Indio, California: Another very busy day, with several trips back and forth to the new house. We had to be at the house from 9-11a delivery window for the two identical sofas ordered for the living room. At the same time, a rep from the water softening/treating company was going to stop by to check the water softener we had inherited from the past owner.
If you are not in the water softening world (in Oregon we were not), there are systems (usually installed in the garage or on the side of a house) that extract all the coarse minerals from hard water, through an ion exchange, before it enters a house. The result is silky soft water, which makes for cleaner laundry, dishwasher-washed dishes crystal-clear, softer hair, and a spot-free shower door. We have a whole-house water softener at our campsite at the Motorcoach Country Club. It serves our bus, casita and three water spigots (great for spot-free car washing and patio furniture-hosing-offing).
Dave had researched the water softener in our new house and had figured-out how to operate it correctly. The rep confirmed Dave's intelligence. (Wink.) Then the rep proceeded to sell us two reverse-osmosis systems (actually why we had asked him to visit today) - one for drinking water at the kitchen sink, and another for the ice maker in the bar fridge (soon to be installed) because I am a total ice snob.
Can't shake a good martini with stinky ice!
Our new living room sofas (two identical, facing each other) were delivered on time. They were in perfect condition and both remained after the delivery crew left. Every delivery is so COVID-aware here. The staff wore masks and gloves. It was a no-sign delivery (finished on-line/phone). The delivery crew only had to step a few feet into the house this morning to deliver the sofas. We also wore face masks/gloves, of course. The crew removed all the packaging. They couldn't have been at our house ten minutes.
This beautiful sofa does look a bit like a Barbie sofa (or so said my sister when I sent her a photo), but assume it will look larger once our household shipment from Portland - carpets, coffee tables, etc., have been delivered next week.
Please notice the valances on the windows in the above photo. DT decided to remove any valance from any window we had not decided to cover with white shutters.
So. Much. Better.
After removing the very well-made and probably very expensive valances, the change was dramatic. This type of window treatment was very popular when the house was built in the early 2000s. There were a few windows in the house that had never been fitted with window coverings (drapes, shades, shutters), so we are going to remove the dark valances from these windows and just wait and see if the actually NEED coverings... figuring if they haven't had shades for all these years, maybe there is a reason? Next, DT gets to remove all the valance hardware, patch, re-texture, and paint (the last owners left us paint) where the valance hardware was previously installed. Fun times.
Before 
... and, after.
Even the kitchen window had a heavy dark valance. I have seen several hummingbirds from this window, so it must be the perfect spot to move our hummingbird feeder? Interestingly enough, we had a hummingbird feeder at the window over the sink at our house in Portland.
The video doorbell was NOT installed today. I was able to set-it-up, install it into our network and let it have fun with Alexa, but we are not installing it until tomorrow because the battery took so long to charge, we abandoned our task. (I ordered the battery-operated doorbell because there is no wired doorbell on the outside of this house.)
The security system people arrive in a few days!
Just a quick supper this evening. I served Lenny's dip with potato chips for our appetizer tonight because today is LENNY'S BIRTHDAY! (Lenny and Lisa took the kids camping in the mountains for the weekend, and are having just the best time!) I made one of my favorite meals, and it is the 4th time I have made this dish in 117 days: Jaime Oliver's Bacon & Pea Pasta. Of course, I use turkey bacon, never use the stock cube, but am liberal with lemon and mint (I live in the Coachella Valley!). So delicious. I make such a smaller version of this recipe. These days, I don't cook 3/4 cup of pasta for Dave and I. Tonight I used orecchiette pasta (usually do).
So good and so simple. The entire dish comes together in the time it takes to boil pasta. My kinda dinner. I also served a salad with baby tomatoes, dried figs, tossed greens and feta cheese, in a fig-balsamic dressing.
Until my next update, when Dave's office/den furniture will be delivered, I remain, your "I have someplace to sit" correspondent.
Terry, Your home is looking awesome! As for the reverse osmosis, a couple of suggestions (may be too late!) 1. Not sure how close the bar is to the kitchen, but we just ran a supply line to our two other fridges to use a common, single RO system. 2. If you have space, by all means upside the storage tank. We went from the standard 5 gallons to something like 10 – huge difference in both supply and pressure. Stay safe and enjoy the new digs!
That’s how we had it plumbed at our last house, but not possible here.