Week Two Has Barely Begun

We are only a few days into Week Two of projects around our National Folk Farmhouse.  It's been fun and we have been working on things in somewhat of an order that makes sense with our budget as well as our time frame of what we want to get done.... before we tackle the BIG JOB (more on that later).

We still have many boxes to unpack, and a lot more sitting in the storage unit. Sadly, Steve lost track of ONE box marked "garage stuff" and we looked and looked all over yesterday at the storage unit. I swear we moved each and every box, and could not find it. It has been bugging him so much. We went back this morning to look again.   And there it was, snuggled in between boxes of yarn and fabric.  He was overjoyed!!! The tools in that box are what he needed for the next step on our laundry room project.  Life is good again, my man has all his tools!

I woke up to sunshine streaming into my pretty kitchen.  The little stained glass light shades and the blown glass paperweights add such sunshine to my heart. Ahhhhhh   soon we will be changing out these windows to new ones.  These are old and have blown thermal-panes and need replacing. Then they will be even more clear and pretty.   The table that I ordered for in the center of these four stools arrived in a broken open box and the table inside severely damaged. I got a return shipping tag and it was picked up. The next one will arrive at the store in Green Bay and we will personally inspect it and take it home ourselves.  For now, the four stools keep us from walking into the light fixture overhead.

Our sellers left us a brand new, still in the package, screen/storm door for the front of the house. They never got it installed, so they left it to us.  Since we were due for a few nice days, we figured it would be good for air flow to have a screen door opening into the livingroom. 

We took out the instructions (which I read) and started to assemble the parts.  Most of the instructions were translated from a very poor understanding of english, with the translation leaving a lot to be desired.  Ahem! But we got it figured out.

In the early morning sunshine, with the birds singing, we stood out on the front porch and put it all together.  It was making sense now as we set the pieces in place.  A few cuts with a hacksaw and we were in business. 

There is the solid glass door,

and the screen door option.

Our two little stinkers think this big big window is pretty cool... they can look out without having to be up on ottomans or flying over our chairs to bark out the big window.  Now they have one on their own level.... 

This morning, Steve decided it would be a good time to get our housewarming present planted. It is a Granny Smith apple tree from our oldest daughter and husband and kids. We found a good spot....

 

The ground is very very wet with all of the snow melt, and now recent rains.  Steve was able to dig the hole and get it planted with very little effort.  We will be picking up some other apple and cherry trees to plant in the surrounding area of the back yard. We have two and half acres to fill with whatever we want.

I don't think we will ever grow tired of looking at this VIEW!!!

That is our backyard all of the way back to that far tree line. 

When we bought the house, there was a flag pole holder, but it was too low and on the wrong pole. We are going to be moving over the front steps soon (to be in line with the front door) so moving the holder now was one step ahead of the game.  Steve took care of it in a few minutes, and our flag is waving proudly each morning we put it out for the day. 

Please take note, we will be moving the front steps over to the next section of the porch to line up with the door.  The steps are not up to code anyhow, the top step and bottom step are only half steps, the stringers are not correct. But also, take note of that plastic trellis stuff screwed along the porch railings???

Yup.. there it is!  it's OFF! 

 

Our daughter Erin is going to repurpose the plastic stuff for some climbing beans in her garden.  We wanted it off because not only was it plastic, but it was a smaller pattern than the wooden trellis material below the porch.  I am going to be painting that lower porch trellis a deep reddish/burgundy soon).

We are going to rebuild the railings later with taller spindles and top caps.  Also in the plans are to paint the porch flooring with a nice medium grey to set off the red and the white. And add the red shutters.  For now I think it looks much better minus the trellis! Wait till the steps are moved and rest is completed....

My inside project today was to hang up some things in the Grandtots Toy Room.  I hung our wall display of all the grandkids' names and my most favorite photos of each one.  We took the table and little chairs from the storage unit this morning so now the littlest grandkids have a seat their own size to play Tea Party.

We put the dogs' ottomans under the window, so they can look out here to keep an eye on the mail-lady.  They are getting into the routine now and are figuring out when she comes down the street. On the other side of the room, we have a bookshelf for now. But later we are going to build in a frame for bunkbeds on that wall. It will be like a college dorm maybe like a loft bed overhead.  Should be a fun project in the future.

Speaking of Grandkids....  

Clayton got over-exuberant playing in the 

spring run-off ponds out back today

Actually Chelsea did too, but not as much mud. They had to rinse Clayton off outside with the garden hose, because I was not going to let that mud into the house. They were both soaked to the bone.  Once they got rinsed off, we managed to slide off their wet clothes, and into two of Grandma and Grandpa's dry T-shirts to wear home. 

Annndddd  

this little lady is taking after her Grandpa! 

I wonder what we are going to work on tomorrow?