And I thought I liked snow......

I love snow. It's beautiful, and as long as my family and I can stay nice and warm, I'm quite happy to see it fall.

Even when we've had significant snowfalls, we haven't lost our power. In the many years we've lived in our all electric house, we've only lost our power during a winter storm once. Until now. This makes twice. We got six and a half inches is all, but it was a thunder snow (with thunder and lightning), and the snow was very, very heavy & wet. Sleet got mixed in with it at the beginning. Traffic was horrible according to the news reports, although thankfully my husband was smart enough to decide to work from home that day (Wednesday). Our power went out about 8:00 in the evening. When I called the electric company to report it, I got an automated message saying they were aware of the problem in our area, and we should have our power back by 8:46. Less than an hour didn't sound too bad.

Unfortunately, it was 17 hours, so it got a bit chilly. We filled a large cooler with snow, opened the fridge once to take out milk and cheese, and closed the fridge within 30 seconds. With the milk and cheese in the cooler, we were able to open it as often as we wanted. Friends put their milk outside, but they had to keep opening the door and let cold air in each time. The cooler worked great for us.

We could have used our fireplace to keep the house warmer, but the smoke might have triggered an asthma attack for me, so we decided to wait till the temperature dropped lower. The temperature didn't get below 56, and we survived pretty well. Thankfully, the power came back on at 3:00 in the afternoon. It was going to be a colder night Thursday night, so we felt very grateful to have our power back.

Now we're toasty warm again, but they're saying we have another storm just like this last one expected this coming Wednesday. Ick.

Living better than kings

It's been a bit cold lately. While we haven't gotten nearly the amount of snow that our unfortunate neighboring states to the north have gotten, it's still been rather chilly.

So when is a furnace likely to go out? When it's very cold, of course. Our furnace started making a funny noise yesterday. Then it stopped blowing out any air, which meant no heat either.

We didn't lose our power, though, which was a blessing. We have a wood stove fireplace, but it can trigger an asthma attack for me, so it isn't our first choice for heating the house anymore. My son and I went and got three portable electric heaters, which helped a great deal. The house never got cold, although the temperature did drop to about 60 degrees. It started working again when our electrician friend came to check it. Of course. Then it stopped working again today, but we had a comfortably warm night. The furnace has been fixed now, and we're warm and cozy.

I realized last night how often we take for granted such things as heating and air conditioning, and plumbing, and computers, and so many other blessings.

No wonder people in less affluent countries think all Americans are rich. To a great extent, we are, whether we live in a big house or not, whether we drive a fancy car or something simple.

We may not have servants, but we have conveniences and technology that make our lives easier and more comfortable. We may not have castles, but our homes aren't drafty, and we have indoor plumbing along with the heating and air conditioning. We don't have jugglers and acrobats to entertain us, but we have TV with cable, and favorite movies in our home DVD collection. We can easily communicate with anyone we want via phone or internet. We don't have personal chefs, but we can make our own gourmet meals or bring it home from a local restaurant. Most people have dishwashers that make the cleanup easy, too.

Although we still occasionally have health problems or dental issues, modern medicine and scientific advances have made it possible to live longer, healthier lives--at least if we eat smart and exercise. (I need to work harder on that last item.)

All in all, we have it pretty good. I'll take my life over that of any of the kings and queens of old.

Any day.

White Christmas

We live in an area that rarely gets snow for Christmas. I can only remember one year when our older kids were young, that we got a white Christmas. And I think that year we gave them scooters or something, and they were disappointed that they couldn't go out and use them that day.

There have been a couple of other years when our area had a white Christmas, but each time we were gone visiting married kids and didn't see it.

Well, this morning, I looked out the window and saw that we'd gotten a dusting of snow during the night or early morning, so we had a white Christmas this year--at least for a couple of hours. It's all melted away now.

We're supposed to get about 5 inches of snow tomorrow, the day AFTER Christmas.

Before & After Pictures

The above photo was taken last winter & shows the old siding color.
The siding was a weird beige color with dark brown wood trim.
You can see the color better in another photo lower down.
The wood trim had deteriorated very badly.

Below: the new siding is a cream color with a hint of yellow to it.
The trim is now white. The front door has not yet been replaced,
but will be replaced in the spring with a wooden door, at which
time the door frame will be wrapped in white to match the rest.

Click on the photos to see a larger view so you can also
see the decorative trim along the top of the house &
the box window and dormer window.

Before and after photos of the side door and side porch:

Above: the old door and old porch. Notice how
the old porch goes off to the side. This photo shows
the color of the original siding better than the
top photo did. It really was an ugly color.
I've hated the color the entire time we've lived here.
Sorry about the snow blocking most of the porch & door.
However, if it weren't for the snow, I wouldn't have
taken any photos of this side of the house at all.

Below: the new door and new porch
Notice the difference in the siding colors as well.
The new siding actually appears to have
a hint of pale yellow in the sunlight,
and there is more of a contrast with the trim
than it appears in these photos.
It really turned out very lovely!

