We're moving ... o;-p (NOT weather related)

  (I thought I should add that "NOT weather related" part, seeings how we're still in blizzard conditions here. I wrote up the draft for this particular posting early last week, back before Brent began to wonder if he'd ever be able to leave his plow truck! Read the posting... you'll soon catch on as to why then we are moving o;-p)


    Last weekend while I was looking on line for new pictures to use for our "Seasonal Smiles", I happened upon a picture of this dining room which I just fell in love with. I sent the link to the picture to some friends, along with a note which this is an excert from. "While looking for something else, I came upon this picture today." ... "Beautiful, yet friendly looking. Classy, yet not stuffy. WON-DER-FUL!!! YES PLEASE!!! :-)"
    For your viewing pleasure, here is that picture:

    {I found the picture via THIS link}

    Thursday I decided to use some of the words in the address for the picture and see if I couldn't find information about the building the dining room is housed in. I chose to use the words, "Thornewood Castle" to start my search. BINGO!  Immediately I had the a lead to the places official web site.
    Once the site downloaded, I just started smiling. What a beautiful structure! To me, it reminded me more of a wonderful, perhaps English, estate (with estate being the key word there) then it did a castle. And yet while it definitely resembles an estate, it's not one of those daughting type of places. You know, the ones that look like they are too classy for a person such as yourself to enter. This one looked classy, yet inviting. Not only did it grab your curiosity about what the insides were like, it gave you the impression that you were not only welcome, but encouraged to enter and find out. Nice!
    Then I read the very first paragraph in their left hand side bar. "Thornewood Castle is a 500-year-old Tudor Gothic historic site known as “the house that love built.” " OH - MY GOODNESS !!!!! Come-on! Byron had named our original blog "The House That Love Built"!!! And then when we moved to blogspot, together we had changed it to "The Bz House That Love Built". And now I'm reading that this beautiful estate is referred to as "the house that love built"?!?!?!  "Okay Lord, I'll take it!!!" o;-p

    As I went over the page, I discovered that the place is located in the state of Washington. In-fact, "Thornewood is 12 miles south of downtown Tacoma and 42 miles south of downtown Seattle in Washington State, USA.".  Oh my goodness. Just last week my blogging friend Nan had been encouraging me to come to Seattle and visit her. Seriously! Let's see, on NCIS 'Special Agent Jethro Gibb's" doesn't believe in coincidences. "Umm Lord, I hadn't planned to move across the country ...", but then I looked at the house again ... and re-read that first paragraph ... Hummmm. "But my 'kids' are here...".  We'll have to employee them to work in what ever business we use the place for! (I just did an 'Abby' arms crossed / head nod there. o;-p)

   I scrolled up and clicked on "Gallery". In retrospect, perhaps I shouldn't have. But I'm glad I did!!! :->!
   First I looked through the "Castle Exterior". All of it's gorgeous.
   Then "Castle Interior". The sub-heading read, "The interior of Thornewood Castle is comprised of 54 rooms, including 22 bedrooms and 22 baths." Yup, definitely going to need to hire help! The only thing besides changing a bunch of the pictures that I want to change, is there doesn't seem to be a library. Come-on, such an estate with out a library?!? It will have when I live there. o;-p. One with my dream window seat.
   On the "Castle Interiors" page, there was a link to the "Suites". Not sure which one we should chose to be our own private room. Most likely one of the ones with a view of the lake .... . Then as I scrolled down further I read, "These apartments are adjoining to the castle and may also be reserved for overnight stays." GOOD! Our 'kids' can have their own little homes right on our estate!! o:-]   (Oh, and they will no longer be available for outside rentals. ;-p)
    The next 'gallery' link I clicked on was for the "Secret English Garden". Cool! Brain has ALWAYS wanted just such a thing!! ;-p  And then they won me over by the picture of two young girls having a tea party in the garden. Gracious!
     I HAD to click on the "Weddings" link in the gallery. HAD to? YES!!! Because "my" Kate's reply to the email I had sent out with the picture of the dining room had been, "I want my wedding reception in THAT room. I'm just saying. :)". See?!?!!! o;-)  Question then becomes if we can be there in time for Brent and Kayla's wedding this October. Kayla had always wanted a princess themed wedding ... ;-> After all, one of the pictures does show a black and white themed wedding reception. And with that many bedrooms, well... we could house at least some of the relatives from both sides. At a price of course, chuckle, chuckle.  Oh and Kate, if Steve doesn't work out, you could always marry one of our sons and live on the estate - be our resident doctor.... o;-b!
     Any of our 'already married' friends could always book a 'repeating your vows' ceremony with us! ;-]
    Benson, you are going to be thrilled with the link title "Statuary"!!
    There are also links such as "Dock and American Lake" and "Christmas" (Brian, they showed a train track in one picture. Wonder if they'll leave it behind for you? ;->), and "Seasonal", and "Historical".
    Then came the gallery titled "Medieval Stained Glass". Above the pictures it reads, "Most of the windows of Thornewood Castle are filled with Medieval Stained Glass inserts. To add to his Castle and complete his construction in 1911, Chester Thorne purchased a special stained glass collection from a Duke in Europe who had spend 40 years collecting this collection salvaged from 15th &16th century churches. These are remnants, saved from a time when books and other works of art were being destroyed. Some pieces have specific dates on them, such as 1563 and 1650. There are approximately 100 of these special pieces in the house. In the past, a couple of university professors came to photograph and catalog our collection. They stated that there is not another house, that they know of in the United States, with this kind of collection."  " "Kids", I want you to be extra careful when cleaning those!" ;-p!
   
    There were all kinds of links under the heading of "History", as there also were under the headings of "Events" and "Weddings" (as in, info. about having weddings there, not just pictures of weddings there like were featured under the "Gallery" heading), and "Lodging".

   As you can see, I thourally enjoyed my visit to their web site!! What a beautiful inviting place!! ""Kids", are you with me on this?"  "Ummmm Brian ......" o;-p

(Seeings how your all snowed in today, you can take a couple of minutes and follow some of the links. Bonus! :-D)