A Closet for Echo!

I've been feeling a little under the weather, so not a lot has been done lately.  I did finally unpack a few more boxes and cleaned out one of the front closets to make a dog closet! Yes - a dog closet! She has a LOT of dresses!

Now we have everything nice and handy when we take her out!  Yes she is a spoiled little thing, but who could say no to such a sweetie!?!!

Echo in all her fall glory!

More New Carpet

Party Room "before"

Stairs to the tower "before"

The tower "before"

New carpet in the "party room", the living room and the tower make the house feel more and more like home.  We were able to put  chairs, a couch, the T.V. and a game table in the party room, so now we have a real living space. It feels good!

Oh what a week it's been!!  We had a great time seeing and hanging out with Aris. Then came back and got right to work!  First thing on Monday evening Steve changed a bunch of the light switches in the house. We had an inordinate amount of dimmer switches around here, Don't get me wrong, I love ambiance as much as the next gal, but really, who need mood lighting in the bathroom Especially the one without a shower or tub!?!!  Switches are awesome!!

Then, on Tuesday, to add a little more complication to our lives, we agreed to watch my Mom and Step-dad's two dogs for a couple of nights, one of them is only 3 months old! What were we thinking?!!  3 Dogs!!  Luckily they did pretty well!  The hardest part was when they all wanted to go out at different times!! I still managed to put contact paper on a few more shelves.

Then Wednesday - a new furnace!! The older one (the original from 1965) did a pretty good job of heating the place, but was HIGHLY inefficient the new one is a lot smaller and is capable of being hooked up the AC and now we have the option of a "mini-split" which, I understand, is a smaller unit that hooks into the main unit, and can be place in a room if for some reason (like the configuration of the house) it isn't getting warm or cool enough.

On Thursday it was more cleaning, unpacking, and returning the dogs. Steve also started the fireplace project.

When we had the house inspected, the inspector was quite taken aback that someone would place a beautiful lacquered wooden bench right underneath the fire place! It really was beautiful, but even I could figure out it was a bad idea! Our plan is to remove the bench,

 and add a tiled flat hearth,

First the mortar,

then the hardie board.

lots of down time to dry, but finally on Saturday, a beautiful work of Art!!!

Ahhhh.........Heat!

My fun moment for the week? -  Our first really windy night at the new place and all we heard were tiny thumps!?!! Thump, Thump, Thump thump. It took us half the night to figure out it was the acorns hitting the flat rubber roof above our room!! - Then the squirrels chasing them!  I LOVE the nature all around us!!

We also got our new refrigerator, I had to give up the french doors, but I still got the freezer on the bottom.  It's only been a few hours, but so far I love it!!  Next stop - grocery store!!

Lots and lots of cleaning this week, and slowly moving in boxes from the garage, but I refuse to put my clean things away in a dirty space, so I bleach everywhere that the things in a box are going before I put those things away, So it moves S-L-O-W!!  Did I mention how slowly we are unpacking?
We've had some friends painting and power washing the cedar shake roof (that's over the pool) and that is finished, so now a few days off to go hang with Aris, our biggest kid, at Michigan Technological University for Parents Weekend!  Looking forward to the break and to see him!!

Our first week-end

The weekend went by like a whirlwind. We decided since we were getting a new refrigerator we might as well get the stove now too. We ran into a few glitches when we went to look for appliances -namely size! Who knew the appliance built back in the 60's were minuscule compared to  today's monstrosities!  Deciding between a full size stove or a full size refrigerator was an unexpected headache! Hmmm.

Refrigerator - stove?
Stove - refrigerator?

Well, since I love to bake and and the boys are slowly fleeing the coop, a full size stove it is!
We drove all around town hoping to just buy the appliances and bring them home.  We were 50% successful. We found an awesome stove at the Sears outlet, and got almost $250 off for a tiny little scratch on the side. Score!! Not so lucky on the refrigerator side. We ended up ordering it and have to wait for 4 more days to pick it up. MORE take-out anyone?

Besides the appliances we cleaned, unpacked boxes and, rearranged furniture. Since the exterminator was here on Friday and gave us some recommendations we also spent quite a bit of our time putting Great Stuff in a bunch of holes that had become private entrances for our rodent nemesises! Is that even a word!?!!  I am beyond determined to make my new home a mouse-free fortress!!

Moving In

Originally we had intended to sleep in the house last night, but the carpeting took longer than expected to install, the smell was over whelming and the beds were not set up. So tonight it is!

On a frightening side note, Steve went to move the refrigerator so I could clean behind it and what should we find, but 5 dead mice!  OK change of plans, now I shop for a new refrigerator today instead of at the end of the month (when we had budgeted for it!) Exterminator is now coming sooner too!  Ahhhh.......the joys of the unknown! What will tomorrow bring?

First stage of carpeting!!

Whoo hoo!! New carpet today!!! and of course more cleaning!