Saturday, March 31, 2018

End of March - More Condo Updates

 March has been very nice here weatherwise.  We have had many beautiful days!  We survived spring break.  It wasn't crazy with college kids.  It was full of families.  Boy, was it crowded!  We are finding that weekends are packed now that the temperatures are nice.  You should see it tonight.  It is so busy!  I enjoy walking on the beach when it is busy because it is just more exciting!

Here are a few photos of me and my Dad:






Mom and I walk every morning, but I enjoy the weekends best because both of my folks are with me.  You should see how deep I am getting in the water now.  I love it! 

We have made a few more updates to the condo.  Dad painted all the kitchen cabinets and put new knobs on them.  He added knobs to the drawers. They never had knobs, so that required a special screw because the wood was extra thick which added a few weeks to the project.  Mom got them on Amazon.  We have starfish knobs on the top cabinets and shells on the bottom cabinets and drawers.




We found the starfish hooks at Kohl's. They were half off and since they matched our kitchen, Mom said we had to buy them.

Dad added hooks to the stove so that Mom could hang her pot holders.  She hated just leaving them on the counter.

Here are more starfish holders with measuring cups and spoons on them.  We only have two real drawers, so we don't have a lot of room for things.  Mom bought the knife holder at Ikea.  She wants to get a wall spice rack. She bought this one at Goodwill for $2 but it doesn't hold all of her spices.

Here is the view from the living room.  The Home Sweet Home is from Ross.

We bought this at the Galveston Market.  It is an outdoor event that is held every few months.  It was only $5.

Today, we hung up the divider curtain between the living room and the bedroom.  We were going to put up barn doors but those would have been a challenge.  Our ceiling is steel and concrete and Dad doesn't have the tools to drill through it which means we may never get the ceiling fans we want.  Anyway, we decided to go with curtains.  We doubt we will really close them, but it gives the room a more finished look according to Mom.  Dad glued the wood to the ceiling and then he screwed the rod into it.  He says it will hold.  I hope so.  Mom is going to have to hem their curtains.  They are a little long.



Mom painted the table next to the bed. It is actually a barstool that came with the place.  We were going to just use the top of it as a shelf but decided to leave it alone in case we need it for seating some day.  Do you see the pelican on the upper shelf? Mom really likes pelicans and it seems she started collecting them accidentally. 

We have a few more paintings to hang. Mom painted the frames last week.  Dad has talked about fixing the countertops will a faux finish.  Mom said it looks like a lot of mess to her, so I am not sure if and when that will happen.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Enjoys Getting His Belly Wet In The Ocean

Friday, February 2, 2018

It's February - More Condo Updates

Can you believe that it is February already?  We are happy to have this year moving into a new month.  January was cold here.  I know, it was not as cold as other places but it was cold for Galveston.  We actually had ice here!  Dad had two really bad days of driving on ice.

Our condo is directly over the storage area.  We enjoy not being over another condo because we can be noisy and not bother anyone.  We did discover a downfall.  The storage area is not heated which means our floor is very cold on freezing days.  We have rugs all over, but the floor is still cold.  Mom gets notifications from the electric company every week telling her how much electric we have used the previous week.  We are using a lot more electric than other people.  We think we figured out another reason other than our freezing floor.  We think a lot of those people are not even living in their units.  The majority of the people in our building do not live here full-time so they are not really heating their units.  It was warmer last week and our heat wasn't on that much and we were still told we were using more than other people.  Mom said she is just not going to worry about it. She should probably stop the notifications from coming so that she doesn't stress so much.   We keep our unit at 72 during the day and lower at night.

We have completed a few more updates to our place since our last post.  We have received several compliments on our door.  BOL!  We took down the rusty piece that was on it and Dad painted the door, put a new lock on it and put weather stripping all around it.  Mom thinks it is funny that so many people are excited about our door.

Can you believe they left the rusty piece on it when they were selling it?  They put a ton of nails in it and they probably didn't want to fix it.  This was the picture on the realtor's site.

Mardi Gras is huge here, so bought this wreath.  We like our lock system. We can lock it with just a touch of the screen.  We don't have to carry keys, but Mom does because "What if the battery dies while we are gone?"  I like it because I know when the folks are coming in the door.  They can't sneak up on me because it goes beep, beep, beep as they punch in their code.

