travel

For all the fans of HGTV Fixer Upper, this post is for you! Last week I traveled to Waco, Texas for a social media seminar. The week was packed with presentations and I was blessed to meet some wonderful women, who are very successful influencers.

Green Door Lofts

Staying at the Green Door Lofts is a special experience. I really wish I had taken more pictures of our accommodations. Our room is very spacious with a full kitchen, living room, 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. The best part is that I was able to share this space with my two dear friends, Andrea from Design Morsels and Chas from Chas’ Crazy Creations.

Very bohemian in decor, the Green Door Lofts is the ideal place to stay if you are traveling with family or a small group

In addition to the seminar, some of the fun excursions during the week included touring 3 local vacation rental homes. Not only did we meet the owners/proprietors but also learned about the history, restorations and decor strategies of each.

The Morrow House

The first stop is the Morrow House. The 1886 Eastlake gem was weeks away from being demolished and was saved and restored (thankfully!). It has been featured in Cottage Style and Modern Farmhouse magazine. The owner, Kimberly, graciously provided hors d’nerves and cocktails during our tour.

This 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom home (sleeps 8) is beautifully appointed and much of the original details and architecture still exist.

For more information about The Morrow House, click here.

South Haven by HavenCraft

The second tour is a series of 3 homes owned by the same individual. Robin and her husband are investing in remodeling homes in Waco and turning them into vacation rentals. Robin and her sister, Bree, collaborate on design and decor. Each rental has its own “theme”. The first one, South Haven, is a sweet blue cottage with a Southern decor vibe.

This 4 bedroom, 3 bath sleeps 10. For more information on the South Haven house, click here.

Haven House

Next, we visited Haven House, also in Waco. Sorry for the different size images~some are mine and some are stock photos from their website.

Beautifully appointed full kitchen.

Lots of wainscoting!

For more information about this 3 bedroom, 3 bath home, click here.

The third property that Robin and Bree are renovating is not finished yet. However, it is a Sherwood Forest theme! These gals are very creative and you can tell that giving guests a special experience is very important to them.

Giveaway!

At the end of our tour, Robin presented all of us with a $100 Voucher off of any of their properties! So if you are planning on going to Waco in the future, and you are interested in the HavenCraft properties (Haven House, South Haven or the soon to be Glen Haven), please let me know. I would love to give this voucher away to someone who will use it! I only have one coupon and it’s good until August 2022.

Just leave a comment after this post and say you want the coupon. If I get more than one request, I will put names in a hat and someone will be the lucky winner!

Market at the Silos

On another day, we went to Magnolia Market at the Silos because you cannot go to Waco, Texas and not see what Chip and Joanna Gaines have contributed to the community. Many of the outdoor spaces are closed due to the virus and fortunately, there was no line to get in.

The store is beautifully merchandised and the selection of faux flowers is quite spectacular. I don’t think we have as many artificial flower suppliers as they do in Waco. You are given a Magnolia bag when you arrive, but we left with them unfilled.

With no crowds, it is easy to get through the store quickly. If you like the farmhouse style (shiplap, chippy paint, beaded chandeliers, signs with heartfelt messages), there are lots of choices here. It is not my jam so the few things that were of interest, I can order online.

Magnolia Bake Shop

The Magnolia Bake Shop had a small line but I am more interested in the lovely window boxes they had on the building, which were filled with succulents.

The weather this time of year in Waco is hot and HUMID. Something this Arizona resident is not used to! It is hard to determine whether you can fill a weekend here, because now many things were closed and tours cancelled.

I am happy I saw the town and met a few business owners who are trying to make a go of it in difficult times. Like most things, the Silos feel bigger on television and I was a bit underwhelmed. It appears that Chip and Joanna are still building new destinations in Waco, which some people like, and others not.

It is truly nice to be back home and sleeping in my own bed! If you missed yesterday’s post about airline travel in these trying times, click here. Have a happy Tuesday and thanks for checking in today.

