Sunset House – The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales

08-16-2018 Why do they call them Dog Days?

Current Location: Sunset House in Grants Pass at 75 degrees F at 9pm

I read my last post, just to take a moment to catch up with myself. I needed to remember what I had written and hopefully not repeat myself. Ahh, yes, I was raving about how incredibly gorgeous the summer had been thus far, blue skies, no fires, no smoke to mar the air. Tonight, as I write, I can count 30 consecutive days of smoke filled skies, with air quality ranging from a fabulous “Moderate” (once or twice) to a more normal Very Unhealthy or Hazardous. This has been the case every single day except one, last Sunday, when a breeze blew in from the west and for one fresh air filled day we had a taste of what summer could be like in our beautiful Southern Oregon.

This is not our house, it is across the street toward the east, and this is the side where the new fence will be located, about as high as the neighbors current chain link fence. Ours will be wood.

It is hard to maintain a sense of balance when it is like this. Not only is the world dimmed to a dull grayish brown and the sun to an angry red-orange, there are the horror stories on the news about the progress of the literally dozens of fires that surround us. Stories of evacuations and misery abound. It wears on one’s soul, deeply.

I went to the store this morning, and in the process noticed that I was very easily irritated, like my scratchy eyes, my spirit felt scratchy. I saw myself reacting quickly to the smallest inconveniences, angry at stupid people, frustrated with lack of supplies on the shelves. I realized that I was getting all gritchy on an average of every 30 seconds or so. What a waste of energy! Noticing did help a bit, I tried to slow down and pay attention to myself, to stop the constant nasty internal outbursts at slow old people, fast little people, stupid drivers, and the constant brown sky.

I am not always like this, in fact I am not really often like this. Sometimes, even in the midst of the nasty smoke, hot temperatures and ugly air, I can find true happiness. Toward the end of July, about 2 weeks into the fire smoke season, Mo and I drove through the verdant and lovely Applegate Valley on a Thursday afternoon. The Red Lily winery is among our favorites, and there we shared food truck goodies and a bottle of truly epic wine in big red chairs beside the river as we listened to the great music and watched all the happy people. The sun was orange-red on that day as well, and yet I somehow found joy.

If you read my facebook, you probably already saw this, or who knows, it might have scrolled right past you, but either way, I wanted to repeat it here because it made me happy, and I don’t want to lose that feeling that I had that evening sitting by the river.

“Joy. It comes at the strangest times. I can’t call it in, and have no clue what makes it come, but when it does, I am in awe. Tonight, watching the red sun through the smoke as we sat along the Applegate River at Red Lily Vineyards, I felt awash in Joy. Listening to great music, drinking truly great wine, watching families and friends having fun together, I felt it. Overwhelming joy. I forgot my camera, forgot my phone, just had to experience it in the moment. Wondering if the fact that I didn’t have any kind of way to record the moment made it even more precious. When I got home, I ran outside with the camera, capturing the red sun setting through the smoke of the Taylor Fire just west of Grants Pass. Still remembering those precious moments of inexplicable joy. Treasuring the clarity of fresh air beneath the smoke, the mountains in the distance opened up from some unknown wind.”

I have also learned in this last 30 days to look downward, to look up close at the world. Skip the sweeping vistas, they are invisible anyway, and just look at what is right in front of me. We haven’t done a lot in the last few weeks, other than hang around home, working in the yard in the mornings, avoiding the worst of the heat and smoke, walking the dog in the evenings after it settles down a bit.

All thoughts of local hikes and kayak trips evaporated with the fires that began with a wild thunderstorm that crossed most of Northern California and Southern Oregon on July 15. That very day Mo and I had driven south along the Applegate River to visit a beautiful lavender farm that opened up to the public for the 2018 Lavender Festival. We have the Applegate Wine Trail, and we also have the Applegate Lavender Trail, with 15 farms participating.

The small acreage was beautiful, abuzz with bees and lovely people walking around picking their lavender bundles. We ate lavender ice cream and listened to live music on the patio, and hid from the lightning strikes that we knew would bring sadness in the coming days, but at the time, it all seemed just so lovely.

