One day

One day we'll look back on the time when we bought a dirty, grimy, dilapidated old house built in 1938 on 10 acres of wooded land..... and there will be lots of laughs and funny stories to pass down for generations. 

We're not at that "one day" yet, but we're inching our way closer every month.

Mike said we'd have it livable within two months. Two months after we bought it, we had to bring David "home" to stay with us for the following two months during his recovery from his accident. It was "livable" with a nice, big living room, a wood stove for heat, one finished bedroom, one bathroom, and a kitchen with new countertops, a new, working sink, a new, working microwave, and cabinets with no doors on them yet. All of the doors, both interior and exterior, had been replaced, there were new windows in several of the rooms, a wall had been lengthened to make one of the rooms longer, and the dining and living areas had a fresh coat of paint on them, keeping most of the house the same color, as opposed to the multi-colored walls when we bought it. 

We've been in the house for almost 6 months now, and little by little, that "livable" house continues to improve and feel more like home. Many projects have had to wait through the winter due to the extreme muddy conditions beside/behind the house, including getting the propane tank moved farther away from the house, reconnected, and refilled. Which means I still don't have use of my new oven and stove, nor can we heat the house any other way than with the electric heaters we have and having a fire going constantly in the wood stove. But, I will say that the wood stove has kept the house warm and cozy, and most of our meals have cooked just fine in the crockpot or the toaster oven now that it's just two of us. 

We now have two bedrooms, though only one has a closet so far. We have our king sized bed here to sleep on, with plenty of storage in the drawers underneath. Mike just built me shelves in a strange storage space in the bathroom, so I have more of a linen closet than I've ever really had in my last two houses. I painted a built in space/cabinet in the wall, and Mike put shelves and a light in it for me so I could display my tea set that my grandparents bought for me many years ago in Romania. 

Mike came home with a new mailbox that lights up at night, plus he built a step for our entry way that previously had a single cracked up cement block to step on. He brought home two large barrels for us to easily burn our trash in so we don't have to wait for decent weather conditions to be able to burn it on the burn pile. 

I enjoy going to our storage area more now because I am able to bring more decorations home as we have more places to start putting them. Just this last week, I was able to put up a wooden wall hanging with my Pennsylvania covered bridge carved into it (the one by my childhood home) and hooks underneath so I can finally hang my necklaces. It's those little things that make it feel like I'm here to stay for awhile. 

My covered bridge wall hanging

My favorite shelf lamp where I have my quiet time in the mornings

A painting I made with my mom and my sister-in-law on my mom's 70th birthday, finished maybe an hour before a tornado came right through the area! I plan to hang some family pictures in this hallway. 

The cabinet I decided to fix up

Now with my treasured tea set safely inside, ready for a close friend to come have tea with me.

My new linen closet area 

Feels so good to have all my towels, sheets, and blankets in one place, along with all sorts of other toiletries, etc. All that space was just a waste before he put those shelves in. 

We also got a new (to us) washer and dryer, as the ones left here just didn't cut it. The washer needed work, and the dryer didn't always dry well. We found the same models, just newer, on marketplace, and we are much happier with these than the old ones. Bigger, nicer, and newer. 

Little by little, this little house is coming along. We've had a few teaser nice days lately that remind me that spring is just around the corner. Longer, warmer days are coming so we can focus on the outdoor areas more, as well as the inside areas that were just too cold to deal with through this winter.