Big Memory Cans

I drive my Chelsey crazy...I save lots of things...I can just imagine needing it or using it or recreating something with it...some day....so I save it!  I have been hanging onto these "faux" milk cans that held a very big bunch of sticky sweet caramel corn purchased on a holiday aisle and given to inlaws of inlaws a few years ago. One of my children saw them empty and ready to go to the trash after the holidays as someone had thoroughly pigged out on all the caramel corn inside and of course sweet Erica thot of me.

So this week....as I was sprucing up and organizing my new kitchen in the new house preparing to 'inhabit' the house soon...I had this big empty space under my kitchen sink. I just despise closed cabinets that could hold creepy crawlies under sinks...so I had Carpenter make all my sinks "bare" in the new house.
I'm thinking...big space...under sink...perfect for those milk cans reclaimed from trash!

They had tacky plastic labels on them but upon closer inspecition I was able to peel them off. I grabbed my handy spray paint and gave them some squirts. They were fire engine red! ewww! a little too bright and shiny for me!  So on went some "mousey brown"  Apple Barrell paint with a damp paper towel.

Then I have this love affair with modge podge and suddenly it came to me that I could enjoy my momsy's vintage GOOD HOUSEKEEPING magazine (circa1944) all the time instead of having it collect dust on a shelf somewhere - so I got to clipping everything in it that made me smile. This was the only vintage magazine she had in her stash and I got it when she left all this trite earthly treasures behind for eternal ones...I know she really liked this magazine. I'm expecting she bought with some very hard earned savings from her piggy bank around the time she was just out of high school.  and.....I love the idea of being able to enjoy these same pages of her GH magazine (now so vintage) everyday - oh oh oh - some of these old ad-ver-tis-ments were so cute!

All I needed was my modge podge and some scissors and the magazine from yesteryear my momsy loved and treasured.

I now have 2 great big tin cans perched under my kitchen sink. 

I'll use one for cleaning rags - don't you just cringe when someone cleans up a big puddle of chocolate milk on a dirty floor with a bright checkered fairly new dishcloth!?!?  So the clean up rags will be handy - all the uglies that still have lots of good use in them and the other can will hold dish suds and dishwasher detergent.

Kitchen is almost done...still no cabinet doors but Carpenter put in my so long wished for Rev-a-Shelves so I won't have to crawl inside the cabinets and search for long lost items! love it!!!!!

Everyday Humdrum ho...ho

December danced by, January jumped past, February definitely is not floating by and we are still "camping".
I say that tongue in cheek as we definitely are blessed with this mobile home - it is just "squished in here" with all that we have going on in our lives.  We are do-it-yourselfers and have lots of projects going all the time, they boys and Carpenter are all into archery and that means equipment and equipment takes space! We run 5 home businesses from here and that definitely takes space!  But again the lessons in patience just keep coming.   The weather of snow like we have never had in these parts for a long many years and lots of rain have basically destroyed our winding driveway up to the new house.  It is slushy, muddy, deep with ruts and very nasty to be blunt!  It would take many 1000's of $$$ to make it nice and even many more 1000's$ to pave it....I am not asking for paving...I would just love it to be driveable.  It really is one of the main hinderances keeping us from actually moving up there right now!
Once again, the Lord has cared for us and provided us huge mountains of large rubble from broken brick and blocks only 3 miles from us and with the owner who is head of the demolition of the old mill wanting to just find anywhere to dump this rubble - we are jumping up and down saying, "ME FIRST!" -- after about 3-4 weeks of no phone calls being returned and not being able to reach the owner - we have the word from him that he will deliver and dump up to 50 rounds (20 tons per round) for us on our acres so we can put a good firm base on the driveway for literally pennies of what it would cost to buy large stones to give us a firm base!  Then son # 1 who is a skilled grader and can work some heavy equipment will come put a nice covering to that base and fix us all up.  I'm just waiting for the day.....snow is on the way again and more rain last nite...so I continue to wait....and I'll be posting just as soon as it comes to pass! We have such a beautiful driveway (if I can say primitive too) when it is in "good shape".  We have suddenly had the enlightenment that it must be the reason nearly every household sits right on the main roads -- who wants to go thru the expense of maintaining a mile long driveway?  I guess for us - we are so set on having our house in the middle of the wild acres that we are willing to take the bumps that go along with a mile-long drive! (9/10ths to be exact!)
Our long driveway when it was in better shape!

Moving Days

We are not moving like most folks move! It is bit by bit!  It is Dec 2010 and in Dec -- 9 entire years ago -- we were packing up to move out here to "camp" in a repo mobile home trailer until we could build our home....today Dec 1, 2010 we moved a little bit closer to that goal....the entire family (the ones left at home 6/11ths) and Carpenter and I worked all day.  We hung curtain rods, installed and set commodes and sinks, mopped the brand new tile floor that was finished yesterday, put in some furniture, hauled off construction trash and just had ourselves a grand time!

To top it all off ATT began working to get phone services up there...the technician said the line digger/installer was going "to love this job"!  It is up and down from the main road thru ruts and crags and woods and gulleys and hills -- he surely won't be bored! 

I am determined to spend my first nite up there before 2011 shows her face! I don't know if I'll be able to sleep from the excitement though!

Here is a peep at some of our movings -- the stone tile looks like it sort of melted off the pine walls and turned into stone! We are slowly getting used to it ;} Carpenter did such a good job and we are grateful to our friend, Zac, who allowed us to borrow his very nice tile cutter!

 

 

 

SAMUEL way up there scraping off manufacturer stickers from the windows.

Ezra's curtains partly done and hung...wheat twill panels to come.