This is our breezeway.  We take the elevator to our floor and then we have to walk on the breezeway to get to our unit. There are some days that it is very windy here.  Most people don't like the blue and there is a big debate about what color it should be.

This is our view from our doorway.  It is not very pretty.

Here is the backside of the building.  You can see our wreath - 2nd floor towards the middle of the picture.

Full view of the backside of the building.  Tennis courts are to the left. 
Okay, so back inside.  We bought new rugs to help our chairs fit in with our color scheme.


The lamp came with the place.  It will eventually leave.  We added the end tables with baskets for more storage. Tools are still being stored under our table.

We still need to add a divider to separate the rooms.  We had planned on barn doors but now I think we are going with white curtains.
Mom continues to add things our cubes.
This painting came with the place. It is of our unit.  Mom painted the frame white.

This past weekend, we added a shelf and a new microwave to our kitchen.

Before - this was before we even moved in.  Mom wanted the microwave off the counter.


Before the shelf.  We have the missing door.  Dad took it down so that we could buy new hinges.  We will be painting the cabinets soon.


After - Mom loves it! The plates and silverware are very handy in this location.
We really don't have good before photos of the bathroom.  Dad put in new lights, a new mirror and towel rack.
We still need new towels.  Mom loves the toilet paper holder.  It holds the extra rolls.
The lights and the mirror are a big improvement.
We added the medicine cabinet.  There really wasn't storage without it.

Mom decorated the jars and basket.  It holds q-tips, floss and eyeglass cleaners.  She is not in love with it.

Mom loves this night light that is in the bathroom.  It is from Switchables.  You can switch out the design. They have a few more that she would like.




The door to the right was in our storage unit.  They just had a curtain over the doorway.  Mom hated it.  The water heater is in that closet.  Dad was able to put the old door back up.  It needs to be painted. 

Mom bought some pansies last week.  She has two planters on the balcony. They are Mardi Gras colors!  BOL!



Here is our unit from the front of the building.
We are the unit on the right closest to the wall.

We had some beautiful views this week.







Mom and I don't know why our fonts are acting up on this post.  We have tried to fix it, but it is not working.  We will just live with it.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Wonders Why It Took Us So Long To Get Here

Monday, January 1, 2018

Happy New Year!

We spent a quiet New Year's Eve at home.  However, Saturday at 4:30 a.m. we were awakened by flashing lights in our window.  A guy stole a car and drove fast into our parking lot.  He decided to get rid of the car by sending it over the seawall.  He put it in drive and sent it over from our parking lot.  He then ran into our building because he is staying here.  The police immediately found him and arrested him.  We thought it had to be a drunk driver or someone whose GPS guided them incorrectly, but no, it was a guy who stole it. 

This is the imprint of the car.  It went down nose first.  The seawall is in the background.

Yesterday, the folks were busy in our tiny condo.  Dad fixed our patio door and our front door or back door (we can't decide what it is) because they both had gaps that were letting a lot of cold air in.  When the wind blows, we had quite a breeze coming in.  He also put the cubes on the wall.

Mom has her cookbooks. CDs, DVDS, my treats and a few other things.  We are going to buy some bigger shells to decorate some of the openings.
 Mom decided to paint the kitchen.  She ended up getting white all over the top of her head  She was painting behind the refrigerator and when she looked down her head brushed the wall.  BOL!  It was pretty funny.  She still has a little paint on her head today.

Before

After

Before

After (Mom bought that clock for their first apartment. It has been in every place that they have owned.)

After
We are going to get a new microwave soon and it will hang above the stove.  We will paint the cabinets blue.  We were going to paint them the same color as the living room, but now we are thinking we will use the bathroom blue.  It is a little bit lighter.

Mom ordered curtain liners that are supposed to help darken the room at night.  They will also help insulate the patio door a little better.  Our curtains are supposed to be room darkening, but it is hard for white to darken.  We think these will help.  They are scheduled to arrive tomorrow.  She also ordered a new vent for the bathroom and a silverware caddy for the kitchen.  We only have two drawers in our kitchen so she thinks that will free up a drawer for other things like measuring cups and spoons and things that just don't fit in our utensil holder.  

Mom is still searching for rugs for the place.  She wants something to help our chairs fit in better with our color scheme.  

