Renovating a home is a process. Shows like the "Property Brothers,'  "Fixer Upper" or "Flip or Flop" make it look so damn easy.

Come up with a design plan, tear things down, pick out new things and put it all back like it was brand new.

That. Is. Not. The Case.

Yes, those are definite steps to take when planning a major home renovation, but there is also the budget to consider and then you are sometimes at the mercy of service providers. Often the subs don't show up or do crappy work. Sometimes, you can't get anyone to show up. When that happens, you're forced to look for replacements. If you're lucky, someone will call you back interested in the job. Sometimes, you can get someone to look at the job, but then the person never sends a bid or sends it way too late. It's frustrating.

This is the latest crisis. We ordered a kitchen sink. It was supposed to arrive mid-February. We stopped by the showroom to check on its arrival only to to discover it had either never been ordered or someone dropped the ball and didn't ship it to us and it was sold to someone else.  For a little over a week we were without any hope of finding a sink in time to move to the next phase. I asked for the display just hoping we could get something and move forward. I didn't know the color but when our sales rep. told me it was Basalt, I wasn't sure. After I looked at it in person and it turned out the color of that sink would look wonderful with what we have planned for a countertop and back splash. Originally, we thought about getting the sink in biscuit because it matched the marble we wanted, and it was neutral enough to go with our tiles, but as it turned out we couldn't get the style we wanted in biscuit. We could get white, but white just wouldn't work. When I saw the basalt color against our tiles and saw that our marble had some grey veining, I knew that was the one. The blue-grey color of the sink will look great with our blue and cream colored tiles. It will be a show piece as well as a functional sink in the kitchen. Our dealer was able to find one at another store in Michigan and it has been sent to us and should be on site tomorrow.


Anyway, things are coming together little by little.

This was our kitchen after the sink arrived.

This is it with the marble countertop in place. Now, we await the installation of the faucet, backsplash and the rest of the fixtures.

And then it will be a bit closer to completion.

And now we have a bathroom...

First bathroom demolished, first room finished.

There were two things I wanted to accomplish in this bathroom. First, to save the mosaic tile my father used when he created this bathroom in the late 60s and second to find unique pieces of furniture to give it a traditional, antique look. We found the dresser at Look What the Cat Dragged In, a thrift store that benefits the Santa Fe Animal Shelter and Humane Society. The little cabinet came from "The Raven" one of my favorite antiques stores in town.

Here are some after photos of what will become our guest bathroom.

And the Walls Came Tumbling Down...

I last posted showing the house before the renovation started. This was phase one, the demolition. The rooms below are the guest bathroom. The dining room where the large archway was opened, so we could have a passthrough from the new kitchen to the old dining room. And then the kitchen wall came down

These is the opening from the master bedroom, into the master bathroom. 

This is a shot of the doorway in the new Master Bathroom. It leads to a shower. This must have been an older part of the house based on the construction. It wasn't as perfect as other walls in the house. 

This is still a shot of the future master bathroom. On the side with the exposed long wall, will be a new claw foot tub, with a great tile accent and through the doorway to the left, will be an awesome tiled shower. 

The first look of what will be the kitchen. See how the bricks in this part of the house are more uniform. This was a new section of the house.  The photo on the right is before the wall came down and the one on the left is after. 

I can't imagine living through this; it was good we went to Jemez Springs for all this work. It was dusty. I still am living with dust. It was a very organic and earthy dust, no nasty drywall residue. It smelled old and earthy. It was pleasant actually. 

Stay tuned for more pictures and more updates. 

Eve of Destruction

In June we offically started our renovation. We actually signed the contract on my birthday, but waited to begin until the first of June.

To give you an idea of what the house looked like before, here are some pre-demolition pictures. These rooms are the ones being changed the most. Lots of changes have been made so far.

