Posted with my Christmas present...

Christmas was all about "new" this year. We celebrated in a new place, welcomed new people, and cooked in a new kitchen. We had decided not to do presents (just stockings for the boys). But there were a lot of gifts, just not many under the tree.

Brent and Jeremy cheated and gave me some unexpected presents: a kick spindle (for faster spinning) and a new LED flashlight. But, otherwise, we mostly had a ton of candy.

Our first Christmas being warmed with sunshine.

One big gift was the long awaited appearance of the sun. We learned that passive solar is amazingly effective and decided to regulate the temperature by opening windows. It was a windy 50 outdoors and a toasty 73 inside with some strategic open windows.

Family was our greatest gift by far. All our boys joined us Christmas morning. Then we hosted dinner for my family in the evening. My parents came bringing my aunt Evie and her husband Dick. I stood up with Evie in their wedding on the 20th. He was our "new" person. We were also very fortunate to have my brother and his family. In all, 15 people celebrated this first Christmas with us.

Me with the nieces and nephew.

All these loved ones helped us discover the gift of cozy spaces in our new home.

The boys testing out the family room.

We are definitely blessed to have all these gifts - not the least of which is the smart phone I'm using to write this post.

I sure hope I get better at typing on this tiny keyboard. This took forever!

Quick note...

We are in!

The Happy Apple's Farm mailbox

It is a continuing monumental effort to get the house finished to the point that the bank will be satisfied that it's done, but Brent, Jeremy, and I are living at the house. Doogle is now a farm dog (only he still spends most of his time sleeping on the couch).

We love being there everyday. And we love getting to know our new home.

Oh, I almost forgot. We have no internet. So the posts will be fewer and limited to the times when I run to the Shawnee house to pick things up.

I will keep updates coming.

Merry Christmas!

So, so close...

Well, the last two weekends have been like most - busy. Brent and I have worked hard to put everything in place to (drumroll, please) MOVE IN :-)

I am incredibly excited to spend the night at our new place - and actually sleep in a bed, not in a tent or on the floor in a sleeping bag. And being able to know that our little herd of alpacas had a good night because I am there with them will be a relief, too.

The two weekends after Thanksgiving were full of cleaning floors for me. The pictures would have been super boring, so I didn't take any. But it made a big difference in how livable the place feels. I even swept and vacuumed the garage. It was full of sawdust. That really reduced the footprints that we were leaving all over the new flooring. (I'm going to get really good at cleaning floors, I think.)

We also installed some mirrors in the bathrooms. Being a woman, that seemed to be a big deal for me. Although, the older I get the less I seem to want to look - or, maybe, the more shocked I am at what I see!

One really important job that Brent worked on during these last couple of weeks is the railings. We have a few spots in this house (the top of the stairwell near the entry and the top of the sun space) where stepping off would be a disaster.

Brent finishing the stair railing.

Brent has actually installed 4 sections of rails and that should be enough to satisfy finishing the house for the bank. The railing for the stairs was the toughest. These "ready made" railings are pretty difficult to put together and Brent added some extra reinforcement in the stairwell and at the top of the sun space to make them really sturdy. And now they are exactly that, sturdy and safe, and they look pretty, too.

We also purchased all of the door knobs. Those are really expensive when you are buying for a whole house! I've only got 8 more to install but I'm getting pretty good at it. The interior knobs only take about 10-15 minutes to finish now. I have several external doors with deadbolts left to do. I'm sure those will take me a little longer.

Pantry and coat closet with knobs - and another of the railing sections.

Probably the biggest thing that happened, though, is the carpet in the master bedroom. My step-dad, Pete Hoover, has been a carpet layer for about 50 years. So he was nice enough to spend his Saturday installing our carpet. He made it look easy, but we know that's only because he knows what he's doing. The carpet is super-comfortable and looks awesome. Thanks Pete!

Carpet and pad for our Master Bedroom.
This is a handy van to have (it also moved our alpacas).  Pete's a pretty awesome step-dad.

Pete (right) installing the tack strip. Brent measuring for the closet shelving.
This is the last view of paint and sheetrock mud-splattered construction mess.

Carpet installed!

We had to spend a little time walking around on this soft stuff as soon as it was vacuumed for the first time. I am so happy to have all the messy construction stuff covered up. It looks like a home now.

The only other finishing touches were the shades for the master and Jeremy's room and the shower curtain in the lower level bath. The shower curtain and bar were easy and I installed those yesterday. I found some shades on CraigsList that were the perfect size and installed them yesterday, too. Those were super inexpensive. Nice to have an easy job for once.

Master bedroom with shades installed.

Next step - move in!

(Okay, I know there's still a bunch to do - like shelving and bars in the closets - but we will be there!)

I'm calling U-Haul today :-)