Northern California.......delightful

We had a great 4 days Northern CA. First San Francisco......then rented a mini and drove through Sonoma and Napa Valley and then " imageanchor="1" >khpBaNo/UX8M7zoZDBI/AAAAAAAABZo/mewqM-Nz1o8/s320/Dinner+Cruise+4.JPG" /> ....... Then drove down CA Highway 1 - along the beautiful Pacific Coast.

Our library area - thanks to Russ and Sara for the game table - an old family favorite!

Spring take 2 - (blog is what you get when it's free)

Spring rains bring full creeks and beautiful magnolias

Settling in....my office

Here are photos of my office. A sunny, warm room. We will eventually get a fold out couch in place of the arm chairs for guests.

Spring is sprunging.......

Wow this is a lot of yard.....but we will take it one project at a time. First we tackeled the woodland - see before and after photos below. One of my nurses's husbands, who is retired, does yards on the side as his 'hobby' job - great guy - he spent about 20 hours taking down dead trees, moving fallen tress, cleaning up a couple of years of undergrowth and dumped yard waste. Looks amazing - and we can either take the weed wacker through a couple of times a year or have Allan come and do it. zRCegatHIz4/UWnZLOl9TCI/AAAAAAAABWQ/7WY_ffh9_Lc/s1600/Woods+befor+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" > No comments:

New sliding door

We have been offically living in our new home for one week. Slowly getting settled - still boxes to unpack and things to be put away. We did get our new sliding door installed....looks great and the room is so much warmer now. We had a big fluffy snow fall this week - it was beautiful but melted quickly with the temps reaching into the 50s this weekend. The promise of spring!!

Inspire Awards Luncheon

Today I was honored to be a finalist at the Inspire Awards - The power of mentoring luncheon. Finalists were nominated for providing outstanding mentoring and leadership. There were 7 categories with 5 finalists per category - so 35 finalists in all. The luncheon was held at the Indiana Roof Ball Room with about 400 attending. Community had 3 tables as we had 4 finalists from Community Health Network
. I received two nominations from 2 of my current employees. I also nominated Linda Hajduk, who was also selected as a finalist. The winner was someone in California - nomination from IN.

Week 7....time to move in

We had our new Living Room Furniture Delivered this week. The Living room, with the painted fireplace and the new fireplace insert and the cleaned and oiled parquet floor looks fabulous. Add our new furniture pieces + some old favorites and we have a cozy TV/Fire area to relax. New red sectional and 2 chocolate arm chairs. We will eventually paint the paneling  Tabu - the same light green as the entry way and hall way.

We had our first fire and movie night at Fairwood last night - and came back to the Andersons to go to bed. Mattresses and big furniture coming this week - so by next weekend we should be sleeping at Fairwood.

Eating Chinese in our eat-in kitchen nook. First meal. First 'cooked meal' will be another milestone.

Week 6 of reno

Making great progress - the photos will show some of the furniture we have purchased - but much of the work in the last weeks has been Kevin painstakingly taking off every piece of wood trim, cleaning it, polishing it and replacing it - or buying new and replacing. Some pieces disintegrated upon removal. The following photos are the dining room - repainted, re-trimmed, re-windowed, re-floored, new window treatment, new rug (on order - the one in the photo too small - will go to my office) new sideboard , which is a feature - looks amazing- first thing you see walking in the front door.

We have a new kitchen table and chairs - just big enough for the 2 of us and Eli when he is over for dinner.

Much work has occurred this week in the Living Room. The fireplace has a new insert - still have not burnt a fire - but Living Room Furniture should be here later this week. New TV and blinds. Kevin painted the railings on the stairs - one more to go - and he also stripped all that nasty wallpaper and repainted and re-trimmed the stairwells. Eventually we will paint the paneling a light color - but not needed to move in. He also weant over every wooden tile and re-oiled the wood - looks brand new!

In a couple of weeks our 12' patio door will be replaced. Then we will probably hold tight for a while and let the funds replenish! We have started moving car loads of stuff from the Andersons and Kouts Sr garage. In the next 7-10 days we will move furniture in - can't wait to be there. It;s feeling like OUR home.