Poor Pompey Doodle Dog

Moving was the worst thing that ever happened to him. His ten day stay at the pound used to be at the top of that list, but then we moved. When we got Pompey from the shelter, he was a cute little town pup who pissed his owner off one day by cavorting around town on his own. The owner refused to bail him out, so we got a cute, pure bred, five pounder for twenty bucks.
He quickly became a wild, country dog, running all over our 4o acres chasing away any other animal that he saw. And getting into barking fights with the squirrels. He was the king. He used to bark 120 lb dogs off of our property, across the street, and back onto their own land. He spent all day outside and would have spent all night out there too if I had let him.

Now he has to live in the city. He believes that every dog he sees is trespassing on his property. I'm not sure what he thinks about all those houses and people who are now living on "his property." He wants to be best friends with all of them while barking their dogs away.

Now that he lives in town, he raises his leg to tinkle, something I never saw him do in the country. But he's not very good at it. Just about every time his other back leg goes off the ground until he's doing a handstand, while still tinkling. Sometimes he walks forward a bit while in his handstand. Sometimes he almost somersaults. And every time he manges to tinkle on his front paws.

Today he saw a good vet who disagnosed him with mal-formed back knee caps, which explains his dancing and difficulties. Now we have two reasons for the handicapped license plates. He has a lot of difficulty with the wood floors and stairs. He hates the harness and leash. And he's absolutely irate that anyone would consider biking to work at 6 AM. It's a good thing that he's cute and lovable.

Bathroom x 3

Prepare for a lot of photos. The bathrooms were quite something. First up is the master bath, which included some nice towel and TP rods, strange black outlet covers, lantern lights, and something on the floor that I can't even remember. And it was a different mustard yellow than the other rooms that were painted mustard yellow.
On the right was a double sink, his and hers, and him and her had to stand really far away from each other because the sinks were very close to the side walls. Some ugly tile was tacked onto the side walls. I refuse to use the bathroom at the same time as a man, so I knocked the sinks down to an uno.

On the left was a door to the spacious toilet room. No window. It was a toilet cell. If one wanted to take a shower, one had to enter the toilet room and take a sharp left into the 2' x 3' shower. That is small even for a skinny gal like me. We found the floor under that shower totally rotted out. The after:

I feel like I can breathe now. One sink, one Chagall print, one potty with natural light. (Our potties are Kohlers from Lowe's. Cheap-ish, low water usage, and good at making the #2s disappear.) We used the same cabinets throughout the house. Same hardware too. This house needed that consistency, at least to get over its previous life with multiple personalities.

The medicine cabinets were a splurge. They are the same in all the baths, mirrored inside so that you don't have to close them to look into the mirror to use what you just took out. And good for checking the back of the hairdo. We still have plenty of space in ours for all of the meds that we will need when we get old.

We knocked out the walls and put a nice shower in where the toilet cell had been. The sinks and shower surfaces are cultured (fake) marble. It's working out just fine. To the left of the shower, we put in a cabinet to hold all the TP that I buy on sale.

And I love my floor. It took me forever to find and it's only mid-level vinyl, but it works perfectly. I can't see the hair that my long-haired husband leaves around. I love the variation, and it works with the wood floor right outside the bath and everything inside the bath. Perfect.

Everything is the same in the hall bath, which is used and abused by two teenaged girls. The before:

Who would willingly put a wall in front of a window in a small room? What was he thinking? "I'll make a little nook."

"And I'll put some decorative wood bits up there. And I'll have to light it well because I've blocked out all the natural light." "And just for fun I'll put some weird tiles in here that are made out of some strange man-made material."

We kept the tub. That was it. There is some more decorative trim stuff above the tub, which is very odd in a 70s house. The potty has it's own room.

The colors in this room weren't bad, but it was too extreme. The doors were painted three different colors to go with the vinyl. We cleaned it up, using everything that we used in the master. The girls added lots of make-up and potions and towels all over and charging devices on the floor.

They wanted a curtain instead of a glass shower door, and I was happy to oblige. Much cheaper. Lucy chose light pink towels, which look great with the color scheme.

The downstairs bath was tiny, but not too tiny to throw in an extra, unneeded wall!

To make a little nooky nook for tooth brushing:

It included a shower, with such a small door that even a stick man would have to hold his breath to pass through.

The showers were tiled all around and actually kind of cool, but too old and leaky and small to keep. The floor of the downstairs shower had been retiled at one point:

Ick. This room is tiny. We say that Calvin's tiny room is preparing him for dorm-living, so this tiny bath must be preparing to bathe in a 747. It is so much nicer now. Impossible to get good photos with my camera. No obstructive wall. Nice light. The cabinet matches the others downstairs, in the family room and Calvin's room. The Chagall is a copy painted by the Grandmaman.

