The Farm has a Tractor!

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!

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!

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

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!

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

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

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!

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.

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

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.