That night there were more than 1,100 lightning strikes over the Rogue Valley and the Siskiyou Mountains, and the fires that started then are still raging all around us. The horrible Carr Fire in Redding started a bit later, with a flat tire causing sparks on the pavement that ignited an inferno that killed 7 people and destroyed over 1000 homes. Fire season has only just begun, and there is no end in sight. We have until October to wait for the rains to at last extinguish the fires, but until then, anything goes. Fire/smoke season in Oregon, in the entire West, is now a reality, and something that must be planned for always. If you travel here, don’t come during fire season. It has happened every single year now since 2012, and most years prior to that since the Biscuit Fire in 2002.

I wanted to write a blog, wanted to fill the empty space that is July and August in my memory banks, but as I write I can see how very much the fires and the smoke affect everything that I do. So with that out of the way, maybe now I can think and write about some of the sweetness.

Early in July, Merikay and Craig of Merikay’s Dream decided to visit while they were camped at Valley of the Rogue State Park just a few miles south. I cooked up a good supper, Merikay brought yummy cheesecake, and we showed them around Sunset House before settling in for dinner and a rousing game of that silly card game we learned last spring from John and Carol of “Our Trip Around the Sun”. We had such a good time neither of us remembered to take any photos! Merikay and Craig are cruising around the Pacific Northwest and John and Carol are living the lifetime dream of traveling through Alaska in their motorhome.

Mid July I drove back over the Cascades to Rocky Point to help out the quilt group with the annual Rocky Point BBQ, the major fund raiser for the local volunteer fire department. It was great seeing old friends, and I invited the entire group to Sunset House for a get together, maybe some quilting, and maybe some crafting.

None of this particular group of friends had been over the mountain to visit Sunset House, so I had fun showing them around, and they enjoyed seeing the real thing after all the photos I have shared of our house and the process of building it.

I actually baked a couple of epic quiches, one vegetarian and one traditional with all the bacon I could fit. We laughed and talked, and then managed to make a big mess of fun with shaving cream and water color paints making marbleized art pieces for handmade greeting cards. It was a silly thing, but we had fun doing it. Mo isn’t part of the quilt group, but all the women have been friends of hers long before I showed up on the Rocky Point scene. It was a good day.

I especially enjoyed showing off the fabulous quilting done by Janna from Restoration Cowboy Style on my One Block Wonder quilt. She did an amazing job and the quilt ladies were duly impressed, Janna! I have been doing a bit of quilting on hot days as well, working on a big blooming nine patch with brilliant fabrics. I hope to have Janna quilt it, but will probably have to wait until spring because I am not going to get it done in time. I never sewed so many little nine patches, ever!

For everyday entertainment, I have been working on small landscaping projects while Mo works on fixing up her workshop. Mo decided that a bit of help would be nice, and invited her brother Dan and his wife Chere down for a visit and a consultation on just how to construct the new porch overhang for the small building.

This photo of the old shed is from 2013. Fires then as well. Look closely at the skinny blue door on the right, that is the same door on the right of what is left of the building in the photo below.

I thought it might be fun to throw in a shot of the old outbuilding from the days when we first owned the property. Most of it is gone now except for the main part of the building

She has been working on it for some time now, caulking and trimming, getting all the old wood cleaned up and painted. Before winter there will be a new roof and a new porch overhang, a place for her to use her saws with some protection from the weather, but not inside the building with all that sawdust getting into everything.

It is always fun spending time with Dan and Chere, and having them here for a couple of days was wonderful. We ate good food both at home and at a great restaurant in Grants Pass we hadn’t tried before, Blondie’s Bistro. First thing I noticed was that the balsamic reduction on the salad was every bit as good as any I have had, including my own. Actually, sometimes I burn mine and it ends up like caramel, and once it even turned into a sticky candy mess. So I do really appreciate a good balsamic reduction.

My gardening projects have been small, mostly getting more shrubs planted, and adding mulch to the borders around the house. With our heat, mulch makes all the difference, keeping roots cool enough, and within days after putting down the mulch, the plants look happier. We don’t yet have an automatic sprinkler system, so my mornings are spent watering, lots of hand watering. It is a job I really love, contemplative and quiet, and it gives me a chance to visit with each plant and flower, and check in on them.

We took in bids for a new fence along street side of the house and with the company 8 weeks out, I may not see the fence before I leave for Italy in September. We also contracted to get a sun shade for the porch. We love the view, but the western sun at dinner time is a bit much to bear. Whenever we have company, we pull down the brown sheet that has served for shelter until the shade arrives. It’s the little things.

