My House Is Melting!

It would not be normal unless there was a problem with the Scottsdale house. Less than two weeks after I had the air conditioner serviced, Deb the caretaker found the temperature inside the house at 92 degrees during a check-in. During the service call, the technician told her it was a great unit and running well. It turned out that the evaporator coil broke, although the part is covered under warranty labor is about $1,500. I patiently waited for the part to come in and this past Friday a technician came to install the coil. I do not know how he did it but Deb said he toiled out in the hot sun for four hours straight. Air conditioners are on the roof in Arizona, Deb said it was 118 degrees on her patio so it must have been even hotter up there. She called to say everything was up and running and I let the appliance installer know we could keep our appointment for Monday. That joy was short-lived as the technician called to say it was actually not working, another part is needed which is also covered under warranty but the labor will be about $500. I had to put off the appliance installation once again.

Because we had to leave abruptly at the end of February, there was no time to properly close up the house for the summer. All of my darling vintage Christmas decorations, lots of clothing that I was going to sell and the patio cushions are out in the garage. One good thing is that the garage has no windows where the sun can stream inside but most likely in the best case the plastic bins will be toast. Once the air conditioning is up and running I am going to see if some of these items can be moved inside the house. It will be a long 3 1/2 months or so before I can get there to assess the condition of everything myself.

Thankfully I sold these two beautiful pieces online this past week and this will help pay for this unexpected expense. The necklace sold on eBay and the pendant sold through an estate sale ad from last fall. We conducted a sale in a beautiful 10,000 square foot home in Long Grove and I had taken extra time to post some group jewelry photos, including the one below:

The pendant in the center had already sold and the customer chose the pendant on the left. These are very unique storyteller pendants by Navajo silversmith Lorenzo Juan. Mother bought one on our first trip to Tucson and two years ago the vendor had three more so I snapped them up. Whenever she wears it people compliment her on it. The pendant on the right is still available! I have had to put the jewelry online sale project on hold due to lack of time but this website sale gives me encouragement to see this project through and launch the sale after the Labor Day holiday as planned.

Kuochun and Mother are slowly but surely making progress health-wise. Kuochun's still catheter-free and has a follow-up visit in about a month. Mother completed her first round of physical therapy for her knee but it was recommended that ten more sessions be added. She has a follow-up with the doctor on Monday. Kuochun also went to orientation for cardiac rehab and was waiting to hear when he can start. Mother was on a waiting list for months before she could start her pulmonary rehab which is at the same location. We just go the word that Kuochun can start rehab next Wednesday and it will be 12 weeks. Mother put her pulmonary rehab on hold while doing physical therapy for her knee and I am not sure if she will be able to fit it in before heading for Scottsdale.

Mother needed an eye test in order to proceed with having new glasses made so we took care of that on Saturday. She did not make it out of there without ordering a pair of sunglasses as well. The frames she chose are amazing and will be very helpful during the day, especially in Arizona. They are red on the top, tortoise shell on the bottom and have a touch of aqua on the sides. It looks like the sunglasses will be ready before the eyeglasses are. I believe these frames came in after she chose her eyeglasses, otherwise I think they would have been her first choice.

At the vision center a woman was patiently waiting her turn and Mother struck up a conversation with her. Mother noticed that she was wearing a Native American bracelet. From across the room I could see that it was an Effie Calavaza piece, she was a Zuni artist renowned for her snake jewelry who just passed away this year at the age of 94. I mentioned to the woman that I had matching pieces if she was interested. I created this photo of what I have handy to send her. Feel free to inquire about these pieces, I will give the customer first choice but I am selling them all at my cost. I am not doing chain necklaces anymore as they are challenging to display in the case.

Putting time and effort into the jewelry caravan really paid off this past weekend! Thank you so much to everyone who patronized our sales in Des Plaines, Evanston and Palatine and purchased treasures from the caravan. I was so pleased at all of the costume jewelry pieces which sold. I feel like the costume jewelry collection is now manageable. I spent some time organizing the garage over the weekend and only one large case now has jewelry - a vintage costume jewelry case with fall colored pieces in it. I left it as is because there is just a short window to sell fall tones which is not right now. I will plan to fill in the cases with "new" items and send them on their way to our nice sales in Libertyville and Saint Charles. I no longer have a source for vintage costume jewelry so when the collection is gone, it's gone!

I sold a number of pieces out of the 75% off sterling silver case as well, I will continue to go through the collection and see if there is anything else I can put on final clearance. The organization is going well! By this time next week Kuochun should be able to put his car back in the garage which is quite a feat considering how things were looking.

Quite a bit of jewelry sold on Thursday in Palatine so I asked Kuochun if he wanted to take a ride with me in the evening to bring additional pieces up there. We started on our way when I realized that the homeowners may still be living there and I did not think to make an appointment. We decided to go anyway and if there was no one home, stop in. There did end up being a car and a truck in the driveway so we did not stop but Kuochun never misses an opportunity to go out to eat! We noticed Jelly Cafe close to the home, there is one in Mount Prospect. We knew it was a breakfast / lunch place but the sign said burgers 4-10. However when we drove into the parking lot no one was around.

Kuochun said just pick something out and surprise me! I found what looked like a perfect place in Barrington which was not far and I just started heading that way. It is called Farmhouse On North and it is just west of Northwest Highway and a little north of Main St. It looks like a century-old house which was converted. The restaurant is only open for dinner but the hours are great - 5-9 Tuesday-Thursday and 5-11 on Friday-Saturday. It is so darling! Even Kuochun just loved the decor which was modern farmhouse style.

We split the Farmhouse Caesar salad, it had a stronger anchovy flavor than most but we both enjoyed it. For entrees, I ordered the Street Corn Mac n' Cheese which is shown in the foreground here. Street corn is a big thing in Arizona, I have not had it there but it is a side dish with the Chicken Enchilada Bake on Seattle Sutton and theirs is very good. Kuochun's Honey Molasses Salmon with Cajun rice and creamed peas is in the background. My entree was just delightful, the cheese sauce was light and perfect. Kuochun is not a big fan of peas but he really liked the rest. We also split a cookie skillet, at first the server told us it was peanut butter cup and then she came back and said it just switched to chocolate chip. I think we ended up with a peanut butter cookie, no chocolate and vanilla ice cream but it was delicious. I was rolling out of there but it was so good! There is adorable outdoor dining as well. I highly recommend this hidden gem and look forward to going again with Mother and Kuochun. Most of the entrees are in the $20s but my entree was $18 and splitting the salad was reasonable at $4 each. Portions are very generous, everything is house-made and supplies come from local farms. There are also other salads and appetizers to choose from so it would be easy to put together a reasonably-priced meal. Worth the trip to Barrington!

Time to get filling those jewelry cases, until next week...