The Big Reveal

 So I told you when my house was done I'd show you the before and after photos. 

I still have things to do , making decisions on what I want to do with the trim, paint, or stain or leave it. I need to organize more once I get a feel for where I want stuff so I might just take the winter to decide all that.  This has been some journey and I admit cost a lot more than I was expecting but grateful that after selling our house in Eden I had the money left over to fund this endeavor.  Once again like last winter I'm looking forward to reading, watching movies , going to the gym and starting my business "Mrs Captains Place" back up again after the holidays. Oh and baking! I can't wait!

I'm going to post all the before photos and you will see why I never showed you any of them! Only a few people actually saw what it looked like when I moved in. The fellow who lived here never cleaned or evidently didn't know how to use a wood stove or build things.

This was the one part that was still garage and would become my bedroom

The chickens lived in here and you had to walk through here to get in the house and yes 

behind that window on the right was my bedroom and the window is now on the

chicken coop.

This door led to my living space

Looking back through the chicken space to the main door through the garage

This was my kitchen, luckily the fridge worked ( still had plastic on it ) the gas stove wasn't hitched up to anything , wood stove was actually set up on wood blocks....everthing was covered in black soot.

Looking back into the livingroom the door there leads to the sunroom 10' wide 

ha ha this was the bathroom with a shower/tub that I wouldn't even consider using, the propane heater didn't work either...

this is standing in my bedroom looking towards the kitchen.

My bedroom.

AND NOW!!!

sunroom- i'm going to insulate the floor this week.

standing in the doorway of my bedroom, looking into my great room.

inside my bedroom.

the other view of my bedroom/ office

My bathroom

my amazing shower

standing in the sunroom door into the great room.

same spot looking towards the kitchen

Kitchen sink area

plenty of space for all I need.

Just a few things left to do but I'm so very happy and I love it. :)

 

Wow a BIG step!

 Yesterday was a huge step in my progress here, so very emotional as well!  A friend offered to take my camper after I mentioned I just wanted to give it away. It had served its purpose and had enough things wrong with it that I didn't want to deal with the open market for it.  Yesterday reminded me of my journey , buying the property, buying the camper thinking I wouldn't want to live inside the "house" until it was renovated, selling my house in Eden, moving into the little house here realizing if I wanted running water I was going to need to keep the house warm so why heat the house and the camper? Left the camper at my daughters place for the winter and moved it up here in ...April ? I think  , moved in and my son in law and granddaughter came up to start ripping apart the inside of my future home. Its been a whirlwind ever since!  

    Yesterday brought some of the end of that journey closer,  When my friend came to take the camper I had already told him that the guy who moved it before had broken something that makes the camper elevate and he had just used a jack and blocks to raise and lower it. My friends hitch is much higher and in a higher truck so he wasn't sure that method was going to work....safely.  Course my stomach was in knots worrying that I would be stuck with a camper forever...but luckily my friend is a "plumber" so knows pipes really well and went to work fixing the broken piece and a couple hours later, I was filming it leaving.  Yep, I cried with relief!  I can finally see my little house !  

     The next couple of days the inside will be finished with the exception of a little more painting i'll need to do but soon I'll show you the before and afters....:) But here is the before and after of the OUTSIDE..:)

This is how she looked the first time I went to see it,  my property is .78 of an acre which is perfect and a mile from my daughter and her wonderful family which is perfect again, I love my neighbors they are all so very nice , 

This is the view I've been looking at since April , lots of people say they didn't even know there was a house there! 

I look forward to my future  here...

My contractor is going to take a couple dump runs for me when he finishes inside which will be in the next couple days.   I plan on a few elevated garden beds in my front yard for growing veggies and I'm going to move my firepit towards the middle of the yard so I can have my flower gardens on the bank where it is now.  Today I'm getting a couple cedar posts to finish the fence ..:) 

So close it hurts!

 

So the biggest thing that happened recently, I had to say goodbye to my big ole gentle giant Montgomery. He was 14 ( same as Whiskey) for a big dog thats a pretty long life and I'm so grateful that we got to enjoy him so long. He loved the kitties and ignored the chickens who I swear were close enough to jump on him a lot. Whiskey misses him as do I, so very many changes in our lives in the past year.

So a couple before and afters of the OUTSIDE only inside is so close but the trim isn't done yet so you'll have to wait til then..:) So this shows the big ole bolder that sat in front of the sunroom/greenhouse door, the single window is where my living area was, the garage door is where the chickens were all winter.....

And now, :) can't wait to say goodbye to that camper!

So this is how she looked when I first looked at it, three car converted garage.

