4-7-2016---time to take pictures of the house!

After weeks of work sprucing up the house, carting out excess stuff, cleaning, tons of yard work, ... , it was finally time for Angie to take pictures of her house and send them to her realtor.  Her realtor usually hires a photographer to take the pictures, but she's good friends with him and convinced him to let her take the pictures.  I was along to loan her my heavy duty tripod, dslr, super wide angle non-distortion lens, flash, and support.  I knew when she was ready, she would take amazing photos and she did!  Here's the ones she edited and sent to the realtor.

love these driveways

sure going to miss this pool and deck!

and our bar b qs

great place to sit and watch the Florida downpours.

or lounge and soak in the sun.

not a huge yard, but large enough.

so nice seeing grass where the dogs use to run.

I sat in that chair and watched more then one sunset.

I love the jungle like area to the side of the back yard.

You don't realize how large these houses are until you see the sides of them.

the other side.

the beautiful front yard again.

entrance showing off the fountain her inlaws cleaned so thoroughly.

to the left of the front door (looking in)

to the right of the front door.

dining room from kitchen entry.

eat in kitchen

new countertops and appliances, the back splash we helped her install.  The new handles she and just installed

the butcher block top to the desk that she installed and the corbels under the cabinet.  Garage door I painted.

love the open concept.

love the ambient light!  The realtor suggested taking the ceiling fan down or putting up one with a light, but having used it for 3 years, we knew it was necessary and didn't need more light.  May not be fancy, but certainly practical. 

I also like the way it has dual ACs and the areas are separated by a pocket door.

The guest bathroom that she redid a couple years ago.  Love the board and batten.

The bedroom with french doors that they used as an office----I love the Tommy Bahama desk!  Neat seeing my Dad's old console record player/radio in there, too.

She even used very South Florida/Caribbean paint colors in 3 of the bedrooms.  This one is more coral then pink like it looks here.  The old night stands are from the old bedroom sets my sister and I had as kids.

The yellow room.

Loved that it had a walk in closet.  The bedrooms certainly are roomy.  I always remember going to Coral Gables with her to get that bed from an estate sale whenever I see it.

the HUGE master bedroom. 

the master bath that I "helped" her with over the past month or so.  I would love to have it!

Even like the huge step down shower.

I told Angie she needs to go into business staging and photographing houses!  I think it looks like a house out of a decorator magazine!

 Goes on the market Friday morning as soon as Robert gets it online---although he's bringing a client by before then. 

4-4-16 --- yard work!!!!

Yesterday Ken and I went over to the Hicks' house while Angie was at church and mowed, raked, and blew leaves around.  When Angie got home, she went on to packing more stuff, so we went on home and I hit the pool.  The pool was very much therapeutic yesterday!!!

With the temperatures down to about 80 today, we decided it would be a good day to get the resodding and other yard work done---or at least started!  So we heading out with Angie at about 11:30 to run to Home Depot for dirt, mulch, lava rock, and a couple other things she needed.  Unfortunately they didn't have the rock she wanted, so we then took off to Lowes.  Fortunately, they did.  Some $50 later, we left with 9 bags of rock, 6 bags of mulch, and 4 bags of dirt.  That didn't go too far!  So back to Lowes for pretty close to that much more.  Then Angie and Ken headed off to the nursery to get a palette of sod.  That took 3 trips with the back of their SUV full each time!  While they ran for that, I cleaned the inside of the fountain again, trimmed more palm branches by the front walkway, swept dirt off the driveway, and started taking wheel barrels full of sod to the back yard.  Sure looked like a lot of sod!  Sure was a lot of work!!  Sure looks a lot better!!!
First time I've seen an Ibis in their yard!  Angie said there were 3 of them out there while she and Ken where laying some rock and dirt around. 

 About 6 we took a break for pizza, then got back out to try and finish up before the sun set. 

 Hard to believe that was all dirt!  Looks so nice now.  Hard to believe a palette of sod didn't go as far as I  thought it would.

At least sunset isn't until about 7:40 now.

It was all dirt to the other side of the little palm.

The dogs did a job on the lawn which is why she took them to Georgia before we tackled this project.  It's almost back to the way it was when they bought the place.

This area was a mud pit!  Angie built it up with the lava rock and dirt, then laid sod on it.  The neighbor's yard had sloped into theirs, so when his sprinkler went off, the area flooded.  Then the dogs ran it into mud and tracked it into the patio area.  Amazing how good it all looks now!  But now we won't be able to enjoy it! 

Still some more rocks to go here and there and a bunch of mulch, but the wheel barrels full of sod are done---Yes!!! 

