Doors

We have been working to replace doors on the farm. Fear not, we will be keeping many of the originals, but there were others that we wanted to replace for update purposes.


The new six-panel oak bathroom door - which Emilia loves to "knock-knock" on.


The new family room closet doors that replace the old bi-folds. Once spring arrives with warmer temperatures, the doors will be stained to match the original woodwork throughout the house. But for now, we are enjoying our new doors (tradition & mission-style).

More bathroom pictures

A second round of pictures of the bathroom remodel.

Walls have been sheetrocked - especially the south wall. One vanity and countertop is in (for Thanksgiving Day only - so guests didn't have to wash their hands in the bathtub) The vanity will soon be coming back out as the flooring will be laid soon.

Another shot of the new vanity - a second vanity will be placed along the southwest wall making a small space in between the two large enough for a heat vent and a trash can.

Hooray for sheetrock!

New bathroom pictures

The south wall is now completely insulated! The west wall will be insulated, but we have to run the plumbing/wiring into/thru it for the laundry room which is the old pantry.

The old wash room window and the old bathroom window have been removed and replaced with one new window which will be centered between the two vanities/mirrors/vanity lights.

Our new bathtub located on the opposite wall. And no we did not buy a robin's egg blue bathtub. We just haven't removed the protective film on it. Might be odd, but we are going to wait until the mudding/sanding is done so that we don't damage/stain the new pristine white tub.

The look from the outside of the house - along the southside - showing the new bathroom window and the new south exterior door.

Another pic of the south wall with the new window.

Bathroom remodel - more pictures

I am very much behind on posting remodel pictures. These bathroom destruction pictures are from about two weeks ago. I will take new pictures tonight so that you can compare and see the differences. Right now the walls are down to stud, some insulated and re-drywalled, the new bathtub is in (though not functional yet) and the new plywood floor is in. We have everything purchased - flooring, countertops, vanities, etc. so it's just a matter of getting it all done! Thank goodness for my dad who has been coming down to the farm on his days off to work on our bathroom. It's a mess right now, but will be wonderful when finished!

A picture of the bathroom when the wall between the wash room and bathroom came out. To our surprise, we found a cast iron soil pipe. It took my dad half of a day to relocate it, but it's been done!

View from the old bathroom looking onto the old back porch. No more walls!!

The old bathroom/pantry walls by the toilet. The toilet is staying in the same spot only now the bathtub will be located to the other side of it.

Original walls and rafters.


Our redneck bathtub until the new one gets finished up. We just have to run the plumbing and it's ready to go!!

Updates

Should have lots of new pictures to post this week. My dad took a week's vacation to help us on the farm. Since it looks like today and tomorrow will be the only decent days - minus rain - the plan is to throw up as much siding and insulation as possible. Then they are going to tear into the bathroom and get that project started.

I'll be ecstatic when the bathroom project gets going. As soon as they get the new bathroom wall up (covering up the old entrance to the washroom) the false wall between the washer & dryer and the cabinets can come down, those cabinets moved back to the new wall and I can FINALLY get my dishwasher in! HOORAY!! With all the flu and H1N1 bugs going around, I'll be ecstatic to get my SANITIZE cycle back!

Will post more pics as I can!

Ten years from now

Paul and I have always had a vision for what the finished farm house would look like. Unbenownst to us, so did someone else!! One day while perusing the paint colors, we found this picture on a paint sample for house colors. This is EXACTLY what we were both thinking - gazebo and all! Sp we just had to share our vision for the farm.

Sorry for the glare, it's a picture of a paint sample.

It's in!

The new septic system was installed last night! Hooray!! We passed inspection with the county sanitarian so now there are NO holdups on the paperwork needed by the bank! We can get this thing closed on now! YAY!!

More progress on the back porch

A lot more progress happening on the back porch! Paul got it all sealed up last night - thankfully just in time before a huge storm hit! But we have a new door to the south and two new windows and a lot of insulation. He got the floor installed last night too. Now I just have to decide where I want outlets to be and we are ready to insulate the walls.

Tearing out part of the south wall to install a new window and make room for the new door.

Just a shell at this point, but still lots of progress being made!

Major insulation happening in the floor boards. It won't be cold out here anymore!

New door and window to the south and double window to the east. We get fantastic light back here now!

The new windows just after they went in.

We moved the door so that you now enter the back porch from the south - by the wash house.

The proud installer of our new door.

Framing in the new window - before the door went in.

