2025 Life in Lewiston

This page was last updated on January 5, 2026

We first moved to Lewiston in 1990 when we emigrated to the US. Three years later years we moved to Washington State due to a job relocation.

In 2005 we were both finished with contractual work so we set out in an RV to see the US and Canada. Combined with our previous travels, we have visited 9 of 10 Canadian provinces, 1 Canadian Territory, and all 50 US states. No jokes about 51 states!

Our year on the road was the fulfillment of a dream for both of us. To see pictures of that year, Click here.

When we returned to Washington, I made the move from insurance to manufacturing, taking a job at a primary aluminum smelter; a move I sometimes wish I'd made earlier as the environment suited me much better than an office. The work was more interesting and I got to wear jeans every day.

After thirty-one years we made to decision to move back to Lewiston to be closer to family and friends. Here are the photos of our homeward bound trip.

December 31, 2025

2025 has come to an end as is our first full year back in Lewiston.

Being closer family and friends has been a highlight of this past year.

This year included making some important upgrades to the house as well as setting up relationships with professionals like doctors, an accountant, and other services.

I also joined a craft/quilting group and made some new friends there.

Monica visited us on December 12th she stayed to celebrate my birthday and to do a little Christmas shopping.

We got our new tree installed and carefully hung up stockings by the fire in anticipation of Santa's visit.

Ron and I enjoyed a quiet Christmas opening presents and enjoying a meal of roasted chicken.

On the 31st we celebrated our 43rd wedding anniversary with dinner and a glass of champagne.

Even though we have been here are year there is still a bit to do with respect to decorating, and other upgrades in the coming year, so we will continue to be busy for the foreseeable future.

We are looking forward to being able to spend more time with friends and family in 2026 and may even be able to get in a trip to the east coast in the summer.

November 10, 2025

Winter has arrived in Lewiston, we got our first dump of snow today.

Time to dig out the boots, scarves and switch to flannel sheets!

October 17, 2025

Kitchen Remodel

Time to celebrate! It seemed like forever but it was just over a month, the kitchen is finally finished.

The new microwave and fan is installed above the stove and we added an outside vent to replace the re-circulating fan that was there before. We kept the dishwasher and refrigerator for now as they both still work dispite their age.

The area was very open, so we were able to add an additional cabinet for a larger counter area and more storage while retaining the open concept.

The new, larger sink has been re-located under the window where it belongs and includes a garbage disposal in the prep sink and a tip-out for sponges and scrubbers.

We also added a chrome pullout in one cupboard to store extra tools. I think this was originally designed for cans or spices, but it works great for cooking tools.

Originally there was a pullout for garbage and recyling. Since it did not have a cover, the garbage smell was always present in the kitchen. We relocated the garbage to a covered container under the sink and the recycling just outside the garage door.

This left us with a space where we put in a cabinet with pullout shelves for spices. And, yes, the spices are in alphabetical order!

October 7, 2025

The new cabinets have been in for a couple of weeks, and we have a new stove, the microwave and fan are ready to be installed.
Counters are just random pieces of wood until the new quartz counters are completed and installed. We're hoping that happens within the next 2 weeks.

September 15, 2025

The kitchen of this house is possibly its worst design disaster. When we bought the house we knew we would have to tear it out and remodel.

We had already replaced the existing light fixtures and added two new ones over there the sink will be installed.

The cabinets are outdated in design, we could have lived with that but that he storage is inadequate and the corner sink is, in a word, stupid. It's not possible to fit most items in the small sinks for washing, and whenever the water is turned on there is a mess everywhere.

The first step is tearing out the old kitchen cabinets and moving some electrical and plumbing connections to the new locations. The "demolition" started on Sept 9 and took a little over one day to complete. Until the remodel is complete we are cooking in th microwave, air fryer, and crockpot, and washing our dishes in the bathroom sink.

Notice the "frieze valance" over the window is gone, it will not be replaced!

We saved two upper cabinets to use above the workbench in the garage and for the two bathrooms because they match the lower cabinets.

July 12, 2025

Bubblegum Mania

Ron and I went for some light entertainment at the Riviera Theatre in North Tonawanda, Bubblegum Mainia. This frothy music dates to the mid 1969s to mid 1970s.

Although Ron is not a big Bubblegum fan, he really enjoyed the pre-concert on the theater's "Mighty Wurlitzer organ." Fitting because North Tonawanda is the home of Wurlitzer.

