Progress, Plans, and Ponderings

A bit more than a week ago, a surgeon redesigned the layout of my internal organs.  He removed some original equipment, so there is a fear my resale value has fallen.

But I hired him for the remodel, and agreed with the plan.  I do not plan to sell myself anytime soon anyway.

But sitting at home, giving my body time to heal, gives me time to look at some of the progress we have made recently, look at the plans for the rest of the year, and just let my mind wander about this farm house, the land, and our responsibilities as current owners.  This most likely will stretch out over a few posts (not sure how many yet), so stay tuned!

                                                                    My Biggest Issue

When we first toured the house before purchase, as we looked at all the water damage, the destroyed walls and ceilings, and the old plumbing and heating system, there was one item that really bothered me.  The whole house was original wood work, except for a doorway added to the top of the stairs.

 

I hated that door.  And after thinking about it for a bit, I also realized that the plywood above the stairs was out of place. I needed to take it out.  So as we are fixing up the upper hallway, I was finally able to get rid of that evil door.

Yes, that is the original post where the banister used to end.  It is now missing about 6 inches, and is also missing the top.  But we can deal with this.  The whole stairway has a less cramped feeling now that we have opened it up.  This should increase a bit as we take out the old plaster, which as you can all see, has a few problems, and replace it with thinner drywall. 

Finishing Bedroom #2

Almost There

Well, this weekend we went to the farm in hopes of finishing bedroom #2.  As usual, we forgot to bring some things such as the "kicker" to put in the carpet. We also forgot the staple guns for the padding but we used small nails instead. We got the carpet and padding down but not installed fully. As Greg began to unpack the curtain rods I bought, one of the decorative ends broke like a glass Christmas ornament. So, those did not get put up. Hopefully, next weekend will be more successful.

Here's where we are now.

Getting ready for carpet.

Padding has been added.

Greg vacuuming the new carpet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next weekend we will fully install the carpet, hang the drapes, put in the trundle bed and put up the rest of the base boards. 

This old farm house is getting renovated.

Finishing Bedroom #2

Holding Back

I have to hold back, I feel, and be patient.  We are on our second bedroom and things are going well. This weekend I finished priming the ceiling, painted the ceiling, and painted the walls. I had to touch up the baseboards, clean the windows, and sweep the floor. I wanted to hang the drapes I bought; I'm so excited to see them up because they will look great with the wall color. However, I don't want them getting dirty and Greg and I have decided to look for some carpet remnants so we can truly finish the room. Once we get carpet in the room, I will hang the drapes. We still have to put up the baseboards on one half of the room.  All in all, it was another productive weekend. Oh, we also have a bed in our room now and it was so nice to sleep on a real bed. Still looking for a head board and foot board though. We are getting most things from Craigslist or restores, auctions, Estate sales etc.

On our trip up on Friday night we saw the most amazing sunset.

Simply amazing!

Doing some last minute touch-ups!

We found this great ceiling light/fan at the Habitat for Humanity Restore.

Oh, I also worked on my garden. I transplanted some peonies, planted spring bulbs, and transplanted Day Lilies and Mums.  I'm all set for fall and spring.

I'm so excited to look for carpet, head and foot boards, and hang the drapes. Hopefully, we will have some luck locating some of these items this week. I'm also very excited about next spring so I can see the results of my work in the garden.

Moving into Fall

Time is Running Out

Well, as Fall approaches, our time on the farm is slowly ending. With no furnace we can't work through the winter. Our goal at this point is to finish one last bedroom and prepare it for winter. Last weekend we had to go up on Saturday morning instead of Friday night because I was part of Art on the Plaza in West Allis. I also had to pay a bill in the morning and so we got a late start and did not actually arrive there until around 11:00 a.m.

Regardless, we still got a lot accomplished. While Greg tackled the electric in the bedroom, I sanded the walls and ceiling. I was able to prime everything except for the ceiling before we left. Greg was able to finish all of the electricity. The week before we found another great fan light for the room at the Restore and so we are looking forward to finishing the room and installing that.

It was also Cheese Days in Monroe and we wanted to check that out. We managed to make it to the festival on Sunday for about an hour and saw the parade. I got to try Limburger cheese for the first time. Which, I did not think had a horrible odor like I was told... and I enjoyed the flavor. After that, we drove home to West Allis.

While at the farm on Saturday night we had a visitor. Greg will introduce you to him.

Laurie

Yes, we had a visitor.  We were cooking a late dinner, and chatting about what we had accomplished, and Laurie saw a shadow fly by.  And then again......

Suddenly, she jumped up, grabbed her purse and ran out.  I followed.  She had seen a bat.  We had seen one in April, but have not seen any since.  I went in, turned on all the lights, and found our cute friend hanging in what was the dining room.

I decided to close off the room as much as I could, so his only exit was the front door, which Laurie (who was still outside with her purse) agreed to open as he came. No matter what kind of noise or action I took, he decided to just hang in there.  I finally nudged him with a long piece of drywall. He flew around and landed on a screen I had used to block off the kitchen.  After a moment, he (or she, I never got close enough to check) was off again, circled the room twice and found the space I was unable to block into the living room and parlor.  

He disappeared.

I looked in every place the bat could be hiding, and he could not be found.  Eventually, Laurie came in with her purse, we locked the door and went to bed, with our bedroom door firmly closed.

-Greg  

PS Good thing I had my purse! (Laurie).

Untold wealth

We have now owned our dream homestead for 4 months.  As you can read in other posts it was a Gordon Van Tine super fixer upper, and we have 5 years to complete it.  There were no big completions this weekend, but the rain has put me in a reflective mood.  I would like to look at how truly blessed I am.

