14 Comments
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Connie Mack's avatar

Now I have Glass, Concrete & Stone in my head. Thx to you and David Byrne.

And prospective snuggles with a big brown woof. XO to Jakey.

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Sandra Stephens's avatar

it appears I'm in excellent company!

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cwnidog's avatar

“We never noticed the clutter and clunk because we were so glad to have climate control, beds, and indoor hot water and have our dishes stacked on an actual surface and not on cardboard boxes turned upside down.”

Kind of like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in action. As the basics get taken care of, the niceties come into play.

BTW - I’m a huge fan of rainhead showers. Have one here in our 100 year old house. The original tenant (it was company housing for woolen mill managers) back in 1922 wouldn’t know what to think of it. It’s paired with a handheld sprayer.

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Amy Redfield's avatar

The yellow chair is perfect with the new dining chairs. Perfect. Well done, to know so far in advance what would look great ;-)

I'm reminding of when my mom and I cleaned up the property she bought from a former garbageman. He was also an alcoholic and we discovered that many times after completing his route he came home and dumped it, instead of going to the town's dump. Which, to be fair, was a half hour away.

She bought a pick up truck and for two years we removed trash every Saturday. The day we got to the bottom of the pile in the dirt-floor garage - previously filled to the rafters - and discovered a sheet of plastic laid over the dirt, we wept in gratitude.

Stay cool, my friend.

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cwnidog's avatar

I was going to ask about the yellow chair, but there it was in the photo.

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Lani's avatar

Still love that yellow chair! And that table!! Our house in the states was project upon project upon project…never to be finished, at least not by us. You guys are doing such a great job!! Keep celebrating every accomplishment, big and small.

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Sandra Stephens's avatar

oh man, so you DO understand.

in the opposite corner of the yellow chair will go a green chair. stay tuned!

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Amy Redfield's avatar

Ooooooooo!

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Lori's avatar

You writing is absolutely beautiful. It left me thinking after I finished it. I, too, have moved to Portugal. I remember the wait for my things to cross the Atlantic. What I haven't had the courage to do is buy something that needed to be renovated. I'm in an apartment near Porto. I gaze at Idealista.pt adverts for little quintas and think, "What if ...?" Thanks for a lovely read.

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Sandra Stephens's avatar

I'm going to have to have a weekend party for substackers of Portugal....

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Caroline Smrstik's avatar

You and the h are doing what me and the h daydream about doing... except then we face reality and the fact that he is absolutely not a handyman.

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Sandra Stephens's avatar

even as handy as the h is we slept in a tent on the floor for a year...

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Susanne Freeborn's avatar

Please tell Alberto and Antonio that my husband, the architect, and I ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️‼️ those shelves and that table with the beautiful Portuguese marble top is marvelous beyond measure.

Because Dan is such a DIY guy himself, he really loves what such craftsmen do. There’s heart in their work.

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BayPoodle's avatar

Outdoor showers are the BEST. There is just something about it isn’t there.

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