Beadboard

Here are some updates pictures of the bathroom.

Sink area, with new plug ins and bead board up.

wired in night light. It has a lights sensor, so turns off when the lights are on, and during the day time.

Door, before paint.

Door after one coat of paint.

Door looking in. The night like is by the floor closer to the toilet.

Strippin'

Now now now, don't go get worried, I am talking about stripping off  paint on old door hardware!

We are replacing the door on the bathroom and I remember seeing something about stripping old paint off metal hardware...in the crock pot. Sounds simplet, no nasty paint stripper, no hard scrubbing. I was game. I took the back plates and knobs off the bathroom door, and put them in the crock pot with a bit of dish soap, turned it on high and waited about 24 hours.

Before

After

Now, they are not fancy, they are just steal and plain, but with a good spray down with some spray paint, they will be set for a new life on the new bathroom door.

2 weeks!

I have not posted in 14 days...that is a little scary. Sorry everyone. We have been rather busy. We decided to spend some of our tax return on fixing the bathroom floor, and spiffing it up a bit. Our house was built in three stages. The first in 1936, the second part in the 40's and the back two bedrooms in the 60's. The bathroom and back entry way are the 40's addition. The bathroom floor was rather sad looking, and we new we would find rot due to water damage, but were not sure how much we would find. 

 

Door looking in, Aaron made a slight "ramp" to transition from door which was still higher then new floor, no tripping hazard!

The gray stuff it the concrete, so worth the extra time and $! My bath floor is level!

Looking towards the door.

 

 

A bit over a week ago we tore into it. Up came the sheet lanolium that was falling apart, and then 3 other layers of wood before the sub flooring, some areas so rotten we are thankful no one feel through. Thankfully the subflooring and support beams were in good shape. 

After the old was up, new had to go down. two layers of OSB, then a self leveling concrete. On top of the concrete we put down down vynal tiles then grouted the lines (tiles are made to either peel and stick or peel stick and grout)

Door looking on, new floor is down! Now spiff up the walls with some new paint, new (tall) baseboards, crown molding and a a new vanity)

Close up of the tiles, grouted and sealed! We have enough left over to do the laundry area! I am thrilled with out it looks!

New bath fan/light combo. High powered and in the clearance section at Lowes! :)

Today

I broke (we think) my finger in June. Last night I joked that because it was achy, the weather must be changing. Haha on me. It did. Today has been delightfully cool and a perfect day for baking!

I got lunch stuff cleaned up and then whipped up a pan of bar choco chip cookies. While those were making I got two dozen blue berry muffins ready for their turn in the oven. 

 

Both of those are done, and I then threw a chicken in to roast. We will eat that for dinner. Along with green beans, peas and carrots from the garden's picking.This afternoon we went to a neighbors to pick apples. We gathered the ones that were wormy for the chickens and the ones that were beat up for Amie and her pasture mates. While I work on a sewing project this evening, I am also going to be making apples butter with the good ones. Perfect thing to top oatmeal!

 

It feels like Fall today and I am so thrilled that my favorite season is here again!

Aaron has been plugging away at pealing off the layers on the inside of the walls to expose the beams, set new plugs/light switches and then insulate. It's coming along nicely. The kids have been enjoying a day of cooler temps and playing hide-and-seek.

Yesterday Aaron had another chiro apt and the doc is very happy with how well his back is staying in! Yahoo, and Thank God. My mom had a problem with her back when I was a child, and we have all hear horror storied of back problems. This scared me, and I am SO thankful that he is just fine. 

 

I am off to start washing apples!

 

 

 

 

Progess Being Made

Aaron has been back at it, and progress is being made. We found out that, even though the addition for the wood stove is 80x30, we have to have an permit. Since we also have the rest of the living and dining tore up, we decided to eliminate one project right now. Getting a permit takes time, and since fall is fast approaching, we don't have a lot of it. We plan to put in a temp place for the wood stove, then pick back up the project when the weather warms up again this spring.

Here is what we are going to be working on this winter. 

1. Finish getting the walls and ceiling insulated (needs to happen before we put in the stove, and before it gets COLD) . This involves taking down the three layers of stuff on the remaining walls, and getting the electrical where we want it (or where code says we need to have it haha)
2. Put new window in the dinning room. Since the window is much larger then the old, that involved re framing the window frame and patching siding to make it water tight until we reside the whole thing)
3. Hang, tape, etc the drywall
4. Finish the beefy floor joices in the reading loft. Lay down the sub flooring up there and put the carpet down.
5. Built a railing for the loft. 
6. Paint
7. Take up, and re lay the flooring in the dinning, stain and seal all of it.
8. Kitchen counters, toe kick, end plates and finishing touches, like open shelves around the window, and paint on the ceiling/walls.

This is not an any set order save the insulation.  We are discovering that 1/3 to 1/2 of all the walls are NOT insulated! That would make the HUGE heating bills the previous winters understandable. I can not wait to see what all this work looks like in lower power bills! :)

While I am disappointed to be putting one project aside, I think everyone will agree that we have a LOT to do, and will be kept busy. I am no longer stressing about getting it all done before nasty weather (could be in a month for us, or shortly there after), and looking forward to having things in a finished place again, well, at least until we attach the bathroom and back entry way! haha

I will get some pictures up soon!

FOUND IT!

