I’m not much of a decorator. I used to think I was, but the finished room always looked, well, not at all what I envisioned. I’m not good with what goes with what, which has probably got a very lot to do with the fact that I’m eclectic by nature and rather want to put Chinese mixed with Early American side by side.
So, the pictures I’ve taken of the house, probably reflect a nightmare to those of you who find this whole interior design easy.
Our boy Diego has reached a milestone. With much trepidation and discussion and careful observation, we have allowed the boy to run free on our morning jaunts through the desert. He has passed the test with flying colors. He stays mostly on the roads/paths, venturing out onto the new territory only when it is open enough where he can see where he plants his paws. He comes immediately when called. He doesn’t evade being re-leashed if we come upon another walker with dog or a car making its way carefully down the trail.
It’s been great for both of us. He really wears himself out, and I get to walk at a more normal pace and attitude. Moreover, I enjoy watching him stop and sniff and follow his nose in circles and the pure joy he has in his freedom. He’s our boy and we adore him.
First let me show you the things the Contrarian has made for me that make my housework easier.
This is my laundry cart. It may not look like much, but it is a genius contraption. It is on castors as you can see and there are two laundry baskets that nestle together. The bottom one is screwed to the base and the other comes out. It sits in the closet collecting the laundry until today, which is grocery day. Then the clothes one lifts out and the other remains and is wheeled out the garage where it collects the groceries and wheels them into the kitchen. So it’s a double duty cart.
It is not electrified yet, but the Contrarian may give it a motor and GPS and let it do everything by itself. 😛
This is my cleaning cart.
It’s chock full with all the stuff I need to clean the house.
I have my brooms and dustpan on the sides on clamps and my duster, hand and floor on the other side. My mini-vacuum is underneath.
As I roll it from room to room, I usually sing “bring out your dead, bring out your dead”. That line from the Monty Python movie always has stayed with me.
The rest are just pictures of the house, and excluding the bathrooms which I assume you are not wild to see.
I’m not doing really well with adjusting the light meter on my phone yet, so do bear with me.
The bedspread is chenille. For some reason I wanted one and I really do love it. There are the requisite dressers behind me.
The table was made by the Contrarian and there is a companion one on the other side. The top is inlaid with 4 ceramic tiles. The wood finish is a reddish pecan. You can just see the tip of Diego’s bed in the lower left.
This one seems somewhat out of focus. It’s the living room.
We still have a lot of wall space to fill up obviously.
This is from a different angle and you can see the dining room and the kitchen as well. The fireplace pictured next is to the right of the little sewing chair which the Contrarian got from his mother.
All little too dark to see well. You can just see the edge of the big red chair in the lower left.
This is a shot from the sliding doors out to our patio. The stone wall runs to the sides of the house and is gated on either side. Diego likes to go to either side to keep up with what is going on in the neighborhood. We have some raised beds to the right for veggies next year and more stones and stuff to the left.
This is the library, aka Diego’s play room. I still need to do a bit more decorating here I think. The footstools and the table were made by the Contrarian. I love them all.
These are some of the bookcases. We have seven in all and room for two more if we need them. What am I talking about, “if” we need them. It’s WHEN, lol
This is the Contrarian busy at “work” in his office. Mostly he’s reading stuff on the Inter-tubes.
Diego is starting to learn to read too.
He thinks that if he eats stuff that has writing on it, he will learn faster. Usually he doesn’t swallow the paper, he just tears it into the tiniest of pieces and leaves it for us to find.
We like that.
It shows he’s creative doncha think?
This is my craft room. I just love it and find it perfect with tons of room. I have a cutting table which is in the lower right. The sewing machine is on its own table on castors and wheels into the closet. Everything seems on wheels in this house, lol.
There is a large credenza against the wall to the left. That stores a ton of craft items in plastic containers. And the closet of course is nicely shelved and that is loaded as well.
I could open a store.
And well, these are the scenes that greeted me a couple of mornings last week as Diego and I were making our way on our jaunt through the cacti and sage.
This was taken about 7 am give or take.
This other, the following day. Diego waits patiently while I take the photos. He listens to the birds twittering here and there, and scares himself when he flushes a covey of quail.
So hope you enjoyed the tour. I’m not much of a photographer nor an interior design maven, but we sure enjoy ourselves here. Show us your environs when you get the chance and we can ooh and ahh at the views.
Existential Ennui 