Raining in Iowa. Same hoops as caroline. Here for distraction because my genealogy wheels are spinning me into a deep rabbit hole. I need to step back and rethink what I'm doing.

hi phoggie! thx for coming by to 'see' us. I've been wondering how you're doing and if you still came to any forums here.

it's cooling down a bit in AZ. When it cools down at night, it is cooler in the day time then. another week or so and it'll be much cooler. my a/c isn't running 24/7 anymore. i'm grateful for the cut in the electric bill! I'm starting to plan for winter here - and will need to move a few things to put the fireplace heater back in my bedroom. That means I'll need to move the printer that is now occupying it's space.

Join us more often! how's life for you on the lake front? still loving your new house?

Haven't seen a post here from LL in a long time. Been wondering about her too.

She was busy writing books, but I don't know if she is still doing that.

Good to read your response, steph. I am doing great and still love my house on our little lake. It was a good decision for where I am in life.

We have had a wonderful summer and fall...a few very hot days but nothing like we usually have and plentiful rains so I never had to water my lawn and the lake stayed full and pretty.

I have put our fall decor but leaves have not started turning here yet. I love fall colors...and was getting tired of summer things.

What kind of books is LL writing? She was always so kind and knowledgeable on this site.

I hope all has been good with you and yours.

LL writes romantic novels. Not my cup a tea so I don't know anything about them. You can buy them on Amazon I think.

Rain here today. My handyman came this afternoon and we laid plywood floor in an upstairs bedroom. I had varnished it several coats and it looks really nice. I'm going to rip up the old carpet in the stairwell and down the steps next. I know it's glued on so a major project.

Hello all. Texas in the house! Perfect almost fall weather here. It looks like everyone has a "project" they are working on. I'm going to pick ordering window coverings during the month of October. Of course, the 4 year "temporary" blinds are still holding up fine to me.

'LL writes romantic novels. Not my cup a tea so I don't know anything about them. You can buy them on Amazon I think.'

yes, I remember that, but not what name she was under, or a title name!

I don't read things like that anymore either. So, no way to check if she's active there or has a new book posted on it.

LL’ s writing romance novels surprises me....I thought it would be more like something about the outdoors... I would like to know what name she uses if someone knows so I can search Amazon. Thanks

Hi Phoggie,

Funny I was thinking about Lavender Lass myself! Yes, they are romance novels.

True about the political threads. But, they are usually few and far in between here.

Glad you are doing well.

I think she used Lavender Lass as a pen name. I wonder if you would find her here with a search... With Houzz mixing in with us a search might not produce her.

https://lavenderlassbooks.com/

I started thinking about you all this morning and what do you know? LOL I am writing books and they're romances, a fairytale, a murder mystery, and some non-fiction. In one book (first of a series) these two cousins inherit a huge mansion in the San Juan Islands. Lots of details with the house and gardens...hmm.

It's so good to see you are all doing well and still on the forum. Phoggie, I'm so glad your house is all you hoped it would be. I still think it's one of my favorite home plans!

My books are under my "real" name Lorri Moulton and yes, that link posted above will go to my website.

We weren't sure we could keep our farm (dark days after my husband's illness) but we are still here, we still have our horses and eventually, I may be thinking about remodeling our farmhouse again.

I'll try to stop by more often! Hope you all had a wonderful summer and are enjoying the cooler weather. :)

ETA: If anyone is on Facebook, stop by and have tea!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1696229844029432/

Iowa, please tell me more about your plywood floors.

I'm thinking about floors a lot right now and not terribly enthusiastic about anything, or maybe I'm enthusiastic about too many things.

I currently have faux wood laminate in the living room. way back, I put in stripes, 14 inches of medium dark, 14 inches of medium light, running the length of the room. I love the stripes, HATE the laminate. I have since removed a center of the room free standing hearth, there is a gaping hole in the flooring, patched with leftover bits, so I need to replace it with something anyway.

I'm not sure how plywood would work to get my stripes in that one, score and stain stripes?

Wood floors are so expensive, I'm not sure I want to put the money into them, and I have two cats and a dog at 10 and 11 years old. Mistakes are bound to happen in the next few years and I'd rather not have them happen on expensive floors.

I want to put a light driftwood gray floor in my bedroom. Plywood seems kind of an attractive idea for that space. I could gel stain it gray and still have some wood grain I think.

