Path

Guess what?  This house of ours, this property, this homestead (to-be), is even more perfect than I could have ever imagined.  I recently found out that we have a path starting at the side of our property, going all the way to a State Forest!  And if that is not perfect enough, I also found out that one of Bendi's classmates, one of his friends, lives two houses down from us, and that we can take the path from our house to theirs!  Only in my dreams have I dared to hope for such a perfect place.  The ability for a daily walk with the dogs without having to put them into the car and taking them somewhere, a friend for Bendi he could see whenever he wanted, and just the feeling of living pretty much in the middle of the woods, these things make me giddy with happiness.

So let me show you a few pictures from the introduction of the house to the dogs/dogs to the house, and the first walk into these woods.


The introduction:

The path:

Stopping to admire the moss:

A perfect little stream:

Some prefer not using the bridge:

And some use it in unconventional ways:

Perfect tree climbing opportunities:

Bogart always checks back to make sure I'm OK:

More climbing:

And last but not least, a peek into the house 

(I can't wait to move in!!!!):

I hope you all love it as much as I do, (or, if not, at least you understand why I do.)  :)

Working

I haven't been to the new old house all weekend.  There is a lot to do in the old house what with emptying it out, and cleaning it up so that we can put it on the market.  I have to say I consider myself very lucky that we are able to do things this way.  I can't imagine the work and stress involved with having to get your house ready to sell and having it on the market WHILE you are living in it.  With all the animals we have, we decided that that would just not be possible for us to do, hence the reason we bought a house before selling our current one, which of course comes with its own set of stresses, mainly the responsibility and financial burden of owning two houses.
Anyway, we are slowly getting things moved over, but can't actually move in until the heat situation is resolved.  So for now, I'll show you some pictures of what the animals think of the move:

Jude and Bogart are very interested in everything we do, and are always under foot.

Szerecsendio also wants to know what's going on.

Ally, on the other hand, is happy as long as she has a bed to lie in.

And the birds are also happy and oblivious.

The bugs feel the way the birds do, happy and oblivious.  (Not pictured this time, but don't you worry, I'll have some cockroach pictures for you before long.)

And we are moving things into our mini storage and power-washing the house with the help of a friend:

I will leave you with a couple of pictures from the old house of the places I love, and I hope that I will have an equally lovely, (if not more so) place in the new house.

My plants and our living room.  To be re-created, only better :)

                                                                                                                                          Adel

More of the same

I continued today working on super important things.  I know you all are dying to have a tour of the house, but I can only do little bits at the time, since, 1. I keep forgetting my camera, and I am forced to take inferior pictures with my phone, so I only take a few pictures, and 2. I actually like only concentrating on little bits, so that I keep your attention.  (By "your" I mean all the two people who might or might not be reading this blog.)

So today I continued cleaning up outside by the sunroom.  The most exciting area here is the outdoor shower (!!!), that presumably was a working shower at one time, and I can't wait to make it so again.

Here is a picture:

The door next to the shower goes to the garage.  No idea what they were going to do with the half finished roofed part, but after I managed to move all the wood to the opposite part of the property, (see last blog entry), I realized that that would be a great, protected place to keep fire wood.  Oh well, I need to find some more volunteers to move firewood aimlessly from one place to another.

And if you are thinking, "why in the world would anyone want an outdoor shower for no reason", (well, I don't think you ever need a reason for an outdoor shower, but still...) now I can let you in on a little secret.  A much debated (read: fought) over secret:  There is a swimming pool.  A beautifully built, stoneworked, (not a verb you say? It's my blog!) multi-level swimming pool.

The long suffering husband wants to fill it in, whereas the rest of the world wants to keep it.  More on this later, because I just can't get into it now.  Let me just leave you with a picture of, not the pool, but Bendi heading in the general vicinity of the pool.  That ought to be exciting enough:

Now, just so you don't complain that I don't show you enough, here is a picture of Bendi on top of, what we should maybe start calling the "wood shed":

He conveniently discovered that if he walks up from the woodshed roof to the sunroom roof to the house roof, he can get into his room through one of his windows.  He only noticed this, he hasn't done it, but I can already see that as a teenager, this is going to be his preferred method.

I will also show you a picture of the sunroom, about which I am super excited, and can't wait to populate it it with my plants:

Next are a couple of pictures of the front/side of the house, depending on your point of view, in one of which you can see my little helper taking down all-year-round red and white Christmas lights of a beautiful old pear tree. (I think I heard the tree breathe a sigh of relief.)

(Please don't take my licence plate number and do whatever-it-is-people-could-possible-do-with-a-licence-plate-number, I don't really want to spend the time trying to black out the number as I see professionals do.)

And now, just so you don't complain about me teasing you too much without giving you anything, here are a couple of pictures of the kitchen:

Yes, there is a fireplace in the kitchen.  Yes, I know I'm lucky.

That's it for today, please make some comments you couple of sweet individuals who have nothing better to do than to read about my trifle wanderings.

                                                                                                                            Thank you.

The beginning

This is the house.  An old "colonial/farm house" as the described.  Circa 1850.  Bought "as is" with a lot of repairs to be done inside and out, notwithstanding some re-doing of the "re-dos".  Unfortunately, the previous owners did not appreciate the antique nature of the house, and decided to "modernize" it with recessed lighting throughout, taking out a built-in bookcase and closing off a door for the purpose of  a huge plasma TV, and other equally hair-raising ideas.  Not to mention the assemblage of colors they managed to paint on the walls.
But that's enough complaining.  It is what it is, and we are going to take it one step at a time.  (Is that enough cliches, or would you like one more?)
We are slooooowly moving in, not having sold our old, (as in the previous one, not ancient) house, we have the luxury of moving all our belonging over a period of time.  (Hopefully not too long a time, mind you, paying two mortgages is not anyone's idea of a fun time.)
Anyway, every time either of us goes over to the new house, (hereafter referred to as "the new house"), we always make sure we fill up the cars with our (why-in-the-world-do-we-have-so-much-stuff) belongings.
I also try to do some repair/cleaning/organizing etc. of the new place, and thanks to my very strict and organized nature I am able to find the most important things to do before moving in.
This is why, today, I decided to rake and clean up the having-seen-better-days patio, and moving all the old wood that was on it.  Since there was already another woodpile started in another spot, albeit on the far end of the property, I thought "We can't have two woodpiles on one property", and proceeded to move all the rotten, slimy wood that was closer to the door of the sunroom, in which the wood-burning stove is located, to the far end of the property.  You see, I hope you're starting to appreciate my fine nature as much as my long-suffering husband.  Now, I know what you're thinking, and yes, it was a lot of work, but fortunately  I found three volunteers, (my mom, her friend and my son), all of  whom had nothing better to do with their life that to help me carry decomposing old wood from one place to another, understanding, as well as I, the impossibility of moving into a house with two woodpiles.
I know you're dying to know, and yes, I have pictures to show you of this all important process.

See the pile of wood in the corner of the patio, by the boxwood?  

I'm sure you would have decided to move it ASAP as well, right?

Just to give you an idea of some of the wood that needed moving.

A job well done.

And for extracurricular activity, I made everybody stack up the loose 

brick, which brought a rather unexpected result, in which my son 

started taking apart the still good part of the patio in order to stack the bricks 

just as I instructed.  Now that's dedication!

This is probably just about enough from me for a first post.  I will leave you with a little factoid, a tidbit of information from my great arsenal:  If you choose not to wear gloves for gardening activities, at least cut your nails short, so that you don't spend hours trying to clean slimy fungus from under them.
                                                                                                                                     Your welcome.