Terrapin Station

Houses

Monica says at RevGals:

We are in the process of purchasing our first house, ever. In the process, we’ve realized how much we don’t know and are ever so grateful for our realtor. We’ve also reflected on what we need and/or want in our new home. Here are the Friday Five questions about your home. Play in the comments or leave a link to your blog.

This is my house, photo taken at the end of March. It looks entirely different now, with all the trees fully in leaf! Note our new, GREEN roof. 

1. What is the most important room in your home? What requirements do you have of this room? (Sure, you can answer “bathroom,” but we can stipulate that as a reasonable assumption and you can pick the second most important room). I think it's a tossup between the kitchen and the office. We spend most of our time there. As it's an older (1924) home, the kitchen is separate and not conducive to gatherings. But I do a lot of my best moving meditation there.
2. What is the least important room in your home? The one you use the least, or are not very picky about? Well, the upstairs is like no-man's-land. We moved in and our two kids each staked out a room. Our (grown) daughter didn't stay long, and that's the guest room. Brandon's room is a combination of "old stuff he left behind when he moved out 9 years ago" and "junk I piled up there rather than putting it in the attic." Mostly I never go up there any more. One of my projects for the coming months is to clean out all the Brandon and other detritus. :) 
3. Do you have preferences for your neighborhood? What are they? I love living in an old home. When I first moved to this city, I used to drive down Oak Street (the historic district) and yearn for one of those houses. Since 2001, I've lived in one! It still has much work to be done, but I adore it.
4. If your elementary aged offspring were to choose colors for their rooms, would any color be off limits? any dark color that's difficult to cover later. Brandon's room is painted dark green with white trim. It looks like a golf course. I'll be priming forever!!!
5. What is your best piece of packing or moving advice? Get someone else to help! In the words of my sister, "I can't pack my own stuff because I am always saying, "oh, look, there's my little thingy I forgot! and then it takes forever."

BlogHer's NaBloPoMo

Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Bob Marley asked: "Open your eyes, look within. Are you satisfied with the life you're living?"  How would you answer him?

(My beautiful home with lots of potential.  Wonderful dogs.  Landscaping by Awesome Husband.)

In the main, yes.  

I have a loving husband who is getting WELL after over a year of being so, so sick. 

I have a beautiful home with lots of potential (read: OLD) for beautification projects. 

I have a loving and supportive extended family and dear close friends.

I have a wonderful group of RevGals who I consider my sisters. 

I have a job I enjoy, that provides for me.  Including retirement savings and, especially, health insurance, which has been a concern all my life. 

I adore my dogs.  I adore the public library. I adore my small Texas town. 

Are there some things I would change?  Sure.  We could use more money (aha, everyone thinks that!)  We could use a heck of a lot less STUFF.  My body could use to be much healthier and less...fluffy. 

So there are things to improve.  But I am happy.  And that was what I always wanted. 

 

Friday Five: What to do...

As posted by Kathrynzj at RevGalBlogPals:

Greetings from the land of the Big To-Do!

It seems like every year I enter into the summer with a growing list of HUGE projects/events/trips that seem to have a permanent place on the 'to do' list.
This year I have a huge move pending so that takes up an entire list all on its own, but it doesn't take a big event like that for me to make plans bigger than my summer can hold!
How about you?

Is this the third summer in a row you have made a pledge involving your garage and actually getting a car into it?
Did you once again miss the registration deadline for the continuing education event of your dreams ?
Are you starting to think you couldn't even find the tents, let alone get it together to pull off a camping trip?

Here is your chance to get it out into the open and OWN your Big To-Do! Who knows? Maybe making the list will help you move the Big To-Do to the Big Ta-Da!

Thanks, Kathryn!  I just love this timely Five.  And that I am home with some time to do it. 

1) What home fix-it project is on your Big To-Do?  Fix up the side yard again so we can cook out and spend time there.  In former years we did some grilling, outdoor dining, and hot tubbing in summer months.  Then the man came who was going to build us a waterfall (AKA Teh Big Faker).  He made a huge mess and ran off without finishing.  Ken knows how to do what he wants to do out there, himself, and this is the year we do it and get back outside.  "Stay-Cation."

