Here is the Soon-to-be-Our HOUSE!

Beautiful country setting: Lovely renovated home on 8.2 private acres, in the quiet neighborhood.  Four minutes to town. Level yard surrounded by woods and fields. 3 bedrooms, 1.5 bath. New kitchen and custom bath. High ceilings, great natural light. Replacement windows, fully insulated. Natural gas heat, with both forced air and radiant stove. New roof. Rewired. City water. Large 2-car detached garage with workbenches, storage in upper level.…

What I love about the home

Our home of 29 years has been a wonderful place to raise our children. We have enjoyed renovating this charming house, which combines character and comfort, privacy and convenience.

• Bedrooms:3 beds
• Bathrooms:1.5 baths
• Single Family:1,484 sq ft
• Lot:357,191 sq ft
• Year Built:1878
• Heating Type:Forced air
• The above information was on a Zillow Real Estate Internet site for folks selling their own homes.

• We had no idea that this house sat on 8 acres smack dab in the neighborhood in which my husband
• grew up and where he wanted to live out the rest of his life.
• It came up for sale out of the blue and by the owners.
• My husband was not 'into' the farm house, but it is in great shape.
• The land is what grabbed both of us: it's an absolute haven.
• I can teach two more years if I have this to come home to.
• We signed a contract and gave a down payment on it this past Thursday.
• We close on July 8th.
• They are trying to get their closing date in Massachusetts moved up from Aug. 8th.  We want to be in and somewhat settled before my school begins---August 26 and 27 are teacher days and the students begin Sept. 3rd--the day after Labor Day.

• I am not sure how I got this white area and all these bullets, 
• but this post has given me problems, so I am not going to try and fix it.

• 
• This the view from the side of the road.
  This is a front field. 
  A guy mows it for them for the hay.
  
  
• 
  This is considered the front of the house.
  The front door has the portico over it and opens into the living room.
  The bay window is the living room.
  The other lower windows you see are over the kitchen sink.
  
  
  
  This is the back of the house.
  They will be taking their swing with them,
  but we will take one of ours--
  the one that was mine when I lived on my own with my teenage son
  a long time ago.
  
  
  There is an unheated storage room --the tiny square window
  is in it.
   You access it from the back porch.
  The long narrow window near the fireplace is in the kitchen.
  
  
  
  Here is a close-up of the front of the house.
  
  
  The next 3 photos are of the wonderfully 
  remodeled kitchen.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  They are leaving most of the appliances including 
  the washer and dryer.
  However, they are taking the refrigerator with them.
  It is a German model and is incredibly quiet
  which was top on their list.
  It is much too small for us
  so we are fine with buying a new one.
  Ours will stay here for the renters.
  
  
  
  This is the main bathroom and it is downstairs.
  There is a half-bath upstairs.
  The tub is 6 ft. long--he required one.
  Mike and I are shower people,
  but the grandkids will love it,
  and I won't be
  sitting on the toilet seat squished
  between the sink and the bath tub
  while I supervise them.
  By golly, there is room for a chair in there!
• 
  



The dining room is off the kitchen.
The door you see is a closet.

The door you see here takes you to a
small, sandstone basement.
Even with a sump pump,
it remains damp.
There will be no 'man-cave' in this basement--
something my husband has given up for the land.


The alcove is their laundry room.
The washer and dryer are behind closet doors.
We are going to try to move them into a huge closet upstairs,
and this will be closed off to be Mike's office.
It is a good-sized room.
• 
  
• 
  



Here is the living room.
The door you see is considered the front door,
although people usually enter through the kitchen.
That's fine with me; it's much better than having folks come though
my cluttered, dreary basement
as they do now.



The two windows you see are where we will probably 
add a master bedroom.
A basement foundation, a master bedroom,
and stairs to an art studio 
are parts of our future plan.


We are also buying the mineral rights to the land,
so adding on will have to wait a little bit.
(It is incredibly wonderful that they offered the mineral rights to us.
Our area in Ohio is in the middle of the fracking boom,
so this is a crucial time to have control over your own land.)



This is the main stairway 
and is between the living room and bathroom.
There is an outside door that opens out into a very private
side yard.
This side yard is where the addition will go.



This is the 2nd biggest bedroom.
The door there leads to a walk-in closet
that goes the entire width of the house.
One of the bedrooms will be for guests all the time,
and the other will be my office/studio
until we are able to build the addition.

This is the smallest bedroom.
There is a walk-in closet in here also.
The closets are remarkable for such an old farm house!



They took a walk-in closet and made a half-bath
for upstairs.
It is in a good location for all three bedrooms.



