This is what our sunsets look like most evenings. There is some kind of phenomenon that makes the skies above the mountain glow pink.....my favorite color! It happens a few minutes after the sun has dipped below the horizon in the west....but the color always shows up toward the mountains in the east. I know our local TV weatherman has explained what causes the pink glow, but I only caught the tail end of his explanation, so, I'll have to do some research before I can divulge what really causes the lovely glow.
Meanwhile, I have the final reveal of the breezeway to show you today. Joel and I finished all the work 3 weeks ago. I know, I know, I should have shown you these pics then. Well, as soon as we finished all the work, I had 2 days of cleaning up the construction mess, and then 2 days of cleaning the rest of the house and grocery shopping to do before driving to Alabama to pick up my friend, Barb.
I was supposed to drive down there and stay overnight at her house, but Joel sprained his ankle the day after we finished the breezeway while putting away some tools. He had been on crutches for a couple of days and I didn't feel comfortable staying away overnight which would force him to take care of all the animals by himself.....all the while he was slightly incapacitated. So, I drove down and met Barb and Chuck at a small town just north of their house and Barb and I drove straight back to the farm.
It was the first time Barb has been here since the month before we moved to the farm. And it was the first time she got to see the farmhouse since we did all the remodeling work, including the new kitchen and bathrooms. Well, Barb was here just short of one week, and then I had daytime company several days after taking Barb back to Alabama. Whew!! So that was our last few weeks. Busy, busy. Now Joel and I have settled into a nice calm wintertime routine and are thoroughly enjoying all our remodeling efforts.
And speaking of remodeling. Today, it is exactly 2 years since we moved here from Florida. It's hard to believe how much has happened in such a short span of time. And we're still having fun....despite all the hard work taking care of animals and doing one project or another on the farm. We truly feel blessed to live the life we have here in Tennessee.
Now, on to the pics of the completed breezeway.
Here we were putting up trim work. The window and doorway on one side is done.
It was too cold to paint outside, so, I tarped the floor in my studio and used saw horses to paint the trim, trying to stay one step ahead of Joel's schedule for installing the trim.
Here is the closed in "chase" which hides the wires and pipes for the Mitsubishi unit on the wall in the next room. We're getting closer to done now!
And now you can see that we finished the flooring in the breezeway and closed the gap between the two different floors with a threshold. Works like a charm. And the trim is all done surrounding both doors. I even got the holes patched in the porch where Joel had to fish wires to complete the electrical.
I'm so glad Joel made the decision to put the window in the breezeway. It would have been like a cave in that small space without all the natural light that now floods the room.
AND, the armoire fits beautifully in this space now. It is packed full of all my scrapbook supplies....out of sight, thankfully. The picture on the wall is my dad's mom which was taken when she was 14 back in the early 1900's. I love that picture of her! I've begun collecting old plates to place on the wall surrounding her picture and will put those up eventually.
And now here is the view from my studio looking into the closed in porch. I can't believe how much function we have packed into such long narrow spaces. The porch has the mud room we built last year, the two freezers with our pork in it....and this.....
Our old cappuccino bar......it has been sitting around collecting dust while we finished up our project. Now it house a whole host of items inside and the top provides a space to decorate using some of our remaining items from the move.
There was even enough room to the left of the cappuccino bar to put a leftover round table. Hmmm, now what to put on it? I rummaged around my old linens and found this 1950's tablecloth in lime and brown....the same colors as the area rug on the porch.
I brought out my Victorian hot chocolate set that Joel bought for me one of my birthdays long ago. Now I get to enjoy seeing it every time I walk over to the studio.
See what I mean about the rug "working" well with the tablecloth in the previous picture? And, just what, you may ask, am I looking at here? Well, it's an antique record album cabinet. See all the slots for the albums to line up in? Now it is extra storage for odds and ends. On top of the cabinet on the right is our grain mill and the long object on the left is our black walnut cracker. I believe I'll start looking for a large piece of butcher block to lay over the entire piece, and then I can permanently attach both the grain mill and the nut cracker solidly to the block. Yup, I think that's what we'll do.
Well, that's the grand tour. It feels wonderful to have the breezeway completed. Not only does it allow me free access to my studio at any time, but now all the construction materials and tools are put away and the narrow 7-1/2' porch is as artfully staged with our furniture as is humanly possible. It has taken us 2 years to get to this point, but we're really pleased with how much function we have carved out of this long narrow porch specifically and the whole small farm house in general.
Now it's time for a long winter's rest,
Amen & Amen,
Debbie
