Our bungalow is rented!

The 1915 Craftsman bungalow, that I lived in for 5 years alone

and then almost 4 with Mike, is now rented.

We have one of Mike's partners

handle the renting for us for a commission.

It is now rented to a man with the fracking industry.

His wife and two little boys (ages 18 mos. and 5 yrs.)

are up here from Alabama for the summer.

We do have a basement and a screened-in back porch

for them to play in.

But the bedroom is tiny and it looks even tinier to me 

without all our 'stuff'. 

The walls are bare

except for two clocks and picture in the bathroom.

I've shown the house before,

but I wanted a record of it as it is now.

I do include pics that some of you have seen before

to contrast now with when we were living there.

It was a good home for us and me especially,

but I do not miss it in the slightest.

The kitchen.

Mike still has work to do on the woodwork and he plans to take down

that tile (it's the only section of it left).

We were going to paint the newer cabinets 

and sand and stain the in-set sections of the antique cabinets.

However, my heart never got into that,

so neither did Mike's.,

and now that it's a rental, we have two less renovations

to worry about with renters.

 The dining room.

 The living room with Mike's
loveseat and sofa bed couch
from  Cincinnati.

 

The one and only bedroom.

The chests belonged to my parents.

We are now using two family antiques at the farm house.

Mike refinished the doors when we first bought the house.

The bathroom.  We got a new shower curtain---actually it takes 3 to go around the claw-foot tub which is dated 1920.
Mike completely gutted this bathroom and updated it except for the tub.  I refused to part with it, so Mike took it out, sanded, repainted (it was burgundy and gold---ghastly) and
reinstalled it.

This corner was much cuter when we lived there,

but the cute stuff is at the farm house now.

  This shelf and hooks unit was in the farm house.  We didn't like or need it where it was.
We didn't want to leave the antique one at the bungalow and it is going in the upstairs bathroom
here at the farmhousewhere this one was.  The antique one only has 3 hooks which is plenty for us.

This picture belonged to my parents.

It is not a favorite of mine and hadn't hung in Dad's last two apartments.

But he kept it in his storage room and then we stored it.

Now it is useful once again.

We had a special picture in this spot and the hook was still there.

The hallway.

Notice the empty shelves.

Mike took off the doors and put them in storage.

The glass is original to the house and irreplaceable.

He will put the doors back on when we decide to sell it.

Here are glimpses of the bungalow when we lived there.

The first few are from Christmas 2012 and  then 2011.

In the first picture, the living room is especially crowded due to the tree

and extra seating.

We got 10 people around this table and a person could squeeze/walk around the table.

    My computer armoire where I did a lot of my school work is in the rear-left corner.  It is now
in a room that is just my office and studio.

This chest of drawers kept a lot of my school stuff.

This  was my "read, grade, and relax" (and sometimes sleep) corner.

As you can see here, 

the shelves were once full.

I also would hang my clothes on the hall closet door

every night

to be ready when I awakened the next morning.

I just wanted to record all this.

Hope this new week is wonderful for you

and full of healing for some folks specifically.

Out of School, Watching the Wildlife

This is my classroom before I cleaned it up and put/threw stuff away.

My last day was a week ago today on the 30th.

I went back in this past Monday to finish my room.

I am officially off school.

Woo hoo!

Two different wildlife sharing the corn.

I know I'm not supposed to  put corn out, 

but they leave the bird feeders alone during the day 

if I put corn out.

I take the bird feeders into the garage at night.

There is only this young deer and one raccoon

plus one squirrel.

We did have a chipmunk,

but I found him belly and face up,

 quite dead, on our back porch yesterday.

Apparently, Scruffy is a hunter.

She has also given us one mouse

and one mole.

We didn't let her outside at the other house,

but we do here.

With 8 acres and the fact that Scruffy and George have been indoor cats

for 10 years,

we are okay with them being out for a little bit at a time.

They don't venture far from the house,

and they are absolutely not allowed out from dusk on

due to coyotes.

Here are some close ups of the young deer.

And now . . .Mr. Raccoon.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Corner View: Collections

My mother didn't  have money to buy knick knacks.

She told me that when I asked her one time.