We took the MoHo to Guaranty of Junction City, Oregon for an all around check up and going through, making sure everything is in good order before we head off on a trip of several thousand miles. It is a 3 hour drive, but folks from all over the country know about the service for RV’s available in Junction City, so it is worth it.

The days just seem to be so full, and I can’t really figure out why. We are taking care of dental things, some physical therapy for Mo’s ankle and for my knee, doctor appointments to get caught up with the new doctor, going to the meat market for the Thursday sales, to the Farmer’s Market on Saturday mornings for all that lovely produce coming in from the Applegate.

I water the flowers, walk the dog, clean the house, cook, do some quilting, watch some news and check out the smoky sunsets. I made applesauce with Mo’s help peeling the apples from our Gravenstein apple tree, have spent many hours working on reservations and plans for our winter trip to Florida, spent more hours working on final plans for the three week trip to Italy.

A couple of days ago my computer started acting weird, so I tried to be sure all was backed up, and sure enough, out she went. Probably the hard drive, and she is going to the computer doctor back in Klamath Falls when we go there this weekend. Oh yes, there is that as well. A tenant moved out and we spent a couple of days at the apartments cleaning up, and will spend a couple more days there this coming weekend painting for the new tenant. Always something, it seems.

At least I have the old laptop to fill in while the big girl gets fixed. And of course, I am soo soo tempted to buy a new laptop. This one is really so very old, and the plugin doesn’t work properly and it is slow, and and and…..How do you keep from buying something new and nice when you know better?

How can such little stuff keep me so busy? How can I think that all this little stuff is even worth writing about? How very few people will read to the end of this story. Ha! Reminds me of all those facebook memes rolling around that are really long, and at the end they say something like “you probably won’t read all of this, but if you do, copy and paste to your wall etc etc etc.” I never do even if I DO read it all. So don’t copy and paste, but if you made it this far, maybe you could comment. Ha!

Nickie (Out and About with Jimmy and Nicky) called me today to commiserate about all the smoke and heat and frustration about being house bound in summer and I think we both felt better after the phone call. She laughed about having nothing to blog about except the grandbaby and I don’t even have that. Still, for me, as always, it is about memory. I need to be sure than when I return to the blog there isn’t a giant hole where July and August reside.

April Delight

Just a reminder, if you click on any of these photos, you will be taken to the SmugMug album where you can view many more scenes from Sunset House and all the gorgeous kayak views.

As often happens, I can only seem to begin writing by paying attention to what is happening right now. Get in the moment, so to speak. I started this blog a week ago, going back over my calendar, reviewing my photos, thinking and remembering what early April felt like. It seems like a VERY long time in the past. The cliché is that time flies the older we get, but I am grateful that the month of April seemed very nice and long to me.

Pansies at the front porch like the cooler weather

At the moment we are having days in the low 80’s followed by days that never manage to get to 60 degrees F. Nights are cool, but no longer frosty, and the flowers here at Sunset House are thriving. I am watching the weather today, because we are planning some outdoor activities with famous fabulous guests in town, and the skies go from blue to gray and back to blue in a matter of moments. Crater Lake awaits. Today we will do the classic round trip tour over the mountains hoping for sunlight to highlight that fabulous blue. That is another story, one that will evolve over the next week that we get to share with long time friends, Erin and Mui, from Two to Travel, who are on the road in the west for the first time in a long time.

We had time for a bit of travel ourselves this month, with a quick trip to the Oregon Coast to share a couple of days with other blogging friends, John and Carol, from Our Trip Around the Sun. They are on their way north to Alaska, and passed so close to our home that we couldn’t miss the opportunity to spend some time with them. The last time we visited, Carol and John were volunteering at Ding Darling NWR in Florida. They showed us a fabulous time with tours of the refuge, time at the beach together, and a truly fabulous dinner that lasted well into the night. Some people are just right, and laughter is often the key. We shared a lot of laughter with them. Their love of Jimmy Buffett, good margueritas, and a joyous approach to life is contagious.

