OK, We Won't Be in For X-Mas

Well, it was a valiant effort but as it began to quickly eat up any available funds, we quickly realized that a X-mas in the stone house with actual gifts would be better than a X-mas at Fox Hollow with nothing.  Somehow, the gift of simply being at our Fox Hollow Home wouldn't cut it with the kiddies.  Having accepted that fate, I've begun focusing on bringing some warm winter holiday cheer to our stone cold home.  Today, the mad crafting and decorating and maybe even cookie baking begins!  Here's a few photos from some of our past stone home Christmases...is that a word?



Cleaning, Part ___? of Infinity of Course

So its been a month and we've been cleaning, dirtying and cleaning again....  It almost looks exactly the same but there are some significant accomplishments that are worth pointing out:

OK, so maybe it doesn't look cleaner, but all of the funky vinyl and 1x1 ceramic bathroom tile (?) fireplace hearth have been scraped off and since vacuumed.

But here's the big deal...a front door!  Why such a big deal? Because while we were patiently waiting to close on this property, someone took it upon themselves to forcibly and violently remove the existing door (and part of the wall, too) with a sawzall.... presumably to steal the piano from inside along with all of the house's plumbing.  Yeah, it really sucked.  It's been a gaping reminder of being violated by somebody that probably lives in our very same hollow.  But, now there's a door -- and of course a lock.

This is the blue bedroom -- the one that had the trailer-trash glue-down el cheapo blue carpet tiles.  They came up pretty easily, but left behind a black foamy stuck down mess.  We rented a big old floor sander polisher thing that Zenka wrastled with and ta-da...sanded plywood never looked so lovely!  I will post updated photos of the remarkable progress.  We will be moving in before X-mas.  We will. We will. We will.  When there's a will, there's a way!