Never Get A Storage Unit -- Until You Consider The Costs

When we moved to New Mexico, because we were moving in two parts over a 9-month period, we needed to get a storage unit here for all our belongings coming from California, until we moved into a new home. I was staying in a small 2-bedroom, already furnished townhouse, so everything but clothes and important necessities went into the storage unit.

At the end of January, we finally, finally got that storage unit emptied and closed out our account. It turned out to be exactly three years from the week we first got the storage unit. In the course of that three years, it was really only a must that we have the unit for the first year probably since we were doing some renovation work on the house for a few months after we closed the sale. So that means we paid for that huge storage unit that was only partially filled for two year unnecessarily.

I can justify a little more of that time if I consider I was in a cast or barely out of a cast for six months of that two years. But it sickens me that we kept paying for it. The least we could've done is downsized it to about a quarter of the size. Once I got in there in mid-January are really started clearing it out, I realized probably 1/2 of everything that was in there was empty cardboard boxes. Insanity.

Oh that makes my stomach hurt just to write it. We could have purchased everything in that storage unit and some more things we need with the money we paid for that unnecessary storage unit. Of course, this is the whole storage unit scam, get you in there and you never get out. I can't tell you how many months I said I was going to close it out and clear it out but the task seemed a little too monumental.

There were a few bigger pieces of furniture inside but only a few and most of them can be sold. Even though our new house is decent sized, there really isn't a lot of room for furniture inside it due to the open design and wall to wall windows. You can't put a tall bookcase up in front of a window and where there are walls they are generally very narrow or angled to accommodate all the walls of windows. 

So I started making trips with carloads of things from the storage unit to our house and because we live at the end of a secluded circle, down a very secluded lane I just stacked everything in front of the house.  Dear friends helped me with one final load in their pickup truck at 7 pm the last day of the monthly contract. In that load was just a bookcase, two beds and a storage rack. It was amazing to see the unit empty. Sweeping out the storage unit and walking away from the dumpster I had filled at least half of with stuff out of that unit was a victory. Joy and success.

However there was still that mountain of stuff in front of our garage that I have been working on. Thankfully the weather has been good and dry so everything has been perfectly safe out there. Every day I have been going through things and either finding a place to use an item in the house or choosing to donate, sell or recycle it.

I've made four or five trips to the thrift store the past couple of weeks. I haven't been taking huge carloads, but just a few boxes of items as they accumulate in the back of my car. It feels good to get rid of stuff as fast as possible, plus that keeps family members from going through it all and trying to keep things. For the few true storage items we need to keep in boxes, I've been putting those in attics or the garage. I'm amazed that those things have fit nicely into small spaces and we have more room for things than it felt like we did in those areas.

This was a doozy task but I'm happier about it for a few reasons: 1) saving money! 2) getting rid of stuff we don't need. 3) feeling more organized. 4) being more settled in our home. 5) feeling like a better steward over our belongings and how we use our money.

I think it was also the thing that really got me energized for 2018 and helped me get going for the new year. I did this all by myself for the most part and I think it was kind of therapeutic to just listen to podcasts and music and sift through things without having anyone else there to question my decisions or have to make decisions with.

I listened to a lot of inspiring podcasts and happy music through the long days. I also was better than I ever have been about taking breaks and not going for so long that I totally wore myself out. I am still learning to pace myself in my life. Ha. So that was one of my big projects done for January. Do you or did you have any big projects to get through this winter? What were they? How did you feel about them and how did you tackle them?

10 Things To Consider Before Buying A Mountain Home

Well we've been living in a desert mountain environment for more than two years now and have been in our home for about 18 months. I've learned a few things that I thought I would share about buying a mountain home with a "wild" yard versus living in a designed, manicured neighborhood. There are a few things I've had to learn to adjust to, some things might have turned me away from choosing a mountain home and some benefits are priceless. But they are things I never thought about until I experienced them.

I'll start with the cons just to get them out of the way and so that I can end of a positive note:

1) Pest control: Oh the nature creatures sure are cute. The wild bunnies, flocks of quail, wild birds, and deer are so charming until you realize the furry creatures especially also bring fleas and other bugs along with them. We also have packrats, tons of mice, bobcats, snakes (poisonous and not), tarantulas, lots of spiders, very noisy, rather aggressive birds, coyotes that eat small pets and creatures, ants (of all varieties, sizes and biting abilities), and a lot more flying insects than I see at friends homes even just a little lower on the hill. Those include tarantula hawks which are giant relatives of hornets, hornets, wasps and bees. Pest control could be a full time job if we let it be. Don't imagine we are constantly under barrage of animals attacking us, but living with nature is living with nature. You have to be thoughtful and careful.

Last weekend we had a rattlesnake across our driveway and The Man could not get by, so he had to wait. Two weeks ago we had bear in our yard, very close to the house several times. That was a little scary, especially when one night I came across one and the next night The Man walked out of the house in the dark to a large bear on our front living room patio.

2) Protection for pets and children: All these critters also mean you have to be a lot more careful with children and household pets that go outside. Cats aren't safe around coyotes, and even a large dog can be taken down by a pack of coyotes or other predators. They can also pick up diseases from the wild creatures. Dogs can be rattlesnake trained but you can never guarantee what might happened if your pet comes across a poisonous creature in the wild. Child safety is also a big concern from all these same kinds of animals. I almost forgot to also mention dangerous plants! Cactus everywhere. I once had to pull a cactus needle out of Kiddo's shin that was embedded about 1/2" into her skin. Super gross feeling to keep pulling and pulling until it came out. She fell at the far back side of our property and had a lot way to drag herself back to the house to get help.

We have a rule that Kiddo can't go outside without telling us, so that we know to check on her every few minutes. Both kids and animals have to be trained to be watchful and they also need to be fairly closely supervised. It's also important to have first aid preparedness and plans for all these scenarios. Some extra caution is needed.

3) Mountain weather pattern dangers: The weather gets a little wilder in the foothills. This may mean more powerful winds, heavier rains, more powerful sudden storms of all kinds: electrical, thunder, snow, rain, etc. This can make driving more challenging too even when things are fine in the city. Temperatures can also be considerably colder in winter. You may be just a couple of miles away from the heart of town but a higher elevation, canyons and mountains that storm clouds will bang into make things a little more challenging and unpredictable. I was "twinkled" by some lightening two summers ago - it didn't strike loudly it just buzzed up the air around me and I was holding my cell phone and received a burn on my palm from where the phone contacted my hand. Not fun. I try not to go outside at all if we are having an electrical storm now.

4) Outdated utilities: The farther you live from "civilization" the less maintained utilities will be and the less interested companies are in investing in your neighborhood. Our neighborhood is about 30+ years old now. The lots are big and spread apart and the population is mostly over 70 years old. So you can imagine we are not the hotbed for the tech companies interested in investing in installing their latest technologies. Things you don't think about...high speed internet is everywhere now isn't it?!

