We bought the farm, really.

The Farm has a Tractor!

2012-01-22T16:52:00.001-06:00

I almost hate to post how much we "stole" this for because it seems like a crime......Mr. B is a VERY happy man! We got this tractor for $500. two zeros. that's it, yep. Not much wrong with it either. They got it started and figured out a few minor things that need done.

Here it is in front of the barn looking so like it belongs here. That barn might blow over tomorrow, but it looks soooo farmish, doesn't it?

We worked on the house!

2011-10-12T20:22:00.001-05:00

We are having a little spurt of work going on, just a little one. We have needed to wrap the outside to keep it from rotting out there. So this is pictures of that and a little bit of framing.

Here's Bryan (we still work him like a dog) closing up some old window openings that are going to change. This is the west side. (above)

This is the back, or north side. This shows the new opening for a future double door or window/door combination. And there's a small window opening in the bathroom that will be in the back corner.

Here is the west side a day or two later with all the new window openings. The upper is boarded shut from the inside.

Here is a shot of those windows and the front of the house too, from the inside. I'm standing upstairs in the "loft".

Beginning to wrap on the west side.

Yes, I work too. (Bryan wasn't there!)

Another shot from the inside. Straight forward you can see where the steps going upstairs start. To the left will be the living area. I am standing in the would be kitchen.

At this point we have the lower portion of the west side and back wrapped up. I don't think I took a picture of the back. We are framing the window openings where they need to be as we go. And here you can see a new wall famed up dividing the stairs from the rest of the house. Hopefully soon there will be a wood stove in from of that wall on the main floor. We plan to put up a rock wall that will act as a type of radiant heat.

This is upstairs where a bedroom/office loft will be.

My, have things changed!

2011-06-27T22:19:00.000-05:00

We've gone a long time without working on this house at all. But in recent days we decided on a bold new plan, a plan that drastically reduces out cost of pulling this together.......

For quite a while, years, a small area of the second floor was removed for a vaulted ceiling. It was in the middle of the house and likely would have been the entry or the dining area.

This is from outside after the windows were removed. I can't tell ya how looong I have been wanting to see that happen.

Here in another angle during the progress of removing more floor!

The ceiling above the dining room when it was still there.

process......

The new upstairs will have a master bedroom and loft where the home office will be.

A little rest for the weary......

a couple of pictures from different angles. 3/4 of the upstairs floor is now gone!

You can see the dining room from up above here.

some recent tree work

2011-06-15T16:16:00.000-05:00

Looking toward the west border of the property.

now zoomed in some

a few more marked for our next wind of ambition

Though we don't live here, we are out here a lot. Much car fixing goes on out here. Haven't made our break yet, but it's coming!

This isn't the same exact view, but it's a good example of how thick and ingrown the tree situation is. Too many small ones under the big ones, which isn't good for either.

3 years later.....Let me correct that~it has been 4 years! and 5 months since we bought this place!

2011-03-29T14:16:00.001-05:00

A little more than three years ago we bought this house. It's been slow going! We haven't done anything to the house for a little over a year! But this past week we resumed work and hope to keep on a roll for the winter if we can. Here's a peek at what we are working on now.

We are enclosing the front porch to enlarge the house. It will extend the living area 8 feet across the front of the house. I'll put some more pictures but I hadn't posted in so long I couldn't wait!

mudroom idea

2011-03-15T17:48:00.001-05:00

I came across this picture. It's almost exactly what I want and will work great with the shape of the room we have to work with. So I'm just keeping it here for now.

more pictures of recent work

2011-01-25T08:56:00.004-06:00

This is how the front of the house has looked for over a year. There was a porch, but it was falling in and we had planned to enclose this space as part of the house.

A couple of kids here helping, I'm just not sure in what way though.

More helping, or something.

Here's some real helping. They are pulling off siding to get down to the studs so the new joists can be connected to the house.

This is from the side.

And here is how it looks closed in. We are calling it "the box" now. There will be a front door on there somewhere and we plan to put a new porch too. The last picture is from the inside. This was all done at least a month or so ago, I'm just now getting around to posting!

Our First Chicken Eggs!

2010-08-10T16:58:00.001-05:00

We visited The Country Place today and we were pleased to find our first eggs! This is what you call productivity! Now, if we could just get a little work done on the house! We've been a little busy for that I guess! I'd like to get back to my recycled walkway project soon.

The chickens have nesting boxes.

2010-06-19T19:42:00.002-05:00

Not much else going on besides feeding chickens and mowing right now. We're bound to get busy sometime soon, so don't go away. The chickens are 3 months old now. We got this great nesting box set up from someone who wasn't using them anymore. Nice, huh? Not free, but bartered. No need to convert the blue boxes now. What should I do with them?

Recycled walkway progress

2010-06-11T09:00:00.002-05:00

Here is my attempt at a recycled concrete sidewalk so far. I have to get some plastic edge strips and get back to it. But so far I think it lays out kind of neat. I got some help from the boys hauling the sand and broken concrete which has been in a pile out back all neat and just waiting to be repurposed.

The inner half circle will be filled up with some better dirt and I'll plant some flowers. It will be a real bright spot.

a sign of life

2010-05-30T21:20:00.001-05:00

I was surprised to find these white irises by the side of the house. It was a nice surprise though, because these are the only flowers out here! Then we found a big bull snake really wanting to find a way into the chicken coop. We caught him in time though and I hear that one of the boys wants to make a belt out of the skin. Great plan of revenge, though I don't think I'll be able to look at it. It's still giving me the creeps!

