Seattle Trip – Day 4 – Rest day in Boise

Don’t worry, I’m not going to post every day. You’d get bored and I wouldn’t have time to do anything fun to post about! Once we get settled in Seattle, I’m sure my posts will decrease. But as long as we’re doing so much driving, I have time to write while John drives.

We arrived in Boise on Saturday and spent two nights. Here’s photos from our visit on Sunday.

Callan:

Chirstina:

Kira:

Basil:

Lol, the joke in our family is I can’t keep basil alive for more than a week. Chirstina seems to have figured out the trick. That is one unbelievably dang healthy basil plant. I figured it rated a spot in the family photos.

While John got some handyman fixes done and cooked lunch on the grill, I pruned all their overgrown bushes. We saved a few branches from the pruning for flower arrangements.

I cut off a massive amount of overgrowth. I filled their green waste bin plus a second huge bag, ready to go out the next week. All this in the 100 degree heat! Luckily Callan has air conditioning, and in fact keeps the house very cold. I would hang out inside until I was shivering (which didn’t take long), and then I was grateful to head back outside to prune some more in the heat.

We are super happy that Biska and Kira now get along.

The first time Kira and Biska were together, last fall during our rather horrendous Boise Roommate Saga, Biska was just a little puppy and had no manners. Biska would launch herself at Kira, wanting to play. Kira would growl and snap, but Biska would not take a hint. Biska didn’t mean any harm, but she was tormenting Kira, so we had to keep them apart. It was a huge nuisance. So we were greatly relieved to see that they get along now that Biska is older and better socialized.

In Tucson we take Biska to a home-based doggie daycare in the country to the east of us. She goes for half a day, once a week. The owner, Tally, is a dog trainer, so it’s more than just doggie daycare, its dog socialization training. It has been enormously helpful. Biska is friendly, confident, and considerate with other dogs now.

Next stop – Seattle!

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

Seattle Trip – Day 3 – Boise at last

By morning I had a sore throat. Was it from the air conditioning blowing a few inches from my face, or did I contract covid? We’re supposed to be visiting the kids today! We spent last night in Twin Falls, only two hours out of Boise, where Callan and Chirstina live. I’ve been really looking forward to hanging out with them. Was I going to have to quarantine instead? And does it count as quarantining if I stay “home” at our airbnb? Or do we need to turn around and drive home? Home being, I suppose, Albuquerque?

Have I recently been exposed to covid? The truth is, well, sort of probably. It seems like everyone has been getting exposed recently. My contractor’s son had symptoms last week, but hadn’t actually tested positive last time I heard. I didn’t interact with his son, just the contractor himself, who didn’t have any symptoms. It’s only a tenuous connection and right now, covid is so widespread that at any point any of us are likely interacting with someone who has recently interacted with someone with covid. 

Covid seems so common right now. I guess the only reason that it’s not a big deal on the news is because it’s mostly not deathly anymore? And everyone is bored with reading about it. Plus, I don’t think anyone has any idea how widespread it is anymore, because we’re all just testing at home and treating at home. I don’t know if anyone is reporting their positive tests.

So was I sick or not? We decided to hang out at the campsite for a bit this morning to see how I’m doing. We’re only two hours from Boise and can’t check into our airbnb until 2 pm. We had assumed we would hang out in Callan and Chirstina’s house, but not if I’m sick. Normally we’d be happy to hang around outside in a park, but today’s forecasted high is 105º. Pretty nuts for Boise. Our van’s portable air conditioner can’t keep up with temperatures that high.

Luckily we have covid test kits with us so we don’t even have to drive into town to look for one. That’s the advantage of being a heavy packer! True, it’s a nuisance to have to drag tons of potentially unnecessary luggage around, but when we want something, I’m likely to have packed it. Actually both John and I had packed test kits.

I opened a test and jammed that stick as far up into my sinuses as I could stand, and twirled for a count of 15, ugh, and…now we’re waiting 15 minutes…and drum roll…it is…negative! Whew! I know those home tests aren’t much good, but I’m feeling fine now too. My throat is fine. I guess I was just snoring last night and got all dried out! Lol.

