Around the House and Playground

Adjusting to a more minimal life

I have always had a problem keeping a neat and tidy house. The clutter gets to me. It makes me feel anxious and out of control. I try to not buy things, decorations and the like, so that I don’t have things out looking cluttered. I do have a wonderful, big family though and they like to shower us with lovely gifts. I do love the decorations we’ve received but add decorations to every day clutter and toys and it really starts getting out of control quickly.

So, I am trying to embrace minimalism. I will never really be “minimalist” because there are things we just need to keep for our various activities. The basement has shelves holding home canned goods and the supplies to do that as well as slaughter, process, seal and grind our home grown meat. I also have a fair amount of tools, hoarded nails and pieces of wood that I will keep because you never know when you might need to patch something in the barn or a fence, etc. So, I am going to have more “stuff” than a minimalist would. I’m ok with that.

What I have done is start with my closet, which is huge and yet was hard to walk in and finding something to wear was difficult. I got rid of everything that didn’t fit. Anything with a hole in it was thrown away. Then I started looking at the clothes I was keeping, which let me tell ya, was still a ton, and started picking over it. I don’t want to have to get up in the morning and stand in my closet overwhelmed by the selection. I want to just go in and have clothes that fit and I know are nice and pull them out quickly. I’m not there yet. I’m trying to do a little bit of it a week. It’s coming along though. The first two pictures are before, the third one is in process. As you can see I still have a million clothes, but my closet is much improved.

Then I started de-cluttering decor. I had pictures stacked in my bedroom because I didn’t have a place for them. So the pictures I love are now hung up and the rest, the rest have been donated. I hope someone else finds them and appreciates them.

For some reason we had 3 drink blender bottoms and a motor. Why?

Toys and the kitchen are things that are pretty constantly gone over because they are high traffic, high use areas. Even still we pared them down even more. I also went through junk drawers and closets throwing things out, donating things and organizing what is left. If you saw the closet in one of the bathrooms you wouldn’t probably see a huge difference. There is still wrapping paper, veterinary supplies, incubator and rags. Lots of things still in there but when I see it, I got rid of half of what I’d kept. It feels really nice.

My goal is to feel less stressed. To have a nicer house that isn’t difficult to manage. To not spend so much time picking up. Time that I haven’t been able to play with the kids. I want to have more time for my babies and my passions, which isn’t house cleaning.

Building a greenhouse from old windows

I have been collecting windows for some time with the intention of building a greenhouse out of them. I have all the old wood windows from my office, all the windows from our house and the stray window that was given to me by this person or that person. They have all been sitting in our lean-to being broken upon occasion by activity around them. I really needed to get this greenhouse going.

Last year I was given metal roofing and that was the final piece in my greenhouse puzzle. I had always intended to build the greenhouse in a lean-to style. One wall full windows while the opposite wall was solid. Now I had all the supplies I needed (- the wood for framing it all in).

We had a lot of debate about location. I needed it to be close to a water source which led to problems as all the water sources are close to large buildings which would block the sun. I also needed to access the greenhouse fairly easily.

So, the greenhouse is in the yard. 8 feet wide, 24 feet long and 8 feet tall. The greenhouse comes in 4 feet under the county requirement for a permit. Wohoo!

Our wonderful family supplied me with gift cards to Home Depot. I calculated how much wood I needed and off we went to purchase it. Thankfully husband was with me as I had left out the need for cement to keep the entire thing from blowing over.

I could only work on the greenhouse nights and weekends so a lot of digging and planning was done in the dark.

Husband dug all the holes for the posts. Then I realized we miscalculated them and all of them had to be re-dug. We did them one hole at a time, erecting the walls in between to make sure the greenhouse was square and the posts were in the proper place. I am terrible at measuring things so it was important to do one wall at a time for this.

The back walls are simple frames. Nothing fancy. Then I made boxes out of 4 2×4’s for the sides and front walls. I laid them on the ground and began placing the windows and doors in them and framing around them. Some of the windows needed screwed in before the walls could be erected and put in place. Others could easily be stapled in after putting the walls in place. Husband had to help me a lot. Building a heavy window greenhouse while halfway through pregnancy is quite a strain.

We kept the stairs from the front of our house. I always intended to use them as greenhouse shelving. I think they are perfect!

Roofing and siding is going to take quite awhile. It’s been windy here lately and moving metal sheeting in the wind is just a really bad/dangerous idea.

The kids bopped in and out to help here and there through the process. They enjoyed digging for about 5 mins. They like using the tape measure. Daughter likes acting as building foreman and informing me how disappointed she is in the size. Son loved using the staple gun.

I’ll be sure to post again when the entire thing is completed.

Butcher Block Island Construction

Our new island is a true thing of beauty. The kitchen is almost 100% done. All that is left is a new floor and putting base boards on all the cabinets. This is a big deal for me. I started this entire kitchen remodel so I could get a big, beautiful island the kids would be able to access better. Our old island was…gross.

Small and oddly angled it just wasn’t that functional. If I was rolling dough on it there was no way the kids could get up and help me out.

I used the IKEA Algot system and cut it up to make the perfect fruit and vegetable storage baskets in the island.

I was able to fit five large baskets perfectly into the island frame.

I find the baskets extremely useful!

