Living in Maine

We met the neighbors recently.

Seriously, they live across the street.  They usually wander over to the road once a week or so.  And their boyfriends live up the road a bit.

Isn't this such a gorgeous view?

If anyone comes to visit, we'll take you for a walk.  There's a 4 mile loop that's mostly road but partially trail through the woods.  We have a few of those - trails in the woods for ATVs that show up as "roads" on Google Maps.  Don't try to take a car on them, though.

One of the things I think is just so cool about living in farm country is all the locally-produced stuff you ca buy.  There's a natural food store a few miles away (the yoga studio I go to is attached to it) and they sell milk in glass bottles from a dairy a few towns over.  I've started buying it - because it takes less time to bring it over from the farm to the store, it lasts WAY longer in my fridge.

And I tried buying eggs from the guy up the road from me, but he wasn't home.  I supported him anyway and bought eggs from his farm at the natural food store (they list the farm the eggs came from on the carton, so you can decide which farmer you want to support).  There's a farmstand on the way into town that sells their own local honey, and they just opened for the season.  I'll be trying that soon, too.

Since we're in a rural area, we don't have trash pickup, so we have to bring our trash and recycling to the "transfer station", which a fancypants word for the town dump.

I don't mind doing that, but I definitely love having recycling available.  Living in the apartment complex, we weren't able to participate in the town recycling program.  We use about half the trash bags as we used to when we separate out the cardboard, paper, and recyclables.

Oh, and the cardboard and paper goes here:

Yeah, we're kind of pyros.  But don't tell the local fire chief.   We just save up all the cereal boxes etc and burn them with the branches we collect from the yard and all the dead trees Matt has been cutting up.

People have been asking how I like working remotely.  It's definitely different.  I do miss having everyone in the office to talk to, and it gets lonely sometimes.  But I'm always able to call, IM, or email people to say hi.  My department has a team meeting once a week, and since my boss and I both have iPhones, we've started to do the meetings over FaceTime so I get to see everyone weekly.

My furry coworker has started to hang out for about 10 minutes in the mornings.

Then the printer will scare him away and he'll start his daily 8-hour nap under the skylight in the loft.

Have a great day!
xo

Happy Spring!

So it's been a couple of weeks, but I really didn't feel like I had enough stuff to share - it's really been little things going on around here.

Our kitchen is 99% done - all the electrical is working now...

...and we got all the outlet covers on...

...so the only things left are getting the appliance garage put in the corner, and a little piece of trim above the fridge.

I finally unpacked the box of picture frames and got some decorations up on the wall!

a Venn diagram that I bought Matt for Christmas,  a stitched note I made him for Valentine's Day last year, and a carving we bought in St. Lucia on our honeymoon

a napkin from our wedding

When my dad and stepmom came up, the guest bathroom looked like this, with the mirror sitting right on the vanity top:

The electrician came by last week to move the light box closer to the ceiling, and center it over the new vanity, and last night we finally got around to putting the mirror on the wall, sitting on the chair rail.

We didn't hear it crash down in the middle of the night, so I guess that's a good thing.  Matt is still a little nervous that the top corners aren't 100% tight to the wall, but I think it's because the wall isn't 100% straight.  As long as it doesn't fall down, I'm ok with it!

Planted and grouted

This weekend was so beautiful outside, so we decided to start our vegetable garden and landscaping.  We didn't want to do too much this year, since we want to see what will grow on its own, so Matt raked out a bunch of the beds in the front of the house and sprinkled wildflower seeds around.  He had found a little planter that is supposed to be for city-dwellers with little decks, but we're using it to start seedlings and then we'll move them to the bigger above-ground planting beds that we're planning on building.

We're planning on cucumbers (mmmm.... homemade pickles...), zucchini (I have the best zucchini bread recipe ever), carrots, green beans, basil, oregano, and two kinds of tomatoes - roma and slicing - that are out in the middle of the yard in Home Depot buckets.

classy

And we have a kitchen backsplash!  This is the before...

...and during...

...and, just this morning, all grouted and pretty!

We're so happy we went with the herringbone pattern above the stove.  It's just a little different to make it a little bit of a focal point.

