Love HGTV?

Jim and I love to watch HGTV. It's just about always available, and for the most part there is always an interesting show on. It's easy to put on and veg out to at night between putting the kids to bed and falling asleep ourselves. But we started talking this weekend about what it may be doing to the expectations of homeowners in the U.S. (or at least the ones that watch the channel).

We were watching Bang for your Buck, which looks at three similar remodels and decides which homeowner will get the biggest return for their dollar. A designer and local realtor go through the space and give thumbs up or thumbs down to decisions the homeowner made with what they spent their money on. The episode we watched the other night was about $90,000(!) master suite remodels in the Boulder area. This interests us in that we will be looking to do a master suite remodel in the next few years (but hopefully not to the tune of $90K). First thing you notice is that most of the houses - on this show and on many others on the station - are BIG. One of the bathrooms in the houses featured was at least as big as our entire bedroom. One of the complaints made by the realtor was that a beautiful remodeled shower had no seat in it. Am I the only person who still simply gets in the shower, takes my shower (while standing), and then gets back out? Another house elicited the complaint that there was no seperate tub in the bathroom. This same house, which was a smaller, older home in a historic district, also got the thumbs down from the designer for only having about a 4-foot space between the bed and a wall in the bedroom. Luckily the realtor pointed out that people looking to buy a home in a historic district will realize they will not be getting expansive master bedrooms.

This made us start wondering why people feel they need huge houses. And by huge, I mean 4000 sq ft or more, though we have the same feeling with a 3000 sq ft house. Most of these people don't have families any larger than ours. Our current home is slightly smaller than our Dallas home - probably around 2,200 square feet, including the basement space - and we really don't need much more room than this. Oh, the kitchen could be larger, but realistically we should be just fine with what we have.

But are people getting their minds skewed by what they want vs what they need by watching some of these shows? Does everyone really need stainless steel appliances in the kitchen? Do you really need a seperate Jacuzzi tub in the bathroom (don't even get me started on the heebie jeebies the idea of jetted tubs give me with what sort of skin particles, old soap, etc, must be stuck inside them)? Do you really need a media room? A "man cave" to get away to (because god forbid you have to hang out with your family)?

I want to see HGTV produce a show focused on smaller houses. On living with less. On taking what you have and making it beautiful, rather than making it bigger. On the value of living in a smaller, older home rather than needing to mow it down to build a zero-lot line monstrosity. Does this show already exist and I'm not aware of it? Or am I reading too much into the network, and I should realize most people look at these as dream homes vs reality?

Another blog to check out

I finally got around to checking out a friend's blog this morning, and decided to link to it to share with my MANY (hah!) readers. From Hoboken to Chengdu is written by a Facebook friend of mine. We've never met face to face, just online. But she's a cousin of a friend of mine from A&M - he hooked us up so I'd know at least one other person upon moving up to New Jersey. Her blog is detailing her adventures during a 10-month stay in China with her two children. Very interesting read. Love the most recent post (September 17) with the discussion between her son and the New Zealand-educated native.

Last few ADK pics

Just a few more pictures from our long weekend. One of the afternoons we took the kids for a walk down the lake from our motel to a tiny park right near Saranac Lake Village's downtown area.

This is the view we had on the walk. As I mentioned before, we couldn't have asked for better weather. Probably one of those buildings on the far left of the photo was our motel.


The view looking the other way, probably taken near the spot above.


This is what we took the kids to see. They had two cute bear statues (father and son going fishing) that I knew would be right up the kiddos' alley. Here's the kids with daddy bear.


Grace with baby bear.


Alex with baby bear. They both liked this statue the best. The good thing about this park is that we got to hang out there for quite a while while the kids played pretend with the two bears.


Here's how my kids walked back the entire way. Thankful for small miracles when something like this happens.


As I mentioned, they walked like this the ENTIRE way. Love those kids.

Hiking pictures

How about some more vacation pics? We went on two family hikes while on our long weekend in the Adirondacks. We had glorious weather the entire time there - sunny with highs in the low-70s. First hike was to Panther Mountain.


My kids proudly at the summit of Panther Mountain. Alex especially was very excited about having hiked to the top of a mountain.


My goofy kids posing with their wonderful Daddy-made hiking sticks.


Grace apparently took a cue from cousin Joey's picture at the Water Gardens, because we looked over and she was cross-legged in a meditation pose. You can't see here but her hands were in the thumb-finger touching circle on each knee.


Second hike was a short one to Copperas Pond. We could have made it a longer day and hiked also to the smaller Owens Pond nearby, but decided short and sweet were the best hikes for our new little outdoorsmen.

Posing at the trailhead sign before starting out.


This was the view in front of me on the rocky hike to the lake.


Where we stopped to have lunch before turning around to head back to the car.


Right down the highway from the trailhead was a path down to a beautiful river. So of course we had to take our shoes off and test out how wonderfully cold the water was.


And the day ended up like so many of ours do when we are out in nature; with the kids throwing rocks in a body of water. Apparently it's one of the most fun things EVER.

