First Peek at the New Home!

Hi, everybody! And welcome to our new home!

The place is a mess, but come on in and I'll show you around.

Keep in mind that we've only been here for a week. You'll need to use your imagination...pretend you're reading a Better Homes and Gardens magazine article and the house is beautifully decorated!

That means you'll just have to ignore the pile of boxes...but we love the floor!

We'll start in the kitchen...

Oops! I don't have the dishwasher installed yet! We'll come back to the kitchen later. 

Let's start downstairs, instead.

This will be my office for now. I'm currently working in the corner where you see my desk chair. Not much more will be done to this room until my current book is finished! Priorities!

Eventually, this space will be a third bedroom and bath (pipes for bathroom fixtures are already in place.) It will be perfect for guests.

The other part of the basement is the family room. Not very family-friendly yet, is it? Another work in progress!

The former owner left this room divider/bookcase for us, and we love it. On the left side is a tiled area that leads to the patio (it's a walk-out basement). It will be a perfect place to take Jack out (when we bring him home in a few weeks!) 

We'll get the rest of this room sorted out eventually. Let's go back upstairs.

This is the living room portion of the great room. The house has an "open concept" arrangement, so the living room, kitchen, and dining room are all in one big space. The master bedroom and a second bedroom and bath complete this level, along with the laundry room just off the kitchen.

Here's the dining room. We need to get a light for above the table...and a table.... Meanwhile, we're eating most of our meals out on the deck!

Speaking of meals, let's check on the kitchen again...

Yay! The dishwasher is installed and the kitchen is beginning to look usable! And look at that! My Instant Pot is busy cooking chicken for tomorrow's salad.

And now that evening has come, we have to go out on the deck.

Ah! Dusk in the Black Hills. Across the road is one of the many ranches in this area. There is another one behind us. Lots of beautiful empty space.

We'll just turn to the west to get a picture of Mt. Rushmore...

...and just like that, it's sunset! Mt. Rushmore is there, I promise. In another 30 minutes it will be completely dark and we'll be able to see the white granite lit up for evening visitors. Too bad that doesn't translate to a photograph!

We'll continue to work on the unpacking and settling in, but writing comes first! We hope to be ready for our annual Thanksgiving dinner in November, but meanwhile we'll enjoy our new home just the way it is!

Thanks for coming along for the tour!

Jan Drexler spent her childhood dreaming of living in the Wild West and is now thrilled to call the Black Hills of South Dakota her home. When she isn’t writing she spends much of her time satisfying her cross-stitch addiction or hiking and enjoying the Black Hills with her husband of more than thirty-seven years.