My notes on our new home.
This room leads from one of the front doors. This was actually my least favorite room in the house. I do not like the stone floor, pillar, or fireplace (not shown). I would actually like to cover the floor in low-pile bone-colored carpeting and cover the fireplace with pale wood paneling. I want the column covered in matching paneling or carpet. I would like this room to be an entertainment room. The dining table would be ideal near the window, and closer to the camera perspective would be seating and television.
In the fireplace is a vintage wood-burning stove. I am looking forward to seeing how well it works, because I would like to keep it, if we both like it.
Nathan and I sat in these wicker chairs while we signed our contract.
Donna is opening the doors to the laundry hook-ups. The back door leads to the yard and clothesline, which I intend to try.
This is a view of the side yard. Our property extends to the white fence in back. Beneath the trees is a creek. The creek is also a property line.
This is the back yard. The white siding needs to be power-washed all over and repaired in a few places. You can see the small well next to the back door. It is supposedly still operational, and we could use it to water our gardens. The clothesline is just behind the camera's perspective. The windows are good, new storm windows. The screen doors are vintage.
Here's one of the barns.
It's full of rusted junk. We negotiated with the seller that all junk will be removed before we move in. The house and yard are full of junk right now.
Back of the house.
The tank, fed with run-off from the neighbor's stables. If we want to clean up the water we will have to re-shape the tank and control its drainage better. I have other ideas for beautifying it however. I want to make a water lily garden here, with a wrought-iron bench in the shadows.
View of the property from the rear boundary, just in front of the tank.
This is the old stable. Fascinating junk here, but we have no means to move what we don't want, so I am glad we will be moving into a junk-free home. I can't wait to get a rake and hoe and start mucking it out. I plan to keep the chickens here. We are going to try not to have very many animals at first.
Back view of the house from the stables.
Ceiling extends two stories at the staircase. Normally I love vintage carpet, but like the stone, this just doesn't feel right to me. This is not a "brown" house. This is a white house, a green house, a blue house, a fresh, clothesline-crisp house.
This is where all the magic will happen. :o) This is the kitchen, overlooking the property and stables. Counters and cabinets all around. Gas stove. We will put in a dishwasher. The floor is linoleum. Once again, brown. Not quite right. But that is not a priority now.
I think we both like this room a lot. At least, we have talked about it the most. This adjoins another room just like it. One will be our music room. The other one, opening to the front porch, which I hope to make the "front" room, will be a parlor where we can relax. I am going to try to make it a traditional parlor, very lo-fi. The television and stereo equipment will go in the entertainment room, and the record player will go here. We will refinish the wood floors before we move in.
Front porch. The wood rack will be gone. I hope to find some vintage lawn furniture for the porch.
A dog house and yard to the side of the porch. We don't intend to get a dog, so for now it will be a guest dog house.
I would like to have little potted trees on the porch, and there will be gardens all around the house.
This is the view from the front of the house. The best enclosure is here. If we have a large animal, I would like to put it out here. It is surrounded by heavy steel fencing.
This is Tabernacle. He's the neighbor's dog. He is very friendly and stayed by our sides the whole time on both visits. The second time, he was even more happy to see us. It made me feel like he wanted us to buy the place.
This is the chimney.
A view from the upper windows. The front bedroom looks over the road. One of these rooms will be a computer music room, and the other will be our room.