6.14.19 The renovations continue

Still stuck on paint color. I don't suppose that's a huge surprise. I finally broke down and ordered paint samples from Samplize. I am SO EXCITED about this. They are essentially giant sticky notes you put on your wall. They can be moved around to see different types of lighting and locations throughout the house. I am expecting my samples Monday so you'd better believe I'm gonna have lots to say by next week. I ordered a bunch of very similar colors so I can really test out what the undertones are of each of them and get a feel for how truly close they are to a true color match. No more flesh toned pinkish brown paint for me, thank you very much!

The tile is nearly done in the living/dining and family rooms. Still a ways to go but it's really coming along. With any luck... and we all know I don't have much of that...in the next 2-3 weeks we'll wrap up all the BIG projects and be able to start on the small ones.

So I leave you a little tease... the front door/entry way as it stands now...not quite an after picture, but it's close.

Band Aid Colored Paint

Or maybe the better title is Chameleon paint. I swear this color was a grey taupe when I picked it out in the store. However, when I got it home... not so much. In the can it looked like an exact match for the Band Aid brand bandages. On the wall it was a putty color. Now I've also seen it turn pink, and purple as well. It doesn't photograph well so I'll have to pull out my good camera once I find whatever box it is in. Living in boxes is so much fun! With any luck we'll be settled in by mid summer.

What color do I speak of? Old Map, by Behr. Here is a sample

Taupe/Grey if ever I have seen it...the paint chip card, Old Map in the middle...Now I'll just say that when I saw that color I thought to myself, "Self, that color is probably going to go dark and grey at night and lighter and beige during the day" Apparently even when I talk to myself I don't know what I am talking about, because it looked absolutely NOTHING like that chip. Please, allow me to show you all the ways this paint has irritated me. Introducing, the vast array of colors i've now seen this paint be...

Band-Aid colored

greige

beige

nearly brown

Taupe

pink

purple

I swear to you everyone one of these pictures is taken with the same "camera" and is the same paint color. So yes, a cameleon. What you don't see is in many of these pictures it has a fleshy tone. Not something appealing, either. I love it in the bedroom where it doesn't get as much natural light but where the space is light and bright it feels drab. Ho-Hum. Shouldn't have bought 5 gallons of paint without trying it out in the space first, I suppose. Live and learn.

Barb

Progress, FINALLY!

5.14.19
 Finally, some progress has been made.

This past weekend I painted baseboards once it started to get dark outside. I don't like cutting boards or using any power tools outside once it gets dark in the summer. I know at least one of the neighbors has a toddler and I have experienced first hand neighbors that disturbed the sleep patterns of my kiddos. I don't want to be that neighbor.

Since i had some of the baseboards painted we went over last night. I stacked up the ones that were cured and started on the next set. Rich normally gets home about an hour after we do so once he ate he began putting in the baseboards for Savannah's room while I finished hanging the closet rods on the new organizer for her small closet. All that is left is the baseboards for the right side of the closet, to caulk the new baseboards and she'll be moving in by this weekend.  She's super stoked and even though we started with a paint that didn't turn out quite right the room has truly come together and is just so sweet.

The blue that at first looked like a very BRIGHT neon blue settled down into a "babyblue" for the second coat, and after getting the woodwork back up and adding lighting is now very close to the color she wanted. It's kind of an icy grey/blue. What she wanted was an icy super light teal/grey. Either way it's turned out rather darling. She's happy...we're happy.

The new closet organizer is the icing on the cake. Poor girl is going from a full walk-in down to a 5' closet. The shelves and extra hanging space on one side will be monumental as she edges ever closer to that dreaded word.... "teenager." Over the next few years i'm sure this area will be the hardest hit in her room. ;-)

Tonight it's the year end Orchestra concert. They always do such a wonderful job. It's quite amazing how nice they sound. Especially compared to the elementary school productions. Hopefully she is getting better as well. She refuses to let me hear her play any more. over the summer she'll be forced to practice at home so I should hear more of her playing soon.

With any luck by this weekend I'll have more rooms to show you completed and even some with furniture! (Imagine!)

Soon I'll be onto picking out a paint for the overall living areas of the house. I'm dreading it already. I love some of the newer warm grays, but I'm just not a gray kinda gal. My entire work/office is based off a gray theme so it's just not a color I want all over my home as well. Problem is, I don't want a pink base, or a yellow base and I surely don't want green picking up either. That makes it a bit difficult. It leaves orange and purple based paint and I'm not specifically fond of the idea of them on the wall. Stay tuned, I'll keep you posted on the color drama.
Barbie.

