Welcome - come in

Now for a tour of the inside of our very fine house. Come up the front steps to the porch.

We want to screen it in, but that will be a chore for the future. 

I looked and looked for furniture for the porch this year but couldn't find anything I really liked that would fit the space. I really want teak because I love the warm look and durability. 

Walk in the front door and you are immediately in the great room. To the left is the southern exposure - that wall is mostly windows, letting in beautiful natural light and lovely views of the woods. 

Straight ahead in the hallway is a vignette my friend Amy Bott created. She has a re-design business named SpaceLift http://www.spaceliftinteriors.com/spaceliftinteriors/Welcome.html. When I moved in she helped arrange the furniture and hang art. 

The living room. Notice we have no window coverings. Not necessary in the country. The fireplace has a heat exchanger that vents outside air into the firebox and blows hot air out into the room. It is very efficient, unlike conventional fireplaces and heats the whole upstairs in the winter. The spot to the left of the fireplace was intended for firewood, but houses our TV which pulls out on a rotating tray.

To the left of the front door, adjacent to the kitchen is the dining room. My business partner Sharon gave me this fabulous country dining table that seats 10. The chairs are from a local Amish furniture store (as are the rocking chairs in the living room). It is wonderful to have the room to entertain a crowd. This weekend we are hosting our local friends Christmas dinner and having serving 19. We will set up a folding table in front of the desk for the overflow.

Since I have this nice, comfortable space to work I no longer use my little studio building. I am considering turning it into a real craft studio when I take up basket weaving (no kidding, I really want to learn to weave baskets).

Our house, is a very, very, very fine house

Yes, our house is very fine indeed. We worked on the design for several years before we started building. The house is situated in the woods, on a hill. James wanted a basement, so the house is built into the hillside. Follow the driveway for about 1/3 mile before you reach the house.

This photo was taken last winter. The rest of the year you can't really see the house for the trees.
The walkway is crushed granite with long, shallow steps up the hill to the front porch.

The exterior of the house is rough cedar. It still has that beautiful orangy cedar color; hasn't faded to gray yet except on the south side where it is exposed to the sun.

We are circling the house clockwise. This is the southern exposure with a large rock patio, fireplace and waterfalls. The solid color wall is the basement, which James calls the "rumpus room". It has a pool table and very soon, a bar.

On the back of the house is the bedroom and bathroom west walls.

I love the oblong shaped windows up high in the bathroom, and over the front door on the opposite side. On the west side, the small window on the far end of the oblong is red glass. It makes beautiful reflections on the walls in the afternoon.

The north side of the house is my favorite view because you can see all the varying roof lines and clere story windows, but it is the back entrance of the house and where all the junk piles up so I don't have a decent picture.
Next time I will tour you through the interior.

Japanese maples

After years of living in a small house (less than 600 sq ft) I have a rule: no collections. Now that I have loads more space, this rule is slipping, but I hope to keep it in check. One thing I have started collecting is Japanese maples. They really like our bright, shady patio.

The collection started with this beautiful Waterfall maple James brought home years ago. It lived in a pot on our front porch for several years. The dogs kept running into it, breaking off limbs. Finally, it found a permanent home on the wall of our back patio where it has thrived. In the fall of 2009 it had glorious color.

 This summer I was diligent with my watering until October, when I let the poor thing get too dry. The leaves shrivelled up and eventually fell off. This is what it looks like now.

Pretty sad, isn't it? If I do get any fall color this year, it will be very sparse.

In this corner of my patio is two more Japanese maples. The tall one is Butterfly with gorgeous variegated leaves of white and green. My business partner Sharon talked me into this one. She purchased one last year and it did wonderfully for her, even in a location that received afternoon sun. So I got one this spring and have been very impressed with its hardiness. The leaves burned on the edges during this awful summer, but it held all its leaves. I look forward to seeing it if will have fall color.

In front of the Butterfly maple is a dwarf Japanese maple named Sikes' Pygmy. It had a lovely, perfectly round shape when I purchased it. Our cows got out one day and decided to nibble on it. They pulled off one large branch on one side, then spit it out. The dwarf tree is now lopsided so I push it up against the wall to disguise the gap.

Next I will get a red-leaved Japanese maple, maybe a cascading, threadleaf variety.