David showed up yesterday afternoon driving this cute little Penske truck. It was already packed pretty full with all of his stuff from his apartment in Iowa. and now it is stuffed with all of the stuff from Alan's apartment here in Louisville. The good news is that our basement is a little less full. David heads out this afternoon on his way to Norfolk VA. He will be attending Eastern VA Medical School working on a medical masters degree in hopes of getting into medical school next fall. His new apartment sounds pretty amazing. Not exactly starving college student life. I hope to show you pictures from the east coast next week. We are supposed to have a cold front come through tonight. That would be exciting news except that it's still going to get up to 90 degrees tomorrow. Some cold front. Have a great weekend.

Sally

Right Now

It's been a pretty full day so far. Knowing that we will be sending Grace off to college in just a few short weeks makes me want to spend every waking moment with her. She is not as keen on that plan, but she did indulge me with her company for most of the day. We did what's becoming our regular early morning walk at the zoo. Checked on our gorillas, seals and giraffes. The elephants were out today for the first time. After showering we headed over to the Oxmoor Mall for a little shopping and lunch at Panera. Don't ask me why, but Grace has been craving their mac and cheese for a week. I had a salad. I don't think that mac and cheese is the taste of summer, but she enjoyed every bite. By about that time she had had enough of me so we headed home to try and catch up on a few things. Right now though I am relaxing with my new favorite summer snack. It is summer for heavens sake. People should not feel guilty relaxing a bit. I bought both of these treats at Costco last week. I admit I added some chocolate chips to the Soy Blend, just because. The iced chai totally makes my day!

I'm going back to Costco tomorrow to replenish my supply.

What's Growing

Just so you all can rest easy, George has spent the last two nights out on the town. He goes out as soon as it's dark enough and shows up at the back door the next morning, then he sleeps all day. He is one happy cat!

I know that I haven't shown you many pictures of our yard. The yard is eventually going to be beautiful (I think) but right now it is sadly not. We need to do some major weeding and transplanting and planting and mulching and I think you get the idea. Remember, the house has been empty for nearly 2 years and other than weekly lawn mowing, everything else has kind of "gone back to nature". Since it's way to hot right now to spend any length of time outside, we have decided that we will be patient (difficult for me) and wait until the fall to do any major work. We have a great spot for a vegetable garden and several beds that will be in full bloom next spring. Until then, I have to be happy with a few pots on my deck. The basil is my favorite. I'm putting it in just about everything I can think of. It smells heavenly.

Sally

Free At Last

We have officially been living in our house for 1 month. The whole entire month we have been listening to George whine and carry on to go outside. Our vet was quite clear: "Keep him in for 30 days or he will make his way back to Iowa". 30 days is a long time. 30 days is up. And George got his first taste of the great outdoors this morning. Once he figured out that we would let him out and it wasn't just an accident that he had gotten out the first time, he played the in/out game several times. He never ventured very far, but really seemed to enjoy the freedom. George has always been more of a night owl, choosing to do whatever cats do in the dark. So it wasn't a surprise that the 98 degree heat was just too much for him. Right now he's back in the house sleeping in some cool dark place in the basement or under a bed resting up for a good old time on the town tonight!

Sally

Cookin' in Kentucky

Boy are we cooking! And in more ways than one. It is stinkin' hot here. They say that today will be the hottest day of the summer so far. I thought we already had that day last week. Grace and I got up early this morning and drove to the zoo. We are official members of their walking club.

(this is the back of Grace's shirt)

We had a blast! Most of the animals were out and we were practically the only ones there. We did follow an older woman named Joan around. She was kind enough to be our tour guide and we appreciated the help, because basically between 8:00 and 9:30 if you are a walking club member you have free reign of the place. We were dripping sweat when we left, so I'd say that a nice leisurely stroll through the zoo counts as exercise.

Here are some pictures of my most favorite room in the house. I love spending time here, which is a good thing. The layout makes cooking a piece of cake! My kitchen-

Hope you are cooking up some great weekend plans.

Sally

The Scary Basement!

I wasn't kidding. This is what our basement currently looks like. Please don't judge us. I promise this is just a temporary situation. Hopefully the next time that I share pictures of this necessary part of our "livable square footage" it will look less like a junk yard and more like a place you would enjoy spending time in. Just so you know, the basement isn't all bad. It has potential that maybe only a few of us can visualize at the moment.



Two of my new favorite things happen to live down there, which means that I have to visit the scary, dark place often. Introducing our NEW washer and dryer! I'm still trying to decide how I feel about the front loading washer. If it really saves us as much money on water and electricity as we were told it would I will probably be able to sing its praises. I just can't figure out how it washes our clothes with so little water. Anyway, don't you think that they deserve to be in a laundry room that shows off their beauty? The current living environment has to change, and I have faith that it will. Stay tuned...