I'm kind of intrigued by luxury vinyl plank, but need to go look at some. I was really taken by an apartment therapy piece about composite vinyl tile. There was a photo of a floor with stripes like mine in green and white that I really liked. But I worry about the tile separating over time and whether it would feel hard underfoot ( I have wood sub floor though, not concrete). I like some I saw online in sagey/mossy green and off-white, but it would be a huge change and I can't quite visualize it. Though I like the idea of using the same light color in living room and bedroom.

The commercial VCT stuff at my work place looks awful now, though it is 20 years old and gets heavy use with lots of dirt coming in from field plots and has suffered from inconsistent janitorial service (which also pretty much sums up my housekeeping interest). I don't remember how long it took to get awful.

And I love, love, LOVE this for my kitchen

http://www.zazous.co.uk/PBSCProduct.asp?ItmID=8559555

I have never considered plywood. How tight are the joins between sheets? Do you glue it down? What grade/type are you using?

LL - soooo happy to 'see' you here again! how's it going with 'mom' living with you? how's hubby doing?

very happy to hear you might be soon thinking of the farmhouse remodel again!

what else have you done in your house now? I don't think the kitchen was finished the last post I read from you... floors down? cabinets in? painting done? let us know!

phoggie - i'm so happy that your build on the lake has been a blessing for you! you went thru some rough times prior to that. glad life has settled down and is good for you. did you get landscaping done out front?

now if we could get ML to come back and post pics of her remodel...

and hear from IDIE, who was also doing some remodeling and hasn't been back (in yrs!) to post it.

I've pretty much stopped with anything other than surviving for now. I had someone coming over to do a few things - like change light bulbs (too high up for me), clear the weeds out back (they're baaaack!), move some things, set up wifi (which died a month or so later (borrowed router) - so I bought a new one and need to have her come back, to reconnect a few things. I just can't seem to figure that all out. I have enough hassle/stress fighting with my new computer. that drives me nuts!

Maybe if my new doc can get my body shaped up (health wise), I can get back to doing something here. I did buy a new vacuum - for mostly non carpet, since I only have an area rug or 2 (they're flat ones, like indoor/outdoor carpet).

will come back later to comment on a few other posts.

Steph- We haven't done all that much this summer. So many fires in the area, we couldn't open the windows to paint! It was either too hot, too smoky or someone was plowing nearby.

I hope we can get the kitchen finished, but we have added the new floor and my mom is looking for some tiles to put behind the cooktop. She loves living on the farm and it's nice having her here! Did I mention she loves to weed? LOL

Seriously, it's been a crazy couple of years, but everyone is doing well and I hope you're feeling better soon! Take care of yourself and enjoy this (hopefully) cooler fall weather. :)

"I'm kind of intrigued by luxury vinyl plank"

that's what I had put down in kitchen and hallway. I still have lots of it for the LR/DR area. I had a terrible time deciding what to use. had to keep it within my price range, wanted a light color. tile was too heavy for here - and would be too hard on my feet, legs and back. Finding something I liked, took a long time. I figured the planks would go down faster, and if there was a leak somewhere, I could pull them up myself, so that it didn't get musty or moldy under them. I do love it. I got a beigey - grey color, made by Armstrong. When I saw how much I liked it down on the floor, I went back to get more but our HD had stopped carrying it. It's fine on my feet - I do wear 'shoes' in the house. slip - ons with a 1" wedge and made of vinyl. lots of give in the soles.

I'll have to look for something else for the bedrooms and I'd like sheet vinyl in the laundry room and bathrooms. but that's not happening anytime soon.

"She loves living on the farm and it's nice having her here! Did I mention she loves to weed? "

that's good that it's all working out! and great that she loves to weed, and still can! more than 5 min of weeding would cause me to need to lie flat down, for at least an hour.

the nights are so much cooler, that it helps a lot during the day time. the heat isn't blasting from the sky and the ground! and it's running in the 90s this week, which sure beats 110 or so. I expect next week will mostly be in the 80s tho. I've already had to turn the fan off at night - and the a/c hasn't come on at night for a few weeks now. I'm planning to switch from a sheet on me at night, to a blanket - this week!

the doctor has me coming in once a week for vit B12 shots, and gave me a prescription for vit D, for the next 12 weeks. I hope that makes a big difference in how I feel. I was far below the lowest allowable level for both of those. I'm so glad I found a new doctor. I'm still taking it rather easy, until I have some more of both in my system, for a week or so.