I found the cord! :) Here are some pictures of delivery day and Aaron working on the loft and getting the ceiling insulated.

6 huge packages of insulation...

Moving the stuff into the yard...it was hot that day!

Keepers of the gate. They were very helpful! :)

3 pallets, 150 cinder blocks, 15 80lb bags of concrete and 15 60 lb bags of mortar.....hence the reason for Lowe's delivering!

30 sheets of dry wall and the sheets of OSB for the floor in the loft.

20 foot long 2x6's on top of our car.....we got some odd looks.

Attic access ladder that will be used to get into the loft.

Getting some of it up...with nothing at all for insulation, it was getting HOT. It's amazing that the layers of ceiling helped as much as it did...So excited about my valted ceilings and loft! :)

Picking Fruit

A sweet neighbor lady, after picked what she would use, gave us her raspberry patch for the rest of the season. We picked once and got a large bowl full. This morning we picked again, and got my largest soup pan full! What a blessing!

We also were given two pie cherry trees to pick. Some of them are too ripe, but there was still enough to get to large bowls today, and Aaron will go again early tomorrow to get the rest that are up high and need a ladder. I think he can already taste the pies! Andrew and the old farmer (who is rather hard of heading) where quite a pair. Andrew openly admired all his "big huge" machines and Andrew just chattered on, even though the farmer didn't hear most of it!

Aaron worked his hind end off Friday and got the last beam up and the ceiling fan wired and installed. All between 2 calls and needing to do things like eating and such. I am LOVING this. We pick up part of the needed supplies on Wed and I am hoping to get the rest delivered either this week or next.

Living Room

Outside

With the awfully long spring we had, Clara has gotten into a habit of saying, " It's a great day to play out side!".

I do not blame her, and today (yesterday), the kids and I were outside ALL day, in fact, I am typing this while the kids run around enjoying a last bit of play before time to get ready for bed. And then posting it this morning while listening to rain on the roof..it's lovely and refreshing!

We have been busy on the house again. Aaron very practically pointed out that we needed to get the rest of the DEMO stuff done, while the kids could be out and we can vent the house well.

SO, the ceiling is coming down in the living room in prep for adding in the wood stove and another plan I have up my sleeve. This being the reason we are out today....out of the way of the dust and mess. I hung up canvas drop clothes and sheets in the door ways (to keep the dust contained and it worked WELL!) and we moved everything out to make clean up easy.

We will focus on getting the things done that need to be done in the warmer weather, then do the finished stuff this fall/winter. I am very excited to be seeing more progress. Although..the unpractical side of me wants things finished. All in good time right?

And go figure....the one day the kids need to be out (or they get in Daddy's way) they wanted to be in where all the excitement is!! Haha...

Window Sneak Peak

I snapped this rather dark picture of the wood (just stained) that makes up the window seal.

The window is right above the sink and adding the bead board back splash really made it very bright and clean feeling. I am loving more progress being made in here. Bit left do, but almost done!

Deals

We have had some good deal this last little bit. God is good, He knows just what we need, and provides it for us. Some times the answer is no when we think we need something, but, that makes the other gifts that much sweeter. Knowing our Heavenly Father knows just what is needed and loves us greatly is a huge blessing!

Alysum. I am in love with this color and plant. The smell is amazing!

 

 

First, Aaron's momma found us enough (we think) 4x4 white tiles to do the bathroom floor, or another large project. We are undecided as to what yet, but hey! They where FREE!

I usually get red for my window boxes, but isn't this just a lovely shade of pink? and at $1 a plant!

Second, Aaron scored about 20 good, usable 2x4's. Price: FREE! We can sure use there, since I would like an arbor over my front door/little porch, plus, we are remodeling you know. 

Three flats in Impatients, total cost $5.50

Also a $1 or $1.50 Clara picked them out.

 

Third, our shovel broke, handle busted. Needed a new one. We heading into the big town and found one one sale! $9! Yes, perfect and in our budget. God also provided my geraniums for my window boxes and some other pretty flowers for my yard all in the clearance section! The only paid full price for was my sweet mint and lemon balm!

Rain Rain, Go Away

This spring has been wet. Very wet. As in 8 inches above normal rain fall already, and still coming. It's is nice, as we have a great snow pack and they are saying will not have to much of a worry with drought/lack of water this summer, but boy...we are tried of wet!

We usually get to plant the garden, this coming weekend. But with all the rain and wet, we are so slow this year. I am hoping to get everything in place by Mid June. I have peas, beets, chard, carrots and lettuce coming up in my front/early beds. I am so excited for fresh veggies!

One plus to this wet weather is that transplanting all the things this year, I have not lost anything!

Newly transplanted green grape. It is loving it's new home. When I got it, it had two little leaves off the branch.

On the house front, we are plugging away at stuff. Last week Aaron was so busy that nothing got done! That is just fine. We have cleared out the back entry way (inside and out) moved bunny and the work table out and I am cleaning out the pantry and washing down the entry way today. Then, all the misc remodel stuff will get moved to there, so Aaron can start taring down the sheet rock, pulling up the floor, relaying it and putting in a new window.

The kids are all doing well. Mr. Dew is talking more and more and loves to throw things in the fire pit. Flora is always singing and bouncing and Clara is the family chicken catcher. She is good folks! They are all a joy and such a blessing!

Strawberries are happy in their new home. They are thriving and growing and even starting to flower.