Starting it off right

You might remember we've been adding on the house. That's right, through work, school, play, wellness, sickness, birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's, the house has been in a state of construction. Above, you see where we (not really me, more like Kevin) tore off the front porch to make way for more space. A gentle reminder of where we started.

And contrary to many households on this first day of the new year, we are not watching football, eating chips and dip, wings and finger foods, we're working on the house. Even if we weren't under a state of construction we probably wouldn't be watching football, eating chips and dip, wings and finger foods, no, this is much more like us.

Kevin in knee deep in sawdust, the kids are with grandparents and I'm covered in paint. By the end of today the new office will be ready for caulk and my paintbrush.





That's alot of trim to be painted folks and I'm the resident trim painter. I may be working on it till Spring!

Trim carpentry wouldn't be complete without the little bench below, a must save item after the passing of our dear friend, Buck, who used it for more years than we probably are old. I feel like he's in the house with us, giving Kevin a little extra support.

Our master bedroom currently looks like this:

The onlookers survey,

watch how it's done,

and give their input.

From the outside, a big change, not yet finished but almost there. If you didn't know better, you'd probably even think it'd been there all along.

A study in contrasts

There's something very basic and real about walking down the hill to the chicken coop and gathering the eggs, especially if they happen to still be warm. It is simple, nature at its best and surprisingly a treat every time.

Funny how things come full circle in life. How we think we're so smart and advanced on one hand and how on the other so many people are returning to the basics. From having their own gardens or eating locally grown food, to the resurgance of the farmer's market and backyard chicken coops, people are relearning that basic isn't bad, that real is good and good for us and that the simplest things in life are often the most fulfilling.

Yet we still complicate things and I am no exception. My head was nearly spinning yesterday while going over house plans with my mother-in-law who graciously offered up her entire day to help me with everything from light switch placement to lighting and outlets, bathroom fixtures and marble, the entire office layout--complete with measurements and furniture ideas and templates for the living room. I am no expert but she is. Thank goodness, otherwise these plans would still be blank.


You can see a lot of open space in the bottom right corner which is the living room. I have miniature blocks the sizes of different furniture pieces and I'm playing "rearrange the living room a million times" to try to make purchasing decisions. At this rate we may be sitting on the floor till February.

Inside looking out

I've been remiss in posting lately, I know, but our time has been swallowed up with the kids starting school, me working at the hospital a bit more and this little thing called an addition. If it was just one room in and of itself it might not have such a big impact on our living space, but as it is (and I'm so happy with the way it is) it affects every space on the front of the house as you can see.

We're missing some walls,

we have some new windows,

and some major feats of framing and engineering have been accomplished, a.k.a. sawing the wall in half that holds up the second floor and putting a beam in so we can be wall-less in this section of the house that will become our new bedroom. I don't know how he does it without the house falling down, but by now I just know he can and that's probably all I need to know.

I can now stand in what will soon become my office and dream about how it will be laid out and what kind of storage I'll need. Kevin says he'll make me some built-in cabinets/shelves/whatever, I just need to tell him what I want. He's also informed me that he's going to be tired after this addition's all done, tired, "for like TWO YEARS" he says.

From the looks of it

The view out our front door will reveal that it'd be an uncomfortable first step if you happened not to notice that there's something missing, the front porch, that is. You may remember it was torn off the house some time ago to make way for an addition. Not a big, sprawling addition, but rather one that adds just enough space to make things a bit more comfortable and livable inside.

To be as brief as possible, I'll just say that this will allow each of our kids to have their own room and share 1 bathroom upstairs, Kevin and I will move downstairs and have our own bathroom, the foyer will be extended to make a place for the piano and there will be a new home office/She Knits headquarters and we'll be down to one living room instead of two.

Dodging the torrential rain from tropical storm Bill, the floor joists went on today and a concrete footing was added around an existing brick pier to support the current house better. It is old and apparently they didn't see the need for minor things like, say, a foundation way back when.

