Company and More

Two weekends ago we had our first visitors, Jane & Richard.  We really put them to work and accomplished a lot!  Matthew and Richard rented an auger to dig holes for our two sheds.  They dug 12 four feet deep holes for the posts as well as three more holes for some trees that we had to move.  Jane and I worked on flower beds and clearing branches for the horse pasture.  This past weekend we continued working hard and the house is finally starting to look like we imagined it would, at least on the outside!


New comforter, sheets, and pillowcases from our wedding (we can finally use them!)
















Digging holes for the rabbit shed.

















Removing the old mailbox.

















Our new mailbox, thanks Mom!


















Here is the pile of wood that someday will turn into two sheds.
















Matthew and I spent last weekend setting posts and pouring 1.5 tons of concrete into eight of the holes.  We were tired.

































I also finished edging the flower beds that Jane & I started and laid down some mulch.  Once the flowers perk up a bit, I think they will look wonderful.  Thanks for all of the flowers Jane!  We also had to redo all of the gutters so that the flowers did not get destroyed as Beryl dumped many inches of rain on us.

Cats!

Now that we have a barn and our house is not close to the road, we can let our cat, Zia, outside.  Last weekend I took her to get her shots and then we put in a cat door for her in the barn.  She has been living in the barn since we moved in but had to learn how to use the cat door.  It only took her about a day to get it all figured out.  Now she loves to be outside with us and chase lizards, bugs, dead leaves, etc.  I'm just hoping she doesn't find a snake!


















Zia has been very helpful around the house, she supervises all of our work.
















About a week and a half ago we got a call from a friend who knew of a mother cat and her two-week-old kitten that desperately needed a home.  Although we weren't quite ready, we had been thinking about getting two inside cats so we decided to take them in.  The vet thinks that the mom is less than a year old and that this was probably her first litter.  We named her Bagheera and she was very thin when we took her in.  The kitten, on the other hand, is extremely round and we named him Louie.  They are both friendly and sweet and the mom likes to follow you around for attention.

Bagheera the day we brought her home (she has a tail, she's just laying on it).

















Louie at approximately two weeks old.
















Mom & Baby exploring the new house.
















Louie at three weeks old.
















Louie was living in a box in the laundry room, but now Bagheera likes to bring him out and play with him.  Here he is nursing on the laundry room floor.

Almost There

Matthew and I have been working very hard for the past two weeks settling in to the new house.  The "to-do" list doesn't seem to be getting any shorter, but you can now easily walk through most of the rooms in the house.   We are also starting on some of the outside work including the horse & bunny sheds as well as a little clearing for horse pastures. We will have our first company this weekend (Jane & Richard) and we have been madly cleaning to make the place presentable.  Matthew took one last load from the old house last week and now that house is all set to rent.

The temporary rabbit housing situation:
















Zia loves being a barn cat and always wants to play with the string from the hay bales.  She will be getting her vaccinations this weekend and then we will start letting her outside.
















The second guest bedroom is serving as storage for the moment.






















While Matthew picked up the last load from the old house, I spent the day doing some clearing.  Here's one day's worth of branches:

















And the very small amount of woods that are now clear(er).

















We have a long way to go...

















The barn now looks almost like it did before we moved in, except it is not junk and is piled more neatly.  Space in the barn is running out quickly!

 

Moving Day

Here are a quick couple of photos from our moving day.  We do not have internet at our new house yet so posts will continue to be sparse until we sort that out.  Friends of ours brought a 25 foot or so enclosed trailer that we packed from floor to ceiling.  We also filled two flat bed trailers, my horse trailer, and two cars.  We started at 7:30 in the morning, took a pizza break, and finished by 3:30 in the afternoon.

Luckily we had plenty of help to move the pool table!  We actually ended up sending it home with the guy in the red shirt.  The new house doesn't have space for it at the moment and Matthew might end up playing it more if he has someone to go and play with.

The house is a huge wreck right now and we have not been able to unpack much.  Matthew and I have made two more trips to the house with the horse trailer (one Sunday, one Monday) and still have at least one more load to go.

The kitchen

The living room

The move ended up going so smoothly on Saturday that I was able to go and get my horses that night.  We sure were tired though!

House Work

I took the day off work yesterday in order to do some prep work before we move in to our new house.  I was able to paint the entire master bedroom (except the trim) and clean most of the house.  We also had some junk guys come to pick up all of the trash around the property and I had 100 bales of hay delivered in preparation for my horses' arrival.  Now we just have to move all of our stuff!

House Progress

During our first two visits to the new house, Matthew and I spent most of our time cleaning.  The previous owner left copious amounts of trash around the property (thankfully not much in the house!) and the wildlife had spread it around during the 2 months that the house was empty.  We also brought in about 25 pallets to stack hay for the horses on inside the barn and Matthew started mowing the lawn.

The barn before cleaning.

Some of the trash in the carport.

More trash in the yard, including an old trampoline.

The barn trash neatly piled and ready for the junk guys to come and pick it up.

My horse trailer full of pallets from Great Dane.

Matthew mowing the "horse pasture" so that there is not too much grass for the horses when I first bring them home.



Sidewalk Art Festival

Last weekend Matthew and I went to the SCAD sidewalk art festival.  Here are a few photos that I took at the event.  Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary (a GA sanctuary) gives out one of the awards so many of the pictures were marine related.

  

Our New House!

Only a little while later than we had expected (oh, 45 days later to be exact!) Matthew and I finally bought our new house!! It is about 30 miles from Savannah but has 6 wooded acres and is off a dirt road (perfect for riding!) Here are some photos from when we first went to look at the house. We are going to be very busy for the next couple of weeks moving and settling in but I will try to take some more photos as we do.

The "front" of the house. It could use a little sprucing up!

The back of the house showing the screen room and car port. The window is in the kitchen.

The fenced in yard. I will put my horses in here for now but we will be clearing land for pastures soon.

The very secluded driveway. I want to plant some fruit trees along it.

The 30' by 30' barn. I hope it is enough room for my tack room, hay storage, and Matthew's shop! We will be adding an overhang on the right for the bunnies and a shed on the left side for the horses.

Our wonderful large kitchen! The door on the right opens to the carport.

The other side of the kitchen, aka the dining room. That wallpaper has got to go!

The laundry room is off of the kitchen.

The guest bath has had most of the wallpaper removed but other than that is in great shape.

Very spacious!

One guest bedroom.

The other guest bedroom.

The living room has a cathedral ceiling and fireplace. The window and door look into the screen room. The door on the right opens into the kitchen.

The master bedroom. It has 2 windows and 2 closets.

The master bathroom. It has double vanities, a huge shower, a linen closet, and a toilet closet. This is the best part of the house!

The master shower.

This is an old photo I found of the front of the house. I hope to make the place look this nice again!