Peculiarities and Progress

I have to say that as a Northerner girl who has spent the last half-century freezing her butt off in Wisconsin's winter wonderland, I find many things in this city strangely peculiar since this is now January.  Keep in mind that we spend the other part of our life in a city nicknamed "the frozen Tundra," so when I see Christmas wreaths hanging next to a screened door with the inner door open to let the breezes in, something seems wrong.

Poinsettias under the palms!

The other day, Rick and I were taking a walk, and we came upon a house with three-foot tall poinsettia plants in the front yard. Lindsay has been after me to plant some poinsettias (which are native to Mexico), but I truly did not know how they would grow as a garden plant here in Florida.  The attached picture shows that I no longer have any doubts about their ability to survive.

Merry Christmas in the Marina.

The other picture I just had to take when we were taking a walk at the Dunedin Marina.  While most people have their holiday decorations down, the captain of this ship must have wanted to keep the celebration going a little longer!

Progress on Gladys continues.  The cement slab that we poured to extend the porch is drying well which is not hard in 84 degree weather.  Everyone is saying that the weather is unusually warm right now, but no one is complaining.  We see the children go off to school each day, and I have to admit that I am glad I am not a teacher here.  This warm weather just says "summer vacation" to me, and I would not be able to concentrate in the classroom! I am really enjoying NOT teaching anywhere right now.  We can get up each day, tackle a few minor or one major project, work until mid-afternoon, and then just enjoy the rest of the day.

Life here is as exciting as drying cement.

Today we did a little shopping to price new water heaters and associated plumbing (boring!), a pressure washer (since houses and all cement surfaces need yearly cleaning of mold and mildew), and tile samples for the front porch and the laundry room.  We found a rough-textured, light brown tile that will work well on the front porch, and a lighter tile that will work in the laundry room.  Tiling a porch is something else that seems strange to us since no one in Wisconsin would dream of tiling a surface that needs shoveling in the winter.  Here, coving the red "broken pottery" tile of the old front porch will be a pleasure.  I can't wait to see the new tile in place, but that will have to wait at least 28 days until the new concrete cures.

Rick had to paint in the shade since the sun dried the
paint too quickly.

While at the store, we also picked up seven 16-foot pieces of baseboard molding.  Thankfully, the traffic was not too heavy because we had quite a tail of molding hanging off the back end of the truck on the way home.  Rick took it into the back yard, set up the sawhorses, and spent a couple of hours painting it.  It will get a second coat tomorrow afternoon, and then the cutting and fun begins.  While he is doing that, I will try to prep the Florida room by scraping off the ridge from the last baseboard and sanding the wall smooth.  A bit of touch-up paint will finish the prep job for the molding.  Hopefully, in another week the molding will be complete in the house.

Our next big project will be replacing and moving the water heater, enclosing the laundry room, and adding a sliding pocket door between the laundry room and the kitchen.  That will take us some time, but will be well worth it in the end.

Outside, we need to tackle prepping and refinishing the soffits and facia boards on the house.  We probably will not paint the walls of the house this year, but if we can get the trim done, that will be a major step in brightening up Gladys' make-up.  Once again, doing all of these chores in the middle of winter seems strange, but we are happy that we have the time and the weather to work on them all.

Speaking of strange, right now the Tiki torches are lighted and the fire pit is roaring as my neighbors next door enjoy a warm, relaxing winter evening.  Rum, anyone?