When we bought this home, I didn’t realize how much I would love having an orchard. Located on the southern part of our parcel, the orchard is about 200 feet long. The rectangular shape is perfect for entertaining, as we host many dinners here in the Orchard.

Historically, I do not know how old the orchard is. The previous owners planted the kumquat tree in celebration of a wedding anniversary. I do know this tree is decades old. Based on the size of some of the adjoining date palms, the orchard has been part of this property for a very long time.

My husband built a support structure for the overhead lights which creates a magical setting at night.

The orchard is abundant with citrus this time of year.  Our tangerine tree is bursting with fruit, so much so that the limbs are drooping from the weight.

In the orchard, we have 7 different types of oranges with one of the best juice orange trees around. The children tell us that if we ever sell the house, we will need to take this orange tree with us!

Four grapefruit trees, both pink and white, two tangerines, limes, lemon, a kumquat and limequat tree round out the citrus selection.

One year I did make kumquat preserves and I must admit, it is challenging. For such tiny fruit, there are many seeds. After de-seeding them, which took hours, this is my first and perhaps my last attempt at this recipe.

We also have stone fruit in the orchard. Both apricot and peach trees will be sharing their beautiful fruit with us in May/June.

Though it seems a bit counterintuitive, we can grow apples here in Phoenix. The only downside is that they are ready to pick in June. My fantasies of apple picking revolve around cold weather, sweaters and autumn colors. But here, in the triple digit temperatures, you will find me picking our Anna apples.

Since we do not have a watering system in the orchard, it gets a deep watering monthly in the winter and twice a month in the summer. Flood irrigation is such an affordable way to water here. For a small annual fee, the Salt River Project provides water through irrigation gates to the property.

The dogs LOVE to run through the water. Fun for them but a bit messy for us.

Now, more than ever, we are getting lots of fresh Vitamin C with our citrus pickings. Last year, we had so much fruit, that we donated several boxes to the neighborhood.

But in the meantime, I hope to make my delicious Meyer Lemon Marmalade (see recipe here) and Preserved Lemons (see recipe here).

Make sure you are getting your dosage of Vitamin C daily and hopefully you are somewhere with an abundance of citrus so you can make these recipes. You will not be disappointed.

Hope you are having a terrific Wednesday!

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When reflecting back on 2020, is it possible that we took on TOO many projects? Perhaps for me, keeping extra busy was a way to not focus on all the world’s problems last year. I guess the good news is that several things got done, but it feels like an exhausting year on many fronts. Here is a list of completed projects of 2020 and which ones we hope to tackle in 2021.

Italian Fountain

Our outdoor Italian fountain is transformed from ugly to pretty~the rusty spouts are replaced with new ones! See post here.

Master Closet

After the embarrassing condition of our master closet, it gets good cleaning and goes from a mess to a neat and organized space. See post here.

Dining Room

With a few great yard sale purchases, I am able to upgrade the dining room with these fabulous upholstered parsons chairs. A new coat of paint helps brighten the room, too! See post here.

Windows and Screens

Being confined to home gave us the opportunity to personally wash each and every window in our home, as well as the out buildings. Not only did we clean, but repair screens, touch up paint chips and make sure our windows are in good working order.

Back Terrace

Many new upgrades are added to the back terrace. Since we entertain a lot in this space during our better weather months, it is time and money well spent. A new tile backsplash, so desperately needed, is now pretty and easy to clean. All the upholstered furniture and rugs are thoroughly cleaned; the concrete/slate floor is treated with a sealant. Broken slate is repaired at the fireplace. See post here.

Family Room

Another room benefitting from the great yard sale scores is the family room. New upholstered wing chairs and a round table is added; a gorgeous decorative chest becomes the bar storage. To see more about our family room, click here.

Potting Shed/Well Tower

In the spring, the potting shed in the well tower gets attention. Filled with dust and spider webs, it needs organizing and cleaning. See post here. Plus I finally create a storage system for most of my wreaths. See can see that story here.