We met at Harris Beach State Park, where they found a site big enough for their rig along the back row in the trees. Harris Beach is in the process of some renovations, so we weren’t able to snag a spot there, and instead Mo and I camped down on the waterfront at a private campground. I loved listening to the sound of the surf all night long, and the wind and rain on the roof lulled me to sleep.

The sun came out for our beach walk with the dogs, a rather funny time for Mattie and Jimmy who are not exactly similar in style. Mattie is crazy about the beach, runs like a wild thing in the sand, and gets very excited. Jimmy, a precious and very sweet dog, didn’t think much of Mattie’s exuberance, and learned to hide behind John’s leg when Mattie came tearing at him, trying to get him to play.

I was a bit embarrassed, because there is just no stopping Mattie when she gets like that. Play with me, NOW! I think Mo and I made a big mistake when we let her play with the huge bloodhound that used to wander over to our house for doggie visits. Mattie learned to play rough to keep up with him, and he loved it. Jimmy, not so much. In fairness, Mattie does great at the dog park, and at doggie day care she was a hit, so she isn’t mean, just very high energy.

We had dinner at the Sporthaven Grill, on the patio in the threatening rain, where the waitstaff brought us warming blankets and turned on the big propane heater. It was quite delightful. We also spent most of a rainy day in their home, with snacks and drinks and a new game called Skip-Bo. I guess it isn’t a new game, but it was new to us and created more opportunities for lots of laughter.

We came back home to spend more time fiddling around on the property here at Sunset House. Mo built a beautiful arbor for a treasured vine that I have babied and coddled along since I first bought it in 2002. She is finally happy here in the wonderful Grants Pass climate, protected from the sun and the heat on the east side of the house where she now lives with our new rhododendrons.

I have loved rhodies ever since I saw my first huge bloom at a nursery in Southern California. Yes, I even remember the moment, 1963, when my eldest was an infant and my husband and I were daydreaming about someday having a place to plant flowers. It was exciting to find the colors we wanted and to dig the holes nice and big, mulch them deeply and give them the perfect site.

I finally transplanted all the hostas, some plants that I brought from my home at Hauser Lake in Idaho back in 2002 when I moved to Klamath Falls. Others were brought over from Mo’s house in Rocky Point. We babied them through the incredibly hot summer last year and I know they are also very happy to be on the shaded east side of the house at last. Rhodies and hostas, another favorite thing of mine.

We started going through the RV shed, purging unneeded “stuff” with the help of the Facebook Marketplace. That app works great, much better than the local Craiglist. With facebook I can view the profile of anyone requesting to see our stuff and it is bit easier to be selective about giving out an address or phone number. With Craiglist, I was immediately bombarded with several fake purchasers offering to send me a check and have it clear before their “shipper” would pick up the item. A huge scam!! So glad I didn’t fall for that one.

We moved the BBQ off the back porch, finally deciding that the big black covered thing was getting in the way of our peaceful view

One of my most favorite things about Sunset House is the light. Morning sunshine streaming into the bedroom is the best part of an east facing bedroom window.

Mid month we took a few days of mini vacation time for a few days of kayaking over on the east side of the mountains, where spring is a bit later arriving, but nonetheless, we were blessed with gorgeous sunny days. We spent the nights in our little apartment, where we now have renters in all the others except the smallest, Apartment B, where I used to do all my quilting during our transition times living at the Apartments in Klamath Falls.

We have yet to find any kayaking that appeals to us here on the west side of the mountains. The Rogue River is a bit big and rowdy for us, and the few lakes are actually reservoirs with barren shorelines. Not our style. We love the refuges and birds that we find when kayaking in the Klamath Basin.

We launched our kayaks for the first time in all the years we lived in Klamath Falls on Lake Ewauna, the body of water between Upper Klamath Lake and the Link River and the Klamath River. The launch is right in town at Veteran’s Park, and is in a more populated area than we usually kayak, but nevertheless, we were treated to some fabulous birds and great views of Klamath Falls proper from a completely different perspective.

American Avocet

American White pelican, the mascot for Klamath Falls

Klamath Falls from a completely different perspective

The next day we returned to our favorite kayaking spot of all time, our very own Recreation Creek. The mountains in the distance are the ones around the rim caldera of Crater Lake, with Mt Scott on the right.

We launched at Malone Spring and traveled north to Crystal Spring, truly one of the most amazing places to enjoy in the entire Klamath Basin.

