My Home

Here are a few pictures of the house I live in. It's rented and its WONDERFUL. We really love it here.

The picture on the left is our front door. Many of you may be familiar with my duck. I don't move without him. He's my guardian of sorts. The loveseat was a "front yard find" - about 4 houses down they had it out on the front yard with a free sign. It is sturdy like its new. The only thing wrong with it was some old cushions. I recovered the cushions and voila a shady little spot for John and I to enjoy coffee on the weekends.

The picture on the right is the other side of our entryway. The entryway is really a walled-in garden and patio. My swing is here between the wall and garden. We've had many cups of coffee here as well, but in the morning it gets more sun that you can stand even with the canopy. I like to read here in the late afternoon.

Next is the living room. This shot is looking from the glass doors to the back yard toward the front entryway, almost as though you walked straight in and turned back to the door.

The walls are this wonderful oversized brickwork - we think its this compacted sand brick they make out here.

We have a woodstove which is perfect in the winter - just enough heat to keep the living room and kitchen warmed (sweaty hot if you're not careful!) The floors throughout the house, with the exception of the bedrooms, are all brick. Cleanup is a breeze.

Our kitchen has a pantry closet - you can just barely see it to the right of the cabinets. I like having the stove in the middle of the island, and love having a built-in wine rack. I even have space to have my most used stoneware out on the counter in a rack! It's a great kitchen to entertain from with the dining and living area being so open.

Just off the kitchen is our patio - this is kind of a lousy shot of it, but you can see 1/2 the view we enjoy. The patio itself wraps around the front of the living room. We have the Adirondack chairs, a hammock, grill and cast iron fireplace out here. Both the living room and master bedroom have huge windows looking out over the Sandia mountains. The backyard is about a 1/4 acre and completely fenced in so the dogs have full run.

This is Chica. If you asked her, she is John's dog. In fact, I'm pretty sure her world revolves around him. She's a terrier/mutt mix. Not the smartest dog in the world, but she is loving and sweet. This is a very recent photo of her - normally we shave her down pretty tight, right here she's getting a little scruffy. She's cute either way, but when her hair is long and Morgan (Chris's Great Dane) comes to visit, she gets really dirty - crusty even. I swear I've seen Morgan put her in her mouth, swish her around and spit her out in a glob of slime. Still, she comes out grinning, happy to have a "puppy" friend to play with. Chica is over a year old now, born in April of 2005.

Morgan was born in September of 2006, if I remember right, so she's just coming up on a year. She hasn't a clue how big she is. Morgan is a Blue Merle Great Dane. This picture doesn't show off her coloring very well (that and she's covered in dirt!) She has black spots with an otherwise blue/red purpley coat. It's hard to explain, but indeed beautiful. Morgan has not been docked or had her ears clipped.

Stinky just turned 6! He's still the biggest, stinkiest puppy. In the photo he's carrying his favorite toy - floppy dog. It's basically a plush dog that has no filling - on purpose. He loves that thing. Cuddles with it at night, and does the show off wiggle with it to get attention during the day.

And finally, this is John. Normally he's extremely camera shy. Okay, actually he hates having his photo taken. He'll kill me when he finds out I posted this, but getting a picture of him without a helmet is rare, and a smile even more so. I took this picture during one of our rides. We were north of an area called Tent Rocks. About a half hour after this was taken, we found ourselves on a rutted, washed out dirt "road" in the pouring rain. I love these trips with John. If you think this photo of him is funny, you ought to see me, sitting on back, soaked, muddy, and grinning like I won the lottery.