There are so many "weeds" in this yard, I could not begin to count them and it's very difficult to imagine what this will all look like when it matures. There is a combination of love grass and mosquito grass which is designed to move across the yard in "drifts". Offsetting these are various beds of limelight hydrangeas and red ferns. Frankly, I'm just not that imaginative -- let's see what happens. The house is so symetrical, it begs for a yard that would be much the same but it is not to be (yet).  There are several very nice, large trees that I love -- the loblolly pines, deodar cedar, cryptomeria, the dogwood allee all work for me. Just not sure about the grasses.

The side garden should be fun and manageable. The 4 raised beds are currently filled with sage, thyme, basil, chives, etc. Hopefully, next year I can have the soil ready and learn how to start a few things from seed. But -- there still seems to be a lot of water. We've altered the soil twice but when you dig down to the bottom of the rocks -- it's wet! They swear there's no leak in the irrigation system. Can't stand to think what this could mean. Guess I better look for plants that are suited to a bog.

The back veranda is perfect -- it will always be fully shaded in the summer, but has a southernly direction for the winter. The brick floor is easy to keep and the mondo grass and slate patio area are no maintenance for me!

Slowly, piece by piece, things are starting to come together at Serenbe. You've all been after me for more pics and I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to update the blog. Just so much going on between houses and work. This will give you an idea of what's going on inside, although there is still quite a bit to finish...

This is the living room. Johnny hung the mirror for me -- it's from the condo as is most of this furniture. I thought it worked out great, better than in Florida. Once the furniture went into this room, it made me rethink the draperies (which were going to be a rusty red pulled from the sofa fabric). But, a softer neutral will work better as there's so much going on in here anyway.

The arched doorways on the left and right of this room are nice -- this is the view looking toward the sunroom. I brought the big buffet from the house in Roswell -- fits much better here. As you can see, there are still many bare walls.

Not much furniture in the sunroom yet. This loveseat and chair are new. The loveseat is 44" deep -- but the cushions make it more comfortable for small people and it should be perfect for napping and watching TV. The chair is not so comfortable -- never order a chair that you didn't sit in. I know better. It looks good, but isn't very comfortable.

Looking from the kitchen toward the sunroom. The french windows have shades and the windows across the back will have cafe curtains -- yep, regular old cafe curtains on a rod. I'm love plantation shutters but I don't want to move the furniture every time I want to open a window. The cafe curtains will be much more functional and I think they'll be a neat change and because they won't go all the way to the top of the window, will let in lots of lights and keep the trees in sight all the time.

The kitchen is probably my favorite room -- no surprise. Not sure how 2 sinks are going to work out. I really wanted a prep area separate from the clean up area, but I seem to just be constantly walking back and forth. The light fixture you see was hanging over the bar with another fixture over the table. It was just too much, so I nixed the bar light and put in a fan and put that fixture over the table. Worked out better and kept the room open. The dining room table is also from the condo. I replaced all the nicer stuff I pulled out of there with very inexpensive furniture -- hopefully the condo will sell soon although the Florida market still shows no signs of recovery.

Did I say the kitchen was my favorite room -- hmmmmm, I might have lied as the library is where I always want to be. Now this chair is comfortable -- the most comfortable chair I think I've ever sat in.

Do you have a  Scott's Antique market close to you? We have one in Atlanta which is huge -- so much neat stuff. I got this table for about $300 -- solid as can be with perfect aged patina. Real wood, no veneers. The chair is a reproduction, but another nice find. The lamp actually goes in my bedroom but I haven't found what I want for the table yet.

So there you have 3 rooms -- more later. In the midst of all this, Bev and I took Noah & Madison (ages 8 and 10) to Washington, DC. I timing was perfect -- we were there during their first heatwave of the season. It hit 98-100 every day with humidity that felt like the Everglades. I thought I would die, but there was nothing to do but keep on keeping on so we did. I'll post more on that later.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! Especially to my two bothers and two wonderful brothers-in-law. You could look the world over and wouldn't find 4 finer men anywhere -- seriously. I hope their day is as special as they are.

I'll work today and go down tomorrow to manage all the other deliveries (beds, W/D, cable, phone, more furniture, etc.). Now that you can do so much shopping on line, stuff is being delivered from everyone. A table from here, chairs from there, lamps and accessories from other places. It's somewhat of a mess to manage on the backend.

Hopefully, all the plantings for the garden area will come in this week. The shed & garden are perfect -- small enough to be manageable.

Aaron and Shawn Baker. Woohoo!

Noah and Avery. They took their jobs very seriously and did it perfectly.

Shawn (who made an absolutely exquisite bride) and Avery.

Avery was quite the dancer. All she kept talking about was dancing with Uncle Johnny and she wasn't too happy about having to wait so long! (Thank you, Johnny) But she didn't stop with Uncle Johnny -- Thomas was her best partner. The groom and his Uncle Harold.  The groom dances with his Mom.

Today is my birthday.....it's my party and I'll cry if I want to is more like it. The sweet grandkids called me early to sing happy birthday. Avery asked me how old I was to which I responded, "oh, about 30 or so". I heard her turn to her brother and say, "she's 30". When Noah got on the phone, he sliced me to the core with his "Momma says you look really good for 60". WHAT!!!! I am NOT 60 -- a long way from it. Ok, not so far. But, darling daughter, do not add any years to the many I'm already carting around, thank you very much. But gee kids -- what difference does it make how old I am as long as I can still pull out the old pocketbook! And go to Nepal to ride elephants. And sit in the floor and help you put puzzles together. And make chocolate chip pancakes. It's just a number. Right?

