Day 720 My summer at home was 'made'

My five week summer at home went all too quickly, with two
weeks spent on the road from FL-IN-MO-TN-AL-FL,
but still we managed to make the most of it.
We made a lot of music together this summer...

It felt so good to be HOME.

We made closer friendships with our new neighbors.  I am so
excited that Margie and Karen are coming to China to see
me in April 2017.  Let the good times roll!

The neighbor's mango tree was loaded...

...so we made mango margaritas...

...and mango jam...

...and more mango margaritas, lol.  Cheers, y'all!

We made memories taking the skiff out for
boat rides after a hard day's work.

I love the beauty of the Caloosahatchee River.  I feel like I
have the best of both worlds at our new home- living in rural
south Florida where I can hear cows bellowing (just like being
in Indiana!), yet I am looking out at palm trees- perfection.

On one of our boat rides, we stumbled upon
a waterfall in a cove not far from home :)

This summer we made a lot of berry zinger sweet tea.

This was a once-a-week chore, as we guzzled
the sweet tea working in the hot sun on our home.
South Florida in the summer can be brutal!

We made our home more energy efficient,
by adding more insulation in the attic.

Even with an early morning start- oh. my goodness. gracious.

On our way home from Branson, we stopped and bought green
coffee beans, so Len could start roasting his own coffee again.

He's so inventive- he made a coffee roaster from
a paint can drilled with holes, and using the
rotisserie on the grill!

Here he's teaching Karen the fine art of
listening for the sizzle, then the pop!
The neighbors loved the fresh roasted coffee :)

Len knows that turkey is one of my favorite meals, so he
had one stored in the freezer for when I came home.

We ate turkey every way imaginable for a week,
then we used the very last of it and made Greek
style turkey flatbread pizzas on the grill. Delish!

I was able to spend my summer making some memories with
my youngest daughter, Ellie, who is now a news reporter
for Channel 5 WINK news in Ft. Myers.  She is living so
close to my Florida home that it is a shame I have another
year of working and living in China.  

C'mon, Ellie, jump with me!!!

We made memories having a slumber party
at her new apartment, and I got to see
Willis T the sailor cat again!

He flopped for his momma.  I can't wait
to bring him home for good <3.

We made memories on the beach a couple of times...

Where somebody else made a sand alligator :)

This guy's services weren't needed this time, though a fourteen
foot bad boy was taken out of the canal behind us earlier this year!

I <3 the beach.

The beach is Ellie's 'go to' place, too, when she needs to de-stress...

We are beach babies and water babies at heart.

This summer I put the finishing touches on
the guest bathroom, like hanging the
water color painting I got in Hong Kong.

Len did a beautiful job building the shower (remember this
area was a home office before!).  I love that the shower
cubby is trimmed out in teak- to remind me of the boat.
The shower head unit was smuggled back in Len's suitcase
from China, as it is just like the one in my apartment!
The wooden picture on the wall came from Thailand.

I think the whole room turned out beautifully-
it is very 'spa like' and I dare say, 'cozy'  :)
I wouldn't blame anyone for wanting to spend
some extra time in the guest bathroom, lol.

The next big project of the summer was to build
a deck.  Len poured a concrete slab before I got
home.  The plan is to enclose this area where the
house utilities will be stored.  The even bigger
project though, is a rainwater collection system.
We want to bring 'sailboat living' to our home,
so we can live more green and off the grid the
whole year through.  There is a 900 gallon
rain barrel that will go in this room. I'm so excited!

Framing up is the hardest part, but we made progress!

I am so happy we decided to spring for the composite decking.
It's so easy to install and it looks beautiful.

Man, was it a HOT job!  I can't wait to build
the boat dock with the same material- hopefully
when I go home for winter break :)

In keeping with the nautical theme of our home,
I didn't want traditional deck railing- I wanted
lifelines, like on a sailboat. Len said, "I can make that." 

So he did...

...and it was my job to run the drill press.
I love power tools :)

The deck panels turned out great!

I love the nautical look! (and him, too.)

With one panel built, Len finished the rest
by himself after I left for China.

The last project of the summer was to hang
hardiboard siding on the back of the house.
Eventually we want to cover the whole house in
hardiboard.  It will add another layer of insulation,
and is far more durable in severe weather. 

I also repainted all of the door trim.  It looks so much classier
with the lap siding, rather than the dense fiberboard panels.

It feels more like home all the time :)

This is where we left off when I flew back to China on August 17th, however, since then, Len has been hard at work....

He installed gutters on the back of the house
and built a rainwater collection system- from
scratch!  It's incredible.  I can have fresh rainwater
showers now- and the water is nearly pure.  The
water from our well measures 85 after going
through a filter system, the water from a bottle
of Aquafina measures 5, and the water from our
rain barrel measures 2!!!  So freaking cool :)

The utility room is now all enclosed, the room
next to it is an outdoor kitchen and beer brewing
 operation, and he added more landscaping rock.

Looking good :)

He also built a driveway on what was once a grass wasteland.

The next project was installing glass doors around the entire
side porch and back balcony...

Now we can open the french doors in our great room for
true indoor/outdoor living- all completely weather proof!
We have big plans for tiling the balcony, installing a wooden
 planked ceiling, ceiling fans, etc.  It's going to be great.

The latest purchase was 8 solar panels which will go between
the pergola rails of our new deck.  Many of the lights in our
home will be solar powered...

...and we're thinking of purchasing an electric car to
store power- it's the Chinese Way to travel!

G'nite, y'all!