Our Weekend Off!

       So we have to laugh about our life. When we get a weekend off for UEA break we don't go deer hunting, we don't go to Disneyland, we don't go on a fabulous vacation... we work on the house :). Maybe someday our weekends off we'll be more vacation oriented, but for now we like the progress that is taking place around the farm.  On a fun note we did have a bonfire with friends, which was rather nice. Here you go, our successes of the weekend.

 

Before Adding Trim

After Adding Trim

 

Travis worked all weekend and put up this awesome trim. We decided to go with the pattern that matched the inside window trim. It is pretty basic but it just seems to finish off the exterior of the house perfectly, and look even the grass we planted is coming in, YEAH!

 

 

 Travis has a little pyro in him, and one day after work he came home to tell me he was going to start one of the piles on fire. I just shook my head and said, "Okay." Five minutes later he calls me on the phone telling me I better come outside. I told him I'd be out, but I didn't hurry very fast and then he calls again. You need to come out now! I look out the window and the flames were not very far from our barn, so I hurried out to help. I began spraying the barn off with water and just watched the steam coming off of it from the heat. For a minute I thought, I should just call the fire department but Trav reassured me that it would be okay. So luckily without catching the barn on fire we were able to get rid of the biggest pile of junk!

 

 We thought afterwards how funny it must of been to watch us out there for the first few minutes scrambling to keep the fire calm. There were people slowly driving by checking it out, and there was also a little crowd gathered at the post office watching the theatrics take place. I wish I would of taken a picture of the first few minutes, but we were occupied with spraying the pile down.

 

 

We have been slowly working on scraping all of the manure out of the animal shelter so we can park things for the winter. Even though there is still a lot to do it is actually quiet enjoyable to work in the barnyard.  Travis has been a champ as I have been getting bigger and bigger with pregnancy he has been tackling a lot of projects on his own. I sure do love that man!

As for the project I've been working on... The baby's room! I was able to get her crib quilt top done this last week. I've been rushing to get it done before the holidays hit and things become really crazy. I just need now to send it off to the quilters and get it bound!

I have really loved plums and greens lately. It is not very nursery like, but I love the colors.

 

I've been trying to use what I already have for decorations and since I had some fabric left over and some canvases that I didn't work out on another project, I made these. To spice them up a little I think I am going to glue buttons or wood letters to them and hang them on the wall. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words!

Last week I talked about how we had been working with the neighbor to get the field mowed down and cleared.  It is looking much better. Here is the before pic from last week.

 

And this is what seven horses have done in a week. We are looking to talk to the fire department on burning the pile you see on the right and 2 other piles that look something like the one below. We are going to have one heck of a hot dog roast when it comes time.

 

 

This was the pile from the old animal barn that we knocked down.  It was fairly dangerous, so it was a must-knock-down. Travis has been working hard walking around the lot picking up and condensing junk piles. It will be so nice to get rid of them soon.  They give me a little anxiety :)

 

 

Now for some more before and after pictures that I have promised:

 

This is the before of the Master Bedroom. This room was quiet easy since they had recently remodeled it. We just touched up the paint, added a fan, and shampooed the carpet. We did add a wall to the right for the master bath, still leaving a large enough master bedroom.

 

 

 

This is the after. I thought about buying all new bedding before we moved in and then I came to the conclusion that what we had would work perfect with the brown walls. I also decided to cover the windows because they are a little odd shaped.  This makes for the best Sunday napping, because it quite and separated from the rest of the house.

 

 

 

This is the dining room. This room is located off of the side porch to the south and has some really amazing trim work. The people living here before us were from the Marshall Islands and liked bright colors.

 

 

 

 

We just toned the color down a bit and left the light they had because it was perfect for the area.  Travis made the table before we moved here.

 

 

 

We took out the old stove and some tile flooring that went half way up the wall and replaced it with a buffet (to the right) that we found on KSL for $125. It worked well because we were unable to replicate the old paneling were the stove was.  We will just sell the buffet with the house when it comes time.  We also took off 2 layers of crooked flooring in this room and this floor was left underneath. 

 

 

 

This is a before picture of Easton's room. Sometimes when I look back at the pictures I think, "how did we ever think this was going to be livable?" A lot of things can change in a little amount of time.

The room is very long and narrow and in order to have this room considered an actual bedroom we had to add a closet. So we just added a walk in closet to the left.  We also added heat to this room.