The plan was to open up a few walls, update the bathrooms, remodel and modernize the kitchen and create a new bathroom and walk-in closet. I hope when all is said in done will will achieve that, but I'm worried that the new master bathroom will be less than I expected. I think it will have all the features that I want, but it might be smaller than I wanted. I think for an old house, it will be gorgeous. It will be light and bright and turn out all right in the end.

So, this was what we had on June 7, 2015. We bugged out while we were having it demolished. When we came home, we returned to a very different, albeit dusty house.

The vanity for the guest bath, in the dining room. 

First and foremost, the boss, Luna Blue 

Another shot of the dining room. 

From Storage to Spa Bath

                       

The future master bathroom

This will be a walk-in shower. 

My dad built this bathroom. We rescued the tile on the countertop. 

Guest Bathroom

Kitchen/In-formal Dining

Kitchen/Dining

Ki

Kitchen Before

Old, very dated kitchen 

Kitchen Before. 

Old Dining Room/Family Room 

This One is for the Tour Guides

One would think life on Canyon Road was all about the hustle and bustle of tourists walking up and down the street going from gallery to gallery hoping to find something worth taking home, or the people walking their dogs or running, but it's more that. There are many quiet residences scattered along the street. Some are enclosed by walls, some sit back nestled among the trees or some sit right on the street where every so often the Tourist trollies drive by, stop and make some observations.

It's all geared for the tourist and when I'm sitting here working I just have to laugh. Apparently, my house is only 50% adobe, and the blue window trim is because of the Moorish/Spanish culture from back in Spain to ward of the Evil Eye, the brujas and La Llorona. 

Ok. I will admit my ancestors and some of my present day relatives and friends believe in the Evil Eye. It's a common belief among Mediterranean  people- from Spain,  Italy, the Middle East, Morocco and other cultures believe in it. El Mal de Ojo . Perhaps when my ancestors were building this house and put up the wood windows they painted them blue to ward off the evil eye that they believed in but I think they just happened to like the Turquoise blue paint. Turquoise is plentiful here in the sky,  in the stones that have been mined here historically, the water of the rivers--- it was a logical color to use, plus it really stands out against the earthen color of the stucco of the house. I think it was more about the ascetic than the "mythos" behind it. Of course, tell a tourist guide that and he or she wills stammer and continue on as if nothing was said to contridict the story being told. 

I got a kick out of the guide who felt it necessary to correct me when I said my house was approximately 90% adobe. Where he got the notion it was only 50% is beyond me. Every exterior wall is adobe, most interior walls are adobe, with the exception of a few modern walls that were additions for bathrooms. 

These were some of the bricks taken out of the wall in the kitchen that came down. These were newer.  But you can see the straw that was mixed in with the mud to give each brick support. The construction here was a bit more perfect, there were wood lintels every four feet or so for added support. I still need to find a place to use these bricks. I'd love to save one as it is for history.

It's really quite amusing to hear the various information the guides give as they drive past our home. I thought I'd prepare a bit of history for them, so that they can choose to use it or not next time they drive by and stop and talk about the house with the blue windows. 

I thought I could send each of the tour guide companies a blurb something like this:

The house on the right is constructed entirely of adobe, with the exception of the wood floors, ceilings which are wood with vigas, and the wood windows. The original structure is at least 200 years, through the years rooms were added as needed, but the building has maintained in its present footprint for at least 100 years. 

For the last 26 years, the building was leased out commercially and during that time three galleries made use of the space. In 2014, the owners decided to return the building to back into a residence, ending the building's presence on Canyon Road as a gallery. The building has also been maintained and kept in the same family since the early-to-mid 1800's, making it one of the few residences in the area that is still owned by one of Santa Fe's historic families. 

The blue windows have been a trademark of this home for generations. While there is some "mythos" attached to their significance, the present owners think their ancestors happened to like blue and probably weren't thinking about warding off the Evil Eye when the windows were painted. Though, it's entirely possible. There are no family stories circulating about the blue windows. 