It was a 90 degree night but the theater was well air conditioned, too well. By the end of the show we were almost freezing. The more experienced patrons thought to bring sweaters and blankets.

Acts included Kyle Vincent who was briefly with the Bay City Rollers (Saturday Night,) Tim Corwin of The Ohio Express (Yummy Yimmy and Chewy Chewy,) and Bo Donaldson of The Heywoods (Billy Don't Be a Hero and Who Do You Think You Are.)

Without a doubt, the highlight of the show was the 1910 Fruitgum Co. who did their most popular hits including: May I Tahe a Giant Step, 123 Red Light, Indian Giver, Special Delivery, and Simon Says, as well as some late 1960s cover hits.

July 7, 2025

Online ordering can sometimes be strange!

Since we can't get Nalley Chili in our local stores I've taken to ordering it online from Walmart.
The latest box we got had, in addition to 12 cans of chili, a bottle of Rit fabric dye in a light tan color; we definitely did not order this and have no use for it, but it was free so, SCORE!

June 19, 2025

Our next project will be to renovate the kitchen.

I thought I would add some comments about all the work we're having done.

It might look as if there's not much about this house that we liked, and that's close to true, but it came a lot closer to meeting our needs that most other houses available. Even now, six months later there haven't been any other single storey houses come on the market that we would consider.

We actually only had three or four houses to look at. We passed on two of them because of a lack of a garage and a basement. That only left one other house in Youngstown that was pretty beat up and would have needed a ton of work before we could have even moved in, including making driveway and walkway repairs.

May 23, 2025

Something that we really needed to upgrade was the shower in the master bathroom. We went from this 25-year-old cramped, inaccessible model to a new more user-friendly design.

The new shower is brighter, safer, more comfortable, and easier to clean.

We.re still planning on making some improvements in other areas of the house.

The work was done by Bath Fitter in a single day.

May 14, 2025

In the continuing effort to improve our home, we removed one light fixture that was almost useless, a ceiling fan and a very ridiculous chandelier and replaced them with modern, effective fixtures.

At the same time we replaced the ceiling fan fixtures in the garage with more efficient LED lights.

Two other fixtures, the entrance light and the light in the bedroom hallway also had to go, so we replaced one with a track-type light and the other with a sleek LED fixture.

April 26, 2025

The first "Wine Women and ... More Wine" tour.

Two of my sisters and my two of my nieces met for a day of wine tasting. Maureen and Holly planned this wine tasting in Niagara-on-the-Lake all winter. I designed this logo and Monica applied it to T-shirts for each of us. Monica also made tags for wine shopping bags and an individualized coaster for each of us.

Strewn Winery

The first winery was Strewn which featured a beautiful restaurant, Terroir. Lunch was delicious and the setting very elegant. appropriatey, we started wirh a woman owned winery!

Ron kindly volunteered to be our designated driver, getting us to and from wineries safely.

I brought a 2020 Assemblage, which is a blended wine, home from here.

Konzelmann Estate Winery

Konzelmann was actually the winery that started it all. It is housed in a beautiful castle-like building that even features a turret.

Maureen got a gift pass for four and Holly added two more.

This winery had some excellent wines and they were all reasonably priced.

I chose a Baco Noir from here.

De Simone Vineyards

DeSimone was next. It is located in an industrial type building so was a little noisy, especially since there was a birthday or bachelorette party going on beside us. Once they moved on it was a lot more pleasant.

My favorite from this winery was "Strength" which is their 2020 Gewurztraminer.

Château des Charmes

Château des Charmes was a favorite winery when Ron and I lived in this area previously. Since we were last here they have moved to more elegant digs and increased in size.

We got here late in the day and were only able to taste one wine each. We tastesd whites, rosés and icewine. I went for the Chardonnay.

I bought two wines here, a 2021 Chardonnay and a 2023 Aligoté

We ended the day back in Niagara Falls, Ont for an Italian meal (sans wine) at "My Cousin Vinny's" restaurant.

Maureen, Tiffany, and Holly are staying the night in Niagara Falls so they can do some touristy stuff on Sunday.

Ron, Monica and I headed back to the US via the Rainbow bridge where we were able to get a view of the Falls at night.

