lavender, your house is going to be beautiful, charming, cozy--can't wait to see you enjoy it! I've always wanted a screened porch off the master bedroom, exactly like your idea (but, instead of a hot tub, I want one of those platform beds suspended by ropes.)

Love the breezeway and large mudroom. I have a couple of pics, saved from magazines, very similar to your mudroom picture. They've been tacked to the new airlock/entry wall for 3 years, so I can look at them as I pass by!

lady lavender ...

i'll try to update your plan when time permits ...

hope that all is proceeding well :-)

Your plans look wonderful. What fun it will be to transform your farmhouse to your dreamhouse. We'll be looking forward to updates on the progress!

Is your mudroom/porch going to be fully enclosed? I like the breezeway too. We need to do something to get from house to garage under cover, but we can't figure out how anything would work there, other than just extend the porch roof.

Where are you putting all the stuff from the house? That's always the worst part too. That's when I wish I had the guys from the tv show The Hoarders, who will bring everything out and lay it out for me to go through.

Lavender, my hat is off to you, Lassie. You have kept at it to the very end. And I so admire how you can take advice and incorporate ideas from all quarters. Then too, Summerfield is a wonderful talent to have in your corner. I'm proud of you both, and you can include your DH in that too.

Now you can take the rest of the night off. Have an extra cuppa tea. :)

Thank you all for the wonderful feedback!

Mama Goose- Your kitchen is amazing and it's given me so much confidence that we can get this done...even if we have to take our time and do one step at a time. I'm sure you'll get the mud room done, as soon as the kitchen is finished.

Summerfield- So good to see you back! No rush, but of course, I'd love to have an update (LOL) I've missed you on the forums...and no one else calls me lady lavender :)

Krayers- Thank you. Your dining room has been a big inspiration for me...and I plan to make my own cushion and pillows, too.

Marti- I'm hoping to glass in the mud room, but have screens, so it's like a porch, in the summer. Most of the stuff in the house is not ours, so most of it will go to family and whatever's left, probably to Goodwill.

ML- I am going to make a cup of tea, right now! Thank you for all the support and ideas, throughout the process. Your tea house has been so much fun to see, from idea to creation...I hope we can all have tea together (even if over the computer) when it's done!

I did find a wood stove (from AGA no less) that looks like it might fit into my little corner, very nicely. While I'd like to have a little fireplace like this, I don't know if it will fit, but I love the look.

{{!gwi}}

I love that stove! Tell me again what direction the back of your house faces?

LL That is a darling little wood stove. Can't wait to see pictures of your actual farm house. How exciting to get the process started.

LL Cute stove. We had a woodstove for several years. They're great to back up to on a cold winter morning & fun to put a pot of white beans or soup on to slow simmer. Enjoy!

Marti- It is a cute stove and made for smaller homes and apartments. Perfect for my country kitchen. The back of the house faces northwest and the front faces southeast.

Shades- Thank you...I'll try to take some pictures, now that there's less junk in the farmhouse. Although, it's still pretty full, but at least I can get to some of the windows and fireplace.

Krayers- That's what I was thinking about...perfect for a cold winter morning. A pot of soup sounds wonderful, but I mainly want enough room for a big pot of water. If the power goes out, I'd need it for tea :)

it'll be great to keep you warm if the power goes out too. it's darling!

all this tea talk makes me want some. I haven't had tea in yrs. I was raised drinking tea. As a young'n I loved a hot cup of tea with some toast! when I get moved in i'm planning on taking up tea drinking again. I quit coffee yrs back when I got sick (tho I might have some again sometime soon).

my sister bought me a tea pot a few yrs back in hopes of getting me back to tea in the winter but that box got lost in here with the tons of others waiting to move...I think it had purple on it. and I hope I do find it...

Now THAT is an adorable little stove. I imagine, "Polly put the kettle on" right there. I think my grandma who had such a stove kept a cast iron kettle on top of hers, for humidity in the winter time. And then made tea as well. But waste not, want not, that pot of beans in a dutch oven on top there would work fine too.

I hope you also remember that a little potpourri would add a welcome scent to the air, and I know JUST the mix. I simmer on the burner half/half water/vinegar, and add ground cinnamon and cloves. It makes the whole house smell like apple pie, and will remove every kind of odor, from fish to diesel oil....believe me, if it can take away the diesel smell, it is potent stuff. At home, I have a small tea light candle with a small crock on top, and that is quite enough to scent my small one-level home.

Steph, it was LavLass, the Teahouse, and reading the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series of books, that has me on a tea binge you might say. I just received yesterday my "bush tea" which is what Precious Ramotswe in that series drinks. African bush tea is rooibus from South Africa, and it means "red bush tea" and boy is it red, and no caffeine either. Celestial Seasonings makes the one I bought. My teapot these days seldom cools off before I'm making more. And I also use it to brew up a cuppa BETTER THAN BOUILLION. I'm really into the kind of refreshments that are easy no-cook stuff.

