1st Snow Storm in the New House!

I think we have about 11 inches, with drifts up to 3 feet, especially over by the garage, and it's still snowing strong! A few minutes ago we had a neighbor plowing our driveway. I love this neighborhood!

Smokey & The Bandit!

We adopted two cute kittens from a neighbor down the road. They are about 10 weeks old and both boys. We named the gray one Smokey and the black and white one is Bandit.
 

Smokey has a pair of the most beautiful green eyes I've ever seen and Bandit is so sweet and cuddly. Caesar is already grateful for the new friends, although he needs to learn their play limits, as they are quite a bit smaller than he is still. I just want them to stay on the North side of the property and stay out of the road!

Paint and shutters before winter!

It's amazing what a difference 15 gallons of paint and a few shutters can make! We used a brick/stucco paint and painted as much as we could with our paint sprayer. Then we painted the columns and railing on the porch. We are still going to paint the stucco on the second level (white), add shutters to the east side of the home (pictures to come), paint the back side of the home and remove the antenna but we are so happy with the transformation so far! 

QUESTION: I am debating adding shutters to the 2nd floor window & the window under the porch too. What do you all think?

These rust/mineral stains were the first thing I noticed about the home. It's so nice to have them gone!!

 I made the shutters with 1 x 6" cedar fence posts, stained with Dark Walnut Minwax. I might do some flower boxes in the spring out of the same stuff, if I get really ambitious!

New Headboard!

I had a few leftover 1x6's from our baseboard project so I decided to put them to good use. I made a headboard for our bed! I cut four 1x6's to the length of our bed. (ours is a queen bed, so it was about 61"). I then stained them with the Dark Walnut stain by MinWax, let them dry for several hours & hung them about 1" apart behind the bed. We love the look and it was so easy!

Caesar's Story

Caesar's story is so amazing that I had to share it on the blog....

One day in August, as David & I walked to the barn, we heard the tiniest, most pathetic meow coming from the woods. I continued to call to him and he continued to meow until we saw him; a tiny, skinny, gray, ratty-looking kitten. He wouldn't come anywhere near us, he was obviously feral and had had no previous human contact but Rue adopted him right away & I got to work!

Here is a video of him and Rue on the day we found him and fed him for the first time.Rue wanted to play with him so badly and all he could do was hiss, but she was patient with him and he warmed up to her quickly. We thought Caesar was a girl for a little while, before his boy parts became obvious. I apologize for the baby voice. I annoy myself!

Every day I would sit on the grass by the propane tank and coax him out from underneath to get a few bites of food. He was so scared of every noise, of every movement we made and of every car that went by. But every day he got a little closer.

After a little more than 2 weeks, he finally let me pet his head and after about 5 weeks, he let me pick him up for the first time. It has been an exercise in patience for us (harder for me than than David!) but it has been so worth it!

 Now we get all the love and affection we could ever want from Caesar. He is so snuggly and so sweet. He has also become an excellent mouser, catching at least a mouse a day.

 And the best part of the story is that now he gets to pass Rue's legacy on to Binx. He plays with him,  he shows him how to catch mice and he snuggles with him. They have each other & we love them both. We miss Rue every day but are so glad that she was with us long enough to help Caesar learn to be a kitty.

The End

More Before-and-Afters

I took a few more "after" pics the other day and wanted to share. I have a few things left to do but don't feel the urgency I felt before, so I will get them done sometime before Spring. I need to paint all of the baseboards and doors white and I need to do something with the front porch & eventually we will finish the upstairs bathroom but to see how far we've come is such a miracle!

The Kitchen is Here!!

We were told in the beginning that it would be hard to fit the dishwasher & microwave in, due to the old chimney but we figured out a way (buying a smaller fridge and putting the microwave above the fridge). We have plenty of storage, plenty of counter space and we love they way it turned out.

I paid an extra few hundred dollars to upgrade the granite from a Level 1 to a Level 2, but it was worth it! It's such a unique color pattern and compliments the cabinets well. I also special ordered the copper sink from Mexico. It took forever but was well worth the wait!

"Things"

When someone you know and care about leaves this world and moves on to the next, especially at a young age, it tends to adjust your priorities. The things that seemed so important before, become less important and those things which you haven't paid so much attention to recently, become more so.

What are the chances of me being at a funeral for my friend, in her 30s at the exact same moment that my son was at the funeral for his friend, in his 20s? Literally, we were 2 states apart, grieving our losses for the same 2 hours. I don't believe in coincidences, so I have to believe that there is a message for me in that day.

I have a sign in my house that says, "The best things in life are not things."

I have been so wrapped up in "things" for the past 4 months, that the relationships and friendships in my life have suffered and I need to put those priorities back in line. I will post new pictures of the house soon, but this post is dedicated to two very special people:

 Spc. Kenny Alvarez

1990-2013

Shelby West

1974-2013

The Wood Floors!

We had several people tell us what a big job it was going to be to refinish the original wood floors on the 2nd level.....but we had no idea! We rented the sander on Sat, thinking it would be a few hours and we'd be done. Nope. We returned it Sunday night after many many hours of hard labor.

This morning (Mon) I went to work on the edges with my little hand sander and started putting on the varnish.

To be able to show off this home's beautiful cedar floors will all be worth it when we are done. Here are some pictures of the progress....

BEFORE....

 DURING.....

 AFTER:

 This is Natalie and Anna's room after 2 coats...WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!

 This is Emma's room after 1 coat...