Ironically, it was just two years ago at this time that I turned the foster room into the foster room (it was previously Fred’s office, and I was using a bedroom as the foster room.)
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Have the Permanent Residents figured out that something is going on?
They know SOMEthing is going on, but have no idea what. Archie and Charlie like that the foster room is empty and available to them and Jake wanders through every once in a while, but I’m not even sure Newt, Dewey, Alice and Khal have been upstairs since the fosters left.
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Should we start thinking of names for the new place or do you already have one? Is the house bigger or smaller than this one?
I have a name in mind, but I want to wait ’til we actually live there so I can decide if it fits!
The new house is slightly smaller than this one – we won’t have a guest bedroom, but we weren’t using the guest bedroom here very much anyway (and when people come to visit, we can certainly make room!)
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Will there be some new chickens too?
and
Will there be chickens? (Just kidding.)
There WILL be chickens – but not as many as we had at Crooked Acres, probably around a dozen. (Famous last words, right?)
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Oh that’s great news! Congratulations!! I for one, (being the weirdo that I am) LOVE packing and organizing. Like Monica Geller level love. (Remember when Rachel was moving out and hadn’t packed her stuff, so she made it look like she was saving the packing for Monica to do as a going away present? And Monica was so excited? Yup! That’s me!)
Well you come right on over here and sit next to me!
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What will you be doing with the extra land, though? More room for cats? Or?
Chickens, a vegetable garden, fruit trees, and muscadines!
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You better get those permanent residents to work packing their things! Cats are such good helpers! 😉
So far they’re mostly ignoring me, though Charlie comes and watches me for a minute then runs away. (This makes me think of our dear departed Tom Cullen who haaated it when I used tape. He always chattered at me and then ran from me when I was pulling tape off the roll.)
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Sounds wonderful but the new owners may want to keep the cat fence, if I’d have known about it, I would’ve gotten it. And it’s already installed, bonus.
The house won’t go on the market ’til after we and the cat fence have moved out, so I don’t know how they’d know that there was a cat fence that they could have had.
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I feel you on the “we’ll do this next year” and starting to lay groundwork immediately and suddenly things roll much faster than you planned. I may or may not do that all the time myself!
We did that exact thing when we were at Crooked Acres – our initial plan was to start thinking about putting the house on the market in 2018, but we immediately started looking, we happened to drive by a house that was for sale while an open house was going on, we went in and talked to the realtor, and then things started rolling from there. (That isn’t the house we bought, but that’s the realtor we used!)
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Is this your most far-flung litter (Seattle, Arizona, West Virginia)?
I think so! We’ve had kittens go to Oregon, but Seattle’s as far as you can get from Huntsville without leaving the contiguous United States. (Note: it is my goal, during this foster-free time, to get a clickable map up and running so we can see just where Love & Hisses kittens have gone!)
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Here are a very few pictures of the new house – all taken by Fred. There aren’t more pictures because the owners are still living there and I didn’t want to post anything that felt intrusive. Once we’ve closed on the house, there will be more pictures!
The front porch. Lovely, huge… and I’m already pushing to screen it in so that the cats can go out there.
The great room – front door to the left, dining room (which will be the computer room) behind where Fred was standing, to the right is the living room, and further to the right is the screened porch. Down that hall is the master bedroom and a small bedroom (that will be Fred’s office; he works from home if you didn’t know that). Also, may I point out that amazing staircase? I can’t wait to go up and down those stairs 75 million times with boxes once we’ve moved.
This is the room that will be the foster room. There are TWO closets over by that window.
Love the built-in seat (so will the fosters!)
There’s the sink/vanity! 1 million kitten butts will be washed in that sink, I’m sure.
Yes, there’s carpet in the foster room. We will be replacing that – in a perfect world, before we move in. We’ve ordered the flooring and are waiting for it to reach the store so that we can schedule the installation. We have about a week between closing on the house and moving in, and are hoping and praying it works out right. (If they have to do it after we’ve moved in that’ll be a pain, but it has to happen – I’m not doing carpeting in a foster room.) There’s also carpet downstairs (in the master bedroom and Fred’s office) that will need to be replaced with laminate also, but that will happen later on. (Also depending on how that week goes, I may try to paint the foster room a color that’s a bit less neutral.)
The screened porch in the back.
The back yard! That fountain is leaving with the owners – I assume the concrete planters will be going with them as well, but I’m not sure. Beyond the fence, where that vehicle is parked, is the other half of our property. It’s not fenced in currently, but the fence around the entire back yard will need to be replaced in the next few years (it’s in rough shape), so I’m hoping Fred can be convinced that we need to extend the fence. I’d like to see it around that entire side yard, personally.
