Welcome Home To Us!

These beautiful hot-pink azaleas were a welcome sight Monday, when we returned to the mountain after two weeks in Texas. Gorgeous!!

Ahhh, Texas! Nothing like two solid weeks of crowds, traffic, chores, countless meals out and family to remind us why we retreated to the mountain in the first place! OK, OK, the family, meals and chores weren't so bad, but the traffic and the crowds? How did we ever deal with all those "too many people in the world" on a daily basis?

As soon as we got home, we cracked open a home brew and took our positions on the front porch, listening to the birds and soaking up the sunset.

But our moment of rest is now over. We're cranked up in visitors-are-coming mode. Our good friends from Minnesota -- Karen, Dino, Matthew and Tascha -- are coming on Monday for spring break, and we can't wait to see them! (Bonus: We're getting a clay-pigeon thrower thingee so we can all shoot stuff while they're here. Believe it or not, we haven't fired off any rounds in the 14 months we've been here. Oddballs, we are, by Tennessee standards.)

And the guest room is SO almost ready for them. Yes, that's right, by Monday, I'll finally get those before-and-after photos posted.

Sneak Peak of Spring -- and The Room

While we were busy working on the guest room, spring officially arrived: My peach tree has blossomed! For you gardening types, I'm also eagerly awaiting my first hellebore bloom. Very exciting stuff! ("Yawn," sez Mason.)

As for the bedroom, we're getting so close! Here's a sneak peak of the new whitewashed wood wall, paint and carpet:

We're working on the finishing touches now: the built-in desk and the closet shelving. Of course, poor Mason is still trying to build stuff while I'm dragging in rugs and chairs and artwork, and sweating over real important stuff such as bedskirts and curtains.

We're making the desk out of some of the wood planks that we took off the walls (do I get points for repurposing, Lo?). I know the wall planks had a cabin charm to them, but the main part of the cabin has the wood planking throughout, so we thought the guest room could use a bit of relief.

 The new desk planks are on their 3rd coat of varnish; I think one more will do the job. See:

We promise, the official before-and-after pix are coming soon!