I had to do something with the windows because they look right out onto our front porch, which means that visitors could look right in and see STUFF! Curtains weren't right for this room, so I frosted the glass with some spray stuff from Lowe's. It was easy and works great. We went with clear glass for the showers, and it adds space to this room.

Did you notice the windows? See the rod thing at the bottom? That is how I open my windows, which I can do with one hand. Closed above; half open below:

And all the way open. They are so smooth and quick to open and close. I didn't think that I could love a window.

And what about the people?

Enough about the house! Actually, I have more to show. BUT I'll chat about the people who live in the house for a change. I know that Aunt Toni wants to know, even if no one else does.

Our move took us 45 minutes away from where we were living, which was right by Seb's little airplane business. He now drives that every day. He uses the drive to talk to his far-flung family, friends and business cohorts. The drive doesn't seem to bother him. Business is good, and I'm sure that his family loves getting calls from him.

Labor day weekend, we left the children in the care of a complete stranger (who came highly recommended) and took off for the RANS Bike Rally in Hays, Kansas. I didn't ride because I was just getting over a sickness and had no energy. I helped provide SAG support that was never needed and chopped veggies instead. I had a great time hanging out with Michele, but really missed being a part of the ride. Seb managed to take third place in the highly dangerous track competition. The winners' circle:
That is our friend Ben on the left. He took 2nd. That's what happens when you aren't hampered by long hair and droopy drawers.

We have spent the rest of our weekend in our new town doing all kinds of fun things: bike rides to the farmers' market, good pastries and good (corn syrup free) sodas and coffee, gallery hopping, dining out, an organ concert, a blues festival, festivals (heritage) and fairs (sustainable living), visits to the state park (a cave!), independent cinema, and even a bonsai show! They were the biggest bonsai that I have ever seen.

We are having great fun, at least I am.

Making stuff

Freddy and his buddy Christopher. They measured, drilled, filed and riveted to make a sheet-metal Zenith Aircraft Company binder. Freddy has some skills. The future is looking good.

Calvin's room AKA the bunk room

See the hee-haw bar? We didn't need it. None of us are tossing back the JD on a regular basis, so we didn't need an area devoted to it. Almost every house we looked at had a bar, but none as big as this one. Although there was that one house with the dance floor and the 14 phone lines going in...
This is what the area looked like beforehand. We kept the light fixture over the bar and used it over the desk in the family room. There is a sink there, out of shot, that Calvin wanted to keep in his room. I have no problem saying NO. See the vinyl tile? Three different patterns downstairs. Or maybe four...I don't remember the bathroom.

We added the window and closed the room off from the family room and from the room on the other side. That gave us about 7' x 10.5' for his room. Everything just fits. This room is supposed to prepare him for living in a dorm next year.

FLOR on the floor; his favorite blanket on the bed. And built in everything on one side. Desk, closet, dresser, bookshelf (out of view). With a bookshelf running across the top. I had a great design for that wall, with the bookshelf running across the top for 4 feet, then stepping down a foot for 3 feet, then stepping down a foot for 2 feet, then stepping down a foot for the last foot (and a bit). It was perfect and had a great feel (Ms Claustrophobia was on it!), but there were some vents hidden in the hee-haw roof feature that ruined it. This still works, just not so perfectly. Keeping the built-ins lighter at the head of the bed makes the room feel bigger to the sleeper.

The bookshelf above the desk is very handy and makes it into a nice nook. We put in a nook! After taking out all of the others. He needs paintings. Maybe I'll hang a few while he is at school flunking French.

This room was a very big deal because making it work into a bedroom decided us on the house. If it hadn't worked, we would have had to add on. Calvin agreed to living in a room smaller than our laundry room at the time. With low ceilings. He was even OK with no window.

The new family room

Our house in Mexico didn't have a family room; it had a tiny, odd-shaped library with a TV in it. It held only one loveseat, plus pillows for floor sitters. It was super cozy. When it was filled up with children on party nights, it turned into a library/TV room/sauna. When there were teen boys involved, the odor element got a little overwhelming. So we are very happy to have a real library/family room now.

Part of the problem with this house is that every room had a different color and decorating style. That doesn't work in a house of this size. The family room was done in Early Hee Haw:
Old barn wood on the walls. Cheap vinyl squares on the floor. Lighting tacked up to the popcorn ceiling with wiring snaking down to an outlet. A big bar. I don't need a roof inside my house!

We closed off the bar area to make Calvin a bedroom. This is the library end of the room. I have everything put away except that last pile on the floor, which is art and Seb's cool stuff. There are outlets in some of the cabinets for the microscope and lava lamp. The desk and cabinet tops are formica to survive drippy projects. Freddy's landscape creation and plaster man are sitting on there, along with a crystal growing project.

