Stix and Brix Projects

It's hard to believe it has been over four years since we purchased our condo in the Lexington Lakes Community in Stuart, Florida. When we bought, our plan was to live here in the winter and travel in Opus four or five months a year. We did that in 2019 and it was great. But like in so many things, 2020 and Covid changed our plans. While we have been cruising, going to all inclusive resorts and returning to WashPA the last two years we have had more time to do projects in our new home. 

When we moved in the sellers left all the furniture and much more. We have replaced some things but the dining area and counter gets a lot of use. That is where I'm starting this post. Because it gets so much use the wall under the counter was getting marked up and needed to be covered. After much thought we decided to make it into a wine corner.

The first step was putting together a wine rack to install in the corner. It took a while but I finally got it assembled.

We decided to buy old wooden wine boxes to cover the wall. We first laid them out on the bedroom floor. It was like working on a jigsaw puzzle without knowing what it would look like when finished.

Once I started gluing the pieces to the wall there was no turning back. Some had to be trimmed but it slowly came together.

Nothing says job well done like a smiling wife. Nanc can now buy a few bottles at a time and have a place to store it.

You can see how different it looks now compared to the first picture. There are a couple of symbolic things on the wall, a wine cork with 2019, the year we bought the condo, printed on the top. Another thing is a box from Opus winery, we called our RV Opus, and another with an archer, Sagittarius is our Zodiac sign.  

After we moved in we realized the kitchen storage space was not as good as what we had in Opus. The pantry had a bi-fold door so the 18 inch opening was only 14 inches wide....

....and the four wire shelves were not very deep. Almost half the pantry was wasted space.

We bought five slide out drawers to replace three of the wire racks. The drawers were cut to order but had to be assembled.

After removing the three lowest wire shelves and patching the holes I needed to use 2X4's and wedges to narrow the space where the drawer sliders would be attached. 

Next I attached the sliders to one of the shelves to make sure they would fit. Surprise, surprise! Even though the condo is relatively new, the pantry was not perfectly square meaning each corner was a bit different.

After painting everything I installed the five sets of guides for the slides.

We left the top wire shelve in place and installed the five new roll out shelves. The old bi-fold door did not have trim which I needed to glue and screw in place as the new door was attached to the new trim board.  

The new door was the next step. It had to be where it would open all the way to the wall to clear the shelves when they were rolled out.

The last step was a new spice rack that fit nicely inside the door frame. The pantry now holds double what it held before and everything is much easier to get to.

Another project for Nanc. She took a class and made a neat patio stone out of glass. She did a heron, her favorite bird. 

This is a project we had done. The concrete at our entrance was very discolored and it was not something that could be scrubbed out.

The same thing on the patio. The concrete also holds dust and dirt and there is no water spigot in the back so it was difficult to keep clean.

Along with two of our neighbors we got permission from the HOA manager to have an epoxy finish put on. First the old material was sanded and vacuumed.

Then they painted.....

....and spread flakes on the paint.

After letting that dry for a couple hours they top it off with epoxy.

The finished entrance. 

The finished patio. They both look much better and will be easier to keep clean.

This was the living room when we moved in. Everything here came with the condo when we moved in. It was okay, but it did not feel like our home.

The living room has slowly been changed by Nanc with our own pictures, a new rug, sofa and recliner. We are very happy with our home in Stuart and it now has the feeling of the way we want it to be. As in most homes the projects are always ongoing but our place is finally feeling like home.   

Friends, Family, Food and Music

When we bought our place in Stuart in January of 2019 our plan was to winter here and travel in the RV during the summer. We looked forward to friends coming down to escape the winter chill and enjoy the great local restaurants and music venues. We did have a few visitors in 2019 and early 2020. But, like everyone else, Covid put an end to almost all travel so we were not getting company and we sold Opus. This year has been a lot more like our original plan with many visitors, some stopping by for a day and others staying for a week. 

Kathy, Nan, Nanc, Dave, George and Jim at Terra Fermata (one of our favorite music venues) in January. We met all of them at Betty's RV Park. George and Nan bought a place in Stuart about the same time we did and Dave and Kathy will soon be ending their fulltime RV life and settling down in Eastern Pennsylvania.

Georgie came down from WashPA at the end of January, so it was back to Terra Fermata.

