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All Things EARTH... part 2


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slidergirl...LOL. That's so funny. I think I'm getting more of the UK and Europe influence with DS going to school over there. Also...just interest on my part over the years. People across the pond generally think American interest in such things happening in houses is slightly comical because most residences are so old over there...it's highly unlikely that someone HASN'T died or had something not wonderful happen in them after generations and generations...LOL. DH and I have prayed over and "prayer walked" every home before we move in. At some point along the journey, we got anointing oil and we literally bless all the thresholds and anoint them as well. 

 

Sharon...my GreatGrandma lived in Riverside County. I used to spend a long visit every summer with her. Back in the day when your mom could literally walk you onto an airplane and your grandma could basically pick you up at the gate, I would even fly by myself down to the Orange County airport. Haven't been in years...this was when you would walk down the stairs on wheels and across the tarmac to get from the plane to the airport. We would drive down Pee-you road, where there were stinky stock yards on either side to get to and from the airport and her home. Grandma didn't use the air conditioner in the car much and we would stick our heads out the windows and yell...P-U! LOL.

 

IDK if I will aim for total organic. I have inherited a feed the soil not the plant mentality from Mom, and I do believe that I can make the effort to use as few unwelcome chemicals as possible...but when it comes down to it, I'm going to allow myself the space to learn and use whatever tools I can to get the job done and then seek improvement. DH's degree is Chemical Engineering and as he says...everything is a chemical...and he laughs at the thought of "natural" chemicals being best in ingredients lists as some "natural" chemicals are extremely toxic and harsh. I think I'll have a balanced approach and try to not make life too difficult for myself, but seek to continue the way I keep my house with the way I'll keep the garden. It's like, I know how to make my own vinegar-based window cleaner...and I do sometimes, and sometimes I just buy Method brand...but I have a serious acid-based toilet bowl cleaner. LOL. 

 

I've been playing a lot with the various picture in my room abilities of paint and flooring brands. I think it's no surprise that DH and I both are gravitating toward Earth colors. We have landed on the color Riverway for our bedroom. Mom discovered Instagram as a source for seeing colors, etc., in action...here's Riverway. I think of it as a muted teal.

 

https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/sherwinwilliamsriverway/?hl=en

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Margaret, love your pedicure!  I gave myself one the other day, but didn't do a very good job, lol.  Hey, you can't tell from a distance!  I think I can fix it with an extra coat.  

 

Anita, I want to tell you about an interesting conversation I had with my SIL when I visited her in Florida.  I noticed her décor was different.  I explained that I love earth colors and mid-tones in general.  I just love color, and it makes me feel good.  I told her that her home made me feel good too, despite the fact that it was very light and white based.  

 

Because I like to analyze, we got to chatting about it.  I mused that because I live in a climate that can often be snowy, cloudy or raining, the warm tones were brightening my mood.  Because she lived where most of the rain seems to be during the night or early morning, having the sun shine in worked really well with such light colors around.  She agreed.  

 

I got to thinking about what I would do if I lived farther down south.  Would I migrate towards lighter colors?  

 

I bring this up because I'm thinking about that color you posted, and how much I like it.  And you live in Florida, and didn't find it necessary to do the almost white thing that I see a lot of.  Since I love this kind of thing so much, what kind of furniture do you have?  I love putting white next to darker colors or mid-tones.  The funny thing is, my trim, ceiling and doors are white, but I don't  have white furniture.  I think that is why all the built ins are white though.  I love the look.  

 

Decorating is so much fun for me!

 

Chickens...I never knew you interested in having chickens!  It's cool that the HOA will allow them.  Around here, the HOAs are sooooo strict.  You have to get permission on what color you paint your house.  You can't have a boat or an RV in the driveway.  Some places even go after your exterior light fixtures.

 

I don't live in an HOA, but I have often thought that I would have trouble with those sort of things.

 

My neighbor has a miniature horse and a donkey.  I'm not sure if she has the goat anymore.  This is my next door neighbor, but because we both have a lot of land, you can't see their property from my house because we are on a hill.  I can't see anyone houses, as a matter of fact.  I love the privacy, but sometimes miss the ability to chat a little with people.  

 

Most importantly, congratulations!  