Front Porch

A lot of focus is on the front porch last year. New front door color, polished hardware, updated wreath, fresh paint on the rocking chairs and a new door mat. What a welcoming difference! See post here.

Guest Cottage

While sprucing up the front of the main house, it is time to also tend to the guest cottage. Using spray paint, the light fixtures are brought back to life (see post here). With your help and suggestions, the vintage mailbox is updated too! (another post here).

Back Staircase

Yesterday’s post is a summary on the back staircase. Though this project starts in 2019 and is completed just a few days ago, much of the work is done in 2020.

Flooding and Ghosts

2020 is a year to remember, not only for the pandemic but the series of unfortunate events we had with flooding. First a broken water heater in the basement and then the dishwasher in the kitchen. No pictures of either mess, just a blog post about Old Houses and Ghost Stories here.

Pool House Bathroom

Perhaps one of the most difficult new projects is stenciling the tile bathroom floor in the pool house. But the end result is stunning. See post here.

Closet and Storage Organization

Thanks to being part of a blog hop, the front hall closet gets completely re-organized. Nearly all of my table linens reside in this odd shaped space. See more here.

Another storage organization project includes the hidden space under the front staircase. Slipcovers and decorative pillows are organized into bins and kept here.

Painting Furniture

Transforming an old piece of furniture into a Scandinavian style dresser at our cabin is a creative leap but with good results. To see this DIY project, click here.

Building New Things

My husband’s creativity and handiness produces a chick-nic table for our sweet hens. A fun and easy DIY project here.

Property Maintenance

With the help of our professional painter, John Cruz, the well tower, barn and hen house get some sprucing up. To see more before and after photos, click here.

New Projects for 2021

Our master bathroom is looking a bit tired. The tile floor is the same as the pool house, bland and dated. Debating whether to try and stencil it or just demolish and put in new tile. The countertops are marble squares ~again a dated look. It might be time for a complete renovation. To see more on our master bathroom, click here.

Create a Cutting Garden

I am just receiving my seeds from Floret Farm and am looking forward to making space for an actual cutting garden. Not sure how well this will do in our climate, but it will be a learning experience.

Update our Kitchen

Since I haven’t thought this through, I’m not sure how or to what I want to do with our kitchen. It will all depend on the budget, but it would be nice to fix a few things and update others. More to come on this.

Organize the Entire House

I want to start at one corner and make sure each and every room is the best it can be. Is that even possible? I dream about a place for everything and everything in its place.

Do you have any projects for 2021? I can assure you that there will be less projects for me this year. Instead, I want to fill my year with more fulfilling and meaningful experiences~like art, friends, family and travel. Let’s hope the world will begin to open up once again.

Happy Wednesday! Stay safe and healthy!

This back staircase renovation is finally finished. What a bear. Truly, this project took so many twists and turns and over a year to complete. Thanks for visiting today to see the good, the bad and the ugly of the back staircase renovation. To see the original post back in August 2019, click here.

Deteriorated Rug

This all started when the quality of the sisal rug runner was deteriorating. With an active family, the life span of sisal on steps is about 8 years. This is the second installation of the same runner and quite frankly, even though I love the look, I am tired of replacing it every 8 years.

For some reason, Cooper loves laying on the top landing. With determination, he used his paws to release the rug from its glue and then folds it up underneath him. Go figure.

As you can see, it is quite the mess.

Rug Removal

The first task is removal of this rug only to reveal 2 layers of gross glue and hundreds of carpet staples underneath. Between the dust and fibers, it is a dirty job. However, the rug did hide several problems and imperfections, that are revealed for the first time.

Unforeseen Problems

Cracked stair treads, jury-rigged risers, some odd looking leveling material~all extremely unsightly. The walls adjacent to the stairs are plaster and the area where the wall meets the step is full of holes.

The original stairs have layers of old paint and stain. We did consider sanding them down to bare wood to stain them, but it appears some of the treads may be different woods. They would never take the stain evenly.

What Can be Done?

Since I believe in fixing problems, not hiding them, we realize we need a contractor to repair all of this. It took weeks to find someone (anyone) who wants to work on this. We finally get one bid and it is over $5,000. Sigh.

