One room with a view

Peter lived in his place for 2 years before Bunbury, Jim has not moved for the past 8 years. When you add to the mix that both the guys like to accumulate stuff, you have a taxing month of moving and two exhausted, and sometime cranky, homeowners.

We made a decision Thursday night that there had to be one place in the house to relax and put full effort into settling the sunroom. Apologies for the quality of the picture, there is only so much a blackberry can do and there was no way I was going to dig through all the boxes looking for the camera.



And we have a little corner of calm. The Room & Board sofa (a craiglist find from 4 years ago with a slipcover from the outlet) fit perfectly in the sunroom. This was a good thing, because the sofa, which does not have removeable legs, would not make it into the living room. A painted bench found at a garage sale provides the perfect place to put our feet up for a few minutes before tackling another box.

From the sofa we have a great view out the front of the house to our new hosta garden. Thanks to friend Joe, and his wonderful mother, we have a hosta garden that looks good today and will be amazing in a couple years.

There were a couple milestones this weekend. A wheelbarrow was purchased (craigslist again), tools from a bunch of garage sales, the chicken coop is being prepped, a Bald eagle was spooted feeding on the side of the road, a croquet set and volleyball showed up in our new stocked outdoor game cabin and most importantly, our marriage license arrived from New Hampshire.

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Dinner at the Farm

We held a dinner party this past weekend at Bunbury, just a few friends who came up to check out the place before too much work was done. Because everything is in boxes, and there is no dining room intact (and since the weather was so wonderful), we set up an impromptu dining room in the stable.




Dinner was nice and light, and the fact that we got to take a break from painting made it even nicer. Jackie brought a delicious summer salad with a secret recipe mint dressing and Jim put together a smoked salmon salad, both were wonderful on a warm spring night.





It was a fantastic night, wandering the fields and woods with friends and dogs. Thanks to Andrew, Jackie and Joe for coming up.

Which came first? The chicken or the coop?

What a weekend! Gardening and painting, with a dinner party hosted in the stable on Saturday night (pictures to come).

The most exciting news though is the expectations of the arrival of our newest family members. On Tuesday, we are expecting 10 chickens! Currently there is very little knowledge of dealing with chickens, but we are about to learn. The chicken coop is being cleaned and the little fenced in yard has been cleared and Peter is buying chicken feed, the chickens are Peter's project so he is busy researching seed and techniques.

Hopefully no chickens will be harmed in the creation of this Farm.

If I had a hammer..

These nails were used to support a plant holder in the living room! It must have been a very large plant to need this kind of grounding. We are discovering lots of interesting and exciting projects that need to be done.

So, last week after closing on Bunbury, we headed off to get married in New Hampshire. We said our "I do's" at the beautiful Elephant Rock Farm in Fitzwilliam. We could not have asked for a more beautiful day.

Coming back home on Sunday we brought all the cats together to meet for the first time, I am sure it will get better with time.

The work on the house now begins in earnest, weeding, painting, tearing up of awful carpets. We have a lot ahead of us.

From the rear

peter took some pictures from the backside of the property this morning while on a walk with Butters, so we are sharing.

that is a little grove of birch tress in the middle of the old pasture, you can see the stable and the barn in the distance.

And we buy the farm...

We closed on the farm yesterday at 1 pm! Packing the Explorer and Escape (we are a Ford family) with cleaning supplies, mattress and bedding and hopefully enough provisions to last the night, with Butters the dog included, we headed to Bunbury for our first night.

We did not have much chance to wander the property, it is cold and rainy in Minnesota right now, we spent most of the time indoors, looking around at the enormity of the project we have ahead of us. Thankfully we have until at least April 2040 to get it done, according to the mortgage.

So, we begin the process of moving, renovating and packing. We will take a bunch of "before" pictures and get them posted so we can keep you updated.

hurry up and wait

Well, we have a scheduled closing and it is coming up fast. Being first time homebuyers the whole process can be a little overwhelming. Both Peter and Jim have found their "favorites" filling up with design, seed and renovations sites in anticipation of the huge project ahead. It has become obvious that we have been surrounded by experts on hobby farming and country living for years, as every family member and friend have strong opinions on every decision.

So, we wait until closing, trying to not fall further in love wth the farm until we have the keys in hand.