Happy last-day-of-July Wednesday! Here are the latest things we are looking back on and ahead to this week.
Last week, we had our house re-roofed.
The company we choose to do the work did a good job. They worked quickly and were done in just one day. They also cleaned up their mess, which is huge when you are having the roof stripped down to the wood and then re-shingled.
The house doesn't look a lot different because the new shingles we selected are similar in color to the old shingles that were removed, but we know now that our roof is new and tight and won't be leaking anytime soon.
While we are improving and updating our home, we decided to re-do the lighting in the kitchen. We are having some of the ancient florescent lighting, like this antique above the sink, replaced.
This box florescent light, which tends to give me a headache, is being replaced with more modern recessed canned lighting.
As I am writing this post, our excellent electrician and his helper are busily working in the kitchen. The old box light is down and you can see at least one of the new recessed lights. I am so excited about this project. The old lights in the kitchen were horrible and, as I said, gave me headaches.
Just as I was finishing up this post, the electrician finished his work, so this is the new lighting in our kitchen. I am loving it! We will have our painter come and fix and repaint the ceiling now that the lighting is complete.
Another home improvement project I am excited about is the remodeling of our basement. Our contractor called us last night and said we are on his calendar for October. That is still a ways out. We were hoping to get that big project at least started this summer, but contractors around here are completely overwhelmed with work as many homeowners are remodeling and renovating in the crazy, expensive real estate market here in Salt Lake City.
We are looking forward to the remodel of our very outdated basement, even if we have to wait a few months for the work to begin.
Last week, as Charly and I were taking our morning walk along this busy street not far from our home, a goose wandered our of someone's back yard and into the six-lane street during morning rush hour. I told Charly, I couldn't bear to see someone hit the goose, but amazingly, you will see that all the drivers stopped and one driver even got out of his car to try and chase the goose out of the street. I was impressed that people were willing to stop and save an animal that had wandered into traffic. Here is the resulting stopped traffic as people tried to save the goose. End of the story - the goose was was herded out of harm's way and back into his yard. A happy ending - and a demonstration of human care and kindness!
Another interesting animal story in our back yard is this pair of mated quail that lives in and around our hard. The other day, they were making quite a racket, hoping and flying around our backyard. Here they are on top of the roof of our shed. The next day, our neighbor found a nest of baby quail in her yard. My husband thinks the parents were trying to protect their young my causing a noisy distraction.
My garden continues to do well, even with in the end-of-July heat. Here is a salad we had last week, with kale, cucumbers and tomatoes from our garden. The garden fresh vegetables were delicious!
I recently finished this nice little book. Based on the true experiences of one of Sudan's "Lost Boys" who manages to survive the tribal wars of the 1980s, make it to America and then return much later to help his impoverished country. Although the book is short and written to young readers (upper elementary to middle school), it is a worthwhile read for anyone because the story is important - worth telling and worth reading.
Speaking of reading, Charly and I participated in the adult summer reading challenge at our local library this summer. When my kids were growing up, they did the summer reading programs at whatever library we lived near. They always enjoyed the fun prizes and activities from reading and participating. This is the first time, however, that I did a summer reading challenge. It was fun, and Charly and I both earned two free books!
The place was clean, the service excellent and the people were really nice. Best of all the food was delicious. In addition to sandwiches and Mediterranean favorites, they have homemade desserts like Baklava and Cannoli.
Everything was so yummy! We will definitely return to this place!
Charly and I have been doing our daily walks, even in the heat of summer. You can see from my "Map My Walk" app that we walked over 15 and a half miles last week! We love our walks together. It is a highlight of each day!
Because of the heat, we have been walking at a mall a few miles from our home. We usually go in the morning before the mall opens. Makes me feel a bit old, joining the other retired mall-walkers each morning, but it is actually a great place to get our miles in each day, especially when it is hot outside.
Last Saturday afternoon, I was able to take some time out and spend some peaceful worship time at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. I had not been to this temple since it was brand new and we attended the open house several years ago. Although Charly was pretty tired that day and didn't join me, I loved being at this beautiful House of the Lord.
We are moving forward on purchasing our investment property condo. We actually found an second condo, identical to the one we had put an offer on, except the new condo is in better condition and thousands less! We made an offer on the second condo and it was accepted, so we are moving ahead with that. I love that we are able to get a better condo for much less, in this same lovely condominium complex not far from our home. (The unit we are buying is the middle level unit on the left with the barbecue grill on the deck).
Finally, we are planning a trip to see our oldest son, Alex, who lives in Nevada. We have been trying to arrange this trip almost all summer and we were finally able to find a time that worked for everyone. We haven't seen him since he came to see Charly when he was in the hospital last November. We are really looking forward to getting together with Alex and his wife, Jessica, before they move to California, farther away from us. We are sure proud of this handsome guy, as we are of our all children.
Our summer is just about over and we will be going back to school in less than two weeks, but these last few days are completely jam packed and busy with lots of great things, so we are happy and excited as the summer comes to a close.
I will leave with this thought for the week:
