Someone Really Lives Here -- January 15, 2009

First I want to thank all the friends who helped us move over one or more weekends in November. Thanks to the guys -- Don, Tony, Kelly and Mike -- for their energy, strength and patience. Thanks to the gals -- Patsy, Yolanda and Lani -- for their packing and unpacking skills, their thoughtfulness and for their calm in the eye of the storm.

We would've been in a world of hurt with this move if it hadn't been for them. They made it possible for us to sleep in the house earlier than I expected and for us to get out of the rental in plenty of time to clean it properly for the rental agent. And they all worked very cheap. My uncle in Texas was shocked that we moved ourselves. I told him, well, not exactly and that it's amazing what people will do for friendship and food.

I finally decided that if I kept on waiting for everything to be "done" I would never get any of these pictures up. So this is the way the house looked after we moved in. I actually took these this week when I finally got everything clean again and before I took the tree down. Except for any views to the outside, these are all interior pictures.

So this is what you see when you come in the door. I changed the entry rug since Ruth, Ramona, Jason and Aidan were here. This is a close up of a mask we got locally. Trout wanted to hang it up high so it is looking down on most of us.

This is looking back toward the door from the end of the entry. The rug is actually 2 rugs put end to end.

I included this picture of the desk we have in the kitchen nicho since it is kind of part of the entry and because I forgot it later. Those of you who blog here will understand what that means.

This is the guest room. I call it the cowboy and indian room because of the decor and the history that is and will be represented here. For example, those paint by numbers pictures in the corner I did when I was about 10 years old.

The small door is the one from the guest room into the guest bath. The large one goes to the entry.

You may recognize these sectionals. The art work is all new. It's Navajo, Hopi, Apache and Chickasaw.

This metal piece Trout bought for me in Texas. There will be a swag over the top of the closet curtains made from the same fabric as the fringe on them. We may also cover that chair in something else.

The saddle and the branding iron in the corner belonged to my grandfather. The saddle has his initials on it, BDG for Bunk Dodson Garland, and the brand is for the G-Bar ranch.

Earlier posts have pictures of this vanity in the guest bath, but this one is from inside the bath at a slightly different angle.

Here's the tub enclosure and, well, you know the rest. This is a little detail of the wall with the Day of the Dead angels.

This great mirror is reflecting the shower curtain. I selected this one because every image is different. Some of the ones you see have repeats.

Katrina is on the vanity mirror, but I'm going to make this guy into Diego eventually. He needs some clothes and a hat.

The office is chock full of furniture, but it turned out okay. It's a little crowded, but Trout doesn't want to change anything to alleviate that. Right now It's the only room in the house that has curtains.

The colors worked out great.

And the afghan my cousin Betty did for me is perfect for the new member of our family, Cisco.

The cushions for the living room bancos are being made, we don't exactly have the side tables or lamps we need and we still need some paint touch ups, not to mention the draperies, but this is definitely livable.

We ran the fireplace a few times while the kids were here and it seems to work fine. This room and the guest room get lots of solar gain, so we haven't needed the heat much during the day.

The tree looked good in here both during the day....

...and at night. It also looked nice from outside through these corner windows.

The two sofas from Penney's are very comfortable, and we use the ottomans constantly both as foot rests and as coffee tables. Guido uses them as a bed, but his bed is wherever he falls asleep.

We are very happy with the location of the TV.

We've kind of settled into who sits in which chair, but sometimes we sit on the sofas or switch chairs. The chairs are from LaZBoy and they are microfiber, not leather.

We haven't used the outside table yet. I haven't even brought the cushions out of the shop due to the weather, although it looks great here. We do have some nice views off this porch.

If we ever have a party, we have lots of places to serve on and from and lots of places to sit. When Wally and Marsha were here before the kids came, they sat at the bar and I cooked and passed their food to them there.

When the kids were here, we mostly cooked and served off the counters in the kitchen. I thought the space between the two sides was too wide, but it hasn't turned out to be that way -- especially when there's more than us here. Sorry, but the 2nd picture isn't clickable because I added it in later.

We are finding the arrangement of the kitchen to be very functional, and I gotta say I think it looks great even with evidence of people actually living here. You've seen her before, but here is Katrina guarding the food in the pantry around the corner from the refrigerator and freezer.

We didn't do a lot of decorating for Christmas, but I did hang up some star lights I have. This poster from Nuremberg will be put away now since it is of the Kristkindlesmarkt and I will need to find some other arty thing for this nicho. This will be the location of my altar for the Day of the Dead, so I can see this location becoming some kind of changing exhibition over time.

Our only indoor dining table fits perfectly in this dining area. In fact we could probably accomodate a larger table and more chairs here. Maybe later after the stock market gets better.

Now to the back of the house. This is the entry into our master bedroom.

Here's what you see when you come in. Trout discouraged me from trying to get curtains done for any of the rooms before we moved in. Then the first night we slept here, he asked if we had any curtains for the room. When I do get them done, I intend to close them on this window only enough to block the view to the neighbors. I love seeing the stars and the moonlight from the bed.

An owl woke me up about 5 this morning. I could barely see it perched on the edge of the parapet at the corner of the top of the stairs. I tried turning on some outside lights, but it flew away. I had taken Cisco out very early a couple of days ago and heard it then, too, but I didn't see it.

We moved this sofa back and forth between the office and this bedroom 2 times and finally decided we like it better in the bedroom. It's a little crowded, but when we get the new bed for there and move this bed to the guest room, I think there will be more room. If you're wondering what that white thing is in the bottom right of the picture, that's Cisco with the cone on his head.

We have two bedspreads with these colors on them. This one is Trout's favorite.

This is a chest of drawers that I got down here some time ago. I was using it for my clothes, but since we did the master closet with drawers and shelves, I can use it for bedding. It has a beautiful glass piece Lani and Kelly got for us in Santa Fe on the left. The armadillo in the middle is a housewarming gift from Don and Patsy. Trout named him Armando.

You've seen our master bath before, too, but now it looks like we're using it, and we are. First my vanity.

Then Trout's vanity with the linen closet next to it. We still need a door for those shelves at the top.

This poster looks good over the toilet. We thought we had tons of stuff to hang on the walls here, actually too much stuff, but as it turns out, we still have lots of wall space for art and not just in this bathroom. Fun, fun, fun!

Here's the shower.

This adjustable shower head will come in handy for giving Cisco a bath.This master closet is small by most standards, but if it's not big enough for our clothes down here, I say we have too many clothes.

The laundry seems to be working out just fine. It will be better when I get the curtains finished and the extra fabric out of there. Right now this is where Cisco is housed and fed. Guido has moved to the guest room. Eventually, I hope both of them can be in here some way, but we'll have to set it up so old, short-legged Guido can get to his litter box and food and Cisco can't.

The garage is a good size. We will keep the Toyotas in there. When the painters get the paint on the far wall consolidated and organized, we will be able to assemble the shelves for that wall and start getting the area a little more organized. Cisco sure looks silly nosing around the dog bones with that cone on his head.

These shelves will need to cleared off and stuff put in its proper place, even if it's across the garage on the opposite wall.

The Highlander will go in this location and the MR2 will go through the smaller garage door.

The shop is full. Where did we have all this stuff before?!

This area will become Trout's office. He already has furniture.

Here's his project car, the Cobra Coupe.

He's got most of his Cobra stuff inventoried and close to it.

Some of this stuff will go into the house or on the shelves in the garage. I'm hoping most of it will go to Goodwill or the trash.

So there you have it. I will keep this blog going while we continue to work on the house, do some landscaping etc., but expect the postings to really be few and far between now.