Sally

Rain, Rain Go Away

Enough with the rain already. I know that some of you are praying for rain and others of you feel like I have nothing to complain about, but I need sunshine! It looks like my wish may come true on Friday. I hope whatever weather wish you have comes true too.

Here are a few pictures of our "living with less" backyard taken on a much nicer day. The yard is probably one of the biggest downsizing adjustments we have had to make. There are definitely pros and cons to being responsible for a smaller piece of the earth. Obviously there is less to mow which in this Kentucky heat is a good thing. But there is also less "cushion". It's a good thing that we like our new neighbors, because they are close... I think that poor Maggie is the one making the biggest adjustment. First she's having to deal with the chain link fence and then the fact that no matter how many laps she makes around the yard she still needs to go for a walk, because our dog needs exercise and plenty of it otherwise she gets bored and digs...

We are also learning to live without our extra wide two car garage. Instead we have the cutest, most precious out building, or shed or as I like to call it "the little white house"

I know, it's adorable isn't it? Before my dad came with his power washer it was more of a moldy green color. But, now it's restored to a bright white. I think I could almost live in it except that it doesn't have AC.

We do have a nice sized deck, plenty of room for our table and 6 chairs. We would love to have you over for hamburgers and home made ice cream.

If the darn rain would ever stop.

Sally

Basement Hunting Success!

True to my word, I spent several hours (yes, hours) chilling out in the basement yesterday. It was probably the best and most productive way to beat the heat. I think I opened at least 100 boxes, ok, maybe just 50 but it was a lot. I have been missing my quilts. I unpacked one when we first moved in but for some reason which is clear to me now, the packers did not pack them all together. Those sneaky devils used my precious quilts as padding. One quilt per box of who knows what stuff. The poor things were all smashed down and smelled like cardboard. Just having them stacked up where I can see them is bringing me more calm and peace of mind than you can ever imagine.

To add to that sense of calm, I also found the yoga mats! What a relief, you just don't know. I need to find my center soon. I'm sure everyone goes through a period of unbalance when they move but for me and those living with me this is not a good thing. I like order. I like consistency. I like to plan, make lists and actually cross off the completed chores. That's who I am and I know that my yoga mat will help me get back to that happy place.

We finally got all of the boxes out of the "piano room". This is a tiny room right off the front door entry and connected to the kitchen. I'm sure that it was meant to be a dining room, but we have a piano and an electric cello and two trumpets (in the basement), so we will be calling it the

conservatory.

Some day we will have a pair of matching chairs for audience members to relax in while listening to whatever instrument is being played at the time. Since I will always be an audience member the chairs must be a bit more comfortable than the chair in the picture. This particular chair was rescued from the dumpster when Alan and I moved in to married student housing at the University of Wisconsin back in 1985. My parents helped us recover it and it has served us well, but it is not comfortable.

Sally

The Heat Is On

Wow! I just heard that we are going to be sweating buckets again today. All I want to do is sit on my deck with a extra large lemonade and read. instead I will venture to the basement in search of missing stuff. I need my stuff and until I know where it all is I think my anxiety level will remain high. I'm feeling hopeful that today will be the day that I strike gold. 500 boxes to go....

Here are a few pictures of the master bedroom and that pretty much finishes the upstairs. You can kind of see the master bath, but I'm not going to focus on it right now. It really needs some updating and when we get around to that I'll share some more.

The bedroom is a very nice size, which is good because as you can see we need a place to put all of the furniture that didn't fit in the living room. The ceiling is vaulted which makes it feel even bigger. I can't believe that I forgot to take a picture of the fan. It's interesting. It's blue. It's starting to grow on me.

Sally

The Weekend

Sorry I didn't post yesterday; it kind of got away from me. We got up early and walked to the St. Matthews Farmers Market. It's so close that we would just feel guilty driving. Just like most markets we've found that it's best to get there early. We left with a bag full of goodies. The peaches, which we were told to eat in the bathtub naked because they are so juicy, lived up to the disclaimer. We also did more unpacking, recycling, furniture shopping (not buying), and then we went here. It was great! We saw Much Ado About Nothing. The weather cooperated but the lightning show was a little distracting. We got home just in the nick of time.

On the house front, we worked on the piano room, which is supposed to be a dining room, and hung some more pictures. I still need to take pictures of the downstairs, but I think I need to clean it up a bit first. I'll work on that for tomorrow... For now here is what the upstairs guest bathroom looks like. For those of you that follow Grace on Facebook, you know that she spent 5 awful days removing the hideous (pink again) wallpaper that was super stuck. I didn't take a before picture, so you will just have to take my word that it looks a thousand times better. We used the same blue paint that we used in the guest room because we ended up with so much leftover. My Dad hung the new light fixture while he was visiting over the 4th of July, and Grace and I found the new mirror at Ikea. I'd still like to paint the vanity white, but I think I'll wait until after Grace leaves for school.


