Our House

We are (somewhat) settled into our new home in Maryland.  We are renting a lovely place on a culdesac with a playground next door.  The neighborhood seems very friendly.  Henry will start school after the new year and we are looking forward to seeing what the programs here can offer him.  We finally got our moving truck three days ago and we just got internet yesterday.

We put our Wisconsin house on the market the same week we moved out.  In fact, we didn’t allow it to be shown until the day after we left.  As we drove through Pennsylvania, we got a call from our realtor that the very first person that saw the house put an offer on it.  The past three weeks have been busy with negotiating and banking and paperwork, but we just closed on that house yesterday.

I have a special relationship with our house after all of the renovation I did on it.  A few of the posts about home renovation are here, here and here.  I loved our yard and garden, too, (with posts here, here and here).  I didn’t blog about the weeks of work I put in at the end.  Things just got too busy.  Anyway, I’m glad our house will have another family to love it now. 

I made this ornament of our Wisconsin home.  I think it still needs a little more embroidery before it goes on the tree, but I'm a little too schmoopy to work on it now. 

I feel grateful for the six plus years we had in our Wisconsin home and I look forward to the good things to come here.
Wishing you all a cozy place to celebrate the holidays with loved ones.

The kitties have moved in!

I finished renovating the house for Henry in the early morning hours of Christmas Eve.  

In addition to the painting, three rooms got new wood floors and two received new "tile". 

The kitty family moved in on Christmas morning.

Henry's excitement made everything totally worthwhile.  The kitties have been very busy trying out the stairs, the potty, the bathtub and the bed (under the covers, of course).  And, we've mostly dissuaded Henry from crawling into the house or using it as yet another percussion instrument.

I hope your holidays were joyous.

Renovation

For three days I've been taking out carpet and wallpaper, priming, painting, sanding, laying flooring, and more painting.  All for Henry's gift on Christmas day.  The work is not yet finished, 

but I thought that I could post a few "before" photos. 

This is the dollhouse my dad made for me for Christmas when I was a child.  He decorated it with carpet samples and wallpaper scraps that matched my childhood home. 

The house was designed with 4 large doors that opened up--two in the front and two in the back.   

The doors are held shut with magnets.

The attic is under one side of the roof. 

Stay tuned for the new and improved house!  

I can't wait to see the look on Henry's face on Christmas morning.

Stripping Paint

 
This is what our sun room looked like when we first moved in, four years ago.  That dreadful rust color is crackle paint.  Can you believe someone did that on purpose?  We also had dark brown crackle paint upstairs, brown and white crackle paint on the fireplace and green and gold Packer crackle paint as a decorative touch on the broom closet door.

(remembering all of that makes me shudder now)

Well, we only have two crackle paint doors left in the whole house.  Henry has recently been picking at the paint on the door to the basement, so.... I'm finally getting around to stripping it.

Working in the driveway or the garage:

And here it is without any finish.  It is still in the garage.  I have to work during naps or when Ben has Henry, so I still have to do the other side of the door.

It feels good to make progress, even four years later.

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