It's here that I must again hand it to the resident jack-of-all-trades, handyman, builder extraordinaire, hardworking machine that is my husband who just today, with his rain soaked hair standing on end (and he has a head full of it) like Billy Idol, had a coming to terms with himself about the benefits or lack thereof of doing all the work himself. It is a dilemma of epic proportions that I'm afraid he must struggle with internally. Will he continue to be a do-it-yourself-er or will one day he become a pay-someone-to-do-it-for-you-er? I think we already have our answer.

But in the meantime while he soul searches, let's just have a little look at his boots, shall we?

Can you see what I see?

It must be the mud in part that's getting to him, or maybe it's the grunt work. Neither of which are much fun.

And in response to the comments and emails from friends wondering how or why I seemed to have had a job and lost it, let me just say that I didn't explain myself very well. The job is still there, it's just that I'm one of the expendible folks who isn't full time and can either be scheduled last minute or cancelled last minute based on the sometimes vast fluctuation in patient census.

So, this time of the year like every year (I should know by now), many doctors schedule vacations not surgeries and there aren't as many folks in the hospital. The end result is I have some unplanned free time on my hands which at first bummed me out and set the chain reaction in motion of slight panic, which led to irritation, which led to imagination, and then mild elation. Let's just say I'm over it. And as I said in my last post, things can, will and do change on on a dime. In a month or two the hospitals will be overflowing and I'll be wishing for these days again. It's that whole grass-is-greener thing.

Signs of work

The addition progresses,

the red clay permeates,

someone knows what they're doing (and it's not me),


we have an almost completed foundation to prove it.

The bees are working too,

and there's a busy one in the house, this happens to be my 400th post.

Addition progress

We have a footing, that's the thing the foundation sits on for the construction illiterate like I was not too many years ago. Digging and putting one in is quite a bit more work than one would expect. Both physical and mental work with lots of measuring, leveling, looking at elevations, etc. Thankfully all of that is out of my hands and in some very good ones.

Progress in motion.

The men were digging and getting ready, lucky for Kevin and I he has some extra helping hands to employ, especially when the red clay's as hard as concrete.

Enter "Mr. Old Timer in the Conrete Truck",

and, TADA! We have a footing. A bit anticlimactic I know, but it's important as I'm told. Very important to get it right. But it doesn't look like much, does it?

Now if the house were level we'd be getting somewhere fast, but after 80 years what can you expect?

Tidbits

I thought I'd take some time to show you how the chickens have grown.

And the progress that has been made on their coop. They've had their yard for quite some time now and have settled into a nice little routine of being let out in the morning and they go in on their own to roost in the evening, all we have to do is close the door.

Kevin has begun to put the siding on, which is the old stuff he pulled off our house several years ago. One day he'll finish but his list to do list is getting much longer and a bit more elaborate.

I've been holding out on a little secret. You may remember a while back me talking about us putting an addition on our house, and as luck would have it, those plans are in the works and we should break ground very soon, or rather whenever Kevin decides to pick up a shovel and break it.

The plans are drawn, copies have been made and submitted to the county. We received our building permit just the other day. You could say it's a "go". And when I say 'we' will be putting an addition on the house I do mean WE, which is really like 95% Kevin and 5% me. From footings to foundation, framing to roofing, we'll be doing the work. Of course it's harder this way, but it's astronomically cheaper, that is in terms of money. There is a huge price to pay in terms of sweat and hard work and time, precious time. There will be many a late night and weekend spent working. Luckily it's not huge, but it will make a huge impact on the livability of the house.

We'll have a master bedroom and another bathroom. The kids will each have a room, the living room space will be much more clearly defined when my office vacates and moves into its own space (!) with pocket doors to seal it's unsightly self off from visitors.

In the end I'm really just hoping for some semblance of organization which has been seriously lacking these past ten years. More closets will mean I can actually put things away. In a house that had one two foot closet under the stairs when we moved in, that in and of itself is a huge statement. I'll spare you the rest of the details, just trust me, I'm starting to feel like it's all coming together, our space, our family, our work, our lives. It seems as though we're on the right track.