Several vendors donated supplies and gifts to all participants in the conference. I would like to personally thank all of them for their generosity. If you are ever in Waco, please support these businesses. Many are online. It’s a tough time for so many people. Lending a helping hand may make a difference.

Food and packaged mixes by Sherri at Mad Dash Mixes

Signature Root Beer Float by Heritage Creamery

Popcorn: Waco Blend by Off the Cob

Cookies by Milk Bottle Cookies (which were to die for!)

Coffee by Thirst Coffee

Thank you for visiting today to read about the ongoing restoration story of our historical home. Chapters 5 is all about the well tower or water tower.

Before

Before purchasing this house, I really didn’t know anything about well towers. I have never seen one. We call ours a well tower but they are also known as water towers. The height of the tower provides the pressure for the water supply system, and it may be supplemented with a pump. The well tower and house were built in 1912. The original well operated with a rod and sucker pump system.

This is the earliest picture we have of the well tower. Assuming it was taken in the late 1950s to early 1960s, it appears as if the well tower is painted white. I recently spoke with the son of a previous owner who said the well tower was non-functional back then.

When we purchased the house, the well tower was significantly deteriorated. The pump was dry and the building had a collapsed roof. The pigeons moved in and it was ankle-deep in pigeon poop. There was a funky shed attached. Such a sad building.

I certainly didn’t want to tear this unique building down, despite its condition. However, it needed lots of work. Since the entire top was rotted, it was easy to make the decision to remove and redesign the upper structure.

During

Our desire is to make this building usable. At the top, the views to Piestawa Peak are beautiful. But with no floor space and no windows, that view was wasted.

The tacky shed was removed too and a new window was put in its place. Historic preservation approved our plans to restore/renovate this structure.

The renovations included: new redwood clapboard, more windows to add light, two more levels connected by circular staircases, plumbing for my potting area, a tub to bathe the dogs and a fireman’s pole for easy exiting.

In addition, we gained permission from the Arizona Department of Water Resources to drill a new well.

After

The entire top section has 360 degree views through new Marvin windows. The trim is painted that same as the main house and the redwood siding is naturally stained. The fireman’s pole is accessed from the 2nd level through a small door. It is a fun attraction for all ages!

I hope you agree the restoration is a big improvement! To see the interior of the well tower, click here.

This is one of my favorite moody, holiday photos of the well tower with Cooper. Photo by Adam Peter in 2016.

If you missed the post about the potting shed located inside of the well tower, please click here.

Today we are enjoying the water benefits of having our own well. The water is clean enough to drink, however, we use it for landscape watering only. The pump draws water into a holding tank underground. Water is such a precious resource here in Phoenix and we are grateful we had the money and foresight to re-institute the well many years ago.

Wishing everyone a terrific Tuesday! I hope you have enjoyed the latest chapter in The Restoration Chronicles. To see previous chapters, click on the links below.

The Restoration Chronicles, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4.

This post shared with Between Naps on the Porch 599th Metamorphosis Mondays

When we renovated our home, we changed the upstairs floor plan and added square footage to accommodate a more modern master bedroom layout. The master suite now includes an office, sitting room, bedroom, bath and closet.

The sitting room was part of the original master bedroom. It has a sweet, small fireplace angled in one corner. The room is rather small, and the windows face east and south. Again, not the best light for painting but during the day it is bright and happy. To see before and after of this fireplace, click here.

I took the liberty of using this space and making it my art room. Quite honestly, it was necessary because my painting supplies were all over the house. I was like a roaming artist, trying to find the best light, a flat surface and some place where the cats would not walk through my paints.

The art resting on the fireplace mantel is a Steven Hofberger painting. During our restoration, we had the unpleasant surprise of having to replace 55 windows. The original rope and pulley windows with blurry original glass had to go. I loved those windows and the thought of them going to the dump was disturbing.

Thankfully, Steven was using old windows as his canvas and took all 55 of them. As a thank you gift to us, he gave us this painting on the window that actually came from this very room. It still has the original hardware too.