Anyway, honestly, what I'd like them to see when they drive away is the pretty blue cat in the window, not the stories about the Evil Eye.

Luna Blue sitting pretty in the window. Photo credit: David Duran. 

Do You Know the Way to Santa Fe?

David and I have made a lot of friends because of our little kitty, Luna Blue. We have enjoyed getting to know people because of a Facebook group we have discovered and have "met" people from all across the world. Late this summer,  we will have a meet-up with a couple coming to Santa Fe from Florida. We are looking forward to spending a bit of time with them and hope they enjoy our City Different. It's definitely an interesting place to visit so with that in mind,  I thought I'd put together a post of things to in Santa Fe and the area.

First off, they will be arriving when the city will be in the midst of the annual Fiesta Celebration. Fiesta de Santa Fe is a long standing tradition and has both religious and secular events, while it commemorates the Spanish return to New Mexico after the Pueblo Revolt. Without going into the historical, political and  other touchy aspects of the celebration, I'm going to talk about it briefly. It's been a continuous celebration reaching back about 300 years. You can read about it here and I'll touch on some of the highlights. 

On Friday the 4th is the big unofficial and definitely secular kick off of the Fiesta with the burning of Zozobra, also known Old Man Gloom, a 50 foot marionette who serves as the official scapegoat for all the gloom, sadness and anxiety and is burned away after a big ritual of dance, music and fire. It precedes Burning Man by at least 70 years and reminds me of the tradition of burning effigies such as Guy Fawkes or The Fallas in Valencia Spain. This year is the 91st official burning. In recent years, the folks involved with putting the program together, in conjunction with the city, have made it become a more family-friendly event. There is entertainment, food and a rock-concert energy as folks gather in the baseball field waiting for the big show. A spectacular fireworks show ends the night as the skeleton of Old Man Gloom burns.   Huffington Post just did a nice write up of Zozobra. 

Throughout the weekend, there are food booths lining the plaza, you can get fry bread, an ear of corn, frito pies or handheld burritos and other food and drinks. Some healthy, most not so much. There are arts and crafts stand booths as well, not to mention music and entertainment at the bandstand also keep up the festive spirit. 

There are a few events that are enjoyable. A couple of parades. The best one is the Children's Pet Parade. The other is the Historical/Hysterical Parade, but it's way too long now a days. Too many politicians participate, fewer and fewer fun floats and less and less historical entries make it a bit of a drag. But the Candlelight Procession from the Cathedral to the Cross of the Martyrs is truly a wonderful way to end the Fiesta. 

Of course, a trip to Santa Fe would not be complete without a visit to Canyon Road. Galleries, restaurants and shops line a good portion of the street.  There are quite a few galleries dotting the street that is famous for its arts and crafts. There are also large estates, with lush gardens and with trees. There are still artist colonies and there are residences like ours. We are probably one of the few families on lower Canyon Road who have continuously held onto ownership of the family property. We may be one of the very last families to own such a historic property. Many of the old families have sold their properties. Reasons vary, but often it was pure and simple economics that prompted them to sell. The homes are aging, need a lot of maintenance and property taxes are high and older, retired folks on fixed incomes cannot afford to keep them. Often when they pass away, their heirs want the money and they sell the properties. We are fortunate we have been able to hold onto and maintain our old family home. I hope one day we can pass it down to a new generation.

The museums in Santa Fe are exquisite. Museum Hill boasts four top-notch museums,  a nice cafe,  plus a lovely botanical garden. 

• Museum of International Folk Art
• Museum of Indian Arts and Culture
• Museum of Spanish Colonial Art
• Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian
• Santa Fe Botanical Garden

All around the city you will find events celebrating the "Summer of Color" with lectures, exhibitions and activities focused on that theme. 

