They are finished

Finally finished the ladies this morning. Now I have to figure out where to put them. Decided to use black ribbon rather than waiting for red ribbon to get stocked at Walmart. 

I actually got up and got out for a walk this morning.  The sun was just coming up. 

The only almost cool part of the day. Already 85. One and a half miles. Didn't plan on going so long but half way through my walk two police cars and two ambulances came screaming into the park. Have not heard what happened, but don't think it was good.

When we were at the doctor's yesterday my blood pressure was way up. Either all the stress around the repairs and house arrest is driving it up. Or my meds aren't working any more. I prefer to think it is the being cooped up - so will try getting up early and walking. Also have to lose some weight. I hate going to doctor, I always feel fine going in and crappy coming out. Maybe the walking will improve my mood, feeling angry all the time. Poor Bill. Just one of the social areas where we live. There is a club house, gym, pool and all kinds of courts there. The club house and gym are still closed, but the pool is open for residents only. 

In the last couple of weeks all the palm trees have been scalped. Look so funny.

This is what our poor little bush will look like when it grows up. It has five flowers on it now. So doing well. 

Hum...workers said they would be here about five. Not here when I left nor when I came back from walk. Showed up about 7:30. Oh well, as long as they are here. Working pretty quickly today. Most of the doors are on and some of the hardware. Microwave is back up.

It now has a plug instead of just wires taped together. 

The hardware is a kind of bronze. 

And the kitchen is finished too. They were done, cleaned up and gone by noon. So now all the repair work is done. First call to insurance company was June 22 - so just over a month to complete. 

I still have to do some cleaning and rearranging. 

They sure look nice. 

A better view.  I know too many magnets on fridge. Too bad.

The laundry room with new floor and cupboards

The hallway cupboard and new flooring. Hardware matches kitchen. 

So now we have to take pictures and send to insurance company and mortgage company. That will keep till next week. 

Kitchen fiasco

The guys for the kitchen showed up yesterday at 6:00 p.m.to let us know they would be here today between 8 - 9:00 to put the doors in. They also asked about the microwave and hardware for the doors. They are supposed to provide both. We said okay but told them we have to leave the house today at 1:30 for doctors appointments. Well it is now 10:00 and still not here.They will probably show up at 1:30...This is the only day in three months that we have to be somewhere. Figures.
Oh, they just got here - 5 after 10:00 - better work fast. Oops, no microwave. Microwave??  So off to Home Depot to buy one. Back in kitchen. Oh no, they were sent with the wrong hinges for the doors. Had to go get the right ones. Where's the hardware? What hardware. A couple of calls back and forth with the main contractor and the builder of the cabinets and things were settled. [I hope- guess we will find out tomorrow. They said they will be here at 5:00 a.m.]

So here is what got done today. Discovering the wrong hinges. We were supposed to get and did finally get - hidden and self closing hinges. Nice. 

Trying to figure out which door went to which cupboard. A new door up along wall. 

Okay I think we have these figured out.  The big doors above and in this picture are for the pantry cupboard. 

The new doors are on several of the cupboards, but still a lot to go when we had to leave. 

So things sitting all over the house. 

Including the new microwave still sitting on the floor. A new electrical plug has to be installed as this is how it was. Talk about a fire waiting to happen. 

Our new trash can, it matches the doors. 

The new microwave sitting on the floor waiting for a plug. 

Heading into a very hot stretch again. Temps up to the 115's. Very, very low humidity. For at least the next week. Almost three hours at doctor's. I will say he spends a lot of time with us. 

Tomorrow is another fun day. 

Cleaning cupboard is like going down memory lane.

Nothing else going on around here so working on my ladies, these two are done.I used grosgrain ribbon for the borders. Will hang them on bamboo rods. I'm waiting for red ribbon to finish the last one. No idea where we will put them. 

The ribbon is a little different color then it shows. Almost perfectly matches flowers in her hair. The fan tassel is from some old curtain trim. 

Tuna can earrings. Another curtain tie back tassel. The flowers are little ribbon flowers from Walmart notions. 

Going through the cupboards and drawers. Found this. Forgot I had it. Do we even need to sift flour any more? I used to make two loaves of bread a day when the kids were little. Bought flour in 23 pound sacks. Long time ago.

This cookie sheet was made by one of our sons in middle school. When they still had shop classes. Don't remember who made it but it has to be at least 40 years old. 

Got this from the kids one Christmas - had to be early 70's. Still use it. 

One of the boys also made this in metal shop, a flour/sugar scoop. 

Forgot I had this. Just buy premade crusts now. Also found our old wooden rolling pin. I used to have a potato masher, but haven't found it yet. 

Old, old ice cream scoop - got it in early 70's.

Do you know what this is? Obviously a measuring cup. But it came with a silver rounded lid. You put milk/water and flour in it, put on the lid and shook it to blend the mix for gravy. The lid is long gone and the cup is so misshapen I don';t think it measures correctly anymore, but it is my go to measurer. 

The cupboard door guy didn't show up. So we are still without a microwave - well no that isn't true. Yesterday we ordered a small one from Walmart, it is sitting in the computer room. Heats coffee just fine. 

Made a couple of calls to Mexico this morning. One to our leather worker friend Roberto in La Noria. He and his family are doing fine. The tequila distillery is open and producing. The new hotel and restaurant built above Roberto's shop is very busy and doing great. 

Also talked to the baker, Ruben, in Centro. The one who makes the WONDERFUL DELICIOUS cinnamon rolls. He and his family are fine and his business is almost too busy. Glad to hear that. Makes us feel better to know they are all okay. 