When I refreshed my son’s bedroom, I took his large desk setup and moved it to the sitting room. The base is made from 2 Ikea cabinets and the top is a generous countertop that is 26″ wide x 90″ long. Using plastic and paper table cloths, the surface of the desk and adjacent space is safe from paint spills. To see my son’s bedroom re-do, click here.

In order to protect the hardwood floor, I covered it with Ram Board. This heavy duty Kraft paper is leftover from the multiple commercials and photo shoots we have had at our home. The film crew doesn’t want it and I always offer to take it off their hands. To see a previous post on filming commercials, click here.

There is a large day bed in the room and I am debating whether to remove it or not. It is a nice place to land after several hours of focused work, especially with the television nearby.

The sitting room tends to be that room that harbors items that have no official home. My friend, Susan, found this lovely prayer bench for me. It is on my list of projects to complete as I want to make a new kneeling cushion and find a quiet space for it. Currently, it is a place to set some of my paintings.

Right now, I am going through all my artwork. I have kept nearly all of them since I started four years ago and it’s time to thin out the herd. Many I will paint over, especially those during my kindergarten stage. A few people are asking that I consider selling some, which I am contemplating.

The configuration of this room isn’t ideal yet. The wall paint color is 20 years old too. But it is low on my list of projects. Ultimately, I’d love to take everything out and really contemplate how I want this room to function as a viable art studio. Also, I did a live Instagram story on this room yesterday if you would like to see it firsthand.

Do you have a space in your home for your hobbies and interests? If you have an art space, please share your tips and techniques on design and style. I love learning from all of you and appreciate your comments and feedback.

Have a wonderful Wednesday. We are enjoying the most glorious weather here~~mid 60s in the morning and low 90s during the day. A far cry from our typical sweltering hot June weather. Praying it stays this way for a while.

For every old house I have owned, the walls seem to tell a story. In addition, there are odd occurrences that sometimes don’t make any sense, but I shrug my shoulders and say, “well, it IS an old house”. You know, the door that slams by itself, with no wind, for example. The old antique marble that is now on the stair step I just vacuumed. The basement light that go on by itself.

We always hope for what I call the “good ghosts”, the happy memories of those previous owners and their lives that permeate the walls. In my life, I have lived in several historic homes, ranging in age from the 1700s to the early 1900s. And each one had its “ghosts” or own personality.

But I need to share this story with you that happened this week, because I am baffled with no logical explanation for it.

Some history first. If you have followed my Restoration Chronicles, you know our home is 110 years old. Most of it is original, but new sections have been added to bring it up to today’s standards.

The kitchen is a new addition we built in 2000. So it’s 20 years old, but “new” compared to to the rest of the house. The kitchen is on the west side of the original house, and the new construction is built beyond the original structure.

As you also know, we are currently in an appliance crisis, with way too many things breaking at the same time. This past week, our dishwasher, even though the water is turned off, kept filling with water. Unfortunately, it overflowed and ruined a large section of hardwood floor in the kitchen.

Finally, we yanked it out because we could not shut off the source of the water. The plumber came back AGAIN and replaced all the shut-off valves. This finally did the trick. If you look closely, you can see the dark water damage marks in the flooring.

Please keep in mind that the kitchen is new and before it was built, there was nothing in its place. However when my husband removed the dishwasher, he found a gold locket on the floor with a beautiful monogram on the front.

No one in our family has ever seen this locket before. The initials look like KMK~~~again nothing familiar to us. These are not the initials of the previous owner. From 1945-1957 the Korrick family lived here, but no one with these initials. It looks rather old, right?

So I opened the locket, and found this picture inside! Certainly not a contemporary photo!

So how does a locket, with a picture of a man taken decades ago, find its way under our dishwasher, in a kitchen that was built from all new materials 20 years ago?

