Sunlight in Winter

March 2, 2022 When we first saw the house in May 2020 we just had this vision and understanding of how lovely the light would look coming through all the windows – despite the horrible condition of the house. Now, the filth and junk is cleared and the promise of the light (and the views) are coming true. These photos are the morning light… the westerly afternoons are of course different, and just as wonderful.

We put in hardwood floors in our Maryland home, and over just a few years, they became bleached from the sun. We have wonderful windows and views there too. We’ve decided that it would be impractical to install new wood (hardwood or engineered) floors in this room, because in no time they would fade and change color. So we are looking at large slate or slate-look porcelain tiles for the entire main floor, which will be entirely radiant heat. The idea of walking on a warm stone floor in the winter, or cool tiles in the summer…. sounds perfect to us. Area rugs can soften the look, add color and help mitigate the sound in such a large space.

The walls really define the space now, it is stunning how different the house looks when you can’t see through the studs anymore, and the rooms you were imagining before have actually come to life. The last photo shows a whole lot of extra building material leaned up against the fireplace surround… because well, there’s no other place to put it at the moment! But, for Bob and I, it makes it hard to envision just what will look right for that space. We will need to decide soon. And decide on the ceiling too!

Outside, the woods beckon and I’m off doing some snowshoeing, and discovering that others in the area are using the trails for snow machines…. on one hand it seems invasive for noisy, mechanical intrusions to the quiet forest, but I can’t deny it is easier to snowshoe on an established trail! There has been so much ice covering the snow and trees this year that the deer have literally been starving. They are unable to paw through the ice to get at dried grass and have been eating any twigs or branches within reach. I planted some mountain laurel bushes by the stone wall, selecting them because they are deer resistant and in fact are poisonous to deer. But the deer have been desperate, eating all the rhododendrons and even my mountain laurel. I’ve wrapped them in netting to try to save them, but they were literally denuded within just a few days and I may have been too late. 🙁 And speaking of netting, on a walk in the woods, I noticed a strange netted tree pocket, for lack of a better term. Old, and filled with leaves… who put it there, and what for?