So the project sat for a few months while we debate what to do. I really do not want to glue down another rug. And the thought of seeing another carpet staple was unimaginable. Finally, determination is born out of frustration.

I will learn to plaster. How hard can it be? Like frosting a cake, so I think. The recommendation from the hardware store is to use Fixall. This spackling compound is a dry powder mixed with water. It works fine, however, I didn’t realize that when it dries, it really DRIES, hard and immovable. Very difficult to sand down but for the most part, my initial application is somewhat smooth. I only find out later that the better material would have been MH Ready Patch (and easier to sand down).

We remove the creepy glue with a heat gun; sand down the stairs; reinforce the broken treads with a hardwood overlay; replace the broken risers and sand down the weird leveling compound.

New Solutions?

Initially, our plan is to paint the stairs and then add a carpet runner. However, when I posted about that in July, a trusted friend questioned my choice in stair runner. This gave me pause. The last thing I want to do is add another runner that will need replacing in a few years.

Bad Lighting

We change plans again and the decision is made to just paint the treads and see where that leads us. While working for months in this space, I realize the lighting is just horrible. There is only one can light in the ceiling that is 16 feet high.

I call our electrician and ask if I can easily put a pendant light in place of a can light. He gives me the thumbs up and I purchase this one from Wayfair. We are scheduled to have the light put in by a professional and he cancels due to a last minute conflict.

So I google how to switch out a can light to a pendant and we do it ourselves. In retrospect it is very challenging because of the height of the ceiling and not having a flat plane to put a ladder. My husband gets extra points for this difficult installation. Hanging on a 6′ long chain, the light is now lower and illuminates the space so much better.

We hire our favorite painter, John Cruz to paint the walls a high reflective white Sherwin Williams SuperPaint~what a difference this makes!

Now it Echoes?

In the past, the staircase displayed a gallery of the children’s artwork. But they are no longer children and as sad as it is, the artwork is taken down to paint the walls. Interestingly, once the sisal runner is gone and all the children’s artwork is removed, this space sounds hollow and echoes. I realize now the role the rug and art played in absorbing noise.

After the steps are properly sanded and cleaned and walls taped off, I paint the treads a dark navy blue and the risers a bright white (same as the wall color). The navy paint is a premium exterior latex enamel in semi-gloss.

Taping a Runner

The space looks so crisp and clean, but the navy edges against the plaster walls do not look are sharp as I would like. We live with this for a few weeks, but I am still longing for the look of a runner.

So I make the decision to turn the navy paint into the “runner”. By painting the outer edges of the steps and risers in white, I am also hoping that solves the step to wall transition. What a complete pain this is! The steps are varying widths and different angles. Making sure the runner is in the middle involved a lot more math than I am used to doing. Quite a nightmare.

More Problems

Of course it takes 2 coats of white paint to cover the navy and I hold my breath while I am doing it (as my husband isn’t quite enthralled yet). Naturally, nothing goes smoothly and while I am painting the white, our cat, Donovan decides it is time to run up the stairs!

I suppose this is a good excuse to do another coat of navy paint on the steps as I need to paint the risers navy as part of the visual runner.

When I finish the painting, I am happily walking down the steps with my supplies. And then the paint lid drops and navy paint sprays onto the freshly painted white edge. Arggg! Thankfully it wipes up easily. This project has really tested my mettle!

Finally….it is done.

So what do you think? I love how fresh and cheerful it looks. I MAY do a center stripe or add side stripes to the runner down the road. But right now, I feel like I need to leave it alone.

Once a dull and poorly lit space, the back staircase is bright and cheerful. To make the change even more impactful, I decide to use this space to hang my artwork. So I pull out some of my favorite ones and hang them.

As I continue to hang more art, the canvases will absorb the sound and reduce the echoes.

For right now, I decide to leave a few of the cat’s paw prints, just because it makes for a good story!

Here is a longer shot with my iPhone to give you an idea on how the back staircase renovation looks overall.