Time to see the kids! We arrived in time for lunch. We told the Callan and Chirstina we’d bring take-out. John was in favor of just grabbing some breakfast burritos, but I had spotted a Russian restaurant that sounded interesting. Plus, I didn’t have covid so it was time to celebrate!

The restaurant was closed the next day, so today was our only chance. John and I tend to prefer to eat our main meal in the middle of the day and eat lightly in the evening. Russian food isn’t light, so I voted for Russian food for lunch. We got a number of items and it turned out to be fairly expensive, but we had been eating bread and cheese (and Greek fast-food) for two days. Plus, we planned to cook our own barbecue at Callan’s house for the next day, so we went ahead and splurged. It was yummy and the kids really appreciated it.

The Callan and Chirstina have a roommate (a good one this time) in the downstairs bedroom, and the guest room is set up as the kids’ office, and the guest bathroom has been taken over by their two new cats. So John and I stayed in an airbnb. It’s such an excellent airbnb! I want to stay here every time I come to Boise!

There’s a café right outside our front door, and the river is about 10 steps away. The greenbelt trail goes right by our windows, so we can watch the bicyclists, walkers, rollerbladers, strollers, dog walkers, and everyone passing by. 

Here’s the views out the windows:

And here’s the view from the front steps. This whole area is newly revitalized.

There’s no cars allowed down here at all – it’s all pedestrian and bikes. But there was a place to park the van on the backside of the building reserved just for us. It was a tight squeeze but we fit.

That’s the river right there.

The airbnb apartment is brand new inside. It’s rare to find a new, centrally located airbnb that allows dogs. I brought two large flat sheets to drape over the bed and the couch to keep Biska from shedding all over, because there’s no way I’m going to be able to keep that dog off the furniture. 

It’s a good thing we brought the sheets because, yep, puppy prints.

Biska unexpectedly walked right into the river on our first walk. I don’t know what she was expecting, but a deep river with a strong current obviously wasn’t it. She was more surprised than we were. Luckily John was able to hold onto her leash and get her back out.

Once she was wet, she was a dirt magnet. We tried to keep her out of the dirt but of course she got muddy. When we got back, John wiped her paws off with a towel at the front door, but it didn’t really do the trick. She got her feet the rest of the way clean on the bed, lol.

Here’s a picture of Biska right before she jumped into the river:

And after:

Yep, we’re going to have some muddy paws!

Here’s more pictures from our walk:

Saturday night with a live band along the riverfront!

We stopped to watch the paddlers in the water. Some were on boards and some were in kayaks.

Our airbnb was pretty in the evening light.

Our unit is on the ground floor on the corner. It’s very small, only a studio, but brand new and in such a fun location.

We could sit right on our front steps and watch everyone go by on the bike path.

Right at the water’s edge!

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

Seattle Trip – Day 2 – Still heading towards Boise

Day two went waaaay better than day one. Morning arrived sunny and beautiful.

It was a nice campsite, tucked into the trees. I was sorry to have to immediately leave our pretty campsite that we had not had time to enjoy the previous evening, having arrived far too late.

There were several trails in the area and it would have been nice to go for a hike. But we had another 7 hours of driving to our campsite in Idaho. So we made coffee, went for a quick walk around the campground, packed up and headed out.

We made a mental note to come back someday. It looked like a great area. The only downside was no cell reception, which is a common issue in southern Utah. 

As we drove up towards Salt Lake City, I took several photos of these mountains.

We couldn’t figure it out – is that snow or white rock? It’s July and 100 degrees out, but I remember being snowed on in the mountains just east of Salt Lake in July several years ago, even though it was very hot down in the valley. It’s all about elevation! In the end though, we decided it was probably white rock. We definitely want to come back and check it out someday.

For lunch we bought Greek take-out and ate at a park. Actually, weirdly, the park we had identified on the map was closed, so we ate in the shade of a tree on the edge of a grassy drainage basin right outside the park. Looks like a park to me!

In case you’re wondering, that loop around Biska’s nose keeps her calm and keeps her from pulling my arm off in excitement when we walk. It’s called a “gentle leader” and if you have a dog who pulls too hard on walks, I greatly recommend it. It’s not tight and doesn’t hurt her at all. It’s not a muzzle, and no, she doesn’t bite. She is just very exuberantly happy about life! She wants to run up to and interact with every bird, person, dog, child, squirrel, and anything that moves! At least she’s not timid, right?

