This is the first day of Summer officially and the longest day of the year!
It seems to be a long time since I posted last. I'm working full-time now and getting adjusted to the change has been so refreshing. I'm really enjoying this job and in fact, it combines the best of all worlds in the areas of nursing I have been in in my 30 year career. The folks I work with are the nicest I've ever worked with, very kind, helpful and alot of teamwork. I've been in the car alot, so I've read nearly 2 full books on my Kindle this week. When I travel, I just turn on my Kindle to text to speech mode and it makes the time fly by and also some interesting reads I had picked out on Pixel of Ink. If you haven't seen Pixel of Ink, go to facebook and search for it. This page offers about 8 books a day for free, or at a deep discount. You have to grab them when you can because then the next day the price goes from 0 to like 12.99 again. I enjoy watching out for some good reads on this page daily.
We also have been working on the homestead here in the mountains and had a little hiccup with the new floors. After they put them in, bubbles started to appear and the store manager states that this has happened one other time with the particular flooring and is a defect. They now have to pull up all the flooring and start over with a new kind. I'm bummed out about that because we had guests coming soon and I really liked the new floors alot! We are going today to pick out the new pattern and I think it will take a couple of weeks again to get it in. Slowly but surely though some changes have made a big difference in the flow of the house and to simplify and have only what we use and love.
Here is a peek at one side of the rooms. Yay, to my loving husband for moving a 600 pound piano across a huge room!!!!
Here's Abbie, a little confused for day 2 of the project, but now she loves the arrangement. The sofa is under the window and she loves to look out and watch the wildlife around here. Lou the cat, loves to sit on the porch bench and watch us in the house.
So this is just half of what we did and it really made a difference. It feels huge in this house now.
The kitchen I will take extra pics of later, even though that flooring will have to come up so you can see the kitchen table in there. The kitchen island was moved to the laundry area and provides a GREAT nook for storage of linens and a wide open top for folding clothes.
Over the buffet my downstairs sampler wall is rearranged a bit. This is where the piano used to be.
Abbie has her own spot. She loves the vintage, down-filled pillow to sleep on, and has her own basket of toys and "wardrobe" box. There's a little ray of sun there in the day and it's her favorite nap spot.
I absolutely love our chairs comfy by the fireplace now. My stitching chair will be cozy this Winter.
I sat down and played a tune or two and will soon be getting this piano tuned. I was waiting for it to be moved before tuning because any time you move a piano it has to be retuned anyways.
My dearest husband plays the guitar and he has two of them. They fit well in the house and we both share a deep love for music.
From the kitchen, this photo was taken, looking onto a whole different layout that really makes the flow in this area much better. Much bigger for entertaining guests.
As frustrating as it is cleaning out and sorting, donating and having to redo all the kitchen, hall and bath floors, there has been so much positive out of it. And it makes a world of difference for you to have a life partner/ husband who is willing to do anything to help. We make a good team and have very similar tastes in decor.
My other project is making my downstairs guest room, a REAL guest room. I've got some new ideas from a friend who has a you tube channel, about how to make it GUEST ready.
So more pics to come in the future of the old kitchen.................. the best part of the house to have a cuppa. Well, I take that back, the back porch is cozy too this time of year. Honestly, as hot as it's been in town, it's been no higher than the 80s here on the shaded back porch. We enjoy barbequing on the grill on Saturday nights and eating on the back porch table.
I hope you are having a great weekend! Till later and after more cleaning and moving................and finding a good recipe for Kale. Yup, I've only eaten Kale once in my life and I love it. Trying to incorporate more veggies in our diet.
Thank you for hanging in there with me this Summer!
Jennifer