 

 

 

Easton loves Star Wars. I am not a fan so much, but I thought we could get it out of his system before we moved on to the next house. We put spaceships and stars on the ceiling. Then I saw on pintrest how they make pictures with vinyl and craft paper so I created these to hang around the room. The frames could always be changed and updated to whatever Easton is into.

 

 

I am still looking for a pillow and a throw to brighten up his bedding, but it will come.  (However Travis is anti-bed pillow)

 

 

 

This is the playroom before. The interesting thing about this room is that it had small hornets nests throughout. I think they were able to get in through the unfinished roof.  We added the closet and a new roof took care of the hornets and water getting into this room.

 

 



This room was painted by the Elder's Quorum in our new ward. They wanted to help us out with something before we moved in, so I gave them a paint brush. They did a really nice job and we were thankful for their help!

 

 

 

This is the guest bedroom. I don't have a before pic of this room because for the longest time it was bolted shut. I guess this is where they kept a lot of their guns. This room had brown paneled walls from the 70's, which I am sure you all still remember. If you look at the doorway into the bathroom, it use to go all the way to the kitchen, but we put a wall there and gave the guest bedroom a bathroom for convenience.

I still am in search for a white ruffled bedspread. I saw one at TJ Maxx the first of the summer and haven't seen one since. I am still waiting to find exactly what I want...but at a good price ;)

 

 

This bedroom set was actually Travis and I's first set. It was random pieces that we had picked up or had from before we were married that we painted black. I still remember Travis showing me his nice walnut colored sleigh bed that we could use, and then him accidentally backing up over it with the truck one day.  I new then I was about to marry someone that could control his temper, because he did very well one that occasion and many sense. Luckily we were able to put it back together and gave it a coat of black paint and it is still functioning perfectly today.  I picked up the curtains at Downeast. They are actually shower curtains. They work perfectly to block out the light and give the privacy you need.  I want to cut them in half and sew them so there can be one on each side, but then I got to thinking what if I decide to use them in a different house, so I am still debating.



 

This is the guest room sink, behind it is the toilet and walk in shower.  This bathroom we converted from a 1/2 bath to a 3/4 bath by adding a shower.   These funny masks were part of Travis' contribution to decorating when we got married. He said he bought them at a yard sale a long time ago and they have actually grown on me. One day I would like to put them in an office.

 

 

 

And this is what brings us the most JOY! Our kids learning and loving country life like we did growing up. Having room to run around, things to explore, and driving the tractor with Dad are some of small things that they get to enjoy in our little piece of Paradise.

 

 

How do you Eat an Elephant?

This past week we have been making a little more progress.  The house is about 90% done, but I don't want to overwhelm you with too long of a post.  I haven't finished decorating all of the rooms yet.  I still have bits and pieces to add to make them complete, but here are some before and after pictures.



This is a before of Ashlyn's room.

   



This is the after. Her room was pretty simple compared to the rest. It already had a closet it just needed carpet and finished walls. We bought this bed at Ikea last year for Ashlyn in the discount pile for only $35. It was missing a few bolts but we were able to find some and I have loved it for her room. It reminds me of the bed I had when I was growing up.

Sorry this is so fuzzy, but this is the downstairs bathroom right as you enter the house from the side porch to the right. If you remember it had so much in it that you could barely walk.

This is the after. It ended up being a pretty large 1/2 bath, but we didn't see the sense in keeping a tub downstairs, where you would have to walk clear across the house to use, so this is what we ended up with.

All of my bathrooms except the guest bathroom are painted with this blue/green color. I loved it and I went a little crazy with it, but I think I can make them all look different with choosing different decorations. I found these pictures in the discount bin at family dollar, all for $9. Not bad, eh? In this bathroom I want to add dark red with some hints of green from out of these pictures. I am excited to be on the hunt for more good deals.

This is the before and after of the vanity. I ended up taking Danish Oil and rubbing it all over to darken and fill in scratches and imperfections. It ended up turning out better than I thought it would. The Danish Oil has a sealing agent in it and is much less smelly than polyurethane. It was also really easy and fast to apply.

 

These planters Travis and I made in a couple hours. They were super easy and I like the color of the railroad ties verses the ones that are oiled. The guy we got these from said they were used in old guard rails and they only cost us 1/2 of what the oiled ties would have. This project cost a total of $83.00 with plants and all. This past week in the yard we planted the front with grass seed and are planning to plant the back with sod sometime this coming week if all goes as planned.

 

 

This is the only before picture of the front of the house that I could find. I wish I would have taken more.

