Lake House Reveal

It's finally finished! Yippee!  This weekend Son, DIL, the two grands plus her sister and family will be christening the new digs at the lake!  It will sleep 10 now so with 8 they should have plenty of room.  It's amazing how the builders took something that was in total ruin and tore out the bad and completely put it all back together even better then it was before.


I now have a kitchen that I never dreamed I would have at the lake.  I have been stocking the cabinets with staples and making list after list of what we need as I think of it.  I have made many trips down there putting more miles on my old Tahoe then I have in years.  Lots and lots of decisions had to be made which would have been entirely overwhelming if I hadn't been guided along by the project manager in segments.  I have made so many trips to the furniture store that they say "here comes trouble!" when I walk in.  We have a wonderful relationship, I like their furniture and they like my insurance money!


Our old cottage was dark and cramped and when you got a crowd in there we were all walking all over each other.  We didn't mind it then but now with a more open floor plan I see what we were missing.  It's still small but feels much larger.  We took out one small bedroom to add onto the kitchen to make that much larger then it was before.  To make up for that bedroom we changed the daylight basement into a master suite of sorts with a queen size bed and bunks plus the sofa is a sleeper.  It now serves as a family room/bedroom with a tv and sofa and chairs.


This is the living room on the main floor.

The living room is amazing.  It now is all glass on the front with two sets of sliders with a perfect view of the lake.  Before the kitchen was on the front with just one set of small sliders.  It is light and airy with ceiling fans to keep things cool if it is an extra hot day.  I never thought I would have a plaid sofa.  I thought that was total geekdom but I LUV my plaid sofa, chair and love seat, it just looks so cottagey!  Spellcheck is telling me that that is not a word but it is my word and my blog and it fits.  :o)   


I forgot to get a picture looking out over the water so will put that in next time, we are 14 feet from the water!

I love my kitchen so I had to put in another picture!  :o)   In the old place there was just a tiny kitchen with hardly any work space so this is a dream!

Downstairs used to be a dark and dingy room with the furnace, oil tank, partially finished but we just used it mostly to store the kayaks, now it is a lovely master bedroom/bunk room/family area and a bigger and better bathroom/laundry room.

What a view laying in bed looking out over the water!

The laundry room and bathroom were two separate rooms before so they took out the wall and made one larger room for us.

The grands like the jungle theme and have named all the monkeys already.

We now have a fireplace in the living room.  Yes, I know it's fake but it does have heat and it does have fake fire that looks really natural especially in the evening. The tv is over the fireplace on the wall.  Watching the fire and listening to the loons call back and forth is just amazing even if it is fake fire!  (I'm allergic to real wood smoke so can't have a real fire.) At home we switched the fireplaces over to propane years ago and it is the best thing since sliced bread!  No muss no fuss and no smoke.  :o)

We still have one small bedroom on the main floor and a half bath.  I was able to find a 'woodsy' themed bedspread set much like what I had before the flood.  It's a great place to take a snooze after you've been out in the sun and want a rest.  I find the Hubs in there quite often taking in Zzzzzzz's but that's what camp is all about, rest and relaxation.

I put another tv in the downstairs too so that if the grands want to be playing games or watching a movie they can curl up down there if they want.

I found this of the living room in another file but you can see that there was too much light outside so I will have to wait until I can take a picture at night.  At least it gives you an idea of the view.

Look at these candle sticks, aren't they real looking?  I mean like a real tree not a real candle!  :o)

Later:


Here it is a few hours later and I still haven't posted this.  Miss T came over and we went trail riding while Son, Grampie and Mr. D went out in the woods to get one of the Rhino's that had run out of gas.  

Ants? What ants?