I truly am the richest man in the world.

I have a loving family.  I have my Beautiful wife, Laurie, who shares my dreams, and whom I am able to work beside day in and day out. While I love art, she is a fantastic artist and art teacher.

(You can find her art teacher blog at http://pledlspalette.blogspot.com/)

 I have 5 wonderful children, two of which will be giving us our first grandchildren within the next six months. I have my loving parents, brothers and sisters, who love me as much as I love them.

I have a job I love, managing a program for seniors with Alzheimer’s, where I plan to work until I retire. 

(The Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Waukesha, WI takes place this weekend.  Please consider donating to help the cause!!  http://act.alz.org/site/TR?fr_id=11638&pg=personal&px=14532767 )

And then when I retire……It becomes a farm!

Our remodeling is going great!!  In 4 months we have completed 2 rooms, which include all new plumbing and electric.  We have started 3 other rooms, all slowly moving to completion.  We have started reclaiming the property, with paths leading to newly planted trees, and others leading back into the 15 acres. 

Thank you for visiting to keep up with our progress.  Since a furnace for the home is not planned until next year, or maybe the year after, things will be closed up over winter, with lots of time to plan for new progress in spring.

No amount of money could make my life any better!

Water, Electric, and More.

Took Friday off of work so we had a three day weekend on the farm.  In the past, that meant just an extra day struggling in the bathroom.  But with the bathroom done, it seems like things are moving along more quickly.

On Friday morning, after a good nights sleep in the teardrop, I started with the water.  As you can see from many pictures of the farm, we have yellow rock everywhere.

No surprise, it is also in the water. The drain pipes I removed were FILLED with the yellow rock, and water left sitting in a bucket leaves the yellow sediment at the bottom.

*Normally, I would insert a picture here of the bathtub filled with yellow water, but the only one we have is one with a person bathing.  If it is Laurie, she wouldn't want me to post it here, and if it is me, you wouldn't want to see it*

So I bought, and inserted this weekend, an inline filter.  It actually went well, and I finished quickly.

Well, with that task done, I quickly moved on to the next.  A few weeks ago, in a storm, wind took off about 7 shingles from a ridge on the roof.  I know enough about roofing to make the repair, but the steepness of the roof, and the height of our home did make me pause.  Added to this, is Laurie's constant belief that I will hurt myself in ordinary tasks, and cannot be trusted (Okay, there was the incident with the circular saw, and well, lets just move on).

The actual work did not take long, and I was done in about an hour, but It was high, and steep, and well, it is done.

The rest of the weekend was spent mowing the lawn, watering trees, working on the garden and.....

The master bedroom has been completed.  That means that working a few weekends a month, for 3 months, has given us updated plumbing, a new bathroom, 6 outlets upstairs when there were none, and two roomsx completed and rewired.

In any job of this size, it is REALLY easy to get frustrated with how long things are taking.  Laurie and I both have dreams of the house done, a few dogs, chickens, and sheep.  A horse or two, and a pony for the grand kids.  Steers grazing.

And Artists.

Artists everywhere, painting, sculpting, exchanging ideas, and community.

But I digress.

When the dreams run deep, it is hard to see all the steps needed to reach those dreams, and to take them patiently.

But we will.

-Greg

Little Birdies Alive and Well

Amazing Life

We spent the weekend at the farm. The highlight was watching the baby birds in the nest right outside our door. Mom and Dad both working so hard to provide food. The nest seems to be getting a bit crowded with five growing babies in it now. Each struggles to pop up its head when they sense Mom or Dad approaching with something to eat. So amazing to watch their five yellow beaks open wide to let the food inside. 

We won't be back for two weeks now. I hope we can see them fly next time we visit. I hope we don't miss it!

Laurie

All are hungry,

two have been fed.

I want more!

Discoveries

 Discoveries

The first 2 weekends spent at the house, and working on it were filled of new discoveries.  Some were fun, a few are expensive, and one or two were kind of scary.  In reality, none of them should have been too surprising, considering it was a farm house built in 1915 and it had been vacant for the last 6 years.

My first discovery was electrical.  I had assumed that there would only be one outlet per bedroom, since it was an old farm house, but discovered that there were no outlets upstairs at all.  The electric is also very old, with insulators in the wall.  We decided very quickly that all the electric would be replaced. 

Plumbing was also a bit of an eye opener.  We live in a very rocky area, with yellowish rock everywhere.  It was a bit of a surprise, though, to open up the bathroom sink drain and discover sediment, the same color as all the rocks, had filled the inch and ¼ pipe to the point it was only open 1/8 of an inch.  We decided, again, very quickly, that all the plumbing would be replaced, and we would put a few inline filters on the waterline.

One of the fun discoveries was the wildlife.  We have a mama bird on the porch sitting on eggs,

                      we saw a mama deer and her baby in the field across the road,

       and we had a bat fly past us when were upstairs at dusk (Sorry, no pics of that. We left quickly.)

          

We had been told that our farmhouse was a Montgomery Ward mail order house.  Our research, though, showed that Montgomery Ward was not sending out mail order houses in 1915.  We had also been told it was a Sears mail order house, but we were doubting that also.  The answer came when we took out some of the molding around the windows and discovered that it was a mail order Gordon Van Tine home.

Gordon Van Tine was a company in Iowa, which is not far from the house, and started by supplying the materials for the Sears mail order homes.  When Sears got their own mill, Gordon Van Tine started their own Catalog.  Later, when Montgomery Ward got into the mail order house business, they also used Gordon Van Tine. Now we are in the process of looking for the catalog which shows our home.

Well, our discoveries will continue, along with our rebuilding, and we invite you along for the ride.

-Greg.