These boxes should be turning into roosting boxes pretty soon. We should be gathering eggs in 6 weeks or so. The boxes were 50 cents a piece! I love a good deal.

Inspiration anyone?

2010-04-23T23:19:00.003-05:00

We have a small pile of broken concrete that I thought could be turned into something nice and useful. Then I saw a picture of a little sidewalk made of broken concrete, but lost it. Then I saw some more pictures. What do you think?

complete coop and chickens on the move....

2010-04-20T13:15:00.000-05:00

The chickens are about 5 weeks old here. Their box was gettin' really crowded and stinky! That's all folks!

I got my potting bench!

2010-04-16T22:23:00.002-05:00

You'll never guess how much it was.....nothing! Well, it was an hour or so of one son's time. Thanks, it looks great and it's going to do the trick. It was made from all used lumber, much of it from the burn pile that we haven't burned yet. Here it is:

very rustic, huh? that's trash for you. that there over yonder is the chicken coop and the door on the end is the garden shed.

upcoming project (hopefully)

2010-03-24T16:20:00.002-05:00

I'd like to get my hands on one of these or possibly make one out of some scrap we have laying around. oooh, better retrieve some from the burn pile before it goes up in smoke! It'll go in my "garden shed" er, uh, the small side of the chicken coop.

We Have a Chicken Coop!

2010-03-20T16:25:00.024-05:00

I'm really glad this man here loves to use big equipment to do amazing things. It makes him thrive. We got this small building for free from just across the road. They are clearing an abandoned property for planting. The other younger man in the pictures was there to help. Oh, and I was there to help too, can't you tell? was behind the scenes support. Yeah, that's it.

And there she is. I would really like it to have vertical red siding with white narrow strips of siding. That style looks so classic. We'll have to put some windows in those openings. This is facing south just as it should be. It fit on a slap that was already there. Sounds like a bunch of providence to me! Thanks for the chicken coop Lord! Yes, I thanked the Lord for a chicken coop.

THIS POST shows what was on that slab. and THIS POST shows the old chicken coop that we pushed over and burned. It had its problems and it was huge. We're really not going for a chicken farm here. This new one is a great size and all we really need to do is put the doors back on and patch a couple of holes in the floor and it's ready to use. This would not include the chicken coop makeover that I have in mind.......you haven't heard of such things?

CHICKENS, HERE WE COME!

28 days til' spring causes antisipation....

2010-02-19T12:13:00.004-06:00

I guess all this cold weather/cooped up season stuff tends to have me looking at magazines a little more than usual and the idea factory starts to pick up steam. One thing I have been thinking about is to put the laundry sink/counter in soon so we have a working sort of kitchen area to use when we are out there working. And I've been looking at pictures for a open type of furniture looking base for the basement sink/vanity for the bathroom. Let me know what you think. So here is the space where the laundry sink will go. This is right inside the back door, the first thing you see when you open the door. I think I want to put my front loader washer/dryer set UNDER the counter instead of stacking them to the left. I like the idea of having a larger counter area and the sink that I have for the space is pretty big. After all, I'll be bringing in armloads of fresh garden vegetables daily, right? *we'll see she thinks* Sounds good from here.

Here's some ideas for under the counter laundry solutions.

You get the idea (s) anyway, right? Don't think I'll go for the two washers/dryers thing. If you have twelve kids, that's the way to go though. I think I should consider baskets and shelves instead of cupboards with doors over the counter space. I can make that work better with the existing ones without clashing. I am liking the chalkboard green paint on the wall in that first photo.

Ok, now for that sink/vanity I have for the basement bath........I do think some faucet replacements will be in the future though.

So these are some pictures I have found while looking for vanity ideas and I think I could really make something like this work with my $30 sink top w/faucets *he hem* I was hoping this would bring the commenter out in all of you. How bout' it, why don't you tell me what you think?

snow in drifts....

2010-01-02T08:36:00.004-06:00

It snowed a whole lot more since my last post! There are big drifts everywhere. Back in the trees the snow is several feet deep.

what happens when winter comes to this farm/dream thing......

2009-12-20T10:28:00.007-06:00

..........boy, I had to think really hard about my password! It's been way too long since I've been on here. Winter came and we got busy with other things. And there's so much snow in the driveway that I would get stuck anyway! I'm posting pictures here of the winter wonderland country house property. Other things we have been keeping busy with have been truck repairs, homeschooling and work. Bryan is posting about that major undertaking. I always think that this wide open landscape is so beautiful with snow on it. But personally, I haven't been out here in at least six weeks, if not longer. Some of these pictures look a little bit like a junk yard with snow on it. So, for now we are keeping warm and doing whatever else there is to do right now.

one-third bath/thirty bucks

2009-10-08T12:56:00.002-05:00

Well okay, maybe this doesn't quite make up one-third of the bathroom, but it sure does help. And yes, it was only $30!!! c's list comes through again. The faucets appear to be almost new. They are not what I would pick but they are just fine. The connector hoses look new too-ready to hook up!

a sneak peek

2009-09-26T21:55:00.004-05:00

I couldn't stand it, I just had to give a sneak peek.

