Family visit

We had our first family visit this Thanksgiving week. My daughter, Jessica, and her boyfriend, Tony, arrived Monday night from Boston and stayed through Friday morning. What a great visit! When we weren't out and about, we spent a lot of time lounging around the kitchen table. The house feels a little less alive now that they're gone.

Jeffrey is on the mend after suffering a high ankle sprain playing basketball a couple weeks ago. Olive thinks she is helping him rehab when really she is just stealing more lap time.

Pecan picking

This one is more about the neighborhood than the house. Statesboro is full of pecan trees. We don't have any pecan trees in the yard but many of those on Georgia Southern's campus are huge and they've been dropping loads of big, beautiful nuts. On a windy day the pecans fall with a soft thud and the picking is easy. Lately I've been stuffing extra doggie bags in my pocket just in case I'm walking across campus and the wind begins to blow.

I cracked and shelled these to make chocolate chip cookies for my Daddy-o's birthday on Nov. 5.

Trees in rain

A gentle rain fell early Thursday afternoon intensifying the beauty of the changing leaves.

Tub transformation

Patches of turquoise were underneath the white coating that was chipping off the tub in the master bathroom. Not many business are listed under "tub refinishing" in Statesboro but I managed to find David Ranew, owner of Tile-n-Shine, who spent more than four hours on the transformation.

First he scrapped off the chipping white paint and then applied a JASCO remover that had to sit for a while. Next he cleaned off the remover and then lightly sanded away the last of the white stuff. Success! He said it was the first time in 20 years of work that he stripped a tub without reglazing it.

Here's the tub on October 2, the week before we moved in, and here it is today:

 

Changing colors

The leaves on our trees and vines are shifting colors so I've been wandered around the yard on this warm Monday morning to try and capture the beauty. The temperature is 70 and it's not even noon. I'm sending warmth to my Reno friends who are commuting to work in temperatures just above freezing.

First autumn fire

Nights have been in the 40s the past week so we decided to try out the fireplace Saturday eve. Very cozy. Arlo love it, too. He lost interest in his bone, stretched out and fell asleep.

Small stuff

I found replacement burner knobs online for the stove top from a great website: partselect.com
They arrived today, shiny and a perfect fit. Now we can turn on the burners with ease. If you look closely, the older knob on the bottom right has a chipped shaft. That last sentence sounds as if I'm obsessing on the small stuff. I'm not, really. Okay, maybe just a little.

Here's the stove top where those knobs are now functioning fabulously, right next to the ovens. The black-framed mirror in the alcove not only adds light but Marley says it's also good feng shui because it allows the person cooking to see behind themselves, which keeps them safe and serene. No sneaking up on the cook!