Another Project Finished!

The frames of the cabinets arrived like this

and have lived in the basement all this time.

Joe's job of assembling the cabinets went much faster than my painting.

Finally the doors were finished and it was time to bring them upstairs,

level and make them look like built-ins.

Drumroll ...... time for the grand reveal.....

Soooo much better not seeing a gaping hole with stacks of plastic storage tubs

We're both proud of how nicely the top piece that matches the crown molding came out.
And Joe obsessed over the side trim that joined the boxes to the walls,

but did such an excellent job that they look for all the world like master cabinet makers built them in.

Now I can hide the big basket of ironing!

And I unpacked my hardanger and hand sewing....

who knows maybe one day I'll take it up again.

There were over NINETY things on our To Finish the House

"punch" list and we've whittled it down by about 12 completed jobs so far! 

Louisiana Travels Part Two: "Home?"

I enjoyed every minute of my trip back home to Louisiana.

OK.... Honestly I didn't miss the Baton Rouge traffic and it has been ages since I've seen men walking awkwardly holding their baggy pants with their underwear showing.....

But those two things aside, it was good to be hanging with friends

Vern, Ada, Me, Suzanne and Matt

as well as family (although once again I didn't pull out the camera to get photos with Randy).

Yearlings at Ada's Farm

I brought home a roll of  fabric which I hope to turn into draperies for the dining room (it may be a major leap of faith to hope that my long dormant Home Ec skills will be able to pull this project off!), a few Christmas presents for next year (yes, I'm thinking ahead) and a sack of about 25 grapefruits picked in Suzanne's backyard.

Even though I was in little Bernard the Mini, I could have fit in much more for the return trip,
but it wasn't tangible items that I'd returned to Louisiana to fetch....
I wanted to tuck away some new memories.

Podcasts filled the hours of the uneventful return drive
and before I knew it, I was greeted by the lights of our house on the hill, a smiling husband and delighted pets.

To people who have moved often in their lives this may be a no-brainer, but I had a revelation on this trip and it's that I can now say the word "home" to mean two different places!  Semantics is important to me and when we first moved to Virginia, I thought that I had to quit referring to Louisiana as home.
I had this idea that Virginia was now my home.... the only home.

But now I realize that I didn't need to have create such a black and white distinction.

Of course, home is where the heart (or is it hearth?) is,
but can't it also be where the heart (or hearth) was.

This might make sense only to me:

I'm glad that I went home and now I'm glad that I am home.  

Confusing??

Fred the Donkey at Ada's