Gradually making it our home...

For all of you who worried about my right hand that you saw all bandaged in my last blog entry, I'm including here a photo of how it looked the day the cast came off after four weeks. You can perhaps see the two incisions in my forearm where the surgeon split the tendon from up near elbow on the inside of my arm, left one half of my tendon attached as per normal, then threaded the other long half down, through the wrist, up through the thumb and through a hole he drilled in the thumb, then made the remaining part of the tendon into a ball and plugged up the empty space at the base of my thumb where he'd removed the arthritic bone (you can see a long scar at the thumb base). A huge pin held the tendon transfer in place under my cast for four weeks. Although my wrist and thumb were totally stiff, immovable, I got to move them after two days of physiotherapy. And now it's almost back to normal, except for less strength and pinch, and the occasional twinge and pain, and the daily ongoing tenderness in my wrist/thumb base which will eventually lessen and disappear (I hope!). On October 13, I go to hospital for the same operation on my LEFT hand. Wish me luck!


Someone recommended us a gardener. He spent a couple of full days pruning and weeding, and then cleaning up. Here are the front steps to the house.


Here's the front path down to the road.


This is the backyard being powerwashed. Unfortunately I think the gardener overdid it with the water and chemicals, and caused some damage to several plants which have since gone brown on me.


Our Leyland cypresses just after trimming... now there's a very popular bird feeder in front of them, and we so enjoy watching the aerial acrobatics of the birds. The feeder's squirrel-proof, in that if a squirrel tries to land on the feeding bar, it drops down with the weight, and of course closes the feeding source! Too many birds on the bar can cause the same effect - so that too is a comical sight to watch!


Here's a peek through one of the panes of the sunroom door. I've planted some nice herbs - several different basil plants (I made a great pesto the other week from the basil, and just made some Thai stir-fry with the Thai basil I have outside too), mint, parsley, rosemary, etc. I decided to plant some colourful flowers amongst all the GREEN in our garden, but they soon dropped their flowers. Unfortunately I've discovered that there is no soil... just a little bit, and lots of stones and rocks below... still don't know how the trees hold up, and actually the tree at the very bottom of the yard will have to be chopped down: Dutch Elm disease, black spot and other problems. :o( We had a long consultation with a tree specialist this morning, September 30. There's quite a lot of work needed to be done with our trees.


After these photos were taken, the patio furniture was delivered. We're delighted with how it looks. Chairs are really comfortable! (The only item in the garden that still hasn't been photographed or used yet, is the gas grill for doing some serious barbecues. We hope to try it out before winter comes.)


Back inside, here are two views of the mirror I bought in an antique shop north of here. This was all that was missing from our 'powder room' on the ground floor. And it actually is not antique and was inexpensive, but really looks good there.




Finally, three views of our front porch by night. Walter bought a 'glider' - a kind of rocking seat - to sit outside. Walter also repainted the porch floor which was neglected and stained from use and work that was done on the ceiling of the porch. The last photo below shows the white boards of the ceiling and the brown trim, just finished recently by the building contractor, who also fixed our back gate, a couple of pillars holding up our garage, and who built a shed below our kitchen window to store our bikes, garden tools, etc.
It's gradually all coming together!






Next up: Shelves, cupboards and desk space in our dens. Our cabinet maker came today to take final measurements for the units in both of our studies. We hope to have them built in by mid-November. After that I want to get curtains for the lower half of many windows, and replace all the plain blinds, and even have some full curtains too. Paintings will be hung. THEN we can maybe relax for a few months!
That's it for now!



P.S. October 1, I completed the preparation of my Yellow collage, to follow my Red collage before the move. The yellow one has yet to be glued in place on the board, but here it is, with the red one as well. (Remember to double-click to see more detail...!)

The Move...

Even though we started packing four weeks before the date we were due to move out of our condo, what with our regular life, work, and a huge policy conference which took a week out of the four, we only just managed to get out in time. It was hard to pack my den, with all its bits and pieces, as the following photo will show...



About 200 boxes of different shapes and sizes were piled around our place. Each day less and less remained in our kitchen for us to eat from, or even to eat, as we packed crockery and finished all the food in the refrigerator and freezer.



















On the day of the move, all went well, except for one mishap: one of the four movers accidentally let slip his corner of the piano. I couldn't bear to look, as I heard the dull tinkle of a few notes inside the piano.

We left the buyers an exceptionally clean residence, cleaning it for two hours, with two women's help, after the movers took all our stuff away in 8 hours.










But there WAS a dent in the floorboard where the corner of the piano keyboard had hit the floor. I would have to wait until move-in day to take a look at the piano and see if there was any damage.

The next five days were spent still in our area of Crystal City, but at the local Hampton Inn. We managed to catch up on our sleep, rest up a bit from our physical exertion and stress.

All went well on the day of the move, with me directing the traffic through the back yard and into the house that way. Furniture and boxes had the number of the room they were meant to go into, and most things went upstairs and round corners quite well, so there weren't too many last minute decisions or disappointments!

Here's the view through our dining room to our glorious sun room.



One of our favourite places: our sunroom, where we can watch and hear the birds. No traffic noise, nor jets taking off. Tranquility!



