We woke up and knew that this was going to be a kick butt weekend! Our friend Justin was coming over to help on Saturday and the temperatures were super nice… high 40s with a touch of sunshine. We’ve been busy most of the week with holiday orders and just stuff going on and it was going to be nice to just tackle a huge laundry list of little projects around the homestead.
We had to get ready as well for Monday, since the Community Action folks were coming out to start winterizing our old home! How grateful we are, oh my gosh… Just amazed. I know it will be amazing once they start working on the underbelly of our house and making her weather tight and so much more efficient. And one thing was that we had to find all the registers for them and make sure they had clear and easy access to them all.
That was a slight problem in the office. My old lovely drafting table had become a sort of catchall and was cluttered up and full of stuff. And in my office, things were just not right. As you can see in the above picture, I had a sort of hodgepodge of little desks, tables and even my sewing machine in there… just not working right. My goal was to eliminate some of the tables and just get my drafting table and desk in there… create a nice simple open workspace. So I got started.
The finished project only took about an hour or so, and I cleaned well as I went along… amazing how dusty stuff gets so fast! With my little to scale layout I was able to make sure everything would fit nicely and it did! Now I have two nice big work spaces, a bunch of clutter is gone and I can’t wait to be able to sit in there and do my client work and other tasks for our companies! It’s perfect… and best of all, we got that area over a vent all tidy, too, in the process.
I like those kind of deals…
Justin and Maggie set to work on number one goal… get heat for Maggie in her workshop!!!
Poor child… she’s been working and working towards this goal and we get close but then so far. They managed to get the wall thimble cut out and in place and the heat board up and a few other things but then they got stuck when they discovered they needed a coupler piece of pipe to make the transition outside. Darn it. Close but no fire. They did light a small smokey cardboard fire in the stove to see where they might have any leaks and they had a couple. So, armed with a can of high temperature caulk, they sealed it up and waited for the piece.
Close, but not quite done. Still, the nice weather did let her spend a few hours in there working and she made some beautiful hand shaped weaving shuttles for sale later on! I just can’t wait to see what she can accomplish once she can be in there for hours and hours, warm and toasty!
The non-breeding gang took advantage of the open fence while they were working on the stove pipe! YUM…. fresh grass in the front pasture that was UNTOUCHED…. since Harley had left his pasture to join the ladies in the back, this little front ram pasture had grown up and was actually pretty lovely and green. The goats and few sheep didn’t waste one minute with a salad bar scarf up!
Just about there…. getting there… soon! First of the week for certain!
I had to laugh… I love how she repurposed an old silverware chest that our friend Mary gave her! It’s now holding her new screwdrivers and pliers that she bought for herself. So cool!
Next up? Our new vanity install. Last week we got a new toilet to put in… and it’s working fantastically! Well, our other big effort in the bathroom is this pedestal sink. It’s nice and all, but unfortunately , it started to crack and sprung a bad leak. Behind the bowl. We think it was installed back in the 80’s when this bathroom addition was added to the whole house. It’s served well, but was time to go.
Removing these things is not as hard as installing them, so we are finding! Once removed, Justin found things to be in pretty good shape behind… it was just the pedestal sink that was leaking and bad. That was great! He cleared away all the stuff, and got it all ready for our new little vanity.
We found this cute little vanitey and sink as a floor model at Menards. Super within our budget. $119 if I must say. Considering that you could spend a near fortune on these things, we looked, I thought this was very nice and very reasonable. We got a cute faucet set to match our sort of farm house dream theme and we were set!
Jessy was so busy with holiday rock orders that she pretty much was off the chore list for the day. But the plumber child within brought her into the bathroom often to watch and observe for future projects! She is my plumbing kid and I think she was just a little worried that things might go astray without her!
Dixie Kitty was the official supervisor for the project. You know, we need feline supervisors for all DIY projects around the homestead.
And ta da! Isn’t it adorable? It matches our pretty mirror/medicine cabinet so nicely and I like the idea of a little additional storage. It seems to fit the space a little more and we love the look. So cute! The next step in there is to paint the walls with a little richer color…. a sort of parchment soft brown, light, but a bit more than this sort of blah beige look. And new curtains! I have the material that I bought a few months ago… just gotta get my head in the game and make the new curtains up!
