Work on the farm

It has been quite awhile since we were able to get work done on the farm. We had a crazy winter with lots of illness and never enough time to start or finish a project. We did have gorgeous weather yesterday and Paul was able to take a few hours to get started on the new tin that's going up on the chicken house roof. All of the buildings will have new tin on them, but we're buying tin as we can afford and as we have time to put it up. Paul was able to get more than half of the north side of the chicken house done last night. This covered the biggest hole in the roof so now the Mustang will be kept dry no matter the season. Within the next month we should have the electrical dug in (FINALLY!) and will be able to finish the bathroom, laundry room and pantry. We have our kitchen layout designed and our cabinets picked out so we're hoping to begin kitchen demolition this summer. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Lots of summer work

The new Bloomquist mobile. 08 Town & Country with Stow & Go (my favorite part!)

Paul's been working really hard at getting the siding up and replacing windows. You can see the two bottom level windows that have been replaced are so much wider and taller. They let SO much light in. I absolutely love them! The X pattern really dresses the house up too.
You can see the ledger boards are up for our wrap-around porch - next year's summer project.

More farm updates

We've been working hard on the farm the last few weeks. We've gotten lots of small projects done but are still in the middle of lots of big projects.

With the help of my sister, Kristi, we got the front living room painted. It's a sage green color. We were able to get a few decorations up on the wall including Paul's great-grandmother's quilt up on a quilt rack shelf. We still have more decorating to do, but there's plenty of time to do that.

Paul got a new window put in on the east side of the front living room. We found a fantastic deal on some Jeld-Wen double paned windows at Menards last year. These windows are taller than what was in and they let a lot of light in. They also have the criss-cross pattern in them which makes it look dressier.

Been working hard on siding and insulation the last week. Unfortunately we've had big storms almost every single night and two of those storms took our insulation and ripped it right off the house. We found bits and pieces of it in the fields nearby. We're planning to get the ledger boards put on for the wrap around porch and gazebo when we put the siding up.

Major landscaping work done

Paul and the tractor have been VERY busy the last 24 hours.

The two grain bins that were directly east of the house are no more. Paul pushed them over with the loader on the tractor. They've been there since 1944. It's very different to look out and not see them.

Look closely in th eback and you can see the crushed remains of the bins. Our plan is to clean up all the saplings, farm tile and other stuff back there and edge it out, mulch the heck out of it and put up a big play set for the kids.

Paul also went to town in the back of the house cleaining up the lilacs that had gone wild with the honeysuckle. I love lilacs, but they were so wild that the two plants were choking each other out. Paul was able to pull them out with the tractor. Unfortunately though he got a bit too rammy and sheared some bolts off of the loader. Looks like we'll soon be looking for a new loader!

You can see what's left of the lilacs and honeysuckle.

The plan is to clear it all out, level it and make a gorgeous brick patio running nearly the length of the house with an outside wood log fireplace and plenty of raised garden beds for me to plant lots of annuals.

Below is an idea from BHG that has formed our ideas for what the new patio will look like:

I so love having a green thumb!!

Striped walls

My dad spent the day taping and mudding our new pantry, laundry room and bathroom remodel. Grace just saw it and walked out to say "Grandpa is in big trouble! He colored and striped the walls. Go to timeout Grandpa!"

New bathroom/pantry pictures

A picture from the south to the north side of the old pantry. What a mess all of that plaster was!!

A shot into the new bathroom. You can see that we'll have two separate vanities and storage in between the two. The door inside - which used to lead into the pantry until it was boarded up in the early '50s - will lead into the new laundry room.

As of last night, this is what the pantry wall to the south looked like.

And the pantry wall to the north. You can see that they built in a half wall off of the old chimney. This wall will separate the old pantry into a laundry room and a much smaller pantry which will be accessible off of the kitchen.

The old pantry - facing south - after being gutted down to stud.

Grace & Emilia found a new place to play hide & seek - inside one of the new bathroom vanities!

A picture from the inside of the old pantry before it was gutted. The white built-in shelf unit we were told was built by great-grandpa Emil for great-grandma Esther. Unfortunately we were not able to keep it as time had made it a bit rickety and this area will soon be our laundry area.

A picture from the bathrom looking at the old pantry - now laundry room door. All of this plaster and lathe has been removed and is now covered in lots of insulation and drywall.

Grace made a sitting area for her and Emilia so that they could watch some of the construction.