Heading into more hot weather, AC came on at 7 a.m. this morning. And there is rain around us but not here in the valley so the humidity has gone up some. 

About it for today. 

Not quite so smug today.

Well the other night I used the Air Fryer for the first time. We had glazed salmon and seasoned potato wedges. Everything turned out perfect. So last night gave it another try. Disaster with a Capital D - Tried boneless skinless chicken breast and sweet potato fries. Fries were blackened but under cooked. (cutting sweet potatoes into same size strips was a joke.) And chicken was like chewing rubber - maybe the pieces have to be smaller.. And I used a recipe book. Guess from now on I'll take little steps. Maybe to much in there. No idea. Neither one of us could eat it. 

The painters of the kitchen were here until almost 7:00 Friday night. They didn't want to come back on Saturday.

Just some of the stuff from the cabinets and above the cabinets. Got some of it cleaned up and back in place today. 

A few of the serving pieces from our beautiful hand painted Mexican dinnerware set. Have service for six and all kinds of extra pieces. Each piece is hand painted and signed by artist. Colors are much more vivid than they show here. 

This morning's sunrise. Turned out to be a beautiful day, only 102.

The cupboards with their new paint. I still don't know what the doors are going to look like. 

Don't realize how much you use a microwave until it is sitting on the floor. Mainly for coffee reheating, but was going to zap some frozen vegetables to go with dinner. Ended up cooking them in a pan. 

I have been cleaning and rearranging the cupboards while they are easy to get at and look at what I found. This must be over 70 years old. I remember my mom using it to grind up chunks of bologna and dill pickles to make sandwich filling. Used to put it on the counter top edge. Won't fit on our granite top.Not getting rid of it though.

And I found the lemon juicer. We bought it in Mexico once when we got a hold of a lot of lemons. It is electric. 

Also this NuWave chopper? blender? what ever. Took me a bit to figure out how it went together to work. The motor is in the top piece. 

Debating about giving it to Goodwill or putting it back in the cupboard to forget about again. Tomorrow they might show up with the cupboard doors and then the mess will be done, I hope. 

Waiting for a grocery delivery today. Getting some more organizers for the cupboards. 

Learning to cook all over again.

Goody, cooler weather for a few days. Actually only 79 this morning when I got up. Nice to be able to have the doors open for a while. 
Bill's air fryer, a Chefman large RJ38-6-RDO, came late Wednesday evening. I figured he wanted it so he could cook in it. It has two mesh racks, a rotisserie spit and a mesh rotisserie basket. Also drip tray. Don't know what goes in the basket. 

Well turns out I cooked the first meal in it . We had seasoned potato wedges and glazed salmon filets. (should that have two l's) No cookbook with the fryer but went on line and found a couple of recipes. One for salmon and he found one for wedges and presented it to me.  We had some russet potatoes that needed to be used so...cut them up and seasoned them. Made a glaze for the salmon. Recipes said cook at 400  - 25 minutes for potatoes and 20 minutes for salmon. I let it preheat for a short time, don't know if I had to or not. Next time would only do potatoes for 20 minutes, almost too crispy. Salmon was perfect. along with asparagus [microwave] we had a very good meal. Should have taken a picture but didn't. Easy clean up. 
I was surprised how much the heat the machine put out though. Cannot keep it under the cupboards when it is cooking. Bill says he ordered two cookbooks that should come today or tomorrow. So guess I'll learn how to use it. I'm even ordering a pineapple for him to try the dehydration setting. 
The kitchen people showed up this morning. We knew they were coming so took everything off the counters and some of our stuff out of the cupboards. They said to leave the rest. Surprising how much crap sitting around the counter tops. 

The cupboards as they look now.  

 Starting to take the doors off. Both are wearing masks. As are we. 

 I always wonder why people like glass doors on their kitchen cabinets. There is nothing pretty about the inside of my cabinets. See the empty one above the microwave - it had a Cuisinart food processor in it!!! Guess I really should put it where I might use it. 

 At least our pantry is full in case things start getting hard to purchase again. Really need to start using some of the stuff. Hum...but that means I have to COOK - four letter word, just like IRON.

So the workers left to get the paint I guess, first they weren't going to paint until tomorrow. But plan changed it seems. 
Work on the ladies is at a standstill. I am going to put grosgrain ribbon around the edges, but did not get the width I wanted. So waiting for next delivery from Walmart. But it will look something like this. 

Watched NASCAR race last night. #18 managed to lead several laps, hopefully they gave finally figured out his car. He had a chance to win until he hit the wall. But came back to finish 11th. 

Later - OMG the painters are here. What a smell and it is too hot out to open doors and windows. Hopefully the AC will remove some of it. But this means we won't have workers here for the weekend and the cabinet doors will arrive Monday.

A classic case of "Our lack of preparation isn't their problem." Went into dining room and found all our beautiful serving pieces of our Mexican dinner ware on the floor. It usually sits on top of the cabinets. Didn't think they would need it moved. 

Oh boy, and they were just getting started. 

OH NO!!! the microwave is on the floor. How are we going to reheat our coffee or lunch/dinner??

They are completely sealing the cupboards off in preparation for sanding...

Went out to get a drink of water from fridge - guess not. 

Holy mackerel! We were hungry...too bad...

Not even a table to eat on. 

Bill got one of the guys to move his truck so we could get the car out of the garage and go get something for lunch. 

So hiding out in computer room, eating chicken and drinking warm water. But in the end it should be beautiful. Hopefully it won't be like this all weekend.