.....IN garage doors, that is.

This is what our garage looked like before.  Certainly a large enough garage to hold both a car and some storage.  But....as you can see, it was constucted with two very narrow doors.  And as my old Infiniti can attest to, I seem to have a problem judging distance in close quarters.  Enough said.  Suffice it to say, I never attempted putting that car in the garage.  We just left it in the driveway, which was fine.  Except the Florida sun tends to do a job on cars.

So you can imagine my concern when we purchased Irma (Oh, yeah....that's what I named my new Infiniti.  The old one was Ivan) and I had to leave my new "baby" out in the elements.  So....hubby gave it some thought and decided we could fix the problem.  Here's his solution.....

Doesn't it look great?  We had a contractor come out and make it ready for a full size 16 ft. garage door.  He even put in some nice windows to the right, which gives great light in daytime in the garage.  The garage door company came out last Friday and got the door installed and even my new Genie is up and running. 

Much easier for Terri to manuver Irma into her place of honor now.  And chances are her shiny exterior will stay intact, minus scrapes.

So now I'm wondering......do you have a garage?  And if you do, do you actually use it or just leave your car parked outside?

ADDENDUM TO YESTERDAY'S POST:  I want to thank all of you for your very in-depth, insightful, comments.  I really appreciated it and found it very helpful.  I'm convinced.....I have THEE best group of readers around.

Also.....Beginning this week, I'll no longer be doing the Thursday Thirteen.  While I did enjoy it, I found it to be extremely time-consuming.  I wanted to get around and read so many of the others and it was becoming more and more difficult to do so.  Therefore, I'll let the TT site know I'll be dropping out, and I'll be removing the logos on my sidebar.  The other reason for stopping is that in all honesty, I wasn't feeling "fulfilled" as a writer typing up a list of 13 things each week.....I was bored and if "I" was bored, I didn't want to take the chance of boring my reader.  But not to worry.....I'll come up with some drivel brilliant post for Thursdays.

I'm off to practice getting Irma into her new home.  See you tomorrow......

Ta Da......as you can see, my house has finally become rightside up now that all the tiling has been completed.  Here's a view of the family room and dining room.

And here's the other end of the family room.  And yes, I'm just lovin' this tile.  It's cooler, cleaner, and much easier to keep clean than the previous carpet.

Here's the bedroom.......and.......

Here's the tv room.  I'm not sure you can notice from the photos, but the tile in the family room/dining room is different from the rest of the house.  It's more shiny and a bit slippery if one isn't careful.  I chose a more pourous tile, for safety reasons, for the rest of the house.  But it all blended very nicely and I'm beyond happy with it.  And all that china and crystal.........

Yeah, it all got washed and put back.  What a tedious job that was!  The china on the top shelf was my aunt's.  It holds lots of memories from dinners at her house. One of the strongest memories is Thanksgiving of 1963......the year JFK was assasinated.  That was the set of china we had dinner on.  She also had another set.....a gorgeous, very formal, Wedgewood service for 12.  Unfortunately, I parted with that to the antique dealer.  I mean, really, how many sets of china can a person have?  Hated to do it, but had to be practical.  And I liked this set better.  The rest of the china in that cabinet......that was my Polish grandmothers.  I can remember being 5 or 6 years old and having Easter and Thanksgiving dinners on that china.  I'm the only girl on my father's side of the family....I have 4 male cousins.  My grandmother had one daughter, one granddaughter and one great-greatdaughter. (my Susan) So when my Aunt Veronica went into a nursing home, she wanted to make sure I got the china.  Believe me, I really treasure it!  And I do use it for dinner guests and holidays.

It was a lot of work getting everything back in order, but now that it's finished.....it was so worth it.  Now I can sit back and enjoy the tile.  Also, now that this job is done.....I have the time to get into the tv room and start rummaging through that trunk.  Now that's a fun job that I'll enjoy.  I'll let you know what I find in there.

See you tomorrow........

I've gotten emails from some of you inquiring if I'm home, so it's time to blog....yes, we're home safe and sound.  Got home yesterday afternoon about 2:00 and as Dorothy said, "There's no place like home."  As you can see, Duncan is happy to be back on his screened porch.  I swear he grew in the week we've been gone and I really noticed it when I saw him again in his old surroundings.

It was a really good trip and I sure couldn't have asked for better behavior from the dogs.  They really did outstanding and are great travelers.  The cats were thrilled to see us when we came in the door.  Mama Holly had to go around and give each cat a kiss.  It was so sweet and even sweeter was that they let her.  I'm sure we were missed.