That evening’s campsite was in a county park along a creek right outside of Twin Falls.

We arrived at 6 pm instead of 9 pm. What a difference three hours made! I did astoundingly better. Instead of a nightmarish never-ending drive in the dark, I wasn’t even tired yet. So I arrived cheerful and ready to see the sights. We had time for a walk, a leisurely dinner of Greek leftovers from lunch, and then another walk.

The park had a paved walking path that went on for at least a couple of miles along a creek.

One section of the path included a challenging frisbee golf course.

John especially wanted me to take a picture of this waterfall, but I have a true Oregonian’s disdain for small, unimpressive, unphotogenic dribbles of falling water. So John took the photo. It’s a nice photo, and there’s a waterfall there if you look closely.

It had been very hot and dry, but right around bedtime the evening mosquitos suddenly appeared in droves and chased us back to our van.

It was still very hot, so we started up our air conditioner. The van has two air conditioners. We have the regular air conditioner that most vehicles have, which only runs when the engine is running. We’ve also installed a small portable unit. It actually takes up quite a lot of space under our sink, but it is very much worth it.

The point of our portable unit is we can run it off electricity from the campsite plug without having to run our engine. We could even run it off our own solar generated power, but probably not for long before it drained our set of RV batteries we have installed in a row under our bunk. We can run it indefinitely if we have a source of electricity. Our campsite came with an electrical outlet, so we decided to leave the AC running all night. The way it’s designed, the fan runs continuously regardless of whether it’s cooling or not. We turned it the fan down to it’s lowest setting for the night, but it was still a lot of airflow in such a small space.

In the middle of the night I realized I had a sore throat. I figured it was probably due to the constant blowing of the air conditioner only 4 feet from my face. I considered turning it off, but didn’t know what the outside temps were doing. The daytime temps were well into the 100’s, so the outside temps could be in the 80’s. I was too asleep to figure it out, so I just left it running.

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

Seattle Trip – Day 1 – Heading towards Boise

I am sorry to post two grumpy posts in a row, but our first day of vacation wasn’t any easier than the last few days leading up to it! The first travel day is never a relaxing day.

We were slow to leave because it turned out John had more remodel prep work he wanted to do. I had thought that we just had one last box to pack of last minute items we were still using. But he didn’t want construction dust and general wear and tear on our furniture and possessions, so he was hurriedly wrapping many items in plastic. You can buy big rolls of plastic in the moving sections of Home Depot and Lowes specifically for that purpose, it’s sort of like mega-sized saran wrap. I understand his logic, but the plastic wrapping is not something I’d choose to do if I were in charge, and something about it bugs me irrationally, lol.

Yeah, the houseplants are in Tucson. No, they can’t survive an entire month without water. I’m hoping our remodel contractor, Neil, can water them once or twice while we’re gone.

My poor house, all packed up!

Finally we were ready to leave. We hadn’t even managed to get out of Tucson before we came upon a traffic accident. Never a good omen.

Plus, did you see those gray skies? Yep, by the time we had reached Phoenix, the weather had turned awful. In the summer the desert can get some fairly extreme weather – high winds and brief, torrential rainfall. It will dump buckets in a very short time, reducing visibility to near zero and flooding the roads. The water can’t run off as fast as it’s coming down.

We got lucky and found a sunny park for a quick lunch of bread and cheese. At least Biska was doing fine. She is a great traveler!

As we continued on through Las Vegas, our phones were showing a 2-hour delay on the freeway between Las Vegas and St. George, UT. It was actually two different back-to-back delays, one of about half hour and followed by another of about an hour and a half.

It was already late in the afternoon and at that point, my vote would have been to get a hotel and try again the next morning. But John is an optimistic person and he also tends to want to stick to the plan. I like plans too, but I’m more of a Plan B and C sort of person. I was tired.

But he had a couple of good points. First, it wasn’t going to hurt us any to sit in traffic. We have everything we need accessible in the van. Secondly, phone data isn’t always reliable, so maybe it had cleared. It appeared to be clearing, we thought, hopefully.

