Charley's Place

Dining Table and into the Living Area   The remodel and re-decorate was the easy part. Amenities has been a never ending process. Even before the painting and decorating I had the kitchen stocked with the utility items or so I thought. But there always seems to be something else and some things I do not even have in my kitchen. Latest adds were a kitchen clock, a coffee grinder, a blender, a potato peeler, and a pizza cutter. Okay, my kitchen as the coffee grinder, actually two because one is for grinding herbs. I hate potato peelers. And because of eight days on a house boat on Lake Powell I had already bought the upscale set of very sharp knives. In fact the eight days on that house boat was the basis for my first list of amenities for the kitchen. House boats do not have the capacity for a lot of electric gadgets. It is camping on something which floats. They do not have microwaves, slow cookers, coffee machines, and coffee bean grinders. That eight days supplied me with a list of t

  Not sure about the inquiries on VRBO. At 2:43pm vrbo recorded a inquiry about the privacy of the fenced back yard. At about 15 minutes later my cell phone made that sound I have come to recognize as important and I fumbled about getting to the right page to reply. I do find the website somewhat cumbersome especially when translated to the cell phone. It was about ten minutes before I was at a place where I could respond to the inquiry and by then the party had booked for the month of June. Phone rang and I answered it. A friend in what seems like 15 minutes has listed her house, found one she wants to buy, and immediately sold hers. I replied to the booking inquiry and then paid full attention to my friend. And the booking was cancelled. All in less than a half hour. I am not the person who is always right by my computer or my cell phone. I do not believe in call waiting. Do not have it on my land line. Ignore it on my cell phone. I garden, paint, hike, and look after other propertie

Bedroom One   As of April first Charley's Hideaway was officially open. But not totally complete as I am still waiting for the washer and dryer to be delivered. That, as regular fans of my blogs are aware, has been a debacle of a whole other level. And if all now goes well I should have a new Whirlpool set in place on April 22, 2021. Meanwhile it has given me more buff and fluff time. I never really considered April, the beginning of the first mud and flood season, to be very popular. So I was very surprised and somewhat panicked, when I received a query for three days this weekend. I, at one time, wanted to be an architect but in the era when I entered University of New Mexico that was considered an unavailable degree for women. I was urged instead to go into interior design or home decorating. The emphasis on my own home while producing children to mess it up. I do enjoy remodeling and redecorating. But as my mother used to pronounce, "nothing is ever done with you." T

Morning coffee? During this pandemic everything has just taken longer. Not just my opinion. I really thought I would be further along on this by this time. But I have also been totally surprised by what I have achieved without a whole construction crew.  Winter isn't exactly over yet. We are in what us locals term Mud and Flood season. Most locals left this weekend on what is the traditional month long vacation. Our part time home owners do not reappear in the migration cycle until first week of May. But friends with short term rental properties have urged me to get my new rental listed because of how far ahead people book. I have a friend coming a few of the last days in April then I imagined I had a month or two to refine and finish things up. I posted my listing on VRBO the third week of March. Black Lake Artists' Retreat was a reality. But on so many levels it was still my doll house. A representative of VRBO called yesterday to praise me on my listing. And especially appl

The 1942 Case Tractor Lawn Art   I do not always think things through. As a painter I do not do detailed sketches and then a color sketch before pouring watercolor across the canvas. Just the bare bones. Maybe an application of masking between sky and land. And as I move forward from the huge commitment of brilliant reds and oranges of the sky I change my direction sometimes. That seems to work in my paintings. And in the past has worked with writing. You can always edit a blog or a word document. But other sites are not always as flexible and since Covid-19 pandemic nothing seems as pliable as I would like. But we were in lockdown and I had time on my hands and I knew I never wanted a long term renter in my attached apartment ever again. Mother said to never say never or ever but even if I do not say them I think them. And so I began the process of making that apartment a short term rental. I had no idea of how difficult it would be. How many rigid and intractable things I would have