"Early Evening Break....."

As I wrote yesterday, the movers scheduled their delivery and were to arrive between noon and 2PM.  They arrived at 2, but they had to park on M137, which is the main highway going through Interlochen.  They needed side access to the moving semi and that was the only place that had enough room to do so.  Our road is off of what is called State Park Highway, but it is no wider than what Gregory St. is in Madison and is purely residential, too.  So, because of the size of their truck, they had to rent a smaller truck and transfer our things from their semi to the smaller truck.  It took 3 loads to bring everything back to our house.  More on that another time......

I've been unpacking, organizing, and assembling various things all day and so it was time for a break, so I thought I'd write a bit on my blog and post it.

A few days ago, I bought a "tumbling" compost bin.  It came in pieces, and after some trial and error, and going back to "redo" a couple of things, I was able to get the bin put together in perhaps an hour or so.  I'd read many reviews of the bin and the complaint most commonly mentioned were the poor directions.  I'd have to agree....they were basically pure drawings, and not much text.  I'm normally a pretty good visual concept person, but the directions didn't show enough specific details, thus a bit of backtracking on my part.  All's well that ends well, and I am very pleased with the assembled compost bin.

Here is the compost bin in its box......

Here are all the parts laid out.......

The assembled compost bin placed at the back of the garden.

Here is a photo that shows how little of it can be seen from the house.  It will show even less once the Lilac and Rose of Sharon leaf out.

I'll try and remember to write an update when I "harvest" compost from it.  I'd forgotten to mention, it has 2 chambers, so when one is full and processing, the other can start to be filled, alternating finished batches of compost.

"Movers Come Today....."

Don received a call yesterday from the person who made the arrangements for our move from Madison ("supposedly" I did, too, but had nothing on the answering machine).  She told him that the movers would be delivering "our goods" today and be here between noon and 2.  That works out very well because that will give me time to drive Copper to Patrick, Julie, and Abigail's this morning and be home with plenty of time to spare.  It will be easier on her as well as me.  This way I don't have to worry about her slipping outside and wandering off exploring without me knowing about it.
Hopefully, I'll remember to get photos of the "move in".  Wish us luck!  ;)

"First Use........"

My daughter, Claire, gave us this bike plant stand a couple of years ago for Christmas.  We'd not used it until now because last year, for whatever reason (I think it was me being lazy), we only had plants in the railing deck planters and no other pots outside.  I'm glad its debut was here at our new house and think it looks perfect on the front porch.  I also haven't been able to have geraniums in awhile either due to so much shade at the Gregory St. house.  It's a nice change.  ;)  By the way, the potted coleus is from a plant that Don received as a gift over 30 years ago!  He has been taking cuttings from it a couple of times each year, rooting them in water, and transplanting them into pots, so we have a continuous supply of fresh new plants.  Several of our friends in Madison have taken plants from him and have been doing the same.  The boy has quite the green thumb, wouldn't you agree?  :)

"An Empty House......."

The movers arrived at the Gregory St. house last Wednesday.  Don sent me these photos of the rooms after they were packed up and had been cleaned for the new owners.

Here is the front room, which is where I had all of my fiber equipment and supplies.......

Next, the remodeled kitchen.......

Moving on to the sunroom.......

The main bedroom.......

And lastly, coming full circle around the house, the front bedroom......

Don closes on the house tomorrow.  The end of 17 years for him in that house.  "One door closes and another one opens", correct?   ;)

"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.....