All good things, must come to an END.

Well, I don’t even know where to begin…..

The Girls and the Dogs spent most of the summer at the farm. My Dad had rotator cuff surgery. So, the girls spent the summer on the farm helping out doing the chores of farm life LOL.

Chad and I were finally able to go to the farm, for a few days to work on a few projects, visit my folks, see Hunter a lil’ here and there between him working full time and see all the farm animals !!! We now are up to 10 goats, 3 KuneKune mix pigs, several barn cats and kittens and a bunch of chickens.

Unfortunately, with all my recent medical issues going on, I was not able to do as much as I would have liked. I had to take it easy, and rest more than I wanted to. Chad is still recovering from his knee injury and sure wasn’t going as fast or as hard as he normally does at the farm. I think he forgot he is almost 50 years old, not in his twenties anymore (hahaha).

We were able to mostly complete a few projects. We split the utility room into two separate rooms. Now we have a dedicated laundry room and a mud room. Eventually I want a built-in sitting area and cabinets in the mud room, however I am really happy how it turned out. The laundry room is really ready for a magazine cover haha. I also eventually want a built-in storage cabinet in there as well. For now, I like the old antique cabinet in there for storage. We now have electrical outlets and lights, and switches in those rooms!! As a bonus even got the antique outdoor lights installed.

The hallway finally got painted and the ceiling and trim put in. So, on a side note Chad wants a walk-in shower in the master bathroom. He found a one piece “tiled looking” stall. It was exactly one inch too wide to fit thru the back door and the bathroom door. This turned into a rather exciting fun project of taking both doors along with the door jams all the way out of the walls. What could have been a 10-minute project of moving the shower stall in, turned into several hours of demolition and rebuilding.

When we first put in electric in the hallway ceiling we opted to put in those super cheap “boob” lights, until we decided exactly what we wanted to do for the ceiling in the hallway. I was ecstatic, on how well the ceiling looked stained in the laundry room and the mud room, I decided to carry the stained shiplap look thru into the hallway. With that decision being made, I was able to find more suitable light fixtures for the hallway. I like the “farmhouse” inspired designs, but do not want every room in the house the exact same style, color or have the same components.

The next project we began but, ran out of time prior to completion was the library. My vision for the library is a nice quiet area to be able to sit and read and relax. I want an old “Victorian” vintage look. I was able to find an old vintage looking wallpaper and after hours of Pinterest browsing came up with a wide board and batten look for the bottom. Chad took the chance and picked up a wooden rope border for the top and a Colonial baseboard with end caps for the bottom. we chose a brownish grey paint to coincide with the wallpapers colors and I think it really pops and gives it the vintage look. Only got one section finished, this will be a long process also to complete. One wall will be a solid set of built-in bookcases.

We also want an upstairs bathroom. The layout for this has been a bit of a challenge for me. Chad was finally able to convince me to keep the bedrooms laid out how they are (4 of them, one in each corner and has a horseshoe shape area around them which will be the library). The challenge is the guest bedroom will only be assessable going thru the bathroom. To me this was less than desirable but I gave in. Chad took advantage of me finally agreeing to this after 2 years and has already framed the bathroom in and ran electricity and installed a light. I guess he wanted to make sure it goes his way before I changed my mind (again) haha.

We also got almost all of the electricity installed everywhere I want it, in the whole house. Guest bedroom and Hunters bedroom needs few more plugs added. The Guest Bedroom still needs a ceiling light and switch installed. The kitchen will need several electric plugs and switches. The barn and basement need more electricity still, but that is not too bad seeing how two years ago there was zero electricity anywhere on the farm.

Plumbing has also come along ways. Dad has started getting the “advanced” plumbing components installed. It will have a 40- and 50-gallon hot water tank running in series, into an electrical booster pump, into a pressurized tank that will go thru a water softener and filterization system. Chad and Dad have been discussing all of that stuff. Chad wanted it tweaked and “dumbed” down as easy as possible with several cutoff points so in the future when components wear out or malfunction parts can be swapped out fairly easily. He hates plumbing and wants it as user friendly as possible lol.

The kids have really been a huge help on these past few projects. We have had them all three painting and staining boards. With Dad’s, shoulder and Chad’s knee they have been doing most of the heavy lifting and grunt work. Mom has been doing almost all of the cooking which has been very helpful. She even provided comic relief. We had Lowes deliver the wood and placed it close to the back door for ease of accessibility, Mom decided to live up to her name in the ole nursery rhyme Jack and Jill. She slipped going around the boards and rolled down the hill. Once we realized she wasn’t severely hurt we all were able to get a great laugh out of this event for several days. She was literally the “butt” of many jokes hahahaha.

Well we did get to spend Mom’s birthday with her. Even brought her a gift. Y’all smile at her new friend Maggie.

The worse part of this blog post and why I had to wait until the end, or I don’t think I could have gone through with the rest of it without tears running down my face and ugly crying is about Zeppelin. I am sure most of you reading this knows of our old buddy Zep. He has been our family dog, since July 2012. In the last few months his health has declined, and this week he was in bad shape could not stand or walk. with a heavy heart Chad made the tough decision to put him down and end his suffering, both him and Hunter took him up on the hill and gave him a nice forever spot on the farm. The only thing that was good about it was now Zep will always be at our farm. The farm was where he loved to be and would run around and explore the acres of hills with the young dogs like he was still a puppy then curl up on the porch and take a well-earned nap. We will all miss him dearly; we have made so many memories with him and will be able to visit his grave on the farm.