Front of the house before and after, laying floor, garden food, and cardmaking night

We are getting closer every day to finishing up the extreme remodel on the house. It was so bad inside that many people suggested that we just tear it down and begin again.  We kept working.  Here is a picture when we bought the house...

Here it is today. I still need to work on spreading out the rock out front. This is to help keep the moisture out of the crawl space. It is not easy!  We got a good rain tonight and heard there was a tornado spotted just west of us, so moving rock was not done tonight. 

But flooring was getting done.  Dude had gotten two rooms done in two days.  This was the start of it yesterday. 

We had to lock up all the animals last night due to coyotes in our back pasture. They were howling away.  I let them out early this morning after they cried for being fenced in a small area.

I pulled up an onion for dinner.  Such a beauty. 

I dehydrated more scallions today. There are still many more growing. 

I found a surprise zucchini  when picking cherry tomatoes today. 

Carrots are still doing well I pulled up a couple for the rest of the week.  They smell so good. 

Everything is a mess but the floor is getting done.  Next will be the walls. 

I did get a fall theme going on the tier trays. A little porcupine is on the top tier. 

The dining room and one of the living room sides has floor laid for the night. 9pm and Dude is calling it a night. More floor will be done tomorrow. He says it is a quick and easy job.

Dude also cut and laid the subflooring underlayment today before laying the dining room. 

I made dinner for us, cleaned up the dishes while Dude continued on the floor.  Then I head off to make cards with friends.  Here is what we made tonight.

That's it.  Hope you have found some inspiration from us to work into your life or at the least, enjoyed browsing. 

peace 

Day 3 Another look at room remodel

It is suppose to snow tonight.  I live an hour from where I work. We live on the eastern plains and I work in the foothills.   I may need to stay in town tonight so I thought I would continue the 30 days of blogging with a reminder of some of the work we have done. 

One of the reasons we write the blog and post on social media is to inspire others to go for your dream of a homestead.  Remember that we have little money and I do work fulltime.  We bought a foreclosed home... warning, if you plan on buying a foreclosed home they can be very nasty, dirty, and a lot of work.  This one was. 

Today I wanted to show you where our master bathroom was and when we remodeled it.  We have transformed the house so much that it was reclassified from a manufactured home to a home purged to the ground and close to being a stick built. There is no moving this home now. 

Here is what the master bath looked like moving in... black... yes, someone had dreams of a black bathroom... not us.

It was so dark. 

We did replace the doors in the house. We had never seen so many doors in one house that lead to the same place. 

New doors were bought, we waited for doors that were being discontinued. (to do this we had to go weekly and daily to the home improvement stores)   Normally $250,  we got them for $40 and a couple for $25!  These are also prehung door meaning they are in the frame with hinges. 

This was the entrance to the bathroom... uh, yes, pink and pink.

Here is the entrance now.  Dude created an arch.

The peach paint was not our first choice but it was being discontinued and was a steal of a price.

Much better.

Hope this inspires someone to go for it and not be afraid of a little work and the thought of a dream coming true. 

peace

2nd Sunday of Lent - service to others(we got the help), sewing and dinner...oh and what is on the bookshelf this week.

Last week was extremely rough and I am happy to begin a whole new week!

The kitchen remodel and lighting is still coming along. That's the thing about homesteading, you do things when you can. This is where it was this morning. 

Dude began trimming all the frame.  We left some of it to build a shelf. 

His son drove the almost two hour trip to help us with the lighting. It was so wonderful to get the help. Dude says he wouldn't have been able to do all the options that were done without him. We are lucky, one son is a plumber and  another is an electrician. All six of the kids are extremely talented...

Even our granddaughter jumped in and began to work putting in the cans for the lighting. 

What a difference!  It is sure nice to have light in the kitchen.  They are adjusted by two switches. One can go on alone, or six or all of them at once.  I love it!

I knew there would be no chance to get dinner ready and the kitchen would be a mess. So I put roast beef in the crockpot in another room this morning with this  phenomenal recipe! So easy and actually good. I don't usually like beef because I don't like the way it tastes.  This was awesome. 

My granddaughter did get time to ride the horse.  So, keeping tally, she helped put in the lighting, she rode the horse for a good while and she made a wall hanging from start to finish in one day. 

Tracing the pattern onto applique paper. 

I started one too. 

I introduced her to musicals while we sew! Plus Fiddler on the Roof is a good Lenten movie. Check out how many times there is prayer in the movie then think about how many times a day you pray. (I am severely lacking!) Or how do you treat others who may not be like you?

It definitely helps the time fly by. 

Working hard. 

....and Wa-la!  Finished.

 Books for reading during Lent.  A little of everything but not near all the books we have to study our faith. 

A few of the books we have been referencing this week for the homestead.  Soon they will be swapped out with other we have, probably about gardening.

OH and Norman ended up in the ER for animals. Seems he ate twine and hay he found out by the barn.  All is well though... $250 later but it is always well worth the peace of mind. 

Something about Norman... he LOVES the vet and at eight months he is now 60 pounds.

Back to Normal Norman (as wacky as ever)

peace