Since Tiffany transported Monica's wine back to Pickering, we only had to our five bottles to declare at the border and didn't have any problems with that.

April 24, 2025

After five months we have our first house guest. Monica blew in today along with her computer, spare monitor, e-reader, iPad, cell phone, and mini-speaker(s).

We'll catch up and maybe get in a little shopping; on Saturday we'll head to Canada for a day for a women's wine tasting day.

Monica left this review of the accomodations:
"The room that I slept in was lovely and extremely well decorated. The bed and the mattress were so comfortable, I was almost no longer looking forward to getting back to my own bed. To add to the ambience of the accommodations, of course was the company and the cuisine. I am certainly looking forward to my next trip to spend time at this amazing and lovely location."

March 26, 2025

Winter in WNY wants to make sure we don't get too complacent so he gave us a dusting of snow overnight.
I don't expect it to last as the temperatures will be rising as the day goes on.

2025 Happy St. Patrick's Day

March 17, 2025

After a month of freezing temperatures and snow 4 or 5 days every week, we can finally see the lawn, of course, around here, winter is likely to give us one last blast just when we think spring has finally arrived.

March 9, 2025

It's taken us the better part of 2 months to mostly get unpacked and set up the professional relationships needed in a new place.

We knew we'd have to get used to winters again, but February 2025 was one for the record books! We found ourselves digging out sometimes more than once per week. For the worst days we had a plow service help out.

The previous owners of the house used the garage as a rec room and spa. It has wall-to-wall carpeting! We haven't had a chance to remove it, so we're parking the Jeep in pretty posh digs for now!

Once we know that spring is really here we'll get started on the gardens; I know that will happen here much later than it did in Wasgington..

This house has some questionable decorating which we are gradually changing. The guest room decor included these curtains which we removed. We donated them to Goodwill - we've now been banned from that store!

The guest room is pretty much set up and ready for family and friends.

January 19, 2025

After a few days of living among the boxes, we travelled back to Oshawa to celebrate my brother's 65th birthday and his retirement, then back to Lewiston to continue unpacking ans storing our stuff.

January 10, 2025

One of the problems we knew we would have to address is that access to all doors is not user friendly. One example is that the stairs from the garage to the house are narrow with no landing, so you step up directly into the house.

We contracted with a local handyman built a landing and ramp to make it easier. We selected a ramp rather than stairs so we could bring groceries and other purchases in via a wheeled tote.

Some of Our Other Adventures

Click HERE to see photos of our 2024 trip back to Lewiston, NY.

Click HERE to see photos of our 2023 cross country trip.

Click HERE for the saga of our year on the road.

		Time to celebrate! It seemed like forever but it was just over a month, the kitchen is finally finished. The new microwave and fan is installed above the stove and we added an outside vent to replace the re-circulating fan that was there before. We kept the dishwasher and refrigerator for now as they both still work dispite their age. The area was very open, so we were able to add an additional cabinet for a larger counter area and more storage while retaining the open concept.
		The new, larger sink has been re-located under the window where it belongs and includes a garbage disposal in the prep sink and a tip-out for sponges and scrubbers. We also added a chrome pullout in one cupboard to store extra tools. I think this was originally designed for cans or spices, but it works great for cooking tools.
		Originally there was a pullout for garbage and recyling. Since it did not have a cover, the garbage smell was always present in the kitchen. We relocated the garbage to a covered container under the sink and the recycling just outside the garage door. This left us with a space where we put in a cabinet with pullout shelves for spices. And, yes, the spices are in alphabetical order!

		The kitchen of this house is possibly its worst design disaster. When we bought the house we knew we would have to tear it out and remodel. We had already replaced the existing light fixtures and added two new ones over there the sink will be installed. The cabinets are outdated in design, we could have lived with that but that he storage is inadequate and the corner sink is, in a word, stupid. It's not possible to fit most items in the small sinks for washing, and whenever the water is turned on there is a mess everywhere.
		The first step is tearing out the old kitchen cabinets and moving some electrical and plumbing connections to the new locations. The "demolition" started on Sept 9 and took a little over one day to complete. Until the remodel is complete we are cooking in th microwave, air fryer, and crockpot, and washing our dishes in the bathroom sink. Notice the "frieze valance" over the window is gone, it will not be replaced! We saved two upper cabinets to use above the workbench in the garage and for the two bathrooms because they match the lower cabinets.