Lovely fireplace. I think we'll keep that. You can see that this grey room goes into the orange hallway. Those two colors have never played well together.

We added a ceiling light on each side and smoothed down the ceiling. Actually, we replaced the ceiling after smoothing it down because Rich Billy and his extremely handsome assistant tore it up. New windows, some of which still have the stickers on. The sectional is a floor sample that I got on sale and the bean bag chairs are from Aldi. The coffee table needs a new paint job, but I haven't decided what it will be yet.

The carpet is FLOR, which I am loving. It is in squares that do not stick to the floor (they stick to each other), so I can pull a square up and wash it or replace it easily. It was that or concrete down here, and I much prefer carpet to concrete. Plus, the decorative concrete was out-of-this-world expensive! It was cheaper to get the FLOR. Most people do fancy patterns with their FLOR, but I had to go plain to tone things down. If I had plain walls elsewhere, I could have gone a little crazy on the floor.

I can't decide if that Picasso is staying there. So many decisions! There is a little brick patio outside the family room. We would have had a nice water fountain going here if the contractors hadn't thrown out the pump. It has a short wall on the street side, so Pompey can go out and get some fresh air. He just ends up barking at cats and dogs though, so we don't let him out much. At least he's learned to ignore the squirrels.

All in all, this room is serene and very comfy. It is organized and holds a TON of our useful items nicely and out of the way. Just what we needed.

New master bedroom and closet

This room wasn't too bad. It is a nice size and hadn't been messed with too much. The minty green was actually refreshing after all of the orange/mustard/brown. I could see Dwight living in the rest of the house, but not the master. The green is actually painted grasscloth. I think that HGTV ran a show on decorative trim right after the grasscloth episode. This was the only room with trim by the ceiling and funky trim on the walls. It looks great in some houses, but not this one.
And the after look. So much better. I love the new window. It is our cleanest window, but I can't figure out why. I love the strip windows too. We actually had the glass replaced with triple-pane lowE. The glass folk think that we are kind of crazy. The strip windows always make me think of the Brady Bunch. I'm sure that they had some in their house somewhere.

We need to replace the bedside tables. I have them picked out, but it's hard to spend money after spending so much money. And the bed is staying on the floor. I like it there. Those little bedside lamps are $18 at Lowes. They turn on with a touch, so no one has to grope for a switch. And they have low, medium and bright light. Perfect for a bedroom where the sleepers have different sleep schedules.

We didn't have any artwork in our last bedroom, in an effort to make it more relaxing and peaceful. But this bedroom is already so relaxing and peaceful (it's not orange and green), so I think that it can handle some art. Seb's Picasso copy and maybe one of Kerry's synesthetics right above the bed.

One of the first things that I did was buy curtains for those doors. Outdoor motion lights are BRIGHT. The orange chair is a lot lighter in person. If you want to pretend to be Cpt. Kirk, just stop on by and sit in the orange chair.

The closet before:

And after. I didn't guss anything up for the photos. You see it as we live it. Wait until you see the teenagers' rooms.

This closet is smaller than our last, so I had to make every bit count. The contractors built it from my design. I talked to a closet company, but they wanted $2000 to do this closet! I wanted wood shelving, not wire. The baskets are from Home Depot. Normally, baskets go on rails, but they work well this way on the shelves. It gives us the option of just going with shelves if we want. There are also no rails to go wonky. My side:

Seb's side is hard to photograph. He has more hanging room than I do. When I designed it, I measured and counted everything. I also took into account how we like to use it, meaning Seb needs a place to dump his stuff.

And in one little spot I have Peter Rabbit holding my baubles. He's a hunter. He came from Coal Street Antiques. I have no idea what he is actually for, but he does his current job well. His right ear holds my enormous engagement ring.

The new kitchen

I'm gong to be blabbing a lot on this one. At least two people that I know are planning kitchen make-overs and are interested in details. Here is the before kitchen:
These are actually really nice cabinets. Nicer than anything that I have had. Brown wasn't going to work for me though. I need light and bright. If a kitchen isn't white, I want to take a nap in it...or read a book. I need white to wake me up and force me to do what I don't want to do.

A useless broom closet taking up prime kitchen real estate. The previous owner called the area below "the nook". There were a lot of nooks in this house. They are all gone now.

A beautiful view ruined by walls and rocks. Cool intercom system though.

The new kitchen, bright and white, as seen from the dining area. My camera isn't taking great photos since its water soak at the wedding reception. At least it is working.