 
These adorable silhouettes were scarfed up

from a thrift store by my sweet friend

who knew I would love them in my new house!
This is the hall-guest FACILITIES.

I've set up temporary sewing headquarters in a back bedroom

 to sew up all the draperys, coverlets, window shades and upholstered cushions.

Wish me happy moving....

Dancing Floors!

Back a VERY long time ago - Carpenter was offered anything he could salvage from Carolina School of Ballet - they were ready for demolition and a brand new dance school - so he and the crew of boys got to work and had to work fast before it went tumbling down.  He was able to retrieve 2200 sq ft + of red oak hardwood flooring that little feet had danced many hours on....poplar tongue-grooved boards that now grace our porch ceilings (I always think of feet dancing on the ceiling when I see it!)  and a lot of other goodies but these 2 were the biggest and best salvages!  We have moved and stacked, moved and stacked, moved and stacked these treasured piles many a time until now as they finally have their final home.
Here is a close look at the floor - aged, dirty and finally home.  It covers the entire upstairs and is perfectly aged and vintage - looking quite at home in its new home!

Carpenter rented an edger and spent one full day on his knees working the floor.  That was one aching back that night! He is such a hard worker - bless his heart!

We had decided to only take off the dirt and a bit of the old stains and leave a lot "on" for a authentic vintage look. Next full day was with a big sander but a lot easier since it was the walk-behind type. Next full day was Chelsey and I with small hand held sanders checking all the spots that may have been missed and touching up around the build in shelve and cupboards.  Then a full afternoon of cleaning and getting it dust free - the in house BEAM vacuum system made that a treat instead of a chore!  Here we have it to where we like it just fine. 

Another full day - I was the edger and brusher- Carpenter took charge of the long handled applicator.

Five gallons later we have it with a full top coat!
To finish up will be another day of renting a buffer-light sander and 3 more coats - 3 days in a row!
Then........
Our TO-DO LIST left upstairs will have suddenly after all these years been shortened to:
1- Build and hang the interior doors
2- Install door knobs and latches

3- Move IN!

I like 1-2-3 lists!

Big Lights take Big Budgets!

But you can make it yourself if you have a little budget! My beautiful custom-made first time we have ever tried to make a light - only ended up costing us $88 + $39 for chains + rachet and wire +  a circular cap + $9 for black flat spray paint!
You come in the front door to a wide open area that is open all the way up - 18 feet up!  We have the balcony around this area upstairs that has a walkway across from side to the other and a library (where I am already stashing books that have had no home - or should I say a proper home- for 7 years) - we aren't moved in yet, you know. 

So this area needed a really BIG light.  I had purchased all the lights and fans and bought a small black inexpensive metal light for the middle area - It was only 88$ - and when we came to the time to put it up - it was way to pueny and not right at all for the room.  So we put our heads together - and Carpenter took up lamp making.  We had a grand time all trying to help figure circumference and radius and working the plan for the new BIG light.

The 88$ light has been taken all apart into pieces.

We are having a hard time remembering where the iron ring came from - it seems we have been dragging it around and using it for this or that for a good many years now. Micah retrieved it from its current home in the herbgarden where it was a "Ring-Around-Martha-Washington Asparagus".  Ezra and Micah took the grinder to it and then cleaned it with muratic acid - Micah overcome with fumes from the nasty acid wryly commented "Let it be known to all, that I passed away making momma a chandilier!" It cleaned up nicely after their hard work and Carpenter got to work! [Micah is still alive and well too!]

Carpenter has this beautiful homemade light that graces the center of our home rigged so it can be lowered from the attic by racheting it down or up - makes for simple bulb changes, dusting and I can just envision this all decked in pine boughs in the bleak of winter! I was just about speechless when I saw it hanging and all finished for the first time - it was definitely MADE FOR this house and made WITH LOVE by Carpenter for his family.

How do you like it?

Siding - Pretty as a new outfit!

We have sided the house in hardwood (oak-red&white).  Most of the tall straight oaks were taken off the acres here as we had a large grove of them that was left here when we bought the cut over acres.  The previous owner had left 7 acres of hardwoods to make for better hunting grounds.  There were so many there you can hardly tell that they took out a bunch to make our siding.  It was completely "free" if you don't consider sweat, muscles, time and gas to run a chainsaw and the TimberKing for Carpenter and his crew of boys. For this task it was mostly Micah and oh the hours Carpenter and him spent getting the trees, sawing the boards into planks on the sawmill and planing and straightlining them into lap siding boards.  The job was completed in June 2010.

We recently priced a nice solid oak board at the local home lumber store like we put on the house - about 2000 of them wennt into our siding - and they were a mere $23 each!!!!!!!!!!!  So $23 x 2000 give or take a bit = $46,000 we could have put into siding!  With sawmill blades and gas I wager to say we have a bit less in it than that!

Doesn't it look like the house got a new dress!?  We put a semi transparent OLYMPIC stain on it - DESERT SAND which has a few pale grey streaks in it that goes well with the stonework we are doing on the house and looks as natural as possible as that suits Carpenter!

Undressed and waiting for siding:

We stained each board before they went up to keep stain spills and such off the shingled roof.

Micah, Luke, Samuel and Carpenter's Wife did this job. 

The first boards going up looked great!

Sam Asher still faithfully doing his job! Staining those boards!

The house is dressed and ready for the next thing on the list!

Loafing on the Job

The little boys were to be moving boards downstairs while Carpenter worked on the sander / edger on the hardwood floor - It was loud enough that it drowned out all the hanky panky that was going on while they were doing their assigned job!  I'm glad they can make a game out of work!  They got it all done and had fun too!