And... I'm off

To Minnesota, that is! :)

I will be in the cities from this evening to mid-day Tuesday!
Have a fantastic weekend.

What we have accomplished so far...

Since we've been here for almost 2 years, I feel that it is time for a reflection post.

Yesterday afternoon, 2 older women arrived in our driveway, and stood on the porch for a while. Pete went out to greet the women, and inquire why they were at our house. These 2 ladies identified that this was the house that they grew up in... and were busy reminiscing about their childhood. So, Pete invited them in to look at the house... identifying that "This home will never really be ours. We just get to take care of it for a little while.". I think this story sums up our experience so far, this home has history and in 181 years... we've only owned it for a blip.

During this almost 2 year blip, here is what we have accomplished:
-Installed deadbolts and door locks on the 2 main doors leading into the house
-Painted the living room, family room, hallway, main level bath, our bedroom, kitchen, laundry area, and a number of closets
-Made many a Saturday trip to the dump to remove the past family's contents from the barn, garage, and basement
-Put in a cement floor and garage door openers installed in the garage
-Had the chicken coop torn down
-Cleaned out the barn, and subsequently decided to have it torn down
-Made the back horse pasture area into mowable yard
-Removed a number of gardens with a combination of a mower, "Weed-B-Gone Max" and grass-seed
-Took out a bathroom on the main level (consisted of shower and toilet)
-Put in a bathroom on the main level (contains a toilet and a sink)
-Hooked up a wood stove to the fireplace chimney
-Created durable shelving units for the pantry, garage, and our bedroom
-Put in a new wood floor on the main level
-Cut up a few (of many) fallen trees for firewood
-Re-finished the wood floors in the kitchen and 1 of the upstairs bedrooms
-Painted the hallway floor
-Installed a water softener
-Trained a dog and 4 kittens (of which, only the dog remains)

I am sure there are a number of smaller, less consequential projects that have been accomplished over the last 2 years. We certainly feel fortunate to have found this place to call home, and take care of... if only for a little while.

Projects from this past weekend

Despite that rainy weather, we were still able to make some headway on the projects around the house. The biggest project update from this weekend: Pete installed a shelf and bar in my closet, so I now have a place to hang up our clothes (besides the door frame). I think it looks great! :) See above -- please excuse any mess!

Photos, as promised

This is the finished transom! My dad & Pete capped off the openings for the pocket doors. And we gave the whole thing a fresh coat of paint.

Anyone who has been over in the last few years has seen the hole behind the woodstove --used to find the opening for the chimney. Well, this has now been repaired & the metal piece used to surround the pipe has been put in place. It certainly feels good to no longer see the brick and inside of drywall behind the stove!
Now this is Hondo's room. The hole in the wall behind his cage has been fixed & primed. I just need to decide on a color to paint the room.

The pictures below are of the flora growing in my yard: purple flowers (violets?), the remaining tulips (not eaten by some yard creature--notice the 2 empty stems around the flowers), the crab apple tree (pink polka dots), a flowering tree that has purple flowers are the base of all branches (picture of both the tree and the flowers) , and the bottom middle picture is of the magnolia tree. Unfortunately, I do not think the magnolia has any flowers!

Promise to post pictures this weekend

sWell hello! It has been a little over a month since I last wrote anything on here. In fact, today is probably my first time in a few weeks actually plugging this computer in. So, I promise to post pictures of the projects that have been completed since my parents were in town--the divider between the main rooms looks fantastic & the completed wall behind the wood stove looks much more... finished. I am glad to not have holes in the wall in Hondo's room as well.

So, now it is spring! And my yard has a few signs of life. My tulips came up, but I have been sadly watching the flowers disappear each morning. It seems a bunny or similar creature has decided the tops are quite tasty! I am now down to 4 flowers from about 20. My crab apple tree has delightful little pink buds -- I think it looks the best it does all year, right now, just before the real flowers come in. And, I can start seeing the stems on my peonies. I am looking forward to their beautiful blooms!

My goal this weekend is to take a few pictures and share the project that is my house.

Happy May Day!