Holidays at Home

 We are really excited about spending this Holiday season in our new home! There is so much more room here - more storage, kitchen space, etc. No more trying to wrangle the Christmas decorations out of the attic on a rickety ladder! And this year we have TWO trees! One in the great room and one in the turret area of the master bedroom. Of course I had to go out and get decorations for the second tree. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for the after Christmas decoration sales! The main tree is all gold and the second one is done in reds. The kitty cats are really happy to have the Christmas trees up - they’ve been camping out underneath the main one and have been acting extremely good. They really get into the whole present opening ritual on Christmas morning! Right now the little kitty, Chaghi, is stitting on my lap supervising.

Thanksgiving we stayed home and made a traditional dinner for just the 2 of us - not something we ususally do but we wanted to really put the kitchen through it’s paces. I think we used every burner on the Wolf range - all 6 of them! Only used one oven though.

We are also enjoying the gas fireplace. No more lugging firewood into the house and having to not go anywhere once we build the fire. If I want a fire for an hour or two it’s just a flick of a switch, then turn it off if I have to go somewhere.

 Tree in great room above. Tree in master bedroom sitting area below.

 Below, the new sideboard in the dining room complete with Christmas decorations.

Six Months in the House

It’s been a while since my last post but we really haven’t done a lot except explore our new county. New Kent County, Va has a lot of history associated with it! For instance it is where Martha Washington, wife of our first President, was born and raised. Martha also married her first husband in a church not far from here, which is still standing and holding services. We’ve also discovered Saude' Creek Winery, which is 10 miles from the house. A lovely place with outstanding wines. You can bring a picnic, buy a glass or bottle of wine and enjoy the breathtaking scenery out on the patios and decks. On weekends they also have live music.

Thanks to my mom and dad, we have a lovely new sideboard in the dining room! All I need to complete this room is an area rug under the table and maybe some wall scones on either side of the painting over the sideboard. With fall here we’ve been attempting to plant grass. Of course we’ll have to mow said grass when it comes up!

Peter is doing much better after his surgery and is eager to get back to the retaining wall project.

 Taken on our morning walk. Our house is back in the trees on the right - you can’t see it from the road.

 Afternoon visitors. I’m thinking of hiring them to weed the lawn - they were doing such a good job! As long as they keep out of my azaleas!

 New side board in the dining room.

Yang chilling out at Saude' Creek Winery.

Until next time....

Three Months in the House

Well, we have been here for 3 months already and it really feels like home. We had our pastor come over and do a house blessing, which was wonderful (sorry, I forgot to take photos)!

We moved the love seat out of the living room and into the den, creating a really cozy room in the den. Now we need to get a chair to replace the love seat in the living room. I love the extra space in the living room now that the love seat is out of there - helps with the traffic flow as well. I also want to get area rugs for the living room and dining room. The dining room chairs have arrived - Thank You Mom and Dad! They look great! I also have been spending a lot of time in the basement painting the bookcases. They are now finished and are in their respective rooms upstairs. I spent one day unpacking boxes of books and arranging them in the bookcases - what a workout! I still have a lot more books to unpack but I am slowly whittling away at the pile of boxes in the basement.

Peter is still working on the wall but will have to take a break due to his upcoming surgery next week. Not sure when he’ll be able to resume work on it but his health comes first!

 The den. We plan on getting a small desk to put where the 2 chairs are now.

 The Wall! The plan is to build it to a height of 3 feet, then cut into the hill and terrace it back. (Yang has to supervise!)

Some Interior Photos

Just thought I’d post some photos of the inside. We still have lots to do and more furniture to purchase but all in good time. We still want to get an area rug for the living room and chairs for the dining room. Also there is no furniture in the den at the moment but we want to get a desk and setee for that room. Still undecided about curtains. I think it would make the living room and bedroom cozier.

Grounds Keeping

We have a LOT of lawn! Between the 2 of us (mostly Pete) we managed to mow the back yard today. We still have the side and front to do but ran out of gas - us and the lawn mower! That riding lawn mower is getting pushed up the list, along with the shed to keep it in! It is a good work out - I just think of all the money I’m saving on gym memberships. Any how, here are some pics of the front and back yard with a few inside photos thrown in for good measure.

 Front yard. That’s our driveway on the far side of the lawn.

 Front planting bed. Still haven’t figured out what to put next to the house. Sculpture, fountain, more plants?

 Back deck and yard. See what I mean about mowing?

 Living room with our new entertainment cabinet.

Below, the main floor guest bath.

Unpacking

Well we are all moved in, though there are a lot of boxes to unpack in the basement. Our idea is if there is something we don’t need or want to not bring it upstairs but give it to Goodwill. Right now my goal is to unpack 2 boxes a day. Once we paint the 3 large bookcases we can unpack all the books - by far the largest quantity of boxes. We also have boxes of vinyl records - remember them? Not sure what we’ll do with them.
The other major project we have to do is build a retaining wall opposite the garage. Our county inspector says we have to have it done by the fall, so Pete has been doing a little bit on it each week. As you can see in the photos, this will take A LOT of blocks! The plan is to terrace it back. I’ve also been planting some flowers along the front walkway - I’ll post pictures of this later on.

 A view of the breakfast nook from the den, above. And the breakfast nook looking out onto the deck, below.

Settling In.

Almost there! We still have one more storage unit to empty out before we have all our stuff in one place. Some stuff I’m glad to see again and others I wonder why we kept it. I can see a trip to Goodwill in our future! Right now I’m still unpacking boxes and trying to get my art room sorted out. We’ll be painting all the bookcases to match the trim in the house so there’s another project to do before we unpack the books.

 Kitties settling in. This was taken in the breakfast nook.

 Empty storage unit. One more to go!

Home made pizza in the new oven. Still haven't figured out the convection thing yet.

  Guest bedroom and bathroom.

Moved In!

We are moved in and out of the townhouse! All we have to do now is empty out our 2 storage units. There will probably be a few trips to the Goodwill or Habitat stores to donate items but it will be good to get all our stuff back. The first night it was just us, the dogs, and the cats. Our little kitty, Miss Chaghi, was NOT a happy camper! We put her and Mookie into the laundry room with a covered litter box, their food and water dishes (filled), closed the door and left them to get familiar with their space while we unpacked the car. When we came back later on and opened the door - only one kitty! ?? We at first thought that Chaghi had crawled into the duct for the dryer but found her curled into a ball in the litter box. She stayed there until Mookie decided, since she couldn’t use her litter box, to use our new bed instead. NOT HAPPY! Needless to say, I carried Chaghi out of the litter box and she made a beeline under the now cleaned up bed.

After being here for a week I can honestly say I LOVE this house! The Southern Traditions team has been a dream builder and are a class act all the way! It was a real pleasure working with them! Rob Carter’s vision for our house surpassed our wildest expectations. From how the house was sited on the property to the finishing touches, this house is a dream come true. Peter and I HIGHLY recommend them to anyone building their new home.

 First day of Spring? Snow greeted us on the first weekend in our new home (we never get snow in March!)

 Our first prepared meal in our new kitchen. Those are home made buttermilk biscuits in the oven and Peter was making steak with bourbon mushroom sauce on the stove.

 Ming has made himself right at home.

 Ming and Yang trying out the laundry sink. Much easier bathing them here than hunched over a bath tub!

I will keep updating the blog with pictures as I decorate each room - which will be a long, slow process, so stay tuned!