Loving Life Even When Things Go Wrong

This is why we moved here. We drive along this causeway at least once a week. Yesterday a new friend invited me to walk with her on this beautiful boulevard. This is what it looks like mid-morning.

Mi Miguel and I have wanted to walk this stretch since we've moved here but haven't had a chance. After walking with Diana yesterday, I insisted that Mi Miguel and I get up this morning at sunrise and take Banjo for a walk. She was in scent heaven as she sniffed her way down the walking path. We are learning the hard way that she has to have a fast paced walk or run every single morning.

If we don't keep Banjo busy, she gets pretty bored and guilt-stares me while I'm working on our fixer upper. It's been raining a lot of an evening, so she hasn't been able to run much at the park.

Yaaaaawwwwwwn, bored Banjo with stored up energy isn't a good thing. In case you missed it on my Facebook timeline, this is our latest adventure with Our Girl Banjo...

We got the truck all dried out and cleaned up from the downpour yesterday morning. Yesterday evening our air conditioner leaked water all over the garage floor where we of course have stored boxes and furniture items. We worked until the wee hours of the night to get that mess all dried up and cleaned up. Luckily, it wasn't too hot overnight, a few fans whirling our direction kept us comfortable enough to sleep well. 

We get up this morning, Mi Miguel is working from home because the a/c man is coming today. I take Banjo out to do her dog business. I put her back in the house. I tell her to, "Stay." I go back out to clean up after her. 

The door apparently didn't latch because here she comes barreling out of the house full speed ahead. I'm looking at her like, Oh my God!. She is just bouncing, jumping and running like a bull at a rodeo. I've never seen her so rambunctious. She then takes off through the back yards. I come in to get Mi Miguel so he could help me with her. He's in the shower. I'm panicking, running back outside to be greeted by my neighbor lady still in her jammies. "Pam, Pam, Banjo is loose, did you know that?"

Before I could utter a word in reply, Banjo comes barreling in between the two of us, takes off again and full body swipes their spigot at the side of their house. Water starts spraying all over the place.

I go over to turn the spigot off but it's already turned off and yet water is spraying heavily everywhere. I'm squatted at the spigot soaked from head to waist. The neighbor lady grabs Banjo's leash. Banjo doesn't like her holding her leash so she struggles and pulls on the leash to get to me so she can get to the water to get a drink. 
Banjo is about to pull the neighbor lady right off of her feet because she has the strength of Hercules with that neck of hers. 

I get up, run over and grab Banjo's leash and bring her inside and yell for Mi Miguel (who just stepped out of the shower) to get outside as fast as he can. He comes running out. The neighbor lady's husband comes running out, water is still spraying everywhere.

I get Banjo all situated and safe inside and go back outside to see that the neighbor man is soaked, Mi Miguel is soaked and yet Banjo, well, she's inside sprawled out on her memory foam bed, dry as a bone.

The two men ascertain that Our Girl Banjo hit their water main pipe so hard that it busted it. A plumber is on his way. Wowser! I'm in shock, thinking this is really going to cost us.   

Banjo, Banjo, Banjo, what on earth got into you girl??? Back to day one with the puppy training. I just realized while searching for a good neighbor meme, that Banjo wreaked havoc in the neighborhood on Wednesday, September 28, 2016. It was National Good Neighbor Day. Who knew? Apparently Banjo did, because she had a fantastic time celebrating this "unbeknownst to me" national day. Mi Miguel and I are very blessed to have such great neighbors. It's one of our favorite things about living here in Florida.

Even though we've had a rough week in some ways, we also had a good week. A few days ago, I spotted a grill like this one, along the curb. I let Mi Miguel know about it. We walked down later that evening and decided that we could refurbish the grill rather than let it go to a landfill, where I'm sure there are plenty of "old" grills that simply need a good refurbishing. We got it all cleaned up, bought a propane tank and we've been grilling every evening since then.

We're going over to our neighbor's house tomorrow for a dinner party. I can't wait to tell them that Banjo wasn't wreaking havoc, she was simply celebrating a very special day. Now that we have our "new" to us rescued grill, I think we should have them over for a barbecue, don't you?

All of my blog posts are on my Facebook Page: Florida Warmth and Water. It's easier to sort through the posts that way,click the link below. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1548340955479513/?ref=bookmarks

We've been dining at eclectic restaurants alphabetically since moving to Florida. We're on the letter V now. Check out where we've been so far. https://www.facebook.com/groups/floridarestaurants/?ref=bookmarks  

Switching Lights

About this time last year we changed our minds (okay, I changed my mind) on our living room floor tile. We already loaded up the many boxes of 24 x 24 tile onto our truck and unloaded it into our garage. But after sitting a few tiles along the living room window, we noticed that when the window is open, it had a pink cast to it. That changed everything.

The wall color and so many other things had to be changed because what was once going to be a medium cool shade of blue walls, white washed planked ceilings with amber accent pieces quickly turned into the new tile not really flowing with those colors.

