The New View

At my Whitmore Lake house, as much as I loved having access to the lake and being able to glimpse a small view of it, we were on fairly flat ground surrounded by huge, mature trees.  I loved those trees and the shade they provided but it meant that I really couldn't see much of the sunrise or sunset.  Most days, I'm out of the house and on the way to work before the sun rises so that doesn't matter so much I guess.

My new house faces north but the two bedrooms are on the west end of the house with this beautiful view of the sunset.

I still don't have much of an eastern view.  This is from my front porch.  I'm just slightly downhill from the high point of the neighborhood and the hill drops down behind my house to the south and also to the west.  To the south, way in the distance, I can see the GM Proving Grounds.  Milford has some really nice rolling hills!

Side Trip on Moving Day

Since we had used the horse trailer to move and I really didn't have anywhere to park it (my driveway is only one car deep but 3 cars wide), Austin and I decided to run it back over to the barn where it's usually kept.  Since we were there, we had to visit our ponies!

Mata Hari had been busy snoozing in front of her fan, covered in hay!

Chancellor was outside in his evening pasture but came to see us as soon as we walked through the gate.  

Austin is allergic to horses/hay but he does love our girl.

Moving Day

I've only moved a couple of times (as in a full house move) and each time I swore I'd hire professional movers the next time.  So of course this time I hired Austin and his friend Jim.  I really didn't think I had all that much.  I was wrong.

The two biggest and bulkiest things to move were the washer and dryer.  They managed to get them unhooked after we made a huge mess because we didn't turn off the water first!  LOL!

We had borrowed neighbor Jeff's appliance dolly which was a huge life saver. Even if we had it hooked up all wrong.  He came over and set us straight.

We were using the horse trailer to move most of the stuff so while the boys loaded the back end with the big stuff, I took advantage of the hooks in the front to hang clothes.  By the time we were loaded up, both front and back were stacked nearly to the ceiling!

It took a long time to load but unloading went pretty quick.  Getting a bed set up so I had a place to sleep that night was high on my priority list.  Austin and Jim went to work and had it back together in no time.  This is actually Austin's futon and will move to his room as the floor gets done.

As the piles of stuff started to fill up the living room, it got a little overwhelming.

Dining room was getting crowded and I hadn't even brought over my table yet!

While I stood turning in circles trying to figure out where to even start, the boys took time out to set up the TV.  You can see them on the far right side of this picture.

And it works!  No cable for me.  I have Netflix and Amazon Prime which should be plenty since I really don't watch all that much TV anyway.  This nice SMART TV does it all I guess.  That gorgeous (ICK!) coffee table got left behind by the previous owners so it's stepping in to do duty as a TV stand until I get one.

Master bathroom

It's not actually done yet but I have a good start.  The master bathroom was mostly "white" walls with this one hideous brown wall.  I'm loving this Behr Marquee paint - it really does cover in one coat - even another color this dark.

Austin was over to help me take down this mirror so I could paint behind it.  Surprise. It was GLUED to the wall!  We were being so careful trying to hold it after we had unscrewed the little clips that we thought were holding it and then had to pry the damn thing off which of course cracked it.  Now I think I understand why the other bathroom mirror is cracked - they probably tried to take it down when they painted that bathroom and failed.  New mirror is now in the budget.

With the two glass block windows this room is never dark.  Even at night.  There's a street light in front of my house so I'll never need a night light in the bathroom!  Those window did require some serious caulking though.  I still haven't figured out what to do with the window sills. They are some sort of plastic composite and are in rough shape.  Some sort of paint I suppose unless I can use contact paper cut REALLY carefully maybe?

Looking better painted.  Light bulbs are on the list...

Three weeks until the flooring goes in...the rug just doesn't do much to hide the particle board floor, does it?

Making it mine...

Moving is never easy and it's especially hard after being in the same house for over 20 years.  It hasn't made it any easier doing it in little bits and spurts while I remodel the place.  But slowly, I've been bringing in MY stuff and making it mine.

Not sure why I felt so compelled to install my box wine in the fridge when I'm not sleeping there yet and I won't drink and drive but...there it is, in the place of honor on the top shelf!

I'm not even sure I remember the story correctly about these little ceramic dutch shoes...we either got them on a trip to Holland MI as kids and were my mom's or maybe my grandparents brought them back from Holland?  Either way, they've been fixtures in my life for a long time.

Nothing special about these canisters.  They were in the cottage when we bought it and I like the colors.  

This counter is holding the three staples required by any woman doing a remodeling project.  Her screw gun, caulk gun and coffee pot!  

I'm dying to paint that green wall in the kitchen but priorities necessitate the order.  All the closets needed to get done first so I have places to actually PUT stuff that is up off the floor since that is getting done last. That includes painting the laundry room since that room will also be a big closet temporarily. Unfortunately, the floors will be put in about 2 weeks later than I had hoped messing up my schedule somewhat but so goes the best laid plans.

Master bedroom and bathroom came next and are done since I'll be "living" in those rooms for a couple of weeks.  Austin painted his room but I still need to go back and do the trim.  Madison's room will be after that is done unless she does it herself.  From there it's on to the living/dining room.  Those rooms will go relatively fast and I should have them done before the floors are put in - especially if I'm living there and can work at night.  LAST is the kitchen since there's very little that needs to be moved but it's all smaller spaces and can be done in sections without much worry of keeping a wet edge.  So for a while, the green and red kitchen will stay...

Paint

After painting SIX closets which also meant removing all the shelving and then reinstalling it all, I moved on to painting walls.

Master bedroom closet.

Linen closet

I started with the master bedroom.  One wall was chocolate brown.

The other 3 walls were "white" but the people were smokers.  You can sort of see how the top half of the walls were much more yellow than lower down.  The white blob is where I started painting.

I think I have a problem.  Getting this room painted all white made me so freakin' happy!  I mean, like seriously deliriously happy.

Putting the kids to work

The kids have been showing up to help with the new place now and then.  Austin came to install a new door knob/lock.  Total fail.

He did a little better taking down curtain rods.

Madison and Mitchell took down a light fixture to install a ceiling fan.

But apparently we didn't have screws and washers so it's still on the floor.