Before and After:

What a project! I am so grateful it is finished (for now). This staircase feels like my own personal art gallery with the white walls and better lighting. Since it took so long, it’s hard to imagine what it did look like before.

With many unexpected twists and turns, decisions and indecisions and multiple delays, this staircase renovation project was a challenging one. Fortunately it is located in a place in our house that is not highly visible. This project took about 1 year longer than I would have like take. Quite honestly, I am glad it is over.

Happy Tuesday!

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This post shared with Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday #625.

I cannot believe this is my last post of 2020. Well, it’s been a year, hasn’t it? When I reflect back over the course of the last 12 months, I count my blessings. We are healthy and happy, most of the time. And 2020 is a year where the world realizes that having good health is a cherished gift.

Being the eternal optimist, I contemplate and note that even though life is bittersweet, many unexpected surprises emerge from these unusual trials and tribulations.

Importance of Friends and Family

With lockdowns and restrictions, my focus is more family/home centric. With two adult children working remotely, we are lucky to have our son (who lives in DC) able to visit for longer periods of time. Our daughter loves being nearby and working from home allows her more quality time with her pets. Our youngest is at college, but within close proximity, which is comforting.

A welcomed side effect of being tethered to home is that we have strengthened relationships with our adjacent neighbors.

In the Spring, Wine at the Wall Wednesdays was a creative way to socially distance with our neighbors, yet still socialize. Bring your own glass and we would trade off who provided the wine. I don’t know about you, but I need human connections. As a result, we now have this lovely circle of friends, who also happen to live right next door. Lucky us!

Importance of Personal Responsibility

It is never too late to be healthier. Never. It takes fortitude and a change in lifestyle, but now, more than ever, we must do our part to be well. One of my top blog posts is 10 Tips to Stay Healthy, which I posted last winter and before COVID. You can see it here. There is SO much we can do to build our immune system and stay well.

Granted if you have a pre-existing condition, do what you can to make yourself less vulnerable to viruses. It is never too late to start on a healthier lifestyle.

The picture above is a card I received in my latest order from Native, which produces an aluminum free deodorant. I highly recommend their products. But doesn’t the card says it all?

Importance of Aging Well

There is no surprise here, but we are all getting older. Our aging population stresses our health care system, but getting older does not automatically mean poor health. There a plenty of older adults who enjoy an active vigorous lifestyle.

I believe happiness and aging well are choices. Granted, some days are better than others but you cannot stop trying to live an interesting, fulfilled life. If you haven’t read my 10 Tips to Aging Well, here is the link.

Kindness is Free

As I have mentioned, I have completely stopped watching the news. People who are hateful have no place in my life. No news is good news. Maybe it is naive of me to put my head in the sand, but I now have more time in the day to do something positive and productive.

In January 2019 I wrote a post on Kindness (see post here) because back then we were seeing less and less of it in the world. Then 2020 happened and it just got worse.

Instead of getting frustrated, I am committed more than ever to the mantra: JUST BE KIND. It doesn’t cost anything and you never know whose day you will make better with a random act of kindness. Can you imagine what kind of world it would be if everyone did this?

Keep Moving Forward

For me, moving forward and keeping in motion is therapeutic. Creating momentum staves off paralysis and fear. If any year provided excuses for hunkering down and doing nothing, it was 2020.

However, we tackled more house projects than ever before, with lots of fun stories in between. Remember the mystery around the antique locket found under the dishwasher (see post here)?

2020 has been the year of unexpected problems and expensive repairs with cars and plumbing. Cha-ching! For a while, it was one thing after another but let’s hope that phase has passed.

Once travel opens up, I am definitely planning a trip to recover from all the projects, both planned and unexpected in 2020.

Focus on my Blog

This year, I truly focused on making my blog more enjoyable for you. My commitment to post on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday is occurring most of the time. My new found blogging friendships are allowing me to participate in blog hops with others. These same friends are encouraging me to be better. Lucky me!