 

I am trying to remember how many homes I have had.  I had three growing up, one apartment, and this is my second house.  I have not moved much.  If my husband has his way, we will never move again.  I can't say I mind that, but I worry because there is no full bath or bedroom on the main floor, so down the road, mobility issues will come up.  We also have a lot of land to mow and it isn't a flat yard.  There is lots of upkeep.

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We had a family here in town who had a donkey, a goat, a zebra and a buffalo.  Supposedly, before I knew the place, they apparently had a giraffe.  I would go by the place from my house down the road to one of my jobs.  I'd stop and say "hello" to the animals if they were out and about.  I guess that's the good part of living in an unincorporated part of the county!

 

I doubt that I'll move from my little house.  It's just fine for me, 1500 sq ft.  One floor.  The only thing I'd see would be if I was given a tiny house - I LOVE those things!!!

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geocruiser...Yes! Space Coast here we come! We like being closer to the coast. We've calculated that DH's commute will be similar to what he currently has (or had, back when he wasn't working from home!). We're also wondering if there will be some accommodation made with his work with staggered hours and/or work days combined with working from home. No clue as of yet, but regardless...we do enjoy the coast A LOT and so we're headed in that direction. Very exciting!

 

slidergirl...I am slightly obsessed with tiny houses. I want one bad. Or VanLife. I'm all over that as well. We do have an idea of having a sort of home base...and having a van that lives somewhere else. If money were no object...we would equip a van to our preference and then we would start taking a cross country road trip. Stopping at points of interest along the way and "living there for a week or two" and then storing the van and flying home. Then we would just keep flying back and forth to the van as we made our way slowly but surely, picking points of interest to stop for extended times along the way. Eventually making our way to Washington state and hoping on the Marine highway with the ferry to take the van up and along the Alaska coast and eventually in Alaska where it might permanently live and we would literally just keep going to Alaska for a few weeks at a time, taking our van where we want. You know...when we win the lottery. LOL.

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Laurie...We don't have an HOA. I've lived with HOAs and it hasn't been horrible. In fact, the community amenities were nice, but we didn't take advantage of them enough to justify the cost and the restriction. We determined with the last house that we would prefer to not be accountable to an HOA. It's not easy to find a decent no HOA neighborhood around here, but I feel like we found one where pride of ownership was shining through.

 

For colors...I think it really depends on the house and the rooms. Our master bedroom is a dark room. I think it has NE exposure, so it should get a bit of morning light but my impression of it when we toured the house was that it was a dark room. When DH and I were looking at the paint chips and we came to the collection with Riverway in it, we were like which one do you like? We both liked the same one, and I literally said, "Let's embrace the cave."

 

Mom found this guy, Jacob Owens, who is like the Curt of home color. He offers consulting services based on photographs of your home to help you pick out paint colors based on the colors that are already in your room. So, for our future open concept kitchen and great room, for instance, he would look at the rock on the fireplace, the color of the kitchen cabinets, the countertop and the flooring. He would analyze the colors and the undertones of the colors and the room exposure (which direction the light comes from). He has a blog and he talks about color a lot. He's more of a video blogger than a writer blogger. We had picked out Riverway before finding his review:

 

https://jacobowensdesigns.com/blogs/news/benjamin-moore-sea-salt-color-review

 

But to get a good feel for what he does to really analyze colors...this is a good video to watch, if you're interested:

 

https://jacobowensdesigns.com/blogs/news/benjamin-moore-sea-salt-color-review

 

With the Sea Salt video, he really gets into more information about undertones. I think it's good information for anyone interested in color really. Because it's something that we all deal with if we are trying to dress in our best colors. 

 

So back to colors...I think the house style in Florida really makes a difference. Jacob Owens did say in the Riverway video that if you have a dark room, no amount of light paint will make it a lighter room. A lot of Florida houses have light filled rooms that are conducive to having the lighter colors...but that's not true of every room. My bedroom furniture is dark. I have my Grandmother and Granddad's bureaus...they are mahogany with a red undertone. Our big wooden bed is a dark wood that coordinates well. I like white and white background sheets, so that brings in some contrast. My heavier cooler weather bed spread is dark...my lighter weight bed spread is buttercream mellow yellow. Our last few bedrooms have been really light...we're looking forward to some better sleep in a darker room, actually.

 

The great room, though...I think we'll be going lighter in there. Our living furniture is colored...aqua and rust actually. I have dark wood tables and just a few lighter pieces...but only the one Ikea chair pad is white..and I've been wanting to change that!

