First look

Here's a look at the front of the place. Cute, huh? It's hard to see, but the yard is mostly just dirt and cheat grass (Bromus tectorum). I've started leveling the front yard a bit. We hope to someday have a nice stucco garden wall about four feet high around the front and have numerous herbs, flowers, and a tree or two to sit and read the paper under. Haven't finished examining all the various pros and cons of making said wall out of adobe, rammed earth, cinder blocks, or stucco coated wood frame. Figure it out someday. I just have a lot of plants sitting in pots and I'd like to go ahead and find a place to plant them.

Here's Cassidy in the doorway between the kitchen and the den/guest room. She likes the new house, but doesn't have a pen out back yet. She and Willie both get to go on more walks now than when we lived in the country. Ironic, isn't it. But it's only about ten minutes walk through lovely Aztec and we're out on the trails all around the BLM land that almost completely surrounds town. Good biking, too.





Here is a shot of our bedroom. Note the floor. Before we moved in, we had a little time to do some minor repair and painting. If you get the chance to do this sort of stuff BEFORE you move in, do it. It makes for long days, but it is worth not having to rearrange all the furniture for a week or two. Well, the carpet in this room was in no way fastened to the floor (or the various patches to each other). "I'm gonna start pulling up this carpet," say DeAnn. Okay. Underneath is some old marble looking linoleum. What we decided to do was strip it down to the plywood beneath, then paint the plywood. YEAH! You heard right. The linoluem came up a lot easier than I'd anticipated, and then I spent the rest of that day scraping off minor amounts of adhesive and then cleaning the plywood. Next step: a coat of KILZ. This stuff really works wonders for stain and odor coontrol, and completely seals and primes the surface. Then i put on two coats of this sweet dark red (sienna) shade, followed by four coats of varathane for a nice durable, clear coat. It's only been a month, and honestly most of the floor is covered in rugs, so there has been very little wear so far. I plan to maybe add two coats of varathane on a yearly basis to keep up the shine and the protection. I totally endorse this method of floor refinishing for anyone who hates carpet and is on a budget. This is a small room--11 x 13--but we got a new floor for about $100. I'd seen it done on concrete before, and with stunning effect. That's the effect we were going for here, but the wood's a little different. The only thing i'd do differently on the next project (similar treatment of living room) is to fill in the gaps between plywood sheets and maybe try to disguise the nails a little more.

Here is the living room. Not too fancy. We want to keep it open so that we can practice yoga at home. You can see we have plenty of windows, which so far have really helped out with some passive solar heating. Hopefully a higher sun angle in the summer will reduce the amount of energy we are holding in the interior. I'll probably try and build some shutters. I figure blinds and blankets are fine for keeping the sun out of the room, and would keep the house pretty cool. But in that case, the sun is still making it in the windows. I think if i can keep all the radiation outside, we could be pretty cool. We have a swamp cooler, too, but in past summers, we've only needed it for July and August. Our last house didn't even have a swamp cooler, but did have lots of shade. I also like to sit in hear and play music. Or listen to it. The dogs like it too because there is room for to wrestle.

And lastly, for now, is the kitchen. We hadn't even got our bed in the house and were still sleeping at the old place, but i had some ingredients and DeAnn and I got hungry. I knew then i'd love cooking in this kitchen. And i do. It's small, and cabinet space is only slightly lacking. But all our cooking crap fit. Again, the windows are a great touch, as are the corner shelves near them (which will get painted sometime).

Well, that's it for today. I really should've had some before and after shots of the bedroom floor, but it was all happening so fast. I'll definitely do B/A shots when we move into other rooms.

Our next visit will be a little trip back in time, just ten years, but it's a start.