

Onto the laundry room, goodbye pineapples. Honey ended up having to rent a wallpaper steamer from the Home Depot to get it off. It was a HOT, MESSY job in a very tight space. It looked loads better after a coat of Softer Tan as well. Unfortunately, I forgot to take an after picture and I am sorry for you and me both.

It was our habit to rise, have coffee and tea made in our newly purchased coffeepot and kettle, do the tasks that needed attending to, head out to eat an early dinner and then shop at many stores looking for the things we needed to make our new home comfortable. I joked with Honey that all the shopping we brought home went in cupboards and closets, not much to show for all of our efforts! You could see this little piece we purchased at Homegoods.

I was having many hankerings to buy things up here in Michigan, but Honey said we would just get stuff down there. When I was in Virginia I did get a cute salt nightlight that I thought I could put in the laundry room, so that we would have a soft, calming glow greet us when we returned home in the evenings. Well, there was no plug except the ones being used by the washer and dryer. So much for that. Our next idea panned out better. This little cabinet has a plug behind it and we may or may not have bought a little lamp that we can turn on when we leave. I can’t remember, isn’t that awful?!

I started collecting the little tchotchkes that were sitting around on all the surfaces, and sticking them on this shelf. I am a fan of functionality and don’t have a ton of use for collectibles. Not everything up here will go, but it was a growing collection!

I call this Cousin It. It’s a metal plant stand and it is not awful. It may end up out on the lanai with a real plant in it. For now we stuck it in the lovely Softer Tan spare bedroom. Those tall green breakables will most likely be donated.

There are 4 of these sparkling beauties in the hallway. Coming soon to your neighborhood Goodwill.

I call this Lady Buttcrack. It’s right inside the front door. For now.

This is what it did Every.Single.Evening. I had no idea they had a rainy season. Like seriously POURED and stormed.

We went to one of our favorite places and staged a picture to send to Uncle Bob and Aunt Phyllis, because they like to go there too when in town.

We found a new place that we liked a LOT! Mission BBQ in Fort Myers. Good food, super nice employees and decorated with patches from all manor of military, police and fire responders. We will be back!

We met several neighbors who gave us the scoop on the previous owners (wonderful folks!) and the neighborhood in general (very friendly!). There are a lot of original owners on our street. We met the neighbor behind us who said she called us the Phantom Family because no one knew anything about us! She was very excited to see our lights on. We met a lot of neighbor dogs, Hannah, Danny, Jose Cuervo. It was a good trip.

I think we are going to like it there 🙂

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Catching Up

Oh my People, it’s been a busy summer! I had big intentions to blog, blog, blog, and there was SO much to talk about! But there were 5 trips since the end of May, 6 if you count helping getting Honey get ready for his big fishing trip to Alaska, and I am counting it because even though I didn’t actually go on the trip, I was certainly involved in the discussion of needs and co-packing for the trip. And you all know pre trip prep is important!

Added to the continual packing and unpacking suitcases has been near constant sweating. I saw on the Facebook yesterday that this summer in The Mitten has been the 6th hottest on record since they have been recording temperatures from the 1800s!!! That is far too toasty for me and my post menopausal self!!

In addition to coming and going, perspiring all the way, has been the usual walking with Keelyody and Jip the Farm Dog, the cutting of the grass, the weeding and watering, and the getting swamped by my clients who need their hairs done when there are pockets of free days in between trips.

Mixed in with the mundane have been more pressing issues, like what color am I going to paint our dang walls?? The angst of wondering “when will The Boy and The Dane move back to Michigan?”, “is Honey going to retire this year?”, and “will my right kidney and I ever be able to live in peaceful, bacteria-free harmony?”

All of that was overshadowed by the unwelcome news that some dear Loved Ones are dealing with seriously life threatening situations, requiring many prayers, asking for all manor of intervention. But do you know what I am most thankful for? We have the ability to take everything that concerns us to the One who made us. He knows just what to do, even when we don’t. Thank you Lord.  We will continue to believe that He can use all things for His good.

I wanted to show you the back porch, it has done exceptionally well! I have to give a big shout out to Mousey and Honey for keeping up with the watering while I was flying and driving hither and yon! These pictures were from July, when I thought things were looking very loverly 🙂 Mousey calls these Jurassic Park plants, otherwise known as the beautious coleus.

See my cutey cute ceramic kitty cat from Virginia? ❤ Probably not it’s permanent home, but that’s where I stuck it when I got home and there it remains.

And the other side.

This little fella in the front row is winner of the My Precious award this year! So soft, so lush and reliable, and when you touch it it smells like lime!!! No idea what the name is, but I surely have plans for it next summer!

This pot was another unexpected favorite. You know how sometimes you have some leftover stuff and you jam it all into one pot and hope for the best? Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. I find myself inordinately fond of this combination.

My lantana has seriously underperformed this year in all pots, but the coleus more than makes up for it here.

Here we are the end of August, FULL ON Jurassic Park!

They have met in the middle and completely blocked the unused doorwall to our bedroom!!!

It’s a jungle out there! I have to say though, I don’t like when they sprout those long things. I used to pinch them off, but this time of year it can be a full time job, and it seems like the bees like the delicate little purple/blue blooms that are on them. So we do what we can to support our local bee population in their efforts to live a successful life.

 

Honey will be wanting to close the pool any minute now, so their days are numbered. I would like to keep them until after we have our Caregroup get together, it looks much nicer 🙂

In other news: From The Boy and The Dane!!!!!!!

SURPRISE BABY!!! The more the merrier ❤ It will be grand to have another little nugget to smooch!

I had planned to begin painting the inside of our house this summer. I did not get around to it. Paint is on sale all over this Labor Day weekend, and it is my intention to get a gallon and paint a wall in the kitchen, foyer and great room, to see what’s what. We have a tri-fold goal of finding something neutral for resale, looking good with our crown molding (that I do NOT want to paint), and if possible, toning down the orangey honey in our honey oak cabinets and wood trim. It’s a LOT to ask, I know. I think we have found a color up to the task. More details to follow at a later date.

Honey has received highly unofficial word that he will pretty sure be laid off several weeks this fall. Most likely. You know that Ford Motor Company, it’s all set in stone, until it isn’t. I think he will be happy to be laid off as he has several things on his plate to attend to. Fairly high on his list is to ferret out two leaks in our basement. One is coming from our shower, the other is a little more problematic and will require the removal of some drywall 😦  We are thankful that he will have some time to address these issues. Because it is a rare task for Honey that only requires one trip to Home Depot. That time will come in handy.

I have much to tell you about our trip to the new place in Florida, my trip out to Seattle with Mousey to see The Boy, The Dane, MoonPie and the gestating Little Dipper, a fun visit to Gun Lake, and Honey’s musings on his Alaska Adventure among other things. Thanks for hanging around! ❤