March/April Summary

So here's an overview of what we've accomplished in the last month plus a little extra, and where all the remodeling stands at this time.

* Preliminary map of furniture lay out made for each room in house.
* Carpets and flooring replaced as needed, all walls painted.
* Bath tubs replaced, bath tub doors not yet attached.
* Water and sewer working.
* New front/back door and windows.
* Light fixtures installed and replaced as needed, electricity fixed in garage.
* Island in kitchen torn out, space for stove/oven prepared.
* Stair fence replaced with solid wall, waiting on door to stairs.
* Fridge, washer, and dryer put back into place.
* Shelves put back into closets. Had been removed for painting.
* Driveway garden cleared out, still working on iris garden.
* Limited amount of stuff moved in and unpacked in living room and old sewing room, which are clean.

Here's what we're still waiting on or planning to work on in May.

* Install bath tub doors.
* Install new stove and microwave.
* Install door to basement stairs.
* Moving furniture into rooms, arranging according to maps.
* Getting the "okay" to move belongings into the rest of the house, unpack more things.
* Fill holes where dirt on new water line settled in the rain.
* Clear out iris bed.
* Clear out corn husks from metal shed.
* Make landscaping plans for new trees and bushes to plant. Will require input from uncle who uses out buildings and winters cows in the pasture.
* Unpack, sort, and repack items purchased at auction. Will require a great deal of help and emotional support. Many items (especially holiday decorations) will go back into storage for now.
* Maybe move in?

I know we're making a lot of progress. It just feels slow, knowing how far we still have to go. Thank you, though, for all of your support and encouragement!

Lunchboxes and Irises

So, I know what you're thinking. "Boy, those wrestler action figures sure looked sharp up on that decorative railing. What would visually compliment them best?" Well, if your guess is my lunch box collection, you are absolutely correct.

And yes, those wrestlers do look sharp. But someone needs to tell the Bret Hart twins and the British Bulldog to stop jumping off. That ledge is not a turnbuckle, and no is getting clotheslined today.

Anyway, my lunchbox collection is now lining one wall of the former sewing room/current play room. Except that it was never intentionally a collection, Karl and I just had some cool lunchboxes growing up. Plus a great Dark Crystal lunchbox we found in high school. And later some awesome Muppet ones, and it's hard for me to pass up Muppet merchandise. And I got a great Beatles one as a gift. (Don't tell Karl I took his lunchbox. He might not actually know. I don't really want to give it back.) (Don't tell him that, either.)

One Garden Done!

After working two more days on the driveway garden, it's all clear! Here's a look at the before and after.



 These are "before". I should have had Emmy or Gwen stand in there to show how deep it was. Very, very deep.










 These are "after". You can see there's still a little junk in there, but not nearly as much. Look at all that green stuff! And dirt!




 

New Gloves! And New Work......

After an evening of hauling away more corn husks, it's starting to look less like my uncle's corn field threw up in our yard and more like a real lawn.

I had to relocate my dumping site tonight, having made the first pile entirely too big. Anyone need husks for anything? Anyone at all?

Before coming over, we made a trip into Seward for tools. There were no pruning shears or cutters of any kind in the garage. (Why would there be? It's full of mops.) So I bought a three pack of varying sized shears. I think I dulled all of them today. And here's the frustrating part: after cutting out hundreds of volunteer trees and very thick weeds, I don't feel like I made any progress. I just keep noticing the ones I missed, and resisting the urge to get get the cutters out again for a second round.

Easter Gardening Attempt 2: Sore Hands

The storm passed, I picked up everyone else from home, we picked up some supper in town, and now back to work.

Yesterday, by the way, we stopped to help Dad move the fridge back into place and there was much crying from the girls because:
A. We weren't staying to play.
B. We weren't staying to see Grandma and Grandpa.
And this is the most important, apparently:
C. We hadn't gotten food at McDonalds to eat at the new house, which we had done ONE time a couple weeks ago, but it's now the thing we "always" do.

After yesterday's mini-break down, we made plans to do a special fun meal tonight. Here are Emmy and Gweny, using a table set up that Adam came up with. Box table, tub lid table cloth, paint can chairs.

The girls love eating like this, and Agatha laughs when someone leans on the table top and knocks everything down. We don't really think it's funny, but we're also the ones cleaning up crumbs. Well, mostly Adam picks up. Okay, fine. Just Adam.

I've been just clearing away husks today. I'll load them up and haul them away tomorrow. After several hours of raking, it looks a little like I've parted the corn husk river. Let my garden go!

  

Easter Gardening Attempt 1: Storm Interruption

Happy Easter! While the girls nap (it was a very busy day between church, donuts after church, egg hunting at my parents' house, and eating primarily candy for lunch), I thought I'd get a head start on working at the new house. But I only got to work an hour or so before I was forced to take a break, which included going home to check the weather on TV and picking up everyone for supper.



First, look at these plants!

This is why I haven't spent much time in the iris bed yet. When I get such good plant feedback on the work I've done, I can't help but keep going in the same space.


Second, I know I've caused a lot of invertebrates to relocate with all of this gardening, but now I've caused a rabbit to move, too.

There's a hole under these husks that was full of fur and strands of grass. I covered the hole with a pile of husks and some of the fur, but I'm pretty sure this mama rabbit is going to make herself a new den now. No babies inside - I did check. It's not a great hiding place, anyway, considering it's proximity to the back/front door and the garage.

 This, though, is the highlight of the afternoon. See what I watched move in as I worked on the driveway flower bed?

