we are at home....finally!

We must admit that we have been very lax about keeping the blog current since we moved into the house.  We have no excuses except to say that we have been spending our time getting settled.  As we indicated in a previous blog, we had a lot of moving help from many friends and family who gave up part of their Mother's Day weekend to carry boxes and use their vehicles.  The following Tuesday, (on a very rainy day) Two Men and a Truck moved the rest of our furniture for us.  This moving process was much more work than we remembered; but it has been 35 years since our last move, and time does dim the memory.  Plus we are a lot older and worn down than we were years ago. But, we finally feel as if this is "home" now, and we LOVE it!

This building process has essentially been seamless because of our great builder

--Griffin Builders.  We can't say enough about their workmanship, their employees, their attention to detail, and their follow-through.  And, we feel that we have gained some new "friends" in the process.

Our girls have visited several times to help us.  David's sister, Anne and her husband, Mike, were here for 5 days, and they were the first to use the guest bedroom.  Our friends, Sue and Paul Reardon were here for dinner last week, so we are beginning to feel as if we can have people visit.  As we said before, "Y'all come!"

So, for those of you are might be interested in what has happened so far on the interior of the home, we are including a few pictures.  We still have much to do, but this is a start.

Obviously, this is the dining table. It has two leaves, so having a number of people be able to sit for a meal is something we have not had in the past.  The light fixture is one of our favorites.

You can get an idea of the kitchen backsplash and the cabinets from this photo.  We love the stove and working space in the kitchen.  There is so much more room than we had on our old home, and it is really fun to be able to have more  area in which to prepare and cook our food.

This view is taken from the dining area into the living room.  We were very fortunate that most of our furniture from the other house fit into this home perfectly.  David hung 29 pictures in one day, and that really adds to the warmth of the rooms.  The ceiling fan in the living room is wonderful---large and very effective.  The door leads to our bedroom, but we have more work to do in there.  More photos to follow on that project.

When we come into the living room from our bedroom, this is what we see---a warm and inviting area.

When we were trying to decide how we wanted to finish the stair rail, we found a picture in a magazine that looked something like this.  We asked Brett, our builder, if this was possible for us.  Without hesitating, he said of course it was.  So, he ordered the cables and Doug, our finish carpenter, installed them.  We think that it opens the area more than using wood.

Here is a more inclusive view of the stairs.  This includes another of our new additions; a mobile made by a local artist.

The guest bedroom is ready for all of you at a moment's notice. 

One of the places that we spend a great deal of our time, is the 4 season room behind the table.  We knew that we would use that room a lot, but we like it even more than we thought we would.  The window treatments are ordered, and that will make a great difference in the room and add some more warmth to the area.  They should be here soon.

When we first moved to Wisconsin 35 years ago, we bought 8 Breuer chairs  for our old dining table.  As you can imagine, over the years the cane seats began to break, the chrome began to look bad, etc.... so, we stored them in the basement for many years.  But, we decided to resurrect them for this house.  David cleaned the chrome, cut out plywood seats and we bought new cane backs.  Finding the fabric that we liked to cover the seats took some looking, but we are very happy with our choice and the chairs look great with the new dining table.

A closer view of the dining room light fixture.

A perfect place for an old bookcase from the other house.

The computer room gets a lot of use as well.  I am sitting there right now updating this blog.

We have to say that we feel very fortunate, lucky, blessed and grateful that this project is something that we have been able to do.  With everyone's help and ideas and patience, we have come to this point in our lives.  Thank you all!