 

We ended up taking out the old planter boxes made of rock and cement and using the sidewalk as a barrier. In the near future we are going to add trim around all of the windows to make them pop a little. Right now the windows look pretty plain.
 

I would like to add something around the windows that looked similar to this but we will see what the boss says ;)

 This past week I received a phone call from my neighbor across the field. She explained that her daughter was getting married and they are going to have a reception in their backyard. She asked if we would be willing to work with them on mowing the our property out back. She knew someone with a tractor who could help us mow down the grass.  Her husband is the young men's leader in our church, so she knew where we could find some free labor. It sounded great to me! I even told her if she wanted we could take down the fence and let the guests park in the field since we had no use for the fence. She said that would be great. So we began working together and the field went from messy fence-strewn everywhere and tall grass/wheat kind of like this.

 The field now looks like this!  You can see a glimpse of the old farm house in the back. After talking with her we found a guy who will put his horses in the other fields to help clear that down so it can be mowed and then we will take all of the rest of the fence down.  As I was talking with her around the property and we looked at everything that needed to be done. She told us it has came a long ways and I said and it still has a long ways to go.  Then she mentioned, "How do you eat an elephant? Bit by bit." And that is what we are going to have to do.  This land is the real reason that we bought the property. This is where we would like to build our future home. (That's next years project, hopefully)

 



First Day of Kindergarten

 

I know it is the same amount of time during the day as preschool, but Ashlyn and I are sure going to miss this little man during that time. We woke up early, had a good breakfast, and we were even early to the bus stop with the help from the kitties. (wish I would have taken pictures of that)

 

 

Easton riding the bus has given me the most anxiety. What if he gets off at the wrong stop? What if he doesn't go into the school after they drop him off? A lot of what ifs. And then I realized who this kid is. He is Easton. He is the kid that I dropped off to preschool a day before it even started and when I picked him up in a panic, he said, "You owe me an ice cream." He is the kid when Ashlyn locked us out of the house knelt down and said a prayer that we could get in, and then told me it was going to be fine, I know we'll get in. He is solid as a rock in more ways than one ;)

 Here's to an exciting school year!

11, 12 Dig & Delve

I always wondered what the nursery rhyme meant when it said Dig & Delve? So I looked up the word delve and it means, to labor. It's perfect for our next project. The yard! Luckily I have the best parents ever who were willing to take a long road trip in a dump truck with a backhoe on the back and no a/c. They are champs. Love them! These are the results of a weekend worth of my Dad behind the wheel of the backhoe.

This is the back of the house facing the East. Before it was all broken up cement and everything sloped towards the house.

 

 
 
 
 
 

This is with the cement poured so all of the water goes away from the house. I debated whether to even show this picture because it pretty much looks like a junk pile with all of our stuff piled back there, but I wanted to show this before we finish it this next week.  It will be something to look forward to, and lets face it things don't look perfect a hundred percent of the time ;)

My Dad also tore down the old animal stable. One kick and it probably would have toppled over. My Dad made these nice piles that we can burn this winter, hopefully without burning down the barn. It will be nice to have all of this cleared off and looking manageable.

This made all of us chuckle a little. I almost want to make it the main picture for the blog. It is a symbol of all that we have had to deal with. It was a pole that was cemented into the ground by the big garage. Instead of clearing the area off around the pole before it was cemented, the cement was just poured on top of anything that was in the area. We could play I Spy.

 The stairs were probably the worst project yet for me. I am not very good with tedious work. Going around each of the poles was a nightmare for me. Especially when I had to give it four coats of paint.  I did a little at a time so I didn't go to crazy, and I finally finished them!  

 

 

I thought of about a hundred different things I could do with the stairs and I couldn't really decide. When it came down to it I knew that we might sell the house in the near future and I didn't want to put anything too personal that I would have to take off. I wanted something with the word step in it, so this is what I ended up with. I think it fits just right!

My great little helper. She is always right by my side when I am fixing things. Even if she is just pretending she always is helpful to have around.

Here is a finished project. This is the mudroom. I ended up getting the coat hangers from Downeast, and Ross always has a huge selection of baskets for reasonable prices. I think I snagged this one for ten bucks.

 

 

This is the random window that they covered when they re-did the outside of the house. I think it was to save them money. I struggled at first to try and figure out a way to make it look like it was suppose to be there and then the idea of a chalkboard came along. Ashlyn loves writing on it, and I think she and Easton are even more excited for what is written on it now.
Yep! That's right in the middle of all this craziness we managed to sneak one past the goalie, per say. :)