TreasuresInTerraCotta

I don't know why this amused me, but I am sure someone out there can relate. Three kitchen outlets equal: The coffee pot and walkie-talkies The toaster over and the cell phone The radio and the battery charger Is my kitchen the only one that looks like that?

When we added onto our house last year one of our major investments was installing solar power. And I won't kid you, it was a major investment. One which we will not likely "break even" on until our kids are in college. But we were eager to do it. After all, we live in a city that proclaims itself as the sunniest city in the United states with 350 Days of Sunshine. Last month we generated more power than we consumed. We still have to pay some taxes and fees but for all practical purposes our bill was zero. And if you care about being green, our net consumption was negative! Have you considered solar power?

You Capture: Yellow The You Capture photo project is in the back of my mind almost every week but I rarely take the pictures for the challenge or post them. This week's "topic" was Yellow. Life seems full of yellow right now so I took advantage of photo opportunities. Yellow: In The Garden Yellow: In The Desert Yellow: At Home Every time I see a photo of crayons I love it! This is a totally staged picture, but I loved the multiple yellows and I really liked all the yellow words! Ironically enough this shipment of books arrived just this week! Six out of seven books fit with the yellow theme. I see a trend here . I promise I did not pick the books based on the binding color! A couple books are for Book Club this summer. A couple were on super sale. And a couple were from favorite authors of mine.

Our house is coming along nicely. It looks like a real house again. As if we could almost live there! But there are a million details to finish up in the next few weeks. Thankfully I am not responsible for most of them. Here are a few pictures to give you an update. I told the neighbor that the port-o-potty would be removed from the front of our house VERY SOON!! From the living room into the newly opened kitchen. Living room looking into new bedroom toward the front of the house. The new bedroom. That's a closet on the right and there is also a bathroom on the right. I can't wait for it to be finished...and then we'll have an open house! We are so excited.

We went away on vacation and when we came back we had new walls....sorta. Demolition is very strange. Yes, that part of the roof is hanging there cantilevered. You can see the saltio tile from the original footprint. Oh, It's looking like a house again.

Not truly a "before" picture, but this was very early in the demolition phase. Ready for concrete. The very cool cement pump truck! Little boy hand prints! I love them! For many days I had pondered placing something in the cement footings. But the concrete truck arrived before I arrived at the perfect idea. What about you? What would you place in the literal foundation of your house if you had the chance?