The fact that home lots are big, spread far apart and that the soil is very rocky also adds to the plausible costs for utilities to consider upgrading to new systems and laying new wires that have to be buried underground. So our neighborhood has adequate but not great internet access and our options are limited. The phone lines are old, all the wiring is old. We've already had to have the internet company come and replace the main connector for our house at the junction box down the road and were without internet service for a week. It seems like every few weeks we have to restart our modem to reconnect to the system.

5) Public and emergency services availability: Once you are out of the city limits you will likely not be getting city water, garbage, sewer, or emergency services. You may be on the county system for fire and law enforcement and it's important to know how far away these facilities are located if you have an emergency at your home. We have a neighborhood association for garbage and water which we pay for and it's probably more that regular city services would be. We also have a septic tank instead of a sewer system. I have mixed emotions about that as well. Wouldn't probably be my first choice because we are fully, financially responsible for its proper function. When things go badly with a septic system it can mean replacing the entire tank and tearing up a major section of your yard to do it. $$$$$. Ouch.

6) Yardwork, soil and gardening challenges: In our neighborhood, most yards are left completely natural, in fact I think it's somewhat required. But if a homeowner wants to have a manicured space within a walled or fenced in area that is allowed in back of the house. We have a small grass area with a large patio, deck and pool deck area. We still haven't figured out how to deal with our grassy area as far are cutting it nicely because there are "architectural" rocks in the midst of it and around it. We need to work on that. My feeling is that a push mower would be the best bet. It's hardly worth buying a real lawnmower for such a tiny piece of grass plus it sounds incredibly dangerous potentially have rocks or bits of rock being shot out of the bottom of a power mower.

Trying to grow anything in this mountainy soil really is impossible unless it's something that is already growing on this mountainside. For any kind of gardening a lot of soil conditioning or container planting is necessary. However in the hot, desert climate, thing son planters have a hard time surviving. Large container or raised bed gardening seems like the best option. I have only planted a few small containers at this point. Maybe someday when we've finished up more house projects we can think about starting larger scale gardening projects.

Fantastic Pros:

7) The amazing views! Being higher up makes for amazing sunsets, city views and storm watching as they come across the valley. In our valley we enjoy an 80+ mile view in three directions. It's quite beautiful and the sunsets are stunning night after night after night. The mountains on the other side of our home are beautiful too. It's so much to take in and something we don't take for granted.

8) The privacy! We didn't really realize until we moved in that we actually have three houses that are within a few hundred feet of our house because the trees block the other houses nicely. But because the lots are bigger here we have plenty of privacy. All the bedrooms face out to big open, tree-lined spaces so we do feel there is a lot of privacy here.

9) Respectful neighbors. I think people who tend to live in neighborhoods like this are people who appreciate their privacy too so everything is very respectful for the most part. We did have some problems with a neighbor's dogs when they first moved in and were roaming into our yard without leashes and barking a lot but after neighbors complained that seemed to get significantly better. Our neighbors all wave as they drive through the neighborhood and we know we know them well enough to feel comfortable visiting but not intruded upon.

10) Distance from the city hustle and bustle. After living in one of the busiest areas of Los Angeles and surrounded by constant noise 24-hours a day, living a bit outside the noise of the city and traffic is lovely. It is so quiet up here. You can sit in bed at night at stare out the windows at the trees and stars and enjoy the silence. Some nights it is so quiet you can hear traffic from almost a mile away on the closest main road outside our neighborhood. That is such a huge change for us.

One thing that is very interesting is how voices carry across the mountains. Sometimes you can very clearly hear voices through the trees and there are no people there but the voices are coming from several homes away or a completely different direction. It is very strange and sometimes a little unsettling. The wind and the trees do interesting things to the things we hear.

There are so many things we do love about living here and I think there are, in any home one purchases, big pros and cons. Some you recognize before you move in and some you don't find out about until you've lived there for a time. I could do without the dangerous creatures, but I love our home, the yard and the views, our local church congregation and the friends we've made in the neighborhood. Our next door neighbors are the absolute best and that is something we had no idea about when we purchased the house because they were traveling from the time we first looked at the house until long after we'd closed on the house.

I choose to love the good and not worry too much about the challenges. Make the best of it all. Living in this mountain environment is a lot of fun and brings us a lot of things we needed at this point in our lives. I hope these tips will help you know if mountain living is right for you!

Big Likes #7: Skylights

Growing up we had a skylight in our living room, but I never really understood how fantastic skylights were until I moved to the Southwest. Many homes here take advantage of skylights and it makes an amazing difference in the brightness of one's home and they are a big electricity saver too.

I first really noticed this when we moved into our home and our garage had a skylight in it. That means that you never need to turn the light on in the garage when you go in there during the day if the garage door is down. It's already light. I'm sort of surprised by this every time I walk into our garage because I have been so used to having to turn a light on in all the other garages I've had.

In the townhouse we lived in for a short time before we moved into our house there were skylights over the vanities in the bathrooms and it was wonderful to have that natural light when getting ready and looking in the mirrors. Another room where there are rarely windows and where you never needed to flip on the lights thanks to the skylights.

In this house we also have skylights in our family room and dining/living room and they make such a difference in the amount of light in those spaces. Albuquerque has an average of 310 days of sunshine a year, so we really get a great advantage to enjoying more natural light in our home and need less electrical lighting during daylight hours. The skylights have also really helped out our houseplants who seem so healthy and happy with the all natural light they get.

Skylights are not that expensive to install although I would suggest having a professional do it because it affects roofing and there can be problems with leaks if not installed properly. There are different versions that can be opened for additional ventilation too. Ours are opaque plastic bubbles, so they don't open but we have so many doors and windows in our house that can be opened that we really don't need that feature. But I sure do love our skylights, all the extra light they bring in just makes our home a happier place - and who does not want to save on lighting costs! Skylights are something I have learned to appreciate because of living in the southwest where they are plentiful. They are Big Like #7 this week.

Seeing Our Positive Accomplishments: Home Decor

I have been feeling discouraged with the progress (or lack of progress) on making our home look lovely. I am highly motivated to have a home that is comfortable and welcoming and we have been struggling. That means I really struggle because having this feels so vital to my soul. While ruminating about this over the past couple of days, it came to me that things are getting prettier around here, I just haven't let myself see that.

Last week I finally FINALLY got a plant and pot that I bought last summer out on the front porch of our house. You may remember I had planned to make a wood plant stand to put the pot it. Well just didn't have time for that. So here we are 10 months later and I found this wonderful stick table I bought 18 months ago and put the pot and plant on top of that and suddenly I have a front porch look that I like. It goes well with the basket I bought last winter for the door that I can update for holidays and seasons with a cute little sign on the front and rotating flowers or plants inside.

I happened to pick up these patriotic fan decorations at Target last week and they were sitting on my desk and I thought, hey I know what I can put in that basket for the summer. Since the front door is well protected and shaded they should be fine there for the entire summer. If not I have another set I can replace them with. The doormat I bought last fall some time and I love it and it all works and speaks my style. Needed that! Okay, progress is happening!