The small picture just shows the current state of the exterior. (east side)

That old pantry cupboard

2009-09-19T09:37:00.004-05:00

I've been working on my cupboard. I can't unveil it yet. But when I'm ready, I will. I have it all sanded down and some of the new paint on. The desired finish it going to take several steps so it's taking a while. In this picture I had just begun to sand, clean and remove the stuff stuck to the counter top part. stay tuned......it'll be great. Hopefully I can work on it later today, after I paint for someone else first! Will I have any energy left? we'll see.

a good day

2009-09-19T09:16:00.005-05:00

"Tire Amnesty Day" came around again. Once a year a person can get rid of tires for free. It's a good day! This is an old picture of PART of the dreaded tire pile. At least they were mostly in one central location on our property. (finding the silver lining in the storm cloud) I'm told we got rid of at least 400 tires. I went back to the pile and checked, I hate to say it, but it didn't look like half of them were gone. But the area was really overgrown with weeds too. What's left are the tires that are on rims and we could not take them like that. I did not take a new picture, too many weeds. But hey, hooray for tire amnesty day! We just take progress any way we can get it.

WHAT a day!

2009-09-06T22:54:00.008-05:00

This diamond shaped window has been buggin' me forever, so today it got taken out and covered up. yay. The one in the closet was taken out too.

We did have to take time out to relax now and then. We made BLT's. So, how do you like the rustic look? I like it better than that yucky metal siding. I especially hated the black shutters.

We had the use of this lift for the whole day, for FREE. It was a long day indeed. We tore all the aluminum siding off the house. And then we tore off all the wood siding. Then there was the clearing of the mess that had to be done. We used our old van to move some of that to a burn pile, we felt like some real hillbillies. We put some thin foam insulation on one side after that. Like I said, it was a long day! We made toast for the first time at the new house today. wow. How could that be exciting? can't explain it, sorry. It's just plain exciting.

more plumbing and a pocket door

2009-09-06T10:45:00.003-05:00

These pictures show the washer and dryer hook-up installed. Also a sink drain nearby. Getting closer to livable all the time. The other picture is showing the installation of a pocket door frame for the "water closet" which is just left of the washer/dryer hook-up. No door yet, but this had to be put in before the wall could really be closed up. That's all for now. Look for another post soon. We're off to work some more.

we have modern plumin'

2009-09-03T18:50:00.006-05:00

Well folks, we have a toilet installed! (it's in the "water closet", a very fitting name for the space) This is huge. We also got a lot of the other plumbing in place too. It's a great start. It was a rainy day, so we spent several hours our here today. We plumbed, cleaned, reorganized and I worked on my cupboard some. Last night we had two deer come into the yard while we were eating dinner. It makes us want to move! You can just barely see a tail in the picture with the weeping willow tree.

SATURDAY!

2009-08-29T22:01:00.004-05:00

Oh, I can say for sure it was a big day. Lots of things happened today. The back door got replaced with the front door because the frame was rotted out and could not be reused. So you can see various stages of that here. We made the steps turn the corner. The bathroom door got moved over to where it needs to be. Some more flooring got put down. This really makes a difference because it's easier to clean up with everything clean and level and all the patched holes and cracks are covered up. I worked on my cabinet. Remember that pantry cupboard I posted about oh say a year ago? I'll be showing that transformation soon. I'm excited about that. You can see it in one of the pictures by the "new" back door where it will be permanently after I finish it. So, it was a long day, but a productive one too.

the MUD ROOM deconstruction and reconstruction phase 1

2009-08-28T10:59:00.010-05:00

A few older pictures for reference at least. It's been almost 2 years now since our purchase of this place. We've come to call it many things; The "New" House, The Country Place, The Country House, The Farm. Don't know when we'll move or when we'll finish, but currently we are on a roll to get done the things that we can get done. Here we have the back corner (northwest) of the main floor which will be the back entry/laundry/mud room, which will include a very small half bath.

Abi watches while daddy pulls the junky rotting "deck" off the back porch. This is what we did the first day we ever worked out here shortly after purchasing "The Country House".

That junky deck before we touched it. eeeeeeeeeh.

Dirty and clean, I hope you can see the difference. I have kept busy sweeping the endless supply of sawdust, nails, and insulation still falling out. I also clean the windows, some are just hardly worth cleaning. But it is giving the place a cozy/homey/ sparkly feel. I would never have believed it would, but it even is starting to smell better!

Close-up of dirty (and broken, boo hoo) yuck!

Yikes! They started without me. We are removing one corner of the house on this day to rebuild it. The basement door on the right will move straight up a few feet and become our back entry. Hopefully we can remove it easily enough and in one piece and reuse it for now. The storm door will have to go though, it has been flopping in the wind for months on end.

Tearing off a little siding to get to the inner layers.

Deconstruction part way done. From a little farther away.

The space just beyond these stairs to where Bruce is working will be our back entry/laundry with a tiny half bath to the right. Hopefully that little bathroom happens really soon. We are spending a lot of time out there.

Big hole in the house. This corner was a porch at one time.

Hank the Bird Dog

Jacking up the corner
From the outside.

Reconstruction comin' right along.

Sam pulls nails so the studs are ready for sheet rock.

Another kind of inspector. THE BUILDING INSPECTOR

Abigail handing nails out the top of the unfinished new wall.

Andy, also pulling nail, everybody helps today!!!

Hank checks out the reconstruction here and I think he smells a mouse or something.

