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.

Landon's room

Yes, we are still alive and now finding time again to work on the house! It has been a busy few months between school, concerts, church events....we were running ragged there for awhile!
We had hoped to get quite a bit done on the house over our Christmas break from school/work, but instead were snowed in for much of break with cabin fever and not enough supplies to work on our projects. We are thanking our lucky stars that we found a good tractor earlier this fall because it is really helping to keep us cleaned out on the farm. This last snow took Paul more than 4 hours to clear out with the tractor and loader and now we hear that there's more snow coming in next week!
We just had the bathroom flooring laid down on Saturday. I will post pictures hopefully soon.
The most recent project that we've tried to tackle is to get Landon's room ready for him. We are only a few weeks away so it was definitely time to get going on it. It took a few days to get Paul's old room cleared out and ready but then we started working on the walls with hopes of getting them painted. We didn't realize how much old wallpaper was on the walls and we had to scrape most of the walls down to bare plaster before we could paint. It took A LOT of paint for the walls, ceiling and woodwork, but it's finally done! Paul doesn't want me to forget to add the fact that every Bloomquist male has slept in this room for the last 94 or so years, so it's pretty special!
We found two great antique dressers for him (you can see the girls cleaning them in the pictures) and Gma & Gpa Linn bought a really nice mission-style crib too. Now we just have to get clothes put into the dresser, his crib made and pictures on the wall. Hopefully we'll have time to finish the room up soon!

"Wet paint. Don't touch!" is Grace's new saying. She's right too!
We've been painting fools on the farm!

Emilia taking a break from dusting the new dresser.

Grace spent almost an hour dusting this one drawer!

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).