 

I understand the concern about the stairs. It can get old to live with stairs, but when you are used to them, it isn't a big deal. From 12/2000 to 7/2017 we lived in homes where we dealt with stairs. The houses were either two stories, or the one apartment was on the third floor...so...still a lot of dealing with stairs. When we got the loft apartment in Winston though...and had an elevator and didn't have to deal with stairs...and now this apartment on the ground floor...the thought of dealing with stairs again...UGH. I wanted a single story. Some of that was because I didn't want to deal with air conditioning woes on the second floor...

 

DH and I bought scaffolding today. LOL. Our first purchase related to being home owners again. The great room has a cathedral ceiling and we knew we didn't want to deal with just a ladder to get up there on the walls. There was a good sale and so we went ahead and got it! We definitely want to get the great room and the master painted before we officially move in...but everything else and all other projects can wait. We may be planning with an eye to future changes but we are prepared to just live with the interior the way it is for a while. We are very enthused to do the outdoor projects. We have so many things we want to do in the yard.

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Anita,

 

Great area.  I live there in the winter for over 20 years.

A great Italian restaurant is https://www.ordernapolipizzapastamenu.com/.  I don't know what town on the Space Coast you are going to, but this place is worth the drive down A1A.  It is in the Walmart Plaza at A1A and Eau Gallie.  The food looks just like the pictures and tastes great.  Better that the other places that we have tried on the space coast.

I would like to pass on some into to you.  Please don't think that I am crazy.  But do have the attic of your new home checked.  Beach side gets lots of four legged visitors in the attic.  It happens all the time. Especially after a hurricane.  Sorry to bring this up but, but it happens a lot beach side. 

 

Maria

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Maria and Sally...I’ll be sure to mention the attic to the home inspector. We’re having a very thorough inspection done. Takes over 3 hours. I’m excited because I’ll be able to see the house again at the end of the inspection. Hoping the new kitchen cabinets and countertops are in. I’ll get to see the deglazing of the tile in the baths too. 

 

Maria, I lived in Houston when Ike hit and we had rats in the attic. I was sitting in the dining room and vaguely heard some sound but when the cats came into the room staring up at the ceiling...I knew it was a new noise. That side of the house was single story. DH got out his shot gun and walked around the house to see if someone had gotten onto the roof! He’s walking around like a Louis L’Amour hero...walking outside and doing the chick chick that is pumping the shotgun to announce his armed state. lol.

 

Turns out, the rats and other varmints were having a field day all over as a lovely side effect of Ike. I now understand that those little black boxes in various places are rodent treatment.

 

Anyway...I’ll look up the restaurant. I’m happy for any and all info. So, you are a snowbird? I don’t mean that in any derogatory way...idk if it’s a negative term now. I’m not like that. We’ll be in Titusville which strikes me as a bit less touristy. We were also looking at Cocoa (not the beach) as both cities have decent major roads for the commute back to Orlando. We looked at Mims too, but that was just a little too country for us.

 

Laurie...you mentioned missing having the neighborhood for social reasons...and that was my big concern with our want for some land. I’m home during the day and didn’t want to feel isolated in a bad way. Our neighbors are a lot of original owners. Older. Yes...I am one of those people and yes, I stalked the neighbors. There aren’t many sales in the neighborhood and I had a concern about whether or not the houses were owner occupied or rentals. Thankfully, I couldn’t find a single rental on the immediate streets. I’m hoping for more stability and the opportunity to have some sort of relationship with my neighbors. I’m not wanting a bunch of turnover.

 

Its a good warning about the attraction of rats but I’m still putting in fruit trees. But I’ll read up on that and see if there’s anything I can do to minimize the attraction. There’s pros and cons to everything and it’s good to be aware of both.

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They are call Florida roof rats.  They climb trees that are up against the house and anything that their little feet can hang on too.  They seen to like to nest in the hot water closet.  They like the hot water heaters for some reason.  We had them three time in out hot water closet in our condo.  They came in through the roof.  Just ate their way in.  Another time two of them came in and fell between the walls.  When we got to out condo, you could smell them dead.  Our handy man got them out.

We lived across the street form the ocean, so maybe being  on the island and close to the water there were more of them.  Sailor_Sally is right about the fruit trees.

It is part of Florida living. 

 

We did the snowbird thing for 22 years.  Also if you have base privileges Patrick Air Force base it beachside , south of Cocoa Beach.  A real nice base.

