Life Inside A Whirlwind

Hello dear friends,
So much has been going on that its hard to know where to start.  I was sitting at the dining table with my mom pricing items for the booth when the phone rang.  It was a longtime friend, who happens to be a realtor, calling.  "Hi, how ya doin'...blah, blah, blah...would you consider selling your house?  I have someone who is interested in it," he said.  "What!" I said then took a deep breath.

To make a long story short. My husband and talked it over and decided that if we sold, we could downsize (we have 80 acres) and live mortgage free.  So yes, we would consider selling.  And the whirlwind began.

We had just emptied a large storage room in order to build some new shelving -- boxes were everywhere; antique frames, lamps and furniture scattered about; lumber was stacked in the hallway of our lower level (i.e. walkout basement that serves as our family room/office.)  I'm sure you get the picture, and its not pretty!

In addition to the mess downstairs, the rest of the house had been kind of ignored since the holidays and definitely needed some major sprucing up.  So the past several days have been spent cleaning, sorting and organizing, the shelves were built and everything loaded back into the store room.  Exhausting work when done at a madcap pace.

Now everything is ready and we are just waiting to hear back from the friend/realtor.  Hopefully, the "interested party" will come to look at the house soon.  I've been an emotional wreck ever since this thing started.  I understand the benefits of selling, but I really LOVE my house.  Here are some pictures of the exterior and property.  I'm still working on organizing my studio and so I'll post some pics of the interior when I'm done.

The front of our house. My studio is in the converted garage, you enter through the french doors

on the right--the cars haven't been parked inside for a couple years now. 

 

Not much showing in the perennial bed yet.

Here are a couple views of the wildlife pond from the back deck.  Our house sits on high ground and slopes down to the pond.  We have 80 acres total, approx. 50 acres are enrolled in a federal conservation Wetland Reserve Program, which means they can't be developed.  I love this pond!  It is home, or at least a migratory stop over, to Great Blue Herons, Little Green Herons, White Egrets, King Fishers, Hooded Mergansers, a wide range of ducks & geese, rare and not so rare turtles, and a loud chorus of frogs and toads.  Not to mention the deer, raccoons, mink & muskrat, fox, coyotes and other woodland creatures.

 

Beyond the pond is a large upland meadow.  Here is one of our dogs, "Boy-Dog" checking for wild turkey.

And, last but not least, some scenes from the woods.

Well, there you have it.  I hope you enjoyed my little tour of the place I love.