Tuesday, April 19, 2011

April has been a busy month

Here's some pictures of that funny cactus in bloom. I think this is the first year I've seen it bloom. And my rose bushes are really putting out some beautiful roses. The pictures don't do them justice.....





My sister in Seattle decided she would like to have a stainless steel copper clad Revere Ware coffee percolator, like the one our mom used way back when we were kids. She found some on eBay but asked me if I'd ever seen any at the estates sales I often attend. I have, so I set out on a quest to find another one. I was just about to give up when I came upon one at a Estate Sale Resale Shop in Sun City. for $1.50!!!! The glass top knob wasn't an original one and didn't fit quite right, so I then set out on a quest to find a good replacement knob. I found one at a Sun City Ace Hardware store. The small hardware stores often have odd items the large stores don't carry. I boxed it all up and mailed it off to Susie. She should receive it in a few days. I think if I ever come across another one I will buy it for myself.



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A few weeks ago mom and I participated in a community yard sale. We paid $10 for one parking stall, which included one table. We barely squeezed into the space, but luckily no one set up in one of the stalls next to us, so we overflowed a little bit. We had worried about it being too warm, but it turned out to be very chilly most of the morning and early afternoon.

Here's a picture of most of my stuff boxed up waiting in the backyard for the sale...


Here's a picture looking down the road to the north of us.


Here's our stall...



We had a FREE STUFF box. It was very popular. We kept adding to it all day. At the end of the day we were announcing that half our stuff was FREE!! Some of it we couldn't even give away. We donated a box full to a thrift shop and I took a box full back home. We cleared about $200.00.


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I've been busy getting my laundry room updated a little bit. I painted the block walls, laid down new linoleum flooring, had a new laundry sink installed and had the positioning of he sink and washer rearranged. I'm pretty happy with the results so far.

Here's a couple pictures of how it looked before....




And here's an after picture.....


Maybe someday I'll have a nice new matching washer/dryer set.


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And last but definitely not least, here's some pictures of my new TOY. Yep, I sold my Harley and bought a golf cart. I named her Harley, so I can still say I'm taking my Harley for a ride. I'm having fun driving here around Sun City to the market and yard and estate sales. Golf carts are allowed on all the streets around here that are posted 35 MPH or less. Sometimes I have to do some creative routing to get to my destination, but I see it as one big adventure.

Here's Harley in her garage, where the real Harley used to be parked. It's actually the far end of the laundry room.


Here she is on her driveway.....



Check out her fancy license plate frame....


My plan is to take her up to Concho for the summer to get around the neighborhood to Happy Hours, Pot Luck Dinners or just visiting the neighbors.

Wednesday, April 06, 2011

It's been so long since my last post I've almost forgotten how to do this. Maybe it will all come back.


I have been busy. Here are some of the things I've been up to.


I had a huge crop of grapefruit this year. I personally hand picked and delivered close to 500 pounds of grapefruit to a local food bank. They seemed happy to accept them. I was happy to get rid of them. I ate what I could, gave away what I could and threw away a lot of too small and not very pretty ones. As a last resort I put an ad on Craig's List announcing FREE GRAPEFRUIT on my porch. I had one guy show up and take away two small bags of grapefruit. I still have quite a few in my refrigerator. I'll squeeze them soon into tasty juice. It's the next best thing to an ice cold beer on a hot day.



I've spent all year trying to get my rose bushes looking good and producing some roses. This picture doesn't show all the new buds about to bloom, but they are finally acting like blooming rose bushes.


I've had issues with my shower head for two years now. The arm coming out of the wall is so low I had to bend down when washing my hair. I had a shower head I liked so I bought an adjustable arm and attached the shower head, but the tube on the new adjustable arm was so small the water coming through it was so restricted. It wasn't much fun taking a shower with such little water pressure so I never took one. Oh, I'm just kidding!!! Anyway, I finally decided the solution was a hand held shower head. They mount a bit higher on their own little bracket. So, I went shopping yesterday and came home with one that looked pretty good. Here's a picture of it all installed and not leaking. = ) I've only used it once so far but I love it!! I can't believe all the water pressure coming out of that thing. I actually got all the shampoo and conditioner rinsed out of my hair for a change.


Friday April 8th I'm participating in a community yard sale at one of he Sun City rec centers, so I've been busy going though every drawer, closet, cupboard and storage cabinet collecting unneeded stuff to haul over to the sale and hopefully sell off and make a little money. Here's a picture of some of the stuff. In addition to this I have some cans of paint, some clothes and a bedspread. Oh, and a shower head with an adustable arm.




After being assessed as having damage to my roof from last October's huge hail storm, I set out on a quest to pick out the best replacement roof color that would compliment my way-to-bright (in my opinion) yellow house with the odd colored brick across most of the front. Here's a picture of the new roofing materials up on the roof waiting for the roofers to arrive and remove the old stuff and install the new stuff.




I was hoping to get a roof about the color of the palm tree trunk in the front yard. I think I did a pretty good job. It matches pretty good.



Here's a close-up of my new "house jewelry" bird houses and the green "plant." I think the bird houses, the green plant and the new roof help tone down the bright yellow. I still wish the color was a little more muted, but for now I'm not thinking about repainting.


My next project is the laundry/motorcycle/golf cart storage room. I've started painting the walls and putting down new flooring. Hopefully it won't be as long until the next post with pictures of the updates, including a new laundry sink and a new toy to park in there.