Jul
16
Super Fan Gets the Scoop From Jack
What a gal! Our Super Fan squeezes some juicy details about HGTV Dream Home 2010 out of our house planner Jack Thomasson. She also talks about Santa Fe and fun activities to enjoy there. Watch our two new videos for details.
Hi Gail, Still have mixed emotions about your leaving us as the HGTV Super Fan. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all you've done to enlighten us!
It's good to know that the SPO Dream Home will be on one level. Can't wait to see those floor plans. Did I hear correctly?! Six different mountain ranges can be seen from the SPO Dream Home location?!! Awesome!!! What a spectacular sight that will be!
Black bear or not, would love to be there gazing out those windows. More than ever I'm excited to see the windows this dream home will have.
Thanks for new details about the dream home, but I sure hate to see you leave.
Have a great day!
Thanks Gail for also sharing ten activities the winner of the Dream Home can enjoy.
If Linda shares any secrets with you, please don't hesitate to tell us!
You've been a great Super Fan!!!
Gail, one final question for you. The diynetwork.com provides front and rear view cam photod for the Blog Cabin. Is it feasible for HGTV to do the same so that their bloggers can get front and rear view cam photos of the 2010 Dream Home?
Thanks for the new news Gail. Glad to see the home is on one level. The 109 year old house I live in now has a day light basement & a second floor. I am tired of stairs!! See if you can talk HGTV into releasing the floor plans. Bloggers want to know!
Hi Ed!! One level is wonderful!! I can imagine the views through huge windows!!
wow, first time using the new system. I could agree more with you! I like the one story idea. I hate the baby gates that we have to have up now for our twins!
Thanks so much GAIL, for your newsy vlogs, and of course for getting Jack to spill the beans.
By the way, a couple more exciting things to do in the area: hot air balloon rides, and the aerial tramway—dy-na-mite!
I'll agree with Jack, eating Southwestern cuisine (along with a margarita or two) and mariachis by moonlight, or any time of day, is absolutely MAGIC!
Happy Turquoise Trails
BTW, just getting back into the swing of things here in the blogs. After my mid-morning exercise walk, it was light lunch time, a massage, and then of course, a nap.
How wonderful to return to the Dream Home blog and find a new thread and news from Super Fan GAIL.
Hi Jessirose, it's good to hear from you again! Are you going to get an ID account so I can follow you?
BTW: How are the twins?
Yeah I was gone for a while when we moved. Now that we are all settled, I am graduated from college, and I have settled into marathon training I am back! I will look into how to get an ID acount, I am sure that it is easy, but I am not too tech savy.
oh, and my twins are great. They are getting fatter, which is good, and learnging new words all the time!
Hi Coop, what a nice mid-morning routine! Just checking to see if that "raspberry and almond crostata" is still around or whether it was a tasty delight with your own private "high tea."
Hello there, Lessie—the crostata has now joined the ranks of its predecessor, the chocolate cake, and is down to one lonely slice. That, however, will be remedied by the end of the evening!
Turquoise Trails and Sandia Sunsets!
Speaking of Santa Fe and food, one of the highest rated restaurants by online reviewers is Torino's @ Home. Surprisingly, it's noted not for Southwestern cuisine, but as a French and Italian style deli and dessert heaven.
For Southwestern cuisine, strongly recommended by the online crowd is the Over Easy Cafe for breakfast, lunch or brunch. It's inexpensive, off the beaten path, and very popular with locals. Okay, I'll bite!
Based on the great reviews, maybe Jack will try'em out and share his own opinions with us. Fellow bloggers, readers and/or residents are welcome to provide full reports as well.
I'd like to order Turquoise Trails, Taquitos y una cerveza, por favor.
Thank you Gail! We were missing you soooooo much! How exciting to hear from Jack as well, and to know that the DH2010 will be one level…I might ask….Will there be a roof top garden across the whole top of the house? I would think that would give you a 360 degree view of the six mountain ranges seen from the site? WOW!! Tell Jack that I also love, love, love southwestern cuisine!! I would love to share a table with Jack at any one of the great Southwestern Restaurants the area has to offer as long as it is filled with chili con carne, fajitas, chiles rellenos, chimichangas, enchiladas, flautas, quesadillas, posoles (this is as close to southern food as I can get), tamales, tostados, and of course, chips & guacamole!! It's Tex-Mex all the way baby!!! Por favor, compartir una comida con mi gato!
Well, have you spoken with Linda yet? Will she be sharing any further great news?
Marie Miller, your Tex-Mex dishes sound fabulous! New Mexico chili peppers are a little too hot for me especially when they're liberally sprinkled or included in foods.
