My kitchen

Everyone keeps asking me if I will miss my gardens. "You've put so much work into them, it must be hard to leave." Honestly, I can't wait to get out into the country and be able to breathe. Having grown up on 90 acres in practically the middle of nowhere, I feel claustrophobic with houses on every side. I always knew this place was temporary and even though I put a lot of work into the gardens, I knew at some point I would be walking away from them.

It looks like that time might be very soon. Our offer on the 13 acres was accepted yesterday. I signed the paperwork today and got my preapproval letter for the loan. Of course nothing is set in stone at this point, our offer was contingent on our house selling. We have to see if that will happen. But there has been a lot of interest. Yesterday was the first day we had showings and 3 couples came. Today two couples came--but one of them came back three times. How's that for interest! Tomorrow there are more people coming to see the house.

I won't miss my gardens because I will have plenty of opportunities for planting lots more. And the way the house and land is situated at the new place, it will lend itself beautifully to landscaping. I am hoping I will be able to take starts of some of my favorite plants with me. I'm not sure if that will be able to happen, and I am okay with it if it doesn't. I know how to use craig's list and get more for trade or free!

What I will miss is my beautiful kitchen. The kitchen in the house we put the offer on is decent, but is nothing like the one Terry remodeled for me. With my work as a visiting nurse I get to see the insides of lots of homes-from the poorest of the poor to million dollar houses. I don't see many kitchens I love. I've come to realize that this is a spectacular kitchen, especially given that the house is only 1,200 square feet.

Antique washboard sink. I want to take it with me! And the window looks out into the back yard so you can watch the chickens and rabbits and enjoy the flowers and garden while you work.

Oak cabinets, a double convection oven, a big island, and a stainless steel cooktop. Once you've baked in a convection oven, you never want to go back to a regular oven. The difference is amazing.

Tile floor. Terry and I put that in together. It was one of our first projects together. And yes, that is a second sink in the island. How do people live with only one sink? I guess I will have to find out...

I'm so in love with this tile backsplash. This was put in 2 days ago as we are franticly getting all the odds and ends done to get the house ready for showing. I accidently bought the wrong tile, but it turned out to be a blessed mistake. It goes so perfectly with my phlatzgraff stoneware. And the tile is actually real cut stone, it is not ceramic. I want the exact same thing in my new kitchen! And that is granite counter top. I want that in my new kitchen, too.

This is a view of the kitchen from the living room. That is a soapstone wood stoves, one of the very best woodstoves money can buy. (We are planning on taking that with us, so that will be in our new house.)

I will miss my kitchen very, very much.

Our newest lawn decoration

If anyone one wants to buy a house with half an acre in a quiet part of town here's the phone number:"CHARMING HOME ON A QUIET LITTLE STREET W/IN WALKING DISTANCE TO ABBOTT SCHOOL & PARK. CLOSE TO DOWNTOWN, SHOPPING & RESTAURANTS-THIS 2 BDRM 1.5 BATH HOME HAS HAD MANY NICE UPDATES INCL WOOD LAMINATE FLOORING, NEW OAK KITCHEN CABINETS, GRANITE COUNTERTOPS, NEW APPLIANCES & WOOD TRIM. SOME NEWER WINDOWS, CERAMIC TILE & HOT WTR HTR. ENJOY YOUR 1/2 ACRE LOT W/BEAUTIFUL PERENNIAL GARDENS & A HUGE VEGETABLE GARDEN. WITH OVER 1200 SQ FT, THERE IS PLENTY OF SPACE FOR A FIRST TIME HOME BUYER OR A EMPTY NESTER. ** NO SHOWINGS UNTIL 5/22**"

Added bonus: you will get to pick organic tomatoes and green beans from the garden in the back yard all summer long. And no, you don't get the chicken coop (there is a photo of it in the listing), I'm taking that with me.

We put our house on the market on Tuesday and put an offer on the land and house we looked at last week. Now it is a mad rush to get our house ready for showing while we are waiting to hear whether or not our offer has been accepted.

13 acres and a backhoe

Because if you have 13 acres, you need a backhoe.

I can't quite believe this happening. On Sunday we are meeting with a real estate agent, drawing up a contract for putting our house on the market, and making an offer on 13 acres and a house contingent on selling our house. On a sopping wet day this week, I walked every square foot (just about!) of the 13 acres and loved what I saw. Yes, I could wake up every morning and look out on to those 13 acres and be glad they are mine. It has gently rolling hills, with a little bit of wet land, a little bit of woods, plenty of flat space for garden and orchards--and oh, the potential for flower gardens and landscaping! It is well set back from the road.