Serenbe -- no, we haven't closed yet. But, progress continues.

The backsplash behind the stove. I think I could look at this forever. Really simple, really classic. The powder room is muraled on all walls. It's a landscape scene all in sepia. I love it. The kitchen garden is a work in progress. The aging accelerant has been applied -- which helped a lot. Now all the cedar is silvered out a bit. Notice the little cupola on the garden cottage? The cupola is cedar and still needs to have the accelerant applied. The finial is aged bronze. The cottage has shutters and a split screen door.

Doesn't look like we'll close this month, but surely by mid April (she says hopefully). We've all survived the lot scalping and can't wait until all the new trees green up. These dogwoods create a beautiful allee to the front door that will only get prettier as the branches spread and blossom across the walkway. This week I'm hoping they'll lay the pavers on the walkway and driveway. There are many "little odds and ends" that must be tended to before we can close. I'm very happy with all of it -- the design, the materials, the colors -- it's beautiful, peaceful, sunny and far toooooo big!

The little kitchen garden in the side yard was really an afterthought that grew. First to raised beds, then to a little garden shed, then a wacky fence that breaks all the rules. As soon as there's something to photograph I'll share. It's really neat! It's all cedar so the plan is to let everything simply age (altho we'll probably accelerate the process). Aren't these Cryptomeria beautiful?

We were worried it would be too cool to spend much time outside, but it actually turned out to be a very nice day. A little chilly, but fine weather for kids to run around trying to find plastic eggs stuffed with money and candy.

Last Thursday night, Bev and I almost talked ourselves out of the Nana/Nina Egg Hunt and lunch -- it was going to be too cold, too much cooking, too much noise inside, yadayadayada. Of course, by Friday it was "what are we thinking"??? We have to keep doing all these things until we simply can't do them anymore and we're a long way from that. So...it was off to the grocery store, pull down the recipe box, stuff the eggs, and just get on with it.

The kids were great -- noisy, whiney, rambunctious, hungry, mad, silly, pouty, sweet, sleepy -- all in one afternoon. LittleA gets to be the queen with 3 boys, although the decibel level of her voice could melt paint off a car so she can definitely hold her own simply by screaming every now and then. That straightens everybody out.

Like Peter Pan, I wish they would stay this age forever....

The grandkids are better -- finally.  Noah ended up with both strep and pneumonia, so no wonder the little guy felt so bad. Of course he wanted to spend the night with me when he was sick and I said yes. Miraculously, I've not caught anything (knock wood).

The house is coming along -- maybe two or three weeks and I can close (I hope). Shutters are on, we've started the kitchen garden along the side of the house. If you enlarge this photo, you'll see a very rough fence. In all of the Hayes Town houses I looked at, a fence similar to this was a feature. It's cedar, rough cut (a little too rough, but Johnny says he can clean that up with a skil saw) and then simply left to age.

They've started the little garden cottage which will be so neat -- all the tools and stuff right where you need them.

The kitchen fireplace has been bricked and the hardwood floors have been stained. The downstairs oak floors are a rich brown, English Chestnut.

Never say never, but I don't think I could do this again -- design and build a house (while working a 50-60 hour week). There is simply not enough time. I almost need to be at the house everyday, or at least a couple of times a week, and that simply isn't possible. I have a great builder -- but so much is in the details, the minutia, the things you didn't preplan. So far nothing has been a disaster -- wellllll, let me rephrase that -- we've been able to correct or modify all of our disasters so that I can live with them.

Soon we'll be looking at the finished product.

We're in the final stages of the house -- the really slowwwwwww part. Hopefully, they will begin working on the floors today, some of the landscaping will start today, most of the lights are in (now we just have to remove the ones that I didn't like once they were up which really excited the builder), the balance of the countertops should go in this week. I'll probably go down there Saturday and will try and take some new  pictures.

Noah -- "NaNa, do you know what a McLaren is?" he asks between random spoken facts about the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, The WWI and The WWII, as well as the Vietnam War (he wears me out).

Me (with the utmost confidence) -- "sure, buddy, that's a type of baby stroller your Dad sells on the internet."

Noah -- "Noooooooooooo NaNa. It's a CAR. It costs about a million dollars and goes 300 miles per hour."

It does cost a million. It will do 300 plus kilometers per hour. And, no, I'd never heard of it.

My experience with Avery wasn't much better. We'd prepared dinner together and sat down at the table, napkins and silverware at the ready. She has beautiful table manners for a just turned 5 year old and I complimented her on them as she wiped her mouth with her napkin. When we finished, I stood up with my plate and walked to the sink. Her comments:

Avery: "NaNa, you didn't say 'May I be excused please'".

Me -- "oops, you're right, Avery. I can't believe I forgot that."

Avery (I can see her little mind working on something, but I wasn't expecting this) -- "It's OK, NaNa. I guess since you live alone you don't say that to yourself every time you get up from the table."

I started to say "honey, I don't even sit down at the table most of the time," -- hated to tell her that sometimes I fix myself a sandwich and stand at the sink to eat it, no plate at all.

There's been so much stuff going around here -- flu, not-the-flu-but-really-bad something else, Avery's had pneumonia, Noah had a weird rash all over his body, I've had a hacky cough that won't go away. I think we're being invaded by some new viral species. Hope you are all well!