On the brighter side

Lest ye think it's all "doom and gloom" at the new house, here are a few developments we're happy with at the new place. (By the way, the new house is also referred to as 5127, the East Farm, Purpalicious, "the other house", and probably a few more things. It is where we plan to actually live — and soon, we hope.)


First, new landscaping. We've been hard at work on this since just about Day 2. While there are many, many more months (nay, years!) of work to do, we're pleased that it's looking cheerier and more like us. (Although with this continued drought and relentless sun, some things are not so happy any longer.)

Second, new windows (Jeld-Wen and Simonton). Big, big panes of glass allow unobstructed views of the outdoors from pretty much every room in the house. We've had big, clear Simonton windows for years in the old house, and very much enjoy looking out of them.

Third, Ed re-purposed the old electric dryer circuit for a whole-house surge protector. Now all of our electronic controls on our microwave, gas range, French-door refrigerator, etc., are protected from power surges coming into the house. Dirty power from Hurricanes Rita and Ike did a number on the last microwave we had.

Fourth, one of the few worthwhile items in the original landscape was this poor, much-neglected fig tree out back behind the garage. We have been faithfully watering it, and it has been faithfully putting on figs. Well, the first figs are finally ripe! We had a few figs over the 4th of July weekend. They are pretty tasty.

Fifth, and this is probably our favorite change of all, Ed hung our Meyda Tiffany pendant light in the breakfast room recently. Roy & I both absolutely love it. It was well worth the hours spent Googling and perusing lighting online, after we had a vague idea of what we wanted (a Tiffany-style up-light pendant in certain colorways). Serendipity? The blue in the pendant goes very nicely with the blue we chose for the kitchen.


There is a sixth major project, however, it is still in progress, so no pictures yet. Hopefully, it will be finished to usability in the next two weeks (there will be additional work later), and we'll post pictures of its time line and talk all about it then.