Five Happy Things

Focusing on things that make me happy (you can substitute 'thankful' if you prefer) is a good practice even when we are not in the midst of a pandemic. Or political chaos. Or remodeling.

So here are this week's Five Happy Things . . . 

1.  My guitar.  I love it sooo much, and am playing pretty much daily in my little office. I have a guitar corner set up where I can simply swivel my office chair around and play to my hearts content. Time flies when I'm playing, and my husband has assured me that the sounds coming from my office are soft, and that he enjoys them, so I'm pretty relaxed as I go along.

2.  The canyon behind our home. I love the space and tranquility it affords, and not a day goes by that I don't spot a hawk of some sort out there, which always gives me a thrill. And every so often we'll either spot or hear coyotes, also beautiful in their own unique way. Yesterday, as an example, we were FaceTiming with our granddaughter, listening to her read, when a pack of coyotes began loudly yipping and howling, so along with several of our neighbors, we went out back to the edge of our yard to listen, holding up the phone so our granddaughter could listen as well. She thought it was wonderful, and of course we didn't tell here the likely real reason for the howls(!).

3.  How large our bedroom 'grew'.  Our handyman removed the crown molding and remaining two arches from our bedroom yesterday (the first arch was removed as the shower was being re-tiled last month) and the ceiling seemed to magically grow taller overnight. 

The issue with the crown molding and arches is thus - the crown molding shrunk the ceiling because it was painted in the same Swiss Coffee white, thus appearing to be an extension of the ceiling, not the walls. By removing the crown molding (which was nowhere else in the house as an FYI) we visually raised the height of the walls by 5", the same width of the removed crown molding. And it really does now feel like the ceiling is higher as a result. And the arches were just bad, plain bad. We have no arches anywhere else in the house, and the exterior style of the home is Cape Cod, not Spanish, so why they were put into place originally by the builder is beyond me. Regardless, they are now gone, the entry between the closet hallway and the bathroom now goes all the way up to the ceiling, and as a result our bathroom now feels immense, so I'm again thrilled with the results.

On a funny note, my handyman's helper was from the east coast and could not seem to get over someone actually removing crown molding. He said that folk where he came from couldn't seem to get in installed quickly enough and it simply went against his grain to remove it. But he did, of course, and likewise couldn't get over how much taller the room visually became as a result.

Going, going, soon to be gone!
(I took this photo from outside the patio door, using a zoom lens just to clarify!)

4.  That our new trailer fits nicely in our garage. This is actually a beyond-happy thing, this is a thrilled thing. Our new travel trailer is officially 18 feet long when folded down for storage (vs. 25 feet long when fully open) but needs just 16 feet of storage length due to it's unique swing arm, which literally swings back alongside itself for storage, as  pictured here:

We knew the trailer would fit in for the purposes of closing our garage door, however, we were worried that the larger size would block access the the storage cabinets we have along the entire rear wall of our garage. In anticipation of that, we had contacted a garage cabinet company and had gotten a bid to redo the cabinets and make them slightly more shallow if necessary. It was not a project I was excited about though because it was not going to significantly improve the storage we already had, and in fact would remove some due to taking 4 to 6 inches of cabinet depth away. Add to that the cost, plus the subsequent need to entirely empty out our garage for construction, and I was not, not, not excited about the prospect whatsoever.

Happily, however, the new trailer fits with ample room to access our current storage system, hooray! Our new trailer is about 6 inches wider and longer than our previous one, but feels much roomier due to having a large slide out dining table and seating area. Thrilled, yet again, at how it all turned out.

Here is my husband demonstrating that as long as neither of us gains a pound there's enough room to still walk back and forth behind the new trailer, LOL.

5.  A home remedy for my dry winter heels. I suffer each and every winter from dry feet, but other than applying Vaseline at night to them I figured I needed to just tough it out until spring. But this winter they've been particularly dry and cracked, and I was beginning to experience pain when I walked as a result, so I did some research online and found an easy home solution to try - simply soak my feet in warm soapy water for 15-20 minutes in order to soften the dry, dead skin, then dry and use a exfoliating brush to remove the excess skin. I did this for the first time two nights ago and about grossed myself out by how much dead skin had accumulated as I was exfoliating. However, they felt just a bit better afterward and the next day, so I did it again the next night. This time there was waaaay less dead skin needing removal, and I could actually see fresh skin peeping through. So I'm going to continue exfoliating every other night, which is way less expensive than making an appointment with my doctor as I thought I might have to do.

No photos and aren't you glad! 😄

Bonus Happy Thing. My new leopard print ultra light Skecher's walking shoes. Love them!

That's it for me at the moment. What's making you happy this week?