After the bathroom vaniety… we set about removing this way too big and too low hanging light in our small little dining room. I love the fixture, have had it for years… but it was just not right for this room. It was free handing, not over a table or anything and way too many people were bumping into it, even cranked up as high as we could get it! It had to get pulled down. It will have a new home in our big studio out front… and I think it will be delightful out there!
In the meanwhile, we had to replace the tile with the big hole and all with a new one and ah… hmmm…. one of these things is not like the others! Ugh! Well, we had planned to paint the ceiling so I guess this means, we really need to paint the ceiling. You just can’t clean those darn tiles very well, can you??? 
It’s easy to see that some drywall repair will be on our list soon… Maggie removed an old baseboard heater in the bathroom and the wall plug as well. It had died and was just an eyesore… gone away! I think we could probably spring for a few new switch plates… yeah….
As you can see, Ratchet was hard at work on his weekend to do list.
I’m happy to report that he got everything done on his list. Nap, nap, eat, drink, nap, go outside and ah, nap. Yeah… he’s very helpful and supportive of DIY weekends.
Well, another project was to paint the milking stand! It’s nice and all, being just rustic plywood and all, but I had a quart of lovely purple hued mis-tinted paint and I sure wanted to gussy it up a bit. Duke seemed to not mind too much… it is his favorite lookout spot in the screen porch, but he approved of the job at hand. 
I think it turned out rather nice.
Buttercup approved. She really wanted to come in and check it out but she wanted to jump right up and it was still damp! Had to wait a day so it would harden up nicely.
There is so much we want to do outside, painting, fixing up, just making it nice and ours. But it just has to take place here and there. Sometimes I wish everything was done and just like we want it. But then, it would take away some of the thrill of just doing things one at a time and enjoying the process. It just spreads out the fun! And protects the budget!!!
This is a springtime project in the dreaming. This is the concrete pathway out back from our screen porch and it will just so rough. It’s too low, so it floods ALL the time… And with the pump right there, it just becomes a muddy mess every time we do anything there. Most of the concrete is cracked and rough. I think we will be replacing this walkway and raising it up a good deal. Maybe even six inches or so. With drainage slits through it and a rough surface so it’s safe in the winter and when wet. We haven’t done much concrete work, so it will be fun to learn! I see a cute mosaic edge to it, don’t you? Something with a little whimsy and some garage sale shopping involved… perhaps old china? Hmmm….
It’s not pristine, but I am so excited to report that our mudroom has stayed pretty darn organized for now six months! Yeah! I think we are finally on to something here. Everyone is following the rules and the plan and replacing things and making sure it doesn’t just clutter up! Apparently our sorting worked out good and our placement for various tools and such works, because it is staying relatively neat and tidy. I love it! Come spring, I’m sure it will need a little refresher, but it won’t be bad. Just a few more months away!!! Can’t wait…
We all accomplished quite a bit this weekend, even more than I managed to take a shot or two from… (I do help, it’s just that I love to photo document our efforts and make everyone groan…)
Jessy really was just hard at work with her rock and mineral kits for kids. Breaking up rocks and getting things ready to bag and sort. She stayed at it all weekend… busy as she could be! We helped as well, here and there, when we wanted a little sit down break. She managed to get a ton of orders ready for Monday’s mail! It will die off soon… really by around the 18th, we won’t see too many more holiday orders and will get a little break! Yeah!
Well, overall, we just got our to do list whittled way down! Cleaned up things, took out trash, got rid of a bunch of boxes and such, just tackled the to do list with vigor!
We still have a pretty good list of things we want to do inside the house, but as long as we had some decent temperatures outside, we wanted to get as much done out there as possible. We don’t often see 50 degrees in December! You gotta believe, we took advantage of it!
We have about 30 more things we want to try and get done by the new year. That’s about 3 a day… I think we’ll get close! We already have 5 things scratched off… kinda simple ones from Monday and Tuesday, but hey, it’s getting there! It will feel nice to start the new year off with a little bang and a few things fixed and nicer! Feels good after a pretty rough year for us!!!
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