Mother Nature loses this round

The Great Moving Blitz has begun!

On Saturday it began snowing. By 10:00 a.m. I'd changed from my sneakers into my snow boots.

We started moving anyway.

The new sofa and loveseat were delivered.

In the snow.

We brought over some of the smaller pieces of our furniture plus the living room rug.

In the snow.

Number 7 flexed his teenage muscles (which are quite powerful) to lift heavy items while also finding time to roam with the dog around the new property.

In the snow. 

(I made them come in the back door afterward.)

My office was transferred from one house to the other.

In the snow.

I had a conversation over the back fence with our new neighbor.

In the snow.

Today is Monday -- Mr. Satellite TV is coming this afternoon at 2:00 to move our service.

He'll be arriving in the snow.

I must admit the fir trees out front are quite pretty.

As of last night, there was a discernible seating area in the living room.

The old rug looks like it was made for the new house and our other (old) pieces look wonderful and fit right in too. I'm so excited I hardly slept last night. By the end of the holiday weekend, despite stuffing our faces with turkey and trimmings, we will be living full time in our new home.

I am so thankful, I cannot describe it. I loved this place from the moment we laid eyes on it, and beyond my expectations it has become my dream home. I've lived in many different houses in my life, and have loved most of them very well, but this place surpasses all. It's like this house was waiting for us.

 - Catherine
PS -- hubby is already planning the chicken coop he intends to build next spring. Horses, chickens, dogs, cats, and one murdering parrot fish. It will be quite the menagerie on our little farm!

Making progress, thank you!

We are just about a month away from the final move! Tim has worked tirelessly, and I've been packing and moving things whenever I can. (The family room is completely full of mattresses, boxes, lamps, etc. --- all awaiting placement.)

Here's the before picture of the living room:

And below is the progress. As you can see, the old carpeting (which covered the entire floor) is gone, with hardwood taking its place.  The walls have been painted a fresh, creamy yellow, too.

Here's a shot of the living room from the other side:

Before, the bedrooms were pink, with pink carpeting:

While we can't afford to replace the carpeting just yet, we could certainly put a coat of paint on everything!

My kitchen is also freshly painted:

And see the false wall in the front of the house?

Well, 'tis gone!

Tim is pretty sure we'll be in by Thanksgiving (probably the weekend before). I'll be away for the next 2 1/2 weeks and can't wait to see what it all looks like when I get back!

- Catherine

In which I am lame but excited.

I never remember to take my camera over to the new house to take pictures.

So I don't have any for you today.

I am lame.

I am also mucho-excited, though, because we should be moving in soon!  Tim has to finish plumbing the gas line and then lay the wood floor in the living room, and then we're all set!

The entire main floor has been painted a fresh, creamy yellow. The house feels open and sunny all the time and I love that so much!

I'll finish the last of the carpet cleaning (one more to go, after Tim is finished with the flooring project).  I'll also steam clean the family room's paneled walls.

And then I want to live in this lovely, serene setting.

And I never want to leave.

I'll try to remember the camera this weekend!


- Catherine

The "before" pictures.

As promised, this is a post full of "before" pictures of our new home.  We have a lot of work to do, as you can see. 

I apologize for the dots on the pictures -- apparently there was something on my lens, which I have since (I hope) cleaned up.

Behold the family room with the 1970s red shag carpeting.  That black thing at the far end is a wet bar that is covered with black flocked material, tufted across the front. My friend has dubbed this space "The Las Vegas Room."

Family room and the fabled red shag carpet.

I need to tell you that I vacuumed this space twice over today -- with two different high-powered vacuum cleaners. 

And then I began the shampooing process. 

The dirt was truly disgusting. I'd get about a 3' x 4' patch done and then have to change out the water. 

Gross.

And, as suspected, many fibers came up in the shampooing process. Number 6 (who is home for a few days between jobs) joked that there were enough fibers to weave a whole 'nother carpet.

Tomorrow I will go back over the family room carpet with the shampooer yet again, and I will shampoo the carpets in the two bedrooms off the family room.

Now, let me show you a space that I am very happy about.

This is my new kitchen.

The kitchen.

See that window over the sink?