The best part is that I am learning new things each and every day (another great tip to aging well!). The goal is to update the design of my website and add more good pictures of our home so hopefully you will see more positive blog changes in 2021.

Looking Ahead to 2021

Do you make New Year’s resolutions? I do and for the most part, I do stick with them for at least the first 6 months of a new year.

My first resolution is to take better care of my hands. With all the hand sanitizer and washing more than usual, my mitts feel like sandpaper. Plus having clean and tidy nails is a good thing . My hands go directly into the dirt in the garden. I wash dishes without gloves. Truly, my 10 digits are a mess. I’d post a picture of them but you would shudder.

More Time for Painting

Painting more is also high on my list for 2021. Getting into a routine where I painted every Friday afternoon would be desirable. And maybe then, I’d feel more confident in selling a few finished ones.

Re-commit to structured exercise

Pre-COVID I was exercising 6 days a week. Pathetically, I am now down to 2-3 days per week and I can feel the difference. Do you need to do more? If you are interested in my exercise goals, I am happy to post those and perhaps we can keep each other on track. It is just a matter of starting….

Reducing the Clutter

At the end of 2019, I had over 7000 emails in my inbox. It took me 9 hours to sort through them. I vowed to not have over 100 emails in my inbox. Fast forward a year later and I have 7,394 emails in that very same inbox. My goal is to officially unsubscribe to nearly all promotional emails and only allow room for ones that matter. If anyone has tips on how to stop this email madness, please let me know.

On my camera I have 52, 000 photos. Just the thought of sorting and deleting and filing those gives me angst. But it needs to be done! Again, any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Celebrating the New Year

The days where I stayed up until midnight to welcome the New Year are long over. My choice would be to wake up early and watch the sun rise on a new year instead. Maybe a morning hike or walk and then home for some fresh squeezed orange juice and fresh brewed coffee would be the perfect start to the new year.

How will you be celebrating the end of this year and the beginning of the next? What resolutions, if any, are you making?

Wishing you all the best for the New Year! Remember to stay safe, stay healthy but most of all, be happy!

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Christmas is a less than one week away. Oh my. Even though I dream about having a comprehensive holiday home tour to show you, I am still noodling around with decorations (and cleaning up). Welcome to Saturday Meanderings! I am envisioning you with all your gift shopping done and lounging around in your red striped pajamas as you are reading this! And drinking a fabulous cup of coffee or tea, completely stress free on this Saturday morning!

The Main Tree

The main live tree is up…finally. It fell over twice (really) but fortunately the crash happened before the lights and ornaments were on it. Did I mention that the tree did fall over years ago and shattered our cherished, rare ornament collection? Oh well. Every year since, the children say, “remember they year the tree fell over?”

When the fresh tree is finally straight on all sides, then it gets wired to the ceiling so it will NOT fall over after ornament placement. I cannot say enough about the quality of the freshly cut trees at Whitfill Nursery. We’ve been going for years and have never been disappointed. The entire front of the house smells so good!

The Breakfast Room Mantel

The fireplace in our breakfast room (my office) typically gets a holiday painting and the mantel displays the nutcracker collection. However, this year, I am retaining the painting of the Italian village done by Janice Howell. I love the colors and the laundry hanging from the balconies. By happenstance, I placed two sets of wooden village buildings purchased at Target (for $5.00 each) on the mantel, and was instantly inspired to re-create the painting.

Adding battery operated votive candles behind the houses, and trees on either side of the mantel makes the foreground feel like it is part of the painting. Miniature holiday sweaters, hats and mittens hang on a “clothesline”. Since turning the votives on at night is a bit of a pain, I may just lay battery-operated fairy lights behind the houses instead.

The Laundry Room

The leftover mini sweaters are hung with care in the laundry room. It is fun how they mimic the mural on the wall.

The Garden

With pending frost temperatures this week, I am worried about plant damage. Typically in the winter, I will cover the garden beds with frost cloth and/or a heavy ply plastic. Adding Christmas lights (not the LED kind) will add a bit of heat under the cloth too. Amazon has 2-day shipping for frost cloth here and heavy ply plastic here.