That’s an in-ground tornado shelter, which Fred is thrilled about. I don’t know WHY he’s so thrilled about it, I’d like to remind y’all that when the EF5 tornado crossed by about a mile south of Crooked Acres in April 2011, I was hiding in the hall closet and Fred was standing on the front porch yelling “Come look at this!”
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Alice Mo the calico will go wherever her Daddy is, yo.
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Previously
2020: “Hallo, you has a snuggle for me?”
2019: I’m thinking he might have liked that bath.
2018: No entry.
2017: Good morning, muffins.
2016: No entry.
2015: Gilda is doing the math in her head, because she’s not sure I counted right.
2014: “I ain’t foolin’ with you, boys. I’d hate to have to HURT YOU, but if you don’t leave my tail alone, there’s gonna be some serious hurtin’ goin’ on.”
2013: Paws up, y’all!
2012: “Wahhhhhhhh! I am STARVIN’!!!!”
2011: No entry.
2010: So, meet Lieu.
2009: No entry.
2008: I love the Paw o’ Doom. It cracks me up.
2007: “All full up on the petting for now, thanks.”
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
Heaven forbid but if there’s ever an opportunity to use that tornado shelter, we need a picture with you and all the cats. Throw a few chickens in there while you’re at it.
When we lived in Alabama the house we were renting had a bomb shelter that had a foot thick concrete top and the entire thing was foot thick concrete that went underground. We and some of the neighbors used it for a Tornado shelter a couple of times.
Good luck!!
The big question I have is – will you get a cat flap installed on the tornado shelter door? 🙂
This comment made my day! 😀
The answer will have to be “No”. One of the crazies would run outside during a tornado, cause Robyn to run in circles in a tither, make Fred go out into the tornado (willingly) and get himself whisked away to Oz.
Lol!
Good to have that tornado shelter. My grandfather and grandmother barely made it to theirs during the 70s tornado that demolished their house. Even then, my grandmother had to keep yelling for my grandfather to close the darn shelter door, he kept peeking out to see the tornado. Fortunately she finally won out and he shut the door.
The house/grounds look great. Looking forward to your updates.
Wow – it’s wonderful, inside and out!!! My first thought when I saw those beautiful stairs was how fun they’ll be for the permies, especially Charlie, and then whether there was a wrap-around balcony upstairs so you could easily rig a pulley for hauling boxes (the So Cal in me – always looking for shortcuts). And then I imagined tinsel and lights weaving through those railings…mmmMMMmmmm
I’m with Fred. I’d be at the door looking at the funnel cloud. Did that in Oklahoma with an EF4. Drove the rellies crazy.
Congratulations on the new house! The comment about washing one million kitten butts in the sink made me giggle.
Love the new place already, the stairway is gorgeous! That sink will really be huge bonus!
“Also, may I point out that amazing staircase? I can’t wait to go up and down those stairs 75 million times with boxes once we’ve moved.” Oh yes, GOOD TIMES.
My only experience with a tornado was a paltry (compared to an EF5 in Alabama) EF2 that hit here in Ottawa back in 2018. I was safely ensconced in a Costco and didn’t even realize something was going on until I saw everyone looking at their phones…
How old is the house?
Two porches, TWO! I’m so jelly right now, I love screened in porches. I’m sure the future fosters will not be as thrilled as you are about the sink in the foster room. Hope your transition goes well. WOO HOO
I love that screened porch! I’m also kind of jealous about the tornado shelter, since they rip through Iowa with fair regularity, too.
in the hall closet and Fred was on the porch ‘come look at this’… dead…so funny…
Best of luck with moving! Can’t wait to see how the cats acclimate…
Those porches…FABULOUS, absolutely fabulous. The tornado shelter makes me very happy: better safe than sorry. And I’m secretly glad there will be chickens again! I never understood the love for chickens until my mom got a half dozen, and then I found them quite fascinating. The sound of a contented chicken is almost as good as the purr of a happy cat. Plus eggs!
What do those steps on the back patio lead to??
Looks so great! That staircase is awesome! Good luck!!
Oh, the front porch is amazing! Out here in Catifornia, no one uses things like that. Or even has them. So, where are the steps going to the left of the fountain?
Love the two screened-in porches! Looks like a lot of space (that you can put your own stamp on, as the HGTV folks say).
I haz some questions, which (of course) feel free not to answer if too nosy. But inquiring minds want to know!
1. opening to a second hallway behind the open front door, or coat closet?
2. Is the distance between the bottom of the stairs and the front wall wider than it looks? (I’m assuming the answer is yes, because otherwise you’d be edging by where the staircase curves out!)
3. I also wondered what VirtKitty & KathyK. asked. Those stone steps in the patio–are they back steps to the tornado shelter, or what? Could see a kitty falling down there, or getting cornered by a raccoon at the bottom.
That 2011 Tornado. Holy JEEPERS.
The new house looks very nice. I am unsurprised that you want more yard, less house.
The stairs are beautiful.