It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring!  Remember that old saying for a thunderstorm?  It's raining here today but no thunder, just me snoring according to the Hubs........sigh......   We need the rain though, it's been rather dry and I have had to water everything constantly to keep things going.  The raspberries are just doing great this year, they are thick as can be, the most I have ever had since I put the bushes in a number of years ago.  Nothing like walking past the raspberry patch and grabbing a handful of those tart little goodies.  I must say though that I have never seen any as big as the ones I get at the grocery store that come from California!!!  They are HUGE!  I eat them like candy, have some sitting right here now.

The lake house is coming along beautifully!!  I am just in awe of the beautiful job they have done making a silk purse out of a sows ear!  If any of you remember the pictures of the 'flood' you know it was a complete disaster leaving nothing unscathed in its wake along with mold covering every surface.  Now it is clean and fresh, they are putting the finishing touches on the painting and the window treatments are ready to be installed.  I am trying to hold off on posting any pictures until everything is done but I am getting antsy to show you all.

Speaking of antsy or I should say ants.....Evidently we had a nest of carpenter ants living in one of the ceilings.  They must have moved out when all the commotion started as we didn't see any signs of them until last week when I guess they decided it was time to move back in!  I got a frantic call from one of the workers that there were about 200 ants milling around one of the smoke detectors trying to get into the ceiling!!!  I called an exterminator but he couldn't get there for a few days so I headed to the lake with a can of Raid in hand.

Yikes!  They weren't kidding, there were tons of flying ants and by now they had figured out they couldn't get in through the smoke detector so were all on the sliders trying to get back outside!  GAG!  I sprayed them and they dropped like flies thankfully but what a mess on my new floor!  I got it pretty well cleaned up and was waiting for the second wave to appear but I guess I got them all.  The exterminator arrived a couple days later and did the whole inside and outside so we shouldn't have a problem again but that was weird and I was not a happy camper having them in my new digs!

We've been having some nightly visitors lately that are as cute as a button but rather sloppy eaters!  There is one more behind the gas grill that you can't see.  Mom raccoon has SIX babies!  She looks a bit weary but who wouldn't having six little ones to keep track of!

Here's a shot of all of them together including Mom in the foreground.  They aren't as big as they look in these pictures.  They probably weigh about three pounds apiece at this point.  They LUV their marshmallows!

                                                  Whoops, I cut Mom's face off.

They keep us entertained each evening, they are better then television and the grandchildren love watching them out the window.

Mom and I went to Ellsworth today as I had my second laser treatment on my face.  It was pouring and there was a lot of road construction so what usually takes a half hour took us an hour.  The road was all torn up and you had to drive on the edge of the ditch which was a tiny bit unnerving.  We made it fine and I got zapped and we were out the door on our way home.  I don't have to go back for two months this time so as to give the blood vessels time to heal properly.  Hopefully one more treatment and the rosacia will be under control.  It doesn't really hurt to have the laser but afterwards you feel like you have a bad sunburn on your face and the next day you look like someone hit you with a 2X4!   I stay out of sight so that people won't think someone gave me a backhander! 

Time to get around to visiting some of you.  Time really seems to get away from me and computer time is limited this time of year so please hang in there with me!!!

Blackberry Farm Cont....

One morning The Hubs had some time off from working so we decided to take a private trail ride with Carla our guide.  When you go with a group you can only move along as fast as the least experienced rider which is okay because you really get to look around and enjoy your surroundings but it is also fun to go at a little faster pace and ride on some more challenging trails.

I rode Rooster again, he is such a good boy and really didn't try to pull anything foolish other then wandering off the trail a couple of times.  :o)  He is very inquisitive and seeings as Lil' Bud is the same way I felt right at home on him.

I loved this old shed.

                                        Of course I always make friends with the barn cats.  :o)

                                                                 Our ride arrived.

                                   This is Rock and his team mate is called Rolling as in rock and rolling!

                          This is John who took us on such a wonderful carriage ride.  Thanks John!  John told us lots of history about the farm which was so interesting, we enjoyed our ride so much!

                                                                        Hi Rock!

                                                             Such beautiful sights.