The evening before the move Walter and I painted our respective dens. Just enough time to paint one coat... but that seems enough to cover the garish 'nursery' colours that had been there previously! My den, partly finished, below.



My den finished.



Walter in his den, from my 'studio'. Unfortunately there wasn't enough time to paint over the hideous mauve on my studio walls!



In the sitting room we have a REAL mantelpiece, with a WORKING fireplace!



View of piano in sitting room.



More views of sitting room and piano...





Unfortunately the left lower corner of the keyboard got damaged, the laquer was chipped, when I examined the piano. Probably not much we can do, but I'll be checking with the piano company.


Here's the attic (our master bedroom suite), before we moved our bed up there.



And here are two photos of our bedroom after the move in.... all we did was take off the 'sleigh' brass at the foot of the bed so that we could have the bed this way round, and thus manage to have our night tables (and bedside lights left by previous owner!)...





Now all I need to do is heal from my first of two hand surgeries to take out an arthritic bone and fill the space with tendon from my forearm!!! (Left hand in ?September?)





Thank goodness I managed to sort out kitchen contents, my den and my studio plus storing all extra glassware, setting up the linen closets, raked all the leaves in the garden to expose the soil, and a few other things before I had my surgery on June 23rd!!

Leaving our nest for a bigger one

Usually the older one gets, the smaller the accommodation becomes. But with us, it's the opposite!
Tired of condo life, where one pays a hefty fee each month and one can't do everything one wants to do when one wants to, whether it's putting washing out to dry on the balcony, having a garden, being able to step out to it at any hour, keeping an animal of any kind, etc.

For many evenings over the last two months I've come home and scoured the internet for properties that could suit both our pocket and our lifestyles (and different characters!). For six hours on Saturday two weeks ago, our agent and his brother drove us all around the 12 properties that seemed possible. Two we saw from the outside and rejected straight away. Another two we saw the ground floor and rejected. We were just on our way to number 10 on our list when we saw a house for sale on the main road just up from a delightful-but-not-for-us house, so we walked up and went in to their Open House. We thought at first that it was beyond our means, but we were actually looking at TWO semi-detached houses!.... We saw that the price was just at our limit, and we proceeded up and down the house. Whilst the 'sitting room' just inside the front door is nothing special (and I'm not sure how we're going to fit anything more than our piano and a sofa in there!), just about every other room is just fine for our needs. There are at least two guest bedrooms and two studies AND a small room for my 'art' studio with windows all around. The master bedroom and large bathroom and a walk-in closet at least the size of a large bathroom are just lovely and take up the top floor looking onto dogwood and other flowering trees around! The lower level (basement) is perfect for visitors, as it has a large living/sleeping area, its own shower and loo etc., and even a fridge and laundry room. I'd have to do a fast paint job on the rooms on the first floor that are yellow, mauve and light blue - these are the present children's rooms. But since I like painting walls, that'll be fun.
We received the final sale contract for our condo last week. The buyers are now bound by law to pay us our money on June 16. If all goes well with the last 'test' for this house we like (the mortgage bank has to do an appraisal to make sure the house isn't priced too high for the market value), then we would move in on June 16. We have a hotel room for the four nights between moves.

Here are the photos I took of the house, outside and inside (EXCEPT that I suddenly realize that I didn't take photos of the basement - a fully finished area that's 22 feet by 9 feet, plenty of room for the double sofa bed, a reading corner, an eating corner, plus its own very nice bathroom, and a laundry room!).

This one is of the WHOLE house... ours would be the right hand side: from the left side of the porch to the right side of house. (The grass belongs to the family on the left, who have enlarged their side of the building quite considerably.)


The next photos show the street entrance up to the front door... the azaleas belong to our garden (just not the grass)!




This photo gives a slightly better view of the house size, with the front garden and side...


View of our front garden and street...


Looking across some island of grass on the side street... our house is the part that sticks out with its porch, before the white house.


Side of house...


View of back part of house


View of the patio


Patio, garage for one car, parking for 2 cars outside the fence and 1 car outside the garage...


Peaceful patio!


View from the 'sun room':


View to the patio through dining room and sun room:


View from front hall through kitchen...


Home inspection: view at top of stairs to first floor rooms: 2 children's rooms on left, full bathroom straight ahead, "media room" to right, through which we go up more stairs to master bedroom on top floor.


In the next ones, please DO NOT JUDGE THE COLOURS!!! These are the little girls' bedrooms and playroom! First thing I do if we get the house and move in on June 16 is to paint all 3 rooms!!!

View into the children's rooms, left and right, which lead into playroom, which I'd like to be my art room!


Several pictures of both girls' rooms and into play room; also of playroom, all in sickly mauve! The girls' rooms will be our dens.










Cupboards in playroom...


Bathroom next to kids' rooms...


"Media room" - one end with shelving and entry up to the master bedroom


Opposite end of "media room"




Stairs up to master bedroom (fan on this ceiling... nice!). Actually there are fans in several rooms, as well as air conditioning which is coming through a hole or several holes in the ceilings in this house. Clever!


First view of master bedroom from stairs...


Entrance to bathroom from master bedroom - new, large shower, sink and toilet.


More pictures of bathroom:




Part of the enormous walk-in closet in master bedroom!


Fingers crossed please that all goes well, and that we manage to get our large furniture in to some rather smaller areas than we have now!