I will have to assume, if you are following my blog then you realize there are a few things that are important to me and a few things I absolutely love.
By now you realize my health has not been greatest and has really slowed me down from doing all the things I love and/or for the people I love.
We had the opportunity to go to the farm for almost 3 weeks in a row !!!! You just can not imagine how excited this made me and Chad ☺️. He never takes that much time off work at once unless he is in the hospital or something.
This trip we were able to get a ton of stuff accomplished!
The only thing at the farm Chad has been disappointed with, is it didn’t have a fishing pond. Well he now has absolutely nothing to complain about!😀
It took a few days to have the pond excavated. The man who did the work said he had been do this kinda work for almost 40 years and of course our land had a few challenges. The spot where I wanted to have the pond dug was apparently jinxed. ( rude! I put a lot of thought into the perfect spot for the pond) The man said he hit Atleast 7 layers of hard limestone rock. Now that may not sound like much but let me tell ya some of the rocks were the size of cars ☹️. Maybe I should start selling limestone 😜.
When he hit that 7th layer it was just a solid sheet of rock and he was not able to get it any deeper. So long story short, the pond was not as deep and large as Chad was wanting but never the less it had been completed. It has rained several times since it was completed and it’s already about 1/3 filled up !!
The pond is about a 1/4 acre or so give or take. Hopefully 🙏 next year we can start putting fish in it.
While they were excavating the pond Chad and I finished up the master bedroom. Back in April, I took a short trip to Kentucky and my Dad and I started the construction of the closet. Now that Chad was at the farm to help decide the finishing touches to our room we could finally complete the closet. We had to paint the closet, add clothes rods, door hardware and a few minor modifications to the room, and carpet the floors. Painting is definitely harder now than it was in my 20’s. I decided from the beginning that I wanted carpet in my bedroom because it would feel nice and cozy on my feet.pEspecially in the winter 🥶. Luckily,way back in the day Chad use to lay carpet and tile for a living. Unfortunately for him he told me this lol🤣 and he is now my carpet and tile guy (lucky him). It was also great that I did not have to watch 500 different YouTube videos to try and figure that stuff out.
While Chad was laying the carpet in our bedroom, I went upstairs and wallpapered the ceiling in my sewing room!
I decided that I wanted to go with wallpaper for the ceiling but I misjudged the amount of wallpaper rolls I would need while in Texas. Needless to say I ended up having to order 3 additional wallpaper rolls to finish the ceiling and thankfully they came in 2 days later. I guess that is just part of the challenge of making decisions from 1/2 way across the country 🙃.
When Chad finished our master bedroom, I ordered him (just kidding 🤣, I nicely asked him) to go upstairs and lay carpet in the office/Roman’s bedroom that I bought on sale in October of last year.
Next on my to do list was to get another shot at working on my dream kitchen. I have decided and changed my mind 1000’s of times on exactly what I wanted and needed to have in my kitchen. My Dad and Chad have tried telling me No on a few things but ultimately Chad knows that if momma ain’t happy, nobody is happy 😜. This has truly been one of the hardest decisions and dreams I’ve ever had to make. I want this kitchen to be the kitchen of my dreams and hopefully make a few of you reading this and slightly envious.
I have been tossing around several different ideas for what to do for the kitchen and dining room ceiling. From the beginning I wanted old metal ceiling tiles until I prices them out. Then, I thought about shiplapping the ceilings like everywhere else in the house. But wasn’t sure if I should paint it or stain it this was a wayyyyy cheaper option! However, I decided against shiplap because I wanted this area to be unique and I knew that it was just not what I wanted. Then I considered using tin, but couldn’t decide if I wanted new sheets or old barn patina sheets. Then there was the thought about using wall paper or normal drywall ceiling and just use a bright color paint, and about any other kind of a ceiling that you can imagine but I kept going back to ceiling tiles.
After seeing the outcome of the ceiling tiles we put up in the library, I was really persuaded to consider that option. This opened up a whole new can of worms for me to consider. Now what color, style, material, size, etc. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 but the price still was not where I wanted it to be. After a long tenuous search 👀 I found the perfect ceiling tiles and they were in my budget. 🙌
Generally speaking, ceiling tiles are pretty to look at and fairly straightforward to install. You start at one spot and keep going and try to get the finished product as lined up as possible. Unfortunately, this time was a little trickier. With these tiles going up in the kitchen and dining room ceiling first, I had to convince Chad to get busy and run electric lines to a few additional lights that needed to get installed. Him and my Dad have avoided this project since we bought the house. They acted like it was going to be a long tedious project or something.
I mean it was only like 30 more lights that were “needed”. Some were light fixtures to go above the island, the stove, and the sink, but most were LED recessed lighting. I just really wanted good lighting in my kitchen.
I’m not sure how much you know about running electrical lines, but when you have to run them in the ceiling you have one section that goes in between joist. Those are pretty easy cut a hole use a fish tape wire puller (it helps guide the wire where you want it). The other direction when you have to go thru joist is a lot more complicated. After an entire day of just running the electrical he was finished up and ready to start putting tiles up. He may, or may not have asked me several times if I really needed this many lights and he made me decide exactly where I wanted each light…. I just wanted to give him the supplies, take a nap and come back and it be done…. Haha just kidding!
Luckily for him, I allowed him to put all the lights on to one switch(with the option to change my mind later on down the road…. Maybe) that we already had installed few years ago, instead of multiple on off switches at multiple locations like my 1st envision.