Mother's Day Weekend

It's Mother's Day weekend.

I'm thinking heavily of those that will be spending their day without their child(ren). My heart hurts for them. Aches for the losses that we share. While I take joy in the children I have here on Earth there are so many families that are hurting.

This weekend is sure to be a whirlwind. Lots going on at the new house. Construction continues though it will be very slow this week for sure. This week we will concentrate on bringing our plants from their temporary home at my parents and making a few trips to bring more of our personal belongings as well. The goal? Be able to move into the bedrooms at least by next weekend.

Great things are happening here:

Sorry for the crummy lighting it was starting to get dark.

Can't wait to share the progress!

Barb

The year, Two Thousand Nineteen.

It's 2019. Not one, but 2 years after my last post.

It never ceases to amaze me just how quickly time flies.
Update on Alabama - The 40 acres were cleared, burned fertilized and replanted. The new trees are roughly 1 ft. tall. Just infants. It turned out to be a good year to plant as rain has managed to hit the area at least every 7-10 days so there were no prolonged periods of drought for the new seedlings to tolerate. Our lass to date less than 10%. Mostly due to hogs and a few that simply were not as strong as the others.

Overview of the 40 acres. Looking down from the trail head.

The cabin FINALLY has a sump pump and the basement is now dry. We never could get the work done though and had to hire it out. Leave the dirty work to the pros, and I'm glad we did. Too much, and not enough time up there to accomplish everything else, much less the 7-10 day project it would have been for us provided nothing went wrong.




The old cabin also got some upgrades. We
refinished the exterior. Rather than messing with the wood and trying to refit already retro fitted wood we decided to simply lay siding to protect what was already there. It may not look like much, but the contrast is stark when you compare it to the peeling paint and mismatched wood. This should keep us from needing to do much to the outside for a good 20 years or so.(With any luck at all)



My home gardens are no more. For that matter my home is no more. It's now a house, and someone else's not mine. We were technically "homeless" for the last 7 weeks, but we have closed on what will be our new home. LOTS of work there to complete. Roof issues, flooring issues, appliance issues, pool issues...the list goes on, and on. Not the list is the fact that we almost burned it down the first day we went by. We got a great deal, but the return for it is the work it needs. The backyard is wild and steep with a small creek with a conservation area at the bottom. We'll fence that part out so we don't lose the water loving dog, or endanger any small children that come by.

I'm excited about this next house. Excited to make it mine, to make it a home.

Barbie

July

July should be the beginning of the thinning of the pines in Alabama. It also means they will be completely clearing the 40 acres we recently purchased as well. It will be cleared almost entirely. Only a few of the largest trees will be left, and only the healthy ones of those.

In preparation for the following months, when the remnants will be burned and the new trees will be planted we went ahead and made a purchase of just over 40 trees that will also be planted out at the same time. Most trees go dormant in the fall and young trees even more so. Once they go dormant we will be planting them in several sections of the entire acreage. These plants are meant to not only feed us, but also help keep the feed bill down for the deer, hogs, and turkey we feed year round.

A few of these specimens will find their way into the orchard, but the vast majority will be planted around the perimeter of the larger fields. We managed to get a great deal and we purchased the following:
8 keiffer pear
3 gala apple
5 crabapple
3 Fuji apple
3 Arkansas Black Apple
3 Fuyu Persimmon
3 American Persimmons
2 chinese chestnut
3 Chicksaw plum
2 Paw Paws
and also 4 white oaks, and 4 saw tooth oaks, for the 40 acres to spread out the acorn availability.

So I have my work cut out. Now I have to figure out what varieties are being planted where and how many I can pull up to the orchard to protect them, and try to actually get a decent crop for us as well.

We have been up twice in the last few weeks to prepare for the heavy equipment that will be coming through the homestead. We need to make sure we keep our roadway system as intact as possible and that the crew don't damage things that we think are essential.

Next trip I will get some before pictures, and then in fall I will post after pictures. It will be sad to see the trees grow, but as the new growth takes place it will be lovely to see the changes that happen to the land then.

Barbie~

June

June is always a busy month. What with the rainy season looming if not already in full force, the garden production at full tilt, but not for much longer...the kids getting out for summer and of course figuring out what to do with the kids, where they will be who they will see. There are Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and others that want to see them and visits to the farm, coordinating everything with work. *SHEW*

This June has been busy just like any other, only more so. This June is competing for the busiest on record. Our first born graduated High School and we took him on a trip to celebrate. Cue the massive picture dump...