So we crept along in stop and go traffic for two hours. The first slow up turned out to be a fairly severe accident. Someone in a small car had rear-ended a semi-truck. Looking at the damage of the car, it was hard for me to imagine that the person could have survived. I found it upsetting and did not take a picture of that one. Next we came to the road construction that had caused the slow-up and the accident. 

By the time we got through all that, it was early evening. Again my vote was to stay in a hotel in St. George. But we had reservations at a campground just an hour up the road, and John wanted to press on. He didn’t want to have to mess around with finding a hotel, unloading our van, etc. We were so close – we just had one more hour to drive!

The road through the canyon into the mountains north out of St. George is surprisingly twisty. The van was being blown around by very strong winds, and pummeled by thundershowers. Soon it was dark. The combination of dark and twisty and windy and downpours at 80 miles an hour was terrible! I tried to lose myself in my kindle book, but that wasn’t helping.

For some reason I had accidentally downloaded one of those psychological thriller books, complete with a psychopath killer and unreliable narrators. It wasn’t the kind of book I needed right then. But our cell reception (and my patience level) wasn’t good enough for me to want to try to find something else.

We had reservations at a private campground with limited check-in hours. It started to look like we weren’t going to make check-in. The instructions said to call if we were going to be past 9:00 pm, so I called. The guy was grumpy about the weather and seemed to suggest that we shouldn’t even bother to come. He called his own campground “a big mud pit”. Well, that wasn’t encouraging.

Plus, they closed at 10:00 pm. Would we even make it by 10? Turns out just barely – we arrived at 9:40! That’s cutting it tight. It was pitch dark and silent. Luckily we drive a small van and not a big rig. But our back-up camera doesn’t work in the dark, particularly with bikes on the bike rack on the back of the van. I had to get out and direct John as he backed up based solely on my feedback, completely blind in the night.

After we got situated for the night, John generously took the dog for a walk, but I didn’t even leave the van after we got it parked. It was past bedtime and it had been a hard day.

As we drifted off to sleep we were suddenly jolted awake by the long and agonizing cry of a squirrel or other small mammal in fear for its life. Then something small clunked against the van. I don’t know if the clunk was the fleeing animal or a somewhat larger animal that must have been chasing it. I don’t know the outcome of that drama, but it did not set a relaxing tone for my dreams.

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

Trying to keep track of my stuff – and my mind

I’ve been cheerfully posting about our various exploits in Tucson and Albuquerque, but the reality is, these last few weeks have been a bit of a struggle for me. Everything is fine, don’t worry. Everything is fine except my mood!

A few weeks ago we packed up and moved most of our personals and clothes back to Albuquerque to get out of the way of the remodel starting in Tucson. That was a lot of work and stressful. Once we got to Albuquerque I had to unpack everything and try to get organized. I didn’t have places to put everything because we didn’t bring all our furniture back. I brought back my clothes, but not the master bedroom furniture set to hold my clothes.

Then three days ago we drove back to Tucson again after having been in Albuquerque for about 10 days. I apologize to all my friends there who didn’t even know I was in Albuquerque. I’ve been too overwhelmed to keep up with everyone.

Now we are trying to finish packing up the house in Tucson. Everything that we didn’t already pack up and bring to Albuquerque, we are packing up to store in boxes in Tucson to get it out of the way of the remodel.

I don’t do well in the middle of house moves, remodels and similar transitions and upheavals. When my stuff is in a disarray, I’m discombobulated to the point of being nearly incapacitated. I need my structure, my routines, and my stuff that supports those routines.

So why do we keep doing this? Moving and remodeling, moving and remodeling. Do I forget how much I hate it? No, I remember, but I go ahead and do it anyway because I’m motivated by a sense of progress. And there’s nothing like a remodel for an in-your-face sense of progress!

I don’t know John’s motivation, but I’m guessing he’d rather create what he wants himself than pay twice as much for a house that isn’t to our taste. We tried to find a nice house at a higher price point that didn’t need remodeled – that was our original goal. But we couldn’t find anything we liked.

As we searched online and toured houses in 2020 we kept saying to each other, “This much for this? This isn’t worth that much! I don’t want to pay that much for this! Why is it so expensive?”

Many of the more expensive houses had been already remodeled, yes, but usually different sections of the houses were done at different times by different owners in different styles. Nothing flowed. Nothing felt like it maintained a consistent character.

