Capturing Contentment in the Everyday…
Pretty
It arrived yesterday.
Our Jotul woodstove. Haus Meister has wanted one of these for a good six years now or so… Every coming winter would bring a new plan to see if we could somehow squeeze a smaller model into our cottage, somehow, somewhere. Well, we couldn’t.
- It’s covered with designs, and I love the little Viking-boat-fellow in the corners.
Now I’m sure you’re wondering why we, who live in a place where it is summer 80% of the year, decided to tear out our gas logs and insert a cast-iron behemoth manufactured in a country where it is winter 80% of the year…
- Even when you open the door, there’s three sun images in the back (far back and sides) and a lovely star design in the front–you don’t see these until you open that door!
…well, where we are now, 2″ of snow could potentially strand us and quite feasibly without power. It happened twice to this neighborhood last winter and once at least the winter before. Now we can at least keep most of the house toasty and cook Trooper’s everlasting pot of mac & cheese! 🙂
Happy, Real
Ah, last night we opened the basement up for living quarters, officially.
That picture above is now this picture below:
- Stop jumping on the couch, girls.
We’re still hanging pictures and the spare bedroom still needs a little paint on the trim, a little dusting, and the furniture put back together, but now we can bring this room back into the rhythm of the house.
A place for reading…there’s more bookshelves in this room than meets the camera lens…
- yes, I’m pretty obsessed with England. Why do you ask?
A place for the kids to run around and play, or curl up and listen to a book. We already know where the Christmas tree is going to go and we can’t wait to see how the stockings will look on the mantel!
- One of these chairs is mine to sit and knit in…if I can get these goofballs off of it. 😉
Best of all, it’s a lovely place now to sit and rest in, to relax at the end of the day. We always knew we wanted to update this room, to bring it out of the dark paneled ’70s walls era into something warmer and cozier. It was on the “10-year-plan,” probably to be done around the time my parents retire and start spending 6 months of the year with us (my sister wants them with her the other six. It’s the retirement plan we made for Mom & Dad. We actually don’t know what they have planned . 😉 ). However, that leaky toilet fitting changed all of this and turned out to be the best disaster to happen to us.
- An evening’s repose.
Funny
Hey, P. G. Wodehouse is funny! You can see from the above photos that we nearly have two shelves full of The Collector’s Editions of Wodehouse novels. It’s a goal we’re slowly accomplishing, to collect every one in the series. Thank you, Amazon.com! I’ve written in the upper corner of the inside cover exactly when the majority of these arrived, mainly birthdays for Haus Meister or back in the days of his 3-week business trips. It’s been fun to pick up a book and see what I wrote before reading the story itself. I finished the book he received for his 31st birthday (the recent one) in time to start the book he received for his 28th. 🙂
Misselthwaite Matters 
Ah, so you have couch jumpers too? 🙂 And the basement looks fantastic and cozy– Great job! Visiting from the link up–thanks for sharing!
Your basement looks so cozy! And it looks like it is well enjoyed already 🙂
It’s a beautiful room! I especially like the stone fireplace and wood stove. We are all Wodehouse fans here too! And crazy about England! lol
I absolutely love wodehouse! i just read a biography about him and it was more than interesting. It seems he was extremely disciplined in his writing. -ok that was way random for a comment.
I’ve never seen your blog before, but I love you already! I’m so jealous of your Wodehouse collection. We are a bit obsessed with the British Isles over here as well.
I love your basement, I love how warm and inviting it is, I love jotul stoves, and I love PG Wodehouse!
All that awesomeness in one post !
what a wonderful room- and real wood fires are the best (but do you have a working carbon monoxide detector? I am paranoid that way)
Yes, I do have a working carbon monoxide detector. 🙂
I never read Wodehouse until after I met my husband. His family had a small collection of well-worn Jeeves stories in paperback form that were falling to pieces. I think I’m the one who introduced all of them to the Blandings Castle characters who, I admit, I think I like better than the immortal Bertie Wooster.
Greetings from another Anglophile! I’m telling you, my pulse rate nearly doubled when I saw your English Home magazine (an indulgence I rarely get to enjoy)! I am rather obsessed with England as well.
There is nothing like a real wood fire in the house! Three years ago, someone gave us a wood stove and we wasted no time in installing it in a corner of the living room. It’s made quite a difference (especially in all the crazy blizzards we had two winters ago) and is quite possibly the best home improvement we’ve ever made! You will love cozying in front of it this winter!
I like this room! What a lot of potential it has! I love all things English, too.
I found that copy of “The English Home” at a Lowes Hardware store of all places back in Oct. 2004. I never could find it there again, but ssh–it is quite possible I am getting a subscription for Christmas….
Oh, I’m not sure I wanted to know about the Wodehouse collector’s editions. I found you on LM,LD’s blog. Your basement looks lovely.
Nice work on your basement. Did you say that 2″ of snow could leave you stranded?? (btw, we’re having snow right now, in Connecticut! ahhhhhhhhh!!!)
As crazy as it sounds, 2″ of snow could strand us up here on the ridge. 1.5″ of snow caused a pileup of cars in our downtown area last winter. I didn’t even think our city had a salt truck until I saw it on the news a couple of years ago. 😉
That is one awesome basement! I’m glad that the repairs and renovations are done and you can all enjoy the space. We’d really like to have a wood stove someday as well (Ben grew up with one in his house) but it’s probably on our 20 year plan. We have damage from a leaky gutter to repair, and some sliding glass doors to replace first. Ugh, and lots of other stuff. The joys of home ownership, huh? Also: So. Jealous. Of. Wodehouse. Collection. 😉
The finished project looks great! I think the wood stove fits perfectly in the world of Tol Galen. 🙂