Well folks, that concludes a very busy, long, hot, dusty day at the new house. It feels really good to get so much done. Come back soon because there's more to come in the near future. Maybe we'll get that back door in and a toilet somewhere. You'll have to check back.

most recent progress

2009-08-27T12:43:00.012-05:00

STARTING AT THE TOP LEFT TO RIGHT: 1) A beautiful rainbow appeared one day recently while we were working on the house. I thought it was a nice sign. It was so pretty to see that through the trees with hills all dusty in the backdrop. It really makes us want to live there. This picture was taken from my dining room window! Lovely, huh? It's really a nice spot. The location is up high enough that you can really see some nice views.

2) These are not really in the order they occurred, the small ladder is in my closet doorway, and a nice closet it will be. Walk in, turn around.

3) This picture is of tearing up the old flooring.

4) Here I am in "my room" showing that the walls are almost completely framed. By the end of that day they were. The light that you see beyond the stud wall is the old basement door which we will basically just move straight up to the new floor level there. This will be the back entry, laundry/mud room. It will wrap around my room here with a hallway leading to the dining room. neato skeeto :)

5) This is looking into what is becoming the bedroom doorway. This is the back end of the house/main floor. This shows a broader angle of the back end of the house which will end up being the master bed and bath with a generous closet plus a laundry room/back entryway/mud room and eventually a very small half bath which I am dubbing "the water closet". So you see an existing door an the far left corner, that is part of an L shaped room for laundry, etc. And that's what we have been doing here lately.

6) This is another view of the back of the house. This area was formerly the kitchen, back porch, pantry and bathroom. Our near future goals are to have this back half of the main floor livable and at least one bath at usable stage either in the basement or by my room. And then just maybe we'll move. You can see the old toilet and tub in place as a visual prop.

demo complete! and other fine happenings......

2009-08-18T09:41:00.006-05:00

We had dinner in the country last night, pork chops and potato wedges, also some carrot sticks and happiness in a cup (instant pudding cups). And don't forget the sweet tea and candles, which were totally unnecessary because the sun was really beaming through the window. I cooked in town and then brought it out. We spent the late afternoon into evening actually finishing the demolition on the main level. This included blowing all the stuck on insulation out of the rafters thoroughly, so it looks really cleared out. We are considering some revised plans that could enable us to move in quickly and use two levels instead of the basement if someone should buy the town house soon. I cleaned windows, they now look half way decent and what a moral booster that was. Later I'll find a before and after of THAT drastic difference. The front door even looks halfway presentable! It's amazing how just removing 20 years of dirt, grime, and fly poo will make that much difference. Oh, and I also got lights! They even operate with a switch.

These small pictures are the other fine happenings. The boys have been spending a lot of time out here working on Bryan's truck. Sam has been practicing his blacksmithing too. If you can't tell what they are doing, Bryan is blowing his carpet out with an air hose, a new form of rug beating? Bruce is stripping paint off of the grill to repaint. Good projects are going on and there's no time to be bored.

camera not working right

2009-07-20T15:16:00.003-05:00

Well, we got the old place mowed, but the camera does not seem to be working right or else our "rechargable" batteries are shot. It looks better after we borrowed a friend's crusty old tractor with a brush hog thing a ma jigger behind it. whew! It was startin' to look a little abandoned.

it's a jungle out there!

2009-07-14T17:45:00.003-05:00

Our only access to equipment like say, a brushhog, is borrowing/bartering right now. So the place is lookin' pretty wild! I mean wild! Abi may look like she's in a tropical jungle somewhere, but she is not! She is fifty feet away from the house. It is just overgrown everywhere. The good news is that we should be able to get our hands on some equipment one evening this week so I'll show you a new picture after it's all mowed up!

rain, rain, go away....

2009-06-17T17:39:00.003-05:00

Well, the pasture was more like a swamp with all the rain we have been getting. And those whatchamadoodle "flowers" really grew a lot, ya know, the ones you can get a fine for NOT destroying. We sprayed earlier in the year but they are pretty tough and we have not been able to keep them under control with all the rain and without a brushhog at our disposal. So, we hacked them down as a way to just control them a little for now. We found a bird's nest in one of the other weeds, this should be some hint as to how tall the pasture really got. And then it's mullberry time again so Abi picked a cup or so of those.

boys and their toys......

2009-05-02T21:18:00.003-05:00

a little moving of hills.....

a small amount of "mount trashmore" is now underground.....

a little uprooting of trees......

a little piling of trees.....

a little finding of baby mammals......these are mice, we (well I should say Hank) also found some little bunny rabbits......

a little mowing of the grass.....in between about 10 breakdowns (old piece of junk) but you can't expect much for $300......

a little jump starting of the piece of junk just to get her going.....

have you ever heard of jump starting a lawn mower?

still here........

2009-04-28T23:36:00.003-05:00

'jes waitin' for harvest time......

months ago.....

2009-04-03T16:06:00.005-05:00

It's nice to see the transformation. Whew! I feel better already! The top/left is current. The bottom one is before we did anything to improve that side. The other pic is somewhere in between.

the next step toward a concrete slab....

2009-04-03T15:53:00.004-05:00

next....