She said she would have liked to have had a collection of Hummels,

but they had gotten too expensive to even think about.

Add to this mix two grandchildren who wanted to pick out a gift

for their beloved Grandma Shirley

at every special occasion  . . .

and . . .

The Precious Moments Collection 

was created.

She finally got so many ( her sister bought her some too)

that she had to buy a special shelf for them.

I  even enrolled her in the Precious Moments' Club,

so every year she received a membership figurine.

She made it clear that I was to get the collection 

when she was gone and Dad no longer wanted or needed them.

He kept them through two moves, but gave them to me

when he was moving  to an assisted living room.

When Mother died, I had the kids each choose one figurine 

to take and keep.

I have considered giving them to my daughter,

but parting with my parents' special things

is something I'm not good at

(and I'm not sure I want to be). 

So it is understood

that Sara will receive the collection when I die. 

I can imagine her kids helping her carefully unpack

each one

and put it in a spot in the shelf unit

(that is now a part of the collection). 

 The soldier was a gift from Doug, I think.
The two boys were given at separate times and were either chosen by Doug or represented him (esp. the first one).

This one represents Sara.

She had a special bunny when she was little.

Mom finally made her copies from my pink-checked robe.

(We thought the original pink-checked bunny

reminded her of me in my robe which she saw me in often

as she was awake a lot at night.)

This was a present from Sara and her family

when I visited them in Texas two years ago.

The couple represents Papa Roy and Grandma Shirley.

For more views on collections,

hop on over to Francesca's.

Corner View: Pretty Eyesore

We own one acre beside my husband's family home.

His sister owns the acre the home is on and she lives there.

We own the two barns that belonged to his dad.

They are full of antique equipment,

 tools (antique, just old, and some just junk),

his dad's antique tractors

and Mike's present ones---

all kinds of stuff.

It's a snapshot of Appalachia,

which is the part of the United States

where we were born, grew up,

and still live. 

This shed used to shelter their horse

and then his niece's goats.

Now it houses 'stuff'.

The entrance-way between the two barns.

I like the old bricks and the rusted gray door surrounded by red steel

 in the big barn

and the weathered, peeling paint of the small shed.

I think it's a pretty eyesore---it all is.

However, if we had built our house here,

the prettiness would probably have vanished

and 'eyesore' remain.

See more at Francesca's

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Corner View: What Makes Me Happy

Puttering with plants

is one of the activities

that make me happy.

It relaxes me,

nurtures my artistic side,

and is the best exercise 

for the fibromyalgia

(at least for me).

Since this is our first spring in the farmhouse,

everything is new.

I'm mixing what they had

with new plants I've bought.

Back porch

A side yard

Front door area

Tomato plants

and more flowers

waiting to be planted

A fine example of some of the beauty the previous owner

left for me to enjoy.

And enjoy I do !

For more corner views,

head on over to Francesca's.

Corner View: Good Memories

 My mother made the red outfit for my daughter Sara.

I saved it and now her daughter Abigail can wear it.

Also an outfit of Sara's.

My mother sewed almost all my maternity clothes

and 

a lot of Sara's clothes.

I kept quite a few of them.

Good memories of my mother 

and the time, effort, and love 

she gave to me and mine.

For more views on good memories,

go on over to Fuoriborgo

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Corner View: Small Things

The gold finches were not eating from the finch feeder.

Mike had put it out with feed in it from Cincinnati days---very old.

He thought it would be okay.

Yet they didn't 'buy' it.

  He refilled it with fresh ,

but before I could wash it.

So two weekends ago, I dumped it

and gave it a thorough cleaning.

And. . . . . 

the gold finches are eating!

A small thing but it is important to me. 

For more views on small things,

head on over to Francesca's.

Hope by Emily

"Hope" is the thing with feathers---

That perches in the soul-----

And sings the tune without the words----

And never stops ----at all-----

And sweetest---in the Gale---is heard---

And sore must be the storm-----

That could abash the little Bird----

That kept so many warm----

I've heard it in the chillest land---

And on the strangest Sea----

Yet never, in Extremity,

It asked a crumb---of Me.

Emily Dickinson

My juniors are studying Emily.