I leave you now with one last little thing, well, it's not so little. I do believe this is the hugest zucchini plant I've ever grown. It's as tall as that old burn barrel, like waist height to me. Now, if the zucchini could just be ready, please.

Life in the slow lane

"Hey lady, what do you want?"

"We're tired, can't you tell?"

"Seriously...zzz...go...zzz...away...zzzzzzzzzzz."

Despite the squawking, chirping and flapping of wings, they're more like babies than I thought they'd be. Eat, poop, sleep, repeat. A routine highly reminiscent of the baby days.

While I was at work yesterday the girls made a sign for the coop,

Kevin installed a short door and half wall between the storage space and where the birds' nesting boxes and roosts will be,

and John helped a tremendous amount, so the story goes, nailing up paneling inside and helping install the roosts and this guillotine-style hen door that will lead to their yard.



There is an irony in this whole process that I hope is not going unnoticed. The chickens are getting great care from a certain man who has told me more than once, "These are chickens, not pets, we will not get emotionally attached, we are not naming them" and so on and so forth. Yet, he reports to me about their various personalities and habits and has dedicated great thought, time and care into their dwelling space. I'm thinking he cares more than he lets on.

Much to his dismay they all now have names thanks in great part to one of my nieces. They are: Peck, Dorothy, Spot, Chirp, Cloud, Sleepy, Snowy, and Lucy. Fortunately I'm managing to keep them alive.

Sketching and dreaming

I am not an artist. At least I'm not the kind of artist who can draw, but I tried today anyway. We've gone round and round in our 10 years in this old house about how and if we'd put on an addition one day. You may remember me rambling on about this a while ago and I'm at it again.

Of course I've already been through the phase where I completely talked myself out of the idea (at least anytime soon) and I really tried to talk Kevin out of it to no avail. All my talking and complaining about the previous addition plans did were to cause him to lose several hours of sleep one night coming up with a new one, and his own laundry list of the reasons why we should do it soon. Honestly, between you and me, I'm soooo glad I complained because two things came out of it:

1. A less expensive addition that still gave us a master bedroom with closet and bath,

2. and......drumroll please.......a home office/studio for moi!!

Can you believe my dumb luck? It doesn't seem like it would be possible, but he got creative with the space and came up with a plan that I think will look so much better and like it was meant to be there rather than a zit added on as an afterthought. (yes, I said zit, I borrowed the term from Kevin).

So if you can make out any of the scribbling in the picture, you can see a schematic of the inside and a view of the current outside and the new one, which basically looks like there was a front porch the entire width of the house that we just enclosed. Clever, huh?

Oh yeah, I think I've also convinced him that we have to refinish the claw foot bathtub that we found out in a field when we moved in (the cows were drinking out of it), and use it in our new bathroom. I told him any good farmhouse worth it's salt needs one, right? And that way I don't have to scrub any shower tiles!!!

I'll add my little caveat here that while this may never come to fruition, or if it happens next month or even in the next 10 years, it sure is fun to play around and sketch and dream on a rainy, cold day in February.

I'm sure the ice is at fault

I woke up in a panic at about 5 a.m., positive that my whole world was caving in and that I needed to fly downstairs, get on the computer and check my credit score. Luckily I realized right away it was just a crazy dream, that someone in a rental company had kicked Kevin and I out of a vacation rental because he said our credit was terrible. He was so mad at us and was throwing our stuff around the room with a disgusted look on his face and I was mortified and just so squirmy and uncomfortable I wanted to run for cover. I fell back asleep only to wake later hugely relieved that yet another preposterous dream was just a dream and I had no reason to be all tense and angry about something that didn't happen. Whew. You know that feeling, where you just think over and over, it was just a dream, thank goodness, just a dream.

I'm quite sure my moods fluctuate with the weather and I've had enough of the ice and rain thank you very much. They say now we may have thunderstorms this afternoon. What is this crazy place? So I'm blaming the dreams entirely upon it, the winter weather and ice. Or perhaps the idea of putting an addition on the house has something to do with it. No, on second thought, I'd rather blame the ice.