Sorry to see Gail leaving, she was a wonderful SuperFan….I'm soo glad the home will be one level…3900 sq ft means alot of open space in the home…and maybe floor to ceiling windows that will open to the yard area, so you can enjoy those mountains!
Hi Gail,
Six mountain ranges! To feast on that view, it would be great if the back of the home was glass. I've been researching picture windows and picture window combinations. A combination would interrupt the visual, but a picture window would allow total enjoyment of the landscape at all times! I'm sure HGTV would install black bear-proof glass.
This home will probably be one of the best to date!
I am sorry Gail is leaving, she is just wonderful person. I loved her comments, video comments. Well, have a great time Gail. We will miss you!
Lessie: If you like a milder Southwestern cuisine, I think you will love this recipe:
Southwestern Chicken and Pasta Salad:
Ingredients:
1 pound farfalle (bow-tie) pasta
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups diced cooked chicken (you could even pick up a rotisserie chicken at the market)
8 green onions, chopped
6 plum tomatoes, chopped
1 15-ounce can golden hominy, drained
1 15-ounce can black beans, drained
1 12-ounce bottle mild green taco sauce
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite. Drain; rinse under cold running water and drain again.
Preparation:
Transfer pasta to large bowl. Add oil and toss to coat. Mix in chicken, green onions, tomatoes, hominy, beans, taco sauce and cilantro. Season salad generously with salt and pepper.
This is such an easy recipe that can be prepared in about 30 minutes…enjoy!! Always great with margaritas!!!
Marie Miller, this recipe sounds delicious! I love spicy but NM chili peppers are too hot for me. Think I'll try your recipe when my brother comes for a vist. Will let you know how it turns out.
Thanks!!
Marie Miller, I hope you get an answer soon on your rooftop garden question. I think that one is on everybody's want to know list, and why not take the most advantage of the view AND the flat roof area.
Not that I'm a believer in physics or anything (no wait, isn't that spelled psychics? Oh well, you get the idea!) Anyway, I have a strong feeling that starting next week, we're going to have all kinds of exciting surprises in store for us. After all, MARY's timing is extraordinary, since she usually waits until I'm on the road somewhere to post all the good stuff! My loss is your gain….
Happy Turquoise Trails and Tequila Sunsets!
Hello everyone,Karyn from Michigan here, I have a great idea to solve the picture window problem Lessie,They can put a beautiful screened porch like the Green Home has!!wouldnt that be a dream.Watching the sunsets from a lounger sipping a margarita,yumm.Picture it a southwestern overhang with lovely rustic furniture sweet.Till then Amigo's….
Karyn, that's a great option. But I was thinking more in the line of waking up and being greeted by nature's beauty without having to do anything……provided I don't wake up to see a black bear looking down at me.
But I also like your idea. Will just have to wait and see the floor plans?
MARY, are you ready to reveal the floor plans? Karyn and I (as well as all the other bloggers) are interested in seeing them.
Hi Coop: It does seem a bit suspicious that Mary waits until our number one sleuth is out of town to post surprises! However, it has been a while since we've received any substantive information from the home front down New Mexico way…so, I do hope that Mary is up to some exciting business come Monday!! And, yes, I along with others, have been asking that question for a while about the roof top being a oasis get-away! It would be such a perfect place for additional outdoor living space…it would be fabulous, for lack of better words!! I definitely want to see it happen!! So, Mary….ARE YOU LISTENING? We know you have clout with HGT V!!
Hi Lessie: I'm happy that you are going to try the recipe…I'm sure that your brother is going to love it!!
Marie Miller, not only are you the queen of this blog, but you're also a great cook. Any recipe you share is a winner! I know my brother will love it.
Thanks again, can't wait to try it.
Gail is back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Welcome back Super Fan!
This is a "Dream" come true!
:0
Not to worry, Marie Miller—if my absence is what it takes to get new information and blog threads posted, then I'm willing to make the sacrifice for the good of my friends in the blogging community!
In which case, we could have a surprise coming our way any day….
Happy Turquoise Trails and Mariachis by Moonlight, amigos!
The house looks great so far and in such a perfect location. Can't wait to see the floorplans which I hope include lots of stone patio area around a pool!
I agree, lots of stone patio area around a pool would be perfect, along with a cooling misting system. And don't forget some Bunchberry bushes in the surrounding landscape (type of Dogwood Tree that grows at higher elevations in New Mexico.) Didn't MARY promise us some in the location clues?
Marie Miller, 27 year old Design Star hopeful Dan Vickery is a fellow Oregonian. Currently a bartender, he grew up on a farm and has a good deal of practical construction AND architectural design experience.
