Weekend #1

Well, it's officially ours.  We have keys and everything!

There is no snow on the ground yet, so we were able to get a few things done around the outside as well as the inside.  We need to start taking pictures of the progress, but here are the things we did:

CLEANED.  I dusted, washed, and scrubbed anything I could get my hands on.  There were a few things left in the kitchen, so I washed all of those dishes.  Justin dug out a back staircase to the basement that was overgrown and trimmed back the bushes.  We dragged the branches down to the edge of the property!  So different from the city!

DE-CLUTTERED.  It was great that the previous owners left some basic furniture like a kitchen table, bed, and about 6 rocking chairs.  They also left lots of little knick knacks that I took off of the shelves.

EXPLORED.  We walked around in the barns and the house to try and figure out what, exactly, we had purchased!

WEATHERIZED.  We put insulation on all of the pipes so we don't have to worry about them freezing.  Justin patched some drafty holes in the roof around the chimney.  He also dug out a crawl space in the basement and re-insulated it and filled a large opening leading to the outside.  (Sounds simple, but was a lot of work!)

SECURED.  Justin installed new locks on everything.  Nice and secure!  We also put timers on the lights and put up some Christmas lights for that full-time lived-in look.

BOUGHT A WOOD STOVE.  We found a restored wood-burning parlor stove.  We are excited to get the chimney checked out and get it hooked up next time we go up.  The house is actually kept quite warm with the radiators, but the wood stove will be a great bonus.  The house has fireplaces, but they have been sealed up and have not been in use for quite a while--figuring out how to get them back in business will be a project for another winter.

ENJOYED THE KITCHEN! We ate breakfast, lunch and dinner in the great farm kitchen with the sun streaming in the window.  We dream of a day when that wall will be full of windows and the sun can come in even more!

TALKED.  On Sunday morning, Arthur and Sherry came by unannounced.  Once they were sitting at the table with a cup of coffee they talked to us for 45 minutes about Sherry being raised down the street, and spending time with her grandparents and uncle in our house!!  It was wild to sit at "our" table with people who had sat there many many many more times than we had!  Sherry's stories of walking the cows down the railroad tracks to the grazing fields, and Arthur falling out of the barn loft and breaking his arm were wonderful!  We'll have them over again soon.  They were really excited to finally see someone in the house after it had been empty for 4 years.

We met with someone who could plow our driveway...got that set up.

Talked for a while with the guy who sold us the stove.  That was fun too.

SHOPPED.  We now know where the closest Lowe's is.  I can drive there in my sleep now.  AND, it's in New Hampshire. No tax!  Woo hoo!

UNPACKED.  We brought up so much with us, and we left a lot of it there.  Hooray for more space in our apartment!

We're home in Seattle and Salt Lake for the holiday, so we'll be back in the house after the new year.  Thanks for reading my babble!