I can honestly say I found all this a bit disturbing, only because we have had a series of so many unfortunate events lately. Here is list of the quirky things that have gone wrong in the last 14 days:

1. Flood in the basement due to water heater splitting; flood alarm on the floor did not alert us.
2. Dishwasher floods with no water going to it. Plumber turned off the water and it continued to fill for the next 6 days. Ruined the hardwood floor
3. Clothes dryer at cabin stops working.
4. Ice maker in refrigerator quits
5. All the electrical outlets in master bedroom at the cabin stop working all at once
6. My Nespresso coffee machine is leaking water. First time ever.
7. The driving lights on the car go on and off, but never when we take it into get fixed.
8. The desk light at the cabin randomly goes on and off. I would turn it off and it would go on by itself. Repeatedly.
9. The fire alarm apparently went off yesterday. No one heard it. The fire department showed up at our gate.

It is becoming a pricey month. So I am blaming all of this on Mr. Locket Man. Isn’t this so strange? Mr. Locket Man is sitting next to my religious statue in the breakfast room until I can figure this out.

In the meantime, I am trying to reach the previous owner’s daughter to see if she recognizes this locket or photo. A bit of a mystery as it doesn’t explain how it got under the dishwasher.

Have you had any unexplained experiences in your home? Well, this makes for fun dinner conversation if nothing else!

Enjoy your Saturday and weekend! We just picked our son up from the airport, which is why I am a bit late posting today. We are blessed to have him here for the next two weeks!

If you have not read the prior posts of The Restoration Chronicles, links are below.

The Restoration Chronicles Chapter 1

The Restoration Chronicles Chapter 2

The Restoration Chronicles Chapter 3

The Restoration Chronicles Chapter 4

I am always curious as to why there are times in life where “things” happen in multiples. And not good things. Well, I seem to be in one of those downpours lately. As I mentioned in Saturday’s blog post, the 75 gallon water tank in the basement split and flooded two rooms. A plumber, two helpers and $1200 later, the problem is fixed. But my nice, neat organized basement spaces are in a state of disarray as everything needs to be put back in its place.

Yesterday, I stepped into another flood of water coming from our dishwasher. Yep! All over the hardwood floor in the kitchen. This appliance didn’t drain and I removed a few gallons of standing water with a turkey baster. Sigh.

Last night, my daughter came home from a week at our mountain cabin and let us know the clothes dryer stopped working. The burnt rubber smell part of the story is concerning. Sigh again.

For me, I guess I am a believer of things happening in threes. So hopefully this will be the end of all things breaking down for awhile. But this is the nature of owning an old home, or living in a home for a long time. My guess is that our dishwasher finally needs replacing as does the belt to the clothes dryer at the cabin. Just wish it all didn’t happen at the same time. Cha-ching.

Does this happen to you, too? Do you believe in things happening in threes?

Onto Other Things

On a brighter note, as I am the eternal optimist, it is 62 degrees outside this morning! Whaaat?? A few days ago it was over 100 degrees, however, the forecast for the next few days is perfect Spring weather with highs in the 70s. Crystal clear blue skies, sunny and very cool evenings. Lovely.

We are supposed to head up to the mountains for Memorial Day but I almost don’t want to leave this gorgeous weather. Do you have plans for Memorial Day weekend? I’ve been so distracted with this pandemic it’s hard to believe it is the holiday weekend already.

Update on the Back Staircase Project

We are slowly removing the gross glue and old paint from the stairs. There are some disappointing surprises. One of the treads is broken and one of the risers has been poorly patched. A few setbacks but there are four more steps to uncover so who knows what we will find. Lately, nothing seems to be going as planned.

All Things Peaches

We are still picking peaches off the trees. The peach pie I made is truly one of the first ones that wasn’t swimming in juice with a soggy bottom crust. I blended two recipes~~the all butter crust is from Stella Parks New York Times Bestseller, Bravetart. The filling is from the Country Peach Pie recipe from the Food Network Kitchen. By far, one of the best peach pies yet!

Elisabeth is on a homemade ice cream kick. Last week it was fresh strawberry ice cream.

This week, fresh peach ice cream. With the leftover peach puree from the peach ice cream recipe (yes, we are getting fat over here!), we are enjoying peach margaritas!