So proud of my boy.


He even graduated with Honors. As soon as he actually takes his English class he will have a year of college under his belt as well. A great start to life as an adult.

Don't mind the sour face on girl child #2. She's just jealous. She wants to go on the celebration trip, too. Sorry girly.

So to kick off life as an adult we took the boy to the Bahamas. This has always been one of our favorite places to travel to. The clear aqua waters makes for superb fishing and snorkeling.

Turtles, turtles everywhere. We swam with them, fed them, pet them. So awesome

 And did I mention that we also swam with PIGS? Too cool. These are domestic pigs. Dropped off on a tiny uninhabited  island. Just perfect for people to pet, feed and the locals to harvest annually.

Did I mention that it is spectacularly beautiful?
Seriously. Addictive.

We were not on the main island(s) we were on an out island. No touristy things to do. Actually it was hard to even find a souvenir, but at the local watering hole there were a few items available.

The weather was idyllic the first day, after that we had a lot of storms and cloudy/rainy weather. That's OK. We are form Florida and while the sun shines every day it also rains most days.

The cloud coverage helped with keeping the sun of our faces and the rain was much needed for the area. This particular island utilizes almost entirely rain water catchment. The main method of travel is golf cart, or (non motorized) bikes. There was not a siren to be heard, no arguments, none of it. Serenity at it's best.

So an incredibly busy month. in 2 weeks we will head back up to the farm and we are hoping, praying, and doing the NO RAIN dance so that we can finally get a sump pump into that basement and try to fix the water issues. Once. and. for. all. Wish us luck!

Barbie~

And then Some.

Some dry weather we've had here lately. Typically, I don't write about dry weather. But not because I don't like dry weather necessarily. Because it just doesn't happen often. I live in a swamp. Well, technically I live across the street from a swamp. But one thing about swamps is, they really don't like to be dry. 

Because it's been a good 6 weeks or more without any measurable rain the bogs are all dry. The most amazing thing happens when you dry a bog. It's flammable. Seriously. 

So the past 2 weeks my home has been surrounded by wildfires. We spent an entire week packed and ready for mandatory evacuations. Luckily that never happened to us, but across the street it did.

It's truly unnerving to look out your widow to see this sight. I could actually see the flames for 2 nights, and I didn't sleep much either. Now we wake up to the smell of fire every morning and as the morning warms and the breezes kick in the haze lifts. It's not so scary any more but we all know it wouldn't take much for this to happen again.

I am so thankful for my wonderful life, for my home and children. Believe it or not thousands of acres burned and no homes were lost. A few outbuildings, but no homes, and all humans remain safe as well.

Hope you are all safe.

Barbie~

Shutting off Vs. Shutting down.

I thought I would shut this space down. I thought by now it would be gone. But, I was wrong.

It's been well over a year since my last post and by some insane twist of fate my blog appeared on my screen today. I started typing something and hit enter, without even looking at the screen. Next thing I knew I was staring at a picture of the cabin in Alabama. I found myself wondering why I never post any more, and then looking back at the last few posts.

I know why I stopped posting. I was caught up in the devastation of how many hours, days, months, years - how many thousands of dollars and how much hope I had for this next adventure in my life. I knew it would cost sweat, tears and yes even blood. I didn't expect the emotional toll that it would take.

That beautiful cabin is still unfinished. The contractor fell very ill. (Passed away in February) He was unable to finish the job and his son stepped up to try to complete our project. Instead he left us worse off. We are yet to finish the basement out. It floods every other time it rains.  We have plans to beat this, but we have planned before. Each time I think will be the last, and then it rains, and floods again.

Because we are spending so much time and effort on the basement, things like painting the interior and finishing the trim work, all are falling to the wayside. I haven't gardened properly since this all started and now my garden is so far gone. I will be starting over. A new plan is under way to make the space usable again, but like all our projects it's second fiddle to the cabin.

So my day to day life grinds on with all of the normal ups and downs. Life is busy, work is busy, kids are busy, but it's just an excuse I used to turn it off.

So - here I am again. I need a new outlook, and I am hopeful to continue in this space once more. I think my first few posts will be updates. It hasn't all been bad after all. There has been plenty to share, I was just not thinking that way.

Barbie~

Cabin

Sent from my iPhoneIt's finally coming together. The next 2 -3 weeks promises a whole lot of blood sweat and tears. We will be doing the floors, cabinets, doors, baseboards, painting and I am sure the million other things that will come up between now and finishing this project. I'm looking forward to finishing this up and at the same time I am dreading the work that must be done to finish it.