There is nothing that says spring to me like finally awakening naturally to daylight and birdsong before 6am and putting strawberries in everything, because they are coming into season, on sale, and you bought too many. Couple that with the sight of big snowflakes blowing against a backdrop of towering firs in a shot of sparkling cool sunshine, and you have early May in Iron Mountain. So started our Saturday!
This odd combination did not deter the three of us on Team Asam-Jensen from prodigious productivity and good times yesterday. We were going to organize the Little Brown House no matter what. Jeanette had already prepared the way and mood for springtime changes. We were welcomed Friday with cool glasses of berry iced tea and faint wafts of Lysol. Boxes were in there assigned destination. So fortified by coffee and strawberry-oatmeal muffins (from the Peoria kitchen's strawberry excesses), we got right to work.
The kitchen shelves were lined and filled. Empty boxes and random more seasonal items found ready storage in the basement, where some organization loving person had built in extensive rough shelving. I had brought up some wine & vine themed curtains from my old house, and as I suspected they were a perfectly cheery match for the warm mandarin orange walls. There are a few things still to do, but the kitchen is on a roll. Happy culinary days lie ahead!
The dining space appeared in the form of a rug, table & chairs that migrated north from our storage. It is flanked on one side by a long window seat (my current perch), which hides built in housing for overflow kitchen items: we put that to good use since the kitchen is properly described as cozy. Yellow blossomed vines somehow appeared all along the top of that window at Jeanette's touch, making it all quite Mayish.
Bookshelves went up in the living room, recently also graced with a wrap-around couch set due to Jeanette's diligent (and successful) search for a Quality Bargain. The remaining shelves went onto the spacious, sunny second-floor hall/landing which is now Jeanette's official study retreat. From the arm chair, all you can see is treetops, sky and sun (or snowflakes) on two sides! Jeff tweaked into strength an old desk left in the "attic" section of the second floor, so the laptop and printer also have a home.
Jeanette's bedroom upstairs got curtains, a dresser (which migrated from the landing), and a few other little touches. The downstairs guest-room also got a bed, thanks to the "help-yourself" collection in the basement and Jeff's transportation. (The come-with-the-house items proved invaluable once there were hands enough to move them.) This aqua blue room is considering a second career as a music room too.
After all that, there's still a fair amount of settling left to do, but the Little Brown House and it's occupants were pretty satisfied. We did take a long lunch break for an indoor picnic with Jeanette's friends Adam & Catherine, and their four kids. Gusts of winter-recalling winds notwithstanding, the burgers were grilled and we chatted up a storm for two hours. Rather amazingly, we discovered multiple common acquaintances and links to Peoria proving in my mind that the Midwest is a small world defying geographical dimensions. Something similar occurred that evening, while we sat at the friendly bar in the woodsy GinaMarie's Italian restaurant waiting on a table. Jeff started a conversation with the older couple near him, only to discover the man worked at the same Army Reserve post in Chicago as Jeff's dad. So two things to remember: the Midwest is small, and in the UP you should never be in a hurry for dinner when you are going out... It's one of the few places in America where everyone still takes their time, and so should you. Bring (or find) company you really enjoy, because you'll be talking for a while. That made our evening all the nicer.
So here are a few shots of the Little Brown House, now getting going. I must say, Team Asam-Jensen does good work. I'm not boasting. Just saying. :)