Although the day had a rocky start, things have smoothed out, the planets aligned themselves in just the right way and I've been able to finish an order that was taking me way to long to complete AND put the third coat of paint on the shelves. There are definite stages to painting. I find at first it's hard to get started, do the prep work and get in the right mindset. Then once I start and I'm happy and having fun, listening to favorite music, excited to have pretty painted shelves, then by the time the third coat comes around I start thinking, this is like knitting the second sock, or even worse, the third. But now they're done, they're done, they're done. Tomorrow we (Kevin) can screw in some hooks and we'll load 'em up. Of course there will be pictures.

Starting her early

She was beside herself that I'd let her help with the painting. I'm now thinking I should have let her help with the priming. There are some, uh, well, let's say, rough spots.

There was non-stop dialogue from her for the at least hour that she "helped". It went something like this:

This is so much fun!
I just love painting.
Don't you love painting?
Nice soft brush strokes, right mama?
I just LOVE painting!
I don't know why I keep saying that. giggle. giggle.
I've never painted shelves before.
Why aren't these shelves orange?
I think shelves should be orange.
Can I have some orange shelves?
Maybe when I'm a mama?
I love painting.
Squigward (should be Squidward) is a good artist. (Spongebob reference)
He uses a little brush and Spongebob and Patrick use big brushes like yours.
I like little brushes.
I've never painted the house before!
I just love painting.
Won't Daddy be so surprised?
We are really doing a great job, right mama?
Gasp! Uh oh! Oh no!
I just spilled.
Is it okay?
Okay.
Can I paint some more?
I love to paint.

You get the general idea.

Girl with paintbrush

On the road to better organization, the kids' shoes now have bigger and sturdier homes, a necessity when their feet do nothing but grow and the force with which their shoes are hurled into place also only intensifies. We decided a bench to house them was overkill both in labor and cost when these baskets can be found so easily and inexpensively at discount stores like Marshall's.

When I said Kevin was on fire with all his plan drawing I wasn't kidding. The day after, he came home with fully built shelves and he and I quickly installed them. Here, unpainted,

and now primed thanks to yours truly. What you can't see is the area below where the kids coats will be hung on new hooks, and on the sides will be more hooks, one for each backpack and maybe a fourth for a mommy bag. In a house with one 2 foot closet under the stairs on the first floor, this new area is pure luxury.

That big space in the middle is for the 3 recycling receptacles I ordered the other day. I'm not going to know what to do with myself. After photos will be forthcoming.

Painting among other types of physical labor always gets my mind going or not going, I can't figure which. I tend to space out, but then it seems my thoughts really are dancing around, no matter how aware of it I am or not. Perhaps it can best be described as simple meditation, which is why I highly recommend painting, or weeding, or cutting grass with a push mower, or taking your own trash to the dump, or baking bread, or swinging a hammer, or axe, what have you.

I was thinking about the familiarity of the paint smell and my mind was quickly flooded with image after image of when Kevin and I remodeled the house. I mean gutted it. All the way to new wiring, heating/AC, plumbing, floors, walls, ceilings, insulation, everything. I have distinctly embedded visions in my mind of tearing out plaster walls and the lathe behind them and pulling down ceiling board on top of my head and how the hickory nuts from the squirrels in the attic would fall down the back of my shirt along with 70 years of dirt and insulation. It was not a job for the faint-hearted.

I'm still pretty amazed we did it and can't really believe that I've primed and painted literally every room of this house and several more than once. As much of an undertaking as it seems, I highly recommend it, not just for the cost-saving aspects, not just for practicality or learning how things are done, not just so you gain an appreciation for what some people do for a living and how hard they work, but more importantly for the opportunity to learn more about yourself. Give it a try, I promise you'll learn something valuable about yourself that you didn't know before.

I sit here too, thinking that this is preparation for the next step, getting ready for a possible addition that is, if it's plausible in this crazy, downturned economy. Time will tell. In the meantime, I can at least blab about it all to you while I drink a little tea with honey and eat the last two pieces of the homemade bread I baked yesterday. Almost nothing smells better. Well, okay, maybe a baby.