The hydro seed company sprayed on the front lawn and should be back to apply some wetland grass and wild flowers to the side and back portions of our yard to help with erosion. A thunder and lightning storm rolled through with just a light mist of rain ... we're not supposed to water until tomorrow, so I was glad it didn't pour buckets of rain. The white front porch rockers have small rugs under each one to make the motion smooth, and the geraniums need to fill out a bit. Today, my new shipment of scented geraniums arrived by UPS! It amazes me that they look perky after being boxed up for over a week! I went to a nursery this morning to begin the task of selecting shrubs and perennials that are considered deer resistant for the flowerbeds. I'm thinking of transplanting some native plants such as wild roses and snow berry bushes as they grow so well. Today, I spied an orchid plant among all the wild flowers, and I just can not get over how many forget-me-nots are growing on our property. This has to be my favorite time of year with all the flowers to "drink in" ... a close second to the fall season.

Down the HOME stretch: Over the past few weeks the place has taken on a finished appearance. Landscaping is underway with the installation of sprinklers and concrete curbing. On Monday we should have the front yard hydro seeded. For Mother's Day I received many pony-packs of beautiful flowers from the kids. These have been planted in the nooks and crannies of our front and rear rock retaining walls ... who needs flower pots??? The painter finished up on Tuesday and the trim and front porch came out great. The back acreage is such a lush emerald green filled with lots of wild flowers, ferns, strawberries, and young pine trees. Large trees stand guard and provide much needed shade on the back patio in the afternoon. From the front porch rockers you can watch the morning and evening activity of a woodpecker family that has made a cozy home in an old lopped off tree. I'm settling into a routine, one patterned after my earlier years living with my grandparents that includes a daily schedule, getting to bed early, taking time to smell the roses, and not over filling my day with too much busyness. Hurry back dear hubby ... our home is waiting for you!

Flower In The Crannied Wall

Flower in the crannied wall,

I pluck you out of the crannies,

I hold you here, root and all,

in my hand,

Little flower -

but if I could understand

What you are, root and all,
and all in all,

I should know what God and man is.

By: Alfred Tennyson

Our great room is the spot to relax after dinner on a chilly evening. Warmth from the freestanding stove's fire will keep you toasty! In the morning time, we have the fire going to just take the chill out of the house without heating up all the rooms. Look at the wolf painting I came across at a secondhand store. We're going for a woodsy-lodge theme ... can't wait to get that buffalo robe/rug DH is sending my way :)

Coffee's on ... pull up a chair and have a cup while I fix us a snack. Our kitchen is the hub of the home. It's open enough to move around in ... but not large enough to get lost in. From the sink I can visit with company, look out the dining and great room windows, keep an eye on the stove. Putting away dishes is a breeze.

The "daily" home tours are not consecutive if you haven't figured that out by now. I'm just too busy figuring out how to work everything that I don't have much time left at the end of the day :)

Here's a peek at the dining room. It is its own room off the kitchen. Three walls are exterior; two with nice windows and a single French door. There are no blinds up yet ... I love the views and won't do much other than simple Roman or cloth roller shades. We're not a "formal" type of family and didn't want a "formal" type of dining room. The table and antique sideboard were purchased when we got married (26 years ago). As soon as I get some stools, we can eat at the kitchen counter.

See the cuckoo clock hanging on the wall. A recent find at a "junk" store. Wasn't working too well when I got it home ... fortunately (?) it fell off the wall ... struck my head and nose ... I caught it in mid-air ... now it works just fine.

The dining room chandelier once hung in my grandparent's home.

!


Day two of the home tour: This morning I'm sharing a few pics of my vintage tub and the master bathroom. My poor plumber had a difficult time with all the tub fittings ... but alas I can relax in a warm sudsy bath ... my earthly "sanctuary" from a long tiring day. Calgon ... take me away!

Now that I figured out how to post pictures with my wonderful dial-up connection, I'll start posting a few each day. There are very few decoration on the walls, as I like to take my sweet time and get a "feel" for what the room needs (so I don't have to patch holes from errant nails). I'll start with the master suite: We desperately need to have drapes made as the thought of moose and deer just outside my bedroom sliding door traversing my yard whilst I'm sleeping is a bit thrilling and creepy (I do find their hoof tracks several times a week ... )

Photos: Our bed; chase lounge ... dresser ... mirrored door leads into the walk-in closet

There will be no photos for a while, so I will just fill you in with words. We finally moved into our new home on March 10th and have been settling in for the past month. Mounds of effort were expended and we still have many more boxes of STUFF to sort through. I'm debating whether or not to have a garage sale to get rid of the mounds of unnecessary junk that has been hauled with us. Why do we need to have so much stuff??? I'd like to just give it all away as the amount of energy used to put together a sale is exhausting just to think about. This week finds us waiting for our final grading of the property so we can start landscaping and getting the driveway paved. We had the satellite dish installed and can now get TV reception ... but the Internet situation is not the best ... but who cares. It was rather nice not having either for the past month! Today a worker will be here to take care of the many little details that need to be checked off my "punch" list. Doors adjusted, trim molding around the base of cabinets, door stops installed, etc. etc. Tomorrow my claw foot tub should be hooked up; the thing has taken great effort to get installed! Saturday was a most beautiful warm springlike day; and I have the allergies to prove it. Not quite in full bloom, but almost there.

At 4 PM today we finally got the OK from the county to have our coveted Occupancy Certificate in hand stating that we could finally move into our newly constructed home. This was the date our builder told us to plan on about four weeks ago. Of course, anything could have happened to postpone the date, but he jumped through many hoops to get it approved today, bless him! So first thing Saturday morning, we will be taking our short U-Haul move across town for the last time! Our driveway was/is ice and snow free so our PODS units were delivered without a hitch! Just last week we had quite a bit of snow accumulated that just finished melting within the past few days. Next week hopefully I can be back with an official home tour. Thanks for all the support, encouragement, and prayers for a successful move.