Another evening we went to the Lyric Theater, a local music venue that has some well know acts. Livingston Taylor and Tom Chapin put on a great show. 

We took Georgie to Lion Country Safari in Loxahatchee, It is a drive through zoo where you get a real close look at most of the animals. That said, despite the name I did not get any good pictures of the lions. The birds were very neat.

Animals of the African savanna. The rhino and giraffe both had young ones that were recently born.

Antelope and bovine like animals.  

Anyone who knows Georgie knows she has a HUGE collection of giraffes at home. This was a chance for her to get up close and personal with one. 

We went back to the Lyric for a fantastic show with Samantha Fish and Eric Johnson. Having the Lyric is another reason we like our new home.

We saw that our sister-in-law Suzann was going to be in Orlando so we contacted her and she and her friend John drove down for a day visit and to check out Stuart. We had a nice visit showing off Stuart.

In February someone was having a birthday and they were not happy about the BIG number so we had a birthday cake made without any zeros. Happy B-Day Nan!!!

Rick and Denise came down for a long weekend of food, fun and music. We went to Stringers for a great meal.....

.....and music by Dottie Kelley, one of favorite local blues singers. It was a great time with Nanc and Denise joining in for a tune.

We got a call from our brother-in-law Keith to let us know he was flying to DC to move his son Brian to Arizona. While there, he wanted to spread Michelle's ashes along her favorite place, the Potomac River Walk in Alexandria.

We were able to get a flight to join him and pay our respects to Michelle. Nanc bought some flowers and we spread ashes at several of her favorite spots along the river trail. It was a sad time, but we felt it gave us some closure with Michelle's passing. 

Keith and Brian left for Arizona Saturday morning and we did a bit of exploring of Old Town.  We spent three nights in Alexandria. The first day was so warm I wore shorts, The next it was a long sleeves and jeans day and the last day it snowed, bbbbrrrr! We found a couple neat restaurants and Laporta had great food and music.  

In early March Mike and Sherri flew down for a long weekend. Our first stop was lunch at Gaunabanas in Jupiter. We had to wait for a table so we had plenty of time catching up with them.

We also took them to Stringer's for an evening of food and music by Dave Goodman, another great local musician.

Mike has never seen a rocket launch so we went to Sandsprit Park where we would have a clear view across the water. While we are 100 miles from Kennedy Space Station, we have seen many launches from here in Stuart. This one was a big disappointment. All we saw was that squiggly bit of contrail above the clouds. We did hear the sonic booms as the two booster rockets came back down to land on a barge.

Compare that to the launch we saw in January. The puff on the left is the boosters after separation. Oh well, that means they will have to come back down next year.

More music in Stuart with Shaw Davis and the Black Ties at the Blues, Brews, Bourbon and BBQ Festival. 

We were joined by our neighbors Morgan......

.....Cookie and Mark. Of course we get together with them and other neighbors every Wednesday for Happy Hour. That started during Covid when we had six friends socially distanced and now we sometimes have over 15 people.

Fifty Sundays a year Stuart has the Rockin Riverwalk with live, free music. This week was totally packed as Burnt Biscuit was playing. We were close enough to hear them but it was so crowded we could not see them.

Another week! another guest. Our long time friend Gail, whom Nanc worked with 50 years ago. 

A new visitor! So, of course we went to Terra Fermata to hear the Honkies. 

We did some exploring and got to see this mama and baby manatee. They are such wonderful animals that are endangered because of polluted water and fast boats. Last year over 800 died in Florida.

We did a beach day, Nanc and Gail ventured off looking for shells and I did some fishing. This was just the beginning of the sea grass invasion we are having.

We had dinner at one of our favorite places, Nostalgia, a Greek and Italian restaurant. 

On that Sunday it was back to the Riverwalk. This week's band was Mighty Flea Circus who we had never heard before, but who we will check out again some time soon.

As you can see, we have been really busy sharing our new hometown with friends and family. This was more like what we expected when we bought a place in the Sunshine State. We were very happy to see all of them and look forward to them coming back next winter. 

We also have done a couple home improvement projects that I will be writing about in the future. 

Next week we are heading back to Punta Cana, DR for a few days of pampering at Secrets Royal Beach.

LIFE IS GOOD!!!!