Spring is in the...Trees?

Spring may not be quite in the air yet, but it's definitely showing itself in our trees. I suddenly noticed a whole flock of Cedar Waxwings in the tree outside my kitchen window yesterday. I really love that hackberry tree; it's home to squirrels, chipmunks, and birds of all kinds. But I hadn't noticed the tiny berries it's bearing. Not until I got curious as to the suddenly influx of birds. I went upstairs to the (future) master bedroom to capture some wildlife photography, and finally saw the reason for the recent flocking.

Little masked bandits:

Berry snitching:

Mug shot:

Papering

With my new level line scribed, I'm on to wallpapering. A less popular choice these days, it feels authentic for a 1920's house. I probably went overboard (ha, ha; pun will be evident when you see the wallpaper pattern) with the vintage, as the design was inspired by a cotton toile circa 1848. But I enjoy toile and Jeff really liked this particular pattern. There is a long history of sailing in the family that built our farmhouse, so it was a nice homage.

Pattern close-up:

Window wall:

Door and shower wall:

Level Headed

Application of the old adage "Water seeks its own level"!

Getting a straight horizontal line all the way around the bathroom has been a head-scratcher. Before I can hang the wallpaper on the upper wall, I have to determine the height and placement of the Craftsman wainscoting cap. I don't want wallpaper peaking down below or riding up too high. But the new addition is not level, plumb, or square (partly due to our framers, partly due to being tacked on to an old house)! Our laser level is having problems shooting over the obstacles of doors, window casings, shower tile, etc., and it doesn't turn corners very well either. So I went in search of a solution.

I could rent a rotary laser level for a day, but that's a lot of money and hassle. So we put the laws of physics to use and employed a twenty foot length of tubing. I siphoned water into it, leaving about a foot and half empty at each end. Then we just held one end of the tubing next to the desired starting point and walked the other end around to different points in the room, waited for the water line to level out each time before making pencil marks on the wall. No need to pull it taut; the tubing can lay on the floor, coil up, run over obstacles, etc. (just no kinks). You can buy or make devices with a water reservoir that are more accurate, but this served our purposes. It does take two people, but that just gave Jeff and me some more togetherness!

Upscale!

I'm so excited! I have finally obtained an object which I have been seeking far and wide. I was even contemplating how to wrangle a trip to Kentucky a few months ago when I thought I had found said item (but it turned out to be sold already). What could this very desirable possession be? A scale!

Not just any scale, but an antique upright physician's scale. I have had a love affair with these sturdy measuring instruments for quite some time. I don't know why; I have never even owned a regular bathroom scale, so it's not about weighing in. But when I see the simple, accurate balance scale, I can't help hopping on and playing with the sliding weights. Something about achieving that perfectly level indicator makes me smile (no matter what number it lands on).

I almost bought a newer model a month or so ago at the flea market, but something made me hold out for the vintage version. I was beginning to regret passing on it, but then I spotted this beauty on my local Craigslist. It didn't just fall in my lap; I had been searching eBay, auctions, online classifieds, the works. But people call these scales so many different things, it was hard to know what to search under. Perseverance finally paid off, and Jeff helped me load and transport my fiendishly heavy and bulky find in the pouring rain the other evening. It will have to sit in the laundry room until the new bathroom is ready, but it just means I get to enjoy it in a more prominent place for a little while!

Farm Life Hardships

It's a miserable day here. It's freezing and raining and snowing and sleeting. And it's a sad day, because a horse had to be put down.

One of the horse boarders recently acquired a rescue off-the-track thoroughbred. He was a real sweetheart and I had taken to feeding him treats over the fence since he hung out near the house constantly. But adjusting to a new home is always stressful on a horse, and herd dynamics don't make it easy. He was not in the best condition to begin with, and he was picked on by one of the other geldings. He ended up falling down and getting trapped under the fence on our property line last Friday evening (right outside our dining room window, in fact). It was as close to a real "ox in the ditch" situation as I've probably ever encountered.

We enlisted some help and managed to get him up and taken care of, but if this were a movie, that scene would have been foreshadowing a darker moment. I got a knock on the door early this morning by a passing good Samaritan who had seen a horse stuck along the far back fenceline and thought it was ours (the pasture is right beside the house, so it's an easy assumption to make). It was the same horse. I quickly called his owners and ran out to check on him. It wasn't good; he was stuck down and had obviously been struggling for quite some time in the wet, cold mud. After removing the fence, calling in reinforcements, and the eventual arrival of the vet, it was to no avail. There may have been other health conditions complicating matters, but there was nothing anyone could do by then.

He'd only been here a few weeks, but to have this happen so close on the heels of DaVinci's death really hurt. Loss is part of love, but since we've been on the farm, we've had to part with three chickens, a dog, and now a horse. Farm life isn't for the faint of heart.

Merrily we floor along

I've been busy installing the new bathroom flooring this week. It's not difficult, but it is time consuming. I feel as though I've been on my hands and knees for three days straight now, but it's really been on and off. I've been priming and painting all the casing and baseboards that will trim out the bath, too, so that gives me a chance to stand and stretch! The contractor should be back tomorrow to begin installing the trim, which is exciting. The room is really starting to come together.

Underlayment puttied, caulked, and sanded smooth

My working position 75% of the time

Almost done!

Chapter 9

...In which Jeff and Sarah are completely surrounded by water. (A.A. Milne fans will get the title reference!)

