"The Loft and More....."

The loft is well lit with windows on 2 sides..........

Plus the "tumbling glass blocks", and 2 skylights.

Originally, I "assumed" that all of my fiber equipment would be in the basement family room, but after standing in the space, Don suggested I set up my floor loom in the loft.  I have everything spread out for assembling the loom so it really will be a much smaller footprint compared to what it looks like in this photo.  Weaving in this space and light is going to be VERY nice!   :)

Off the loft is the 3rd bedroom and 2nd bath.

The bathroom is another full bath, but this one has a large window in it, overlooking the deck and garden beds......and a lot of wooded area, too.   ;)

The bedroom ceiling also follows the roof line (there is no attic) which gives the good sized bedroom an even more spacious feel to it.

This photo gives a better view of the built in shelving that the owner/builder installed in one section of the closet.  The shelving isn't as deep as the closet, so some storage area is available behind them, too.

We plan on having Don's piano up in this bedroom, too.  The movers are going to love that, eh?   ;)

"New House Basement....."

I wasn't going to write a post about the basement, but then I changed my mind.  Can you tell I'm excited about the new house?  ;)

The basement bedroom of the new house has a really nice legal egress window, surrounded by glass blocks which gives the room much more light.  We will, of course, need to think about what type of window covering to have so we can darken the room, too.  I certainly wouldn't expect any overnight visitors get up at the crack of dawn like we will since we have a skylight in the master bedroom.  ;)

I wish I had closed the closet door prior to taking the photos of the bedroom, but unfortunately, I didn't. ;)

The entry into the bedroom is to the left at the bottom of the stairs, and to the right is the family room.

This isn't the best photo of the family room, but you can see that it is a pretty good sized room.

The family room leads into the laundry and storage area of the basement.

The laundry room is a very nice size and since it is, I hope to be able to have a table for folding laundry direct from the dryer.  ;)  It might also be a good area for shelving so I can stock up on household "staples".  :)  It is a good thing I will arriving at the house prior to our household goods from Madison, too.......gives me time to do some much needed "pick up and cleaning".

During our week stay, I was able to go to the rented storage unit and bring back quite a few things that I'd taken over in February, so this area already is being used by us for storage.  :)

Here is another photo of the same area of the basement......see what I mean about a good sized storage area?

Tomorrow, the loft........

"Inside the New House....."

I took this photo from inside the front door, which has the covered porch outside of it.  To the left on this photo, you can see a glimpse of the master bedroom.

It is a good sized bedroom, certainly larger than either one here in Madison, and also has a skylight (who needs to sleep in after the sun rises, eh?), plus a unique decoration on a couple of its walls, which is shown in this photo.

The ceiling follows the roof line and really gives the room a spacious feel.  The walk in closet is a real bonus, too!  ;)

The main floor bathroom isn't accessible directly through a door from the master bedroom, but it is down a short hallway that connects to the great room and the rest of the main floor.

Back in the great room, we have a wood burning stove, which sits in the corner to the left of the front door.

This next view of the house, I can't get enough of........The great room!

Here is a better view of the stairway bannister using a photo from the listing.  The hand rail and lower railing are actually one piece, naturally formed by a tree trunk.

To the rear of the great room and off the kitchen and dining area, is the stairwell to the basement.  The basement has a nice sized bedroom (which is legal with its large egress window), a large family room (which will house most of my fiber equipment and supplies), plus a utility room which houses the laundry and has a large storage area, too.

The galley kitchen is close to the size of the kitchen here in Madison, but with a bit more countertop space.......PLUS, it has 2 windows!  :)  And, as you can see here, it also has a small custom built eating area, too.

We are making a couple of changes to the kitchen.  We're replacing the electric stove with a gas one, and replacing the exhaust hood with one that will vent outside.

The inside tour to be continued......

"Our First Look at the Interlochen, MI House"

After Don made the decision to retire, we got busy with the remodeling of our Madison house.  In preparation for listing it, as well as making things easier for the remodeling, we needed to pack up some of our possessions or "de-clutter" the house.  With that, came the need to put things in storage, which we decided to do in the Traverse City, MI area, rather than here in Madison.  In February, I drove a fully loaded 14' U-Haul truck to MI and put everything into a storage unit.  We planned for me to drive over a few days prior to Madison's annual kayak and canoe event, Canoecoppia.  My oldest son, Patrick, wanted to attend Canoecoppia this year, so we timed moving things into storage so I could ride back to Madison with him (plus, the BIG bonus was he helped me unload the truck!).  It worked out quite well, although the day of packing the truck was one of the worst days of snow accumulation in Madison we'd had all Winter.

The Interlochen house was not being lived in at the time when we looked at it, which meant the private road and driveway had not had snow removed for us to drive back to the house.  We had to hike back to see the property, which we obviously loved when we saw it.  :)

Here are several photos of that day.........

The same view of the back garden area taken from near the side door.  We had no idea what was under all of the snow.  By the way, we found out last week that the bush on the left turns out to be a pussy willow.  We found another one near the garage, too.

This was the first time we knew that another out building, besides the garage, existed on the property.  As you can see, the same custom siding was added to the "warm weather yoga studio", too.  :)

This is the view from the "yoga studio".......

I took this photo from the front door of the house.  The snow/ice had slid down the metal roof and would eventually slide off and create a huge pile.  No more "roof raking" for us!  :)

A view of the garage/office/workshop from the porch.  The half moon window in the upper part of the garage softly illuminates the loft storage area.

