The End Of A Chapter titled Castle Yonder 1984-2011

     As of this morning, Castle Yonder is no longer my property. I signed over the title at what is called in real-estate jargon, a "closing." Thanks to the generosity of the new owner, I can continue to live here until the end of October; however, I have scheduled my move to Abingdon the end of September.

     I am excited about my new-to-me charming American cottage that I'll be moving into, but am so very sad about leaving Castle Yonder which Rocky put so much of himself into. He was an amazing woodworker and stone mason and did the giant fireplace that opened onto two levels on opposite sides. He built the bathroom vanities, laid the hardwood floors, and built bookcases and china cabinets. He built the log ceiling beams and the ceiling in between. He built two decks and a small and a large balcony. He used field stone to terrace planter beds so there would be no lawn to mow. He maintained and oversaw all this for close to 25 years, until 2004 when he got sick. What joy we had until then.

     Unfortunately, after he died I could not manage and was way too lonely to spend winter wonderlands here in the silence. Now Castle Yonder is no longer mine, but I have about five weeks to breathe in the air and the memories. I have loads of photos and would like to show you below a few of my favorite ones.

          

Evolution Of A Kitchen

Wow! It's been a month since I've written. That's because I've been running up and down I-81 from Castle Yonder to the Abingdon house which I've named Ruby Rose Cottage. The contractor and his helper have  been working hard and accomplished much, namely, a wall knocked down, a new one built, a door taken out and a French door put in, a window and a pantry added, all sheet rocked and primed.

In other rooms, a door taken out in the back bedroom with another one put in allowed us to put in 5 1/2 foot walk-in closets in both bedrooms. The contractor just added chair rail to the foyer and library/office. He has now started work on a deck off the kitchen, and the new bathroom should be started next week.

Kitchen appliances are scheduled to be delivered on Tuesday, Aug. 16, so I thought it would be a good idea for me to post the evolution of the renovation up to this point. Later I'll post the finished rooms. I hope to move in by the end of September.

This picture shows the north wall of the kitchen when the house was staged for sale. On the back side of this wall was a back porch with four large screened windows. It was very narrow but served as the major back door entrance into the kitchen and the house.

Unfortunately, in order to utilize the space given over to the back porch, the old china cabinet had to be taken down. It had been very crudely made so the wood wasn't good enough to be re-used, but I did keep the two doors which has very old glass in them. I'm not sure how I will use them, but stained glass panels keep dancing in my head.

The back porch. Entering through a screen door, you had to walk down this narrow porch to get to the back door entry to the house.  The porch wasn't wide enough to sit in and if you could have sat, you would be barely high enough to see out the windows.

 The other end of back porch showing the screen door and four windows on the left built on a concrete block wall.








Picture on right shows the door that led from the kitchen out onto the back porch.

This door, the china cupboard, and the kitchen/porch wall had to come down in order to enlarge the space to make a functional modern kitchen.

Here's how it looks now waiting for the new stainless steel appliances to be delivered next week:

The new hardwood floor (not stained yet and covered with the carpenter's tools) used to be the back porch. An inner wall was built so insulation could be packed between it and the old concrete block half wall which is still there. Instead of four screen windows, there is now one easy-to-clean window which will be above the new sink. Two doors were taken out and the entrance to the kitchen and back side of the house will be through French doors where a lone tall window used to be.

On the other side of the room, a pantry and a closet for the washer/dryer combo replaces where the former refrigerator sat. And the new range and white cupboards will sit where the sink is in this picture.

It's all so exciting!