It rained and it rained and it rained. The ponds are encroaching on the pasture and the puddles are taking over the yard. The poor chickens have been cooped up (literally!) for days now. And we have the start of an Olympic sized swimming pool in the basement!

The basement has never been water tight, and it tends to weep in the wet winters. But someone working in the basement must have unplugged our sump pump to use the outlet and never plugged it back in. I finally thought to open the basement door just to check the conditions down there, and imagine my surprise at almost two feet of water. We got the sump pump running and enjoyed a lengthy water feature as the pipe began spewing a thick jet of liquid away from the house. After an hour or two, I checked the basement again and found little bubblers and fountains going on down there. There are apparently holes in the concrete floor and walls that are allowing ground water to come pouring back in! Jeff found it all rather entertaining, but I guess once it dries out a bit, we'll have to find some sort of patching solution.

Don't Fence Me In

There was an old chain link fence down one side of our property. Except it wasn't on the property line, it was a good bit inside it; up to ten feet or more in places. So we decided to employ a little "manifest destiny" and reclaim some land!

We had planned to take the fence down for over a year now, but with other projects going, it wasn't a priority. But I decided to post the fence for free on Craigslist if someone was willing to remove it. Wow! I  had no idea so many people would want 200 feet of used chain link fence! From the minute it posted, I had none stop calls and emails until I had a chance to take down the ad two hours later.

With rain and bad weather, it took a few weeks for the guy to get it all removed. But he dug it up neatly and even cut down some of the briars and weedy bushes that were in the way, too. So now we have a new frontier to work on this spring. And we can enjoy the view and feed the horses treats right from the front yard! No "after" photos to show yet, because it doesn't look like much, but maybe one day.

Not so pretty fence

Rusty gate. You can see how much lawn we were losing between this fence and the property line

Just part of the brush pile I removed from the old fence row

Weekend Warriors (and Warriorettes)

We had some much appreciated help a few weekends ago. Some very good friends of our from church made the three hour trek down for a long weekend to contribute their know-how, muscles, and tools to a few of our bigger projects. It was just the kick start we needed, and what a fun time!

We got the bedroom wood ceiling scraped of wallpaper and heavy liner (a job I had been dreading, let me tell you!) and the guys got the closet subfloor down and the new attic knee wall/built-in shelving supports up. We shared stories, meals, DIY tips, and a lot of love in those few days. Maybe we'll have a chance to return the favor soon!

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

North View

The bathroom has been on hold for the past several weeks due to the holiday break. The trim and floor should go in this week, and then the plumbers can come back to place all the fixtures, tie in the drains and supply lines, and wrap up.

In the meantime, we are enjoying the light and views the back gable addition has brought. From the second floor, each of the original rooms faced a different cardinal direction. But no windows opened to the back, until the new bathroom. It's only northern light, so it's not the brightest, but it's really helped the landing and hallway feel more open. Triple windows in a bathroom might be overkill, given the privacy need, but for right now we are enjoying the beautiful view over the barn and back pasture.

Sheen Down On Me

Life moves on, and I've been busy painting. What a difference the right paint sheen can make! There are some basic factors to consider in selecting paint sheen, like durability, touch-up potential, desired gloss, etc. But I can't think of a good reason why the previous resident painted the wood board-and-batten laundry room ceiling in high gloss. It only serves to highlight the very imperfect and rough texture of the cheap plywood panels. And I'm sure he wasn't up there scrubbing them regularly, because they were filthy.

I had already painted the crown molding months ago, so it was finally time to give the ceiling a nice, clean coat. I really like Benjamin Moore's ultra flat ceiling paint; it's so thick it rarely drips and it's tintable to any of their thousands of wonderful colors. I had to do a lot of cutting in, due to the little batten strips. But now it looks like a velvety soft cloud overhead, instead of a prickly, stubbly, garish glare.

Before:

After:

The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

We've had a very full week of ups and downs. We had made plans to travel to Edmond, OK (by way of Arkansas to see family) to stay with friends for the big church weekend with socials, dancing, and the Jeremiah musical premier.

All that went very well and it was a wonderful experience. But in the midst of it, we received very bad news about our pet. DaVinci had not been himself the day before we left, and we thought perhaps the recently prescribed medication was affecting him. But we found out from the pet sitter on Friday that he was becoming increasingly weak and inactive. We had her take him to our vet, who found he was losing blood and going downhill fast. After bloodwork and x-rays were inconclusive, they transferred him to the regional emergency animal hospital for more tests and monitoring. By Friday night, he was pretty bad. An ultrasound revealed a large tumor on his liver had ruptured and was bleeding out. They had already tried IV fluids, and it wasn't helping. They did a blood transfusion through the night and gave coagulates to try to stop the bleeding, but he never stabilized. He wasn't in any pain and our pet sitter was able to be with him when he died Saturday the 29th shortly before noon.

We are heartbroken to be without our faithful companion of ten years, and it was so difficult to not be there with him and say goodbye. But he had a wonderful, healthy, full life and we are thankful for the time we enjoyed with him. We were able to bring his body home Monday and bury him under the beautiful tulip magnolia in the backyard. We will start the new calendar year without him, but we'll have a decade of fond memories to reflect back on.

DaVinci was...

...our big bellied baby

...always quick with a hug

...a natural weed barrier

...a good excuse for a nap

...a fabulous babysitter

...a patient chipmunk hunter

...an experienced remodeler

...never far from a toy

...frequently aspiring to new heights

...prone to stick his nose in

...our beloved friend who will be greatly missed