My New Favorite Spot

I used to say the library in our house was my favorite place. It had the fewest hand-me-downs of any room, and had original art pieces hanging on the wall. Colors were coordinated; the feel in the room was of peace. Then we got an elliptical machine, which our bodies needed. But the peace and calm of the library was replaced by activity and the noise of a television to keep exercisers motivated. A couple of summers ago we bought two window air conditioners. One was for use in the upstairs bedroom that we use as our TV/family room, the … Continue reading

A Little Home Dec

While the Jazzman was painting the kitchen, he was inspired to keep improving our circa-1927 house. When he finished pointing out to me all the improvements he made to the kitchen, he whipped some paint chips out of the “junk drawer”, saying “and this is what I’m thinking of for this bathroom.” Whattaguy!!! I did not take Before pictures—shame on me—but if you’ve ever lived in an ollllld house, you can imagine it. The floor is classic hexagonal black and white tile with the little black hex flowers on the white background. It has a classic pedestal sink. I updated … Continue reading

Jas’s Summer Vacation

It’s amazing what one brain can forget in six weeks’ time. As I left the house yesterday morning to go grocery shopping, I had to stop and think what the process involved. Turn off the alarm system; wait, what’s the code. Unlock the door to go to the car; wait, there’s a garage door to open, where’s the remote. As I reached down to turn the door knob to go outside, the plate behind the knob looked different, looked shiny, looked new. I looked at it for a few moments, then just figured I wasn’t remembering what it looked like. … Continue reading

Digging into my memory

My home came with a lot of leftovers from the previous owner. That was fortunate for me, as I had been living with my son and daughter-in-law for a year before I bought this house. I had gotten rid of many possessions before leaving Tucson, after doing the ship-and-store or give-away analysis. The wicker chairs on my porch are one example of the sort of items I “inherited”—items one doesn’t need in a nursing home (where my home’s previous owner went after leaving here). The cushions on the chairs were old and not very supportive, but still usable. A year … Continue reading

Measure Once, Cut Twice

No, wait. That’s not right. I think it was supposed to be “Measure Twice, Cut Once.” Oops. Back in November, when I had just returned from ten days in Europe and we had started this never-ending winter, DS told me that DGS needed some draperies on his bedroom windows in the new rental house. There were sheers on the windows, but nothing that afforded any privacy. Being the good grandma that I am, I measured both windows and wrote the measurements down in the Notes app on my iPhone. A few days later, I snuck into Jo-Ann Fabrics on Saturday … Continue reading