While you were out . . .

Here's a pic of our new 'open floorplan' in progress!













Here's the dining room and living room before we bought the house.

Maddie's Color

That girl has always known what she wants - - - and she goes after it and gets it!! Maddie picked a color for her room that I thought would never work and I was soooo wrong. It's great!

Ok, here's how it looked before (it was 2 rooms w/ 2 doors).

And here's the new color.
Lovely!!

Before & After

So . . . we've owned the new house for about 6 weeks. Getting out of the old one was hard. Too much stuff to pack but that's old news now. We've been here for a few weeks, still sleeping on air mattresses on the floor, listening to the floor sanders all day and stepping around painters and construction. Whew! I'm so glad that at least it hasn't been a super hot summer.

The porch was the first area to be completed. That was the plan. We need a 'refuge' while everything else is going on. It's been painted, patched, got new steps, lovely lighting and even an outdoor ceiling fan. (We threw the shutters in the dumpster.) Ah! It's really nice out there.

El Alcalde de Guanaja

A friend on Guanaja recently sent this link (below) to let me know that the mayor (alcalde) was accused of assisting in land theft.

http://www.tiempo.hn/index.php/secciones/el-pais/18890-por-abuso-de-autoridad-juzgado-impone-medidas-cautelares-a-alcalde-de-guanaja

Land theft in the Bay Islands is not as easy as it once was but it's still not too hard as long as you know the right people . . . like el alcalde. Honduras is totally about who you know.

This is not so easy . . .

Wow! To all the bloggers I've ever read, I get it! This is not so easy to begin. Seems like the first step should be to narrow down the focus. Uh . . . ok, trying to do that.

This week: This week we are buying a new house. In fact, that is happening in about 31 hours. It's in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia and needs lots of work. Our current home is lovely. I love our kitchen, our playroom, the view and the pool. We're missing it already but it's in the wrong place. The kids need to be near their friends and I want to stop driving the mini-van so much.

The new house has a big front porch. The first thing that's planned is to have the painter come and freshen it up so that at least we have a place to sit and chill. Well, it needs more than a 'freshening.' The front steps are deteriorating and we discovered last week that they are held together with duct tape that is painted over with grey porch paint. That wasn't nice. Porch steps are not meant to be secured with duct tape.

I can't wait for the first day when I get to hang out on the porch and drink iced tea w/ a friend while the kids play loud music, text each other from the next room (who needs intercoms?) and throw a football around in the yard. Hope it's soon. . . . Looking toward the light . . .