The dining room closet

Here it is... the start of  finishing the closet.  If you lived in a house with very little closet space, you would understand why this is so exciting...

Basically we are creating closets and built-ins as we go.  Someday I have hopes of unpacking my attic and re-discovering what we left up there four years ago when we moved in, due to having no book shelves, built-in, closets or otherwise...

An outlet with USB plug is going to go on the left wall (then the other side can be plaster-boarded).  The ceiling needs some reinforced joists and boards to attach the plaster-board to, and the black cord for the dimmer switch needs to be moved to the other wall.

Once again, nothing is simple, but I am just happy to see progress being made!  Don't worry I will have no problem filling up the closet once it has shelves...

The husbands life in an antique farmhouse

This is a secret project that I am not allowed to tell you about...

I told the husband that I was doing NaBloPoMo this month. He said "yeah I know, a co-worker told me".

It is nice that he learns about his life from others. I didn't think of it this year, but next April Fools Day I am going to post something scandalous and see how long it takes him to yell at me. Then I can sweetly say "April Fools".

This year, all I did was run up the basement stairs yelling "Honey there are about eight snakes down here..."  He rushed down to check it out as I yelled "Got Ya." Then I ran, but not before he grumbled, "honestly it wouldn't surprise me if there was an alligator down there." He's got a point.

Anyway, I told him that I need 30 days worth of material and that he better get cracking. He didn't exactly like that. He told me that I do a bad job documenting all his work around here and only post things when I feel like it and that I didn't even show you the completed walls from my previous post.

I have to remind him that this blog is called "Modern LIFE in an antique farmhouse" not "The husband renovates an antique farmhouse". After all, I hold full creative license and shouldn't he be happy to be featured so often?! Then I tell him he is free to create his own blog and he says "maybe I will". But, we both know that day will never come. Plus, there is no way he is as funny as I am, I mean come on, just live with me (that is a joke, sort of).

So to make him happy and to complete day four, here are some fabulous pictures of the hallway with walls. He said I can't tell you about his current project, but I can tell you that he will be working on the dining room closet next.  Yay!

Hallway and front door walls

Stairway walls

Walls around the bathroom

My garden is your toilet...

Those little round brown things = bunny berries

Garden Bed or Bunny Bathroom? You decide!

I understand that you can train rabbits to use a litter-box.  Or, you can put in a small garden with some nice soil and a welcome mat.  The husband says bunnies make good fertilizer so I had to shake my Magic 8 ball (aka Google) to see if that was true ("signs point to yes").  What I found out is that "bunny berries" can be used directly on plants and yes they are good for the soil.  You can scoop up berries and add directly to soil/plants, make aged manure, or brew into tea.   I can see me now, brewing and selling bunny berry tea (for plants not people) at the Farmer's Market this summer.  Hmmm...maybe not.

An interesting fact is that "One doe and her offspring will produce over one ton of manure in a year."   I don't even want to guess how many rabbits we have hopping around.  Let's just say, that is a lot of poop!  

Click here for all the things you never wanted to know about rabbit poop.  

Of course the cat is a different story.  I have also caught her in the act.   She is not so garden friendly.  Not quite sure how to encourage the rabbits and discourage the cat...  

Very bad, no good, terrible, rotten week...

It has been one of those weeks where if things can go wrong, they will...

The week started with the basement flooding, making getting to the laundry interesting to say the least.  Three days later, it is still flooded.

Then my car started making strange noises.  Airplane loud strange noises.

My fitbit died (if you don't understand why this is so upsetting then you just don't understand...)

My youngest woke up in the middle of the night with a fever.

Then I got stuck in the mud for over an hour trying to leave for work.

I had to pay $500 for a new alternator to stop the strange car noise.

And it is only Wednesday.

Sigh.

Huge thank you to Pat who came to the rescue with his Jeep and tow strap.

STUCK

Pilchy the cat wants no part of this.

The husband tries digging it out...

Pat comes to the rescue with a smile and his Jeep 

I have decided that my  next vehicle will be all wheel drive.  Or better yet 4 wheel drive.  A Jeep.  Or maybe a tractor!!!  Before you ask, yes paving the driveway is "on the list".

Q: What's worse than a snake in the basement?

