It looks Questionable to me

It looks Questionable to me

I think we are officially moved in. We slept in our new house for the first time last night. Most of my stuff is somewhere in the house, barn, or moving trailer. It took about 5 minutes just to find a pair of shoes to wear to work. I was more emotional leaving our apartment than I thought I would be. It was my home for 3 good years. And I am generally anti-change, even if it is for the better.

 

This, this right here is some questionable mattress hauling.
Good news, it made it.  

 

We really haven’t gotten to start on any of the fun stuff yet. We are still lugging boxes around, with far too many little projects to get done, before we can start on any farm improvements. Paul is going to build me a clothesline in the interest of keeping our electric bill low. For jeans and blankets and the stuff I usually have to dry twice in my little old dryer.

My wonderful dad laid my bedroom carpet, so the bedroom is done, except for paint. It is such a nice fluffy carpet. I love it. We were going to get the guys at the hardware store to do it. But they were going to be such a pain about it. They wouldn’t just take our measurements, and they wouldn’t let us use cheap carpet pad. (Yes, I am aware the pad is cheap. Yes, I am aware it won’t last very long. Are you aware I am on a budget, and just want something cheap and clean right now?

I also got him to do a few other projects. We are going with a coastal or beach or something theme in our bedroom and bathroom. So I opted for rope pulls instead of the previous brass ugly cabinet pulls in the bathroom. He drilled out the holes for the ropes. I don’t have any “finished” product photos yet, well, because nothing is currently finished. There is stuff everywhere. My mom organized my kitchen this weekend. The layout of it is a little weird because the fridge doesn’t fit in the fridge hole. So it is kind of taking up a lot of space right now.

Sassy

Sissy

OH yeah, best news. We got the first new additions to our farm this weekend. Two barn kitties. My mom decided on the names Sissy and Sassy. Right now they are too little for the barn so they are going to be spending a month or so inside. We have seen the snake skins in the barn, so they would be his lunch easy. Paul says the snake will leave as it gets colder. Fingers crossed. 

I chose females because they will have to be fixed, and fixed males just get fat and lazy. And the females are the best mousers anyways. They will probably be mostly outside cats. To keep the mouse population down. With that being said, one of our first projects will be a doggie door into the kennel for our dogs. So I am assuming the cats will meander in eventually on cold nights. 

We watched the lunar eclipse last night on our front porch. We decided it was a good sign on our very first night there. It was amazing. You can see the stars so clearly out in the country. I didn’t bother to try and take an awful cell phone picture. Those never come out looking good. All in all a very good weekend. All in all this will be a good home too. 

Big girl job

Big girl job

My whole adult life I have wanted to get a “Big Girl Job.” I wanted my own office, and benefits, and a place I could get dressed up to go. But with this move, this suddenly seems so unappealing to me. I am beginning to resent my job, because I could be at my little farm working.

As of right now we have nearly finished putting the walls up. Sorta. My bedroom still needs drywall, and the some of the plywood for the living room walls hasn’t even been cut yet. We still don’t have our carpet bought, nor do we have someone to install it. We HAVE to move in this weekend, so we will probably be doing the carpet after we move in. Which involves moving a lot of stuff around.

The good, but bad news is, Paul’s company is closing for a week in October. Apparently they do this a couple times a year to install and maintain equipment. Bad news is, no pay. Good news is, he’ll have time for all of the projects we haven’t gotten to just yet. I plan on keeping him very very busy that week.

Parker, the large white moose, and Penny my neurotic heeler.
Don't they just look at home on the couch? 

I don’t have any pictures of our progress because, well I am usually too busy doing stuff. I think that makes me a bad blogger already.

We took our dogs out there the other night. I thought they would be so happy to play in the new bigger yard Mom and I built. No. They looked at us out the window while we worked on the porch. I kept telling them to go play and be dogs, but apparently they missed their couch. Towards the end of the night there was even crying involved. Them, not me, mostly.

I’m sure it doesn’t help the place smells like a construction zone, and not home. It’ll will take some adjusting for all of us. 

Almost carpet-less Acres

Almost Carpet-less Acres

This weekend I made a choice. A very grown up choice if you ask me. When we first went out to the house, got the electric on, and started cleaning up, we had a plan. I was going to paint, and replace the carpet in the living room and hall way. This is a good house, just needed some cosmetic help. Then came the brilliant idea to tear out the carpet in the bedroom, and well you, know how that turned out.