The old kitchen did not have enough counter/drawer/cabinet space for a family of six. We added the island, which is eight feet long. I had a smaller one in my old house and found that I liked to do everything at it because I don't like things (cabinets) crowding my head while I work. The bookshelves hold cookbooks on the bottom (looking a little dusty right now) and all our kitchen reading material on the other shelves (newspapers, mags, TinTins). I could have fit in three stools (or even four slim models), but would three of my children ever sit there and get along? No. These are adjustable. I wanted orange ones, but had to go with the cheaper black ones. I'm thrifty like that.

The island is all drawers on the other side. Oooh! Look at how neat it looks. Clean lines! The handles look a little smallish on these drawers. I could have gone bigger, but then my legs would have hit up against them. I also knew that I didn't want a sink or stovetop or any other obstruction on my island. That would have given me less counter space to work with. I prefer using drawers instead of cabinets. I can stick more in there, and everything is easy to get to. We paid extra for the hardware that makes the drawer close ALL the way if you get it most of the way there on your own effort. I don't like drawers and cabinets left open. We had that plague at our old house.

The island butts up against that foot-wide wall that is helping hold up the ceiling where the house angles. It is a nice spot for my clock with big old lady numbers. It also hides some of the little items that are currently hanging out there, like the coin jar and the big pickle.

I'm tired of writing about kitchens already...but I shall persevere.

That broom closet is gone, replaced with a dishwasher. The window is wider. The end of the island is in front of the kitchen door, which is all glass now for more light. When I designed the island, I followed the lines of the doorway: The island width is the same as the door and frame. It makes everything feel right. I also measured every single walkway dozens of times. I taped them out on the floor, walked through, pretended to cook, etc. A lot of effort means that all those walkways and areas are just perfect. We can even walk by when the dishwasher is sitting open. Another thing that I did was measure what we had in our current house and figure out what worked and what didn't.

The kitchen is a triangle. The floor space between the stove area and the island area is actually pretty big, but not too big. I like the space. I felt crowded in my old kitchen if anyone was in there with me.

We put cabinets all around the fridge. I like having all the food in one area. It makes putting away groceries and planning a meal so much easier. The only thing that I would change is to make the cabinets a little wider. I like the fridge door system too. This fridge beeps when someone small (or big) leaves it open. That is really handy. It is a Kitchenaid counter-depth. I didn't want my fridge sticking out. Built-ins are about $7,000; counter-depth is a whole lot cheaper! They don't hold as much as a regular fridge though. It is plenty of space for us and for how we shop and eat.

Only high cabinets. I no longer hit my head! I would prefer no upper cabinets, but had to have some here. The oven and stove-top are Bosch. You can get some good rebates from Bosch if you buy at the right time. Freddy insisted that we get an oven with a chicken nugget setting. We didn't. This one has a pizza setting though; Lucy used it today. It has a pie setting also. I'll have to try that one. The stove is gas, which I am loving. It is a five-burner. I mainly use my big saute pan on the big center burner. It heats the entire pan and not just the middle.

To the left of the stove is a trash pull-out, which holds regular and recyclables. A can under the sink is awkward for me to use. And too small. This one is great. I had to give up cabinet space, but I use the trash cans 65 times a day. On the right of the oven is knives and cutting boards (and cookie tins, etc.). The corner cabinet has strong shelves and holds tons of stuff.

I like the counter area in the corner there. I can put stuff there and it won't be in the way. Right now there is bread for Seb's homemade (not by me) chicken liver pate and stinky cheeses...Lucy's pizza...and the butter dish. The walls are more grey than these photos show. I picked a blue/grey that goes with the wood and the rock. I like it. We also painted all the ceilings the same color. It makes the rooms seem bigger, yet cozy.

The sink with the magic faucet. It turns off and on with a touch to any part of it (except the pull-out spray thingy). It saves water. I also don't have to redo the temp all the time. We stumbled upon it at Lowe's. Silverware drawer, kid vitamin drawer, bread drawer, water bottle drawer, dishwasher. The dishwasher is Bosch also and is super-duper quiet. It's my first, and we are getting along swimmingly. I wanted open shelves on this wall for glasses and the usual plates and bowls. I like it. It isn't at all messy-looking like I had feared. It keeps things light and open. Everything gets used so much (six people here) that nothing has time to get dusty. The contractor used the leftover steel rods from our staircase to support the shelves.

The counter is much better experienced in person. It is Whitney by Cambria, but I like to call it Jim's Hair. It is white with flecks of grey and clear rock. It sparkles in the light. It is very light, which is what I like in a counter. BUT I still can't tell if it is clean just by looking at it, and that annoys me. I clean it anyway to make sure or I get down and look at the light glare to see if there are any bits or spills. I like to know when things are dirty. That counter is now supporting an Original Gooey Butter Cake delivered by the FedEx man. The last time the FedEx man came by, he left an ugly guitar.

A peek of the view that the old kitchen was missing. It now has light and cheer and beauty. It also looks much better in person, so come on by (especially if you want to cook in it).