Saturday, May 27, 2017

Farm House Love Episode 6


Spring is in full swing here, and we are in Heaven. Our winter was long, cold, and ugly so this beautiful weather really makes us appreciate all the sunshine.

In the picture above, Gunny is standing on his dog house, which the goats have taken over, and he is about to be evicted. It's pretty funny to watch. They use their heads to ram him and push him off the roof, and he just takes it because he's a chicken butt. The three of them act like siblings most of the time as they share the paddock all day.

One day the neighbor dog came into the paddock and the Bunnery Sergeant was having his chicken butt handed to him on a platter, then his goat sisters came to the rescue. They rammed the other dog and chased her away. Yep. Gunny was beat up by a girl and saved by a girl. Girl Power. It's for real.


Stinkerbell likes to play with the goats and they do this little head butt dance with each other. I think it must feel good to them because she also rubs her fist on the tops of their heads and they love it.


The best thing about this spring is seeing all the trees and plants in the yard bloom for the first time. We moved in last year in June, and by then everything had already bloomed and gone. It has been gorgeous, and the smell. The smell is amazing.


We've been enjoying being outside and getting some yard work done. One of the first things the girls and I did together was to rip out two Juniper bushes in the front yard. I dislike Juniper bushes with a passion. I don't like their scraggly look and I can't stand the way they smell. I'm sure my mother would be horrified, but it was very satisfying to rip them out.

In the process, I learned how to use a chain saw. I really shouldn't use a chain saw because I'm the biggest klutz on the planet on account of my mother would never let me take ballet lessons.


But I did, and I accidentally went a little crazy on this Lilac bush. I know that next year it's going to be gorgeous. Trust me.

I have seven more Lilac bushes that need tending to, but I'm going to wait until their blooms are spent so I can enjoy them. 


Peanut Head rented a tiller to prep the ground for our garden. The ground here is so hard and full of rocks, that we decided we're going to do raised beds in this area instead. That will happen over the course of several years, I'm sure.

Peanut Head really wants a tractor, but it is not in the budget. Yesterday he handed me a Q-Tip and told me to go paint a room with it. "That's what it's like living on a farm without the proper equipment," he said. Point taken, but we still don't have the bucks for a tractor. 😕


This was the original garden area, but it gets too much shade for a garden so Peanut Head tilled it over and spread grass seed. The girls will love having another spot to mow.


Speaking of yard work, Peanut Head made this nifty garden tool organizer. Can you tell that he's been on Pinterest? I love that he's on Pinterest. I benefit first hand.


Moving back into the house, this is a project which I recently completed. It's the girls' hallway between their bedrooms in the original part of the house.

Who doesn't love a fresh coat of paint in a color of their choosing? With each room I paint, I feel like we are making this house more "us."


I love these built in drawers and the cupboard for linen. The storage in this house is more than I ever dreamed I would have in a house. We have more storage than we have things. We're going to keep it that way too, because clutter.


When we toured this house before we bought it, I thought this built in gun cabinet was thebomb.com.


Except it was pretty grungy looking and really, we had no intention of filling this with guns. Rifles, firearms, whatever. It could be put to better use with a little TLC.



Both the upper and lower doors had locks to keep everyone safe. We knew we didn't need those either, because my plan was to put shelves in it and turn it into a medicine cabinet.


This. Drives. Me. Crazy. I understand drilling holes to find a stud, but why not patch the holes once you find what you're looking for? Gah!

These holes were what was left over after the former owners installed their smoke detector. 


And this is the combination Carbon Monoxide/Smoke Detector that Peanut Head installed. 

Notice the lack of extraneous holes surrounding the device.


For the walls, I went with a light grey that actually has a bit of a blue tint to it. I don't love it, but I sure as heck am not going to paint it again. It's a hallway. I can live with it.

The attic entrance is propped up with thumb tacks so that it doesn't end up painted shut. People do that you know. When we moved into this house, one of the breaker boxes was painted shut. Peanut Head had a mild come apart when he discovered that one.


After painting the walls and trim, I went in and caulked all the crevices and cracks. There were many. It's a little thing that makes a big difference in the finished project.


The new medicine cabinet took several coats of primer and even more coats of white paint, of which I lost count, to freshen it up. It looks so much better now. So much that I was willing to put my stuff in it now.


Check this out. Peanut Head cut a slice out of a dowel to fill the holes left by the lock hardware that was on the doors of the former gun cabinet. He glued them in and clamped them to the door for a couple days until they were good and tight. 


Then I sanded, primed, and painted and you can barely tell there was ever a hole. Not in this picture, of course, but later.


After replacing the hinges on the bathroom cabinets, I did not want to go through that nightmare again. Instead I just painted the hinges and screws and they were just like new.


Ta Da! The gun cabinet is now a medicine cabinet with the addition of shelves. 


I believe the top part of the cabinet is where the ammo was stored.


That bottom drawer there is still empty. I have no idea what to put in it. Anyone have any ideas?


I love these knobs I found at Lowe's. So cute.


This is now my favorite part of the whole hallway. I love the drawer pulls so much. I got the idea of putting two on a drawer from Pinterest. I looked all over Pinterest for a built in like this for some kind of inspiration, any inspiration, and I did not find even one.

I did, however, find kitchen drawers on Pinterest which had two drawer pulls. Not only do they look cool, but they are super functional because these particular drawers don't slide out smoothly like they should. You really have to pull the drawers out with even force on both sides, and these pulls allow that to happen.


It was very difficult to get a full shot of the hallway because it's such a small space.


The lighting wasn't optimal either, but the project is done, so I'm doing a happy dance.

Now onto the next project--the original dining room. I'm working on finishing touches right now, so I should be back to share that in another week or two. Crossing fingers.

2 comments:

  1. Before Pinterest, I thought caulking was only for tubs and sinks. Then I painted my dark kitchen cabinets white. I went thru a whole tube of caulk filling all the little cracks. Now I know the truth! Lol. Love the cabinets. Older farm houses are the best.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello from Canada! Still loving the updates on your adventure ❤️ Poor Gunny, so many girls lol, but the goat sisters are so adorable. I'm going to steal the old gun cupboard idea, hopefully with the locks it will fly with our laws, but I love the cutouts for the stocks in the floor.
    This is probably something you know, but just in case, try rubbing a cheap candle or some old wax on the rails of the difficult drawers. We had an el cheapo dresser that would open unless you pulled perfectly evenly, but a light coat of wax (like so light I was thinking whoever told me this was off their rocker) on the drawer and the dresser bars, and it's been a dream.

    ReplyDelete