So in order to properly seal my house against rain, wind, and critters of the night, I had to give up replacing my carpet right away. I see plywood sub floors for a few months in my future. I am okay with it. My master bath with the large Jacuzzi tub will be completely done by the time we move in. It just needed some paint and a deep cleaning. My plan is to hide from the construction zone in my tub.

Good news is, the lady we are renting/going to buy from is pitching in for the carpet. The arrangement is, we do the work and she is going to take it off of our rent. But that was before we realized just how much upfront money we were going to need. So I get to go carpet shopping this week, and see if I can have it installed before we move in. Nothing like waiting till the last second. 

Another issue in this house is electric. When we went to get it turned on they told us the highest bill was $375 for a month in the middle of the winter. WTF man WTF. I pay $100 for my apartment. 

There is no way I am paying that much more. So our highest priority was to get a wood stove. Paul and I found an adorable one for $100. I have tile in the barn that I am going to lay out under the stove and behind it on the wall. We are sealing every crack we can find in an effort to make this leaky ship, air tight. Because “winter is coming.”

Our electric company has a cool feature. They text me every day to tell me what the prior day’s usage was. I LOVE this. I can micromanage every kilowatt we use now. And as you will soon find out, I like to plan and know. Not that my plans ever work out the way I would expect. But the act of planning relaxes me. It’s like a hobby. And even if it requires sleeping in the living room next to my woodstove, we will NOT have a $400 electric bill EVER.

I am just so ready for country living. We officially move in this weekend, and I can’t seem to tear myself away from blogs about all aspects of homesteading and farming. I can’t wait to have a tractor, and pigs, and chickens. I want to buy seeds and start my garden right away, but I don’t know what to plant when. There is so much to learn, and I just want to get started. My, sitting in an office, job holds less appeal than ever as I learn more and more about the daily chores I could be doing on my own little farm. 

Fence Building and Leaky Walls

Fence Building and Leaky Walls

My fiance, Paul and I have spent 3 years dreaming in a tiny little apartment, of having a farm someday. And that time has finally come. I wanted to start a blog to share the stories of trial and errors I am sure to come.

The walls of our small apartment home have shrunk exceedingly fast in the past year, since the addition of our moose size dog, Parker. He is the range of 80 pounds and about a year old. Every time I leave the house for an extended amount of time, he grows, I swear. But dogs are about the only thing that grow at this dysfunctional, north-facing, plant hating, abode. I want a garden so badly. My potted attempt in the only sunny spot near my house was a failure. I think I got 3 peppers. The neighbor kids stole the rest. Dang heathens. And don’t even get me started on neighbors.

I am not particularly a people person. While I find the antics of our neighbors amusing sometimes, it doesn’t make up for the waterbeds flooding our downstairs apartment, or the knocks on the door at any hour of the night. Paul is an uber people person (is that a thing? It is now). He can’t walk out the door without being accosted by some person, wanting some thing. I won’t miss that when I leave.

This place has been good. It was our first home together. I am almost, almost, almost sad to leave. But I am excited for the new adventures to come.

 The new place is a 3 bedroom mobile home on a concrete foundation (it makes me feel good to point out the foundation. It makes it more home and less mobile). There are 5 fenced acres, a barn, and a small tool shed. Did I mention the porch? It has a HUGE porch with a lovely tin roof. I can’t wait for the first rain storm, provided we get the multitude of leaks fixed.

Speaking of leaks… The disaster inside our bedroom wall was discovered simply because I decided I wanted to go ahead and remove the hideous purple carpet. All of the carpets were purple, and nasty. So my finance and wonderful father begrudgingly agreed and ripped it up. That is when we discovered the very soft spot in the floor. And then the very soft spot in the wall. 1 hour later all of the drywall was off the wall and several boards inside had been rotted through. There is a leak somewhere on that wall and I don’t care if we have to use 20 cans of caulk, we will seal the whole dang inside of the wall if need be.  

 While the boys rebuilt and patched the wall and floor, my mom and I built a fence. We told my brother that on the phone and assumed we meant we watched while Paul and Dad did the work. No. My mom and I did all of the work. We extended the current dog kennel that was outside. My mom drove T-Posts (I was so impressed). I dug a misaligned ditch for the fence panel to sit down into. (Lesson #1, if you are going to take the time to dig a ditch for your fence to sit in, set the fence panel up, and then paint or mark the line somehow. Don’t just guess.)

Then we wired the cattle panel to the new posts and, voila. My dog kennel is now twice as big. My moose and puppy dog are going to be so happy. And do you know how much this fence cost me? Nothing. The cattle panel and t-posts were found in the barn. Which is good, because repairs on the house ran much higher than we were hoping. Hence the name, Penniless Acres…