We got out the door pretty early on Tuesday and got started on painting the dining room. It was a sort of pale yellow that sort of looked like a worn dirty creamy tan. Needless to say, it was rather unattractive.

We managed to score two more gallons of mistints, a sort of barn red and a dark sort of blue. Maybe not what I would choose for inside the house, but like I said, with 7 other buildings and such outside, we can use all the $5 gallons of paint we can get! We now have 9 gallons of paint in our collection! Now we have to work on getting them all used up!

It took us most of the day, but it looks all beautiful in there! Maggie helped to cut up the nasty carpet and remove it, which really improved the look! We are going to put in a nice wood non glue floating vinyl that we’ve grown fond of. We used it in the moby and it has performed wonderfully. We’ve decided to wait to lay any flooring down until more of the demo and painting is done. That way we don’t have to worry over dirt and tools and any of that sort messing it up. It will be the last thing we do before moving in.

The colors are looking lovely… this is the view from my office, with the weathered white walls, to the warm almost peanut buttery brown of the dining room, into that lovely grass green in the kitchen! Very nature influenced, I think!

Funny thing happened on Sunday… and I had a picture in my phone… I had forgotten to bring my good camera… so sorry for the nasty photos.. but I wanted to get a few pictures!

We were sitting down for a spot of lunch when all the sudden, we hear this WHOOOMFFFF… and we look and the living room ceiling had all fallen down!!! It was already started and several of the 12 x 12 acoustic tiles were out. Apparently the wind caught them and pulled the rest down. We took a good look and NONE of them were even stapled into the furring strips! They were all up with just the little tongue and groove of each tile. Well at least we’re done with the ceiling demo in the living room!

We’ve taken Monday and Wednesday off to work, but I have to tell you, on those days, my mind is not in focus on my tasks! Thank goodness, I have most of my clients tidy and don’t have any heavy lifting needed for the moment. But that almost makes it worse, because I don’t have a really busy schedule to keep my mind off the farm! But we have to keep orders going out and such, and we’ve found that if we do more than two days in hard labor, our third day is really exhausting. So having a day off gives us a good rest and gets us ready for the next round!

I’m very excited about Thursday and Friday! The girl’s Dad, Steve is coming out to help us for a good long while. He’s been working a really crazy schedule and aside from a few hours one day last week, he’s not been out to see the farm or hang out with the girls. He’s a skilled trades electrician for a local motor company and is very handy with those types of things. We’ve got a few little electrical needs, and a dead fan to remove, and water heater to be removed. And he’s bringing a roll of fencing for the contribution and to help keep the doggies safe. And I’m sure we’ll find all sorts of things that he can lend a hand with. Maggie is mending a fence in the orchard and Jessy and I are going to be painting the offices! Fun stuff!

But the very best part??? I have found a young man that has a new landscaping company near the farm. He’s going to be coming out to help get our garden started! He’s got a mowing and tilling company and ours is going to be his biggest effort to date.

How exciting! Been thinking about the big old garden that we are going to have, and how to prepare it. I know that we have a lovely location picked out. Not sure exactly the measurement, but it’s going to be along side the poultry barn, which is 70 feet long. Going to measure it out tomorrow before they arrive. All I know is that for over 50 years, the family before us raised chickens and they dumped all the composted manure on the side of the poultry barn!!! Can you imagine how nice that soil is going to be??? It’s the richest black gold I’ve ever seen! Can’t wait to see how it grows!

Normally, I would consider just laying down newspaper and doing the lasagna sort of garden with layers of stuff, but this time I think, to get it started, I would like the sod cut away and mulched, and then get it into nice mounded rows. Jay is going to till it all under after a very short lawn cut, and then in a week or so, come back and give it another go around once all the grass and such has died away. After we see how it all looks, then we might add a dumptruck of compost, or we might not. Will just depend on how it looks. I’d rather get it all started out on the right foot, then to spend a whole season with a disappointing outturn. It’s very important to me! And we are moving in at the most perfect time for sure!

Well, I’m off to bed… got a full couple days ahead! And Friday, we’re playing at the Romulus, Michigan Wayne County Coonhunters Club… what fun and great home cooking by Virgie and her lovely family! Can’t wait!!!