Maybe he's the perfect one to help design your own dream home, or even to personalize and fine tune your favorite set of floorplans? (Before he rockets to HGTV stardom and is no longer affordable!)
Starting Sunday, 19 July, we'll get a glimpse as to how things go on the first Design Star challenge of Season 4.
Marie Miller, you are just as good as sleuthing as Coop. In fact, you will be able to spot any flaw in the floor plans. I'm sure Coop will analyze and offer comments. Ed in Oregon will surely add input. So will other bloggers.
So Mary need not wait until Coop leaves for Phuket because there will be many comments, with or without Coop.
Ok MARY, are you revealing the floor plans this Monday? Kari and Mike have visited their new home and the Design Star debut is over, We're ready for something new!
DBCoop, like that cooling mist system as well as the bunchberry bushes. Jules58, your idea of a stone patio area around the pool is a winner!
DBCoop the misting system is a great idea! I have a system on my patio for my boxer…I also thought skylights would be a great addition, so you wouldn't have to use your lights during the day
MarieMiller : I really wonder why did you wrote in spanish" Please
share a food with my cat "
Hi Alma: Oh my, that was not intentional! My spanish is not as good as it should be, so I guess I should be more careful & use a better translator. Thank you for bringing that to my attention!! ¡Haré el mejor tiempo próximo!! Of course, I do love cats, so I might ask for leftovers for my neighbor's cat!!
Good Morning Coop: Are you packed and ready to fly away to the heart of Southeast Asia! I love your idea about the misting system & since Mary did use the dogwood as a clue, I must expound on the Bunchberry bushes 'cause I also think they would be fabulous for the surrounding landscape!! As you know the common name Bunchberry is most used, but the second most often heard name for them is Crackerberry, which was probably the most in use in the Victorian era. A couple sources say this name arose from the sound it makes if you step on it on a woodland walk. This dogwood only grows to around eight inches tall. "If you hunch down, a patch of it looks like the smallest imaginable dogwood forest. The leaves are the same, the flowers are the same, everything about it is like a big dogwood, only very, very small!" Isn't that interesting? OOps! I'm getting chatty & this won't post unless I stop!!
Coop: You might be right about the 27 year old Design Star hopeful Dan Vickery, and being so close as Portland, it wouldn't be much of a task connecting with him! That is, if he is ever home! I'm sure he is spending a lot of time with HGTV these days! I like the idea that his design style is "hip and historic" and that he "believes great design should be grounded in sound architectural aesthetics and accented with modern deco!" I also like the fact that his design icon is his grandma. That gives him my vote already!!
Marie, anybody who likes grandma's deserves two thumbs up! My French grandmother was quite a character, and we got along great. Too bad she didn't teach me to cook—the only time I ever gained weight was when I spent summers in France with her—everything was so delicious. Of course, the three hour midday meal, from 1-4, didn't help any, but it was leisurely, one dish at a time, and such excellent wines, cheese, and of course, baguettes–the good old days!
Coop, what a great heritage! I've often wondered where you were educated and who influenced your thinking. You're definitely a citizen of the world!
I had no idea that the Bunchberry had another name. Crackerberry? Are you sure you're not making that up, being from the South n'all?!
Talk about the smallest imaginable dogwood forest in miniature, just think, if you were about the size of an ant, why in comparison, those WOULD be real dogwood trees! It's all relative….
I do have some things packed already, Marie—mostly household odds and ends I'll be leaving behind at the condo. Packing clothes will go quickly, so I'll wait another day or two for that.
Phuket Pilgrims and Plymouth Rocks!
When will we get to view the floor plan?
Ahh Coop: We share another reality…my grandmother was french as well. Unfortunately, I did not spend time in France, but I sat at my Grandmother's feet as a child on a tapestry covered stool & watched her crochet for hours. And, all the while, she told me story after story of her life in France!! My father was born in Paris! My grandmother was a tailor by trade back in the day, and she actually did work for Eugene Gladstone O'Neill, who was an American playwright, and Nobel laureate in Literature! Please tell me you have heard of "Mourning Becomes Electra!" Okay, I'm getting chatty again, & don't especially enjoy name dropping, but was very excited to see that you have a french background!!
Marie Miller, no wonder you and Coop bring so much to this blog, you both have been influenced by and appreciate other cultures. What a great asset!
Nope Coop: Even though Crackerberry is another name for Bunchberry, I'm quite sure it is not a figment of my Georgia Cracker mind! However, I can understand your suspicions, especially when you think of an ant living among the wee dogwood trees! I love the visual, somewhat like a Disney movie!! Maybe we could lend a story to Disney's writers for a "Whole New World!! The "Ant Under the Crackerberry Tree!!"
