The Vision

The most exciting part of redoing Bosquet Plaisant is coming up with a vision for it. Although the pioneers that built it were English, I really want to pretend that they were French, and decorate it as such! I have a soft spot for french decor ever since my study abroad in Paris a couple of years back, and I've always wanted a French-themed home. Here's my chance to start with a partially clean slate to see my vision come to life! The problem is that I stink at coming up with a specific vision. That is where my Mom has stepped in. She has an amazing eye for decorating! She has put her ideas for my house on Pinterest, and I absolutely love everything she has pinned. For everyone interested in seeing her ideas for the house, here is her Pinterest link: http://pinterest.com/valiawinzenried/bosquet-plaisant/ . To save on money, a lot of these are going to have to be little projects for me like refinishing furniture to fit the theme. It should be fun. Here are a couple of my favorite ideas:

 I love the colors

 A beautiful bathroom with plenty of storage!

 an idea for the attic bedroom.

J'adore

And there are lots lots more on her Pinterest. There are ideas for the flooring, the walls, the ceilings, decoration, furniture, and so on! It is well worth a look. It gets me excited just looking at all her ideas. I can't wait to have a finished beautiful home!

The Pride

When we got married, Dan made a deal with me that I could get a cat when I graduated from the University. I lucked out when Bosquet Plaisant came with a cat. When we looked at the house last year, there was a cat that was friendly with Dan and me. Apparently, the owner, who I'll call Mr. Evil, thought it was a good idea to leave him behind when he moved! Thankfully for the cat, Dan and I both love kitties and were glad to have him. Bosquet Plaisant was vacant for two weeks before we finally moved in, and Mr. Evil left the kitty outside with an open bag of cat food. This attracted a couple of strays to the house as well. We named one of the strays Juan Pierre and the other Edmond Dantes. The domestic kitty was then named Mondego. Dan is a softie, so we continued to  feed the strays. Maybe someday, when we have some expendable income, we will get the strays to a vet.

 Mondego

Juan Pierre

Here's Edmond Dantes. He has really cute crossed blue eyes. We also think he's Juan's litter mate because they look very similar. Edmond often wanders for days before coming home again for a little food. It also took him much longer to warm up to us than it took the others. He's the most scrappy, too. He has bits out of his ears and scratches on his face.

Vegetable Garden

The house came with a vegetable garden plot in the back yard, and I figured I should put it to use this summer. I'm not very good at eating the recommended amount of veggies daily. When I buy them at the store, they usually go bad before I can eat them. Hopefully keeping a garden going will motivate me to eat vegetables more, and nothing beats fresh vegetables! While Mom and Dad were in town, I recruited them with helping me to chose plants and plant them in my garden. Katie and her girls joined us. The girls were so excited about the garden! I hope it means that I'll have lots of their help this summer.

Farmer Katie

Dad's wielding the dandelion killer

The last owners left their compost bin.

"Work Hard." The signs were backwards but they would not hear of it.

Day two. We treated ourselves to a Kneaders picnic.

Finished planting!

 We planted peas, beans, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, rhubarb, onions, shallots, carrots, melons, pumpkins, cucumbers, asparagus, chard (whatever that is), spinach, and broccoli. We also planted herbs like cilantro, basil, chives, oregano, and lavender. I hope I can Keep everything straight. The tomatoes are going through a bit of shock, so hopefully they survive. We'll see what I am able to keep alive and what I kill!

A Possible Second Story

One day, while I drove up my driveway, I noticed that the roof is very tall. It made me wonder if there was a possibility for a second story. I asked my parents who promptly brought our favorite builder down from Wyoming to check it out!

 The very tall roof

We were really hoping that there might be some treasures up in the attic forgotten by former residents, but that hope was dashed. There was absolutely nothing up there but a left over chimney from a now non-exhistent wood stove. On the bright side, we found that there is plenty of space in the attic for some additional rooms! We were thinking of having an additional bedroom and bathroom above the master bed and bath. We would like to put a loft above the kitchen that looks down into the living room. The living room ceiling will be taken down so that there will be a beautiful vaulted ceiling!
Here's what was found:

Do we dare go up there???

Some of the old rock wall coming up through the ceiling

Lots of old insulation

This will be the vaulted ceiling over the living room

 The brick is left over from an old chimney. We would like to keep it up and use it as part of the wall, keeping the old patina of the bricks exposed. Behind it is the space we would like to use for an additional bedroom. We would like to put the bathroom in front of the brick wall.

 Another view of the leftover chimney.

 My beautiful and brave mother standing in front of the loft area 

 Our favorite builder

There is plenty of standing room in the loft. He's measuring if we could put a wall there so the ceiling didn't slant all the way down to the ground. Maybe we will put shelves in the corners.

Rocks

This is above the kitchen where the old outer rock walls are poking up

More of the rock wall

Oh my! That needs to go!

A buttress keeping the house stable

Easter Decorations

Easter is my favorite holiday!

 The little girls colored these pictures and helped me decorate my eggs.

 The Easter Bunny got us stuff from our wedding registry.

 We even got a Kinder Egg!  And lots of Cadbury Eggs is a must

And here are some photos of me and the little girls' Easter party!

They got really good at this!

C'est moi