Do they sell that stove in the US?

Dekeoboe- Here's the link to the stove. They sell AGA ranges in the US, so I'm hoping they sell the wood stoves here, too. I'll try to check tomorrow and let you know :)

Steph and ML- I'll be having tea tomorrow, over on the Cottage Garden forum (Conversations side) about 3pm ET. Come over and visit and have a cup of tea! LOL

Here is a link that might be useful: AGA Little Wenlock Classic SE

LL, do you have any idea how much those stoves cost? I like the low emissions.

Marti- Let's see, an AGA...probably a LOT! LOL

But, it gives me something to show the stove guys around here, so they can compare it to a stove with a similar size and heat output. I don't need a large stove, but they don't seem to understand that...so maybe a picture will help :)

Oh my gosh...all my pictures disappeared! They're still on photobucket, but not showing up on the thread. Can anyone else still see them?

Anyway, if or until they come back...I do have a question for you all. I've been doing some measuring on the OUTSIDE of the house...and I may have a problem with having the pantry/laundry and the mudroom/porch in the back. My husband really wants a big covered patio area back there and on such a big farm, it's really a very small backyard. The horse barns and pasture run behind the house, as does the septic system...so I thought I'd try one more modification of 'the plan' :)

I tried 'cut and paste' and it looked awful (too many different sizes) so I just drew it on graph paper....one square = one foot. It's very similar to my other plan, but the dining room is back in front (as I've had it before) with the half bath and laundry on the side. The porch/mudroom is off the back and making these changes saves me about nine or ten feet on the back...and creates a better view out the kitchen window.

Part of what I like about this option, is that there's a larger entrance into the dining room, without the wood stove in the corner. And now, the wood stove has more space for the little brick hearth (like the picture) and it's what ML would call my 'away room' LOL. So, what do you think? Any possibilties?

{{!gwi}}

Wood stove with hearth...in case the picture doesn't come back, above.

{{!gwi}}

Inspiration for dining room window seat, except I'd like a bay window.

{{!gwi}}

I think this little bench is so cute...I'm thinking about putting something like it, in the front entry :)

{{!gwi}}

I love wicker, but so do my kitties' claws. In the sunroom/porch, I could have wicker and there's a door to keep kitties out, when I'm not in there with them!

{{!gwi}}

Darn the pictures are not showing up. No idea why.

No, I can't see them either. Did you change the file name or anything?

No, but I can't find my pictures on other posts, either. I'm going to try reloading the pictures and see if that helps.

I think this will work, so let me know if you can see it. The link seems to be working better than the photo, in the post.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

I think this is working, so I'll post a link to a few pictures that people seemed to like, in case they want to save them for their own files.

Here's the AGA wood stove. I think the brick fireplace looks so good, with the wood stove, that I'm considering doing the same look, in the sunroom :)

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

This is such a cute bench, I'm thinking about putting something similar, in the entry.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

Finally, here's the window seat again.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

Yes, I can find US prices for AGA ranges but I couldn't find any US prices (or websites) that show the AGA stoves.

LL is this about the same as the first plan you had? I can not remember all the transitions but this looks good to me.

Dekeoboe- I couldn't find any either. Maybe e-mail one of the websites, in the UK and ask them?

Shades- LOL! I have the same problem...there have been so many variations. I'm glad you like the plan. The right side of the plan (entry, living room, bath, bedroom) are all the same, as is the kitchen...I just put the dining room in front and the laundry/half bath, where the porch is now. I really like the woodstove in the fireplace hearth, so I'm thinking there would be more room for that in the sunroom/porch, than the corner of the dining room. Plus, if I want another fireplace surround, I have to save a few pennies, elsewhere :)

I'm going to try to upload a picture...and see if it finally works :)

{{!gwi}}

Bummer. Have you thought of switching to tinypics like someone else suggested?

I use picasa for my blog and when one album is full, another starts automatically.

Marti- That's a good idea...maybe I will look into using another photo site. How do you join picasa?

Mine came with the blog, but go to this page on their website and open an account. I'd walk you through it, but I didn't do it that way.

Marti- I opened an account and got my pictures into an album. Thank you for the help :)

Now, can you tell me how to post pictures on the GW? Do you have to post the whole album?

What I do is right click on the photo, click "Copy Image Location", then come here and type: , but leave out the spaces after the thingys.

Leave out the space after the .

Let me see if this will work...

{{!gwi}}

Marti- Thank you! Finally, I have pictures, again :)