Labor Day at Paws Awhile!

My sister, who Tony says has stayed at Paws Awhile more than he has, reported that the twin beds in our guest room were uncomfortable. She would never offer a complaint without a solution, so she offered to donate 2 sets of known-to-be-comfortable twin mattress/box spring combos. They even delivered them to our house in Smyrna so we could bring them down to Paws Awhile in our mini-van. I must say, I am very impressed with the roominess of the Honda Odyssey.  We took the center seats out, folded the back seats down and the mattresses fit nicely, even leaving enough room for the van-load of other things we had planned to bring down.  It did require some "lego-packing", a term I learned from my college roommate.

Lola really liked the mattress arrangement in the van.  She had a great vantage point from the top of the mattresses. The ride down was pretty quiet once we got past Lola's travel anxiety (thank goodness for the litter box we keep in the van).

We arrived in Fernandina Beach Thursday afternoon, just in time for Happy Hour with friends at the Surf, so there was no time to unload the mattresses. About dusk, we took Lucy and Lola for a walk on the beach. We were surprised to see Lola really embrace the evening beach time, trotting down the beach past the pier. I think she feels less exposed in the dark so she enjoys herself more.

Friday morning, Tony carried the old mattresses & box springs downstairs and brought the new ones up while I got ready to re-make the beds with the new brightly colored sheets that Mary Jane had bought us. They really added a pop of color and the perfectly matched embroidered pillows finished the room!

MJ also made me these beautiful pillows!

Mary Jane is not the only crafty one in the family though, I made this rug myself!  I thought it turned out really cute too.

I unpacked the chairs that we had ordered to go with the retro-table.  They're not perfect but they look pretty darn good for folding chairs which can be tucked away when we don't need them!  I forgot to take a picture of them with the table so you'll just have to imagine how they look!

The next task on the agenda was to finish the baseboard moulding. 

We had a few pieces that still needed to be tacked in place and then there was caulking to be done. I HATE to caulk and I am TERRIBLE at it, but I must admit, I did a better than usual job this time. We left it to dry while we went to deliver the used mattresses to Barnabas. We looked at the furniture at Barnabas and at the Humane Society Second Chance store, but no one else's trash was our treasure today.

We put Lucy in the basket and rode our bicycles down to a couple of beach lots that we had been interested in before.  Tony is still interested in building his beach dream house, even though I think we have the perfect place at Paws Awhile. The lots hadn't changed any - they still have big dunes on them that make me wonder about the build-ability of them.

On the way back from the lots, we stopped at Sliders for a refreshing beverage before continuing the ride home.  We wanted to have an early dinner in town and then get down to the beach with the pets for sunset.  We drove into town and wandered around until we found a place we wanted to eat.  We settled on Timoti's Seafood Shack. The food was good and it was a pleasant evening for sitting at the picnic tables outside.

Back at Paws Awhile, we packed up our chairs, a table, a bottle of wine, glasses and the pets and headed for the beach. The pets needed a little persuading to sit still while we sipped our wine and watched the color drain from the sky but they finally settled down about the time Tony got something in his eye. The evening didn't turn out to be nearly as relaxing as we had hoped.

Saturday was painting day.  I finished patching the nail holes, touched up the baseboard moulding, a couple of door frames and painted the slatted door of the utility closet. Surprisingly I didn't get paint in my hair, on my clothes, on the floor or on the pets!  It was a very successful day!  

To celebrate, I decided to go furniture shopping.  The first place I went was Armoires, etc., a place Mary Jane had noticed on one of her trips. From the street, it really looked like it was going to be a bargain haven with 5 bays of furniture!  I didn't find too much that interested me, but there was some custom made furniture that gave me some ideas.  If I can afford it, custom furniture may be the way to go to maximize the space in our tiny condo.  

My next stop was at Lotts Furniture Store.  I got VERY EXCITED when I walked in the door & found the sleeper sofa I want.  It looked like the same sofa we had in the motorhome - the appeal is that it is only 65 inches wide so there will be room on our 96 inch wall for the sofa and maybe even 2 end tables.  

I had priced it at Jennifer Convertibles for $399.99 but they no longer have a location that is convenient and they won't ship to Fernandina beach so it would be a 20 hour round trip to pick it up.  The sofa at Lotts was a different manufacturer and there was no price tag so I asked the sales associate.  Her first words were, "The manufacturer is having a sale and it is $300..."  (I started to get even more excited until I heard her next words)... "off. bringing it to $2500."  Oh...  I guess I'll be making the trek to Virginia to get the Jennifer Convertibles one.

I stopped by Amelia's Attic on my way back to Paws Awhile.  They had some interesting pieces and their prices seemed reasonable.  I will definitely check back there on occasion.

We attended a birthday party at our friend's house. She did a great job of cooking and entertaining 21 adults, 2 children and 5 dogs!

Sunday morning, the manager at Sand Dollar Villas was checking off one of his bucket-list items to fly over the beach in a motorized glider plane.  We set up our chairs and umbrella at 9AM and waited to see him fly over.

Afterward, we invited a few friends over to enjoy a day on the beach with us.  We set up our Kelty Shade Maker and enjoyed the ocean breeze for most of the day.  Lucy slept in the shade under my chair most of the day, only occasionally getting up to protect us from a passing dog.  Lola elected to stay in the condo.

We had a wonderful dinner at friends' house. Their father was in town from New York and had brought some delicious Italian Sausage and other treats from New York. I even tried some Sweet Breads for the first time.  I've decided I'm a fan (at least until somebody tells me what they really are).

This morning, we packed up & said our good-byes to Paws Awhile.  I'll be back down in a couple of weeks!