Matt also has a closet now, so I was able to kick his stuff out of mine.  Again, WAY before:

and now:

Eventually we'll get doors on those, but even now it's so much better than having trash bags and boxes all over the floor.

Things are getting unpacked and slowly finding places.  Here is the little "library" area we're setting up in the loft.

Last night we went for a walk down a road/trail by our house that is popular with four-wheelers and mountain bikers.  We walked for about an hour and a half (45 min in and 45 min out) and we hadn't even gotten to the end of the road/trail.

Here is where our property line ends at the little stream (taken from the road):

Matt is desperate to try fishing in there - he's heard from a few people that there's good fish.

We also came across the place bad husbands are sent:

Actually, town pounds are fairly common up here in older farming communities.  If you came across some cattle or a horse that wasn't yours, you brought it to the town pound; and if you discovered you were missing livestock, you would go over to the pound and check to see if your cow was waiting.

Our first guests!

First, this is what I wake up to most mornings above my bed:

Sorry mom... is it creepy that I watch you sleep?

We had a really nice time with my dad and stepmom last weekend.  I got my dad off the couch and made him install a curtain rod - he broke a screw in the wall, so I won't be having him do anything else at my house.  Maybe that was his plan all along?

Sorry, neighbors.  No more free shows.

The night before they got in we cleaned up and put together the guest room.  We built that bed about two years ago, from free plans on ana-white.com.

It's still a little empty, but we'll fill it in.  The hall bathroom is starting to shape up as well.

I'm so in love with that vanity.  Eventually, the mirror will sit on top of the chair rail, but we have to move the wires for the lights first.  And that floor?  It's not wood - it's ceramic tile that looks like wood.

While we were out running errands, our amazing carpenter was super productive.

Remember when the closets in our bedroom looked like this because the former occupants tore out the shelving system?

Well, now my closet looks like this!

Jason is AH.  MAZE.  ING.  I drew him a picture of what I wanted, and he made it happen.  I painted all the boards for him, and he cut them out and put everything together.  Actually, he made it even better - he said "Your bottom shelf was only 14" from the floor, and I figured you might have tall boots, so I hope you don't mind I made the bottom shelf 16" instead."  How thoughtful is that?!  Sorry girls, he's engaged.  

The boards for Matt's closet need one more coat of paint, and then he'll get a closet this weekend.

We also have real stairs instead of plywood!

Yeah, the cat is a creeper.

Matt did such a good job staining them, they match the floors exactly.

Lets see, what else?  Oh, the rug I ordered for the living room came in, and brings some much-needed color.

And finally, the pot filler faucet above the stove is hooked up and working wonderfully.

Hopefully we'll have a backsplash soon!

Settling in

A couple of big changes, and a couple of smaller changes.  First, our countertops were installed and our new living room furniture was delivered, all on Thursday, which made it a little hectic.

Right after delivery

With some pillows. 

The sofa is a dark charcoal gray, and the recliner is a really dark chocolate brown.  Matt says the recliner is SOO comfortable - he actually fell right asleep in it the other night!

And now... for the countertops!

ooohh pretty

the peninsula

get a little closer

I keep wanting to pet the counters, and at the same time I'm almost afraid to touch them because they're just so pretty.

And then just this morning, the plumbers came to install the dishwasher and sink faucet, so when they weren't looking I stole this pic:

I never thought I would say it, but it will be NICE to actually be able to wash dishes again!

And then a couple of smaller things.  The spindles that I spent SO MUCH TIME sanding, priming, and painting a few months ago had been taken out when the floors got stained, and Jay (our carpenter) wasn't happy with how wobbly they were when they were getting reinstalled.  So, being a VERY safety-conscious guy, he installed them better so that any future kiddos who run into them won't go plummeting to the living room below.

One of the things I love about our house are some of the little details that make it super unique.  All of our windows have little wooden decorative panels that were taken out and painted.  Matt put all of those back in this weekend.

Here's a before (note Onyx's new spot):

And after:

I love how much more interesting the windows are with the panels!

I do have one more update... but it's a surprise for my dad and stepmom.  They're coming up this weekend, and I don't want to show them everything before they get here!  I'll share it next week though.

And finally, my internet/work phone issues are all resolved (knock on wood) so hopefully this week won't be as stressful as last week.  Happy Monday!