It was still early in the season for the east side, and the wocus lilies were still underwater. I have taken so many photos of blooming wocus, but this time it was completely different to see the gorgeous colors underwater. And thank you, daughter Deanna, for the polarizer lens birthday present. Without it these wonderful colors are just shadows below the water reflections.

Another beautiful view of Mt Scott where my family hiked to the top with me on one of my most memorable birthdays ever.

We began our month of course on April Fools Easter, with Daughter Deborah and Grandson Matthew joining us for all the traditional Easter goodies. I do love decorating for Easter, with the bunnies and all the energy of emerging springtime. We invited the neighbors as well, a couple who have been good friends with Deborah from the time she lived here in the cottage, and who spent a previous Easter with us back in Rocky Point a few years ago.

There is that east morning light again!

As soon as Easter was over I packed my bags for a quick solo trip to Nevada City, California where I spent a lovely afternoon and evening with Jimmy and Nickie, from the Intrepid Decrepit Traveler. They opened their home and guest room to me, took me to dinner in their charming town, and regaled me with stories of their past travels and their excitement about their upcoming trip to Peru, Machu Picchu, and the Amazon. Such excitement!

The next morning we hiked a gorgeous springtime trail along the South Yuba River where the warming sunshine had us rolling up our sleeves and pant legs. California is magnificent clothed in that flourescent springtime green, and I loved being there.

I then traveled back to Oroville for my annual girl-time visit with lifetime best friend, Maryruth. We are going on 55 years of friendship now and it is something I treasure. Maryruth loves to cook and she spent several days cooking up tons of goodies so we wouldn’t have to cook much during my visit. What a treat! We spent most of the time holed up in her craft room office making cards, a hobby we both have come to love. We spent a long time anticipating this card making retreat, and actually didn’t leave that room very much during the 3 days I was there. SO much fun.

Of course I don’t have a lot of photos of this time because I was quite busy, and every time I bring out the camera, Maryruth has a fit, but we did at least manage to get our traditional toe photo. We have done these photos for a few decades, to prove we were together, back in the days when selfies and tripods weren’t the norm and we couldn’t ever get a photo of the two of us at the same time.

Other days of the month have been filled with making a slide show for Mo’s brother Roger’s Memorial happening in late June. It was a new thing for me, and of course I had to call on my trusty friend Erin once again. If you want to get lost in some of the most amazing wildlife and travel photography ever, click on that link. Erin is always so amazing in her willingness to share and help me when I need to understand anything relating to photography and especially Lightroom. Her expertise has been invaluable to me over and over again.

I managed to get the slideshow finished, and ready for the family’s review. A big job, but also a fun one because reviewing and editing 437 pictures of Mo’s brother Roger gave me a chance to know him in ways I never did in the 15 years or so I actually knew him in real time.

02-14-2018 Last Leg Home

Our main purpose for traveling Highway 395 toward home was an attempt to avoid traveling north through California on Interstate 5. We have traveled both 395 and 99 entirely too many times, and when compared to the magnificence of 395, it is simply a no-brainer. Unless, of course, it is winter. Highway 44 west from Susanville is a decent road

We made it as far as Minden without mishap, but the weather forecast for the next day made us a bit nervous. Should we scrap our plans for continuing north all the way to Susanville and then over the mountains to Mt Shasta? Or should we just give up and travel west from Reno on I-80 over Donner Pass and then home, again, on I-5?

If we had traveled the 5, we may have been able to get up the hill to visit Jimmy and Nicky, but we also had the “horse to the barn” thing going after being away 3 weeks. We were ready to be home, and the visiting desires were waning. I decided instead to make a special trip next month for visiting, and will include my friend Maryruth on that visit. I seem to enjoy it much better when the visit is dedicated to actual visiting instead of traveling.

We looked at the weather, I checked all the road cams, watched the radar. Everything looks almost OK until Susanville, when the blue streak over the mountains to the west indicated snow. Still, that blue streak was moving east, and maybe it would pass us by as we headed north and west.

We decided to take our chances, and figured that even if we couldn’t get across 89 up to Mt Shasta, we could no doubt manage 44 across to Redding. Highway 44 meanders along the north side of Mt Lassen, and except for a very few twisty places, is a fairly good road. It had been a few years since we traveled that route, when we hiked some fabulous trails in Mt Lassen and returned to Klamath Falls via Susanville.

