Spring!

We lost our power for about two hours this morning right before I went to start the diapers! That could have been a real situation...snowed in with no clean dipes and not a sposie in the place. Yikes! Happily, all is well again!

Living Room

I thought I should continue my house tour and show you the living room. It's still mostly empty since we are stripping the wallpaper and painting. 9 times out of 10, wallpaper ranks right up there with carpet on the list of Things I Do Not Like. Wait until you see the wallpaper in the dining room/school room, though. TO DIE FOR!

Anyway, here is the living room:

Once we've painted it, this room will also house our library. I didn't want to unpack and reorganize all my books just to repack and move them in a week, though.

LOVE the wood floor in here! I've always dreamed about living in a house with wide, plank floors. Sigh...

The centerpiece of the room: one of DH's organs. This is the one that is in the best working order. He has another electric that needs a new synthesizer before he brings it up here. That one's better because its stops are more like a pipe organ. His pipe organ is in his parents' barn and will live there unless we ever build an addition especially for it.

Easter Goodies

This year I made traditional Easter Bread for the first time. It was a lengthy process, but well worth it! It came out really well! The recipe instructed to make two of the rings, but in the spirit of saving a few eggs, I made one ring and one loaf. The loaf is supposed to be glazed and sprinkled with, well sprinkles, but in these pictures the bread had just come out of the oven. The cool thing about this recipe is that you dye the eggs raw and they bake with the bread!

(It was after 11:00 PM. I was exhausted!)

I also a had a last minute inspiration to made these Easter Basket cupcakes for dessert on Sunday. We had to run to a few stores to find the "baskets," but they are so cute! (And so yummy!)

(The cupcakes were also our centerpiece!)



Lest you think we only ate junk for dinner, I also made ham, potatoes, creamy carrot casserole, and green bean supreme! My mom, dad, and sister joined us for the first holiday dinner in our new home. We had a great time despite the blowing wind and snow.

'Tis True

Fr. John said it best this morning:

"You know you live in Central (Northern) NY when.......there's more snow at Easter than there was at Christmas."

Yep.

How was yours?

It's been an exciting day

First, the snow is coming down like nobody's business. There was an inch of snow on the ground this morning, and it's been snowing and blowing all day. Lake effect snow warning from tonight until Saturday morning. This is not unusual for the "snow belt." In fact, this area had over 12 feet of snow this weekend. BUT, IT'S APRIL! IT'S EASTER WEEKEND!! Oh, the injustice! So instead of new, spring Easter dresses, we'll be wearing parkas to church.

The really exciting news, howevah, is that when I was vacuuming this afternoon, I peeled pack a corner of the carpet on the stairs. There is definitely intact hardwood under there. Not stained, but painted or stained dark brown (looks to be the same color as the moldings) and in good shape. I managed to get a look under a corner in the master bedroom and it looks the same. This is EXCELLENT! The wood floor upstairs in the old house was painted a cornflower blue, but spotty and not in great shape and we covered it with hardwood-looking laminate (which was beautiful). This looks workable. We could pull up all the carpet and live with the paint until we can refinish. We wouldn't have to put down new floors and all that entails. I hope the floor is in good shape in the middle of the rooms and downstairs.

I am thrilled because even doing the work ourselves putting down new hardwood was going to be expensive, and we would have had to wait a year or two to start and work room by room over time. Refinishing is a pain and lot of work, but comparatively not budget-breaking.

I'll get some before and afters! Have a blessed Easter everyone.

Alleluia! He is Risen!

Country Kitchen

Our kitchen is in the "new" part of house. I'm guessing that the newer part of the house was built around 1900.


You come into the kitchen from a door off the driveway. There's a small vestibule between the outer and inner doors and a coat closet to the left. The refrigerator is next to the stove, just out of the frame.




As you can see, there's a second outside door that leads to a small porch on the other side of the room. Our wind chimes are hanging out there and can be heard throughout the house.


To the right of the door I'm standing at is the sink/counter:

To the left of the coat closet is the pantry/laundry room:

There's a door next to the cardboard box that leads into DH's workshop. He hasn't even begun to unpack, so no peeking there!

Back into the kitchen. To the right of the table is the amazing cupboard unit that is original to the house. On either side of it, you can also see through the doorways into the dining room (currently box central).

Now for a few closeups. Here is the "antique" kitchen island we bought this weekend. As you can see, I have very limited counter space, so this is where I'm doing most of my meal prep and also storing all my baking supplies.

The cupboard above it was here when we moved in, but I'm not sure if it's original or not. Definitely old, though! We're hoping it can be moved up a few more inches so I can keep the knives on the island too. Storing those safely has been an issue! The handles are too long for any of our drawers.

Last but not least, the inset shelves where I'm displaying my cat cookie jar and mugs. The canisters have rice and coffee in them. I had nowhere else to put them, even though they're out of place with the cat motif. I don't use them too much, so even though they're out of the way, it's not a huge inconvenience.

The kitchen is charming and I love it, but very inconvenient all the way around. There's no way to really create a workable system for storage and meal prep. I'm getting into a groove, but it's definitely not a Lillian Gilbreth "efficiency" kitchen!

New House Pictures

I'm going to take pictures of everything as I get rooms completely unpacked and organized. The kitchen is done, but there are a few odds and ends that need to be distributed to their final destinations. I'll get pictures after supper, if possible.

For now, here is one of the views from the master bedroom windows and Zuzu enjoying the afternoon sun in the master. The light in this place is amazing!

(Of course, you know the pink carpet will be one of the first things to go!)