It is cool here this week.  It is not as cool as other places, but Mom is making me wear my hoodie.  It is the wind that really makes it cold.  I am still insisting that we walk on the beach every day.  We will dip below freezing the next two nights and then this weekend we may be back up to 70.  We have been told that this weather is not normal for here and that winter normally doesn't last this long.  Mom even got out the space heater today.  Our electric bill is predicted to be double what we planned.  It is not nearly as bad as in the RV though.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Whines When He Can't Go To The Beach

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

We Have A New Place!

 Merry Christmas!  We haven't been around lately because we have been really busy.  We are now official condo owners!  We closed on our place on December 11th and we have been busy.  We have been painting and putting furniture together.  Grandma and Grandpa arrived on the 15th.  They left this morning.  They didn't stay with us because we are living in a "tiny condo".  Our condo is the size of our 45' motorhome.  It is 338' square feet, I think.  It is a studio which means there is not a separate living room and bedroom.  It is all one room.  We went with this option for a number of reasons. The main reason is cost.  We could have afforded a one bedroom, but the HOA dues are $150 more a month for it.  Dad wants to retire soon and we plan to have this one paid off in three years.  The one bedroom would have taken us probably five years to pay off.  The taxes and utilities are lower in ours too.  We like living small, so it works for us.

We are still working on the condo, but we will show you some photos.  There is still a lot of work to do before it is complete though, so you need to keep an open mind.

Here are the before pictures.

It came complete furnished. 




I immediately claimed this chair.


Mom said we can't keep it because it is too big.
We then started painting. We chose blues for the living area and the bathroom.  The kitchen will be white and the cabinets will be blue.




We ordered our closets and bed from Ikea.  Unfortunately, one box did not arrive. The box was box 1 of our bed We don't know if it was Ikea's fault or the delivery drivers.  We were not given anything to sign accepting our order and saying it was all there.  We called Ikea and Dad spent nearly an hour trying to get it fixed.  They said they could send us the box in a week or we could drive to Houston to pick it up. We needed a bed, so the folks drove to Houston and spent three hours with the drive and waiting in line to get the correct box. We paid $199 for the delivery and $40 for Ikea to "pick" the order and they refused to refund any of the money because we didn't sign anything when the delivery happened.  Yep, it was our fault even though the delivery person practically ran out of the condo and told us to call Ikea if anything was missing.  19 boxes were delivered, so it wasn't like it was easy to tell something was missing especially when some things had more than one box.  Mom expected only 13 boxes, so it was very confusing.   We are not sure how that is our fault, but they rudely told us it was.  Today, Mom received a call from Ikea because they are confused as to whether we received the order that they had scheduled for the since our order was messed up.  They left a message for Mom to call, so she did.  The person answering the phone refused to connect the call to the extension given in the message because Mom only knew the extension number and not the name of the person.  Customer service does not seem to be important to Ikea.

The boxes contain our furniture.

Here Dad is putting the bed together:





We bought this bed because it has storage under it.

Here is our Sleep Number mattress being assembled.


Here is the bed. Mom orderd the comforter online and it is so nice.  I love the bed.
The bathroom is painted a lighter shade of blue and it is a work in progress.  We had the tub refinished last week.  It looks brand new.
 We went back to Ikea over the weekend and spent more $$$ with them.  We like their products, just not the people.

This is our table/desk.  It has a glass top.  It is narrow, but it is what we need.  It has a drawer for "junk".

The table is a TV stand until the TV is put on the wall.  The table also has room for "junk" under it.

Dad purchased shelves for the hallway from Ikea.

The hall has the shelves and two coat racks.  One rack has my collar, leashes and beach walking items.

Today, our recliners arrived.  We had planned on getting a loveseat and recliner but decided the loveseat would make it too crowded.  We really wanted white or blue recliners, but after searching several stores, we chose these.  We could have special ordered, but the wait time was four months and the folks needed chairs.

The white cube "shelves" you see will not be stayng there.  They will be hung over the bed. Dad ran out of time.
The recliners match my bed.  Have you noticed that I don't have a couch?  What greyhound doesn't have a couch?


Here are the closets and dresser from Ikea.  A TV will hang on the wall in the middle.
 

The kitchen still needs to be painted.  Mom is searching for rugs for the entire place.  There is still a lot to do. We will give you another tour when we have more things completed.

This is the view from our place. We have our own palm tree.

Another view from the balcony.



Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Probably The Newest Greyhound Resident In Galveston

Home Again - Part 3

 Well, we just realized that we didn't finish telling you about the rest of our trip home.  I don't know if we even remember the res...