Marie Miller, "Georgia Cracker mind?" Not by a long shot! And that's all I've got to say about that subject!!!
Coop, Marie is absolutely right. I looked up Crackerberry at http://www.paghat.com/bunchberry.html. All her information is correct. There are even pictures to prove what she's saying.
HGTV, you can check out this link too, especially if you'd like to add the bunchberry/crackerberry to the 2010 Dream Home.
I too spent a lot of time with my French Grand Mere when she was crotcheing doilies & knitting sweaters. After she had her cataract operation, all of her doilies were much more colorful. Because she couldn't tell the difference in the pastel colors anymore.
LOL Marie Miller…I love your movie title! How perfect for a Disney movie—'Ants Under the Crackerberry Tree'—don't forget to claim your royalties!
From this movie critic, you get two thumbs up!
Hi EdinOregon: Your French grand-mère sounded a lot like mine!! My grand-mère had cataract problems as well because of sewing/tayloring in basements during the war that only had candle light!! I never thought that her doilies were much more colorful because she might not know the difference in the pastel colors any more? Agréable pour partager une histoire avec vous !
Did our French grandmères ever know one another, or imagine their grandchildren blogging with each other over the internet one day? Life is extraordinary.
Marie Miller, I imagine that your maiden name would be pronounced sans the t, and with a soft j sound, as in j'aime.
My family name is very English by the way. Don't ask—my family history is complicated, but the short version is that my French grandmother's first husband (she was married several times—very unusual for the day), who was my grandfather (I never knew him), was not French, and had an English surname. Et Voilà, mon petit histoire!
Who would have guessed? We have quite an abundance of French grandmothers here in the Dream Home blog—well, many memories of precious time spent with them and the interesting stories they shared of their lives. Even my father, who grew up in France and came to the US at the end of WWII, had many great tales to tell. Of many, I particularly remember the one about stealing a motorcycle with a sidecar attached from German officers quartered in a nearby house during the war. He used it to take his girlfriend out for an evening date. Luckily, he was not caught—by the Germans or the girlfriend! Instead, he married an English girl and moved to California. There it is, the beginning of my life story, right here in the Dream Home Blog!
Marie Miller, I think your fellow Oregonian, Dan Vickery, and his design partner Nathan did themselves proud with a strikingly well done dining room on the first Design Star Season 4 challenge. Hopefully, he will be able to maintain that level of achievement throughout the series.
Portland Power—Oregonian Style!
Coop: I love the story of your father, and how he stole the motorcycle with a sidecar attached from German officers quartered in a nearby house during the war. Thank goodness he was not caught!! I cannot imagine a world without DBCoop & of course, Show Me The Green! I'm trying to figure out your name, is Coop really French? My maiden name was Forgèt, no not like forget-me-not! You have to pronounce it in french!! Can you do that?
im guessing here like forjay
? IntenseDebate Notification <DIV>Very good guess! Just a little softer on the 'Jay' part! </DIV> <DIV style=\”FONT: 10pt arial\”>
I have concluded that with all the bush talk i just want landscaping that detours bugs and snakes and scorpians away from the house so no bushes to hide under for shade.How about a big tree for shade.Or a couple big trees that will survive in that weather.To me this is much better that snake loving bushes.
Karyn, the person HGTV uses for landscaping will consider all options before creating a design. Hopefully he or she reads your blog first because I only focused on beauty, not bugs, snakes or scorpions.
Hope that the trees aren't too big so bears can't hide behind them. See how easy it is for me to get distracted.
Coop: Actually my family history is complicated as well. My father's father was lost in action during the war, and my grandmère eventually met and married an American Merchant Marine. At the time, a child had to be 12 years of age to get a Visa to leave France, so my grandmère left my father with the nuns in an abby in France for 4 years while she sailed the ocean blue! My father use to tell me how he delivered pies the nuns made as part of his daily chores. He would talk how he would pass by the Eiffle Tower, etc. etc. Wonderful stories, however, Ma brève histoire peut être ennuyeuse?
Gee Marie, you and Coop have an interesting heritage. Need to hear more from Ed in Oregon.
Coop: I'm delighted about my fellow Oregonian, Dan Vickery, and his design partner Nathan also! I'm impressed with their creativity along the abstract line! I mean, who would have ever thought to cut a hole in the middle of your dining room table so that you can bring plant life to your dining room. Clever! I felt like the bold artwork on the walls and floors were replicated world maps by abstract thought! Anyway, you look at it, they took on a new meaning of creativity and contrast!! Love their 'miles' of style!!
P.S. Coop: You nailed the pronunciation of my last name!! Félicitations ! Puits du travail – fait !