The Beauty of Nature

Bald Eagle gets his Prey, originally uploaded by Nikographer [Jon]

We were planning to move into our new house today. Since the closing hasn't happened yet, that plan had to be modified. Instead, we decided to tackle some projects that needed to get done.

While we were there, I communed with the animals. A bald eagle flew over our house! Also a blue jay and goldfinches, which we don't get much in the city. We discovered some mole trails in the yard. Then we found giant, disgusting caterpillar nests in our apple tree and my father in law taught me how to kill them with fire.

There was hail falling for a minute while we lopped a branch off a tree. It had to go because it was scraping shingles from our roof. Jenna's mom and sister helped clean the house. Overall the house looks much more habitable now, and we're one day closer to moving in.

Chatterbox

Natalie loves to talk. Not only is she learning new words at a rapid-fire pace, she just can't wait to try them out in conversation. This is probably normal, I guess; who doesn't want to communicate? But it's a joy to watch the entire process unfold.

It is really fun to listen to her talking. She jabbers off a contant stream of nonsense syllables and occassionally sprinkles in words that she knows at random. She will march right up to strangers in the park and start babbling happily in this pseudo-language for as long as they'll listen. When she has something important to say, she puts her hand on my shoulder and looks me straight in the eye while she talks.

Her latest trick is to "read along" during story time, chattering while we read and stopping when we reach the end of a page. She sings the same way. And she has even memorized parts of her favorite books and songs so that she can chime in with the actual words (or at least one that rhymes).

Our Acreage: virtual tour part 3

For the tour's final segment, we're heading to the "back forty" of our 1.25 acre lot. A previous owner really loved rocks and built major retaining walls with these huge boulders behind the house. I like them.

After scaling the walls, you arrive in the back yard, or "Andy's project zone." The grass in the front yard is nice and easy to access, so I'm happy to leave it alone for now. Natalie and Lola can run and play and Jenna can have her perfect lawn. Back here is where my hobby farm dreams can happen. I can see my summer weekends booked up for years in the future. Just the way I like it.

In the past this may have been a majestic wood deck with a working stone oven. Now it is a bit sad. The mortar is crumbling and the wood is splitting and rotten. It all needs to be torn down. Maybe someday we will rebuild this whole area. It's a good place for an outdoor hangout spot, and I know my family would get good use from a wood-fired pizza oven!

Last of all we have this building: not merely a shed, but much smaller than a barn. My dad suspects this may have even been the original home, before the larger structure was built down the slope. It is made with the same type of brick as the house. At some point I'll pull the property records and try to learn more about it.

Myseterious origins aside, it's currently in a state of disrepair. The middle of one wall has completely collapsed and the roof is partially caved in above it. The doors are off their hinges and the windows are empty. The floor is covered in garbage.

Everyone says we should tear it down, but I want to restore and use it. What a perfect place to keep my chickens and goats! All those plans will have to wait a while, though. We have a lot of work to do in and around the house before I can start on these "fun" projects... and first we still have do the closing and move in already! I thought these posts would help scratch the itch to move but they have only made me more impatient. Closing day can't come soon enough.

360-Degree View: virtual tour part 2

Are you ready for the amazing, immersive, online adventure to continue? This post is a photo walk-around that shows our new house from all sides. We open with the view as you come up the driveway: original brick house to the south, new addition built on to the north.

West of House
You are standing in an open field west of a white house.

> go north

Continuing around the house, you can see the doors to the master bedroom on this side, and our view all the way to the horizon. Nothing but trees and sky. I don't think I mentioned that the property is on bluffs. On the other side of the road is a little stream that branches off the Minnesota River.

Over here is some cedar siding that was left unpainted. This corner is sort of hidden, so I'm inclined to leave it that way. By the way, this upper part of the yard is where I would like our garden to be, assuming it gets enough sunlight.

The three doors here from left to right lead to the old stairs with the arched stone doorways, then the kitchen, then the garage.

Some kind of flowering tree is planted in front. Crabapple, maybe? We hope to plant a couple of fruit trees. In my dreams I would like to build the forested part of our lot into a Japanese garden filled with cherry trees, mossy walking paths, and a koi pond.