This is the master bedroom as they showed it on their Internet site.
Below is how it looks now.
The steps lead down into the kitchen where there is a closed door 
separating the stairs from the kitchen.
If you look back at the 3rd kitchen photo,
you will see the door
and the remainder of the steps.
This is typical of old homes.


There is another walk-in closet in the small hallway
that leads to this room.
That closet is used for their clothes
and will be for ours too.








This is just a small part of the back yard.
Over in the back left-hand corner is a grape arbor.
The land extends into the woods, ravine, and a stream.



This shows the separate garage that has 2nd floor storage.
However, they kind of goofed when they built it
and didn't make it high enough for a lot of adults to stand up in.
That nixes it for an office or studio.
We will use it as they did: for storage.



This window in the small bedroom 
looks out at the front field 
and the main road in the subdivision beyond the big tree.
We already know the folks across the road---we went to school
with them.  They will be good neighbors.




In the next photo, the house you can barely see part of 
is across the road
and belongs to a good friend of ours.
We will love having her as a neighbor.
(She was just widowed last year
at age 60.  She was a year ahead of us in school.)

Here are the two side fields.
The land extends to the road on the other side of the pine trees.







This is where the addition will go.





Just another view of part of the back yard.


So this is the fantastic news I've been hinting at.
Some of you know how long we have waited for a 'home'.
We will rent our small Craftsman bungalow.


I will tell about how God worked this all out
another time.
This post is already too long!

Corner View: Five things about me

For corner view this week,

we are to tell five things about us.

For other views from around the world,

please go to Francesca's Fuoriborgo.

1. The 4th of July is my favorite holiday.

I love sitting on our boat,

anchored next to my son's boat,

watching the fireworks,

and watching the grandkids watch the fireworks. 

Then we get them in our boat 

and take them to our campground trailer

where they spend the night.

We have a cook out too with red, white, 

and blue plates and napkins.

2. The grandkids love taking baths

at my house.

I have bath foam that I repeatedly

spray into their hands

and simple containers from my kitchen. 

I allow them to sit and play for a long time.

3. I love all kinds of jewelry,

but especially that which has been my mother's and grandmothers'.

I'm known at school for my long, funky earrings.

The girls are always checking out what I have on today.

That goes for my pins also.

One teacher calls me "The pin lady," 

although I now wear necklaces as much, if not more,

than pins.

These are just the ones on display.

The ones on the left are kept out all year.

The ones on the right are seasonal.

4. I collect 'posy' vases

and plant flowers that lend themselves to cutting

and displaying in the small vases.

I place them throughout the house.

5. I love porch swings and have two:

one in back on the patio

and one on the front porch.

Barn Charm #76

As I sit at my computer in the corner of my living room,

I can look out the French doors and see this setting.

It is on a hill behind an auto body shop--both are 

across the alley from me.

The fence in the background is around a garden.

There is a wide strip of field that runs three large lots long

surrounded by a cemetery, homes, and businesses.

If I want to walk to it, I go between two of the three buildings

of my neighbor's auto body shop.

Here's a narrow view of the barn.

This is a field directly beside the barn.

It belongs to another shed and home off to the right.

There are two ponies and a donkey there.

It's startling when I am reading to the pounding and whirring

sounds of the auto body shop,

and I suddenly hear a donkey bray!

That's life in my small town!

The next photos were taken this past winter

from the cemetery above the barn.

These show the other side of the barn.

As you can see, the barn and shed are in a big back yard 

in a neighborhood of closely set houses and businesses.

That's my small town for you!

For more views of barns from all over the world,

click on over to Tricia's.

Corner View: Europe

The only place in Europe I have visited is Ireland.

We spent seven days there

and did not want to cut our time there

by adding another country.

We could have easily stayed another two weeks.

If I was given a choice of going back to Ireland

or choosing another country,

I would still choose Ireland and add in Scotland and/or Wales.

You corner view folks have only seen a few of my Ireland photos,

as it has been nine years since we took the trip

and I have only been a part of corner view for slightly over a year.

However, I chose to show only the Cliffs of Moor.

They were AWESOME.

It was an incredibly long walk up the cliffs,

but oh was it worth it!

There was an entertainer with a wonderful dog that added to the delight.

I cannot describe how I felt looking out on this.

Now, these others are ones I got off of Pinterest.

The first set is of Scotland.

This one is called The Faerie Pools

Looking down a village street.

This looks unreal almost,

but the concept of a castle high up

overlooking a valley and river 

way, way below

is unreal to me also . . 

and magical.

These next are of Wales.

I would love to tour a church like this one.

Just what I envision village shops to look like.

And this is breath-taking!

For more corner views,

please head on over to Francesca's.