Here is another view of the garage from the house loft's window.

A view from the house loft's window that faces the back.......

So.......even though we couldn't see "everything" due to the thick layer of snow, we fell in love with the place and placed an offer on it that day.........and the rest is history.  ;)

"Our Interlochen, MI, House....."

Here is the 1st view one sees of the house as they come around the curve in the driveway.......(remember you can click on any photo and see a larger version)

A view of the front of the house showing the stone lined paths and garden beds.  It will be very interesting to see what perennials have emerged when I move in later this month.

Another view of the house with Don on the front porch, from next to the garage........

The garage.  It has a single bay for a vehicle, a separate "office", and the entire back length is a workshop, plus a loft above the vehicle area and office to be used for storage.  A metal roofed "lean to" was added on to the rear of the garage and we will be putting that to use quite soon for stacking/storing fire wood.

I took this photo near the end of last week when the weather was warmer and most of the snow had melted allowing us to see more garden beds that we'd not known about.  The building behind Don, as I mentioned earlier, was not in the listing and was a  nice little surprise for us.  :)  The owners used it as a "warm weather" yoga studio (read this as it having no electricity or heat).

This gives a better view of the custom work on the side of the house.  This was the builders model home when he began his construction business.

Here is a view of our "backyard" from the corner of the house next to the side door. As the week progressed, more snow melted which revealed a stone lined fire pit on the other side of the long wood sided raised bed.  There is also a taller metal ringed fire pit in another part of the yard, similar to those seen in campgrounds, too.
The raised bed showed signs of tomatoes and other vegetables, so yes, I will be able to begin a small vegetable garden this Spring.  :)
The hot tub was a surprise to us, since it, too, was not mentioned in the listing.  It looks to be in good shape, but it remains to be seen if it works.  If not, perhaps it could be converted into a really deep raised bed?   ;)

A view from the other end of the decks.  By the way, that single window on the 1st floor is above the kitchen sink and one of 2, yes, 2, windows in the kitchen!  :)

A view of the opposite side of the house from the driveway/parking area.....

A VERY happy man!   :)

Oh yeah......"this one" is pretty happy, too!   LOL

More tomorrow.....

"BIG NEWS!"........

For those of you who wondered why Don and I have been doing so much work on our house in Madison (not that it didn't sorely need it!), wonder no more!  Don filed his retirement papers Monday night!  Yes, he will be retiring and we're moving to Interlochen, MI.

Actually, we closed on our Interlochen house a week ago, and I will be moving from Madison to Interlochen on Tuesday, May 21st.  Don will be here with the movers, who pack up our house on Wednesday, May 22nd, and will close on the house with the buyers, Tuesday, May 28th.  Unfortunately, he will not be joining me in MI right away because he doesn't retire until July, and has rented a room from a retired UW education professor, who seems very nice, so I think I am leaving him in good hands.  ;)

We were very fortunate in selling our house.  We listed it Monday, April 1st and had 2 offers in less than 24 hours!  We took the one that was "above" the listing price.  ;)

Our Interlochen house is on 2 1/2 acres, surrounded by woods.  We literally can not see our neighbors. Here are some satellite views of the area.  This 1st one, looking along the upper edge of the photo, shows the south end of both the Interlochen State Park and the Interlochen Arts Academy.  The village of Interlochen is a bit further north.

Zooming in, you can see our little clearing in the woods.  The "road", which runs East/West, connects to our driveway, which runs North/South, is a private road, and we are the only ones who live off of it, although there are several homes that back up to it.  Since it is a private road, we have to take care of it, which means we will be plowing it in the Winter, and that, in turn, means we will be investing in some new snow removal equipment.  Boys and their toys, eh?   :)

In truth, the road and our driveway are really nothing more than a 2 track......literally meaning there are 2 tracks, one for each side of the vehicles wheels with dirt between them.  ;)  Yep, we're moving from the city to the country.  :)  In this photo, you can barely see the backyards of the homes which back up to our road.  Our clearing is really larger than it looks in the photo.  Besides the house,  there is a large 1 car garage, which has an enclosed office space beside it, with a workshop across the entire back of the garage.  There is also another smaller outbuilding, which was not mentioned in the listing, that was used as a warm weather yoga studio, so I am sure we will find a good use for it as well.  ;)

I'll be posting more photos of our house and outbuildings soon, but wanted to let you know what has been going on in our lives.

I hope all of you are well.  Sorry that I have not been posting much of late, but that will now change and I'll be back to posting regularly again.

"I'm Still Alive.....And Older!"

I celebrated my 63rd birthday on Wednesday.  Why is it that one doesn't think of themselves as "old', yet when they see their age in black and white, it looks so old?  Oh well, time to get over that!  LOL

Don once again surprised me Wednesday morning by taking a vacation day so that we do "fun stuff' the entire day.  That began with breakfast in Mount Horeb (the same place we had gone last year), then some exploring of the "Drift-less Area" (I love all those narrow valleys and driving on top of ridges, seeing the expansive views!), until coming home to kill some time before going to see the movie "Return to Oz".  We both found it enjoyable but not "great".  Last but not least, we went to dinner, joined by our friend, Rob, to a Mexican restaurant that we enjoy, Cancun, where I was presented with a piece of birthday cake at the end of our meal.  OH BOY!   ;)