Monday, June 29, 2015

A Place for Everything--ALMOST!

I only took one small old TV from Plant City and it is now in my bedroom for watching old video cassettes (which have been downsized considerably after my husband died). I moved in on Wednesday and by Friday I had purchased a 32 inch  "smart" TV and enlisted Comcast to be my cable/internet provider.
The wall unit you see was from a church rummage sale years ago and is only now being used as it was once used by the original owner who built it. I had Pharis drill holes in the back so the chords would not be seen. In addition to the TV, this wall unit has my boombox and DVD player. The bottom cabinets contain movies, and music and other items. The top has lamps that used to be on the fireplace mantel in Plant City. In Plant City the cabinets flanked the walls going from the living room into the family room.

Plant City After Sectional Sold
You see one of those cabinets and barely you can make out the couch that has moved all over the country. It cost $30 from the Salvation Army in California and both of my late husbands have teased me about the $600 I paid to have it reupholstered. Every time it is moved a leg comes off, but not if you leave it alone.









After three visits from Comcast, I finally am able to use my computer A WEEK AND A HALF LATER and make this blog post with pictures. Here is the second bedroom I call my den. The bathroom off of it is used for storage of fabric and craft supplies and sometimes Ziggy likes the tiled floor while I am on my computer at the left.


My late husband knew how to do things in the carpentry field. Now there were items that needed to be secured to the wall by the white thing you put into the wall and the screw to put in that white thing. It turns out, according to Home Depot, that these are called "Anchor Screws".  This could have been a huge grief issue for me, remembering all my late husband could do. My sister-in-law knew how to do it and also to set up my DVD player in the living room and my VCR with the old small TV in the bedroom, not for cable but for viewing videos. Here is a high shelf she put on my kitchen wall by the back door; that shelf used to be in the guest bedroom in Plant City.

Note that I was able to bring my upright freezer from my Plant City utility room and my tall pub table from the Plant City den. My sister-in-law  also helped me as a senior citizen (I turned 71 last week), hang curtains as I didn't want to do this alone and fall and break a hip. I did not have to buy any curtains. The curtains over the kitchen sink used to hang in two small windows on both sides of the fireplace in our Plant City home.

 I know it looks crowded, folks.

So love to look outside
from the kitchen sink

I asked my family what they one day wanted to inherit of my things. They said Swedish things. So with the exception of the  my bedroom and the bathrooms, the rest of this apartment has Swedish items.

In Swedish--"Small words of love spoken every day
spread over your life sunshine and happiness."
This Swedish display in the living room will change at Christmas.

Two Scandinavian Items
in Dining Room

The dining room is spacious and I can have the leaf of the table in it. I look forward to entertaining.

One day Ziggy and I walked up to the apartment office to report a minor plumbing problem. On our way back we met a dog and her owner and chatted. By the time Ziggy and I were back at the apartment, the plumbing problem was solved and with a note that someone had been in the apartment. The repairman had entered the front door and Ziggy and I were on the trail in the back and didn't see someone come.

My bedroom is cozy and I now use a double bed for Ziggy and me. The single bed I left in Plant City for Pharis. Pharis is also getting several other items that he can use. Pharis and others are maintaining the yard until the sale of the house is final.

Ziggy on "our" bed
The bathroom I and guests use is off of this bedroom and both that bathroom floor and the kitchen floor are wooden. Books need to be put away on the shelves in the picture. Alas! I have too many clothes which are on a rack out of the closet. Clothes need to be downsized, and I have two extra lamps.

The apartment complex has 500 units over several acres and I am so happy I got a downstairs apartment. I share a foyer in front and a foyer by the kitchen with three other apartments, two of which are upstairs. Our mail is delivered to the front foyer.  I did buy this wicker chair for my front porch at a yard sale on Saturday as I had gotten rid of all outside furniture in Plant City.  Have a camping chair to bring out if someone comes by to chat.

Hope you will chat by leaving a comment and by "liking" my blog on Facebook at the top right. I am always putting tidbits on that Facebook LIKE page from my iPhone. In July I will start working on the caregiving dissertation.


See my poem/rap "Longing to Chat on the Front Porch With You" that was first published in my book HERE. Chat by leaving a comment below. 

Carol

12 comments:

  1. Everything looks great, Carol! You did a great job setting things up and unpacking things! Sounds like a great complex you are living in too!

    betty

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    1. Thanks, Betty. My brother and sister-in-law think it is crowded, but I have always decorated in a crowded way and I am getting to feel very much at home.

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    1. Thanks, bookseller! Can't wait for you to visit Ziggy and me. Working on my Lincoln rap here.

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  3. It looks like 'home'. It's amazing how much you have accomplished in such a short amount of time. May the Lord bless your new home!

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    1. Thanks. I am reminded as a widow of 1 Timothy 5:16 and grateful I could move by family while my house is in the process of being sold. Georgene, I know you understand the work involved. It was eight yard sales, making the rooms look presentable for the sale, then more packing and then mapping out the rooms for the dudes my brother hired to bring in the furniture and boxes.

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  4. Your new home looks so inviting. It must feel good to be settling in.

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    1. Yes it does, Laurie. I am looking forward to entertaining. Wish you didn't live across the country. We widow/caregivers have a lot in common. It was so great to interview you earlier on this blog.

      Hugs and prayers,
      Carol

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  5. It looks very homey and comfortable Carol. The needlework you have there that says Give us this day our daily bread, I have one that looks like the same thing that my mother made-- I 'am not sure of course that it is the same. My mothers was done with the same colors and the same pattern it seems. :) I have it over the kitchen window here.

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    1. Probably the "Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread" hanging was a kit. Mine was a wedding gift for my first husband. The bread board is Nornegian and the round plaque I bought from a tole painting teacher.

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  6. Oh--I forgot-- My grandmother had the same thing painted over her cupboards in red, she had a white kitchen. :)

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    1. Fun to decorate and I am enjoying hearing how you are decorating with our private email. You are so crafty. Thanks also for mailing me an item for my VBS teaching.

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