So here we are a year after planking the living room and dining room ceilings. The floors are all tiled and the living room is painted a different shade of turquoise blue with a mink accent wall.

The light fixtures didn't do anything with the new color change. We were in a pinch to put up something quickly for two reasons. One, the owner wanted the dining room light to go to her family. Two, we needed light in that room, pronto. We removed the family owned chandelier and put up this light

Lit up, this light fixture looked attractive, but it just wasn't the one.

We liked the way this one matched the other fixtures that we had bought. But still, it was more of a foyer light and not a dining room light. 

This new light flows much better with the table and the room overall.

I absolutely love the design and it puts out much better light over the table.

The man at Habitat Humanity insisted that it's brass. I think it's painted wrought iron. We can all agree that's heavy. Mi Miguel will tell you that it was a bugger to install.

The living room light has served it's purpose. But as we are finishing up the overall look, it too had to go. The muted amber just doesn't go with the walls and floor. It definitely looks better than the white ceiling fan that was originally in the living room.

 Mi Miguel spotted this little dandy at a furniture consignment shop. It gives the living room that little bit of fancy that it was so desperately seeking.

Now that it's all lit up we love the glass shade, the Murano glass flowers.

We still need to find a few furniture pieces. The slipcovers are great but it's too much neutral furniture. We already know that we aren't keeping one of the couches in the living room. The search is on for a nice dark rusty brown orange double chair or chaise and a unique coffee table.

Remember my potting bench? We've toted this piece from St. Louis to Kentucky to Indiana to Florida. Alas, we have a use for it. 

While out thrift store shopping Saturday, not only did we find two light fixtures, but this adorable sink is ideal for my potting bench. It will now be a guest bathroom vanity. I love it!

We've been going to restaurants alphabetically since moving to Florida. We do this every time we move to a new location. It helps us learn the area and we also find great eclectic restaurants this way. Here is where we went for the letter V. Yes, we are already on the letter V. Can you believe it? Check out our V restaurant:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/floridarestaurants/ 
 

Was 1980's-Updated But Too Much Color- Now Elegant Neutral

We closed on our house a year ago July. This is what the living room looked like when we bought the house. Once we moved all the furniture out, we tore out the carpet and went to work on transforming the entire room.

Our first move, remove the vintage curtains and vertical blinds. Once those were down we then removed the popcorn effect from the ceiling and then planked it with the tongue and groove wood that I white washed.

There was too much turquoise in the living room so I started a mural on the wall. An abstract underwater look would be just the ticket! While the wall made for a great background for still photography, I was losing my focus with it.

After getting all of our furniture out of storage, we picked the pieces we definitely wanted to keep. We chose the ones that were comfortable and would go with our laid back style. Wowser, what a lot of color. Not only that but I still didn't like the direction I was going with the mural. 

This was my favorite part of the mural. It reminded me of when Mi Miguel and I go underwater shell seeking. I took a photo of it to maybe frame later. With no regrets about covering the mural, I got busy painting the whole wall with a neutral color.

Now to get busy toning down the rest of the room. I found this side table and a matching coffee table online. 

I got them all painted with the same color as the ceiling.

I went through and made slipcovers and tailored the ones I bought. If you don't fit them to your furniture, you have a big wad of fabric each time someone sits down which leads too constant smoothing and hand tucking. That's not fun to do every day. 

Here is a photo of the same chair that is in the photo above. What a difference it makes.

Here is an after photo of the living room with all the furniture toned down and the wall with mural painted a neutral color. The brown wood side table was just purchased last week. I'll be painting it to flow with the room. I also changed the poppies to sea creatures. Can you see them on the wall?

What a difference, huh? Those wall units are now in the master bedroom walk-in closet that Mi Miguel built. Photos of that will come later as we finish the master bedroom.

Here is a different angle, this is the view as you come through the front entry door.

A deeper view of part of the "foyer" as you enter the house. While taking all the photos this morning, Banjo was so distracted by something outside. She usually could care less about what's going on in our neighborhood. Here's the culprit for her agitated behavior...

the neighbor cat that used to love relaxing in our little garden in front of our dining room window. Remember, I posted this photo many months ago? Can you see him? We've had Banjo for five months now. The cat doesn't come in our yard at all anymore. Instead, he sits along the curb in front of our house like a statue and taunts Banjo. Which she could care less about the cat sitting out there.But this morning he came back to his old favorite spot. 

The cat is difficult to see with all the foliage. Can you see him now? Banjo sure can.

Banjo's tongue speaks volumes in this photo. I think we all know what she's thinking. 

Agitated or not, I want her to be friendly towards the cat even though he does taunt her. Being gentle with Banjo so as not to make an even bigger deal about the cat, I simply closed the shade and drew her attention elsewhere. I think she gets it. I think she knows that she's bigger than the whole "dog chase cat" behavior. She now knows that when a cat taunts you, it's best to just walk away.