I router-ed two of the 4×4 braces to fit the electrical wire inside the island frame. I also sneezed, can you tell?

Island framing has begun. Can you see the dirty outline of the old island? I was excited to add an additional outlet to this island.

A thing of beauty!

I decided I wanted the planked look on the island as well. There was a big debate about whether to stain or paint the island. I decided I wanted to paint.

The color was not what I intended but it works just fine.

I ordered 8′ maple boards. As the island is 8′ long I planned to glue cross pieces onto each side. It covers the rough edges and gives the counter top the over hang it needed.

I glued the maple planks together with Titebond III Ultimate. I also managed to glue some of the tarp in. I’m talented!

This is how I bypassed using a clamp to glue the edge pieces on.

Then the planing began. I planed for about a month.

Then it was time to sand. To help flatten the butcher block island I screwed it down before I began planing and sanding. As such I was not able to take it outside to sand. I got a little creative.

It worked. No one was more shocked than I. I barely had to clean dust off of the rest of the kitchen.

Then the sealing began. Well first you have to wash it, several times. Then I scrub with lemon and salt. Then clean again. Then oil, many times. Four regular coats of oil and one coat of oil that is mixed with beeswax.

Doesn’t the edge look great!

Now the kids, the dough, the machines and whatever else I want can fit on the island.

Goings on

Life has been moving quickly around here. I’ve began digging mini-kraters for fall seed planting. It has not been going well as the ground is hard as a rock. I’ve began making the new kitchen island butcher block. It’s going poorly to say the least. Hopefully it turns out well!

The animals are all doing well. The babies are growing. Unfortunately at least half of the baby chickens are roosters and will be culled this fall. The ducklings and peachicks genders are still indiscernible.

Mama pea has been buys teaching her children how to break into the food and how best to tear up my garden for dust baths.

We got a new puppy. He is a great pyr/Anotilian shepherd. He is adorable and prefers to be outside. Can barely keep him in the house. He is learning to like the poultry, though he was initially terrified.

We named him Ramsey after our two favorite people, Dave and Gordon.

If he’s like his mom he’ll be a hyper guard. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not yet.

Prince is losing his tail now that mating season is over. I’ve been collecting it from all over.

We rescued all the tadpoles we could from shrinking water puddles. They are non-existent puddles now but the tadpoles are doing well in their swimming pool.

Our oldest is starting school in a week and we have been busy preparing. Life, it is busy!

Country Kitchen Update- Almost done!

The kitchen remodel has been fairly slow. Removing walls, rewiring and plumbing and repairing walls has been extremely time consuming. Above is what this particular wall of cabinets looked like before I finally figured out what to do to finish the top cabinets with. There was a large amount of blank space on both sides of the top cabinets before.

Now there is a beautiful coffee and wine rack on either side of the old cabinets. I made them out of 1×12 boards and sweat. I think they look fabulous!

The wall color pops on the inside of each new cabinet extension.

We always need wine storage so this is a great way of getting it!

We did the same counter top on both sides but kept the wood planking to the back splash only on this side.The toe kick hasn’t been touched yet as we are going to redo the floor first.

The top of these cabinets was made into a shelf used to display…well I haven’t worked that all out yet. It looks half way decent now at least.

That beautiful sign makes the kitchen sparkle.

Now to redo the island. That is going to be the biggest task so far!

Country Kitchen Remodel Update

I’ve been remodeling the kitchen since October. It’s the project that never ends. Still, I’ve moved walls and plumbing. I’ve been helped with (and figured out) electrical. We’ve painted and hammered a ton. It’s been a seven months. Here is what’s been happening:

This is the wall of cabinets that shouldn’t exist, as I was determined to rip out that wall. Now it’s a wall of awful red cabinets that need stripped and re-painted. It’s a work in progress, as you can see.

This cabinet was at an angle on the now gone wall. I moved it, ripped out the drawer. Took off the door. Put a plank backing on it and now, it’s a perfect fit for my kitchen aid and finishes off this wall nicely!

This is the other side of the awful red cabinet wall. I had knocked a massive hole in it before realizing it couldn’t be removed. So it’s all patched up. Needs sanded, textured and painted still. Always something!

Finally stained the trash drawer. I like it much better like that.

I can finally consider the pantry completely finished after building these great wooden doors and planking the side wall of it. I love how it all turned out!

The entire house has been re-arranged. Pre- wall removal this was the kids playroom. It is now the dining room. It’s been painted and decorated and I’m in love with how it turned out!

I was extremely happy to find these peacock plates at home goods

Herbs are sprouting nicely in my chicken feeder herb garden.

The hanging scale is to die for. Functional as well. I’ve been weighing animal feed in it. I love the column I found at an antique store and the peppercorn plant is doing great in it’s greenhouse.

Other things happening are because of the big household rearrange. We moved all of the main spaces in the house around.

This space in the new playroom was begging to be a learning center. Now it is! I built that lovely table and benches and I couldn’t be more happy with how this space has turned out!

Now that our living room is near the fireplace the empty, ugly space had to have something done to it. This is two tails from our peacocks and it’s marvelous!

That’s it for now. Still to do is finishing the cabinets off, removing the current island, installing new flooring and building a new island. Worlds of changes to come!