A great big plus is the huge pole barn (the former owner built biplanes in it) and a large garage/workshop/horse barn that you could park 4 cars in with room to spare. Terry will be in heaven. I am sad that the woods were almost destroyed by loggers maybe 3 or 4 years ago. You can see that they were once beautiful woods, but were totally ravaged by someone who's only thought was how much money he could get for the lumber and cared nothing about preserving the beauty or health of the woods. None the less, woodland in Michigan is quite resilient and in 10 or 15 years they should be beautiful again.

Oh, and there is a house. You have to have some place to actually live while you are planting your gardens, caring for your orchards, tending your flock of hens and all. It is cute house, a bit different, and needs some updating (new kitchen for sure). But one could move it tomorrow if you had to.

Terry is happy that the property is close to his backhoe. He got the backhoe for free off of Craig's List last winter. When I heard about it, my only stipulation, was, "You CANNOT bring it home and put it in my yard!" Good grief, our neighbors put up with a lot from us, I don't want to know what their reaction to a backhoe as a lawn ornament would be! (The backhoe had some engine problems and he worked out an agreement with the owner that if he fixed the engine and let the guy use it, he didn't have to take it home until he has a place to take it home. I'm happy with that arrangement. Though I can see that it will come in very useful once we get a piece of land out in the country. I will need it for digging out my pond, for one thing!

Of course, actually buying this place depends on selling our home, and the owner might not even be willing to take our offer, so I'm not getting my hopes up. There will be another piece of land somewhere else if this one doesn't work out. We are putting our house on the market on Sunday regardless, and starting the process of getting the place ready to sell. That means finishing up a bunch of details in the house and putting in a decent driveway. Even if we don't sell the house, we will be better off with getting these things done, so it is nice to have the extra motivation.

I've had to rethink what to do with my garden this year. I decided to go ahead and plant it just as if I had no other plans. I did decide to make it a bit smaller, though, and make it square instead of a misshaped mess. I was going to make it square this summer anyway, except that I was going to make it a bigger square rather then a smaller square. Actually I won't really be loosing any growing space for vegetables. Because of the black walnut tree most vegetables won't grow past a certain point anyway, so that extra space was flowers, I will just be pushing the flower border back. I think having a neat flower border will be more attractive to potential buyers.

Gorgeous Ranch For Sale (No, Wait...)

Tomorrow we are going to look at this gem...."GORGEOUS 2400 SQ FT RANCH W/3 BDRMS & 2 FULL BTHS SITS ON 10 1/2 ACRES IN THE MIDDLE OF 6500 ACRES OF THE PINCKNEY RECREATION AREA. THIS BEAUTIFUL RANCH HAS 3 FRPLCE. THIS HOME HAS ALL ANDERSON WINDOWS AND THE KITCHEN CABINETS ARE ALL AMISH CABINETS. ALL BEDROOMS, DINING ROOM, AND LIVING ROOM HAVE HARDWOOD FLOORS. THIS IS A WELL BUILT CUSTOM HOME."

Gosh, that sounds like my dream home. A beautiful well built house on ten acres in the middle of thousands of acres of recreation land. What more could you ask for? Can't wait to see pictures! Oh, wait, are you sure that's the right house?

How come this is the only picture available of this gorgeous ranch on 10 acres? Oh, my, where are all the Anderson windows? Couldn't they have got a photo of at least one Anderson window? And I want to see those Amish cabinets in the kitchen. Actually it looks pretty pathetic, even ugly...If it weren't for the promise of 10 acres in a beautiful nighborhood (I googled it, so I am pretty sure the area is nice) and maybe a decent house, I would have completely passed this house by. Hopefully it won't look quite so bad in real life.

Actually ever since we've started looking at property to buy, I've been amazed at how so many real estate companies have no sense at all when it comes to posting photos of property. Tomorrow we are also looking at another 10 acres and a house that features a "BEAUTIFUL KITCHEN THAT HAS CHERRY CABINETS". The photo however shows a room that is completely dark, and if I squint hard enough, I think I can make out a shiny object that sort of resembles a stove. Being that the kitchen is the most important room in house (as far as I am concerned anyway!), you'd think the real estate agent might try to make a bigger effort to show off that beautiful kitchen with those cherry cabinets.

Hopefully we will find the perfect piece of land at the right price under the right circumstances. We really can't afford to buy right now, but with property prices the way they are right now, there couldn't be a better time to consider buying. One of these properties might just come along at just the right time and right price.