New Home

Gary's grandfather built this miniature log cabin which has graced many fireplace mantles throughout it's life. We started on our travels and searching for a home with a tiny budget and high hopes about three months ago. We opted for a comfortable well built house with good bones in a warm climate. We'll have to do sprucing up, painting, and low cost decorating to turn it into the home we envision.


We have an acre of land which allows for barrel firings and hopefully a future wood or gas fired kiln. We're in a nice neighborhood and we've already met four of our neighbors our first day here. Sad to say but in many areas of California folks weren't as friendly as they have been here already.

I won't get into all the depressing details, but the last several months my back deteriorated further. I'm disappointed because this prevented me from stopping to visit places and potters I planned to in our travels. I learned if I lie down every few hours on my stomach for half an our or so, I can get my spine to realign and make it through the day.

Our health insurance disqualified my back, any complications arising from my back, or any arthritis. We can just barely afford the insurance premium, let alone any out of pocket medical bills, so I'm trying to improve my back myself. Since we moved to our new home, each day I've been doing much better so I have high hopes for the future. Once I improve I hope to venture out for visits and travels to surrounding areas.


The two loquat trees in the flower bed near the door have to come out since they're planted too close to the building and are a messy tree to have near a driveway. We'll pressure wash and paint the exterior and trim shrubs. I've been thinking of tropical colors since we moved to Florida. I painted a portion of the front with a coral color, but it looks more pink than coral, and this isn't what I had in mind.


Today I got a more gray green color paint to try on the exterior. Seems like my old standby color of 'streambed' looks much better on the house than the coral color. What do you think? I'm having a hard time deciding on colors nowadays; I had hoped for a little pizazz. Perhaps I need a ceramic sculpture out front. Oops, there I go creating more projects for myself.


Here's a view of the back yard which I took before the trees leafed out and the grass greened up. Since it was cold this winter much of the grass turned brown. Can you picture one of Peter's wood fired raku kilns back there? A couple of old barrels for barrel firings would be nice too.


We will resurface the interior of the pool very soon and fill it up just in time for the hot weather coming up. The pool is enclosed in a screened area and is about 28 x 16 and six feet deep. One of the reasons we wanted a home with a pool was so I can do low impact exercises in the water to strengthen my back muscles and hopefully improve my stamina and mobility. If you know anything about pool surfaces or colors feel free to give advice.


There is a long enclosed lanai off the back of the house which is huge, 30 x 10. It's behind the screen room you see around the pool. I thought about making that space my studio, but it isn't air conditioned and we don't want to add the cost of installing heat and air for that room right now.

The cats are really happy here and they have been running all over the house, happy to have room to roam. Gary and I feel the same way, but we're running all over the house for different reasons trying to find this or that. Ha! Here's Betty lounging on the bathroom counter. I think this is the only photo I've ever taken of her with her eyes completely open, she doesn't like bright lights and often squints. See that wall paper in the background, it has to go.


Well back to painting, unpacking, and sorting. Stay tuned for interior photos and before and after shots in the coming weeks. Comments and suggestions are welcome.