Also check out Old Melbourne.  Lot of boutique stores and you have Meg O"Malleys.  A nice Irish pup and restaurant.

https://www.megomalleys.com/

 

https://www.visitspacecoast.com/beaches

 

Cocoa Village is nice for a walk to.  They also have a live theater, great plays. 

Of course the cocoa Beach pier.

https://www.visitspacecoast.com/cocoa-beach/things-to-do/lori-wilson-park is a nice beach/park with a trial to walk.  It is near" I Dream Of Jennie Lane" in cocoa Beach. 

 

You can also watch/or participate in surfing at Melbourne Beach.

Edited by geocruiser
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Sharon...the sellers are doing the work on the kitchen and baths. They've been in the house for 20 years and never did any updating. The pictures were a real turn off but because of the layout, we pursued the house. Then come to find out, in the agent notes on the listing...the sellers had already planned a lot of updating, but their listing agent put pictures up and started marketing well before the sellers had really wanted her to. I got to see what the seller plans are, and the new appliances had been installed, but now there should have been more work done! I'm excited to see it!

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Anita, ok I can see why you are super anxious to see the progress. Interesting that the agent sort of jumped the gun with the pictures. I wonder how many other buyers just didn’t pursue this listing based on the pictures. Hoping all goes smoothly for you.

Sharon

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On 5/29/2020 at 9:33 PM, geocruiser said:

Anita,

 

Great area.  I live there in the winter for over 20 years.

A great Italian restaurant is https://www.ordernapolipizzapastamenu.com/.  I don't know what town on the Space Coast you are going to, but this place is worth the drive down A1A.  It is in the Walmart Plaza at A1A and Eau Gallie.  The food looks just like the pictures and tastes great.  Better that the other places that we have tried on the space coast.

I would like to pass on some into to you.  Please don't think that I am crazy.  But do have the attic of your new home checked.  Beach side gets lots of four legged visitors in the attic.  It happens all the time. Especially after a hurricane.  Sorry to bring this up but, but it happens a lot beach side. 

 

Maria

Maria, that was our go to pizza place when we lived at Patrick AFB. That & Sunset Bar & Grill on the Cocoa Beach causeway (we’d drive the boat up & dock). 

 

Anita, I find it very odd that the RE posted pictures prior to renovation!  Great for you, as fewer people were able to see “the true bones” of the house. Hope you’re very happy there, the Titusville area is lovely. Just don’t put fruit trees close to the house! Melody

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14 minutes ago, awhfy said:

Maria, that was our go to pizza place when we lived at Patrick AFB. That & Sunset Bar & Grill on the Cocoa Beach causeway (we’d drive the boat up & dock). 

 

Anita, I find it very odd that the RE posted pictures prior to renovation!  Great for you, as fewer people were able to see “the true bones” of the house. Hope you’re very happy there, the Titusville area is lovely. Just don’t put fruit trees close to the house! Melody

We loved there food.  They have only been in business for about two year.  There might have been another place there before.  The family came from Naples, they also were in NYC.  Great food.

 

We miss PAFB. 

 

Lots of people like Megs, for us it was OK.  I liked walking around Old Melbourne. 

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3 minutes ago, geocruiser said:

We loved there food.  They have only been in business for about two year.  There might have been another place there before.  The family came from Naples, they also were in NYC.  Great food.

 

We miss PAFB.  

There was another pizza place in same shopping center when we lived there (83-86). Owners also from Naples...I wonder if it is descendants of the owners from when we lived there 

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41 minutes ago, awhfy said:

There was another pizza place in same shopping center when we lived there (83-86). Owners also from Naples...I wonder if it is descendants of the owners from when we lived there 

It could be.  I know they did come from NYC.  But they could have sold it to a relative.  There were two older brothers who did the cooking, plus their sons.  Very nice people.  My husband speaks Italian, and they would love to chat with him in Italian.  I was so happy when we found that place.  I did not have to make pizza any more, we would go there to eat.  All of their food was great.  Their food is one of the things I miss the most about Fl.  When I went in there I felt like I was in NYC again having Pizza!!

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So today is our daughter’s 50th bday. I just realized that she is eligible for AARP!  Sheesh!  Our social distancing hug while she modeled her Wonder Woman mask. Melody

C9B50259-5A92-4D4D-B909-540310404A18.jpeg

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