Front Porch is Finished!

The new welcome mat from Wayfair arrived yesterday. The mat is 24″ x 36″, substantially larger than the previous one. It is non-slip, made from coconut fibers and is an elegant addition to the spruced up front entry. All for $43.99. This project is finally DONE.

Vegetable Consumption

We are eating so many good things from the garden. This is the first year I planted shishito peppers. Flash frying in hot olive oil, served with salt and a squeeze of lemon, these peppers are just delicious. If you haven’t had these peppers before, check to see if your grocery store carries them. I know Safeway does and this is a very quick, yummy appetizer. Occasionally you may get a hot one, but the all the ones from our garden have a mild flavor.

Artichokes are ready to harvest too. We typically par-boil them, cut them in half and basted them on the grill with olive oil and garlic. The Houston’s Restaurant recipe with remoulade sauce is a family favorite.

Hoping your Wednesday is filled with joy and beautiful weather! Pray that no more appliances break this week!

It has been an interesting week. What started with a lovely, relaxing Mother’s Day and ended with a flooded basement. The good news is the governor’s quarantine is over and life in Arizona is slowly getting back to the new normal.

Garden Update

The garden is abundant with artichokes, eggplant, fennel, cherry tomatoes, shishito peppers and fresh herbs ready to harvest. However, I have a garden mystery and hope someone can help me solve it.

Kale usually does very well here, even during the warmer months. We enjoyed one green and two purple healthy and producing kale plants over the last several months. But last month, my gorgeous kale plants went from this….

To this, literally overnight.

What kind of creature would have done this amount of damage? None of the other plants have been touched, just the kale.

This week, my husband created a fortress around the green kale plant, in hopes it may produce again.

Another, very big and disappointing discovery this week occurred in the bulb garden. You may recall that last fall, I planted hundreds of bulbs and rhizomes. This spring we enjoyed the fruits of my efforts.

During my walkabout, I was shocked and stunned to see that someTHING has stolen/eaten? all my tulip and hyacinth bulbs! There are hundreds of little holes with nothing in them. The bulbs have vanished!

I’ve have never seen anything like this! The irises have not been attacked, I hope, but maybe this critter is eating everything from below ground? Help.

New Projects

Well, this one is not so new, but we are finally making some progress on the back staircase. I posted about this last August (click here), but the project obviously stalled. The sisal carpeting is past its prime and what a dirty and smelly job it is to remove the rug and the excessive amounts of dried glue underneath. Not to mention, possibly old lead paint too.

Using a heat gun to get rid of the glue is nasty business, but the most time consuming part is taking out hundreds of carpet staples. Since I never want to glue down a rug here again, I’m debating what to do. Perhaps just staining and finishing the treads and painting the risers? We still have the final 6 steps to go. Ugh.

So excited about receiving this gorgeous green tile from Home Depot. We will use it as a backsplash behind the outdoor barbecue. It is 9 3/4″ x 9 3/4″ porcelain Monteca Encaustic tile. Quite surprising, but Home Depot has many beautiful tile selections online. Click here for link. It also comes in blue.

It was easy to order online and then curbside pickup at the store. My favorite tile man, Rick, will be doing this project in June for us.

After a rather significant meeting at City Hall yesterday morning, I had hoped to spend Friday afternoon relaxing or painting or just having “me” time. Well, that didn’t last long. While washing the lunch dishes, we suddenly ran out of hot water. Taking my daughter to the basement to show her how to re-light the water heater, we discovered a flood in progress. One of the 75 gallon water heaters split. What a mess!

I am SOOOO happy I cleaned the basement last year (click here to read that post) or this would have been much worse. Fortunately the Christmas room items were off the floor and on shelves so we did avoid a bigger disaster. To see our Christmas room, click here.

We will be spending the weekend cleaning up and replacing the water heater. These are the moments when living in an apartment sounds attractive. Sigh.

Wishing you a stress-less weekend.