                                               The Smokies were all around us.

                                                                    The Hubs.

                                             Our mode of transportation while at the farm.

Well time to head over to the Humane Society for a board meeting.  It's supposed to be 90* today and humid so will be doing a lot of watering when I get home.  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

Horses, horses and more horses!

This was one of the first guys we met when we arrived at Blackberry Farm!

We got home yesterday from Tennessee.  It was one of the best trips that I have been on and can't wait to go back again, yes, it was that good!  Of course having lots of gorgeous horses to ride and carriage rides, wonderful organic food, beautiful mountains to look at, southern hospitality, and great functions to attend, what more could I want?!

We had a good flight down and they were waiting to pick us up at the airport.  There were several other couples from Maine and New Hampshire that we know that landed just about the same time we did only on other airlines so we all went to the Blackberry Farm together which was about 30 minutes away.  We checked into our 'cottage' and freshened up a bit before heading out to the stable to see the horses.  I put on my new jeans that I got at Tractor Supply (they actually had LONGS!), my smelly boots and new belt with silver conchos and buckle.  Oh my, did I ever think I was stylin'!  snicker, snicker......

This doesn't look like any cottage around here but I didn't complain!  :o)

I wanted to bring home this closet!!!

I want this bathroom too!

There was a nice screened in porch on the back with a big fireplace.  It was too hot to use it but it was nice to just sit out there.

The horses were gorgeous, mostly big-behiney quarter horses which I love.  They were so well taken care of, had an excellent staff to see to their every need.  I'm the one in the yellow shirt with the long legs that are sticking out too far!  My horses name was Rooster and he was a 10 year old gelding, or maybe 9 or 8, I can't remember.  :o(

This is Carla our guide and she and her husband John head up the equestrian program at Blackberry Farm.  She does an amazing job and in this picture was giving us a little Horsemanship 101.  You'll see a picture of her hubby John who gave us a tour of the place in a carriage with a big horse named Rock in harness.  Everything was pristine here, the tack was spotless, the horses were groomed well, their feet were done properly, all in all the best place we have ever ridden while on one of our trips and we have been to many.

Look at this beautiful guy with the brand.

This is one of Carla's horses.  She and John do a lot of fox hunting here and have been to Scotland, Ireland, England and other places to hunt.  No, they don't kill the fox, they have a glass of champange once the fox is in his hole! Phew! I was glad to hear that!

We headed out and saw some of the most glorious sights of mountains, streams, fields, animals, beauitiful buildings on the property, organic gardens, free range chickens, sheep which they use the milk to make melt in your mouth cheese, truffle dogs that hunt for the truffles, ponds, fences and a covered bridge.

We had a great ride and everyone got back in one piece which always makes it nice.......ahem...... I've been on rides where that hasn't been the case.  One trip we were on the president of the company was on a horse and the saddle came loose and he slid right around the horses belly and hit the ground.  Yikes!

The first night there we had a wonderful outside dinner with bluegrass music playing in the background by a local band.  They were nice fellas and even offered to come to Maine and play if we'd pay their way..........

The tables were so pretty with the pottery vases filled with flowers.

They fed us so much food it was insane, I am not kidding they kept bringing out platter after platter of different things to try and ended the meal with pecan pie that would just bring you to tears it was so good!

There is much more but I guess this is enough for tonight.  I will continue in a day or so.  The lake house is almost done and the furniture is supposed to be delivered on Wednesday so DIL and I have a busy day planned.  Can't wait till it's all put back together after such a disaster this winter.  When I first saw it after we found out everything had been ruined by the flooding I didn't think it would ever be the same but now I think it's going to be even better!  Yeah! 

Will get around to visit everyone tomorrow.  Today I was knee high in laundry from the trip plus had to spend time with my guys and give them some exercise!  I probably missed them more then they missed me with Funsize, Ana and Dad taking care of them while we were gone!!!  :o)