Our long awaited and long overdue open house occurred last weekend. We have been in the house over 18 months having moved in before company arrived and before it was completely finished. Over the last year and a half, we have been slowly accomplishing the Punch Lits (no, I didn't misspell the word. See previous post entitled Punch Lits). The major tasks were finally done although there is still touch up painting to be done, beams to be wrapped, and landscaping to be started (those maples above are our attempt at some landscaping and color :) Lovely, but still to be planted......). We knew if we didn't invite everyone over soon, we would never do it. Besides, most of our friends and family have been in the house so it wasn't truly new to them. However, everything was opened up, even some not so common or never before seen places like our bathroom, our pantry, and our closets.
We made black and white photos of each step of the process and hung them with clothes pins in order from start to finish. I made over 150 prints, but we had to eliminate about 50 in order for them all to fit on 4 separate lines. Halfway through the laborious process of looking at discs at Costco, I decided that I should also include shots of life that occurred along the building journey. I went back through 5 discs and did that, THEN decided I should have made those glimpses of life in color. Oh, well, I just stuck with what I had :) I think the color would have stuck out more and differentiated them from the rest.
Our wonderful designer, Annie O, was one of our first guests. I made her be in this picture after the grand tour. I realized that I didn't have a single picture of her! The last time she had been in the house was during framing. She wanted a complete tour with narration. She said even though she designed it, it is much better to see in 3-D. I think it would be so cool to see how your work had come to fruition and what was created from your design. I only wish our framer had shown up too!
I didn't get a lot of photos since I was giving tours and explanations. I did grab the camera for some shots like below, but handed off the camera to Farmer Girl so she could get more. She didn't get many of our older guests, but mostly of our younger ones. She has a real heart for children and loves to be with them. She kept many of them entertained while the guests visited and toured much to my relief and gratefulness.
The photo above, in addition to showing off guests, also lets you see my new/used couch. We have had the same Norwalk couch since our marriage over 20 years ago. It has held up wonderfully well although the fabric is faded and a bit grungy (what possessed us to buy a couch with LIGHT fabric? Obviously, we were not thinking of all our moves and children). A few months ago, we heard a crack when someone "plopped" down onto it at an event. A board on the bottom had cracked or fractured. Bob was able to shore it up with some splints, but it would never be the same and the "NO Plopping" rule went into effect for all. We have been saving for a new couch for awhile. This summer, a friend who had recently moved and didn't have room for her couch, decided to sell. I checked my envelope and had the exact amount in it for purchase. We met at IKEA with our respective trucks. We moved her old couch into my truck and secured it, then she bought a new and smaller couch inside the store. It is a sectional as you can see, but this is the first time we have actually joined it all up together. It will work in it's three pieces too. It is very comfortable and very sturdy. Most importantly, it matches. Very important for women :) Our old couch still remains in our immense living room. We are unsure what to do with it and we have room for it, so there it stays. It is still very comfy.....
A friend's respectful and polite son sits on the chair that matches our old couch enjoying some refreshments.
Daughter and son of some great friends of ours. We were so glad they took time out from their Sunday to join us. They were of immeasurable help in both of our building projects.
Enjoying some refreshments in our entryway.
These are two of Farmer Girl's favorite children although she has many and would be hard pressed to choose favorites! They have three other siblings that she really loves too! Adorable.
Kilroy is here!
I told you she took many pictures of little ones.
Here they are again with an added sibling or two. This one was taken in Farmer Girl's room. It was actually neat and orderly. It was so nice....even the dog could have come in here and not found anything wrong to eat!
"Four little monkeys jumping (sitting) on the bed (couch). One fell off and bumped his head (yelled ouch!)."
I had to change it to make it rhyme! One of them was very reluctant to turn around........
....but then I got this one.
Farmer Girl, again with little ones, but I took this picture of them piled on her on the swing outside. Another good friend, standing on the right, and her family also came for a tour and some food.
Things were winding down at around 5 although some were still arriving and enjoying the time there.
I got a shot of the food table AFTER most of it was gone! For our menu, we chose PW's Barbq Jalapeno Poppers, Olive Bread, a cranberry almond brie baked with puff pastry, veggies, a spinach artichoke dip with crackers, grapes, eggrolls, teriyaki meatballs, cream cheese covered with raspberry chipotle sauce, PW's Chocolate Sheet Cake and pumpkin bars. We also had freshly pressed apple cider, lemonade and water for drinking. A friend brought this amazing avocado dip too as well as someone brought pumpkin pie and someone a bottle of wine. Other surprise gifts included gift certificates, welcome mats, truffles, candles, coffee pods, magnets, home plaques and others I am probably forgetting. We didn't expect gifts at all, but it was fun and much appreciated.
We will end this post on a fun note showing three girls in our over sized, quite spacious and comfortable tub. Come to think of it, this is usually my night for a long and quiet soak in the tub.....maybe I will head there now...! Thanks for stopping by to catch up on the family happenings!
No comments:
Post a Comment