For Older People with Sense

Barbe, That is just a lovely place. It should sell like hotcakes. I see what you meant about the gray in the living room. It looks really nice.

Thanks, guys! Had our first viewing yesterday. I had to move boxes and lay tile in the basement bathroom by myself before the viewing!! Almost killed me...

Lisa, to me cactus flowers are just fake straw flowers plugged onto cheap little plants in the grocery store!! How novel to see them live! Are all those stamens going to open up like the star ones already open? Stunning!

Across the street is the San Diego Zoo

I try to go after Doctor visits at the Navy Hospital there also

I just saw these I took this spring of a  Orang Mother and baby

so here is what Dad does

Thanks Carole. No, I find as an artist that it comes out in my decorating. I LOVE redoing rooms and would rather move than clean...hehehehehehe. I love seeing where the same furniture goes into the new space - one of the ways I fall asleep at night. I have no emotional bond to any of the furniture, so if someone wants it they can buy it. My mom and step-mom both sold houses with all the furniture included. It would save us $5,000 in moving costs!!!

Wren, my living room is the gray room and faces east but does not get direct sun, the basement family room faces the same way and is the burnt orange. Both colours have warm undertones and I keep the trim and ceilings a sharp white. Both rooms need lights on  in the late afternoon as they are darker rooms, so would be the same for north facing. Colours either have more blue or more yellow in them. You must be careful which way your choice goes. Think of taupe. There is cafe au lait, bandaid coloured, paper bag colour, skin colour, green - pink - yellow undertones and yet they are all called taupe. Most people make a mistake with yellow and get too bright and acidy a yellow. I am a colour expert and do talks and seminars on it and it was hard for me to understand that people don`t see colour the same way I do. No, I can`t PICTURE what a room will look like, but I do know what GOES.

barbe, your house is beautiful!!!! All that work is amazing!! Someone will snap it up!

3jays, I thought your purple gloves were a fashion statement! lol! I have printed out one of the pics of us both and have it in my office. think of you all the time!!!

Chrissy, are ya feeling better yet?

lilyrose, thinking about you, too. We (or I) worry when we don't hear from you, so keep us posted, please!

Kathy, I don't know how you keep up with those kids. My DD brings the 2 kids she babysits for over sometimes and they wear me right out. We are planning on taking them to an outdoor exhibit this week, where we will follow storyboards through the woods. Stuff like that is so much more fun with kids. We were going to go on Saturday, but it has been raining all weekend.

I have gotten a new computer so I spent lots of time getting it set up and bringing over all my financial records. The house is progressing. They got the inside walls up last week. Yay!!! It looks great! I will take pictures when the sun comes back out.

I saw a new doc last week, too. She is a physiatrist. Hopefully she will be able to help me. She does pain management without narcotics. She did trigger point injections for me in my upper back and neck. Then she took my file to study and will see me in 2 weeks.  

Leah, I pray morning and night for you and your family!!!!

Thanks ladies! That validates my efforts. Wren you need to use colour with yellow undertones in a cold exposure, but not yellow. Does that make sense? I laugh when people paint dark spaces with light colours. When we moved in the rooms that are now orange were baby blue with gray carpet!! Seriously??? Then you just have light walls in a dark room! I guarantee if you think about a room that gave you a `hug` when you walked in, it had either dark floors or walls. Think of a fav restaurant or hotel or pub (harder for those in the bright south of California but I think you get what I mean).

Lisa, I don`t see the road coming out...is that a covered bridge or just a shed?

oh barbe, I wish you were here to give advice. We're trying to decide color for the ceilings. The porch ceiling they primed this morning with a white, but I don't like it. I want it blue (like a gray blue) DD is off gallivanting now that she can walk, but we need to make a decision tomorrow morning. Then there is the post and beam ceiling in the living area. Should we just clear coat it or stain? Aghhhh! I get all bent up about these decisions, like they are so important? The wood floor is going to be stained walnut.

I took a nice Epsom salt bath today. Soaked for 15 minutes then wrapped up in towels and a robe and sweated in bed for 10 minutes, then did it all again. Hopefully something left my system!

Well, there`s the other side!!!!

mac, it all depends on how much light comes into a room. Do you want the beams to be highlighted? Is the ceiling tall enough to take beams stained the same colour as the floor or do they need to just be texture and be painted out white? As for the porch ceiling, a blue-ish gray would be very pretty and unexpected and not do any damage or offend anyone  so you are right!

As for wall colour with the walnut floor, you have to make sure you are not fighting the colour. I HATE when I see dusty rose walls with orange-y oak floors! (Remember that `80`s colour of pink??) Think of colours you see in large quantity in nature if you want a calm pallate....wheat field raffia golden yellow, slate blue of ocean, dusty green of far horizons....not the red and purple tuplips of Holland fields unless you are looking for some fun. Pure colours close to the centre of the colour wheel are good for juvenile bedrooms - think Fisher Price Toys. Pale white-tinted colours are soothing at an ocean front with wide bright windows bringing in tons of sunlight, otherwise they looked washed out in most homes. Grayed-down tones are the easiest to live with so talk to your paint pro and here`s a tip: if you chose a colour on a swatch, make sure you use the same level on another swatch for the next room, and so on. You might be able to deviate down one, but never up one or down more than one. If you know what I mean? The colour swatches are made to work this way. There is no point having a lovely deep colour in one room and then a prissy light one in the next! There has to be some semblance of order or the house will be jarring. A triadic colour choice is always a good one, too. 3 colours picked exactly evenly around a colour wheel - for example orange, yellow and green. Any variation of those three colours flow smoothly from room to room. Or you can use colours beside each other on the colour wheel for a calmer flow. Colours directly opposite are okay for accents but are jarring on walls - think red an green of Christmas!!

Can`t wait to see what you do!

Congrats on treating yourself to a new camera, Chrissy. I know I don't have to tell YOU that life is too short!

Barbe, your discussion of room color is fascinating.  And over my head! 

Chrissy, you must be so excited about the new camera.  I'm looking forward to seeing some of your pictures.

I had an attack of vertigo last night.  Got up to go to the bathroom and had to hang onto surfaces.  I've had vertigo in the past and this was a little different.  Naturally, my first thought was...stroke.  This morning some of the symptoms hung on but I'm feeling normal now, thank goodness.

pocket door for the bathroom. See the beamed ceiling and the heart of pine floor.

Hi all

I have posted this elsewhere but copying means I don't have to type too much

Haven't been on much; have been reading though but haven't felt like
sitting at the computer so things are improving for me. For the last few
weeks have been hit with a very bad RA and fibro flare. Just haven't
been able to move and feeling dreadful; pain does get you down. Have
started a new drug which is working pain wise but not so sure about side
affects as I am shakey and a bit spaced out. Then big advantage to
feeling like this is that I knit or sew to make my hands work.

Barbe I know your house is wonderful. I have seen it and loved it.

Mac - wow

Big hugs to all.