Vacation!

Long weekends are wonderful.

A few weeks ago we decided to head up to the Adirondack Mountains for Labor Day weekend. We found a motel with vacancies in Saranac Lake, NY, so decided to try it out for a few nights. It took us 5 hours to drive there, but well worth the trip. The area is unbelievably beautiful. Plus we had perfect weather - low- to mid-70s during the day; high-30s to low-40s at night.

When we arrived we were a little dismayed at first - the pictures of the motel on the website don't quite show how "in-town" it is. But it turned out to be a very nice place to stay. We had easy access to restaurants and stores in town and had just a short drive to wonderful hiking out of town. Plus it was right on a lake, which was nice.


This was part of the view at the end of our motel. Quite a bit more water going to either side too.

I'll post our pictures in batches. The motel had a pontoon boat you could rent to take out on the lake which we did our first full day there.


Grace couldn't wait to get her hands on the wheel. She hated having to wait until we got out into more open waters. Don't ask me how she sees when she has that had over her eyes like that.


Alex taking his turn at the wheel. He concentrated very hard. Both kids took their driving responsibilities very seriously.


Proof that I was on the boat, taken by Miss Grace.


Nutso kid determined to swim in COLD water. She didn't swim very long, and not very far off the boat, but by gum she SWAM.


Once Grace had been in the water Alex managed to pull out of his "I won't have fun" funk and decide he needed to go into the water too. Here he is very proud that his legs were in the chilly lake. Luckily his bravery only extended to the bottom rung of the latter and maybe floating for 5 seconds about 6 inches away from the boat, so I could sit on the end of the boat and hold onto him without actually getting myself in the water.


Of course this is how our kids eventually ended up - Grace on her DS...


...and Alex on his Leapster.


That's okay because then the kids were happy, and I got to enjoy this view while reading my book and having my husband motor around the lake.


Oh, and we decided this would be a good place for cousin camp next year. I'm sure it would only cost about $10 grand a week or so!

New blogging friend

Actually she's not a new blogger OR a new friend, so maybe I should say "old friend who I recently discovered is blogging." Anyway, check out Hungry Gibby over there in my links. She did a great post today about the Whole Foods boycott.

My sump pump freaks me out

Now I know I've already posted about the sump pump in the basement, back in March or April when it sprang a leak and there was water water everywhere. But I just feel the need to discuss it again. To start it off, I now have this weird thing known as a BASEMENT underneath my house. You know, where I can go down underground, look out tiny windows and see people's feet outside, and see all sorts of pipes and stuff that were hidden in my previous Texas house. But this sump pump is this weird hole with a cover back in one corner of the basement with a pipe going down into it.

Not only does this hole in general weird me out, when it rains (or soon afterward) and it's doing it's job you can actually hear the water dripping down into it. Ever since the leak this spring I now obsessively go check to make sure the dripping is actually in the hole and not on my basement floor (thank goodness no more problems on that front). And I get a little freaked out when I see the water belch out the pipe that extends to the street, especially when I notice that it looks like my house is the only one with the water coming out of it. We think it may be due in part to the new air conditioner. The humidity has caused a lot of moisture to come out of the AC drain pipe which I assume is going down into the sump pump. But it doesn't make the situation any less weird for me.

Another project down

The painters finally finished up the exterior of the house yesterday afternoon after a LONG week and a half. Even though it was easier than some other projects since the workers were (mostly) outside, poor Lucy still went nuts with all those strangers out there. The kennel had an outbreak of kennel cough, so we couldn't even send her there for the day to get her away from it.

But we are very pleased with the outcome. In addition to changing the colors we had a built-in dog door and built-in air conditioner removed, all the decorative shutters taken down, plus lots of rotten window sills and shingles replaced.


Here is what the house originally looked like (back in November, which explains the lack of plants in front).


Lucy inspects the space where the dog door used to be. We never let her use it - it was covered in all kinds of funk from the previous dogs that lived here. Plus I realized a dog door isn't that great an idea in the winter when rain and snow outside forces you to clean dog paws upon reentering the house.


The house in the process of getting sanded down and prepped for painting.


Naked house front.


Finished front of the house. We are going to replace the storm door with one that is total glass up and down so the red door can be more easily seen. The windows actually have the same red accent on the frames, but it's hard to see with the storm windows back up. We are also going to replace the ugly light currently hidden by the branch in this pic with something a little more architecturally appealing, possibly on either side of the door.


Painted house from another angle.


New paint from the back. Not as nice as the front part of the house simply because this is the more recent addition. The window frames aren't as big and the actual windows are newer without the panes in the top. But I like the expanse at the top without the god-awful ugly HUGE AC unit that used to be there. This screen/storm door will also be replaced by one that is not quite so countrified.

The exterior plants took a beating with the workers and tarps all around, so I'll have to watch those to see what can come back next year. But now we can start deciding on what type of shrub to plant in front to soften up the look a little and cover up that exposed foundation. Our next big project is going to be getting the garage rebuilt. We got spoiled in Dallas after building that one with actually having our cars protected from the elements, and it will be even more appreciated with the winters up here. We are going to have to get a couple trees taken down to have that done, so it should be an exciting time around here.

