back to posting

I have finally decided it is time to pick this blog back up and continue with it. If you are a reader, I do apologize for the absence. It seems since our grandson was born in early July (yes he is a doll) life got to a crazy pace and simply has not slowed down until this weekend. I am actually impressed that I got a post on here about our trip to Alaska.

Since July we have been either gone or busy with one thing or another every single weekend. August flew by with an annual trip to our great friend's cabin to celebrate a 50th (sadly Bill was stuck in airports and missed just about the whole weekend). We went to a Mount Hermon Family Camp and had a great time with the kids and Joe's parents. Wil & Kris moved across the country and are now in Portland where he is attending Culinary School. Michael has moved back to Central Oregon (for a time) and is becoming a wonderful Web Programmer & Designer at BrandNavigation. I went on a surprise trip for my sisters' Bday. We went back to Italy for one wonderful week of friendship and culture. Laura moved twice. We went to LA for a swanky red carpet event (that we were a bit out of place at, but it was fun!) The following day I began the collection of 5920 gift filled shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child for 10 days straight. Then it was Thanksgiving! All this while BrandNavigation was as busy as usual; Bill designed one of the best Branding Campaigns he has ever done and I frantically tried to stay somewhat organized with things at work along with now being the Area Coordinator for OCC.

Then it was topped off with an offer on our house in Sisters; one week before our contract was to be up! Then a frantic pace of trying to find a new house in Bend, since the one we had hoped for became suddenly unavailable. Upon not finding any other house (in our price range) we got extremely concerned that we had made a grave error accepting a very low offer (something I had gently but firmly push for) i yi yi. THEN: we were leaving for Italy in one week, wala the house we had wanted for so long magically came back onto the market (at a 40% price reduction) and the night before we left for Italy we found out our offer had been accepted! So after 3 years of thinking about it, trying, praying and waiting; we have moved to Bend, OR and yes, we love it!

If I can quickly tell the story of this house... Two years ago we looked at the house across the street (at least 3 or 4 times). We liked it but we always said when we walked out front (but that's the house we really like). We had never even seen the inside. We did know who the owner was and when we had heard that he was closing his businesses in Bend (he was a chef of 2 restaurants) last Christmas we wondered, "is his house for sale." It was, we looked decided we wanted it before even going up the stairs and made a full price offer, put our house on the market then THUD! Nothing, no response on the offers and no offers on our house. As they went through a bankruptcy mess we eventually realized (after 10 months) that maybe it was just not going to be and resolved to life it Sisters. (We felt very much it was time for a change but thought it just wasn't meant to be). It is somewhat emotionally hard to sell a house you built for your family but we had finally decided a house is a building and a home is when you are, regardless. We were ready to emotionally let go of that home a find a new one.

Then just by a series of pretty much miracles, with the worst timing in the world (it seemed) we somehow landed the house we had always admired at a bottom dollar price. We are so humbled and blessed. What your money gets you in Central Oregon these days is a bargain! Although, like today it comes with WEATHER!

So my return to the blog is a bit of sharing our new home. So far it is very unfurnished and will be for awhile. We did downsize quite a bit but with the style being so very different, we are starting in some areas from scratch! It wouldn't be an understatement to say, the house is modern in design. We love it but it's a challenge for me, my style is much more... Tuscan Villa! So we have asked our daughter in law (Kris) to help with the process and she is doing a fantastic job. I promise to share the results of all her efforts as soon as we have it! But for now:

This is our front courtyard which is quite cool. I have great summer plans for an outdoor front room. We get the most beautiful sunrises in the front of the house and I know we will be having coffee out here every weekend. As for today... We yeah, it's basically a blizzard.


The living room is empty except for Bill's chair and the built ins. We do have the Christmas tree here and it will be filled with sleeping bodies in a few weeks. With the downsize we have no guest rooms for now. Although we are confident our 2 other young adult children will again someday be out on their own. The color scheme of this room is all in that lovely pillow on the chair. (A Kris find) I think it will be my favorite room when it is done, I already sit in here every morning and enjoy my morning peace. Bill has dubbed this room the 'New York' room. It will have photographs that Michael took last year when the boys all went there for his birthday.


We brought the conference table from BrandNav because it was a perfect fit for the house and the dining area. Kris helped us with the choice of these chairs, which we love but are so worried about getting them dirty. Seriously it's nuts!


I have tried very hard to 'edit' my decorating style and make it fit here. This is my attempt at 'Christmas'. I know the place looks somewhat empty; it's a work in progress and I am trying to find a balance with it. After all I keep joking that we are Fred & Wilma because we have dark grey stone floors, grey walls and hardly anyplace to sit. We are slowly getting it warmed up and I won't being wearing bones in my hair forever!


The family room has this amazing built in area. We love the cool factor of it but realized it was so much bigger than we had realized. What we thought was a very nice big TV is somewhat dwarfed now. We are considering painting the inside back wall of the shelves a darker color to balance the size a bit. They were painted a bright orange before! POP! Maybe a wee too much for our tastes.


Our bedroom (well and the kids too) actually is furnished and we were delighted how good our set looks in it. The wall color was picked by Bill and I love it. We feel like we live in the Ewok Village, we love waking up in the trees everyday. The views here are so beautiful. One of our favorite things about this house is the setting. It is amazing even though it is in a neighborhood.




The 'over the top, unnecessary' room is our bathroom. It is beyond awesome and we love it but if we would've built this house... We would've used the square feet for an office space. It is simply a spa. Quite cool but.... over the top.





We have a couple back decks. The entire back of the house is windows (sliders) that opens up to these decks.


The view is so great, so peaceful and private.


This one has a built in wood burning fire pit (it is just filled with snow instead today). That hot tub in the distance is ours. We've yet to use it... not filled yet. Buying a bank owned home came with many little issues. We are knocking them out one by one. Bill successfully got a real door knob on our front door yesterday!




So as always I've written way too much. I just felt a need to get caught up and share life again. Thanks to Wil for telling me he checks this blog daily and that it is time for me to get back on it! I appreciate the encouragement son.

x
~ L