It looks a bit like a moonscape at night with the lights glowing from underneath the covers.

It is harvest time for shishito peppers, lettuces, herbs and some of the cherry tomatoes are producing as well. If you have not had shishito peppers, they are so easy to grow.

Blistered in hot oil, then seasoned with salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon, we just love these as an appetizer. I’m not sure I understand why some are green and others are red, but they taste terrific regardless. A mild pepper but occasionally you can get one with some heat.

Christmas Cards

Do you send out holiday cards?My goal is to take our family photo at Thanksgiving, create the card and have them in the mail by December 15th. It is also when I draft our family newsletter reviewing all the good, bad and ugly that has happened in the year. Since I do love receiving cards, I will continue to send them out each year. Another thing to check off the list! Card by Minted.com.

There are a few decorations to finalize but I think we are nearly done here (thankfully). Not sure why I felt so disorganized this year. I may have mentioned that I volunteer on our neighborhood board and we’ve had two zoning cases in December that unfortunately, have taken a great deal of time. I’m blaming my scattered approach to the holidays on that!

If you missed my two other posts this week, you can see my pink dining room decorations here, and the holiday front porch here.

I may take a break from blogging next week (not sure yet), but if an email doesn’t appear in your inbox on Tuesday or Wednesday, you will know why. Until then, I am sending big virtual hugs to you!

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Yesterday, I went shopping for pink (yes, pink!) Christmas ornaments. Seriously. What was I thinking?!? Hobby Lobby is one endless row of empty shelves after another. Online shopping will get you ornaments at the end of December. Not admitting defeat, I checked out Michaels. Again, hardly any inventory, but I went down every aisle and hidden, in a strange out of the way place I found what I was looking for! And now the holiday decor for the dining room is complete! To see more about the decor evolution of this room, click here.

This year, I am happy to report that we have a live, Noble fir tree tucked into the corner andit smells H.E.A.V.E.N.L.Y! If you recall, this is the room with the burgundy/pink rug (clashing with the typical red and green for Christmas). But the fresh tree and a pretty roll of pink striped ribbon, is the basis for the inspiration. Click here for the ribbon.

With our Michaels’ purchase of a few packages of miscellaneous ornaments and floral picks, my sweet daughter, Elisabeth and I began decorating the tree. Since ornaments do not seem to come with their own hangers, we use pipe cleaners to attach them to the tree.

Still debating whether I need a tree topper of some sort, but for now the pink striped ribbon bow will do.

The glittery floral picks catch the reflection from the clear light strands.

To cover the tree stand, I use a pink and white quilt (that typically makes an appearance for Valentine decorations).

Completed with wrapped packages decorated in fun pink holiday paper, the tree is complete.

The pink tree ties in nicely with the mantel, which has a variety of bottle brush trees, garland, pink peppercorns, gold berry picks and a garland of sparkly balls. To see last year’s mantel decorations and the sources for the trees, click here.

Though not really planned, it appears trees are the theme in this room. On the dining room table, tinsel and white conical trees, candles and pink roses make up the centerpiece.

With our dry weather, I don’t need to polish the silver tea/coffee service often. But it hadn’t been cleaned since last December, so it is definitely time to do so. Not my favorite task, but a little elbow grease is rewarded with gleaming silver.

A simple addition of more trees here too along the pink linen runner from Williams Sonoma.

My second Christmas painting, done in 2017, rests on the wainscoting trim behind the buffet.

In stepping back to look at the room, I just love how it looks this year.

I have always wanted a tree in this room. Initially I thought an artificial tree, perhaps a white one, but the fresh tree looks spectacular and fills the room with the scent of the great outdoors. Such a delight!

A warm, magical holiday mood happens at night when all the lights from the tree and mantel are on, and the candles glow in the windows.

So the big fresh tree in the living room gets decorated today. It fell over last night but thankfully it was bare without ornaments and lights. Missed my December 15th deadline for sending out our Christmas cards too! But who cares? It’s the holiday season and time for merriment, right?

Have an amazing Wednesday!

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