Even if the house hasn't been painted a color I actually like and I'm a little unthrilled with the turquoise front door (some days I like it, but I would love to get rid of that middle section with all the scrolly stuff!) I can still be happy with things done the best they can for now. Wanting everything done right this second isn't really very realistic and why make myself miserable. It may not be magazine worthy but it's the best it's ever been and I can be happy with that for now.

Before I updated the front door basket I took a small whisk broom and swept down the entire door. Then I used a really great squirt bottle that has a good strong sprayer on it and squirted down the front door really well with just plain water, getting into all those nooks and crannies. It was like a mini-power wash for the door. I dried it off and wow did it look a million times better without all the silt and dirt deposits on every edge!

That entire front door update was not that hard and in fact took just a little over 30 minutes. The Man had stacked some small boxes of wood near that door which was making it look a little messy and they had been there for a while. Making those go away was just three simple trips to move those boxes where they needed to be.  None of this was as overwhelming as it feels sometimes.

Next I realized that I'd made some valuable improvements on our "curb appeal" by hanging the silk lanterns together in a tree, adding the new chairs and a little "As-is" IKEA table I picked up just before we left California that has been waiting for a home. Now when people come up to our home they don't see dry ground, scraggly juniper trees and sagebrush. Hopefully they see a welcoming patio! Plans are to add an outdoor table here shortly with some chairs for outside meals, newspaper or magazine reading, journal writing and early morning tea. Can't wait.

On the back patio we still have work to do, but just adding my pretty white and terra cotta pots of vegetable and herbs has cheered up that space quite a bit! Progress!

It sure helped to turn my attitude and perspective around when I started really seeing the good things that are happening around here instead of feeling discouraged and overwhelmed by the mass entirety of the project. Life really is constantly about baby steps and when we get overwhelmed and discouraged it's usually because we're looking beyond the mark a bit and forgetting those baby steps that are what really get us to our goals, hopes and dreams. So today I am going to again take baby steps towards my home and life goals. Recognizing my small successes has been a major source of encouragement to keep taking small steps forward!

Grand Designs: A Refreshing "New" Home Design Show

I first heard about Grand Designs from the Young House Love Has A Podcast hosted by John and Sherry Petersik a couple of weeks ago. It's new to us here in the U.S. but in the U.K. many seasons have aired. I checked it out and have to say I binged all the episodes within two weeks...I realize that's not really binging in the "didn't leave my house for three days until I'd watched every episode" context, but for someone who is quite busy, I got through them pretty quickly.

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Here are the reasons I really like this show:

1) The host and writer, Kevin McCloud is completely likable. There is nothing annoying to him. He is curious, kind, generous, and asks the right and often obvious questions viewers want to know. He makes the show better in every way.

2) The homebuilders are dreamers and risk takers. No one is whining about granite countertops and stainless steels appliances here. (Little HGTV joke.) The homebuilders on this show are doing remarkable things and sometimes it works out and sometimes there are some major disasters and yet they all make it work the best they can. Some of the biggest doubters are often family members.

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3) Every story doesn't wrap up perfectly every time. Sometimes the homeowners run out of money and the homes don't get all glamorously and magically finished. There are disagreements between spouses and mother nature certainly has taken her toll in a few episodes. But there is still a warm, hopeful, upbeat feeling to the show.

4) There is always an element of attempting the impossible in each episode. These builders are really trying to do new things and envision new ways of doing things.

5) There are some amazing homes features. Some are very expensive and some are not. But they are all very unique.

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6) You get some great lessons on architecture. This show is more about building the house than furnishing the house. You can learn a lot about different building techniques and materials. You do get to see the decorated or at least partially decorated house at the end but there isn't a lot of time spent on the furnishing aspect.

7) The build locations are often unbelievably beautiful spots all over Great Britain. If you like lush, green meadows and ocean cliffs, you'll definitely get that here.

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I thought initially that there were two seasons available on Netflix, but later noticed that it's episodes that bounce around between the many seasons that have been made of the show.  Hopefully at some point Netflix will add more episodes of Grand Designs and perhaps put them into chronological order. Most of the episodes featured right now are from 2009-2012. So there is a lot of talk about "the bad economy" and situations that now seem to have been a long time ago now. But those elements don't take anything away from the enjoyment of the show.

I'm recommending this show! If you check it out I'd love to hear what you think. Leave a comment below or comment on other social media. Happy viewing.

Big Like #4: My New Trash Can By Broyhill

I've been on the hunt for the perfect trash can for my office for quite a while now. I just haven't seen anything that I liked that felt like it worked in the space. I have a pretty deep corner desk and under the desk is the only place I can fit a trash can in my office so it needed to be the right dimensions and still feel pretty to me. And I didn't want to spend a fortune on a trash can that no one but me would really see, or any trash can for that matter. Well okay we did splurge for our kitchen trash can, remember? And I will say we've loved it! For my office, it seemed like a good deal should be easy enough to find but it just took a while.

Then I found this great little woven basket at Home Goods and thought it would go perfectly with my office. It was the right width, height, pattern and coloring. It took me less than ten seconds to make a decision and I have not regretted it for one second since.

It was so pretty in the store but one I got it home it still maintained it's cheery sparkle and still seemed like exactly what I wanted, which I was so happy about. It's always a little sad when something looks so smashing in the store and then when you get it home it seems to have lost some of its luster.

It cost just $12 which was a great deal too. The white bright white top and green/gray bottom feel fresh and summery to me and I love the color combination. Trying to decorate my office which is about five shades of boring neutrals, almost no wall space and aged oak cabinets everywhere has been a bit of a challenge. I'm just not up for painting cabinets right now.

We replaced the floors last year from red brick to aged white wood-look vinyl planks. Great for laundry rooms and a small space that takes a lot of abuse. The paint is a gray tan which we painted when we moved it using the leftovers from one of the downstairs bedrooms. The pre-existing countertops are a yellow-tan and the expensive pre-existing blinds are a peachy tan. It's a whole lot of bland coming all together with one beautiful chandelier and lovely flooring. I'm not sure what to do with it all. But adding a lovely trash can has to be a good start, right? It's my big like for the week, my new Broyhill trash can for my office. It's the little things that make life's big likes.

Are We Busy Or Are We Focused?

This morning I read this Instagram post by The Minimalists about multitasking and how we're doing more than we've ever done, how we're working more hours than we've ever worked and how busy-ness has taken over our world.

It got me thinking about how I use my time and what I'm giving time and attention to that I don't want to be. It's a constant battle not to let things creep into our lives that just pile up, muddy it up, make us tired and cause us grief. I find it's a constant battle just to keep it all at bay and try to find some sense of simplicity in life.

Moving into a house has definitely added to that and I find myself frequently missing living in a small apartment. Definitely the old grass is always greener because all a person wants when they are living in a small apartment is a house with a yard. Ha. In a house, there is more to clean, more upkeep, a yard to care for and more stuff in the house itself. It gets a little overwhelming and I think it takes some careful consideration to figure out what you can manage without losing your mind, when you'll need help and how plus what that will cost in time and resources.

One of the things I read in the post that struck me was the question "Are we busy or are we focused?" Busy for busy's sake still amazingly something humans tend to brag about. How often do we say or hear "Oh I'm so busy!" or "You know how busy life gets." I like the contrast between busy and focused. I would rather be focused and make the best use of my time and not feel dizzy with busy.