More choices for getting over the Southern Cascades in California

We were right about the snow, and encountered a few flurries along Highway 395 before we arrived in Susanville, but by the time we continued west on 44, the snow was gone. The highway was clear and we were even treated to some great views of Mt Lassen.

Even though we were fairly close to home, when we arrived in Redding we decided to slow it down a bit, get a place to park for another cold night, and travel the last 4 hours to home in the morning when we were fresh. In addition, that would put us at home mid day, much nicer than crawling into our driveway in the dark.

Another happy little reason for taking our time in Redding had to do with Valentine’s Day. We have a tradition to buy some happy See’s Candy to share as a Valentine’s Day treat. Such decadence, but at least it is only once a year, or maybe twice if I get some at Christmas. I haven’t had chocolate as creamy perfect as See’s anywhere in the country, even at some of those fabulous artisan chocolatiers in trendy little tourist towns.

Redding RV Park isn’t fancy, but it is right next to the freeway, and if you get a nice long site on the rows farthest from the freeway it is quiet enough for a good sleep, with space to pull through. What the very nice looking website doesn’t show is that much of the park is on a fairly steep hill overlooking the freeway. In all fairness, the actual sites are decently level, at least most of them are. We called ahead for a reservation as soon as we were sure of our route, and it was again a good thing that we did. The park filled up after dark.

The next morning dawned clear and gorgeous, with Mt Shasta looming in the north to mark our route home. We again took our time, filled up with gas at the station around the corner from the park, (also the cheapest gas in Redding),and got on the freeway. Yes, it was I-5, but between this part of California and Oregon there are no other real options.

For the first time in a long time, we stopped at the rest area north of Yreka that is down in a canyon along the Klamath River. It is also a California Welcome Center with a docent offering information about both California and Oregon, some lovely art, maps and tons of brochures for things to do in both Oregon and California. We enjoyed the sunshine and the river and Mattie loved the spacious unfenced pet area.

When we pulled into the driveway at home in the early afternoon, the sun was shining, and we were both still fresh and energetic enough to empty the MoHo and start the laundry. A perfect travel day at the end of a rather amazingly perfect trip. Love to travel and love to be home. I am so glad that we can do both.

Art from the Palm Springs Street Fair on the wall at home

Our timing was perfect, because in just a few days winter decided to come to Grants Pass after all, and we had real snow right here at home. That doesn’t happen often in Grants Pass, and this time as well the snow melted with the afternoon sunshine.

Home at Last and Travel Plans

Current Location: Grants Pass, Oregon 30 degrees with icy fog

We are home. We have been living in our new home for just over a month now. Time has a funny way of shifting about, and it feels like we have been here forever, and yet it also feels like only a moment. I still find myself reaching on the wrong side for the toilet paper, or sliding my hand up the wrong wall to find the light switch. A few days ago I stomped near the base of the toilet to flush it. Yes, RVr’s will recognize that one.

We spent much time in the Moho parked here on the property from March through September, but we lived pretty much full time there from mid September until November 7th, the date that our furniture arrived from Klamath Falls. We still have the apartments in Klamath Falls, but wanted to be here for the ending details of the build. Finally, after two and a half years of moving around, fixing up places, selling places, moving stuff from one home to another as we made the shifts, all of everything we have is here, in one place. It feels a bit strange.

I somehow completely lost time and inclination to blog the building process. I photographed extensively, and my calendar is jammed with deadlines, appointments, contractor schedules and such. I will always have the opportunity to go back and look at the progress and the completion, but no way could I even begin to keep up with writing about it as it was happening.

The last six weeks was much different than the first few months. Instead of big exciting progress, the work moved forward in what often seemed like tiny increments. All I can say is, if you ever build a home, it is most important to be right there. I can’t count how many times a knock on the door of the MoHo meant one sub or another needed a small question answered, questions that Gary might not have really known how to answer without speaking with us. Being 2.5 hours and 130 miles away at the apartment wasn’t really an option.

While some of the details were a bit tedious, there were also big moments that were absolutely thrilling. The day the granite was delivered and installed was one I won’t forget. Our choice turned out to be perfect, even more beautiful than we imagined once it was installed. The perfection of craftsmanship and fit was amazing to us. I don’t know how they do that!