The first changes we did to the outside of our home were begun in October, after our kitchen porch unexpectedly collapsed. The wood support for the stairs had split on one side, and it came crashing down. I'd hoped to postpone that replacement, since we were going to be having the trim repaired and capped, which was going to be a bit costly and was not covered by the insurance. Also, our side door had deteriorated. The decorative window dividers had come off on the outside. The weather stripping was gone, and the seal of the window in the door was broken with moisture getting inside. What was worse, the frame of the door was also starting to break down, and I was afraid mice would be able to get in if we didn't deal with it quickly. It was beyond repair. We knew we needed to replace the door.

The porch was replaced first. Instead of bending to one side as you can sort of see in the first picture, it was changed to come straight out, which was a definite improvement. It even has a handrail for children on one side. The new door is also more secure, since there is only a half moon window at the top of the door, rather than the larger window that took up most of the upper half of the old door, and which a thief could potentially have broken out and even climbed through. While our neighborhood has not had a lot of problems with break-ins, and our side porch is in plain view with motion detector lights, it just seemed wiser to choose a door that was less vulnerable. This door is also nicer looking.

Since the old security lights had to be removed when the siding was replaced, we had them put up a new light--still motion detector style, but with three lamps instead of just two, so more area will be lit.

It was taking so long for the siding replacement to begin, that I was worried the cold weather would prevent it from being done, but they started in spite of the cold temperatures. It snowed the day after they started, so they only got in a few hours of work that day, and they didn't come do any more work the following day, but they did come again on Saturday, and finished Monday morning.

I'm betting our property taxes will go up next year, since the real estate appraisal for tax purposes will be done soon, and our house looks so much prettier now--it almost looks like new!

Getting a Facelift

Back in May, we got hit by inch & a quarter sized hail, which damaged our siding really bad. The insurance company is paying for our siding to be replaced. That meant I needed to find a reputable company, and not just some storm chaser.

I was ready to sign the paperwork with one company, but the rep changed his story from what he'd said at first as to what would be included (he said they'd do the trim at no extra cost). Later he backpedaled and said that they couldn't include it at no extra cost, but he'd be able to get the insurance company to pay for it. He said he knew my insurance adjuster, but my adjuster said he only knew the name and hadn't really had any actual dealings with him. I felt the siding rep had been dishonest with me, so I decided to find someone else.

So I talked to lots of siding replacement companies over the next couple of months. They all promised to give me references, but none of them did. Except one. I went and looked at the jobs he'd done and gave him the job, along with some other work we needed done.

Now, a little secret about my house. We bought it when the building of the neighborhood was still going on. Essentially we "built" the house and got to choose the colors on everything except the siding. The builder chose the outside color of the house, and it was a color I hated. I've hated the color of my house as long as we've lived here, for years and years. We've been in it a long, long time.

It's not going to be that icky color anymore. It's going to be a lovely Heritage Cream with white trim. They started yesterday, and by this morning, at least a third of it was done. Snow brought the work to a temporary halt, but the part that is done is lovely!

When my son gets home from his mission, it's not going to look like the same house. We had the side porch rebuilt, and it's a different porch completely. The side/kitchen door has been replaced, and it's an entirely different style. The color of the house will be different. Oh, and we have deliberately NOT told him about the renovations. We want him to be surprised!

Our house is going to be so much prettier, but half the fun will be to see his reaction when he comes home in March. I'll post pictures when it's done.

So Adorable!

My newest grandbaby! This photo was taken on the blessing day when he was almost two weeks old. And yes, I'm prejudiced, but the little guy is such a cutie pie!

Decisions, decisions.....

We've considered moving closer to our married kids and grandkids for several years, and we started remodeling our home a couple of years ago. We still have a fair amount of work to do on our home and yard, but we haven't been focusing as hard on it as I'd like to have. There are always distractions and challenges demanding attention, or so it seems.

A week ago my husband asked me where I'd like to move to, so he can start looking for jobs.

It shouldn't have taken me by surprise, but it did. So now we need to be thinking about where exactly we want to choose. Granted, finding work might be a problem, but I've felt all along that the Lord would open the way, and it's much better to be looking for work while you're still employed.

Aside from figuring out where we'd like to relocate, we need to make some hard decisions on what to keep vs. what to sell or give away. We're all packrats, so this can be a bit harder. The funny thing is that I'd been thinking the best way to declutter would be to think, "Would I want to pay for moving this if we had to move in a month or two?" I think there would be many things I could easily let go out the door if that were the case. If we were to stay here a couple of years, I'd probably be inclined to hang onto more stuff.

I really don't want to declutter twice or thrice, though. I need to just be ruthless and "let go" of things that I've been hanging onto needlessly for years. There's no way I want to keep it all, anyway. The nice thought is that decluttering will certainly make it easier to keep things tidy, whether we move in two months or twelve!