The tour - when is a house a home?

Finally, it looks pretty good around here.  Still lots to do, and I am not even going to THINK about the lower level until next week.  It looked like a real home yesterday!  One of my granddaughters told me it definitely had the "Susie touch."  And everyone loved my kitchen.

The whole family was here except for my granddaughter-in-law Bethany who was in CA with her family, and Kate, my oldest granddaughter.  She sent me a bouquet (see it in middle of table, last two pics), and said it would remind us that she was with us in spirit.  And she was.  

So here is the tour.  My new home.  :)

My Grandma Wolff's music cabinet

Landing at top of stairs

Reading area in master bedroom

Mom's gateleg table - it seats 12, really!

China cabinet and buffets

Entrance

Living room, by sliding door to deck

Sound system - nothing hooked up yet through.

CD, and see that stack of vinyl?  Some real gems there.

1913 Behning, has moved with me 15 times!!

Living room

Living room, with view to deck and river

See, I told you!  Seats 12 easily.

Dinner is history, having coffee, tea and dessert

Sometimes you have to know when to stop.

I am pretty much exhausted.  This morning I got up and started moving things around, putting more stuff away, hauling things to the garage.  I'm moving slow and I ache from head to toe.

I've decided the basement will just simply be off limits.  I do not have the time or energy to deal with it.  I would rather not be numb with fatigue on Thanksgiving Day, and I've decided this moving thing just has to stop.  From here on, it is do what I have to do to get the dining room set up and the kitchen in good enough shape to make dinner.  Moving tasks can resume next week - or maybe I will spend the week reading and taking baths.  Sounds like a pretty good plan to me right now.

Enough.

That's it.

I quit.

Period.

Things are moving along nicely.

My objective is to have every box opened by the time I hit the bed Sunday night.  I just might make it!  And if I don't, some of the things will have to wait.

Today I attacked the living room.  I do believe it was the worst, dusty, full of boxes, all of my stereo equipment just sitting there, and some overflow of things I'm not sure what to do with at this point.

Yesterday I finally picked out my closet system.  I thought it was a little pricey, but my daughter says no, not for that kind of closet.  She thought it sounded very reasonable. So I have rods for dresses, double rods for blouses and skirts, shelves for sweaters and shoes.  The guys spent most of the day on it.  They were very proud of their handiwork, and they should be, as they came up with some great suggestions.  I was able to return one system, and Joe picked up some boards for top shelves - a good place for hats and scarves.  I also got two cubes - 3 x 3.  One is put together and fits perfectly under the closet window, will hold nine pairs of shoes or whatever.  The other will be put together tomorrow to go against a wall in the living room - perfect for CDs and movies.

Now to get some type of shelving for the stereo, receiver, turntable (yup, I still have a stash of 33's) and all of the other sound system components.  My son will be disappointed if it isn't accessible on Thanksgiving Day.  We always play Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians singing Christmas carols after we are done with dessert. 

A few days ago, I despaired of getting it all done, but today it's looking better.  Here are some pics.  Still good, bad and ugly, but even the ugly bits aren't as ugly as they were a few days ago.

Boxes and papers awaiting pickup from the packing company

Cabinet installed on wall above the throne

Tomorrow morning I will start unpacking the wardrobe boxes - ALL FIVE OF THEM!

New closet installation - still empty but not for long.

All this room!  I love it!!!

I call this my Island of Peace - everything in order.  :)

This was solid boxes this morning.  Only two left to unpack.

China cabinet is full.  That is my great grandmother's Limoges china on the second shelf.

Pictures displayed on top of piano.  So nice to see them again!

The good, the bad and the ugly . . .

I'm having trouble dealing with trying to work in the mess.  Still a lot of boxes to unpack and it is stuff that I really don't have a home for.  I am going to have to make a few more trips to Goodwill, and our church bazaar said they will welcome some of it - but not that damned TV!!  I am almost happy when I find something broken, because throwing it in the trash is easier than finding a place to put it.  I definitely downsized!

I have tried to make room for my soap operation, finally found a place last night to lay out my molds - it will work really well - then got together all of the equipment and supplies needed.  Lye has gone missing, but I have enough lye to make three quarters of a batch of soap, so that will be it. More lye ordered, might be here by Friday.

Soap molds ready to fill - GOOD, very good indeed!

 I spent a good bit of time cleaning and clearing.  It helps to have some organization here and there, even if it means carrying stuff to another place where I will have to deal with it later.  I don't have time to put everything in its final home.  Later.

Here are some pictures of the chaos I am living in, as well as some showing the progress I've been making.  My mood is surprisingly good.  My mantra now is, "This too shall pass."

A few weeks ago - fall colors, view of mansion across river - GOOD

My first selfie with big camera - organizing list for Purple Porch baking - GOOD

Can it be?  A clean counter, sparkling canisters - GOOD

This morning's snow - GOOD (and beautiful)

Bread dough ready to be cut and formed into six baguettes - GOOD

Grain mill ready to grind grain for whole wheat bread - GOOD

Soap room counter - at least it's visible, let's call this GOOD

What a mess - BAD, except for my little Ayn Chee

Soap room, still a long way to go - UGLY

One little island of sanity among boxes, tolerable but BAD

Living room, which I am tacking tonight.  UGLY, except for my precious Natasha Marie.

Only a crazy cook would do this!

I have not been at Purple Porch for three weeks now.  I thought surely I would only miss one week, maybe two at the most.  I didn't count on a contractor who just simply couldn't meet a deadline.  We had a talk and ended it with "I quit / you're fired" pretty much spoken simultaneously.

I will not go into the details.  Suffice it to say that because I was living there (in the midst of the unfinished mess), I was able to observe the lack of responsiveness and poor quality work.  He did okay until it came to finishing - then not so good!

So I am living in a mess.  I can deal with it, but I couldn't find things, so there was no way I could bake for Purple Porch.  I decided to list products for tonight's delivery to force myself to dig through boxes in spite of the mess.  Yup, I found everything, although I had to use organic demerara sugar in my brownies instead of granulated.  Actually, they turned out pretty well!  Now the timer is nagging at me to get back to my whole wheat bread.  Found everything but the wheat berries - then suddenly remembered that I threw them in the freezer for lack of a better place for them as we were heading out the door.

Only a crazy person would make bread in this mess.  Here are two pictures - I was unloading boxes and given time constraints didn't have time to find a home for everything.  But I am making it work!  I hope my customers enjoy the bread!!