2009-03-21T22:37:00.004-05:00

We are preparing to pour a little concrete. This frame here is outside the basement doors. Won't that be so nice not to step in the mud? I think so. At the same time we will patch the concrete in the bathroom, and then.......a toilet. Toilets are good.

steps in the right direction

2009-03-15T10:10:00.004-05:00

Here is a little progress on the bathroom. There are stud walls now and all the underground plumbing. You can see where the tub will go to the left. To the right, out of the picture, the plumbing for the sinks is there too. The weather is entering a warming trend so I expect things to look up and I think I'll be posting more progress soon. We also decided to shrink this bathroom down by a couple of feet so the kitchen/living space can be bigger. It is still plenty big for a bathroom.

I'm floored!

2009-02-05T15:14:00.006-06:00

For a loooong time now the basement ceiling has been open over one of the bedrooms, uh, the one that's going to be mine! This hole was the former basement steps and also the whole back porch. We now have closed that up, yeah! I also have framed walls with insulation. This is such big news. Now, on to that bathroom remodel! (hopefully)

what's going on?

2009-01-20T10:22:00.006-06:00

Well, things are a little slow right now. So, for the time being, the farm is a storage unit and another electric bill. Oh, and maybe a playground. I guess we should have just gone to Hawii for the winter. Stay tuned, we'll be back soon enough.

we have a few mice to deal with

2008-12-20T20:40:00.003-06:00

I WILL be waging war on these little creatures. I saw one run straight across the floor out here yesterday! It didn't even TRY to hide. I realize this picture is really a RAT, but we do not have rats, that I have noticed so far, anyway.

we lit a fire!

2008-11-14T17:49:00.007-06:00

Who doesn't love a fireplace? We have really been looking forward to lighting our first fire in this one. Once the chimney was together, we didn't waste a minute. It's a real milestone. This little tiny picture is to show you my PINK ceiling, ugly, but it will keep the heat in.

getting more done on this blustery day

2008-11-11T15:06:00.003-06:00

Sheetrock, wiring, etc.....having a work day since it is raining and chilly. (Just glad it's not frozen, yet.)

2008-11-11T14:55:00.002-06:00

We are getting closer to lighting a fire in that fireplace. Bruce is installing the blower motor here and then he put the glass doors on. Upstairs he continues with the chimney pipe.

here a little, there a little....

2008-11-07T20:40:00.003-06:00

Well, on this evening we did quite a few different things. First of all, some big tools were cleared out. The the night was spent sweeping and organizing. Some insulation was put in and more rock was put on the fireplace. The framed wall you see behind the 'kitchen counter' was put up, that will separate the bathroom from the living space. Now the space looks much less cluttered and obstructed, but there's still plenty to do before living here!

finally room to fly a kite!

2008-11-05T20:18:00.008-06:00

----------------------

blue skys

bright kites

wind

and one of our last warm days?

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Rural Reflections

2008-11-05T20:11:00.004-06:00

still rockin'....

2008-10-28T12:38:00.005-05:00

This is proving to be more time consuming than we thought it could be! We think it's starting to look very 'rich'.

we really rocked today!

2008-10-25T21:53:00.011-05:00

The fireplace is well on its way now. Today we insulated the chimney cavity and covered the outer surface with cement board. Then we eagerly dove into the fun part. The fireplace is going to look beautiful soon.

I was really wishing the chimney had been complete as I sat there getting a little cold after the sun went down. Abi was helping daddy make a template on the floor. This is the ideal way to map out random rocks, but we ended up abandoning that and just 'flying by the seat of our pants.'

I am really amazed at just how good it is starting to look. It's sort of like putting a puzzle together with no picture. We have so many rocks that we are able to just go a piece at a time and pick just the right rock for each space.

Abi has tucked herself away in what will be the woodbox.

So, what do you think?

50 down, and I suppose about 200 to go?

removing the sacred cupboard in a cloud of dust....

2008-10-23T21:48:00.003-05:00

My precious cupboard has been saved! It came out in two pieces. I know it's really hard to see, there was so much dust in the air and this camera just does not do a good job, it just seems to take a picture of the dust!

almost a fireplace

2008-10-23T21:24:00.003-05:00

Tonight we framed in the fireplace. We have several more feet of chimney pipe to run up through another two levels of house and out the roof, but we're gettin' there. I'll have to get a better picture. I was lucky to even get this one, the batteries ran out in the camera and somehow I got one more picture squeezed out of them.

a little visual

2008-10-19T17:33:00.005-05:00

This is the start of where the fireplace will go over near the corner. Can't wait to light a fire in there.

This is just a little sketch of how the fireplace will probably look. Maybe it will have a little shelf type mantle over the firebox made from rough wood. That sounds sooooo warm, doesn't it?

more demolition

2008-10-18T20:38:00.006-05:00

We spent one day last week doing more demolition, we are almost completely done with that. We have a few more hours to put in and then we should be rid of every shred of plaster, lath, and insulation. Our aim is to not only be done with that part, but have a clean, clear place to store things when we do move. Left to right- Standing in the 'old' kitchen looking toward the front of the house you can see to the left of the picture what remains of the bathroom. In the middle is the corner that was piled high with used insulation which we chucked out the front door and it will be covered up with an enclosed porch hopefully soon anyway. To the right you can see through the bathroom to the beloved cupboard that I want to salvage.

looking forward to.......

2008-10-18T20:26:00.003-05:00

A FIREPLACE, It's funny how this magazine cover says, "Small Spaces That Live Large". I think I better flip through this again......the basement is 26'x44'.

the LORD does all things well......