Road side now, the paintings are inspired from one of my favorite tv series, Only Murders in the building, the silhouette is Anders...

So the outside is done well except for a couple pieces of trim and I still want to do some creative painting on the sunroom...:) 

Inside the walls are done, painted, bathroom fixtures all in, electrician will be back this week to connect all my outlets and light fixtures, soon after my friend will come in and connect the last of the plumbing ( kitchen sink and install a tap outside) 

floors almost done so I should be building my new bed before the weekend , my new couch is coming between the 23rd and 31st, 

the beadboard ceiling is up and he will be putting up my 1x4 trim on the ceiling and trimming the windows this week. I'm going to build a 16' shelf unit in my bedroom on the north wall, Oh and my woodstove is in , haven't fired it up yet though.

yeehaw! you get a small preview of my flooring and walls...:)

So I'm excited to be so close, so very close to being in the house, at a time I'm so close to one year from Anders passing I'm thinking of driving to Cowansville , Quebec to go to Tim Hortons that day we loved going there.

Hopefully in a couple weeks I'll show you the before and afters of the INSIDE! 

So very close

 

I'm soooo very close ! The outside is now done except for closing up the old door on the road side but that will be closed up next week. All the insulation is finished. Plumber comes to finish up tomorrow. Most of the wall board is up ! Next week I'll order my new furniture! Oh and start laying my new floor! Got my one cord of wood stacked and ready for a morning burn to sit and drink my coffee in front of my wood stove all cozy like...:) 

Meanwhile I've been having fun, still going to the gym 4 days a week and biking often, I rode 120 miles in September and over 400 miles since I got my new bike. This is me and my bestie Robin we went to a local Home Day fair , walked around, talked to lots of people it was a great day.

The dogs are really going to enjoy the deck once the camper is gone, the gutters are up now so I look forward to sitting here often as it gets so much sun !

I really love my yard, even though currently there is tons of traffic going. by since there is road construction almost everywhere, its kinda fun to watch the cars go by and lot of people walk here and bike and most all of them say Hello. 

I finally got ALL the brush cleared from the fenced in area in my yard. Its taken me all summer and I had a little help from Kyle and Isabel which was wonderful! 

This is the south side of my house and that mess of green is what was in the front yard!  I'll be working on some of this next summer.

Made myself a firepit out of the bricks that were in front of the house. I tried it out today, I think I'll use it a lot!

I'm still not going to show you the inside yet, even though its really coming together, I'm priming the wall boards right now and just finished putting up some ceramic tiles for behind my wood stove that is coming soon.  First order of flooring is coming Wednesday so that I can lay down enough for the woodstove pad to lay on top of. So far it seems like ever step needs another step first before you can do the first one. My heat pump will be running tomorrow though and I'm so pumped about that!  

Okay one inside photo, just to show you my amazing shower! This photo was taken from my kitchen as you can see there is NO wall there yet. LOL  The walls are just primed so need paint and trim , but the shower is amazing, has a radio ha ! 

So my ceilings will go up next week ....closer and closer!

Getting down to the finish line?

 Its been awhile since I've posted here! So much has been going on, one having my Son and his beautiful family here for a couple weeks was the BEST :) So much JOY and LOVE, I'm still relishing it.

The weather has been perfect here lately so I'm pushing to get stuff done outside before .....well you know what comes here towards the end of fall, honestly? I'm so looking forward to having a little fire in my wood stove on a chilly day and reading a book, there is a peaceful feeling to winter! 

I'm so happy that we have a wonderful blended family where my Ex Husband , his wife and I can enjoy our children and grandchildren together! 

We shopped in Stowe, Vermont 

We ate A LOT most meals prepared at Jonathans

We went to climb high and watched the kids ...climb HIGH!

Loved this! I look forward to bringing the girls here again someday.

We went to Ben and Jerrys 

To the Caladonia Fair

I hiked Laraway Mountain with them a mountain named after my ancestors!

After then went back home to Germany I got busy! 

I just love this so much! Eventually there will be grass! 

Got my firewood stacked and ready for winter.

South side I've got a chimney guy coming to put a new thimble in soon and I have painted the 

sunroom white now and if I have time before cold weather comes I have plans to paint "something" on it.

Roadside/North side my heatpump ready to get hitched up by the electrican, Contractor will close up the old doorway soon and then I have a mural planned for it. So the outside is pretty much done. I'll show you the inside in a few more weeks! Its coming along though! Three weeks I will be living inside one way or another!  I told the contractor I want to do the window trim and lay the floors, in fact next week I will go pick up tiles for the woodstove backer and entry way .  Looking forward to saying "MOVE THAT CAMPER" !