I recently talked with a good friend who is working on a new business. She said she is focusing two hours every day while her kids are at school to her business, 10 a.m. - noon. I like that realistic acknowledgement that this is the time she can give it and that she's just going to be diligent in giving it that time. I was inspired. If you're giving any effort energy and every day, then every day you are moving things forward and you are gaining momentum and the benefits of consistency.

Consistency is really a tough one when you have so many, too many things pulling at you every day. Solid commitment to priorities is critical and as easy as it sounds so often as a mom and wife one gets derailed when you've been up all night with someone who is sick, school or doctors appointments, stayed up extra late to help with homework, or had outside commitments you have to attend to - and even occasionally are sick or worn out too -- I don't think women often give themselves much rest time.

I am trying to figure out how to better manage that but it is not easy. So often it feels like my priorities have to take a back seat to everyone else's priorities and I don't think that's right. But there are days when you just have to focus on keeping the family alive and afloat.

I think this week I am going to write my priorities in big letters and post it on my desk. Then make sure my time is fitting into one of those priorities with focus from the top down. I want to be focused rather than busy. Then I want to cut back on how I'm spending my time and create more open space in my days. It's time to do some spring cleaning of my life and cut out the things that aren't critical. I did that with my socks, underwear and makeup drawers earlier this year. I've been doing the same with our family room. I'm feeling like it's time to Spring Clean my life and cut away some of the unnecessary items and build in lots more time for things I really want to be doing.

Some things I'd like to be doing more of are meeting up with friends, business networking, reading the few but beautiful magazines that come in the mail that seem to pile up a bit. I'd like to spend more time studying things I'm interested in and doing more meditation and yoga. I want to put more time towards meal planning and healthy eating, time outside and exercise.

I'd like to take more outings to new neighborhoods and things I haven't seen here in the city. I would like to spend time working on the creative projects I have waiting for me like stripping down two old benches and making my planter I was supposed to make last summer. I'm sneaking all these kinds of things in but not to the extend that they are completely regular habits and must haves for me.

Here's where it gets tricky. What would I like to be doing less of...well it doesn't feel like any of those things are things I can actually do less of. I'd like to be doing fewer dishes but we still have to eat and I do get help with that, but it seems like I'm always the last one in the kitchen washing down the counters. I'd like to spend less time cleaning house but it feels never ending and never feels finished - and that is with help. I'd like to spend less time feeling like we have so much to do on the house and less time trying to do it. I don't know what else I can let go of right now. There have to be things I'm not thinking of. I'm going to ponder that.

Maybe what I could do better is think about how I use the free time that I do have. So often I feel like I fritter it away instead of doing something I really wanted to do. For instance I might sit down and watch a movie with that family that I'm not really interested in. I could still do that but maybe do something I want to do while I'm watching. Part of the challenge for women as well I think is that we're just too doggone tired by the time we do have any free time. Who has the energy? It's a big of a losing battle when one realizes that the older we get the less energy we seem to have or the more quickly we get tired. What I would give to be able to put some of the energy of my youth to good use now!

I think more routine and organization would help to. I'm big on these things but the rest of my clan is somewhat resistant. It's a battle for me to figure out how much it's worth fighting it and how much is absolutely necessary to teach skills and enforce order in the home. I think there is a little too much flexibility and movement in this area of our life right now. It would be better to have more structure. More focus.

What things would you like to get rid of in your life or could you realistically cut back on? How do you manage your time so that you feel fulfilled and happy with your own priorities while meeting the rest of the needs in your life whether it's work, family, etc? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Organizing And Reorganizing For The New Year

It seems many of us enter the new year with a burst of energy for reorganization. This is usually the time of year when I get pretty serious about making a sweep through the entire house to organize better spaces and reorganize areas that have grown out of control over the year. The week before Christmas, when we were down with a mild and queasy flu, I grabbed a composition notebook and started making a list of organization projects, room by room.

In the few days before Christmas, in between nursing hits of ginger ale for the stomach, watching movies and taking feverish naps, I managed to knock off a list of small projects. I reorganized my sock drawer and got rid of a lot of no longer attractive socks. I reorganized where I keep my workout clothes and pajamas, taking advantage of the huge drawers under the half-staircase that leads down to our bedroom. They are right next to my side of the bed and don't make a lot of sense overall. But for bulky things like workout clothes and pajamas I now realize they are perfect. Under the top landing of the staircase there are four square-front drawers stacked two on two. So I took the top two for clothes and in the bottom two I put books I like to have by my bed on one side and bedside toiletries (hand lotion, saline nasal spray, eye drops, a few favorite essential oils and stress-relief scents, microwave heating pads, etc.) in the other. Great use of the space and now there is far less clutter around my bed. Hooray! It'e easier to keep all the surfaces around the bed clutter free, which makes for a much more restful space.

In the bedroom I still need to reorganize my jewelry drawers. They used to be so fabulously organized and now some of my jewelry is getting older and worn, there are a few pieces that need repair and I really need to just update a lot of my costume jewelry pieces. So that will be a project for another day. I also need to tidy up the lingerie drawers and my swimwear drawer. Trying to do just one drawer a day seems much more manageable than trying to tackle the entire room.

Simultaneously, which wouldn't be recommended by any professional organizer, I've been working on my office. Today I got the itch to organize all the small supplies I have in my work space. On one side of my desk is basic office supplies that they entire family uses. On the other is my business supply cabinet with small bits and pieces I'm using to make things. As I'm going through cupboards and drawers I am questioning why I chose to store some things in the office. What was I thinking when we moved in?! I guess it felt like I had all the room in the world at the time, but now I'm taking books and other things out of this space and putting them in our family room. I also need to reorganize the printer area. We seem to have two dead printers suddenly -- a vintage laser printer and "not old enough to be dead yet", "multi-purpose-do-it-all-but-not really" inkjet printer -- and now have a new one that's working like a charm. I need to disconnect the oldies and give them a proper resting place.

In my beautiful former workspace in Los Angeles, it was all open shelving and I'd designed a place for everything before I purchased the Elfa unit that I came to really love and enjoy. Just talking about it or looking at old photos makes me a little sad. Here I have four big boxy drawers, four lower cabinet shelves and two sets of upper cabinet shelves...all with doors. Initially I thought the doors were fantastic because they would hide everything. And hide every they do. Getting stuff in and out is a major pain and the short height of the shelves makes storing anything vertical like binders or magazine racks impossible. Frustrating. So I'm working at trying to find better solutions for usage of the space. Maybe I'll buy some bright baskets for the lower shelves so that I can see what's inside those deep, dark caverns.

I'm hoping that by having my areas of the house more organized it will help inspire others to be a bit more organized with their things. I was imagining that it would take a couple of weeks to get things spic and span in my spaces, working in between many other commitments, but it might be the entire month of January and that's okay. I'll just keep working at it. It seems like every time I start a project, not long after I see The Man working on organizing some area of the house or garage.