That is not surprising, of course. It is expensive and invasive to remodel an entire house all at once. Most people just do a project at a time. A bit one year and a bit another year, rarely making it through the entire house before they move away. But after years of scattered, one-off projects, the houses often end up feeling disjointed. Or if the house had been recently flipped – remodeled all at once by an investor – invariably it was done in the currently popular color schemes (gray), in a muddled “transitional” style, using low-cost materials.

Nothing we saw felt like somewhere we would want to live. It wasn’t until we started looking at less expensive houses in the more modest (older but not old enough to be cool) neighborhoods that we started liking what we saw – except what we saw was – potential.

We both loved this house from the moment I spotted it on the internet.

It had been partially remodeled several times in the past, and was indeed a mishmash of styles with some serious issues (like nowhere in the kitchen for a refrigerator). Yet it still maintained enough of its original look and feel for us to picture what direction we could take it. More importantly, it was cheap enough that we would have the money to do it. There had been no upgrades done recently except air conditioning and a few other things we were happy with, so it was basically a blank slate. We struggle with the remodel process, but we’re going to love it when we’re done.

Meanwhile, as if life wasn’t complicated enough, we’re going to Seattle for a month! Seattle? Yep, nearly a year ago we reserved a small and surprisingly affordable guesthouse in Seattle for the entire month of August. It was a reaction to the tropical mosquitos that swarmed Tucson in August and September last year after unusually wet monsoon rains. Plus, ever since my cancer scare, we’ve been trying to do bucket-list fun stuff and not wait for retirement.

John grew up on the lakes of Minnesota, and I’ve always wanted him to experience the Puget Sound, where I raised my kids. Plus the northern Cascades have some of the best hiking in the country. And August is the only month in that region that isn’t rainy.

So far, the timing of our August reservations in Seattle seems to be working out perfectly for the remodel in Tucson. With luck, a lot of the most disruptive parts of the remodel will happen while we’re gone. Our floor tile is due to arrive soon, so we’re hoping our contractor can get the floor tiled in August. That is an invasive job and we will be happy to not be there for it!

Our kitchen cabinets are not expected to arrive for another 6 weeks, so that’s unfortunate. We’ll be back from Seattle by then, so after a quick stop in Tucson, we expect to spend September in Albuquerque, while the kitchen is being done.

Except I’ll need to go back to Tucson for my CT scan in the middle of September. I could get scanned in Albuquerque, but it’s important to me to stick with my current oncologist and radiologist. I will stay in a hotel for my scan if the house is too torn up. I’m always stressed when I’m getting scanned, so I’ll do whatever works to make it not too miserable.

There are actually some really beautiful resorts in Tucson that are nearly empty and quite affordable in September. No one visits Tucson in September! Summertime family travel is over by then, but escape-the-winter travel hasn’t started up yet. Tucson in September is still super hot, while the rest of the country is beautiful (well, I think Tucson is beautiful in September too, but I’m biased.)

Other than the trip out to Tucson for my CT scan, we plan to be in Albuquerque this fall until the remodel is done in Tucson. Well, not done-done. Just the most invasive stuff done. After the floors and kitchen are done we can reoccupy, and then we expect to be plugging away at a variety of smaller projects for quite some time.

So anyway, while I was in Albuquerque unpacking, I was also simultaneously packing for our trip to Seattle. It’s a multi-stage trip, with a stop in Tucson, then up to Boise to see Callan and Chirstina, and then on to Seattle, then back to Boise, then Tucson, and ending in Albuquerque (then back to Tucson, then back to Albuquerque, then back to Tucson…).

I sure wish I was one of those people who can pack a couple pair of pants, 3 tops, and a toothbrush, and be on my way. Noooo. Nope, not me. I have a bag that’s labeled “Tucson and Boise” and then two more larger bags labeled “Seattle”. Seattle is going to require a certain amount of gear because we’ll be camping, kayaking, and bicycling, as well as a variety of urban activities.

Plus there’s a bag for Biska with her toys and food dishes and leashes (and Benadryl in case she tries to eat another bee). And I have a bag labeled, “office” because this is only partially a vacation. We’re still trying to work part of it. I still have a few clients (over the phone). And we’ll be overseeing the remodel. John will have some meetings to attend by phone. We are hoping he won’t have to fly to Albuquerque mid-month, but it is possible.

