This Girl’s House

I decided to post to my blog while sitting in the Seatac Airport.  I just spent 2 days in Phoenix, and I wanted to write my impressions down.  The people were very friendly and very customer oriented.  I stayed at the Marriot Courtyard in Mesa, outside of Phoenix.  The price for the room with discount was $156 plus $18 tax per night.  That was kind of pricey as this was just a normal room, maybe even a little dated.  I remember thinking that the plumbing and furniture needed some updating.  But that was the hotel.  The city was a sprawling landscape of buildings, as most cities are.  The landscape was lots of light browns; the ground, the buildings, the signs.  They were blinding in the heat of a February day.  Is 80 degrees typical of February?  I wonder what it must be like in summer.  There are so many people who live in Phoenix, and yet I wonder, how this city can possibly sustain so many with limited water resources.  Surely those resources are limited.  And people can’t possible live here in the summer without air conditioning.  That must be some power bill.  The wet and mild weather of Puget Sound might be offputting to some folks, but I find myself gratified that I won’t have to worry about a limited water supply any time in the near future.

I had a chance to review the March Consumer Reports 2008 while sitting at the airport.  In this issue, I was interested in the following articles:  Best fabric softeners, Two Hybrids, Made in the USA, TV Stars, Interior Paints and Dishwashers.  I was gratified to see that my final choice for a Plasma Television made #1 on their list.  Now, if I can only get to Costco to grab mine before they are all snatched up.

We just got back fom vacation. I know. You’re asking what this has to do with building and maintaining my home.

I live in a house on the lake in the woods, a place that many people might feel is a vacation spot, and certainly I feel this way. But occasionally, one needs to get away from the routine, and that’s what vacation is for. It’s still winter, so we went somewhere warm. Acapulco.

I loved the resort. I felt extremely comfortable there. OK, well the beds weren’t all that comfortable. And our hotel room was right next to a construction zone.  But we didn’t spend that much time in the room. I wanted to figure out what was it about this place that I liked so much. By the end of the week, I had figured it out. It was the elements of outdoor living that I loved.

So the question I had to ask myself was how I could bring this lifestyle home, given the restrictions in weather where I lived. I wished I had taken pictures of the hotel and the lobby, pool and dining areas, but I still remember those elements that stood out.

• Everthing was outdoors. The large lobby, the bars, the restaurants.
• Large white and black italian marble.
• Dark wicker furniture with comfortable cushions.
• Dark large comfortable wooden furniture (chairs, couches and tables)
• Waist high concrete forms shaped liked boulders lined the paths, and these boulders were covered with a profusion of vined flowers.
• Travertine tile in the bathroom.
• Large tubs

OK, many of these ideas are items that I can incorporate into my home. OK, well maybe not the outdoor bars and restaurants. But I can shoot for an outdoor kitchen.

And speaking about vacations, our suitcases really took a beating this time. Straps broke and zippers were stretched to their limits and beyond. I was convinced that we needed to buy new suitcases, and if we intend to travel with any frequency, we will have to update our luggage regularly. So what to do with the old luggage that is not quite useless, but not quite good enough to donate to goodwill. I found a great idea in the Spring 2008 issue of Do It Yourself. There is the Craft suitcase in the weekend project cards. None of my craft hobbies would fit in one suitcase, but I could use a suitcase for my home Do It Yourself projects. One suitcase can hold my caulking equipment and caulking guns. Another suitcase my be useful to hold all of my sanding equipment and supplies. This is a great idea, so check it out