Today, Rion is eleven years old. He was born to a mother who was in the Pikes Peak Humane Society foster program eleven years ago. We adopted him two months later, and this photo was taken the day after he came to live with us. The first few weeks he spent the nights in a crate on the bed so I would be able to take him out when he got restless. I used the orange quilt over the crate so it wouldn’t be too drafty for him.
Finding the photo of my Grandmother’s house made me decide to look for a reasonably current photo of the house I lived in between the ages of seven and sixteen. I couldn’t find one on Google Maps, but Zillow had a recent listing of the address when I entered it.
I almost didn’t believe it was the same house we lived in. There is a lot more landscaping, and the porch now has a rail and steps. The interior is a lot different as well since some internal walls have been taken down to open up the floor plan. It also now has a finished basement with a mother-in-law suite.
What I found most surprising is how much smaller the square footage was than I expected. I remember it as being so much larger than this, probably because we had moved into it from a tiny ranch house in Rockville, Maryland.
I happened to stumble across a photo that my sister took of the place my paternal grandmother lived. I spent many happy weekends there with her in my childhood. I married Jack in the backyard over forty years ago.
I don’t know if this is a replacement house or an extensive renovation. The windows match up to my memories but it was a small two bedroom ranch house when it was sold by her estate.
We have friends who wanted this gently-used power recliner to go to a good home and it arrived last night, courtesy of another friend with a pickup truck and a strong back. This replaces a chair that was perfectly comfortable until twenty-seven-pound Bandit joined me. He is just too heavy to be a lapdog without a recliner to help support his weight.
This is our front door, which is actually on a sheltered porch on the leeward side of the house. All of our windows are plastered with snow. I took this photo when we dragged the dogs out through the garage to do their business. They were not pleased and have decided to wait until the blizzard passes. The drifts make it impossible to tell how much snow has fallen.
The National Guard has been called out to rescue 500 motorists who took to the roads despite being warned. The snow plows can’t operate because of stuck vehicles. The local Interstate is closed from Colorado Springs to Denver. All flights have been cancelled and all school systems are closed. There are multiple reports of accidents, downed power lines, and fallen trees, including some that have fallen on houses.
We are happily celebrating our first Christmas in our new house.
On Friday, Jack said farewell to his PT Cruiser. It was leaking oil and the garage said it needed to have its engine rebuilt. We decided it wasn’t worth it so donated it to the Pikes Peak Humane Society. It was probably my least favorite of all the vehicles we have owned but at least it was easy to find in the parking lot.
According to his adoption records, Rion was born ten years ago on October 20 to a Miniature Schnauzer bitch in the Pikes Peak Humane Society foster program. He has had some health struggles over the years: the most severe of which is a seizure disorder, which developed when he was two. (Rion doesn’t have gentle, stare-at-the-wall seizures. His seizures fling his body across the room.) Fortunately, his seizures are completely controlled by a wonderful drug called Zonisamide, and he bounces around an agility course like a much younger dog. Considering the statistics on dogs with idiopathic epilepsy every happy, healthy year feels like a win.
I joined a few friends for an impromptu picnic at Fox Run Park yesterday. It was a beautiful late summer day and the park was surprisingly uncrowded.
On August 1st, we closed on our new house, which had been in the process of being built since the end of March. Two days later our furniture was delivered.
We are mostly moved in at this point and the house is quite livable. We still have items in storage at a friend’s that we are working on getting placed in the house and garage, though a lot of the stuff will probably get donated to thrift stores. Downsizing from a 2300 square foot house with multiple outbuildings to a 1600 square foot with a three car garage is a challenge. We specifically did not have a basement built so everything has to go in the house or in the third garage.
I love the floor plan. The kitchen, dining area, and great room are all open so there is a roomy feeling. The master bedroom suite is also quite roomy which is one of the reasons we chose this layout. Also contributing to the feeling of spaciousness is the nine-foot ceilings. The nine-foot ceilings allowed us to hang some suspended platforms in the garage which helps with storing little-used items like holiday decorations.
The house has a lot of accessibility options which we hope that we don’t need for many years. I am not missing have steps at all, though.
The first ten days were a challenge since we moved in before the fence was built. The dogs required walking four or five times a day. We also didn’t get our refrigerator until we had been here for several days so we had to make due with ice chests.
Jack has the smallest of the three bedrooms for his office, and I have a slightly larger room for my craft room and office.
A few days ago I noticed a sign in front of a neighbor’s house that said Private Residence as I left to run errands. When I returned home, the same sign was in front of our house. Since we are still in a construction zone, I assume the signs are there to let tradesmen know which houses are occupied.