Plus the rest of life goes on and we need to keep up with it all. I still have to keep track of the rentals; make sure the rent comes in and the landscaper gets paid, etc. Then there’s all the utility bills at both of our houses. And I have some online volunteer activities. It’s all fine, but it can get to be a lot to juggle when my life is in disarray, even in a good way. I am exhausted and depressed.

There is a little nagging worry in the back of my brain that wonders why I’m so exhausted. John is working harder than me, doing most of the packing while also working full-time. Yes, we’re doing some packing and life is a little chaotic right now, but is that really reason to be so completely exhausted? I can’t quite shove out of my brain a concern that my cancer might be back. I really want to live life to the fullest while I can. I try not to think about that too often, but part of me is aware – because it’s true – that one of these days a routine CT scan could suddenly cause my life to tilt out of wack again. I’m trying not to think too much about my upcoming cancer scan in September. But I know it’s coming up soon.

Hopefully our trip to Seattle will be relaxing and engrossing and exactly what we need, as the remodel progresses back in Tucson. A month seems like such a long time to be gone, but it will be good to be in one spot for an entire 4 weeks in a row – something we haven’t done in awhile. When your vacation encompasses a longer period of stability than your regular life, you gotta wonder.

The other day a friend of mine in one of my zoom meetings asked me where I was, and I said, “Uh,” and I looked up and turned to look at the window before answering, “Tucson.” Because – for a second there, I couldn’t remember.

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

Peacocks and Lavender

After that bee and spider battle in my last post, I thought I should make it up to you.

These peacocks are in the zoo in Albuquerque. We were there for Zoo Music, a live outdoor music event held every second Friday evening during the summer. There is also live outdoor music in the botanical garden, called Garden Music, held every second Thursday. Between the two events, there’s music in the Biopark every week during the summertime.

The Albuquerque Biopark consists of a zoo, botanical gardens, and aquarium. We mostly only go to the botanical gardens. Here’s pictures from the Garden Music event in the botanical garden the following week.

Everyone was listening to the music, so the rest of the park was nearly empty.

I went for a nice walk around the park with our friend, Violet. She is Alan’s mother. You may remember Alan, he’s the one who helped us out at the beginning of the Boise roommate crisis, by finding us an attorney and generally being supportive and useful.

Alan’s wife, Chadron, is in some of my volunteer activities with me. In a way, I sort of work for Chadron – as in one volunteer working for another volunteer. It figures – I finally find a good boss but it’s just volunteer work! Dang.

Anyway, it was a beautiful evening.

The rest of these pictures are from the grounds of Los Poblanos. It’s a working lavender farm as well as an inn with a restaurant and a café. I went there once recently with a friend, and then went back with John a couple of weeks later.

A few of the areas are for staying guests only, but restaurant and café customers are free to wander around a large portion of the grounds.

I was surprised we could walk right out into the fields. Of course we stuck to the paths and didn’t trample their lavender.

These are bee hives.

Albuquerque really is a lovely place to visit. John and I are looking forward to going back to Albuquerque on vacation after getting fully moved to Tucson. Maybe we could even stay at the Los Poblanos Inn someday. They don’t allow dogs, but we could board Biska elsewhere. Being boarded for a day or two would be a super-fun sleepover treat for her. Biska absolutely loves other dogs. We regularly take her to doggie daycare in Tucson because she loves it so much.

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

Ignore this post if you don’t like bugs

John helpfully took this video for us. Just in case you wanted to see a bee and black widow spider in a death battle.

It’s rather awful.

Where is this place that you are now going to avoid as if your life depended on it? This is the autofill on the pool in Tucson.

A black widow spider in my swimming pool! I am not a fan of black widows. We have a pest control company regularly treating the perimeter of the house, but apparently we need them to do the yard perimeter too. I’ll get that started up when the remodel is done.

You can’t visit me right now anyway – the Tucson house is all packed up and torn apart for the remodel. Not that anyone would want to visit Arizona in July or August. It’s the muggy-buggy season. I guess there are multiple reasons not to visit me in Tucson right now! Plus we won’t even be here – we’re leaving again in a couple of days. More about that later.