There are several museums downtown that are definitely worth visiting. The New Mexico History Museum is the newest museum and its main focus is on New Mexico's 400+ year history. The Palace of the Governors is the oldest used public building in the US. The New Mexico Museum of Art is in the area and houses fine arts from a diverse group of artists and has a very lovely gift shop. On Friday nights, the museums are open in the evenings and host activities and are free between 5-8 p.m.

If you like Georgia O'Keeffe, there is a museum devoted to her art work, there are gallery talks, lectures and activities going on throughout the summer. Take a drive up to Abiquiu, roughly 40 miles north, you'll find her home, studio and more. 

There is a great Farmer's Market on Tuesdays and Saturday mornings in the Railyard District. There you will find galleries, the depot where the Rail Runner arrives and departs, a movie theatre, outdoor events, a park and some eateries. 

Speaking of food, here you can find New Mexican, Mexican, Indian, lots of Italian and French bistros,  a few Spanish eateries, with Flamenco dinner shows, and a lot of fine dining. Most places offer Vegetarian dishes, Gluten Free and a lot of organic foods. 

Relaxation abounds here in Santa Fe. There is Ten Thousand Waves is a Japanese Spa where you can be treated to a massage, a dip in public or private spas and a feast. Many of the hotels in town offer spa services and treatments. An hour away is Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs and Spa, where you can get the luxury spa treatment as well. 

There are ghost tours, downtown walking tours, the Audubon center and numerous hiking, biking and outdoor activities. There are old churches and other historical places to visit. Day trip possibilities include Taos, which has lovely art galleries, historic stops, the Taos Pueblo, skiing in winter and the Taos Gorge bridge is another fun stop. It's a steel, deck arch bridge that spans the Rio Grande. It's the 7th highest bridge in the country. 

The Valles Caldera and the Town of Jemez Springs is another nice stop. Chimayo is also another day trip.

This is getting dense and lengthy, but hopefully it serves as a good primer to Santa Fe in the Fall. Check out the Santa Fe Blog for current information. 

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A few things to note. Drink lots of water, always wear sunscreen and bring a light jacket. Nights can get chilly, especially if we've had a rainy day. The humidity is generally low, even after it's rained, so it's not a humid cold, but it is chilly if you're not used to a desert climate.  Visitors from lower elevations often feel effects from the altitude so by staying hydrated and nourished, they may alleviate these effects.  I've noticed when people don't drink enough water-- replenish electrolytes is a must-- they feel dizzy or lethargic. 

#santafe #canyonroad 

Life on the Eastside

The Christmas season ended and 2015 came in with barely a whisper. It was a pleasant winter, with mild temperatures followed by snow. Slowly we were settling into our home on the Eastside. In Santa Fe, the Eastside holds a certain cache and we were now learning what life on busy Canyon Road was like. It was winter time and while there were tourists walking up and down the street, it seemed really quiet. Neighbors and passersby were interested in our story and thought it was really cool we were moving back. Regulars stopped to ask about the previous tenants. We had people try to march into the house thinking this was still a gallery. For 26 years, this place had been a gallery and the expectation it's a shop or place of business. There are homes on this street but most are not quite as visible on the street. Our home sits right on the street and it surprises people it's a home. 

Santa Feans know the house well. Our friends and colleagues are amazed we live here and others are even more amazed that this home has been part of my family for at least 150 years. Our return to the neighborhood is an amazing story and I'm exciting to be telling that story. 

Our Russian Blue Cat, Luna Blue, quite often can be seen watching the tourists go by from any of the front windows or the door on the west side, where she has a cat tree and can look at the flowers, see the birds and smell the cat mint. People stop to take her picture and sometimes she obliges, but usually runs away long before they get their cameras. 

Iggy, our Labradoodle, has made the transition from the the Southside of town to the Eastside quite easily. He's happy wherever we are and loves to walk the neighborhood.

One last winter shot. The snow was so magical this past winter. I am looking forward to this winter and the hope that it will bring for a wonderful new year, in our new home.