The other big key to organization success is finishing small projects. If they don't get finished, they often stay unfinished for a while and multiple half-done projects just make everything feel chaotic. So if I start something, I want to finish it all at one time, in a couple of hours, more or less. This is the biggest reason why I am keeping daily projects so bite-size.

I have lots more to do in the office. Home offices seem to be where everyone dumps things and ours is no different. Since it's a shared space with the laundry I've had to really crack down on dirty laundry making its way into the dirty clothes baskets rather than thrown on the floor. Life with family is a constant battle for cleanliness and order, is it not.

We've been working really hard with The Bug to help her create good habits for staying organized and keeping her room a place where people, especially she, wants to be. Her room is small so we try not to keep too much stuff in there. There are other areas of the house where she can store toys and games, winter clothes, etc. So the goal is to keep her room simple and mostly for sleeping and getting dressed and ready for bed. Instilling this goal in the heart and mind of a pre-teen is a good parenting challenge...daily....I'll leave it at that. Ha.

While I'm writing this, solutions are coming to me for some other organization challenges we have in this house. I need to race in and write those down in my 2017 organization notebook before I forget. I think after a year here in this house we've really come to a place where we have found the quirky things about it that don't work so well. But solving those in a way that works for our family is our next big challenge and I know it's totally doable with a little elbow grease and strategic thinking. We have plenty of space, we just need to use it better and find ways around some of the bizarre quirks.

Do you get the organizing bug at the beginning of the new year? If so, what projects are you taking one and how is it going? Thanks for coming by!

Finish The job: Learning To Overcome Disorder

July was a crazy weird month because I ended my tenure at the job we moved to Albuquerque for and I attempted to jam into it a full summer of family fun, home improvement projects and more. Right now I am working on taking on freelance projects and starting two small business ventures while I do that. It's full speed ahead busy right now. Being home with husband and kiddo every day in July meant I was running hard and fast. But the great part was I was doing a lot of things I loved and enjoyed. Just needed about 20 more hours in every day.

Being home more every day, I feel like I am a little overwhelmed with the messes that accumulate around the house: short term and long term. Short term I would classify as cleaning the kitchen every day and long term might be cleaning out a closet. I felt like we were trying to tackle so many of these kinds of projects every day and yet everything still felt messy.

Then in the past couple of weeks, I read an article about organization where the author stated that houses feel messy, even when we feel like we're constantly cleaning, when we don't finish a job. I can't remember where I read this or who said it, I'm sorry to say. Finish the job. I have been thinking about that a lot. I realized I would do 90 percent of the kitchen cleaning and not finish the job and so the kitchen never felt tidied. I might take the tags off a new piece of clothing but then leave the tags on the dresser top. Or a family member might clear the dinner table but not wipe it down.

So I have been preaching this mantra around the house constantly. "Let's make sure we finish the job." So often it only take an additional five minutes to finish a job but it's so tempting to get tired and say, "that's good enough for now, I'll do the rest _____ (fill in the blank with later, tomorrow, after the kids are in bed, on the weekend.)

It's made a difference to make sure to take the time to quickly wash up the pans after the dishwasher is filled and turned on or to dry the hand-washed dishes and put them away immediately instead of them sitting on the drying rack for hours. When doing laundry, I try to just finish the job and that means getting it folded right away and taken to the appropriate bedroom or closet. When it's my clothing I try to put them away immediately.

Not leaving the day's clothing sitting on a chair but rather hanging it up or putting it in the laundry hamper is another one of those challenges many people have. I think getting everything out of the car each time one exits is another one of those "finish the job" tasks that often get overlooked. Putting make up and hair care products away immediately after use is also a big problem for some households. When things are out of place or chaotic is creates a lot of stress, frustration and wasted time when we have to hunt for things or take entire days to clean up big messes that could've been easily managed in a couple of minutes daily.

We've made an big effort to keep our powder room very tidy over the past couple of months and it has made an amazing difference about how we feel about that room and how clean it looks. It's surprising how nice it looks day after day when people aren't brushing their hair and teeth in that bathroom but using their own bathrooms instead. Now we're guest ready in that room all the time and it's a pleasure to pop in there and not feel upset at how it looks.

I'm still challenged by tidying up and keeping things organized and my family has not necessarily gotten overly enthusiastically excited about my "finish the job" charge, but I see it making little differences around the house and I know it's making a difference for me. I'm the example setter here for caring for the home and creating a nurturing environment so my example matters. So when I see my own things lying around the house I'll stop and grab them and hope that as my things disappear from view that others will follow suit.

Adjusting To A New Home

It's been about a year since we closed on our house. It's been quite a roller coaster year and if we'd know what we'd go through this past year I highly doubt we would've bought a house. But after eight months of nearly daily heavy duty house hunting here in our new city, I am convinced more now than ever that we landed in the right house for us, in the right neighborhood.

After losing my "dream house" in a last minute outbid last June I was sure at that time that I and our family would never get over losing that house that I had been watching intently for almost eight months just waiting and watching it drop in price until it was close to our price range.

After we got through that drama/trauma and found this house, we worked on it for a few months before moving in and I think it really took me breaking my foot for us to finally make the transition because this house was so much easier to maneuver around in than where we were living at the time. Once the fall holidays started and then I promptly broke my foot the week after New Year's  holiday, progress on the house came to a stand still. I'm happy to say that since the beginning of July we have started picking up on progress again which makes me very happy.

One of the biggest accomplishments that we are enjoying is having gotten the fridge that has been sitting in our garage set up in our laundry room, aka my office. There is a fridge that came with our home in the kitchen but we also brought one from California and we need the space. There is an opening in the office/laundry cabinetry for a fridge or freezer in the room and based on our constantly overcrowded first fridge and The Man's penchant for having a huge array of beverages in the house, it was needed. The condition of our over packed fridge has been a point of some contention for years because it was impossible to find anything and whenever one would open it things were likely to fall out. We continually would have food that would spoil because no one knew where it was or that it was even in the fridge.

You might ask, well why didn't you just get that in there right away. Well, long story short, it would not fit through the doorway because of the angle of the cabinets. We have some really wonky angles in our house and that room is a particularly odd one. So we have made three previous attempts with movers and contractors to get the fridge in the laundry room. Finally, The Man took the doors off the fridge, which was quite a bit more complicated than one might imagine. I will jokingly take credit and say this was the first time I was here to assist and see this challenge in action. We ended up needing to lift the fridge over the height of the lower cabinets to get it in the door and be able to have open space to turn it far enough to get it through the doorway.

The sad part is that at one point the contractors had all the cabinetry out of that room and had they just moved the fridge in there before they re-installed the angled cabinetry this would've been a five minute job instead of an eight month war. But it's a life changer for sure. Having extra space and being able to organize my meal supplies where I can actually see them is phenomenal. I can keep better track of what I have on hand and keep everything I need for a specific meal together.