Back porch project

The back porch project is underway and is turning out to be quite the construction project! As you can see the porch was stripped down to the barewood. Paul had to tear out the foundation on Saturday and jack the floor up so that he could replace the foundation block as there were a few problems. The porch will be completely insulated and will actually become a working part of the house. For those of you that have been in the house, the wall that separates the porch from the stairs (to the immediate left of the picture below) will come out and we will be replacing that narrow winding staircase with an open bannister that leads out onto the porch. It's a big project but needed to be done before winter came!

On a separate note, the septic system is going in today! HOORAY! The crew was out working in the downpours of rain that we had yesterday. They got the old tank pumped and pulled out and dug the hole for the new one. As of 9 a.m. today the new concrete tank was supposed to go in. They will be working on the leach fields for the remainder of the week. According to Al, the guy we hired to do the job, the tank that he pulled out was like an old farm diesel barrel and was rusting out. He said that perhaps we could have made it through the winter, but that's a BIG perhaps! So we got it done at just the right time! As of July of this year, Iowa has a new law that all septic systems on acreages have to be inspected and approved before title is allowed to transfer. Even though we are transferring title from family member to family member we still had to do this. So as soon as Al gets the job done and the sanitarians have given it the ok, we can close on our loan at the bank and the farm will officially be ours. I know that Paul is excited for the day that comes as he said he's been looking forward to owning the acreage for years.

Water heater! Hooray!

We have a new water heater! Hooray! 85-gallons of hot water is the best thing ever! In the past month it's always been that the first person in the shower got hot water and everyone else got cold water. Now we have 85 gallons!! We also have all new supply lines so alot of what was cobbled in is now fixed. Hooray!!

My Dale

I am so excited because as we speak a brand new water softener and reverse osmosis water system are being installed on the farm.
We had the Culligan man out on Tuesday. He tested the water and said that a 0 is very soft water, a 2 is ok and a 7 is extremely hard water. Ours tested at a 35!!!!!!! The new water softener he said will take care of a lot of those problems and they are installing a reverse osmosis system on the kitchen sink so that we will have better drinking water.
The story goes that Grandma Edith never liked the way that the well water tasted either so Grandpa Paul's friend Dale Curry used to bring in jugs of water from his farm because it tasted better. I understand where Edith was coming from now!
But now we have our own Dale - the Culligan man!!

The county was out yesterday to test for nitrates, bacteria, etc. in the well. We are keeping our fingers crossed. We don't have any other options for water besides that well. Xenia water lines run through the front of the farm, but it would cost $6-grand to hook into them and the company is going bankrupt and threatening to raise people's monthly bill by 63%!! We'd end up paying over $200 a month just in water. No way!

Love about the farm

It is so easy to make a list of things we love about the farm.

The number one thing though - the quiet!

There aren't cars screaming up and down the street at 2 a.m. or the Manson crotch rocket gang flying down Main Street at 4 in the morning. The kid with the booming bass isn't driving passed the house at 6 a.m. waking up the girls anymore. Truly the only sound that I have heard in the last two hours was Buddy, our farm dog, barking as he chased a young raccoon out of the nearby sweet corn patch. Otherwise all I hear are a few random crickets and the fantastic sound of SILENCE!!!!

Painting begins

I started painting over the weekend. I started with the dining room in a gorgeous khaki'ish color. It's Dutch Boy's Almond Oil. I really like the color and it accents the original woodwork. I've only gotten 1/2 of 2 walls done though. It's hard to paint when the girls are in bed because with Paul gone they really aren't sleeping that much. I may have to wait to finish this project when Paul is home...but we'll see.

Let the remodeling begin!

Let the remodeling begin...again. (I feel dumb for accidently deleting the blog and reposting pictures. Oh well!)
Well Paul started in on the bathroom before he left for grad school. The bathroom and pantry area were once connected by a doorway. That doorway was sealed up in the mid-50s, 1954 Paul thinks. We opened it back up for some easier storage space in the pantry. But after Paul is done with his grad school projects in August, the entire wall is coming down and we start in on the first BIG remodel of the farm - new bathroom!
I'm considering going with an Arts & Crafts style bathroom and found the cutest vanity and mirror at Menards. I just have to decide if I actually want to spend that much!!

The wall is back open!!

Halfway open on the pantry side.

This is the original linoleum that great-grandpa Emil put in for great-grandma Esther we are told. This also used to be the original kitchen and was used as a pantry.

The pantry prior to knocking out the doorway.

The bathroom prior to knocking out the doorway.

Introducing....

Some of you have met him before...in person or before I accidently deleted the blog, but here's Buddy!!

Buddy is our new farm dog. He is 4 years old as of June 4th and is part Collie, part Golden Retriever.

Oh No!

Oh no! I hit a wrong button and accidently deleted the entire blog!!!
I will begin reposting photos!!!