Hello Friends

Here we are, heading into the “Ber” months! Today, it certainly feels like September is coming because it is in the 60s here. I can feel the seasonal change—shorter days, cooler temperatures, and gardens that are starting to need some deadheading. Even nature’s choir has changed, with the chirping crickets taking center stage! It looks like our patio is already adorned with fallen leaves, which is a bit early for this season. It may be a reminder that autumn is arriving sooner than we might expect! And look what I saw just yesterday. Our Japanese Maple had a few of these to say, Fall is coming!

Babysitting

I babysat this past weekend. I’m whipped! Someone has become very active. And he is chatting up a storm. He’s counting to ten and a tad more. I also heard him repeat the sounds of many letters! He is a bundle of joy! A two-year-old bundle of joy! I sure do love him.❤️

A Photo Prompt

I recently took the photo above of the dining room while sitting in the sunroom. That photo prompted a conversation with Sweet Man over coffee about the story of our sunroom.

I told him that the dining room was once a carport. That’s the original ceiling from the carport.

Our place was once a cottage where my parents and siblings came on weekends from Pittsburgh. Dad eventually enclosed the carport, and a dining room was born. He later added a small deck off the dining room, which was eventually screened in and carpeted with that green fake turf. Oh goodness! 😂

I don’t have any pictures of that back porch but it was well loved!

My parents spent many hours sitting on that back porch drinking their coffee. Mom tended to her plants while Dad read the newspaper.

The only problem was that they couldn’t use it in the winter.

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So, they hired a construction company that tore it all down, doubled the size of the back porch, and turned it into a greenhouse off the dining room. Now they had a four-season room!

We celebrated many Christmases and Easters in that room, surrounded by Mom’s plants. And thankfully, that fake green turf carpeting was gone and replaced with light carpeting!

That greenhouse served our family well for several years.

Then We Came Along

When we purchased the house from my siblings, the greenhouse was leaking. So Sweet Man tore it down—one curved window at a time.

We hired an Amish crew, and they built the sunroom we have today. We stained all of the interior wood in the evenings so the Amish builders could put it up the following day.

We also had them put up our fence in the backyard. We went out into the country to purchase hemlock from the Amish lumberyards.

Back to the Sunroom

Fast forward, and we have put our own mark on this special place while keeping many pieces from long ago.

We still have the scale that my Dad used when he was a metallurgist in Pittsburgh for US Steel. Dad’s little bulldog statue still sits on the floor. The skis in the corner belonged to my brother, who painted them to make them his own. And hanging on the wall is a watercolor of a vase of flowers, painted by my other brother for my Mom more than 40 years ago.

Then we came along and turned this room into The Edinboro Room.

We decorated it in red, white, and tartan plaid—a little nod to the Scottish history of Edinboro. Sweet Man added his own history and personality with the dental cabinet, the thread cabinet, and that live-edge coffee table he made.

I, of course, added my own touches.

The White Corner cupboard came from a barn sale. I painted it white and added my red-and-white transferware. My sister gifted me the teacups. Then I added all the ruby-red glass I collected as a young girl when I went to garage sales with my Dad. That red glass has a lot of sweet memories.

We are not minimalists as you can tell. We both love to collect, and we display our collections. This corner shows how much I love silver, displayed in a pheasant egg basket purchased from an old pheasant farm. Flowers, even if they are faux! Strawberries! Tartan plaid! Old Trucks! Oh, and that bucket with a cheerleader and a football player represents sweet man and me. In our younger years, of course!

Here We Are Today

And finally, here we are today.

Morning coffee. Family gatherings with lots of conversations. A room that is open to the dining room and becomes the heart of the house when our family gathers. The rooms may have changed, but the memories stay, even as we make new ones.

It amazes me to think about all the changes this little spot has seen over the years. From a small deck, to a screened porch, to Mom and Dad’s beloved greenhouse, and finally to the sunroom we enjoy today.

But through all of those changes, one thing has remained the same.

This space has always been about people sitting together and enjoying life.

And today, our sunroom continues doing exactly what that little screened porch did years ago—bringing people together.

One coffee cup at a time. ☕️❤️

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