It's also helpful to have the additional freezer space to keep a bit more food supply on hand, especially as we enter the colder months and start cooking more hearty meals. We have tried to shop prudently for meats and stock up when things are on sale or buy in bulk and package and freeze it in meal portion sizes, so this gives us more space to do that. Having more fridge space also makes entertaining much easier. When we have special meals and large serving dishes that need to go in the fridge there is space to keep it cold. Everyone in the family seems so relieved that we don't have to fight with our main kitchen fridge anymore.

Another life changer I enacted this past week was a kitchen drawer reorganization. We have five banks of drawers in our kitchen. We are tall and the drawers all have cut out grooves on the bottom of them for opening. Reaching down to the bottom of the bottom drawers to get things out is not enjoyable! The banks of drawers are also spread out quite a bit. Two on the dining room side, once next to the fridge and two more near the dishwasher.

One thing I am really glad I did was position the cutlery we use at meal time near the dining room and our secondary "hand me down" cutlery near the fridge. So when people want a quick yogurt or other snack out of the fridge there are spoons in easy reach and when we need to set the table or grab a forgotten fork, spoon or knife, there is a drawer on the adjoining wall to our dining room too. I realized last week that it was driving me crazy that I had put all our graters and slicing tools next to the fridge when I so often needed them near the sink/dishwasher and it is always a trek to have to walk to the other side of the kitchen to put them away when unloading the dishwasher. For a while I just lived with it, thinking there were no other options.

Then I got serious about making some drawer reorganization changes that would work better for us. Sometimes it seems like we humans have such a mental block about solving problems that are much easier than we make them. I realized that all the drawers under our dining room cutlery were not really being used very much and had things we rarely ever use in them like corn cob holders and chop sticks. So I made an executive decision, made a formal announcement to all family members and in about two minutes made the complete switcheroo. I have to say I was thrilled the first time I needed a liquid measuring cup and had to only take a couple of steps instead of walking around the island. This is a lesson to me for several reasons.

First, it's good to keep evaluating to see how things are working for you and your family. When I first organized the storage in the kitchen I was completely new to this house and even though I gave it thought and consideration at the time I had no experience by which to know how we would function in this kitchen.

Second, if it's not working, believe you can improve the situation and then get serious about finding solutions. This situation had been bugging me for a while. But all the drawers were being used...so what could I do? There are always solutions that we either aren't thinking of or don't have faith in. Sometimes it just takes a fresh perspective and new determination to find the right solution.

Third, life is much easier when things are organized. Our new fridge and better organized kitchen drawers make life less frustrating and tiring. Organization helps my mind to stay clear, open and creative. When I feel burdened by disorder, it really gets me down! I love the idea of a place for everything and everything in it's place. It's so much less frustrating when you always keep the scissors in one place and know they'll be there when you need them...or the tape, or your purse. Whatever it may be. Order is a virtue for a reason. We are more productive when we aren't wasting time looking for things and it's amazing how little time it really takes to put things away when they have a dedicated space.

I have a friend whose house was amazingly organized and I loved being in that house because there were no overflowing drawers, step stools stored in every closet, cleaning products for every job. A big part of this too, is letting go of stuff and not owning so much that one doesn't have space for it.

We are in the process of making some changes with this as we merge multiple households including things that were in storage from my in-laws home after they passed away. We also are letting go of things we have outgrown like car seats and small children's bikes, toys and a mountain of sporting equipment that we've all amassed over the years. It sure is tiring but every little bit helps and the outcome is amazingly refreshing to the soul. We had been planning another big yard sale, but one day my husband said, "What if we don't have a yard sale and just give the stuff to the thrift store?" That was suddenly music to my ears despite the fact that I knew we could make money having a yard sale. The amount of work and exhaustion to do that was just too much for what it would be worth and so bit by bit we are making trips to the thrift store instead and I could not be happier!

It's great to be moving things forward to taking the next steps to get settled here. With school back in session, it's much easier for The Man and I to take on a few projects now that Kiddo is busier too. We're hoping to take some major steps to getting better settled in this house in the next week and I can't wait. Hoping we can make our family room, which was been serving as a storage room for the past 10 months back into the family room it was intended to be so that we have another family living space where we can relax and hang out.

Hope all is well with you. Always love hearing your thoughts and adventures. Closing in on 7 years here at kalanicut which is just unbelievable. But when I count the amazing friends I have gained from this blog it's like life has always been this way.

Saying Goodbye To Stuff: Little Girl Clothes

We are focused completely on decluttering, organization and living a more minimal lifestyle right now. That means a lot of work and decisions on what to let go of, where to put things and finding a home for every belonging.

It's been a very delayed process, after our somewhat tumultuous first half of 2016, with broken foot and other things happening including winter weather, but we're finally going through stuff that we hastily packed when we left LA with just a couple of weeks notice in early 2015 and are getting our life back to a somewhat organized state.

It's been interesting to let go of things...stuff. One of the things I've been having a tough time letting go was all our beautiful little girl clothes. I think the sadness there is two-fold. One, we're letting go of our once little girl's clothes and learning to adapt to a pre-teen world of hormones, more independence and finding the place where effective parenting happens while allowing a young person to find herself, develop her life all the while still obviously needing parents to guide whether she's excited about that or not.

The second reason it's been hard is that we kept all our favorite little girl clothes hoping there would be another little girl who could wear those. That didn't happen and that is a heartbreaker. I was at a church function a few days ago and the word posterity came up and it just hit me a little bit that I would have no biological posterity in this life. I teared up. By no means do I overlook or am I ungrateful for the opportunity I've had to mother a child in my life. That has been a beautiful blessing, but when you realize you will never have your own biological children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren, and it's something you always wanted and expected you would have, that is sad.

We've joked in out family that the minute we give all those clothes away a little girl will somehow fall out of the sky into our family. If for some miracle we pull an Abraham and Sariah then the kid can have new clothes. She will have earned it.

I think one of the reasons it's been hard to give those kinds of things away is that we are giving away a big part of our history all at once. If I we had been giving stuff away little by little over the past few years it wouldn't sting as much because we wouldn't be looking at years of history. Now we're seeing The Bug's clothing she was wearing at three and four years old while in the same day doing laundry for a tall, gangly ten-and-a-half year-old girl who is all pre-teen smiles, hormones, grumpiness and horrifyingly embarrassed (at least half the time). It's a pretty stark contrast.

But I am trying to stay in a mindset that as we give away old things we're holding on to, whether they be belongings or just mental junk, that we open ourselves up to be filled up with new things we need. We make place in our lives for the present day and the future.

Last Saturday I took an entire (small) carload of things to the thrift store. It felt a little intense but I will say I have felt 99.9% relief (with only a smidgen of sadness) over having it all gone. That's a lot of space to open up for our lives. There had also been a good amount of stuff that has gone into the trash, and there will yet be further trips to the thrift store. But we're are definitely making progress which is so fantastic. I have to celebrate that progress every day. Every new empty box is a milestone and we've been emptying a lot of boxes the past few weeks. After merging two residences and a storage unit, we're doing pretty well.