Customer service

Can I tell you how much I love good customer service? I just had another good experience with a lifetime warranty being honored, though is it actually sad that a company doing what it is supposed to do is considered "good" these days?

The first good experience was with Calphalon a few months ago. For quite a while I had been cooking with (and grumbling about) my large saute pan - different from a frying pan in that the sides go straight up vs sloping out - that was no longer flat on the bottom. I was about to just get rid of it and go buy a new one when I remembered Calphalon has a lifetime warranty. So while I had to go through the trouble of packing up the old pan and shipping it back, it was totally worth it when the brand new pan arrived. The great customer service came in when I opened the new box up to discover they'd sent me the smaller pan. When I called the company about it there were no questions for me; just the woman on the phone falling all over herself apologizing about the mix up. They sent me another pan and a prepaid mailing label to send the smaller one back.

And today my brand new Henckel paring knife arrived in the mail. I'd noticed that my old one had a crack in the handle, which sure enough falls under lifetime warranty. So once again I just had to package up the old one and ship it back to get my new one.

Both these companies sent the replacement products much quicker than stated in their warranty. And as I said, it's too bad that honoring a warranty surprises me, but I'm now a lifetime Calphalon and Henckels customer.

What was in the garden when I returned from Texas

I snapped some pictures a couple weeks ago of what was blooming when I made it back home after three weeks in Texas.


Very excited to discover my hydrangea bloomed out blue. I love blue flowers.


This little patch of daisies erupted next to the hydrangea. It's actually a very nice little clump of flowers when you see the entire thing at once.


We have TONS of these tiger lilies blooming around the house. I hate the fact that once the painters start working on the exterior of the house next week any that are still blooming will most likely get trampled. Hopefully they will all come back next year.


All the hostas had little flowers shooting up out of them.


And a couple varieties of day lilies showed up too. I had one like this in Dallas.


And this one just had such a sunny, beautiful color.


I had to put Alex in this shot (holding his bear-shaped container full of Ben 10 toys) to show the size of these guys. We've decided to eventually get rid of the beds directly in front of the house to make our tiny front yard a little bit bigger, so I've got to find someplace to relocate them. But I think our full-sun options around our house are lacking. They may or may not survive, but I can at least give it a try.

A mayor, an assemblyman and a rabbi walk into a courthouse...

Holy jamoly - where have I moved to!

My title above was the beginning of an editorial cartoon in my paper today. It's being said by a middle-aged man reading a newspaper. His friend asks "Is this a joke?" to which he replies "No. It's New Jersey."

A two-year FBI investigation in NJ covering both bribery and money laundering resulted in 44 people being arrested yesterday and charged with various offenses. Those arrested included five rabbis, 15 appointed public officials and six elected officials, including the new mayor of Hoboken who had only been on the job 23 days and has declared a zero-tolerance policy on corruption (isn't that always how it goes!). As one columnist pointed out, it is a surreal tribute to the diversity of New Jersey. Virtually every age group, skin color, religion and level of education available seems to be snagged - the defendants are white, black and Latino; men and women; range in age from 28 to 87.

So while I left an area with a Good Ol' Boy political history, I seem to have entered a state with a worse pedigree. Wow.

More beach pics

Here's a few more from Cousin Camp...


At least a few of us made it to the Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi. Have to get a picture on the whale sculpture out front.


And always have to look at the otters there. Luckily this year they were in a very playful mood when we came by.


I gave each of the cousins with us a penny to toss in the fountain before we left. Since everyone only had one we tried to coordinate the throw going in. This is right before the toss.


This is right AFTER the toss. I had to include it because you can see what form my son has when throwing his penny into a fountain.


Thanks to Aunt Kathy we were able to make our annual Cousin Camp tie dye items.


And when our kids weren't out on the beach or in the pool, they could usually be found like this.


Or like this.


Everyone loved helping out with tiny little Eva. This was probably Grace's first time to feed a baby, and she did a great job (though after a couple of minutes she was ready to hand Eva off to the next set of cousin hands).


And as always, we end the week with a cousin picture in the mouth of the shark. The light wasn't in that great of a location for our shot - I haven't looked yet to see if anyone else in the family had better luck.

Summer vacation fun

I'll break these pictures up into a few different posts to not overload everyone at once.


This is my little boy's hand in mine on his first ever flight. He was a little nervous, but did great (as did Grace, who hadn't flown anywhere since she was 2).


Very nice that the place we've been staying in the past couple summers also has a decent pool. Here's Grace showing off her newest trick.


This picture I love because of the little cousin hand on the shoulder. Couple of buddies (most of the time!).


Here's the boys from the front so you can see some faces.


And these two soon-to-be-second-grader cousins had a great time together this year.


Love this happy beach picture. That's our "compound" of two awnings you see in the distance.