Hi Everybody!

That is great, Steph, that you have a doc now who is looking into these kind of things. There has been a great push in the last 5 years to get Vit B12 and Vit D levels up in folks who have it low. If you are not feeling better, you might try the natural sunshine for D. Some studies are suggesting that supplements are not helping some folks. I am probably one who should get out and get more sun, and I rarely leave the house these days!

I sprained my knee pretty badly in July and am just getting so that I can walk without my walker outside of the house for short trips. Guess how I did it? Fell in the bathtub and smashed my knee on the side of the tub. Yes, THAT bathtub. The one that was going to be GONE by now, replaced by my roll-in handicapped shower. So I got back into investigating shower components because my Swanstone shower pan is just too narrow at 34" deep. (32" in practice, once you get the walls up and everything in place.) I did find one that is 37.75" deep, so I am optimistic that it will be the best choice. I even called Jim and he has us on his schedule for January-February-ish! I am also having him widen all my doorways to 36" wide.

I was just looking at ML's post from 2015 of her kitchen just after the appliances got working. I was looking for the word "penguin" in a post on this forum because I am trying to find the cute little penguin faucet that I found once. Her post popped up in that search. I cannot for the life of me figure out who made it! It has been gnawing on my memory in the back of my mind for months! I know I talked about it here or in "Baths." And I just can't find it.

My other project has been redecorating/refurnishing the family room. It started because I have this old Mini-Dachshund, Lizzy. The grass was growing too fast in the spring and was getting higher than she is between weekly cuts. So she did not want to go outside to pee and started peeing on our family room rug. So we rolled up the rug and threw it away. The flooring under it is real Forbo sheet Linoleum that we had installed in 2010 when the kitchen was done. We had the flooring run through to the family room, too.

Well, the lino started to speak. It started to argue with me about my furnishings. It seemed to understand that I was not doing any real "decorating" plan in the room, but that it was thrown together from Craigslist and Clearance Centers. It also seemed to be reading what was in my heart.

"Give in," it said. "Quit fighting us. The sliding glass door, the lack of windows, the big wall of brown brick with the little fireplace in it. You know what we represent. I can tell because you put me here. If you did not feel Mid Century Modern in your bones, why did you put me in here? So give in to us. That Brown Wall O'Brick is not going anywhere. I know you hate it, but do you really? It is still here, and it has been 12 years now. If you really hated it, there would be no brown brick sucking what little light you have out of the family room." So get rid of the Craigslist over-stuffed brown leather and get me an orange MCM sofa! I want rich walnut! I want color! Those cabinets you put into the kitchen - they are modern. See, so get the furniture up on legs. No more skirts!"

A trip to Macy's got us a Terra Cotta orange sofa. I just ordered a tangerine recliner for DH. I have a newish lift chair that is in blah-light brown, but that is just the nature of the beast. We also found an MCM chair at a Retro antique shop and I have ID'd an upholstery shop to do the work. I need to email them the photos to get an idea of how many yards of the light orange fabric to send for. I have found a coffee table (made in Italy) that transforms from a low coffee table into a long dining table, and will be sending for it in Walnut. I have two end tables from used furniture stores in walnut.

Lavender Lass, it is good to hear that you did not have to move, after all. None of those houses sounded right for you and your mom, or the horses.

It is good to read how everyone is doing. Thanks, Phoggie for starting this thread!

'There has been a great push in the last 5 years to get Vit B12 and Vit D levels up in folks who have it low.'

so good to 'see' you - it's been a long time!

it's interesting that you posted the above about vit b12 and D. my sister has been telling me this week, that the news is saying people are taking too much of both! that's not what I hear or read online. I think she is trying to tell me I'll OD on them! when she gets something in her head (even incorrectly), there's no telling her, that her info is wrong.

I looked the numbers up online after I got home from the doc's to see for myself. I looked at several sites too. low on those 2, explains a lot about how bad I've been this past yr and continuing the slide downward. I had to stay out of the sun this past summer. between my eye and low potassium, it was trying to do me in... I'll get outside more now that it is cooling down.

