(Almost) Fully Furnished: Life at Bfth's Pocono Perfection.

 Friday morning the final (for now) furniture delivery arrived at our home.  We now have a dining room table and chairs, as well as a smaller table and 2 chairs for the "breakfast nook."  While we still need to put some finishing touches on the house (artwork needs to go on the walls,  may need a chair in the primary bedroom, and other decorative items), at this point our house is pretty much finished and where we envisioned it.

So welcome to Bfth's Pocono Perfection!

Pull on up and come on in.

Look out from the front porch area and take in the colors on autumn.

In the foyer/entryway you there is a small "tribute" to my parents and their love of the NJ shore.  There is another area by the front bay window that honors them. 

(Foster's Famous Crab Stick lives on!)

It's part of the living room area.

But today's pride and joy is the dining room table and chairs.

There's also the "breakfast nook" which separates the "bar" from the kitchen.  (No more sitting at the kitchen island for meals...not that I didn't enjoy it)

 

Pantry with door to nowhere!

Our last major furniture delivery had been the loveseat in the living room and matching sofa and chairs that went into the family room.

With only a spiral staircase to get to the loft, we haven't done much there.

Pool table came with the house.  My "addition" was the genie.  (Hubby has put games and toys in the closet up there.)

It goes offer an awesome view down to the family room

The French doors off of the family room and the kitchen both take you out to the back yard.

 (Waterfall is not currently working.  The pond will be "winterized" next week which would mean turning it off anyway. )

Going back inside, off of the family room 

Guest bedroom definitely needs a little sprucing up.

Down the other hall off of the entranceway (the "east wing")

First door on your right is the library

Across the hall is the office:

Across from that is the primary bed and bath:

(What a thrill to have our "own" bathroom!)

Just down the hall from the office is yet another bathroom:

And finally, the laundry room (Because as my son tells me, I LOVE doing laundry)

So there you have it.  This is our home in the Pocono Mountains.  Or is it?

 Now I'm not lying.  My husband and I do own a house in the Poconos.   But is that the whole story?  I left out part of the story.  To put it bluntly, we were able to purchase it because my parents died.  I was their only living child and I did my best in their last years to make sure that they were taken care of.  I made the difficult decision to sell the house they lived in at the NJ shore.  As a result of all of that sadness (and there was a lot of hard work too), I was able to purchase a house in the Poconos.

 I didn't tell you what I didn't want you to know.  The costs that are associated with the house that I didn't think about.  The plumbing and heating issues that needed to be addressed.  (I'm sure not showing the photos of the 6 hour duct cleaning that was done, nor would I share the cost of the 6 hour process.)  I haven't shared my worries that I might have made a mistake. (I don't think I have, but sometimes those thoughts sneak in.)  Or the worries about the fish, the pond and the waterfall.  Or the "fun" of cleaning it all.  Or that I don't know what all the buttons and switches in the house do or did.  (There's this one button that even the past owners don't know what it was for...if I push it will the world end?  Will the lights go off in a foreign country?)  Or the strange noises that I hear at night.  (All houses creak and groan, each differently.  And I've discovered that trees outside can make their own noises)

 And the photos that I have shared above, they are of the house.  However, they don't tell the full truth.  I staged just about all of those photos. I did my best to leave the day to day "messy" out of them.  The front porch, it was covered in leaves.  I did a quick sweep to make it look clean.  Do you think any of my house is as clean and uncluttered as it looks in the photos?  I moved stuff.  I cropped things out.  If you look carefully at some of the photos you can see what I missed (like my messy shoes on the mat by the French doors in the kitchen or the wires and clutter on the kitchen island).  I angled myself so that the rooms looked larger and more open.  I carefully selected the photos that I wanted to share. And I DIDN'T take photos of spaces I didn't want you to see:  the front entranceway where leftover boxes and bags are hanging out until we put them back in the car and bring them back to NJ where they can be filled again.  I didn't take any photos of the garage area (and that's a big area) because I don't want you to see it.  (It's not attractive.)  I wouldn't dream of showing you the basement.  There is a lovely stained glass window in the house.  It's in the attic.   You can kind of see it from the driveway, but it wasn't "pretty" enough for me to want to present. 

So what is the point of all this?  What is the purpose of this photo filled post?  I wanted to share two things when I wrote this.  First, I did want to share my joy of a "new" house; one where I had pretty much a blank slate where I could (and can) do what I wanted.  But in "showing off" I realized that it was what a former boss of mine called a "teachable moment."  (Do you really want to be taught?  Do you really need to be?  Probably not.)  What I write and post is what I want you to see.  It is the same for everyone else.  "Perfect" does not exist.  With technology, we have the ability to create a reality that is not real.  It goes back to the old saying, "if it seems too good to be true; it probably is."  Maybe this blog post doesn't matter much in the larger scheme of things, but when it comes to "real" issues and facts, you can't just take one person's words (or photo) for granted.  The truth is not on the surface, it's buried and we need to dig in order to see the whole picture (or learn the true story.)

That concludes Bfth's "lesson" for the day.  Now I'm going to grab another cup of coffee (pumpkin spice because it IS the season for it and I have yet to figure out who to make a cappuccino using the Miele built in coffee machine) and admire the beautiful colors of the trees around me.  (Which also means that soon there will be lots of leaves to deal with...and what is the strange tapping at the front of the house?  I think it's the birds in the bushes, which I know have to be cut back.  But maybe it's not?  Time for another household mystery.)