After several rounds of getting paint samples and putting blotches all over the house I have finally selected my colors.  On the bottom (below the chair rail) of the walls in the dining room I am going with Grasslands.  The rest of the walls throughout the house will be Bauhaus Buff ... or at least I am pretty sure.  I really liked the tone/color of China Doll but on the wall I felt it was too dark to do throughout.

Man it's been a process.  For the record, Sherwin Williams will tell you that you can get a color a percentage lighter.  They do not however calculate the % in the manner demonstrated here (which makes sense to me).  I had created a nice photoshop image to compare the original china doll to various %-ages lighter and thought I was set.  But when I got a sample that %-age lighter it looked identical to the regular color.

There were beige/creams that were too pinky, too gray, too peachy, too light/boring.  I am officially the goldilocks of beige.  Yay me.

 I no sooner hit post and I realized I should comment about the food trucks coming to our community!  We don't have the perfect spaces for them like other communities do, so the first time resulted in the cops coming and indicating that they'd need to have a permit.  This time someone volunteered their driveway, so problem solved.

The first truck was the Emporio meatball truck which was really good - the crack sauce was yummy as were the mac and cheese and the fries.  Tonight we had a wood fired white pizza that was also delightful.  It's nice to be able to take a stroll down through the community to the cul-de-sac.  It also means getting to see and talk to some of the neighbors.

As we walked today one of Avery's classmates' mother drove by and stopped to introduce herself.  I had no idea they were on the other side of the community!

Speaking of classmates we also had a playdate here last weekend w/ Avery's best bud.  Who would have thought I'd have one much less two screaming near-three year olds running circles in my house and I'd love every minute of it?

Why am I posting... I have no idea.  I have nothing to say, really.  The days and weeks are going by so fast.  Everything seems so repetitive -- but good.

It has been crazy hot, but it is starting to get pretty chilly overnight, which is rather refreshing.  It's like a final warning to the plants, so my tomatoes are going insane right now.  I will definitely have the supplies for a big batch of sauce at the end of the season.  It's kind of a shame, because my tomatoes are incredibly tasty this year.  Avery loves them too and she eats the cherry tomatoes by the hand full every night.

The green beans, kale, and swiss chard remains productive much to my dismay.  The watermelons on the other hand remain small and don't seem to be changing.

I also have a critter with a penchant for my tomatoes.  I don't know what it is for sure, but I suspect a raccoon or the like given the way the partially eaten tomatoes are gnawed at.  I've lost a couple of romas and one big orange-yellow one at a minimum.

Yesterday I was open to suggestion... glad more people didn't knock on my door trying to sell things.

I signed on with a pest company that knocked on my door. I have wanted to get preventative care in this regard for a while, but I hated the thought of someone coming in and spraying chemicals all through the house. Their approach is using sprays enviromentally safe materials to deter ants, spiders, and the like from entering your home -- so they're spraying on the outside. They also treated along the property perimeter to deter ticks.

Then later in the day I got an email from my mortgage company noting significantly lower rates than what I currently have -- so I called to see how much I could save over the life of the loan. I ended up refinancing (I love how easy Quicken Loans/Rocket Mortgage makes this stuff). I dropped from the 15 year loan to a 10 year (cutting what a year and a half or so off of what was left) -- not that it matters since I do my best to pay ahead and shorten it even more. The rate went from 3.99% to 2.75%. Recoup time is a year and 2 months and I would save $9000 on interest (if I left it go the full 10 years).