WE ARE STILL GREEN...ARE YOU?

 

So, it is started with the grass. We are making sure the lawn it being treated right. Next will be a walkway on the side of the hose.. There we had work done on a drainage problem. Now we have a mess and the grass really doesn't grow there well. So the next step is the  patio treatment.

 We have a Geothermal unit at this Beach house. It is a very good system. The system is about 23 years old and in need of some upgrading. that is being done  this week.

Here we Are In 2021- Some New Upgrades to Show.

 A lot has happened in the last few years. Our family has experience Sickness ,Death and Life Changes that are hard to deal with. So many news' in our life. One thing is we have now officially Retired. This happened the same time as Covid hit the USA. We had so many Plans for this new life style. Travels planed as well as some upgrade to our Two houses. We were able to get one of our trip in before the quarantine hit. Now we are in the  end phrase of getting the vaccines so we can start traveling again. In the Meantime the decision to have the upgrades to the house started.

The first thing we did was the  lower deck. We decided to go with a composite that would not need to be repaired as much as the Wood. It also saved the life of Trees, since we went away from Wood decks.

 

the Lower deck, shed side to the brick walkway

 

 

Lower deck Gazebo house side.

Lower deck view to the upper deck.

Went with solid Hickory flooring for the main level of our home.

The Dining room into the kitchen. One smooth entrance. We also painted all the halls in the Dinning room and Hallway.

 

 

 Enter hall is great with not transition strips now. It use to be all tile with the carpet in the two room off the hallway.

 

 

Dining room so much better. that original flooring with split, tile and carpet.  Love the way it looks now.

 

 

Living room, use of rugs help with the Echo sounds. It is a very large room.

 

 

 

The hallway and the bathroom. Into the kitchen. One thing we decided was to make the flooring continuous with no transition strips. Glad we did that. Has totally upgrade the  house. bring it into the  new century.

this is the stair to the second floor. the Second floor has Bamboo flooring.Which we installed a few years back.

Healthy Living, how are things going?

Boy has it been awhile!!  Living in this household has been very challenging  this past year. So many changes and Health issue to deal with. Sometimes thing get out of control and life style changes. Folks do not understand why you stop going place or not able to do things.

Last year In our household there were some new health issues presented. Fatty Liver Disease and  Hashimoto Thyroid disease were diagnosed. Then we had  several Strokes and the High blood pressure and diabetes problems.  Rehabs as well as Hospital stays. Had to change diets as well as daily activities.  Plus wheelchairs and walkers were added to the household.  Most of these things limited our abilities to visit folks and go places.

Some of these things went on for a couple years. As many know, My father was living with us and he was  having Mini Strokes for a few years. Each one affected a different area of the brain.  It became a daily rehab for him. Every day we would do memory activities to get him to remember people. The saddest thing was to see him not remember my Brothers. Every day I had to tell him he had boys. He just could not remember. Even when my Brother passed away, he did not know who he was. He ask me everyday who that was. I would tell him and he would say did I know him?  I tried as hard as I could to take him to see him as much as possible. Hoping he would have a memory of him. Even when my brothers would call I had to remind him who they were and halfway through the phone call he would forget who it was. It started after his stroke in early September 2017. then he had another one in November and another mini in December 2017. That was a hard year for us in this household.  In 2018 and 2019. he continues to have TIAs ( mini Strokes). In July 2019 He had a  stroke that effected his bodies ability to control all the functions. Blood pressure, blood sugars, Heart rate and temperature. Plus his abilities to remember was going.  Finally his body just gave up and the lungs would not work. He passed away in September 2019.

During the same time frame my Hubby  had a  trans global stroke, and a mini stroke, Surgery and diagnosed with  Fatty liver disease and Hashimoto disease. His health was not good. Made some diet changes and continued to go to get testing done.  He decided to retire this year. So now his stress levels have gone down  causing  some thing to stabilize.   We are now working on changing some daily routines to enhance our life.

As for me. I been having High blood pressure and uncontrolled Glucose levels.  Have made some changes and now the levels of starting to  return to normal. Still working on the High Blood pressure. However it is down now. Just not in the normal range. One thing I do not like is Chemical medications.  Therefore , I am doing the natural thing and it seems to be working. Hoping I will be able to control my BP without Pharmaceutical help.

In the next few months there will be no info on what we are doing and how it is working. We are on   supplements right now testing them to see if they will do the job we need them to do.  Check back often or follow us  to stay up with our progress.

Update, Been Awhile

We are still a  solar home and being a energy conscious family. My father has moved in with us. so this winter we have had to use more heat to keep he room warmer as he sleep. Hubby and I like the house at about 72. However that is too cold for a close to 90 year old. We found and got a unit that uses less energy and has a good thermostat. Our bills are still not in the range as before the solar, but they are up a little. Something else we did was get some cooking  Gadgets that you can use instead of the stove. Like the Ninja foodi. It also helps in the energy used.Things cook in less time with no  additional wasting heating of the house.
We also got a new washer and dryer that uses less energy. I tend not to use the dryer as much. hang drying items instead.

we still have been recycling. However we wish that our county would allow more item to be recycled . They have become more stricter on what we can put in the bins. That's a fight worth pursuing.