December at the Dixon's

Well here it is mid December already! Boy does time fly when you're having fun. I have been busy updating my cabinets in my laundry room and kitchen and painting the closet, bedroom and bathroom doors and adding new brushed nickel  push door handles rather than my ugly gold turn handles. Doug and I both have trouble with the turn knobs, we must be getting old! Doug keeps reminding me I said the house was perfect when we bought it! Boy you would think after nearly 41 years, he would have it figured out!

This is what my laundry room cabinets looked like prior to renos. Ugh.... Doug put one new cabinet handle on to try and convince me they looked good with just a new handle, no painting needed! Didn't work

Soon the laundry room looked like a cyclone had gone through it

Luckily the weather was gorgeous so I was able to paint the cabinet doors outside

Now Doug has the fun of putting all the new hinges and cabinet handles on.

This is the result of my painting the cabinets  in the laundry room . The cabinet doors are solid wood and the cabinets themselves are laminate so they were two different colours. Of course Doug doesn't even notice the difference but I hated it! All the hardware was gold which makes me gag! So they were all changed also.

 This is my finished laundry room. I painted the cabinets white and with the new hardware I think they look terrific.

 I was amazed at how bright the laundry room is now with white cabinets. I guess Doug didn't particularly like them as he informed me in no uncertain terms I wasn't to paint the kitchen cabinets white! My response to him was "Do I tell you what to do in your workshop" but he got his way, I caved even though I really wanted to paint the cabinets.

These are some of the kitchen cabinets prior to staining them

 Since my dining room suite is pecan wood, I decided to try staining both the cabinets and doors pecan colour and see how I liked it. Hindsight is wonderful but next time I paint! The physical labour of sanding all the varathane and stain off the cabinet doors and cabinets and then doing 2 coats on everything took nearly 10 days as the stain/varathane takes so long to dry before you can re-coat. Every muscle in my body hurt after the first week. I was surprised since I do aerobics twice a week and water aerobics 6 days a week! The stink in the house from stain and varathane was pretty bad! It is a good thing we are in Arizona and every window and door were open and all the fans running!

 

This is the finished version with new hinges and hardware. Doug ended up putting 82 hinges and 64 handles on between the laundry room, kitchen and dining room. What a difference though. I am a happy camper

 Looking into the kitchen from the dining room. Now I just have to convince him I "need" a glass back splash - stayed tuned and we'll see who wins this one!

 The china cabinet looks so much better now it is the same shade as my dining suite.

Now this is what my closet doors looked like. Kind of an off white colour with gold knob door handles - tacky or what??

The end result - much nicer and certainly easier to open!! Four closet doors down and five more to go. I promised Doug a couple of days off and then I am at it again to get them done.

Last Sunday two couple friends and us went to the Apache Junction Museum for the afternoon. Most of the displays are outside and there were lots of booths with Christmas items for sale. It was a fun afternoon and then of course out to dinner after.

 This was a model train display showing how it used to look like at the base of the Superstition Mountains when there was active mining taking place.

 And of course you can guess who had the camera and took the pictures. He just can't stay away from anything train related.

 Of course he catches myself, Ann and Sharon in one of the shops trying to spend the fellows hard earned money!

 Sharon and I are just coming out of the barn behind us which was full of vendors with their displays. I was pretty good and didn't spend much money much to Doug's relief - "Scrooge!"

 We had a weather system come in for a few days and it created such beautiful skies at sunset.

 This is sitting out in our backyard

 The colours changed and looked so different as the sun set

 This is our local ACE Hardware store. I just love it!! It is an aquarium made to look like a tool chest. The fish swim amongst the drills, rulers, hammers etc. 

 Of course Santa has to have his picture taken in front of it.

Doug and I just hosted the Dixon's third annual Christmas dinner and Apache Junction Christmas Parade night. Of course as you people are having such freezing weather, the same system has pushed south and we are also experiencing 10-15 degree below normal temps so it really did feel like Christmas when we went to the parade! We started out with a big meal at our place then off to the parade.

Doug tried to get a video of us ladies all bundles up with our toques, gloves and blankets. It is hard to believe we are in Arizona! We were warm though. The temps were just in the 40's so felt very cool to us spoiled by the warmth people!! There is myself, the other Sharon, Ann and Grace

 Doug was the one taking pictures because I wouldn't take my hands out from under my blanket so you can guess what he took pictures of

 Of course all the big trucks and decorated ATV's!

 Of course you can't have an Apache Junction Christmas parade with out the septic truck decorated as Rudolph!!

 The floats were beautiful and appreciated by all.

There was a whole slew of Model T' cars in the parade and they were all decorated and lit up. I think they were the best part of the parade.

 This one was our favorite but blurred unfortunately. It was the Grinch and very well done

 My girl friend Grace made me the Christmas runner and brought me the poinsettia. Looks lovely on my dining room table

We all came back to our place after the parade for warm drinks, I see the bottle we used to warm the drinks is hidden and desert - choices of lemon pie, pumpkin pie or apple pie. Not too shabby at the Dixon's! As you can tell, we haven't totally warmed up yet as we are still all wearing our extra sweaters etc. It was a fun night with good friends.

Now Doug and I are off to a Chip Davis and Mannheim Steamroller show tonight at the Ikeda Theatre in Mesa. That is our Christmas present to each other. I can't wait.....