Back Home from Summer Travels!

September 29, we made it back to Yuma to our home-sweet-home base. Wow! It felt good to come “home”.  We were very pleased with how little dust made it inside! Covering all the furniture may have been overkill since the blinds were all closed and there were the sunshade screens attached on the outside of all sun-exposed windows. But, since we have the king-size sheets, we will likely continue covering most of our furniture when we leave for 5-7 months at a time.

While we were glad no sand really got into the house, the sunscreens on the windows and carport saw their fair share of it, so Barry took all the sunscreens and regular window screens down, and we started washing them.

Drone views:
1) Our home, Vinny and the open area behind the back wall.
2) View from behind our home looking east through the resort.

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It took us two to three weeks to get the motorhome completely emptied, everything put away properly in the house, and Vinny cleaned inside and out! We got a fresh coat of wax put on Vinny before we retired him to the storage lot within our park.

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We are excited to fully enjoy our home this winter–both the inside and outside living areas. We began enhancing the basics that we put together when the house was ready for us in February. We concentrated on ambience, function, and efficiency.

ADDITIONS TO OUR PATIO LIVING SPACE
LIGHTS! We headed out looking for a vintage style white/warm white string of lights, but felt we hit the jackpot when we discovered these at Sam’s Club. They have an incredible number of colors to use as single colors, but we can also make our own combo of two colors, or use preset modes. They have an incredible dimming feature, as well as a timer if we want them to automatically turn off after 4 hrs or 6 hrs. These lights are just plain F-U-N !!

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A FEW PRESET MODES: Twinkling, Rainbow, Spring, and Patriotic

Yes, these were more expensive than the plain ones, but worth it for all that they do. During football season we enjoy using the blue/green combo for our Seattle Seahawks on the days they play (even though this season hasn’t been a fun one).

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The other evenings throughout October and November, we enjoyed the “autumn” mode, which was prettier than what the picture captures.

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After Thanksgiving we started off with the “Christmas” mode of red, green, white, but soon switched to just red and green.

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OUTDOOR KITCHEN SET UP!
We absolutely LOVE our BlackStone griddle. Therefore, an outdoor “kitchen” was a priority. I set up the Blackstone griddle in the back corner of our carport patio, and ordered a prep station with a stainless-steel top from Walmart.com to complete the area. Using the griddle so much on our trip down the West Coast, I knew what I was hoping to find. The prep station has storage inside which is a great place to keep BBQ specific tools, my Seahawks apron, mitts, etc. The paper towel holder works great and is right by the grill where I need it most. I cook almost all our dinners out here. The prep-station is exactly what I needed. It is quite spacious, and cleans up well.  I also don’t have to worry about setting something down on it that might still be hot. It went together very well, and is nice and sturdy. It is working out GREAT!!!

When our friends, Nancie and Steve arrived for the season, they replaced their fifth-wheel’s outdoor refrigerator with a larger one that included a separate freezer. They offered us their “old” one which was only about a year old. We were happy to get it. It is the perfect size for under the window. It is nice to have cold beverages handy for us and our guests while out on our patio.

CONVENIENT STORAGE ADDED
To keep the patio free of clutter, I wanted a deck storage box of some kind to house all our swim paraphernalia. I found that the Keter brand storage box had the best reviews and they looked the best to us.  Luckily, when I was at Sam’s Club I happen to look to see if they had any deck storage. Summer items were few and far between as they geared up for the holidays, but lo and behold, they had the Keter 185 gallon deck box for only $99!  I put it in my cart immediately! I had been looking at Amazon and the significantly smaller size was much more than that. This size has turned out to be perfect! All of our pickleball items, swimming accessories including beach towels, bike helmets, pump, bike gloves, yoga mat, and our winter gloves and hats all fit. Everything is quickly accessible making it all extremely convenient as we come and go.

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INSIDE IMPROVEMENTS
DINING AREA: We replaced the dining area chandelier with a ceiling fan. It is the same make and model we have in the living room.  This cozy area needed more air flow especially late in the afternoon/early evening when temperatures were triple digits outside.

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I have been watching for a set of simple, vertical wall decor to be hung on either sides of the front dining windows. I found these at Hobby Lobby. I liked that they paired together without being identical, and were a more contemporary look. The price was right since they were 50% off.

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“GUEST ROOM”: We needed to add a bedroom lamp that could be turned on and off with the room switch. I found this one at Walmart. It does the job.

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We knew we wanted to find a small dresser of some sort for the spare room. Since we were going to host Barry’s sister, Debbie, and her husband Jack the end of October, we decided to get moving on finding something. We found a couple chest of drawers that we thought might work, but they had to be ordered, and were a lot more than we wanted to invest at this point. Most chests were too deep for the space we had. We were referred to Big Lots!. We found what we felt would work perfectly without making the room feel smaller. It was nice and simple. I think it actually helped to finish and balance the room.

Last year we purchased the queen sofa bed. It was as comfortable as we could find. Since we got a topper this summer for our motorhome mattress, we figured we could add it to the sofa bed to make it nicer for our guests. BUT since we brought that topper in from the motorhome to use on our own house mattress, we decided instead of taking it off to put on the guest bed when needed, that we should just order a second one. (I didn’t want to make do without one on our bed and deal with the hassle of unmaking and remaking our bed in order to make up the guest bed.) The new one has become the topper we will use on the sofa bed for company, and in the motorhome when we travel. It will also be the extra bed for the grandkids when they stay with us in the motorhome. We want our guests to feel welcome and comfortable, but not TOO comfortable. LOL.

LET THERE BE LIGHT!
The lighting in the kitchen has been really good except for the “L” counter area between the sink and the refrigerator. It has been a dark hole. Barry installed a flat strip of lights that could be tied into Alexa–but we don’t have an “Alexa”.

Echo Dots were on the way! These will control the new kitchen counter lights, a living room lamp, the master bedroom lamps on our nightstands, the main lamp in the guest room, and two porch lights. I wasn’t keen on getting such a device and adding more bluetooth technology. However, when I experienced Alexa being able to fill our home with music by playing the same requested music in both the front living area and the master bedroom, I liked it. I really appreciate NOT having the TV on so much, but instead enjoying various genres of music for whatever we are doing!

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While looking for decor for Christmas (at Hobby Lobby), I came across a couple wall pieces to add some interest and balance to both bedrooms. Hobby Lobby is definitely becoming my new “go to” place! And to think I had never been to one before coming to Yuma! Thank you, Kelly R. and Nancie P. for introducing me to it.

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I LOVE our home! It feels so good here. We are very happy!