The tile looks fantastic!  I'm very pleased and Mark was able to get it all finished except the tv room, guest bedroom and pantry, which he'll finish up this week.  I'm sure the poor cats were traumatized enough with us being gone, but their whole house was all torn apart.  Furniture everywhere and certainly not the comforts of home that they're used to.  As soon as I get the house back in order, I'll have some photos to show.

I finished unpacking today and now have the job of laundry and also getting my house put back together.  Mark had moved the heavy stuff back into the rooms but I still have lamps, tables, etc. everywhere.  So I'm taking a break from doing that to blog.

I am amazed at the positive comments I've gotten here about Chas's speech and I'm also encouraged that perhaps there is hope for our country after all.  I'm even receiving emails from strangers....one of which was another grandmother whose granddaughter was in Chas's class.  She's a retired teacher from Billerica High and was also at the graduation Tues. evening.  It was a very nice email and to quote part of it, she said, "After my initial shock at his now infamous line from the rock group, I was one of those who applauded loudly for his "out of the box" comments and courage.  I'm sure we will hear much more from this young man in years to come.  He was right about our losing our freedoms, a little more each day it seems.  With young people like Chas to remind us of the important things, we can be hopeful."  I am very hopeful and very encouraged, especially when I hear from people like this that I don't even know.  I took a risk by being honest and sharing on my blog exactly how the graduation went.....But the truth meant more to me than positive feedback.  I was prepared for the worst here and as my welcome page states, "I may not agree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."  So yes, it was a little surprising to read all the wonderful comments about Chas and his courage to say it.  Thank you to each and every one of you that left a comment.  It touched me deeply.

On to Alberto....thank you also to those of you that have privately emailed to inquire about our weather here on the island.  Well, so far at 3:15 Sunday afternoon, it's just cloudy.  No rain, no wind.  The last forecast I saw on the Weather Channel said we're due for heavy rain and thunderstorms later this evening and possible flooding.  My house will be fine, as we're situated up on a rise.  Downtown might be a different story, where all the shops and lodging is located.  Last fall they sustained heavy flooding, so we have our fingers crossed that our little island will be fine with Alberto and I will keep you all posted.

As you can imagine, I have loads of little tidbits to share with you about my trip and I'll do that over this coming week.  I also have more photos and video to share.  And I sure did gather some more fodder for blogging subjects during my travels.

But now.....now I really have to get back in the house and get furniture arranged and back to normal.  Thanks again to all of you for visiting here and leaving comments.  I'm very glad to be back home and back to my daily blogging, so.........I'll see you tomorrow.

• ADDENDUM:  Just in the few minutes it took me to proof this blog, the sky is black, the wind has picked up incredibly and I think we're due for a very nasty storm.  I'm shutting down the computer and again.....I'll see you tomorrow.

Yes, I don't normally blog on Sundays..but today is special.  I am completely settled into my writers studio as of yesterday and operational.  So I wanted to welcome you to Pages and Paws....which is what I've named my studio.  The pages are obvious, as I'll be writing my fiction in here and the paws...well, I'm constantly accompanied by Holly and the cats out here.

Isn't that a great sign?  It was painted by Travis Parks, an artist here on the island.  He does superb work and I'm very pleased! 

I've also added new photos of the inside of my studio to my gallery here.....You'll find them under Construction.  We've come a long way since they began clearing the land on June 5, haven't we?  And as soon as we finish arranging the porch and patio, I'll take some shots from outdoors, so you can see the entire completed project.

Make it a good Sunday and I bet you know where you can find me for the remainder of the day!  See you tomorrow........

This has been a super busy week for me, mostly trying to unpack and get settled into my new writers studio.  My blog material was on empty for today but a friend suggested the title of Unpacking Memories......and that's what I've been doing the past few days.

It's been so much fun to unpack boxes that I haven't seen for almost 7 months.  All my treasures that had special spots in my office in New Port Richey.  Each time I've unpacked something for my studio, Holly and Marcel.....yes, they're out there with me constantly.....turn their heads in my direction when they hear my exclamations of oooh's and aaaah's.

I've found my two treasured framed photographs of my dad and me, a framed keepsake of a gorgeous butterfly and most unusual double leaf, my collection of crystal pieces and other gemstones, my special books and CD's, mementoes that could never be replaced.....and I've lovingly found new spots for all of it in my studio.

Yesterday my new lace curtains got hung, along with all my framed prints and awards.  Today I have a few more items to put away in my desk and then the grande finale......moving this computer and all the equipment out to the studio.  Hopefully, it'll be a smooth transition....but there's a million wires for my printer, terminal, DSL box, wireless box, my digital camera.....it looks like a spaghetti fiesta to me, but I'm hoping we'll get it all sorted out and I'll be up and running by this evening.  Photos of the finished project will be added here next week.

Have a great Friday and enjoy your moments.  I'll see you tomorrow...........