Florida Room

The Florida room is just about finished!  This little addition to my house has been a major project, that's for sure.  To start, the windows were bolted shut from the outside (thanks Mom and Steven, for prying the windows open!)  Then once we got them open, we realized there were no screens.  I thought I could make my own, but I rendered it impossible to make my own 47" x 60" screens without them bowing, 11 of them at that!  After loads of research and experimentation, I used my xmas present to hire a screening company (thanks, again, Mom!)  The furniture is from the old house in Kings Lake- so nice to have a memory of the good times we all had in that house.  It is simply lovely in this room!  The doggies and I had an afternoon catnap in the sunshine out there this weekend.

Pub Table

The dining room is completely different than when I moved in- knocked out the kitchen wall, replaced sliders with french doors, and of course, the pub table!

I love the table- it has a lazy susan in the middle!  And it has leaves open into a circle.  I just got the rug from the old Kings Lake kitchen.  Next steps: paint those naked walls, then molding!

All in a Day's Work

Beaching the boat on the island

I've been training Meredith on the boat program, and we've been having a blast!  What's not to love about spending time driving around the estuary and exploring Keewaydin Island?



Crossing the island through the mangrove trail





Ahhh, the Gulf.  I never get tired of seeing it!



my new vanity is too vain

Updating my 1970's bathroom has been a challenge, but I thought that replacing the vanity with a new modern-looking one would be a snap.  Not at all!

My contractor advised that he should remove the old one in case of catastrophy (flood or otherwise) and I agreed, so that part was simple. 

Picking out a new vanity was easy since I am a regular at Home Depot. 

Getting said vanity home, that was another story.  Of course it didn't fit in the car, no matter how we finangled it, so my dear friend Susan had the great idea to push it home on a shopping cart.  So yes, we pushed that huge flat-bed cart .9 miles down the sidewalk, laughing hysterically the entire way as the huge, heavy cart frequently careened off into the grass!

As if that was not enough entertainment for the evening, she also had the brilliant idea to wheel the cart right through the living room for easy delivery to the bathroom.  The image of her wheeling the big box through the front door will keep me in stiches for a long time! 

The next step is to consult a plumber to see if the plumbing can be redone in order to accomodate the drawers on the new cabinet.  If this is not a cheap option, then I'll have to swap out the vanity for a less vain model.  This could be a blessing in disguise since I do have a shopping cart in my garage that needs returned :)

fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice!

The giant grapefruit tree in my backyard was a selling point for me with this house- and now its gleaming with ripe fruit, wayyyy more than I know what to do with!  I got a juicer for xmas and have been cranking out fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice like my kitchen is a tropicana factory :)

This picture to the right is juice from just five grapefruit!  I am either going to be feeling great and uber healthy drinking all that this tree has to offer... or have some major mouth ulcers, haha!  Cheers!!

She's a Wagger

Pool noodles make great buffers!

Poor Sheba- she's just so darned happy that she can't keep from wagging so hard that her tail bleeds!  She's been to the e-vet to get it looked at and Dr. Joe said "good luck" because bloody tails are tough to heal.  I've tried a variety of bandaging and as soon as its healed up, whack, she wags it right into the wall again.

This happened last year at this same time, so I wonder if maybe its the dry air that's keeping it from healing quickly?  Or maybe she just loves xmas-time so much that she wags more, haha?  I love the idea of a pool noodle as a buffer- check it out :)  And notice the one-of-a-kind portrait that she's left on my walls (and cabinets... and appliances... and doors...)

She's even happy while wearing a tail bandage- she is unstoppable!

She's an artist- look at those tail/brush strokes all over my new wall!

Outside with the purple bandage- it lasted 15 minutes before she wagged it off