2008-10-11T19:11:00.006-05:00

The Lord has been providing so many things for us, I am almost overwhelmed by it. We have recently started searching for used materials for this ongoing project and to help us get the basement livable as soon as possible. Well, when you need so much, where does a person even begin? Well, this week, I'm convinced the Lord knows all things. Last week we came across some used cultured stone suitable for a fireplace or rock wall behind a wood stove which we have also been looking for. We found this on C's List and thought, "well, we'll keep that rock in mind". A few days later we went to Lowe's (the same day we found the sink) and discovered they were reducing all their fireplaces and related items. We got a wood burning fireplace insert for $54! So, we decided to just go and look at that cultured stone, and a week later we went back to get it (for less than advertised) and we picked up a second fireplace insert! The regular price had been $216 each. It all just came together so beautifully. The Lord is exceedingly good and does all things well. I can't even post His blessings fast enough. So, we have our two fireplaces that we wanted and rock to put around it to make it look classy. Anyone have a tub/shower, a toilet, or a 60"bathroom sink base with top? I'm confident I'll posting about that soon.

my $47 sink

2008-10-11T19:03:00.005-05:00

We came across this sink
at Lowe's. We have been there a lot lately. I had to pinch myself when I looked at the sticker, and then again when I saw that is was originally $188. (Did I mention it seemed to be the last one in the store?)The faucet was a cast off from another little project. We are ready for all that dishwashing we will be doing, without a dishwasher.

progress........sweet progress

2008-10-11T18:53:00.002-05:00

A living space is taking shape. Can you see it?

the basement has a window!

2008-10-11T09:52:00.003-05:00

I'm so thrilled to be posting about a basement window. Do I have a boring life, I mean getting excited over a window, I guess it's because we plan to start our family's country life out in this very basement. Anyway, hun found this window at Menard's for less than regular price because it was some one's special order mistake! It really is the perfect window for this space and it is a good quality window too. We even recycled some of the floor joices that we were removing from upstairs. Woohoo! *recycle and reuse*. We are soooo green. Keep checking back, the bargains have been rolling in, I'm going to go take pictures of them and more progress.

better, but not best

2008-10-05T20:47:00.005-05:00

Don't look too close. This is really the product of some of my family members going wild with the white paint roller. But, ya have to admit, it looks pretty good from the road!

BEFORE AND AFTER

CLICK HERE FOR A LOOK BACK

rebuilding the front porch

2008-10-05T20:27:00.005-05:00

We found it necessary to rebuild the front porch too, really annoying when so much has to be torn out to sort of start from scratch. Once the wood floor of the porch was removed the blocks could be pushed right over with hardly any effort at all. So this meant take them all down and put them back up. We will close this in and it will become part of the living room and kitchen, we plan to put a new porch beyond this one later. Getting this restructured now before winter is important to us because then we can enclose it and work on the living space inside this winter.

the right tool for the right job

2008-10-03T11:31:00.007-05:00

The boys have been working out. Who needs weights anyway? Just push a few trees over now and then......

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE BEFORE ANY OF THE OTHERS

2008-10-03T11:30:00.005-05:00

THE TRUTH REVEALED: These are not in the right order, watch the one on the right first.

fixing a broken wall

2008-10-03T11:21:00.004-05:00

Unfortunately, we have had to take the time and money to repair basic structure before beginning to finish parts of the basement. This wall was badly breached. We used 'L' shaped steel on the inside and outside, running bolts through all of it to pull the wall back strait and solid. Then it had to be re-sealed. We discovered that none of the cells in the block were filled with concrete, at least every third one should have been. Bummer for us.

the beginnings of a bathroom!

2008-10-03T10:59:00.007-05:00

This may not look like much..... but I had my doubts that we would ever make it this far. The main drain is in place, the existing septic tank has been filled and allowed to flush out for a couple of hours and low and behold, the water went the right direction. This is big news for us. This means that we will not be replacing the septic, at least for now. whew! This means we are fewer $$$$$'s away from the basement being inhabitable. ~and we know how every dollar counts these days........

CLICK to see some 'before' pictures of this space, five months ago.

getting something done

2008-09-25T21:09:00.005-05:00

Here we are working toward finishing the basement so that we have a temporary place to live while we work on the rest of the house. The original plan was to start from the top and work our way down, but things change. In fact, it seems that most of the time for us, things just do not go as planned. Why do we plan? If our 'town house' should sell anytime soon or even this winter, we hope to have this ready or close to ready so we have a place to 'BE'. There are three bedrooms, though we are not bothering with closets since they are temporary bedrooms. Later, they will be two guest rooms and a storage room. There will be a fairly large bathroom w/laundry. Then the rest of the space is open living area and we will have a decent little 'kitchen' in the middle. There will be a ground level door and possibly some more windows so it will be nice and bright down there..........who knows how long we will 'BE' down there.............
You can see that the old stairs are lying on their side now waiting to be removed from the basement. One picture is a look down the hallway to my 'kitchen'. It's shaping up and it's kind of exciting.
The base cabinets were a workshop bench, but I thought I would just steal them, they are nice enough for this purpose.

repairs, repairs, repairs.....

2008-09-25T20:47:00.002-05:00

Here we are working on repairs to the basement wall. One of the walls was buckled really bad, so you see Bruce here jacking it back out. We will have to reinforce the wall and re-seal it on the outside. That is why we have excavated near this basement wall. The dog is enjoying the cool floor and it seems a toad has found its way in also!

to keep or not to keep?

