{"id":14721,"date":"2014-07-06T16:08:03","date_gmt":"2014-07-06T22:08:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/?p=14721"},"modified":"2014-07-11T05:48:45","modified_gmt":"2014-07-11T11:48:45","slug":"one-thing-leads-to-another","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/2014\/07\/one-thing-leads-to-another\/","title":{"rendered":"One thing leads to another"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometime in the timeframe of March 2011, I listed this house for sale. It was when things were going seriously sideways in the U.S. economy\/banking, etc. No takers and only 1 showing in the year it was listed.<\/p>\n

My realtor and an assistant did a wonderful “house tour” with photos and even some music. I was outside with Karl and Bob and didn’t see what was going on until I saw the “tour”. And I was impressed. I studied the photos for some time. It is not so much the quality of the photos as it was how things were presented…or staged. And although part of me rankled a teeny-tiny bit, I did get how the presentation looked clean, warm and attractive. I learned a lot!<\/p>\n

So, this June 1 when I decided to try again. I told my realtor that the only change was the addition of the kitchen island and I sent some photos to see what she thought about adding photos, removing the island or ???<\/p>\n

What she thought was that my photos were good and she asked if I’d take a few more inside and out. <\/p>\n

I did.<\/p>\n

And that is the House Photos Post<\/a> of June 3.<\/p>\n

Although I am a fairly clutter-free person, I de-cluttered a bit more and thought back to the photos from 2011. The largest de-cluttering happened in the kitchen where I removed the food processor, the coffee grinder, the VitaMix and the toaster. And shuffled the canisters and cleared the area with the fruit basket:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You can’t see it all from this photo…BUT, I REALLY liked how it looked.<\/p>\n

Clean.<\/p>\n

Uncluttered.<\/p>\n

Clear decks.<\/p>\n

Wow.<\/p>\n

Enlightening to me.<\/p>\n

But.<\/p>\n

I use the VitaMix 1-4 times a day. And I use the toaster daily. And the coffee grinder.<\/p>\n

I thought.<\/p>\n

The VitaMix and toaster needed to be “out”.<\/p>\n

The coffee grinder – that is a once in the morning thing for me and I decided I could live with it in a cupboard and the in and out as part of my morning routine.<\/p>\n

I really liked the flour canisters in their new location and the clear space on the opposite counter:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This, so works for me!<\/p>\n

I love, love, love having this spot clear for working on dough kind of things.<\/p>\n

I used it before, but it entailed shuffling stuff – now, just do it!<\/p>\n

And then…<\/p>\n

AND THEN…<\/p>\n

My eight year old, el-cheapo microwave that I originally intended to be just a short time thing… it died.<\/p>\n

Since it was a low power, low featured thing, I had only been using it to re-heat things…like my coffee.<\/p>\n

When it died, I got to thinking.<\/p>\n

I buy premium whole bean coffee. I grind the beans. I make a pour-over in my Chemex pot and put the resulting wonderful brew in a thermos. <\/p>\n

I pour a cup.<\/p>\n

And then I proceed to drink a few sips and THEN, I blitz in the microwave…etc. because I am distracted and doing multiple things and how silly is that???<\/p>\n

I thought some more.<\/p>\n

What if I didn’t have a microwave?<\/p>\n

What if I poured a cup of coffee and sat and enjoyed it – fresh grind, fresh pour over and HOT?<\/p>\n

It was another enlightening moment.<\/p>\n

Instead of a new microwave, I ordered a toaster oven.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It toasts (wonderfully!).<\/p>\n

It broils and bakes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Toaster gone.<\/p>\n

The “enjoy a cup of very good coffee” extended to my afternoon cup of tea and my evening glass of wine.<\/p>\n

So often I grabbed one or the other and kept working or did other tasks – not really enjoying.<\/p>\n

That old Zen thing “when you chop wood, chop wood”, came to mind. <\/p>\n

For me, when I keep my mind on whatever task or drink or meal or whatever…and really have my “head in the game” – that is so good and so fulfilling and makes me so happy-content. <\/p>\n

It works for work tasks, for house chores and for absolutely everything.<\/p>\n

The de-cluttering for the house photos…it de-cluttered some thinking also.<\/p>\n

And a final and funny piece…my electric coffee grinder died also!! I had actually ordered a little manual grinder for the motorhome. I usually use ground coffee when travelling, but I saw this little grinder and thought I’d give it a try.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Turns out, it is great.<\/p>\n

No electricity needed.<\/p>\n

A few minutes of arm power.<\/p>\n

I LOVE it.<\/p>\n

One thing leads to another.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometime in the timeframe of March 2011, I listed this house for sale. It was when things were going seriously sideways in the U.S. economy\/banking, etc. No takers and only 1 showing in the year it was listed. My realtor and an assistant did a wonderful “house tour” with photos and even some music. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-front-porch-musings","category-me-and-the-house"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14721"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14789,"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14721\/revisions\/14789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beardogco.com\/theroadhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}