A: Knowing a snake is in the basement and not knowing where it went...

Wet basement

It is spring.  Finally the temperature has risen above 40 degrees and we have started to believe that it might, really, truly be the end of winter.

Spring at our house is also known as mud season.  The unpaved driveway becomes a big squelchy mess.  The basement floods. Today the water is trickling in, stream-like from the back of the house.  The sump pump is unfortunately at the other end.  The husband said "I have no idea how to fix this."

I said: "I need a boat to do the laundry (okay, perhaps just boots)!"

The next thing I know I am being summoned downstairs to "take a look at this."  That is never a good sign.  I usually need a camera.

Snake in the basement.

Apparently, the husband moved the wet/dry vacuum and found a little friend.  Living in the basement.  He is supposed to be hibernating, but I guess our basement is warm enough to wake him up.  According to Gartersnake.info, "If you don’t want snakes (or other animals) in your basement, this is probably a sign that you have some cracks or other openings in your house that need filling."  Gee, do you think so?

The bigger question is, what do we do with him?  It might be warm enough to release him outside.  Preferably far away from the house.  Maybe in the neighbors yard (just kidding).

I asked if this was the same snake that used to live in our kitchen (kitchen snake).  But that was a milk snake and this is a garter snake.  Duh!  And you wonder why I have nightmares.

NaBloPoMo April 2014

Here we go again, National Blog Posting Month where I vow to post something once a day for the entire 30 days of April.  Are you ready?  Get set....  Write....

Perhaps I will sleepwalk around my house that month, maybe even go outside?!  I could watch lots of sci-fi television before bed in honor of the occasion...  Lord knows we own every episode of Dr. Who that my oldest is obsessed with.  I even bought him a bow tie ("Bow ties are cool")  and he wears it.  With his sweatshirt.  And jeans.  Some things don't change.

Doctor Who prompts surge in popularity of bow ties!

Around the house, projects we have in store for you:  painting the West side, digging a trench for drainage (yes very exciting), burning things and raking up stuff, and tilling the garden.  We also plan to start demolishing the upstairs bathroom and while we are at it, the dining room (hey! why not).  Also, it is about time to call the PLASTERER for the hallway.  Now that will be exciting!  I mean walls are fabulous, but walls that can be painted a color are nirvana!

So stay tuned and check back often.  You never know what might be posted...

Where were we...I forget!

The support beam which will soon be covered up...

At long last, a house update.  I know, I know...it has been awhile, I promise, things are slowly moving along...

Okay, the truth is, the husband got sucked into the basement for a few weeks and I despaired of him ever coming up.

The wall and beam before plaster board.

I thought we had agreed to finish the hallway next, but somehow that morphed into insulating the basement stairway.  Insulation = good.  I cannot argue with insulation.  However the project required cleaning out the existing, inferior, or lack thereof insulation, rebuilding the wall framing, cutting insulation (both backed and hard foam), and numerous discussions on where to put a light in the stairway.  We also covered up a non-functional window that looks into a crawlspace and stopped to admire the rabbits that are wintering under the house!

The insulation project morphed into better basement lighting, which resulted in wiring no less than 13 overhead lights, and figuring out the wiring circuits.   Let's just say the basement now lights up like a Christmas tree (minus the pretty colors) and illuminates all the spiderwebs and dirt quite nicely.  Yes Virginia, I can also now see the laundry!

This past few weeks he surfaced and began once again adding plaster board to the hallway.  He has to cut wood strips to build out the wall so that the wallboard attaches and is level.  Then everything has to be cut to fit.  Then he has to coerce his assistant (me) into holding heavy things.  Usually the drill gets dropped at least once.  And if we are lucky, no one bleeds.  It takes a long time.  I think the rate is one piece of wallboard per day...

Sometimes, hanging plaster board also involves fixing the floor (don't ask, just accept that as the truth)!

Covering the beam, piece one.

Action shot!

We were (and still are) hoping to finish the hallway this winter.  We have until the end of March before outdoor projects commence (raking, burning, gardening, painting, you name it)...  As of today, March 16th, we have about 2 more sheets to go...

Walls! Walls in the stairway up to the second floor!

Walls!  Walls around the window.  Walls around the door.

Walls! Walls in the hallway.  Give me some more :-)