Preliminary Grand Tour

We still have a couple of projects left before we have Heather come and do the final staging to put the house on the market. But for the curious, here is a preliminary look at the house after downsizing everything and redoing the rooms.
Let's start with the living room. Do you feel like you are being invited to a great horseback adventure on the other side of the rope bridge?

This is the bird corner with our family motto--bloom where you are planted.

Can you see our new watch dog hiding under the poinsettias guarding the entryway?

As you pass into the kitchen, the Florida room invites you to exercise a bit, swim some laps, cook some BBQ, or just relax and enjoy life in Florida.

When you go back into the kitchen...

and stand by the new oven and microwave shelf...

you can see the wise Thompson owls inviting you into the new mudroom...

where you can take off your shoes, put on your swimming suit, grab a towel and jump in the pool. Or if you've been working in the garden, can take off your muddy things and throw them in the wash.

Next to the mudroom is the multipurpose den where you can work on the computer or do some sewing or art projects or read a book while picking up a game of chess with whoever else is in the room. Can you see how big the walk in storage closet is?

At the other end of the house we have the Flamingo Room...

and the Sunshine Room.

The "girls" bathroom has been redone in taupe, at Heather's suggestion. Note the new shower nozzle, medicine cabinet, and mirrors.

Here's our bedroom ...

with a new IKEA light and a picture painted by my grandmother Lallatin when she was a teenager.

Finally, here is the "boys" bathroom.

Do you think it will sell quickly and at a good price? I'll post again after Heather has added her special staging.

Fix up time

Some of you wonder why it has been so long since our last posting. We're fixing up the house so we can get a good price when we sell it for our new log cabin. Here are some action shots. Me tiling the laundry room...

and creating a new BBQ area for outdoor grilling...

and mom planting flowers ...

and enjoying our new baking center. Don't you love her fuzzy gorilla slippers?

Happy 27th

This month our pool is 27 years old. You might remember that at Christmas time in 1985, our family of 8 kids at the time voted that rather than get a car for Dad to drive to work, we would get a pool for the same cost and Dad could continue to ride his bike to the university. I didn't mind being out voted. To refresh your memories, here is what the pool looked like a year later...

after we added the "Florida Room."

Pools age faster than people so it was time for some refurbishing so we can sell the house. First we drained the pool...

removed the tile and the plaster...

then added new coatings and tile.

Here's the rejuvenated pool before and after filling.

We had a warm spell and the water got up to 68º, just warm enough for a very quick dip. Regrettably, when we updated, we had to take out the diving board and the slide to meet new insurance rules.

Christmas roses

The roses in our garden bloomed just in time for Christmas...

joining the poinsettias that our "dog" is carrying around.

They inspired me to buy a dozen roses to celebrate Caroly's 70th birthday.

Christmas at Joe's

We spent Christmas at Joe's since everyone else from Florida and their families were visiting siblings up north and out west to have "snow" experiences. Do the boys look happy in their Christmas Eve pj's?

How about grandma and baby Tatum?

After everyone went to bed, Santa came down the chimney and filled the room with presents.

Each of the children put out a shoe to see if Santa knew the Hungarian custom of filling the shoes of good boys and girls. It looks like he did!

Santa couldn't find grandma's shoes to fill so she got a new pair of "I love ponies" slippers made by Heather.

Grandma was excited that Tatum got her first Christmas doll.

Kim got our name for Christmas. She gave grandpa tools and a tool belt to encourage him to get busy building the new log cabin. Grandma got gardening tools to landscape the new place and plant our new organic garden.

The Wilcox kids gave us mugs for drinking hot cocoa on the porch of our new place on cool winter mornings.

Of course, we all enjoyed running around in our new pjs all day on Christmas.

Joseph and I even had time for a quick game of chess while eating pumpkin ice cream!