With luck, our remodel will be mostly done before winter and we’ll be ready for visitors by the holidays. And don’t worry, the black widow spiders will be taken care of!

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

Kitchen Design

In addition to choosing materials, we are also redesigning our kitchen. It was originally a small, narrow, galley kitchen, and we’re going to remove the center wall and create an expanded kitchen and breakfast nook in what was the kitchen and dining room. Then we’ll use the Arizona room, which was being used as a family room, as the new dining room.

We started with my own birds-eye sketch, which we took to the cabinet designers. Many cabinet retailers have in-house kitchen design staff.

It took several iterations to get it right.

We started at ProSource. Their designer had cool software; here’s an early mock-up.

But the designer there wasn’t very helpful with design questions and was kind of an ass. Plus we didn’t like their cabinets, which were very expensive.

Then we went to a cabinet representative in Albuquerque we had used for the Placitas house, but his cabinets were also too expensive. Twice as expensive now as they were when we did the house in Placitas in 2017-2018.

We also tried Lowes – still too expensive, at least for the cabinet lines we wanted. We aren’t going to buy any sort of particle board, such as MDF, which stands for medium-density fiberboard. That will expand and warp if it gets damp – a very poor choice for kitchens and bathrooms. We are determined to find affordable, cabinet-grade plywood.

We finally think we’ve found our cabinets at a place called Window Depot. Not an inspiring name, but our contractor recommended a particular designer there, and we do like her. We also like the looks of one of the cabinet lines that they carry. It’s a small company called Gila based in Phoenix, and they only make a few color options. Luckily, we like one of the colors. They come as close to affordable quality as it’s possible to get right now. And they generally ship in 4-6 weeks, unlike some lines that are still taking months and months.

There’s still a couple minor adjustments to be made to the layout, but we’re getting close.

Her software isn’t as cool as the first guy’s, but we can see what we need to see.

It’s been stressful for John and I. A lot of work and expense.

But luckily, Biska is a very secure dog, and hasn’t been at all upset by the construction so far. “Oh yeah, I forgot you moved my doggie door to the bedroom, woof, woof!”

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

The impossibility of choosing materials

As I looked through my photos from June and July, looking for things to post, I mostly found pictures like this:

Dozens and dozens of them. Don’t worry, I’ll only post a tiny fraction, just to give you an idea.

John and I are determined to make sure that we choose materials that we both like. Remodels are so expensive – we want to do it right. It’s much more complicated than choosing a few random things that we like – everything needs to coordinate well or the end result is chaotic.

Also the materials should coordinate with the stye of the house and its occupants. For example, if we went with a lot of bling – glass and other bright and shiny options, it wouldn’t settle well with our burnt adobe brick house and southwest style furnishings. Nor would a modern, severe, or industrial feel work with the muted, natural colors and textures in our home.

Our goal is a home that feels like it belongs in the desert, without ending up as a southwest cliché. We’ve put hours, days…weeks into this. We’re so tired of looking at materials!

Here’s the latest, what do you think? Clockwise from top left: greenish hexagonal kitchen backsplash, greenish-gray cabinet, terracotta floor tile, gray and white countertop.

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

A pool for Emily’s girls

When Emily and her family were visiting back in April, she noticed a huge above-ground pool on sale online for half price. It would be perfect for summer!

Immediately after she ordered it, it sold out. Would she get one? Orders aren’t guaranteed anymore, not since the pandemic. Unfulfilled online orders sit in limbo with companies reluctant to allow cancellations for delays.

After a day or two, Emily was sent a shipping date. A good sign, but still no guarantee. She didn’t tell the girls she had ordered a pool, so they wouldn’t be disappointed if it never arrived.

I had a clothes dryer that just kept getting a new shipping date – exactly one month out from the previous shipping date. It was, it turned out, a completely imaginary shipping date. I eventually had to be very firm with a customer service agent in order to get it canceled, so I could buy a slightly different model from a different supplier.

Emily’s shipping date became a tracking number – an excellent sign! And one day, she had an entire swimming pool delivered right to her house.

Here it is being installed. That is an enormous pool.

Yay summertime! Just in time for the older two girls’ birthdays.

Luckily for me, I think they’ll still come visit us again in April, because April won’t be pool season in Boston!

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.