Seeing the paint colors for the interior and exterior materialize into reality after studying and choosing colors for a year was nerve-wracking. What if we had picked colors that didn’t work? We agonized for a few days over the accent color on the upper exterior walls before finally deciding.

Later, a neighbor asked how I managed to match the bark of the madrone trees with that color. Huh? A complete accident, but a lucky one. We really love our colors. I thought I was matching the red clay dirt all around the house. The red was also a nod to the sweet little cottage that stood where this beautiful home is placed. Once of the best decisions we made was to bring in several loads of decomposed granite to cover the sticky red clay that is on this property. That clay stained everything in its path, including the sidewalk, and the workers always had special shoes around for working here. Everyone is very happy that we no longer have to worry about the clay. We will landscape more next year and add some soil and shrubs, but for now at least it is all nice and clean.

The interior color is Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter. The color is all over Pinterest and HGTV. I succumbed to current style and was really worried that after all our warm earth tones of years past it might be really hard to get used to “gray”.

It turned out to be our perfect choice, and all the reviews that say the color goes well with warm and cool, and enhances furniture and floors to perfection isn’t an overstatement. It never looks the same, and each wall and room somehow glows differently.

Another exciting and surprisingly stressful time was when the hardwood was installed. Jared, the incredible artist that does this work is also a guitarist, and we went to see his show last week. His craftsmanship was amazing to watch, but when I first saw all the dark knots in the wood I was appalled.

The sample was different, with very few knots. We basically freaked out, called Gary and the flooring people, and for a few days all was a bit of a kerfuffle. In the end, we were able to hand pick the best boards and set the rest aside. Thanks to Lipperts for great customer service. I am used to the knots now, and feel much like others have said, it gives the floor character.

Vinyl went in with more incredible craftsmanship by Ted, who also installed our carpets. I am so very grateful for the soft touch of vinyl flooring in the bathrooms and glad we didn’t succumb to the trend to tile everything. After three months of ceramic tile floors at the Running Y I knew I didn’t want that in my own home. Too dang hard and cold!

Painters came and went several times to touch up and repair tiny flaws until I can honestly say that the paint inside and out is very nearly perfect. Joel, the detail oriented, meticulous wood worker, spent many days perfecting the trims both inside and out. The best moment came when the three of us, Joel, Mo, and I, figured out how to design the arch across the front porch. It was our idea, but Joel completed it to perfection.

We had great fun with the cement contractor, who took time to install some of our antique Batchelder tiles in the sidewalk, and even showed us how to press some of our Oregon coast stones into the back step.

Jared, the wood guy, was also the tile master who installed the Batchelder’s to perfection in the foyer. Mo and I installed the tiles in front of the fireplace, a reasonably simple job, but we hope to have Jared return next year when we are ready to complete the backsplash in the kitchen with more tiles. It will be a big project that we decided to put on the back burner rather than have it hold up completion of the house.

Cupboards were the biggest hassle, with several frustrating moments. Paying as much as we did for custom cabinetry meant we expected things to be perfect. They are now perfect, but it wasn’t without repeated visits by the cupboard guys and lots of intervention by Gary.

What stands out most during the last few weeks of the build was the dedicated work by the builder, and most of all his foreman, Gary. We were incredibly lucky to have chosen the builder we did. Everywhere we look is evidence of the commitment to high quality and paying attention to what we needed and wanted. Gary was always there to intercede with subcontractors on our behalf to be sure that everything was attended to properly. Dave and Gary have an employee, Levi, and we aren’t exactly sure of his official title, but Levi was a constant presence. He handled so many miscellaneous jobs, doing all the little things that needed attention, from digging holes for drains to cleanups day after day, to installing the door knobs and so many other details.

Gary and Dave Adams went through the house with us on the last day, checking off every single detail, making sure all was perfect. When Gary handed Mo the keys officially, it was an exciting moment. On time exactly, November 1, as promised way back in March before the cottage was demolished. And on budget as well, with no surprises with the final invoice. I am curious how often people have such a great experience with a contractor. Ours was superb, thanks to Mo’s great choice of a builder.