4-1-16 --- Sunset in Coral Springs, Fl:

More working on the Hicks' house.  It's almost there!  Today the power wash people came and washed the tile roof, pool deck, driveway, and some of the walls.  Angie even replaced 3 of the screens on the pool enclosure.  She got quite good at it when Murphy and Micky kept going through the screens.  A few months ago she had pet screen put on the lower areas and it really worked!---Micky no longer went through any of the screens.  But one of the upper screens, the upper screen of one of the screen doors, and the little lower area they left unscreened as a doggie door needed to be screened.  I even tried rolling the spline into part of it and it's not easy!!!  After a few knuckles across the screen, I decided to leave it to the experienced one!  Just a bit left to do on the outside.  By a bit, I mean mowing, resodding a bunch of dirt thanks to having 2 dogs running all over it for 3 1/2 years, mulching some areas in the back, adding lava rock by the downspouts,... but the finishing touches are beginning!  Maybe by next Friday it'll be on the market! 

Managed to be done doing whatever we could for the day and headed out for a sunset.  We had passed an industrial area not far from our place that actually had a nicely landscaped area around a pond.  So we went there tonight.  Not the most spectacular of sunsets, but any sunset is a good one!

looking to the East

A policeman even drove by and stopped.  He asked if everything was ok, I said yes that I was just taking sunset pictures.  To which he replied so did he. 

March 24, 2016---checking out Buford and Suwanee, Ga.:

Although originally we were going to Ga. to check out apartments, we found one online that is in Buford that we liked and decided to put a deposit down on it sight unseen about a week before our trip.  So this turned into more of a trip to see what we put money down on.
Preserve at Mill Creek Apartments:
Friday we called to see if we needed an appointment only to get a recording that they were closed (Good Friday).  Ken had talked to someone earlier in the week and they said they'd be open, so we went anyway.  Turned out they were open.  Also turned out the gal he had talked to wasn't there and the gal who showed us around seemed more bothered then helpful!  We were rushed through the tour.  I think I have more questions now then before I saw the place!  Anyway, here's some internet photos of what our place should look like---we're moving up in the world.  Going from a 1 bedroom/1 bath with attached garage to a 2 bedroom/2 bath with attached garage.
 Our unit should be the ground level to the far left.

 our back deck and the Preserve behind us.

 bedroom in the display home.

 master bath with garden tub

 my first ever walk in closet!

Of course those were of the display apartment.  I like the idea of accent walls, but we'll have to paint those ourselves if we want them and paint them back when we leave.
This is the access to a bike path.  I'm pretty excited about that. I hope it's not too crowded.

part of the bike/walking path.

nice place to hang out on a cool evening.

 Nice place to hang out on a hot summer day/evening!

So we're set to move in on May 14th.
From there we went back to pick up Angie and head out to lunch.  She had to wait for the repair man to come and not fix her ice maker so she didn't get to go with us (he had to come back on Monday and replace it).  This is half of the hill leading down to their rental house which is at the bottom of the hill.

 Then Angie took us on a tour of the area.  LOVE the houses here!

 LOVE all the wisteria blooming all over the trees.

 LOVE the old historic down towns.  This is old town Suwanee.

 More from the old town Suwanee area.

 The church was ready for Easter.

riding along Suwanee's old town Main street.

Cute lawn ornaments in the area.

a bird we don't see in Florida!---a Robin!

 Angie and I decided these were cherry blossoms.  They were in full bloom and very beautiful.

 more decor in Suwanee.

 We stopped here for lunch.  I had a chicken salad sandwich which was very good.

 I forget what Ken had, but Angie got the Park special burger, complete with fried mac and cheese, pimento cheese, bacon, home made potato chips and a bunch of other stuff!  She took more then half of it home.

cute little baby cannon and momma cannon.

 fancy metal gate decor in the new town square area where we ate.

 amphitheater in that new area.

 love the colors of spring.

 riding around in Buford.

The old historic town of Buford.

 more historic Buford.

and more----

just off the main street were these spectacular homes!

 Train running through town.

We even went a few more miles to north Buford to find Lake Lanier.

 First turn towards the lake we found this swim area!  And it's only about 20 minutes from our place.

 admiring the pine trees.

 We found that some of the parks had an entrance fee, but Ken's senior pass was accepted for entrance!

 Looking forward to exploring more of Lake Laneir.

 Reminds me somewhat of Oregon with a better climate.

 more of the lake.

We were also in Ga. when they were having their highest pollen counts.  Note all the pollen by the shore!

Soon it was time to get back to the pups and see how they were doing in their new environment.  For now, they're being left in the house while everyone is gone.  When Josh got off work, we went to a Mexican restaurant for a great Mexican dinner!
I think I'm going to like Buford, Georgia!