So now here comes the fun part (umm since you can’t hear the sarcasm, I will elaborate). Normally when we take Chads battery operated Dewalt Caulking gun thingy and use a bunch of tubes of liquid nail and they go up just fine. Well, these tiles didn’t like this plan and after we had about 10 or 12 tiles up they started falling down. Apparently, the liquid nail stuff wasn’t drying fast enough to hold the tiles up. Chad 1/2 joked about it and said “we outta just hot glue them up there”. 🤣 I was looking at him like he was crazy but we definitely had to figure this out…. The tiles were going up one way or another!!
After trying to use a tack nailer and few other things, it appeared that hot glue might actually work and that his idea wasn’t that crazy (shhh don’t tell him). We figured that would at-least hold the tiles up long enough to allow the liquid nail to dry good. Off to the store we went for glue sticks. While at the store Chad mistakenly thought his battery hot glue gun took regular size glue sticks. So we bought about 10 bags of 30 count sticks. (I bet the cashier thought we were some major artsy fartsy people 😇 haha). But of course nothing ever goes smoothly, and once we got home I heard Chad mumble some unmentionable words under his breath I immediately knew he needed mini glue sticks 😳. Luckily, my mom was there to save the day and had a plug in hot glue gun that we were able to use.
I guess after that fiasco Chad was no longer interested in the ceiling tile shenanigans and he asked Hunter to be my tile caulker specialist while I was up on scaffolding strategically applying each tile in pure perfection. After about an hour or so Hunter (like Chad) was no longer interested in that particular job and said welp time for me to get ready for my real job. Bye bye. I then suckered Payton in to be the vice chairman of the tile application company. After another hour or so, I guess Roman had other plans for her and gave Payton a reason to exit stage left. Luckily, Cheyenne loves to help me out and it was her turn of being the ceiling tile caulker specialist. After a little bit of practice and a little bit of patience she got the hang of it and she actually did a fantastic job and is a great help!
After completing the ceiling tiles and installing all the lights, it was time add few more electrical plugs to the kitchen and then onto shiplap all the bare walls. Like most things it didn’t run smoothly and I ran out of tiles with 6 left to be done! I ordered them and they came in a couple days after we came home and my Dad finished the ceiling.
I decided, I just wanted a flat white paint on the shiplap. Main reason was I really wanted my kitchen to be bright. Secondly, I wanted the natural wood of the cabinets to be the main focal color.
It was probably around this point of the trip when Chad got a phone call from his higher up bosses, with a surprise. They called to tell him he was being promoted to a Warden Position at a complex of two prison units. After being the Warden in Childress at the Roach Unit for 3 1/2 years, we are moving to our next duty station in Plainview, Texas about 1:45 minutes away from Childress where he will be over the Formby/Wheeler complex.
A bunch of people ask if it bugs me when we have to move for his job. My answer is not at all, I think it is fun and exciting to go somewhere new. I grew up a Navy brat, Chad and Carla grew up an Army brat so we are all accustomed to this lifestyle. 😇 But I must admit I will be extremely grateful when we make the final move to the Farm. We are all working hard together to make our dreams come true at the Farm.
After getting the ceiling and walls done it was time to get busy with my splurge item that was definitely a want not a need. I wanted to have a beautiful backsplash that was breath taking. I think my dream might be accomplished. I found the most gorgeous backsplash tiles. They are marble, cut into a daisy 🌼 pattern.
This backsplash is just amazing. It was going up great. Chad said the tiles cut good and placement was not bad just like a jigsaw puzzle. I was glad this project was going smoothly……. Oops I may have spoke (well typed) too soon. Hmmm 🤔 I knew something was wrong when I heard Chad using words I don’t think an Opa should be using around my sweet little innocent Roman (luckily he wasn’t in the same room).
As Chad applied the grout and then attempted to wipe it off the tiles it started to pull it out in between the tiles. He tried numerous ways and still it wasn’t working. He even watched a few YouTube videos and tried a few of the tips he saw on it. However it still wasn’t working properly. He then let the grout dry completely first on a small section to see if he could remove it at that point. Finally success, but it required a lot of time and patience because you have to remove it off each marble tile one at a time.
Secondly, have to remove the grout from each and every tile one at a time 😳
Ooppss, busted laying down on the job 😜
After a ton of hours of working non stop I decided us women folk needed a much deserved “Girls day”. July is my Mom’s Birth month so this year for her Birthday we went out for a proper tea party at Lexington Tea and Brie. I wanted to get her something different this year and making memories is the perfect gift.
We each got to choose a tea of our choice, 3 savory sandwiches, and pre selected desserts. We all chose different teas, and sandwiches and had wonderful conversations. Roman came with us and enjoyed smiling at everyone. It was fun to dress up and have a little tea party. We even tried clotted cream on our scones. I highly recommend going there but you have to make reservations prior. Happy Birthday Mom!
We still are not all the way finished with the kitchen, however it has definitely surpassed my dreams. We have come so far and made such a transformation of our Lil Amish Farm into Pink Squirrel Farmstead over the past 4 years. It has been such a thrill to come up with ideas and see them transformed right before my eyes. My dreams are coming into my reality ❤️
Thanks for reading. Can’t wait for the chance to go back to the Farm and be able to share my next progress report.
Pink Squirrel Farmstead 