2008-08-27T13:27:00.007-05:00

I say keep, so we are keeping it. This is a picture of a cupboard that is currently in the existing pantry. It had wall paper on the door panels-gold, orange, and green wallpaper with mushrooms or something like that. I have plans to have it out somewhere near the dining/kitchen area as sort of a serving station. I plan to paint it black with distressed corners and edges and I plan to remove the panels on the upper doors and replace them with glass. How's that sound? (my hun just hates old stuff, he just can't visualize what it WILL look like)

We have not been doing much out at this house lately except for mowing. We are working on our other house after a hail storm came through town, bummer. Roofing....and painting......on the wrong house, oh well.

up and down

2008-07-11T09:35:00.004-05:00

It felt good to finally put in stairs. In this picture taken from the basement you can see the new stairs in relation to the old ones. The stairs coming from the upstairs to the main level appear to hit a wall. That's because the practically do! We will add out eight feet there and that will be the back entrance with a mud room/hallway.

how things change

2008-07-11T09:29:00.003-05:00

Once upon a time I stated, "We can live anywhere just as long as I can't see corn out the window." This is the view beyond my tree line, I guess I changed my mind!

free food

2008-06-27T14:52:00.005-05:00

Well, we found that we have a couple of big mulberry trees and several small ones too. We love the idea of free food. Not quite an orchard, but it's edible. I've been searching the web for recipes and finding plenty I would never have imagined. -like pork chops with mulberry-chili salsa! There's plenty of mulberries so I'm sure it will make life in the kitchen interesting.

we love machinery

2008-06-27T14:48:00.003-05:00

Here we are moving dirt.

still removing lots of trash

2008-06-27T14:40:00.005-05:00

Recently I have been working on clearing out under some trees next to the garage. Andy thought we should just cut them down. That was all well and fine but we found a lot of junk that we raked and picked at for a few days. I got some close-ups of the junk just for you. Sometimes this project is just plain amusing.

another handy item

2008-06-18T07:19:00.004-05:00

This is my new handy flat-bed wagon. I love it. It will make a great garden cart later. It really cut down on how many times we walked to the trash pile, which isn't really far, but in the long run, you can get a lot more done for the time spent. I love these kids too. They are a huge part of this project. It's definitely a family project.

getting organized

2008-06-18T07:16:00.002-05:00

A lot of shelf building has been going on in hopes of getting the garage in a better working order. Right now you litterally can not find anything, that is not good.

making the grade

2008-06-18T07:02:00.004-05:00

Bruce is working on excavating out the walk-out basement area. It's a little slow going with our equipment, but it's coming along. We found the septic tank. We will likely be replacing that soon. It is an old and very small concrete one.

where that $300.00 went

2008-06-18T06:50:00.004-05:00

This machine has proven pretty valuable to us. I don't know what it's called, but we are calling it a "glorified weed wacker". When the 'grass' gets to be two or three feet tall this is about all you can use. It's helping us spruce up the place. We bought it with our metal hauling proceeds.

more junk haulin'

2008-06-18T06:29:00.004-05:00

We hauled off one huge load of metal stuff. Included in all of this was two freezers, at least one fridge, two wash machines, a dryer, and two hot water heaters......cmi doesn't pay you for appliances we found out, they will take them though. Anyway it was really good to get rid of it all. I don't think there are any more unwanted appliances on the property now. whew!!!! We had the entire gooseneck trailor loaded up this time and got a little over $300.00! *grin*

big changes

2008-05-28T18:55:00.003-05:00

Well, we put on a couple of new garage doors and some white rock on the driveway. It looks so much better! I think we may paint that garage soon. The drastic changes are turning the heads of those driving by. The pictures show the trash heep the way it looked about six months ago in front of the garage and then several weeks ago we cleared out the garage making it ready for OUR stuff. This meant clearing out a bunch of junk that had been left behind. I don't think I've ever seen so much junk! We've come a long way. We have a long way to go.

I don't think I showed you this mess yet

2008-05-22T21:21:00.005-05:00

All these tires were being hidden behind the chicken coop. Now they are in plain view! Yikes! Did you ever see so many at once? I don't really think this picture shows them all, I might have to take another one.

more basement demo

2008-05-12T07:21:00.003-05:00

There's not much left in the basement. All the old plumbing and wiring have been pulled out leaving a totally clear ceiling. We call this a "blank canvas".

SIT DOWN FOR THIS: the basement before we started cleaning and clearing

2008-05-09T13:28:00.003-05:00

Well, the basement was every bit as bad as the rest of the house, but some pipes had apparently broken at some point. Clothing on the floor was totally soaked and moldy. It is a fairly new basement but there are breeches in the mortar probably because there were no gutters on the house and it caused problems.

There is actually food in the refrigerator, it's been there for a while! oooh! It all seems so gross, but when we set our mind to accomplishing something(and pray for God's grace) we seem to be able to just overlook all the grime.

the basement demolition

2008-05-09T13:27:00.002-05:00

This would have been much slower going if we had not been able to borrow this front end loader.

a mostly cleared basement

2008-05-09T13:26:00.002-05:00

Here is the basement after it has been cleared most of the way. It was a lot of work, but with these boys of mine we just kind of charge in there like machines and go, go, go until we accomplish an objective for the day. We got this all done in about 2 1/2 days time including getting the dreadful, full of food, fridge out. A few days later we came out and worked on clearing the garage. We also removed all water pipes and wiring from the basement. Next we will be vacuuming every speck and spraying down with bleach and power washing then painting with some special basement sealer paint.

goodbye chicken coop

2008-05-08T18:42:00.001-05:00

Knocking the chicken coop over only took about ten minutes or so, then was pushed into a pile with the other barn and lit on fire later. It was in pretty bad shape, missing a good portion of the backfacing roof. We plan to put up a new one.

exciting footage

2008-05-05T21:23:00.007-05:00

WOW!

