Painting

I love being at the farm.  It is so calm and peaceful.... It just draws you outdoors and makes you want to stay there.  We all love it!!

But this week has been spent indoors.  Getting the house ready to move into.  We want to move in the beginning of November.  We plan to have the family Thanksgiving dinner here.

The paint looks a little splotchy in the pictures as they are still wet.

So far this week, Paul and I spent our days here painting.  We finished trimming up the girls room and we painted the boys room, including the closet.  Now they just need to clean up all the junk in the middle of their floor and they can start moving in.

Today's big project was getting the family room painted.  In real life the walls are much lighter in color than they look here.  We got 2 coats on everything, except the final cutting in.  I am really looking forward to having these rooms totally done so we can start moving things in and making it home-like.  It will be nice to have a place to sit and rest between jobs!

We are in a hurry to get this painting done before the floor guy comes this weekend.  That way any stray drops will be sanded off in the final sanding.  After he puts the topcoat on we will have to stay off the floor for several days to let it harden.  The countertops will be installed on Tuesday afternoon.  We are getting really close to start moving!  I am getting excited!!  The office is coming along also.  Most of the walls have their second coat and the trim has been painted.  I still need to pick out flooring.  My DH can install that pretty quickly.

The outside projects are small.  We have mulching and building beds for spring planting on the list.  The barn must be organized and the garage.  Need to put a drain tile in the back part of the barn.  Paul has his mower working so we are good there.  Now to sit back and plan for spring.  There will be lots of fence building and planting and other things then to keep us busy.  So much fun on the farm!

Farm Update 10/14

We have been working diligently on getting things done at the farm so that we can move in as soon as possible!  It is work that doesn't show as much, like skim coating walls and sanding.  So here is our latest project update...

The dining room and kitchen walls were painted today.  It is a shade lighter than the walls in the dining room at our old house.  It is a warm color and not dark.  We will be putting up a small crown molding along the wall.

It looks good with the wood in the cabinets.  I think it will be OK with the floors in the dining room and living room.  The floor finishing project has once more been pushed back until NEXT weekend.  It is better to get the painting done before you finish the floors.

I think we will paint the family room the same color.  That will make it feel more unified and open.

 My DH got the back on the peninsula cabinets and the supports in for the counter top.  It will have a 12" overhang so the supports are needed.  The dishwasher will go in on the other side of the peninsula in the middle.  There will be a sink on the kitchen side on the end.  The granite counters should be ready either the next week or the beginning of the following week.

Another project that we would like to get done is to take this big tree down.  It has already had one big branch come off during a storm and knocked the chimney down and came into the house.  No need to have a repeat on that.  The roots are also pushing against the foundation and pushing up the basement floor.  That's not good either.

We keep learning more about our property from the neighbors.  Apparently, we have a cistern right behind the house.  We will have to check into that.  The wet spot in the back is a spring, not a well. We had kinda figured that, since the water is lying on top of the ground.  It is so nice being on the farm.  

Thankfulness for Friends

We have been so busy lately that blog writing slipped a bit on the priority list.  My DH was out of town last week and Friday was spent in Amish country.  As I looked through the blog I realized how blessed we have been to have many friends come alongside us and help.  That has really sped our project along!!  It has  kept things from getting bogged down and has kept us from being overwhelmed.                                                      

My Sister-in-Law, Mary, came up for a week and just pitched in.  She helped with food preparation and working at the farm.  She is a very willing worker and we love having her around.

My friend Chrissi came up and brought ten of her eleven kids up to help get the house and shop ready to paint.

 They ALL pitched in and worked hard.  Down to the little ones.  I sure appreciated all of their help.

 The guys chipped tiles off the wall and helped get the walls built in the office.

My brother has been a big help in many facets of our move.  Not only did he help us find the property and encouraged us to buy it, he has helped as a 'technical consultant' on what trees to cut down, why a cat would be drooling, what to use to get rid of yellow jacket nests, etc.  He also has mowed our grass and is happy to let us use his horse trailer when we have lots of things to move.  He has been a peach!

These three guys came up from Amish country to help us with lumbering and digging holes for fruit tress.  They also pitched in with the shop.  Thank-you!

I don't have a picture of Jason the floor guy.  He has been helping sand and will do the finishing on the floors.  He does a great job!

My nephew Daniel came over to help us plant all our fruit trees.  He has worked for a landscaper when he was younger.  He and Paul had a great day working together.  I really appreciated his help and getting to spend time with him.

This is our friend Tom.  He wanted to come over and prep the walls and paint the ceilings.  Today he is painting the dining room and kitchen.  This has been a big help.  It really got us over the hump and will leave us with only a little painting, which we can handle.

 Our friend Pal also worked on getting the walls prepped for painting.  He did the family room walls and the bedroom walls.  He is also going to do the floors on the second floor this week.

Our friend Steve brought his son,Michael  along and helped my DH set the cabinets and do hang drywall in the kitchen.

We have been so blessed to have so many friends to help us on our big project.  We are still hoping to move in, the beginning of November.  Thanks!!

Project Update

I am really excited about how nice the floor looks in the living room.  The edges still need to be done, and so does the dining room.  

These are the floor stain options.