And that brings us all the way back to the front again! Compare and contrast this photo with this one from the MLS during winter. In part three I'll take you back up the slope for a look at a historical outbuilding and collapsed deck, along with plenty of wishful thinking.

Our New House: virtual tour part 1

Oh, hello! Welcome to our new home. Due to a minor title problem, we haven't been able to close yet (the closing was scheduled for yesterday), but that should be sorted out soon. Thanks to these MLS photos, both you and I can pretend that we're actually there! Come on in, won't you?

The front door opens into the new addition with the original 1900 brick house to your right. Straight ahead is the kitchen, which is easily the most gorgeous room in the entire house. I hope those stainless steel appliances are still there when we move in!

Looking back from the kitchen you can see the main entry and the big, wide, new staircase. Given the way everything is wired, this wall is probably where our TV will have to go for now. Hardwood floors throughout this level. Also, more recessed lighting.

That brick section was originally part of an exterior wall on the old house. I LOVE how the renovation left this exposed. They really preserved the history of the building while updating the style of the space into something modern.

Come on upstairs and you can see how they built the new portions of the house. Nothing fancy, just practical, usable space. The bank put in new carpet up here. Every wall was painted this same color. We have five bedrooms and two bathrooms all on the upper level, including a master bed and bath suite.

The guest bath sits in the "old wing" of the second storey and preserves the feel of that era. The clawfoot tub is much smaller (and dirtier) in person than it looks! Washer and dryer hookups are situated along the right wall.

The cavernous master bedroom comes with a walk-in closet that could almost fit our current bedroom by itself. Not for real, but still. It's gigantic. French doors walk out to the backyard. The master bath was inexplicably not pictured in the MLS listing. Maybe I'll share photos of that room some other time.

On the opposite side of the house are the original stairs and an arched stone doorway which I'm guessing was in another exterior wall. The floor looks like all original hardwood on this side of the ground level.

A view from inside the doorway. The left door goes to what will probably become our dining room. The other door leads outside. The doorknob is just one of many pieces of hardware that were removed when the previous owner moved out.

Finally, here's a shot of two more rooms in the first floor's old wing. Well, that concludes our tour for now. I hope you enjoyed looking at our new house! Next I'll post some photos of the exterior and the rest of the property. Hopefully, in a little while, I can show you what it looks like when we're all unpacked and moved in!

Craftstravaganza Complete

EPIC LOOT

The Craftstravaganza is over! We had over 3,000 people through the doors including our family and many good friends who came to help and shop. My brother Kevin brought his girlfriend Annie, and they were our super-volunteers who stayed the whole day. It was the first year for her and for others, like my new coworker Amanda, and new sister-in-law's-husband Jared.

You can see the loot we acquired above. There's a honeypot, yarn, dish towels, baby dress, dog collar, necklace, and mushroom lawn ornaments. On top of all that, Abigail gave me a bag of fresh-picked morels from Door County. I used them in some delicious omelettes on the morning after the show.

Photo of me lounging in my Junk Drawers*

But what's most exciting are the underwears. Cricket Syndicate first sold me on the idea of handmade briefs and I have built up quite a collection over the past five years. I bought four pairs from our new vendor Junk Drawers and I think they might be my new favorite! I rate them ten out of ten fluffly clouds on the comfort scale and a triple RAWR on the sexiness chart (this is dangerously close to the level of hotness that results in actual pants on fire). Anyway, I'm wearing a pair right now with a tiger on it, thanks for reading!

*OK, no, not really

At last the story can be told

Whew! I've been keeping secrets for a long time. Now I can finally talk about some things that have been going on. Buckle up, because we've got a lot of ground to cover.

Both my readers will surely recall that we put our house back on the market this year after failing to sell it (twice) in 2009. Well, we thought about living there for a few more years, but that changed as soon as we found our dream house in the country. It was a foreclosure and we didn't want to miss this opportunity, so we negotiated with the bank for a couple of weeks and then signed a deal to buy it. Which was very exciting, but also terrifying, because our offer was non-contingent and we still had to sell our house in St. Paul!

I don't want to jinx anything, but I feel like we're at the point where I can finally share all of this. We officially passed the appraisal (which is what screwed us over the last time) so it looks like we will definitely be able to sell our city house. Also, as of today, we cleared the FHA inspection on the new place! Country roads, take me home.