The Cowboy must have been feeling energetic Saturday. He knocked out drywall and actual walls–nasty, icky stuff. If you will remember these two houses had been abandoned for at least 10 years and both had horrible, leaky roofs. The drywall and insulation was falling from the ceilings of both houses. All these issues led to both houses being infested with critters so when I say the insulation and drywall were icky–take my word! It’s nice to see all that nasty stuff going out the door! Here are the results of the demolition–
I spent the day cooking and getting ready for Saturday night guests. Dan and Louanne have fed us multiple times and we decided it was time we fed them. It’s been cold and damp here (yes, we are still in Arizona) so comfort food was on the menu. I make wonderful spaghetti sauce and we had homemade bread and a salad to go with the spaghetti. Looking back through all my salad dressing recipes in Dropbox I found one labeled–Great Salad Dressing adapted from Real Simple magazine. It’s funny how something so simple tastes so good so this really is a Great salad dressing!
1/4 cup good olive oil
1 TBS fresh lemon juice
1/2 TBS Dijon mustard
1 TSP Honey
Salt and Pepper to taste
After we had all gorged on spaghetti we had dessert–Pioneer Woman Chocolate Pie–the pie my husband said is the best chocolate pie he has ever eaten. Granddaughter Katie said the same thing–it truly is one delicious pie. And we have leftovers–of everything, including pie!
Sunday I went to church and as always this time of year I really enjoy the music–all those Christmas carols. Back home we enjoyed leftovers for lunch and watched a little TV and the backs of our eyelids–and we spent the rest of the day doing exactly that.
Monday it was back to work! The tumbleweeds and I did battle once again. Tumbleweeds if left to grow–well, they grow like weeds into enormous tumbling, weed seed dropping monsters. When Emmi and I took a walk on Sunday morning we ran across this gigantic tumbleweed–
Way larger than Emmi!
Laundry and truck cleaning–the Cowboy does the outside, I do the inside. Emmi, much to her dismay was bathed and trimmed today–she collects sticker-y grass seeds inside the pads of her paws and if not removed they can puncture her skin. It’s a chore to cut that hair/fur between her pads–she wiggles a lot–but we got it done without too much stress.
The Cowboy dug tumbleweeds, fixed tires, helped a neighbor and loaded the truck for the weekly dump run. A very busy day for both of us.
Restoration Cowboy Style 
Ah life. Keeps us busy doesn’t it. All the reno is hard work. We did a bunch of it in our 90 year old 700 square foot cottage, including collapsing ceilings and ant filled walls. It was worth it even for the 5 years we enjoyed the cottage before we tore it down to build this house. I dont envy you. And at least I dont expect you will be demolishing your little houses any time soon. I need to try that chocolate pie.
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Yes, renovation work is hard work, no doubt about it! Try it down and then re-build it. Yes, try the pie recipe!
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It’s coming along
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Yes it is Geri–soon the restoration will start instead of all this demolition.
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It’s really coming together with all that hard work!! Having a clean space to redesign will be the fun part 🙂 I think those tumbleweeds are following you now!!
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We had to make a clean space to get our ideas to come together. It was such a chopped up house with so many rooms. I dream about tumbleweeds! 🙂
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We will have to bring the MH back to Tucson when you move into the Big House after the renovations are finished. It looks so overwhelming, but I know how beautiful the guest house turned out.
You really do need to take a trip to Powhuska and visit the Pioneer Woman and The Merchantile and Lodge. Ladd and Ree are building a Steakhouse now.
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It is overwhelming to us too at times but most days we just take it one step at a time. We are both very excited about our ideas! Ladd and Ree seem to have a desire to help their community don’t they.
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What a delicious sounding menu for
your lucky guests!
Some time I really would like to have
a run down on your spaghetti sauce.
Mine is never the same as I’m always
winging it. Hopefully soon, as we
love pasta. Thanks for sharing!
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My spaghetti sauce recipe comes from an old Little Rock Arkansas Junior League cookbook and I’ve tweaked it to suit our taste–we had leftovers for lunch yesterday and it was delicious! I will post it soon!
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Sometimes those stay-at-home days are as much comfort as comfort food.
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Yes they are Sharon–we are both stay at home kind of people.
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