2008-05-05T21:08:00.003-05:00

just a neat little find...... I found this cute 100th year anniversary log cabin syrup tin well .....uh....in the trash.

horsepower on our side!

2008-05-05T16:19:00.008-05:00

We had the opportunity to borrow this front end loader over the weekend. WOW, is all we can say. Let's just say, things have changed and hun was having way too much fun, again. Remember the eyesore of a pile in front of the garage? That is now gone. It's tucked away back in the trees, but it's not in front of the garage. That's the important thing!!!
We used this machine to clear and transport trash from all over the property and from in the basement back into one pile which we have named Mt. Trashmore. You can see the comparison with Andy standing in front of it. It grew even more after that. This inside corner of a building that you see is behind the garage and was waist high with household
stuff and old wet moldy books. I did find a handful of jewelry in there though, some of it is real gold. I don't know if I took a 'before' picture of that terrible corner. We got a lot done this weekend and we are sore and tired. It gave us a real leap forward using this heavy equipment. I have lots of pictures to post of what we accomplished this past two days. Keep checking back. We pushed buildings and trees over and moved dirt around. We lit a fire, which is still burning, probably will be for a couple of days. We took so many pictures this week and made such drastic changes. I'll be posting some before and after pictures of the basement, the demolition of the chicken coop, and who knows what else!

do we have any more barrels?

2008-05-01T09:17:00.004-05:00

We did a little 'small time' burning while we gathered metal. There are three barrels in this picture and one behind me. A few more wouldn't hurt. We have plans to have a huge bonfire soon but until then we just burn a little of what ever is in the way while we are out there doing other things. Yes, that is a freezer turned over on it's side with 'what?' spray painted on it. I'm sure there is another one or two somewhere. One of our neighbors probably dumped it off last year.

country view

2008-05-01T09:10:00.005-05:00

Here's a nice country view from the northwest corner of our property. Soothing, huh?

junk scrap metal = cash

2008-05-01T09:03:00.004-05:00

$89.46 is what this truck full of scrap metal amounted to. We spent Tuesday afternoon scavenging for metal and then hauled it away! Not too bad for a bunch of unwanted junk!

my weeping willow tree

2008-04-18T13:18:00.008-05:00

Nobody else seems to think this weeping willow tree is very special but I really like it. I've never had one before. It's pretty small, but mighty. After being in the strong "March" winds up on the hill the other day I can see why this tree is leaning toward the northeast and slightly twisted in the trunk!

trash or treasure?

2008-04-14T19:26:00.004-05:00

Does anyone know what this windshield belongs to? There are no markings on the glass to identify what it goes to.

despise not small beginnings

2008-04-14T06:42:00.003-05:00

We got doorknobs! I'm excited. I don't know if you've ever been excited about doorknobs, but I am. Thanks to our home improvement center moving, many things were discounted. All the door knobs were a whopping 30% off!!!!! After rummaging through what was left, we found 15 matching knobs. I'm excited about doorknobs, I never thought I would say that. It means doors are forthcoming......................now THAT is something to be excited about.

WORKING, WORKING, WORKING

2008-04-09T20:11:00.009-05:00

Well, I've been away a while. The house in town is on the market. Spring is almost here. We spent some time out at the country place on Sunday, which was a sunny day, albeit WINDY! Hubby used the trencher plow to push some of the unsightly pile of junk that has been in front of the garage to the back. It does not look like anything was moved from this angle but trust me, he moved a lot! I still have not shown you all the trash! Just wait. A little more work and we can see a garage at the end of the driveway. But notice the budding tree......yippee!

a little time out

2008-01-30T16:05:00.002-06:00

We have been concentrating on getting the house we live in ready for the market so we can actually move out here some day soon. Just fixing up lots of little things, things that don't bother you until you are ready to sell a place. Looking forward to spring, but I expect to be very busy.

OUTBUILDINGS: the barn

2008-01-27T17:38:00.002-06:00

there's just something about a barn that's just so "farmish" the barn needs some TLC, but I like it. I can just see a milk cow in there. There's a lot of work to do. there is a fenced in area behind it.

machine shed?

2008-01-27T17:26:00.001-06:00

well, I'm not sure what this building is. possibly a machine shed? it needs help too. you can see half the roof is missing, it is laying on the ground about 30 yards away. tornado? maybe.

the chicken coop

2008-01-27T17:19:00.001-06:00

the chicken coop needs some help! we might have to push this one over and start fresh. we thought it was fixable, but upon closer observation, there are other problems besides the missing roof. but our dear girl wants to raise chickens so we shall see what we can do about that!

it's cold in Nebraska!

2008-01-20T09:01:00.001-06:00

We haven't been out to the country place in days. It's been very cold here. I believe it was 7 degrees midday with the sun shining yesterday. burrrr! We have now turned our attention to getting the house we live in on the market. We have a lot of small 'loose ends' to pull together here and there, mostly all inside the house. But it won't take us long and Spring will be here soon enough......stay tuned.....