Facing south while raking, I could see the storm gradually move in. And I could feel the wind shift, pick up, and cool down. Seriously, it was amazing. A little freaky and intense (especially being alone), but very amazing.

Experiencing Delays........

"Hey! Why haven't you been posting things on here? How can you neglect it already?" Well, thanks for asking. It's been quite a week and a half. And we haven't really done much over there, so there's less to tell. Plus, with some technical issues (darn camera), I couldn't finish any of the posts I had started anyway.

Good news, though! The water was hooked up a week ago this past Monday, which is great! I've already washed my hands a couple times. And on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, the broken light fixtures were fixed, two new lights were put in, and the garage circuitry was fixed so we can open and close the garage door again. (We hadn't been able to for a few weeks.)

What Could Be Slowing Us Down?

So, we're still waiting on the currently empty rooms to be cleaned out. But while we wait, let's look at what's awaiting us in the other rooms.

This is the dining room. Washer and dryer were moved here during painting, and they will eventually be moved back to their closet. Although a washer and dryer might be useful in the dining room with our messy eaters. Hmmm.....

You can also see some of the furniture I was able to buy at the auction; some boxes of stuff Dad, Mom, and I need to divide up from auctions; and a couple of my little DVD racks that are just hanging out until they can be placed in the living room and used again. See that racket? The girls aren't clear on what it's for, but they love running around with it. Which is why it's up high right now.

Space to Play

The girls love playing at "the new house", as we've begun calling it. And as much fun as they're having, they haven't even gotten to see what we can do with the space.

Grandma has some great playing options, which I can tell you about from experience. The patio in back is great for riding roller racers and scooters. It's also great for coloring with chalk, but if you use crayon, it makes adults grouchy even though they should know better than to not have any chalk in the house.

We need to re-lay some cement going down the slope, because that's one of the best parts of riding things around back here. If you get going fast enough, you might even end up across the drive.

The windowed area used to be a little porch kind of thing, before the sun room was added on. That is one change I wish could be undone, because I used to use that area as a play house. But we'll leave it. I think Dad would be pretty put out if I tried to talk him into a new un-construction project so soon.

Different Day, Different Garden

Believe it or not, there are iris flowers somewhere here, under all these corn stalks and dead leaves, among the volunteer trees whose days are numbered. (Unless anyone wants to transplant and adopt some.....?) (No idea what they are. Unless "Obnoxious" is a new tree type.)

I took a break from the driveway to work on this tonight. I didn't have much time, so I cleared a little bit by the front/back door and then got to work on this.

Beginning the Yard Work

Until I can do more inside, I'm moving outside. I'm also doing this because I hear it's spring now, and plants apparently start sprouting at this alleged time of year.

Grandma loves flowers (as evidenced by the things she painted) and had extensive garden spaces going all summer long. The flower beds have been neglected the last couple years as the house has stood empty and the last year Grandma was out here when she was having more and more trouble with endurance and mobility. My mission is to get these beds uncovered and see what comes up this year. Next year we can make changes, but with everything else going on, we'll just see what we've got for now.

The biggest problem is corn husks. There is nearly a foot deep of husks in many places around the farm, but most of those places are gardens. And under the corn husks are another two or three inches of leaves and what I assume used to be leaves before they decomposed into a dark goo. This is going to take a very long time!

On a side note, many of the fields around here are completely devoid of corn husks and stalks. Hey neighbors, I know where your husks went! Feel free to come get them at any time. Seriously.

Wrestling with Interior Decorating

Still limited on how much stuff we can move over, but that's okay today. I'm working on decorating. And then unpacking the rest of the board games and random art supplies. Which kind of relates to decorating, right?

So, Grandma was a china painter and had many china painting friends. She has many places and furniture items around the house that were dedicated to her vast collection of china. We weren't able to keep all the china in the family. Not even the things she made, which is yet another sore spot for me, so we'll keep going with this story. Now I have a dilemma called, "What do I put on all of these shelves made fairly specifically for plates?"

We did buy as much of the china as we could, and some of the plates will be displayed somewhere in the house, but these shelves seem to be too out-in-the-open and too narrow for highly breakable things. The girls are careful, but things get thrown around once in a while. And this room is currently the front runner for where my awesome Dr. J foam basketball and hoop set from the 1980s is going to go. But it's okay, I have a great idea.

In sixth grade, I went through a WWF (now WWE) wrestling faze, as all young girls do. And as I've gotten older and had time to look back on those months fondly, I've bought a few of my favorite characters as I've seen them and been able to afford them. (They're a little pricey for something that is not a Muppet or a Beatle.) And guess what! They can mostly stand on their own! Sort of! So guess who's going up on the railing.....

We Can Flush! (But only once per toilet for now)

Hey, the sewer is all finished and working! In theory! Because the water isn't hooked up for the new well yet, and so the toilets haven't been flushed because there isn't any water to refill them after one flush. We're saving that one flush per toilet until there is a child-related emergency that can't wait for the drive home.

But actually, the guess is that the water will be hooked up tomorrow (Friday), and then we can really test out all the new water lines for real. And that will be exciting, and maybe scary if something isn't working right. Or messy.

So now we maybe have a timeline! So far, things have been in a ripple. When the remodeling is done, the floors can be put down. When the floors are down, the walls can be painted. When the weather is nicer, the new well and sewer can be put in. Now there's just a little touch up work to do in the bathrooms (paint got scuffed when the toilets were put back, apparently - I keep forgetting to notice), the new oven isn't there yet, the half door to the basement needs to be put in, and a few light sockets need to be repaired (the awesome light hanging in the old sewing/small dining room is one of them for those of you who have been inside - removing that light fixture was a deal breaker).