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Create an accountThe Stone House: First Sleepover
Our first sleep over at the stone house occured over a kid-free May long weekend.
On the way we stopped at Yorkdale Mall to buy some linens for our bed, only to discover that RH only sells via online (despite their new lavish mall showroom). Scandalized, we grabbed a bite at Jamie Oliver's restaurant, which was actually quite good. We are Jamie fans. I preamble with this to say that we didn't really arrive until about 3pm.
We set up the bedroom. Well, at least the kids who aren't here with us are all set up. We slept on the mattress cover.
The upstairs woodstove didn't end up where we had planned, which is making the space cramped in one corner. Kind of annoying but where we wanted it we had to install the kakelugn, who's pipe comes right up through the floor to the roof. We had really wanted a sitting area for in front of it but now I am not sure what's going to happen.
The kid's beds are from Ikea.
Early kitchen set up: it's called making do. We have a fridge, a bar cart, a stove and a kitchen table. Keen eyes will note that our table is the Enfield Table, our own production. Early review: we love it.
Here John is firing up the wood cook stove for the first time...to reheat our leftover pasta from earlier in the day.
While we unpack our meagre kitchen items we realize we forgot one essential: mugs for our morning coffee. It's getting late in the day as far as small town life is concerned so I do the 7 minute drive into Stirling and find a little candy/novelty shop that is open. Success and relief! The town provides.
While we wait for the stove to fire up, we go on a walk about.
6:20pm
Our lawn maintenance pal Mike makes sure to mow us a path through the meadow, as well as a few openings to the stream, making it quite pleasant to wander around and check out all the sights.
Look at that copper trough. So. worth. it.
We were in total awe of the light on this particular evening. It was the warmest of welcomes. The trim, having been painted recently from white to drop cloth, was the perfect choice.
Walking through our small orchard that is comprised of about 5 apple trees, with I think two varieties of apple. Last year we didn't get any apples but the year prior we had some really tasty ones.
You can see the drive shed in the background. To the immediate left would be the farmer fields (not our property). To the right is a tiny sliver of a forest, and then the stream.
This was the first time we experienced spring at the stone house. Apple blossoms!
Two more angles.
A peek inside the drive shed, with feed bag ghosts.
Dinner is served, in Jicon dinnerware.
Time for another walk about. The view from what will become a corn field (not ours).
7:48pm
That night we watched some Westworld and then a bat woke us up at 3am.
Our first morning waking up. I am shocked that this photo was taken at 9:52am, seeing as how the sunlight just comes right on in, and we wake up to the vistas that surround us. Then again, we continue to be sleep deprived parents, in this case, without said children to deprive us.
Coffee table is the Fly with Pietro di Fossena top.
The gloomy day was actually lovely to experience. We anticipate many gloomy days ahead. Lighting is essential.
Left is the Kalmar Hase floor light and a Castor oil lamp which is one of our favourite things to use at the stone house.
Right is the inaugural kakelugn lighting...base plate to follow this coming weekend!
I think we just puttered about after breakfast. John installed stuff, I scraped the paint off some windows (the exterior painters sure made a mess of them!).
Lunch time already? Keeping it simple.
Very pleased to see a lilac tree out the living room window. This was the first window I cleaned and I loved sitting on the sofa just gazing out this window.
Time to walk about! This is from the driveway. John has Piet Oudolf meadow dreams for this space.
Spoiler alert: grass won, not by our choice but by its sheer tenacity.
View from the road. Farmer's field is not ours. Our land is kind of triangle shaped. To the left of our drive is a little bunch of trees and a stream and the property widens out past the house.
Took a walk to check out all the lilacs growing roadside. Can you smell it?
The old pasture and holding pen, lined with lilacs.
Foraging some dandelion leaves (haha).
What are these yellow plants? Pretty in the spring but they run absolutely WILD and take over. They are next to the stream. UPDATE: Marsh Marigolds.
Heating up dinner. I mentioned it's all about slow living right? I am literally posting photos in order that they happened. This was our day. Puttering, eating and walking about.
I can't get enough of this Castor oil lamp.
Dinner is served, courtesy of Matty Matheson's leftover summer stew that he served at Mjölk's Brian Richer exhibition opening.
On this evening, we were also visited by a bat. I will assume it was the same bat as the first night. There always seems to be one bat. I of course know there are like 50 bats, but there is only ever one at a time inside. It's like they stumble in accidentally, I can't even figure out from where because we sealed so much up. Anyway, this time John managed to get it downstairs and out the door, using a Jaime Hayon Pillow.
On our last day we grudgingly decided to get the primer painted. We added water to the can because the paint is quite thick (suggested) and used a regular roller for this part, just like you would with regular paint. We also didn't use a tinted primer so the end colour is a bit different than it would be.
Not gonna lie, painting always seems like a great idea, like no big deal when you start, but it always takes longer than expected. Then again, the results are worth it.
Final lunch of the weekend. Riveting.