So we keep chugging along and we're feeling encouraged. Last year at this time it had been about a month since we'd closed on our house and we were working like crazy. We had beautified the garage floor with the gray sprinkled epoxy protective coating, pulled out the giant planters in the kitchen and had the floors redone. We had removed the brick from the laundry room and put in new flooring there and the two downstairs bedrooms had been painted. Since then I don't think we've accomplished any big projects but now it's just getting everything in the house in it's place. In the future there will definitely be a lot of painting of the entire main floor - family room, living room, kitchen and dining room. We'll paint our master bedroom someday and the kitchen will definitely need some work. The tile countertops have a couple of spots that are losing grout with our daily use, so they'll need attention soon.

Oh, one quick note. Many of you have heard of the world famous Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta held here the first two weeks of October each year. We have a two bedroom, two bath townhouse vacation rental that is available, on a very last minute opportunity, for the entirety of the Balloon Fiesta as well as going forward. We'll be posting it on AirBnB but if you or anyone you know is interested let me know.

Thanks for coming by. I have a bunch of good posts in the works and look forward to sharing them soon.

A Backyard Swimming Pool: A Blessing in Disguise

There's nothing likd the Summer Solstice and Fourth of July weekend to get you amped up about summer and wanting to make plans. It's crazy to realize we are already a full month into school summer vacation. Scary. When I think about the whole idea of 18 summers, the number of summers one has with a child from birth to high school graduation, the desire to make the most of every summer really increases! We're down to only 8 more summers after this one. Time is going by quickly!

So despite the fact that we have lots of work to do on the house and it's easy to let summer days slip away, I am feeling very passionate that we enjoy our summer. For this one reason, I am so happy about our backyard and grateful we have a pool, even though we didn't want a pool and it is a lot of work and cost.

Saturday after many hours of work on the house, I broke out banana splits and put my swimsuit on and led the family to the pool. We played and played and played in the pool for a good two hours, including a good aqua workout using foam noodles. I was reminded that there is something very stress-relieving about water and it is truly therapeutic to both body and mind.

Hopping into the pool disconnects us from other parts of our relationships with the backyard, like weeding flower beds, watering plants, pool upkeep and sweeping the flagstone patio and paths. There is nothing that feels better after a few hours of sweaty, hot work than jumping into the pool and really cooling off. There is no heater in the pool so you get what you get on the temperature.

I had to pinch myself for a moment that this sweet backyard and perfectly lovely pool are ours. Where I grew up, people didn't have pools in their backyard. There were only about three pools in town. But when you live in the southwest United States, where temperatures are mild, most days are sunny and summers are hot and dry, many houses have pools and it's not unusual at all to have one.

Despite the fact we never wanted a pool and the upkeep is both expensive and time-consuming, I realize it's a big reason that the luxury of our sweet little backyard keeps us at home a lot, we don't spend a lot of time and money going out looking for entertainment. The Kiddo and pup spend hours out there chasing lizards and all sort of bugs...and thankfully usually only outside "The Rim" (the wall around the landscaped part of our yard) there are frequently bunnies, field mice and sometimes snakes and tarantulas.

Saturday night after we got out of the pool we spent a good ten minutes watching a pack of deer go from out front yard down the side of our property outside The Rim, grazing in the trees. They were watching us just as intently as we watched them. There were two males who had stubby little velvety antlers. So cute!

It's amazing how many hours we can entertain ourselves out there, enjoying the stunning nightly sunsets and lovely dinners on the patio. I can't wait to get some of our new friends here for dinner and conversation on the patio.

To make the most of our summer, we still need to make some plans to visit family this summer and take a few weekend getaways to get to know our new home state better. There are so many stunningly beautiful places to see in NM. If you want to get a glimpse of this amazing state, here's a great place to learn about New Mexico and see all the beautiful places you could visit.

We'll be out and about, but most of all we'll keep adding to our pool toys and backyard seating this summer. And we'll take every opportunity to enjoy our own little space to make the most of Kiddo's 10th summer and our first full summer in our new home, city and state.

Creating A Frosted Glass Window For Privacy

As much as we like the large vertical window next to our front, from a privacy standpoint it fails miserably. A few months ago, out of desperation, The Man cut a piece of fabric and taped it up in the window. While hobbling around in a cast and then on a healing foot for so long, I was fine with that.

But once Memorial Day came and I was significantly more mobile I was just itching to finally get this house in order and decorated. Feeling overwhelmed by the fact we've been living here for six months in a state of survival mode, and like we were living in a construction zone, I thought maybe my best bet would be to just start at the front door and work my way through the house.

Our front entryway, which feels very spacious when you are standing in it, really is not very spacious at all when you try to decorate it. I think the fact that there is a big stairway landing at the end of it and high ceilings gives it a nice, open feeling, but there is absolutely no room for even a small console table or any furniture. So I keep trying to work with it - someday it will feel just right I hope.

The window was one thing I felt I could make better. I definitely knew I didn't want the taped fabric up there. Our two options really were a lightweight curtain hung inside the window frame or some sort of opague glass treatment.

Because our goal was to keep this house very simple, modern and clean, a curtain seems like an added distraction that I didn't want. I also couldn't shake the feeling of a granny lace curtain feeling in the window, which I definitely didn't want. So I talked to The Man about doing a privacy window frost instead.

Because we have a few windows that are very high up in our main hallway that let in beautiful light but have a very unfortunate view of metal ducting on the rooftop, I'd already done some research on vinyl window coverings and found some very cool ones that I thought would work great in this house.

The previous owner had installed two stained glass window panels inside the window pane into two of the five window panels. They didn't match, one was on the far left window and another on the far right window - two spots where there was a particularly ugly view. Then on another of the windows there were minibinds installed. We had to guess that for some reason that window created some sort of lighting issues in one of the rooms in the house, although we still haven't figured out where.

When I went back and looked at modern, hip window vinyls I had saved for future reference, I realized that all the cool patterned styles I'd looked at would not work with our very intricately patterned and beautiful wood front door. After some looking, I realized something very simple and frosted glass was definitely the option I liked best.

I didn't want anything with a lot of glue-y goo on it that would be a nightmare to remove later on if we at some point wanted to do something differently. A static cling option seemed like a great way to go. So I started researching yet again and found this product with good reviews on Amazon. It promised easy application, to be easily removable and provide some UV protection and heat insulation.

It comes in two sizes and since our window was very narrow I was able to buy the smaller size that left me with very little waste. The roll I bought cost $17 which was likely a cost savings to hvae to make a custom drape and buy two rods for the top and bottom of the window.

Application is done with a spray bottle with soapy water. Kiddo helped me with the application. We got the thumbs up from The Man the next day when it had dried and set for a while. We're happy with our new frosted window, it's simplicity and privacy are just what we were looking for.

You might notice the wonderful vintage rug in the hallway. I love it's colors and that it's a bit tattered. It belonged to The Man before we met. He has some amazing rugs he's collected over the years. I'm happy we get to enjoy them. They are all quire unique and with the most lovely color combinations.

I'm on fire to get things done around the house so I'll be sharing a few new house posts in the next couple of weeks.

Favorite New Kitchen Tools: Rubber Scraper or Spatula

There comes a time in every kitchen where certain tools just need to be thrown out and you need to start fresh. That was the case with many of my rubber scrapers aka spatulas. Which do you call them, by the way? Do you say spatula or rubber scraper? Something else?