After our furniture was delivered, we emptied the motorhome and I spent some time getting her all spiffed up in the inside while Mo spiffed up the outside. In early November the world was still sunny and warm in the afternoons. We had stored much of our furniture in the RV shed, and decided to move all our packed boxes from the move into the garage, so we had a full garage, a full RV shed, and a very nice, clean, spare new home to work with. The beds were set up, the furniture in place, everything we needed was here, so it was not too difficult to work a box at a time, deciding exactly where the contents should be placed and which contents were ready for the Goodwill bin.

The packed shed and garage seemed like an impossible project. There was so much STUFF. We had the older furniture from the little cabin at Mo’s home in Rocky Point, the older furniture that we had used in the Cottage, many things that we had stored from my house on Painter Street and moved to Rocky Point and then moved here to the RV shed two years ago.

It was just a matter of doing it, of starting what seemed like an impossible project. We decided to cram everything we could on one side of the garage, and keep only one car inside. With that, we hoped that there would be enough room to get the MoHo safely parked inside the RV shed. It was amazing to watch, to realize that things weren’t as bad as we thought, and last week not only did we get the MoHo back in her big safe building, but we got BOTH cars inside the garage! I took many boxes to various donation sites, and this week have learned that with a bit of effort and work, many items can be sold through the Facebook Marketplace.

With our beautiful new home, and all its great angles and windows, there is less room for furniture, and we both have had to let go of a few loved old pieces because there just isn’t room for them. Both of us want to keep the new house looking like everything in it is put there on purpose. No jamming stuff somewhere just because we can’t let go of it. I put things on Craigslist and Facebook, and Facebook by far has been the most successful. The nice thing about Facebook is that I can look at a buyer’s profile before I let them come anywhere near the house. It has worked incredibly well and we are paring down.

I had no idea I would have time to actually decorate for Christmas, thinking that it would be impossible to get everything moved, settled, unpacked and still decorate. It hasn’t been a problem at all. Especially with the help of my grandson Matthew, who lives across the street, helping to get lights on the high gables of the house. The ladders weren’t tall enough so he climbed up to the roof and did it all from there.

He has also been a big help preparing things to put on Craigslist, and even blew all the leaves off the roof and out of the gutters for us.

Even after only 2 weeks in the house we had Thanksgiving for the family here. Daughter Melody has moved to Eugene with her family, and they came south for the day, just a 2 hour drive. Daughter Deborah lives just an hour away and with Matthew across the street, they joined us as well. It was a lovely Thanksgiving with only 9 people. Perfect for the table of six and three on the new counter. The “kids” all love the swivel stools so didn’t mind at all being relegated to what amounted to the kid table, even though they aren’t really kids any more ranging from 18 to 34 years old. LOL

I managed to finish a gift quilt that will go out in the mail this week, dove into my card making supplies to begin making some Christmas cards, and look, I am actually writing a blog!

Mo and I are excited about getting on the road again, and have plans to leave for our desert sojourn sometime in late winter. Just yesterday we decided to take the very long way south, following our old route west to Brookings and traveling south along the coast to Southern California. We will then hang for a time at Catalina Spa to check out the new remodels and hope that our pools are as wonderful as ever. I am hoping for some time in Anza Borrego before we go for some white hot nothing on Ogilby Road near Yuma and on to Tucson to visit friends and do some hiking in the Catalina’s.

We also have plans for a week in Cancun, thanks to daughter Deanna’s offer of a week at their timeshare condo on the beach there. Air miles are a great thing, so it will be a nice vacation for us. Other plans are in the works, and I think we will return to our old schedule of heading out somewhere in the MoHo at least once a month. It has been two years since we have been able to do that.

One more very exciting bit of travel won’t include Mo. I am taking my daughter Deanna to Italy for the one mother child trip that I am trying to do for each kid in my old age. I took Melody to Eastern Europe, Deborah chose the famous Blues Cruise to the Caribbean, and now Deanna and I have chosen Italy. It is the first trip I will do on my own, doing the planning without a tour group. We will be spending three weeks, mostly in Florence and on the Amalfi coast beginning late September. I have to thank Erin for all her inspiration on that level since she is probably the most accomplished traveler that I know.

Life is good. The house is warm and comfy, everything is clean and organized in ways that haven’t been possible for a long time. Those close to me will know how much I love that part. Life is beginning to settle down and the routines of everyday living are filling the space with love and beauty. I am so so so lucky.