Down to the wire. Busy bees are we. (WE as in ME!) Tomorrow I'll give dh a load of stuff to take care of when he arrives around noon. Here are a few recent pictures.


Photos: Newly installed banister, foyer, and a shot showing the foyer on the right and the kitchen on the left from great room. Shot taken from back entrance to kitchen (with stove still out of place) looking into the green dining room.

Dh arrives a week from today! The new home is busy with workers til the late hours of the day. Last night I thought I'd take a little drive out there about 9:30 PM ... in my bright blue robe and jammies to walk around without all the workers in the way ... what do I find??? but workers still working! Needless to say I turned around and drove back to my rental home (hee, hee). This week my clawfoot tub got installed (still waiting to get the plumbing hooked up) ... all of the lights are working now, and more of the interior trim work got painted. Today the front steps were built leading up to the covered porch. Over the weekend a cleaning lady will begin the first phase of the clean up. She'll come back once again right before we move in. The carpet will be the last thing to get installed.

Photos: bonus/guest room above garage, foyer with new lights installed

Anyone out there that is a regular reader, I have a prayer request. Please pray that the weather channel is off its rocker by predicting snow for the next ten days. For my Michigan friends, guess what?? Probably means some of this will be heading your way, and you sensed spring in the air didn't you? My moving company, PODS, will not deliver to my driveway if there is snow or ice on it. I'm tempted to get a very large heat gun and melt any precipitation that sticks :). In the meantime, the workers are busy taking turns installing light fixtures, plugs, and fans this week. The trim molding is gorgeous and adds such a vintage/craftsman feeling to the home. Today was a bit hectic as I had my cell phone, caller ID, school bus, mailman, and a neighbor require my attention all within a four minute period! My mind just cannot multi-task with more than two items in the frying pan at a time ;)

The picture of the vintage ironing board cabinet with the rustic and crackled (dinged up, peeling paint look :) is the reason for my grungy fingers as reported in my other blog. You see, I gutted, stripped, refinished and inverted it then had it built into my kitchen wall; this will be my new spice cabinet. It holds even those large Costco size bottles. The opening at the top of the door (appears as a small golden rectangle) is waiting for a glass front (and glass shelves inside). Of course it will be that old vintage looking glass that has a few ripples/distortions in it. An amber glass/oil rubbed bronze pull knob and new hinges will grace it too. This was a big debate (in my mind :) "Do I take the chance of having it installed and then not liking it leaving me with a big hole in my wall ... or do I just go for it and use my gut instinct about it? I chose to use my gut and not my wishy-washy mind. You ask, but it's golden and brown??? Yes, you see, when the cream backsplash gets installed in the kitchen, there are iridescent gold and beige and eggplant glass tile accents. And my vintage dining room light has amber prisms (much like the ones used by Pollyanna in the book and movie ;). The French doors have been finished to match the front door; they grace the bonus room above the garage.

Getting things in high gear: This morning I stopped in to see what was going on in the finish production of our home. The painters were patching and sanding and prepping the interior trim molding prior to painting this week. The contractor was making the final decisions (with my help) on the design of the banister rail and newel post placement. Mr. Alarm guy was there finishing up the alarm system (and I thought he was done weeks ago). Mr. Cabinet guy was there inspecting the bead board interior of a kitchen cabinet that was replaced with the correct finish ... and adding the wooden shelves that have cutouts for future inset glass in said cabinet. I was informed that the granite people would be replacing the kitchen sink & counter top since it was a breach in their own policy that caused the wrong sink to be installed in the first place. DH was not pleased with the oversight nor was the contractor. It really was a pathetic sink as one side was not even big enough for more than a few cups and small saucers to rest inside of it. I have a similar sink in our rental and have had glass bowls and pots actually get quite stuck and this sink is even smaller. So I consented to having it replaced after saying I'd live with it. Hey, when you're paying this kind of money and someone else messes up like that, they should make it right, right?? Our master bathroom floor is installed and the shower is 3/4's tiled. With only three weeks until our agreed upon move-in date, things are happening fast.

Photos: Sink in question, tile in M/B shower, hickory floor, granite counter in M/bath

My builder will let me know officially tomorrow, but He thinks our move in date will be March 9th. He has to get the OK from the county planning office, which will be tomorrow sometime. Not too far off from the end of February; I can live with that. Today the granite counters were installed in the kitchen and two of the bathrooms. They came out bee-U-tee-ful ! I didn't have the heart to tell the builder that the granite people supplied the wrong kitchen sink ... there's nothing that could be done now ... and I'll just learn to love this one. Since it's an under mount and the sink holes are already in, nothing can be done . I'm not the type of person to have it all ripped out over something like that. Besides, the granite was hard to come by in this shade. Such a little woe when you consider much of what's going on the the world, and I AM getting a new house :) Wait til the cream color trim molding is in and the cream travertine back splash with a few bold iridescent glass accent pieces thrown in randomly are installed, then you'll see the connection of the wood and cream finishes and white modern appliances. (Trust me :)

Photos: Rock skirting under garage windows (front of house), Kitchen showing bead board at counter bar area (the bead board in the cabinet needs to be switched to a distressed cream color .. they put in white), rock fireplace surround with mantle.

Peeking in on the progress today, I found the front door installed. (The dark zig-zag lines are from a shadow). The windows have paper over them still, but I'm very pleased with the color. Down in the basement I found the fireplace ready for it's rock face and the split log mantel installed. It's got a fire going to help heat up the room until our furnace is officially turned on. Now I'll have to stain and varnish the log sometime next week. I'm becoming a regular "handy-woman".