This is the view:

The view of the backyard.

I look forward to many peaceful evenings.

- Catherine

And so, 'tis Friday

 
I don't feel like taking stock of the week (although I did make some great beef stock this week!).

I don't feel like identifying my favorite things. Although having an attitude of gratitude is a good thing.

I don't feel like revisiting the grief that has been weighing on me. I'm tired of feeling sad and trying to cope with crying jags.

No, I've decided that I'm going to clean. 

When the going gets tough, the tough start cleaning.  

I just made that up.

I'm going over to our new house to tackle the family room carpet with my industrial strength vacuum cleaner.

Wish me luck because I think that carpet (red shag from the 1970s) may have its own ecosystem living within its fibers.  Eek!

Hank Williams Jr., canine extraordinaire, will go with me, cowering at my feet because he's afraid I will leave him alone in the house. Clearly we have some adjusting to do in that quarter.

I promise to take "before pictures" this weekend and post them soon.

- Catherine

Progress

Tim has been hard at it, with a crew of family and friends helping.

The side of the house, after we took down the ramshackle lean-to style deck, looked like this:

And then construction began on a new deck and roof section:

And as of yesterday, it looks like this:

We've also got a new roof section going up over the back door:

Tim and I joke that we'll have done so much to the house that we won't want to leave it. 

But the truth is that we can't wait to move into our new home and have this:

Stay tuned!

- Catherine

Weekend update

No pictures today. Just a narrative of epic proportions.

1. I deep cleaned the second floor in preparation for showing the house.

2. Twelve bags of garbage.

That is all.

- Catherine

More photos of our house

The TV show "Extreme Makeover: The Home Edition" is in our neighborhood this week, believe it or not. They are building a brand new house for a woman who lives about a block and a half from us.  The hoopla is not to be believed.  Draconian security surrounds the production, spilling over to the neighbors (you need a pass to access your own home if your house is located in the secure area, which is a three-block radius on all sides of the production).

While the road and alley closings have been a bit inconvenient, there is one bonus: our alley is closed:

The alley runs along the side of our house, very much like a driveway except that it goes all the way through the middle of the block.  With the alley closed, we don't have to worry about keeping it clear of construction or deconstruction materials  -- actually quite a God-send, given the work at hand.

There was progress today on the deck, as you can see:

The frame now wraps around to the side of the house.


The roof, which was taken off on Tuesday night:

 . . . has been sheeted and is almost ready for shingles:

The shingles were delivered late this afternoon and are sitting on the (closed) sidewalk:

As a teaser, here's a picture of what will be my front yard at the new house:

 Stay tuned!

- Catherine

Construction!

We're in the final push to finish our house!  Why? Because we've purchased another one and we'll be moving in a couple of months.  Not very far away, mind you -- the other side of town (technically, the next town over). It's the four-acre place where our horses have been boarding for the last four summers. The house came available this summer and we put in an outrageous offer, which was accepted.  We're calling it a God-thing because there is no way we should have been able to get the house. 

That said, we've got work to do here and so my hubby is hard at it with a crew of friends and relatives.

First off, we took down the old deck on the front of the house.

Before:

(And what you can't see here, because we cleverly covered it up, is the spot where you could sink your foot through the boards if you weren't careful!)

After the demolition:

 There were quite a few rotten boards under the old deck.  We've got brand new lumber now, and the deck will wrap around this side of the house when it is completed:

However, we've had to interrupt the deck work in order to re-roof the house during a spell of dry and sunny weather.

Here's the start of the operation -- taking down about a bajillion cedar shingles on a very steeply pitched roof

That's right -- no one wanted a safety harness.  At times, I just couldn't look.

This is my favorite pic of the roofing party:

The little helpers.

One discarded shingle at a time, they helped to fill the trailer.  Anthony, in yellow, is 6 years old. Casey, in blue, is 4 years old.  Casey (who is my grandson) eventually asked me if he could have a pair of "glubs" for his hands. I smothered a smile and turned to fetch a pair from the front yard. Casey trotted after me, yelling over his shoulder, "One second, I go get glubs!"  He was very proud of himself that evening.

More to come!

- Catherine