Our New House

God found the quaint 55+ mobile home park that we moved into. It is a small park filled with homes with beautifully manicured front yards (not just planters but yards actually big enough for grass and plants!), and streets lined with Kinkade-style street lamps and personal mailboxes.

We are in the highest house next to an open field and only have only one immediate neighbor - Carol. She's a lovely little old lady who came over when we first moved in and shared her faith with us, which brings me to another vital point...most of the residents in this park are Christians. Imagine that! Not only did God give me everything I wanted on my list of must haves for the new house, but He put us in a park of like minded individuals.

This is my lovely brick lined front porch. It was more than I hoped for. I will be removing the garden window and replacing it with a paned one s I can put more furniture  there. The open field is to the left and all the windows face the mountain range where our cabin is located.

This is my back patio with a yard which was something I didn't even hope or ask God for...

You can see the large storage shed that came with the house. It already had shelving built inside that was more than adequate to hold all of our stuff and it had an extra refrigerator! We've unplugged it since we are not using it and we couldn't see the point of using the added electricity, but during the holidays when I hope to entertain it will come in very handy. I hoped to plant hydrangea bushes in the raised planter, but the garden center said they wouldn't do well in the full sun so I will probably pick some type of viburnum. Right now there's nothing in the planter as the plants that you see in there now were totally unsuitable for the area.

This is my art studio. The windows face the mountain range. I was elated at how much natural light I get which is perfect for my painting. It is large enough that it fit all of my storage caddies, sewing table, and a large table that I have my painting and drawing supplies on.

Another plus that we didn't count on but saw as a definite sign that this was the house God wanted for us was that there was a dog door large enough to fit a big dog located in the craft room and the house had a fence yard. It was amazing to us that we should find a house with a dog door of this size especially since it was a park that only allowed dogs under twenty-five pounds. The other amazing thing is that they accepted Shilo sight unseen with the restriction that like all the other dogs in the park he couldn't be walked on streets within the park.

 Here's my lovely step in garden tub which I've already enjoyed. The master bath is very big. It has a small shower though so we use the double sized one in the other bathroom.

This is the second bathroom which has a large linen closet and full sized shower.

This is the master bedroom. As you can see it has mirrored wardrobe doors. Something that I never asked the Lord for, but was a bonus.

Here's  picture of Eric's study.

The kitchen with more cupboards than I every hoped to  have and wasn't something that I even prayed for. The garden window looks out on the meadow and mountain range. Eric was thrilled that it had a dishwasher so he no longer had to do dishes and the kitchen has its own hot water heater so you get instant hot water from the faucet. We still haven't gotten used to having a garbage disposal. After 17 years of using a trash can it's a hard habit to break but we are learning. Another perk was the wooden floor. Yep, no dated linoleum flooring. Yet another thing the Lord provided that was not asked for.

A lovely dining room with a hutch that once again was hoped for, but not prayed for...are you getting the idea yet?

A lovely family room that is set in the middle of the house and not adjacent to the front room like so many are in mobile homes. This has drywall and not paneling.

This is the living room which is located at the front of the house. As you can see it's filled with lots of natural light. It is west facing but due to the custom screens and drapes you never even feel the heat even with the curtains opened.

The chairs and sofa are a story in and of themselves. The last time that we visited the house I sat in one of the recliners while we were waiting for the home inspector to complete his inspection and I jokingly said to the owner that the chairs would have to stay. She asked if we really wanted them and I said, yes (since we had no furniture fill the room with) she sold them to us for $100 and threw in the sofa for free! So once again God provided and exceeded our requests.

This is the front of the house. As I said the yard is large enough for a lawn. Right now it's filled with smooth round pebbles, but soon we may be able to have it landscaped. The tree has to go and will be replaced with shrubs and flowers. The inspector told us it was brushing up against the house and wasn't beneficial to the screens or eaves. I was hoping it would get flowers or turn color, but it did neither.

The used brick work was a perk as it was similar to the mobile home I fell in love with in another park but was not for sale. Here's a picture of it and it is a design I hope to replicate on our house.

Obviously I can't plant the lovely hydrangea because our house has a narrow planter, but I was surprised and pleased to see that our house had the same used brick that this house had...

I hope to paint the house this color and add the shutters and brick work to the sides. I don't know if I can do both so If I have to choose it will be the shutters. I want to replace the front widows with dual paned ones like in the picture. Once again the brick work on the two houses is similar. I want to paint our house this way as well. I love the traditional look of this home.

So that's the prayers that the Lord, answered for us on just the house. God is good!