I don't remember reading about a penguin faucet on here, and I haven't been to 'baths' for a long time. not much going on there, especially after you stopped posting about your bathroom.

so sorry to hear about the fall! I fear things like that - I'd be in deep trouble here alone - and with 4 steps up / down to the house. it's been on my mind again lately, to plan for a ramp, for easier access. maybe next year..

I do think the 32" shower base would be too small. go for the larger one if you can fit it in. it'll be worth it in the long run / use. I love having a walk in shower. no more climbing over the edge of a tub. I want to have the tub in my bathroom torn out. it's a waste of space.

your poor baby probably thought she'd be lost in a 'forest' and never found!

the sofa sounds super - be sure to post a pic of it when you get it.

can you paint the brick on the wall? or do you think it'll be ok with the sofa color change?

I ordered an Origami shelving unit for my bedroom (for cpu, router, books etc) and I ordered it in amethyst. i'm hoping I don't regret that, but I can spray paint it, if it's horrible. I just couldn't go with a bronze metal or other dark color with all of my dark wood furniture in here. so I just went for the wild color! hopefully, it'll look good with the purple and green of my comforter and soon to be purple (or green) curtains. i'm being forced to change the curtains because one of them shredded last spring when it was washed. they're very old (from my mom's apt and she died in '98). my 30 something nephew recognized them as having been 'in grandma's bedroom' - that was a good 20 yrs ago. he was a teenager! I've had them hanging in the AZ sun for about 6 yrs. long enough to sun rot them. I had him put them back up for the time being... until I got out to buy something. not up to 'shopping', but I saw some purple curtains at W and bought one to try out.

Oh it was such a pleasant surprise to check in today and see so many of my “small house “friends had responded. Desertsteph, I hope you are feeling much better by now. I have been low in B12 and D and it really does zap you.

Nancy, I hope your sprain is better by now...I love my walk in shower because no way would these old knees get in and out of a tub anymore. Please post pictures of your room after you get it all fixed up.

Lavender Lass, I was so excited that you just happened to stop by for a visit. So glad you got to stay on your farm and it is working out well with your mom being with you. I will have to see if I can find one of your books...how exciting for you to be able to write books!

Today is cloudy, windy, and chilly! Tomorrow is going to be very cold for the little goblins. I hope it warms back up this week....I have a trip planned to Branson, MO, for a few days and hoping it is nice....we have tickets to go to several shows.

You all take care....and yes desert, I did get my landscaping done the fall after I moved in. The day lilies are mostly yellow and some are red with yellow centers. There are 5 boxwood behind the lilies that are in the shade in this pic.

stringweaver, I just stopped in and saw your question. I used paneling nails to nail it along each edge and a row down the middle. I'd say about a foot apart. I had used cabinet grade plywood about 15 years ago on my sewing room floor but this time I had to hire help and he insisted we use subfloor. I didn't want to because it's ugly and plywood is pretty but it was for upstairs and I finally gave up arguing. As it turned out it looks fine. I'll just add a couple of pictures. Floor is floor.

This is the top of the stairs where it branches off to the bedrooms.

Yes, if we wouldn't have been in a time crunch and if I wanted to spend more money on labor I would have cut these in strips or squares and done a patchwork but I got the "you can't be serious" look when I said that out loud. It would have been a fabulous parquet look in alternating 12 inch squares. AND it would have solved the 9 foot wide room above since the floor came 4x8. It's done. It's clean. I'm happy. It didn't cost a fortune. It's better than it was.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/4910045/tuesday-eve?n=1

" have been low in B12 and D and it really does zap you."

yeah, I haven't been doing good - I'd lose a race with a turtle! the NP said it'd be 12 wks of it. tomorrow I go for my 3rd B12 shot and next Sat I'll take my 3rd vit D pill. so, I'll be 3 wks thru it... I do feel somewhat better, so if it keeps up each week, maybe I'll be ok. How does this happen? did you find out how yours got so low? I'll have to read up on it more. I guess as we get older, we lose it. or maybe it's my eating habits. I'll ask the doctor. I do wonder how long I've been this low tho. I bought a number of supplements that i'm now taking. 1 is for the eyes, since I have a problem with inflammation in the left one. there's a marker in my blood that shows a tendency for inflammation and the eyes are on the list. I figure I might as well be pro-active on it. besides seeing the eye doc once a yr (unless needed sooner).

I still get tired easily. I even fell asleep while typing this post! I don't understand how I can do that... but I do.

your porch area looks great! and I love the porch too.