Enjoy your Sunday evening. We are hoping to do a little grilling in between the scattered showers that are in the forecast

Sally

First Things First

It's hard to believe that we will have been living in our new house for 3 weeks as of tomorrow. We have been so busy that the time has just flown by. There is so much still to do, but the MUST DO as soon as possible jobs are just about finished. As soon as we closed on the house and had the front door key in our hands we rushed to the Home Depot and bought paint. We pretty much had a couple of paint emergencies to take care of and the goal was to get them done before the movers arrived with our furniture. That gave us about 24 hours (give or take a few) to paint 2 bedrooms and a closet.

Bedroom #1 Grace's Room

This room really just needed a bit of freshening. It was basically white with an old, out of date border. Besides, it gave Grace something to do and a way to make the room hers. She picked out a pretty green paint color called pistachio. She has decided that she's had enough of pink and is ready to branch out a bit. She was a speed demon getting that border off the wall and the painting went pretty fast as well. It helps that the room is "cozy" in size. After a trip to Bed Bath and Beyond for bedding and Ikea for a nightstand and lighting, she is pretty happy with the end result.



Bedroom #2 Guest Room/David's Room/Sewing Room






So obviously this room was a nursery. Very cute, but not really what we need as we enter this empty nest stage of life. While Grace slaved away on her room I did my best to significantly change the looks of this room. We went with a pretty blue just because. Honestly there was not a lot of thought that went in to the color selection. I just wanted something that would cover in one coat. I was on a tight schedule. This room is even cozier than Grace's and with the addition of a queen sized bed and a few pieces of furniture you kind of have to watch your step. My dad was the first to stay in the room and he didn't complain. A comfortable bed is all you really need for a guest room.


Master Bedroom Closet
The reason for a pink closet I will never understand.

This is a small picture of a pretty good sized closet, so think lots and lots of pink. It had to go and it had to go fast. How about white? Yes a white closet works perfectly for me.


There you have it. I'm happy to report that the bedrooms were done and dry before the movers arrived. The closet took a little longer because of all of the shelving to paint around, but as you can see it is complete and doing its job!

Tomorrow, pictures of the rest of the house.


Sally

My New Kentucky Home Part 2

Ok, so maybe our new house doesn't look all that small from the front. It's two stories and has 9 windows just on the front and that's if you don't count the sidelight windows on either side of the front door.
But, as you can see from the side view it's pretty much a tall skinny rectangle. The actual finished living space is something like 1700 square feet. Compared to the house we left in Iowa, which was 2300 square feet, that means that we had to get rid of some stuff, especially furniture.

Apparently I didn't get rid of enough...

After unpacking 50 million boxes and trying to be creative about where to put the 500 million things that were in the boxes, our basement is still full. So what's the problem you might ask. At least you have a basement for storage. Well, I'll tell you what the problem is; the problem is that we would like to finish the basement (which is really more like a creepy cellar right now) at some point and in order to do that there can't be any stuff down there. The way that I'm dealing with the problem right now is just to close the door and pretend that we don't have a basement. It's working for me. It probably will keep working for me until I can't find something that has yet to be unpacked and then I'll worry about it.

Tomorrow I'll show you some before and after pictures of some of our first home improvement projects. Today is going to be super HOT and MUGGY in Louisville and probably wherever you are too. Stay cool if you can.

Sally

My New Kentucky Home

In trying to come up with the best way to keep in touch with family and friends, old and new, and everyone in between, I have decided to give the blogging world a go. As most of you reading this know, sometimes just checking my email is a challenge. Please bare with me on this journey and I will do the best I can to keep you up to date with what's going on with the Junkins.


First and foremost and the whole reason for this blog: we have set up housekeeping in Louisville, Kentucky.


Alan has been here for a year working for Norton Healthcare as Chief of Microbiology, living in an apartment and eating macaroni and cheese.

Now that Grace has graduated from high school we have joined him and as of June 21st we are calling this our new home.



We searched the area for quite a while but kept coming back to the City of St. Matthews.

This house on a quaint, tree lined street really called to us. It had been empty for nearly two years. I think it needed us as much as we needed it. We love it! But... it is a tad on the small side, which brings me back to the name of this Blog. Less is More is our new motto and we are seriously dedicated to making that our goal in more ways than just the size of our house.

Please check back often for updates and feel free to leave a comment. I can't promise that I'll reply but if I can figure out how to do it I'll give it my best shot.

Sally