Missouri Can't Quite Shake Winter

We've had a couple of nice days lately. Warmer weather makes me very anxious for spring. We had a landscaper come out and talk with us about landscaping as well and that made spring seem so close. But the forecast is for wintry weather all this week in spite of March Madness. I realize I was too busy to post the winter photos so here is winter on Robinhood Lane.

One day Bryan and I went for a rideto the back of the acreage and checked out the winter wonderland. 

We saw lots of animal tracks and it was a beautiful scene. We did get stuck! Bryan got the tractor out and pulled us out.

In a more recent event, we discovered that not having a dog makes the geese come up closer to the house. 

It can be annoying to have goose poop on your sidewalk. 

But then the coyotes started coming up closer because they were after the geese!

We have had them come up really close twice now - both times around 10:00 am.

So, sadly for this coyote, it was his last attempt to catch a goose.

Living in My Beautiful Kitchen

It is hard to pick a favorite place, but my kitchen is definitely a great space. It is sunny and bright and spacious. I like the deep windowsill and the farmhouse sink. Great for washing those big pots.

Here you can see the two colors of granite counters.

I love cooking in this kitchen. It has taken me some time to decide how best to organize it,

 but that is a good problem to have!

It has been a few years since I cooked with gas, but I like it and am glad to get back to it.

The motawi tiles on the backsplash I showed close up on a previous post.

The white tiles are subway tiles and there is a green glass accent tile.

This picture shows my island and the great light fixtures!

 My old cookstove has it's own special place, next to the door to the pantry.

And on the other side is the butler's pantry, the breakfast nook and the door to my office.

This is the pantry.

So come on over for lunch!

Moving Into A New Home

Well, the weeks have flown by and we have been very busy unpacking and settling in. We also have very poor internet. Slow and very limited gigabytes. Ahh, life in paradise  --  other wise known as the boonies. [so loading pictures like these can be tedious and use up precious GB]

Leaving the old house . . .

 - a mess in the new.

We celebrated our first holiday in the new house! Thanksgiving! My sister and her daughters were our first guests. Then on to Christmas decorating - which was fun - and then we had a quiet Christmas.

Now the Christmas decorations are down and we are starting to settle in to a routine. We had to say goodbye to our dog, Buddy, so we've had our first burial on the property in January.

We are painting the basement - another slow project - but it will look great when it is done.

So my plan is to try to get some good photos of each room to show how it looks now. The walls are pretty bare. It is difficult to commit to hanging things on brand new walls!

I will say that I wake up every morning feeling so happy to be here! I know this is only my temporary home, but whether I live here a short time or a long time, I am so blessed. I do hope that I get lots of opportunities for hospitality so if you need a place to stay or want to come by for coffee -- you are always welcome here! AND hopefully I get to throw lots of parties. I think this could be a great party house - so please let me know any ideas you have for great parties!

HAPPY DANCE TIME!

Yep! That's me -

And that's me, too!

We got an occupancy permit on Monday! Hooray! We have started moving stuff in! The big moving van will be bringing the big stuff on Friday but I'm taking stuff by car and getting settled in!

Inching Forward to a Occupancy Permit

Well, I am not updating as often as I'd like. I am so busy and the internet out here isn't always working so great :(

We keep chipping away. The sidewalks are in. And the lawn has been reseeded.

The painters came and finished the touch ups indoors and out.

The front door is stained. It looks great.

Thank you, Olathe Painting.

The hardwood floors have had their 3rd and final coat.

The basement water damage is in the process of being repaired.

The decking is pretty much completed and the railing is coming along nicely!

We need the fireplace to get the hook up.
We need the heating system to be running.
We need our sump pump to be working.

The floor sanding leaves dust everywhere so I needed to clean everything again. I started cleaning upstairs at the top of the window trim and cleaned the entire upstairs, then the stairs and then started on the main floor. I spent the better part of 5 days cleaning dusty woodwork and walls and floors. I haven't even started on the basement yet.

Bryan took a couple of days off and we worked on deck railing and a few outlets we needed to get in. He also put in the light fixtures on the deck.

I went around and did some paint touch up and I put the sealer/enhancer on the slate fireplace. It looks so good! Emily and I did a lot of packing at the other house today. We have a lot to do there to get ready to move.

We scheduled an inspection for today but the inspector called in sick! So we are rescheduled for Monday.

A Weekend to Feel Good About

We had a great weekend and feel like we made great strides on the decking because we had Bryan's sister, Mary, and her husband, Joel, help us out this weekend. It was fun having someone around and we all had a 'campout' here at the house. We can't thank them enough!

I'm pretty sure they think we have too much porch!! :)
Right, guys?


We also cleaned windows.

Bryan put in porch lights.

And the concrete guys came and framed up our sidewalk, which will be poured on Monday.



Day 440 - Just When You Thought You Were Making Progress: Waterline Breaks

Wow  --  another setback. You can't really tell from these photos but we had a water line break in the master bathroom. We left the house shortly after 10pm and shortly before midnight ADT was calling. The water got into the basement ceiling and set off the glass break alarm in the basement. Thank the Lord it did. The water all ran down into the AC duct  -- none of it got on the hardwood floors!! We are so fortunate. Bryan and I spent the rest of the night (early morning hours) vacuuming up water then cutting open places in the basement ceiling and walls to let it dry out.

The plumbers came first thing the next morning and they are going to get it all fixed.

They will have to replace part of the AC duct.

I'm disappointed in the setback but it could've been so much worse. 

We are praising God for that.

My Craftsman Influence Kitchen

This is finally starting to look like a completed kitchen!

The top drawer has to be cut down because it hits the gas line.

 The tile backsplash  --  white subway tiles with green glass tiles and Motawi Tileworks tile accents.

The lights over the sink and over the island are all from Schoolhouse Electric in Portland.

All the appliances are in except the refrigerator. We are using the refrigerator we have in our current house.

The island and this cabinet are stained oak.

I am so anxious to get moved in and actually use this kitchen.

But as you can see we are kind of living out of the pantry! : )

Plumbing, Propane and Satellite Connections

Everyday something gets done. Sometimes it is not much but it is something.

This week we got some more plumbing done - and we passed the septic inspection done by the health department!

The propane tank was set and the lines run.

And I'll have to get some pictures of my kitchen in the next blog entry

because we did get the kitchen backsplash tiled, 

the globes put on my Schoolhouse Electric lights, and the appliances all installed.

I do have this picture of Bryan installing the range hood.

None of the appliances were super easy!

 It seems we ran into some kind of weird issue with every one of them.

We also got the DirecTV and the internet working thanks to our tech pros from Audio Innovations.

We have a system called Control 4 that lets us access our TVs, lights and speaker system etc. from our computers and phones.

But we had to go with satellite internet which seems pretty good so far.

The big drawback is the data limit. No streaming movies, music etc. for us.