I found one of these beauties at Target a few weeks ago and on my next trip I bought four or five more. These are one of those kitchen items you just can't have enough of and I love always knowing there will be a couple of clean ones in the drawer. I really like the color, shape and the handle feels good in the hand. So I am in the process of slowing throwing out the ones I've been using for a few years that need to be replaced.

I wrote another post before about some other kitchen tools I like to have in multiples. Do you have tools you must have more than one of for convenience when cooking or baking? What are they?

Heights House 7: Planting Trees For Privacy

I'm a little behind on posts on progress at the new house. I have a few posts in the works and need to get a few more photos. A couple of weeks ago The Man worked with a local tree company to solve a few landscaping issues around our property.

One of the issues was the long driveway to our home. When one drove down the driveway there was an opening in the trees that opened right up to our neighbors parked cars in their driveway. It was a really weird focal point for entering our home environment.

There were two trees that had been planted in that spot but they were too small and would've taken years to grow and fill in -- and it looked like they were sickly already. The guys were able to plant three trees in that opening that are much bigger and fit in so perfectly to close off that gaping opening to the neighbors parked cars. The impact is pretty amazing and makes the drive up the driveway feel much homier and inviting to our home instead of facing the neighbors minivan and truck.

The team also planted a small bonsai pine behind our mailbox that filled in the spot nicely and will stay small. The final challenge and one that really has bugged The Man was that the back of the house to our north looked right into our backyard and pool area.

I have to first say a little something about the pool. We looked at so many houses that had pools and didn't want a pool. But we live in the southwest. There are a lot of pools. So we ended up choosing a house despite the pool, not hunting for a house that had a pool. Although I will say it's a perfect little rectangle pool and we already have a nice collection of pool toys and can't wait to use it more next summer. We only had about 3 weeks to use it this past summer before it got too cold. The upkeep is a bit much so far for the little time we've used it.

But our backyard was one of the big selling points for me. It has a wonderful big flagstone patio that I envision will host many family and friend dinners over the years. I cannot wait to get out of this cast and in the spring get out there and hang strings of lights from the trees across the patio.

My goal for this winter was to make a big dining table for that space while it was cold outside. But I don't see myself making furniture this winter. Maybe I'll whip something up later in the spring. Maybe that can be my birthday gift to myself. I'd love to make something from reclaimed wood that will stand the test of time.

(While I'm typing this I'm remembering that our friend has some sort of metal bending machine - wouldn't it be lovely if I commissioned The Man to make me some hairpin legs for a table?! -- my other thought while I'm writing this is that maybe it would be better to make two tables that I could use end to end for a big crowd OR use separately for a buffet table and the other for more intimate settings for a smaller group.) Oh, man! I cannot wait for summer - and to start having all those parties outside that I have been dreaming about.

Anyway let me pull myself back from all my fantasizing and get back to the landscaping. Ha. So privacy was really in the end the number one most important item on our house hunting list. We let quite a few houses go because there was no privacy in the backyard. Some of those houses were quite lovely and it was sad to walk away. But when push came to shove, we both wanted privacy after years of living too close to too many people in urban California - and having zero privacy.

Every time The Man stood at the north end of our pool deck he saw the neighbors' house. So when the team came and planted trees he also closed up that opening with a couple of big trees. Now the backyard has complete privacy from windows of neighbors on all sides. It's quite lovely and I think next summer when we're running around in bathing suits, we'll be quite happy to have complete privacy.

This project really was a labor of love by The Man. He did a lot of planning with the tree man and made sure as they were planting that all objectives were met. We were lucky to have the tree man who has done a lot of work in our neighborhood and knows this house and our neighbors. So he was able to give great advice and at the same time the neighbors were happy to see him rather than bothered by the noise and disruptions. (Yay.) There was a lot of running across the lot to stand at the north end of the pool to look out through the trees to make sure they were positioned just right.

Because our yard is pretty rocky and uneven outside of the part of the property that is walled-in backyard, I haven't had a chance to walk around see everything because of the broken foot. The driveway is uphill and none of my modes of transportation are too great on sloped surfaces. But in a few weeks I can't wait to take a nice walk around the perimeter of the property and see all the changes up close. What I have seen so far has made us all so happy.

Heights House 5: Removing The Indoor Planters

Wanted to share with you a quick recap of the updates we made to our kitchen and dining room. When I first looked at our new home online, very early in the year, I overlooked it very quickly. There was a weird, tall, spindly tree growing in the kitchen and two big, gaping planters stretching across the front of the kitchen and fireplace in the dining room. Bleck.

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The house needed some major updates and the quirks were a little too weird for me. Months later after looking at hundreds of houses, this house had been taken off the market and put back on the market. The listing for some reason only showed photos of the outside of the house so I did not realize it was the same house until I did further research and found the house listed on Zillow with lots of photos that I recognized having seen earlier in the year. By now we had decided on this exact neighborhood and were only looking for houses in that area. This house, strangely, fit a lot of our criteria and so we decided to take a look at it. The next day we put in an offer.

Once we closed on the house our first agenda point was to remove the planters and extend the brick flooring. One Saturday we just started digging up dirt and cutting down the strange, now dying trees. We each started with new work goggles, gloves and new shovels. In some strange turn of nostalgia, I asked The Man to save the tops of the trees, as he was cutting it all down, because it seemed they could be rooted and replanted. A couple of months later, they are rooted and ready to be replanted. I just need to get planters and soil and pot them. Then we'll find a spot for them in the house. I hope they will make a nice addition to the greenery around the house and remind us of all the progress we've made in that house.

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We spent several days tearing up the planters and carrying out dozens of 5-gallon buckets full of dirt and rocks. At this point we turned things over to our contractor who is helping us with small projects. Her team came in and leveled off the ground, removed the brick from the laundry room to fill in the kitchen and dining room floors where the planters had been. It was lovely to see it get done and really increased the size of the two rooms in a nice way.

There was some water damage on the large kitchen wall from the faucet that fed the planters. The contractor's team patched the wall and I found matching paint in the garage and patched up the paint work in the area.

The entire area feels much roomier now and the brick floors turned out nicely. It's interesting that these floors do not have concrete-like mortar to hold them together but rather it's all set in sand. We have a bucket full of sand to continue to fill the spaces as the sand settles a bit during the first few months.

I do love the rustic feel of the brick. It's different, off-beat and old-school. I like how it is not perfect. It's actually quite quirky. The floors are not perfectly even by any means. But the rustic feeling goes with the rest of the brick floor that extends from the garage entryway across the kitchen and dining room.

Our goal is to get a built in seating area of some sort around the base of the fireplace but for right now we have a sofa that we've put along the staircase wall and we might add a chair and small table for the time being. This was a big and pretty expensive project but it was a must right away. I am quite excited to get the wall across from the bar set up with bookcases for cookbooks and pretty dishes and some nice piece of art.

I will share a little bit about organizing the kitchen soon. Things are coming along but it still feels like there is a long way to go. But it's starting to feel more homey each day.