Lisa Poses in the framed window of her house remodel
A big “thank-you” to all of you who made suggestions to me about kitchen appliances for our well-under-way house remodel. I loved reading your comments and have now purchased the appliances. (But I’m going to keep that a secret for a bit longer.) We’re in the exciting stage of framing our Los Gatos house that is finally taking shape. But for our family of four that is now living in our tiny guest cottage and garage — along with Milly our dog — everything is an adventure, for better or worse.
Madison chastizes the family dog for leading her into poison oak!
For starters, we had a rather itchy incident involving my daughter Madison, poison oak, and plumbing issues. I must mention that my daughter has allergies: to poison oak, poison ivy and doing the dishes. As soon as I realized they had run straight into a mass of poison oak from a hike we were on, I marched all three of us back to the cottage for a good scrub with poison oak-removing soap. I ordered my daughter in the shower while I tried and deal with the dog. A few minutes later Madison yells, “There’s no water MOM!”
In all the panic to remove the offending plant from her already reddening skin, I completely forgot that my contractor, Vinnie, had turned off the water earlier that day and was going to re-turn it on the next morning.
I load the daughter, the dog and myself into the car, and call my husband and ask him to take the dog to Pet Express for a good wash as I head to the gym to use the showers there. All the mad racing around did not stop the rashes from developing. Madison suffered terribly for the next three weeks. Now if anyone has any advice on how to deal with poison oak, boy, would I be grateful.
The house remodel is still going along one step forward two steps back because of the rain. But we are seeing progress and that is very exciting. When I designed the house I had to make a few decisions regarding the floor plan. I could have attached the garage onto the house and used the space over the garage for a formal living room and dining room with a small deck ( this would have reduced the back yard/garden space and increased the driveway/pavement). The option that I decided upon was to detach the garage by approximately 65 feet from the house but connect it via a path that meanders thru a courtyard garden. I re-configured the three existing rooms into a great-room kitchen,dining,and living-room opening up to a giant covered patio. I hope we will not miss the formal, always -perfect, never used rooms (well maybe at Thanksgiving). I look forward to enjoying a morning coffee in my garden or an evening glass of wine on my deck. Ah, a girl can still dream can’t she? Stay dry until next time we chat again.
Lisa
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