On the Homefront: Welcome to Our New Mexico House!

Water-damaged ceiling in my basement office (what a lovely image
to start off my post!). 

Well, it has been quite the week here at our house in Georgia!  Unbeknownst to us, the water line to our refrigerator developed a crack which began to leak.  The leak was so small that no water showed up on our kitchen floor, so the water accumulated behind the fridge and began to seep through to the subfloor.  It then dripped down to the dropped ceiling above my basement office space, where I did not discover the damage until I went downstairs to file some papers in my office and found that a ceiling tile had deteriorated and fallen to the floor, where water was slowly creating a shallow pond in the room!

I rushed upstairs and turned off the water supply to the fridge, which stopped the leak, but the damage was done.  We will now be bringing in a mitigation service to dry out the sub-floor, and this will  necessitate the removal of floor tiles in our kitchen, leading to the subsequent replacement of the entire rather extensive tile floor on this level!  Luckily the mitigation company is experienced in dealing with insurance claims, and this type of damage will be covered by our homeowner's insurance, but it will take weeks to finish the work.  In addition, some of my books were damaged and quite a few photos, some in albums, got damp.  While the photos were not damaged, I had to spread out about 100 of them to let them dry.  I discarded a couple of the albums because they were too wet to save, so I may need to buy some new albums before I can put all of the photos away once they are dry enough.  At least this process will force me to begin sorting through my belongings and deciding what does and does not get moved to New Mexico, which is something I have to do anyway!

And speaking of New Mexico, this post is actually the one I promised last week with some images of our new house located just off the scenic Turquoise Trail, a much happier topic than water-damaged sub-flooring and ceiling tiles!  So take a look with me while I take a deep breath, relax, and try to forget about the upcoming chaos soon to descend upon our Georgia residence (this is a very long post, so prepare yourself):

The entry gate to the main courtyard which leads to the front door.

The main courtyard, with front door on the left
(you saw this image last week).

The entry foyer just inside the front door.

The entry from the foyer into the living room.

Notice the lintel above the living room entry opening.  The original owner of this house was a cabinetmaker, and he carved intricate designs into the woodwork throughout this house.  The house was extensively renovated by the people we bought it from, a three-person construction team consisting of a husband, wife, and the husband's brother.  The wife, who did the interior design, argued that some of the existing carved woodwork should be kept while the two men insisted on a total replacement of all original materials, and we are so glad that the wife prevailed!   I like to call my favorite design style rustic modern, and the combination of rustic original woodwork with the more modern contemporary aesthetic that this renovation team brought to the house suits my design preferences perfectly!

The back wall of the living room highlights the focal points of the
large and distinctive fireplace as well as the two big windows that
look out onto glorious views of mountains in the distance and a
landscape dotted with juniper trees.

The living room is quite spacious.

The door on the right is an original to the house, and is adorned with
carvings by the cabinetmaker original owner (you cannot see the carvings
in this photo, so I need to take better photos the next time we return).

This lovely kitchen is on the right as you come in through the front
door foyer, opposite to the living room.  The peninsula in the foreground
has a gas range, and there is a countertop overhang above that front
row of cabinets so that counter stools can be added.

This wall of the kitchen includes a built-in microwave drawer
and a wine fridge in addition to the refrigerator.

The wine fridge.

The built-in microwave next to the refrigerator.

The design of the kitchen is not a style I would normally choose, but it is so well done that I really do like it.  I tend to prefer natural to painted wood, and I do not like white cabinets, but the paint job is more of a wash than a solid color and the color is a creamy off-white, so I am happy with the cabinets.  I need to get a close-up picture of the backsplash tile, which is uniquely textured and one of my favorite details in the house.

The "ballroom".

