Welcome to Ciderbrook

Saturday was a big day for us.  We got our first load of wood for our new house!  We have a beautiful wood stove in the living room which is large enough to heat about half the house.  Since we have an oil furnace and oil is very expensive, we are planning on supplementing with wood this winter. While I was waiting for the wood to be delivered, I decided to pull back the carpet in the dining room to see what the floor underneath looks like.  It's not wall to wall carpet, it's a big bound rug, and it goes almost the whole way to the wall.  It's a pretty carpet and I'm sure it would clean up nicely.  However, it took me almost 2 hours to vacuum the entire house that first day we were there, and I decided I just don't want to vacuum that much in the future!  If I could easily get rid of this rug in the dining room, that would be awesome.   And guess what!  The floor underneath is LOVELY!  It needs cleaned, but thankfully there is a pad under the rug so the wood is in v

 We went back to the house on Wednesday, for our first real day being there.  Every other time we'd been to the house, even after getting the keys that first day, it was only for a rushed hour of looking around.  Doesn't that strike anyone else as strange?  To spend so much money on something you've only seen for a few hours? In the closet was a fat file of receipts, manuals, and a big plastic bag of keys.  We finally have keys to the 200 doors in this house, including all of the skeleton keys for the original 1948 doors!   (Click on the pictures to make them bigger) There's a key for every interior door, and every room has a door, even the kitchen!    We also found (dun dun dun) the keys to the mysterious fairy cabin!    Chad's standing way back as he opens, as per his mother's instructions.   And what did we find inside?  Oh my goodness, we hit a jackpot with this little cabin.  It seems they forgot about it when they were emptying the house, and left it co

Hello everyone!  This is just a little blog to update my favorite people on the happenings of our new homestead.  I’ll be posting pictures of our property, and all the projects we’ll be working on, plus anything else I feel inspired to share.     (Click on the pictures to make them bigger)     Bet you're wondering why we are calling it Ciderbrook.  Well, there's a tiny stream that runs through the property, behind the house and at the base of the hill.  Chad says I have apple eyes, as in I can spot an apple tree from a mile away.  I love wild apples!  So when I finally got to walk our property (after many rushed visits during the buying process), I noticed there are dozens of apple trees all along the stream.  And a dear friend of ours helped us come up with the name based on that!  The tiny stream, which sits at the base of the hill behind our house.        This is the field next to our house, facing the little stream.   We signed all of the papers for our house today.  I si