It is going to be hard to choose because they look very different based on how the light is hitting them.  Right now we are leaning towards the one on the right.  It seems to have the same tones as the baseboards.

The upper cabinets were torn out of the kitchen.

 My DH got the ceiling re-drywalled and can lights installed.  The new kitchen cabinets may arrive as soon as Thursday!  I am very excited!!!

The cold cellar is painted, walls and floor.  Now it looks crisp and clean.  We need to build some more shelves for storing canned goods and pantry items.

Here is what the house looks like now after the trees were cut down and the shrubs trimmed.  The brush on the left still needs to be removed.  Quite a bit different from the picture on the top of the blog! 

The side is trimmed neatly too.  Now you can see the big stones along the border.

 This is the side yard where our lumber jacks cut down the first tree row of four trees, and thinned the next row of pines.  It still looks pretty thick, but they really did take down over half a dozen trees out of that row.  Now to get the stumps removed and decide what to put there instead.

The progress keeps happening and the projects are moving along.  This week we hope to get the floors finished and some painting done.  The kitchen cabinets should be installed and the counter top measured.  We are planning on getting my office dry walled as well.  I would also like to get a few fruit trees planted.  

Thanks for reading my blog! Please feel free to leave a comment every once in awhile!!!

A Lumberjack Day

Yesterday was a lumberjack kind of day.  We took down lots of trees and cut them up and disposed of them.  The guys left the area looking very nice.  Yeah!

 We finished getting rid of the tree line closest to the house, and thinned the pines in the middle tree line.

There was lots of work for everyone!

The guys filled the trailer with brush and I drove the trailer back to the brush pile in the back.  I learned to drive the ATV yesterday!  By noon, I was quite proficient. We are borrowing my Dad's ATV.  Dad,  you can rest easy.  The ATV is still intact and none the worse for the use.

A lot of the pine brush was carried to the fire pit to be burned up.  This was a HOT job.  We did dispose of the brush of two pines that way.

Some bigger trees also had to come down.

Elizabeth rode along with me and was my trailer dumper and relocker.  She would lift the back of the trailer and dump out the load.  She is getting stronger every day.

The office got a little work done on it.  My DH ran the wires for the outlets and lights.  E Paul helped install insulation in the walls for sound proofing (Dr. Patient confidentiality and all that).

T-Bob and his friend worked hard digging holes for me for future trees when they weren't loading brush.

Mary and JoAn worked hard at painting the walls in the cold cellar.

By the end of the day the fire pit was FULL of ashes!!

We met our neighbor to the south yesterday.  He came over with his tractor and wanted to help.  He put all the big chunks of wood in his front end loader and carried them to the back by the fire pit.  He also pulled the big logs over and piled them up.  That saved a lot of work.  He also wanted to make sure it was OK that he kills the weeds on our property line.  No problem.  Sure, go ahead!

These are the three hardworking young men who came up to help us on our project.  Thanks guys!!

In the evening, we hiked to the back of the property.  We were pleased to find that the road along the back of the field is our property.  That made the going a lot easier for most of the way.  In the back you have to hack your way through the underbrush.

We had a fun evening hanging out and exploring!  Another wonderful day!

Little Project Day

 My Sister-in-Law Mary and I were going to sand walls in the family room, but after a half hour effort, we decided there had to be a better way.  They need to be skim coated and not sanded.  That is beyond our pay grade, so we decided to work outside instead.  It was a beautiful day.  We trimmed all the overgrown shrubs and pulled out the overgrown vines.  This was a before picture.  I will post an after picture in a few days.

We then went out to the pond and rebuilt the fire pit.  We wanted it to be circular and not quite so large.  I was pleased with how it turned out.  It is so pleasant to sit out there and watch the sunset and listen to the frogs on the pond and watch the fire.  It really is quiet!  Such a blessing!

BIG Work Day!

 Yesterday, we had a big workday at the farm!  Some friends of ours came up and we all worked hard.  My Sister-in-law is here for the week.  Here she is cleaning up a bunch of spilled water.  Using the 'skating' method.

There was a lot of work done at the shop.  The office was given a lot of preparation.  The walls were scrubbed.

The tiles removed.

Then it became a wallpaper kind of day.  We were just going to wash the wallpaper in the family room.  But, when we started washing it, it had a fiber in it, and it simply turned a yucky gray.  Plan B time!  We needed to remove the wallpaper, but alas the the backing stuck to the wall.  So the three ladies went to town wetting and scraping the backing off the wall.  So much fun! NOT!!  The fellowship was good though.

The back wall of the family room is 11 ft. so we got to spend a lot of time on ladders.  

The girl's room had to have the wallpaper stripped also.

It was a team effort!

Meanwhile,  the office was getting the walls up.

My DH had a good helper.

The other guys were busy cutting down trees

and hauling brush.

The walls were all put up in the office.

The boys stripped the wallpaper from their walls also.   They decided they wanted something different than little pink flowers.

T-Bob went at it "like a boss"!

DH got a window put in the office also.  Earl, our neighbor, even found matching siding for the office in his barn and he gave it to us!  God is so good!

We ended the day burning brush and having a bonfire out by the pond.  I was so pleased to get so much work done!  Now onto the painting and other projects!