The room shown above is just off the kitchen and is extremely large (too large for me to get a good photograph with my little digital camera which has no "zoom out" function).  In fact, it is so big that I have taken to calling it the "ballroom" because of its size and the expansive wood floor.  We are not quite sure if it was meant to be a dining room or a family room, but have decided that it will become a combination dining room/library for us.  The back wall (which you can see along the right two-thirds of the photo) is an unbroken expanse of blank wall, and the adjacent wall to the right which you cannot see is mostly blank except for an opening to the hallway for the two guest rooms, so we are thinking of having built-in shelves installed on both walls.  We certainly have enough books to fill those shelves and more (both my husband and I collect books and have a hard time getting rid of any, although we are making a superhuman effort to thin our collections before we move).

One of the two guest bedrooms (the other bedroom is practically a
mirror image of this one).

The master bedroom fireplace (this room is down a short hallway
beyond the living room).

The nook for the bed in the master bedroom - notice one of those
lovely carved lintels above the nook, as well as above the window
on the adjacent wall.

All three bedrooms in the house have a fireplace, so, including the one in the living room, there are four fireplaces in this house!  My husband is ecstatic, because he loves wood-burning fireplaces - in fact, I think that feature plus the spectacular views from the property were the primary reasons he decided that this was the house for us.  Personally, I am of the opinion that one fireplace in a house is enough, especially since I usually end up having to clean out the ashes and am always the one who makes sure that a chimney sweep gets called out to clean them once a year!

This little nook is located off the master bedroom just beyond
the doorway to the en suite master bathroom.  It is meant to be
a makeup vanity (the mirror has built-in lights on each side!),
but I will most likely use it as a desk.

These built-in glass shelves are located just to the right of the nook,
 and will probably end up holding my (greatly thinned out 😢)
stuffed animal collection.

The master bathroom.

The double vanity in the master bathroom.

Built-in storage shelves in the master bathroom.

The guest bathroom vanity (there is a shower enclosure to the left
and a bathtub on the wall opposite).

The guest bathroom bath tub, plus a small linen closet with a
refinished original door from the house.

I always find it difficult to photograph bathrooms because they tend to be small and narrow, but the above images give you an idea of the design in the two full bathrooms in the house.  We think the sellers did an amazing job choosing the details in these rooms.

This is the mudroom off of the kitchen, with an entry door from
a small courtyard that serves as a sort of "service entrance".

The nook for the washer/dryer sits opposite the bench in the previous
photo, and there is a small powder room right next to it.  I just love
those peeled log ceiling beams that are found throughout the house!

Another peek at the powder room.

This is the entry gate to the small courtyard leading to the mud room.
The mud room door is to the left under the porch overhang, and the
double doors at the back lead into the "ballroom".

The one room that I completely forgot to photograph is in the portion of the house on the left in the above image, which is just beyond the mud room/laundry room.  This very large room was the original work space of the cabinetmaker first owner, and is destined to become my husband's home office.  I will try to remember to take photos and post them at a later date!

A slightly different view of the same mountain range you saw
in last week's post.

The two-stall horse barn.

This area appears to have been used as a corral or perhaps a
riding arena - the fence needs some work, but it is usable.

One of two areas on the property where a former owner attempted
to grow grapevines!

Apparently a former owner tried to start a vineyard on the property, as there are two areas with supports for old grapevines (no longer alive) on the property.  Since this area will now be part of my horse's pasture, I will be removing the old support wires and posts so my horse does not injure himself on them.  I may also need to remove some of the young junipers which have taken over these spots!

🌵💙🌵💙🌵💙🌵💙🌵💙🌵💙🌵💙🌵💙🌵💙🌵💙🌵💙🌵💙🌵

By now you are probably wishing that I had divided this post up into two or more!  However, next month (tomorrow!) I will get serious about starting to sort through our belongings and deciding what will be coming with us to New Mexico, while at the same time dealing with the water damage repair work that will begin the day after tomorrow.  My posting schedule will probably be erratic and I wanted to get this post done now.  We are determined to aggressively thin out our possessions before what will most likely be our final move, and that means going through decades worth of accumulated objects.  The process will take a lot of time and I am not especially looking forward to it, but it must be done.  I will try to keep to at least a minimal posting routine, and will let you know how we are progressing with our move!