2) What event (fun or work) is on your Big To-Do?  Not sure yet.  We were supposed to go to England for the Big Fancy Church Choir Tour but thanks to the economy and other factors, we are not going now.    :(  So I've told him we must plan something equally fabulous (????)  in place of that trip.  

Work-related, I do know that I'm going to Atlanta in late July (I know...sucky timing) to repeat the training that I've just started out with.  I'm excited about doing the training, the curriculum rocks! and about the venue for this...it looks beautiful. 

3) What trip is on your Big To-Do?  This weekend we are headed elsewhere in Texas to pick up a Lees-ure Lite trailer.  It's lightly used (recycling!) and should be fun.  We will camp on the way home...hope it's not TOO hot for that already...we will find out! 

4) What do you wish was on someone ELSE's (partner, family member, celebrity, etc...) Big To-Do?   Well, I guess I answered this in #1, because that's his project.  But he needs to get excited about it or it won't get done. 

5) Getting inspired?  What's on your list? 

• I'm planning to continue my "back to Jazzercise ways" and I have paid for a month of Personal Touch classes in June. This will be in addition to regular class attendance. I love me some Jazzercise, in case I haven't told you lately.

• Also have realized that I have to paint (or tile or something) the kitchen stove backsplash (thanks to a smoky, scorchy incident a few weeks ago with turning on the wrong electric burner and cooking/melting an angel food cake in a plastic container. Yuck.

• And the bathroom is going to have to be done. The tiles are Fifties Pepto Pink and when we moved in we painted it a lighter pink, but I'm ready for a change!! Any color suggestions to go with what's there? I'd love to use a pale green but Ken says that reminds him of a hospital...

• and OMG then there's the hall which has NEVER been painted and still has the pickled pine paneling (AUGH!).

• I will be painting all summer!

Baby steps, baby steps.  I'll start with the backsplash! 

As posted by Kathrynzj at RevGalBlogPals:

Greetings from the land of the Big To-Do!

It seems like every year I enter into the summer with a growing list of HUGE projects/events/trips that seem to have a permanent place on the 'to do' list.
This year I have a huge move pending so that takes up an entire list all on its own, but it doesn't take a big event like that for me to make plans bigger than my summer can hold!
How about you?

Is this the third summer in a row you have made a pledge involving your garage and actually getting a car into it?
Did you once again miss the registration deadline for the continuing education event of your dreams ?
Are you starting to think you couldn't even find the tents, let alone get it together to pull off a camping trip?

Here is your chance to get it out into the open and OWN your Big To-Do! Who knows? Maybe making the list will help you move the Big To-Do to the Big Ta-Da!

Thanks, Kathryn!  I just love this timely Five.  And that I am home with some time to do it. 

1) What home fix-it project is on your Big To-Do?  Fix up the side yard again so we can cook out and spend time there.  In former years we did some grilling, outdoor dining, and hot tubbing in summer months.  Then the man came who was going to build us a waterfall (AKA Teh Big Faker).  He made a huge mess and ran off without finishing.  Ken knows how to do what he wants to do out there, himself, and this is the year we do it and get back outside.  "Stay-Cation."

2) What event (fun or work) is on your Big To-Do?  Not sure yet.  We were supposed to go to England for the Big Fancy Church Choir Tour but thanks to the economy and other factors, we are not going now.    :(  So I've told him we must plan something equally fabulous (????)  in place of that trip.  

Work-related, I do know that I'm going to Atlanta in late July (I know...sucky timing) to repeat the training that I've just started out with.  I'm excited about doing the training, the curriculum rocks! and about the venue for this...it looks beautiful. 

3) What trip is on your Big To-Do?  This weekend we are headed elsewhere in Texas to pick up a Lees-ure Lite trailer.  It's lightly used (recycling!) and should be fun.  We will camp on the way home...hope it's not TOO hot for that already...we will find out! 

4) What do you wish was on someone ELSE's (partner, family member, celebrity, etc...) Big To-Do?   Well, I guess I answered this in #1, because that's his project.  But he needs to get excited about it or it won't get done. 

5) Getting inspired?  What's on your list? 

I'm planning to continue my "back to Jazzercise ways" and I have paid for a month of Personal Touch classes in June. This will be in addition to regular class attendance. I love me some Jazzercise, in case I haven't told you lately.