The Goldilocks temperature

Our months in the house have been like a Goldilocks fairy tale. It's too hot! It's too cold! Rarely is it just right. There are a few pleasant hours in the early morning now that it's spring, and sometimes on a sunny afternoon back in the late winter, when the ambient temperature was just right. But with different sun exposure, differing activity levels, various drafts, etc., it didn't last long. Oh, to have control at just the touch of a button...

Soon we will! The HVAC installers are coming today. It should take about a week for the downstairs system, upstairs system, and all metal ductwork. We settled on the Carrier line with a high efficiency gas furnace for downstairs and a standard heat pump for upstairs. We will be switching to natural gas as soon as our propane tank is empty, which will tidy up the backyard and equalize our monthly utility bills, too. Since we won't need any heating for a good six months or more, we have plenty of time to get that taken care of.

We are taking advantage of rebates from Carrier and some energy efficiency incentives (because of the 16 SEER rating, duct sealing, etc.) the government is offering right now. So the extra upgrades paid for themselves! Might as well get a few of our tax dollars back, right? Now we just have a few more decisions to make, like register placement and such. I'm excited, but I'm also just ready for it all to be over!

Potting Pleasures

They aren't really pots, per se, more like container baskets. But it was a pleasure digging in the dirt, none the less! I told Jeff it was almost like being a kid again getting to form mud pies. A handful of soil, a flower or two, more dirt, a pinch of this plant and a stem of that one, all patted neatly down into my coir liners.

I used pansies, violas, liriope, creeping jenny, begonias, angelina sedum, and lambs ear to create six hanging baskets for the front porch. Here they are temporarily on the back porch near my potting station (the old fish cleaning station!) just after watering. The early spring annuals probably don't have long in this heat, but they were free, so I squeezed them in for a full look while they last.

Busy, busy

If it's been a little quiet on the Evans' blog page, it's not for lack of activity around the farm! We have been dealing with a hectic pace of life lately, as I'm sure many of you have this spring.

In addition to all the usual tasks of the season, I have had a companion the last week. A young friend of ours from church was out of school on spring break and we invited her to come stay with us. She was a great help, and it certainly shook up the normal routine. Jeff was at a professional conference most of the week, so she and I dove into some pretty intense projects. Stripping wallpaper, painting, hanging blinds, assembling IKEA items, gardening, etc. I'm here to tell you twelve years old is a perfect age to learn how to handle a wallpaper steamer and power tools! We also made some time for fun at the botanical garden, dinner out, movies, horseback riding, tennis, and a few other age appropriate entertainments.

Stripping a room full of wallpaper

Hurray for power tools!

Rainbow of tulips at the Botanical Garden

Red Eared Sliders

In addition to all the good times, she was here to share one of our tragedies (I have to admit, my life is pretty good if the following can be called a tragedy, but it was sad none-the-less). Attila the Hen died. I'm thankful I found Attila's little body in the coop in the middle of the day or we might never have known what happened to her (since the girls free-range all around the farm during the day).

She was just dead, no signs or symptoms. I called my vet and was eventually referred to a regional poultry diagnostic lab. We drove her down for a necropsy (chicken autopsy), since we were concerned cause of death might affect Atomic Cluck or any future chicks we introduce. We only have the preliminary report so far, but she had liver damage and died of a hemorrhage, so we're waiting to find out why. The lab deals primarily with commercial birds, so I'm sure the microbiologist was a little taken aback by my teary goodbye to a chicken, but she was very gentle and understanding (she even got a chuckle out of Attila's name).

Attila was my favorite, but Jeff reminded me that perhaps chickens are a bit too fragile and short-lived to be good pets. I can't help but be attached, so I'll just have to steel myself for the losses when they come. I'm busy researching fun and interesting breeds like Silkies and Frizzles. And maybe we'll add a few ducks and geese, too, since the ponds look so full and inviting with all the spring rains! Lots to keep us busy in the next few weeks and months.

Friday Flowers

A neighbor brought me some daffodils, so I was inspired to cut a few spring blossoms and make a tiny table arrangement. The salmon flowering quince smells so delightful; I catch a whiff of it just walking down the hall!

Bloom Where You're Planted

...or maybe I should revise it to say when. One of the things I was most looking forward to this season was seeing all our bushes and trees and bulbs blooming. It's our first spring in the farmhouse, and I had identified forsythia, spirea, flowering quince, all kinds of narcissus, and a tulip magnolia, among other early bloomers. We've had a rather mild winter overall, and by early February had already experienced 70+ degree sunny weather. It was just beautiful. Every bud was peeping through and just ripe to burst forth. And then they did! And then it froze!

All of the plants are well established so there was no concern over survival. But the tender petals of the tulip magnolia fell victim to the cold snap. We enjoyed about two days of opening flowers, and then they were limp, blackened remnants. But I'm happy to report that a few reluctant buds must have been hiding out and managed to weather the storm. So we may not have a full glorious tree to admire, but we take great pleasure in the strength and beauty of the few solitary blossoms.

New versus Old

I've always thought building a new house would be too intimidating. You have to decide everything! There is nothing set in stone (other than budget, of course, and even that has a way of flexing when you thought it couldn't or shouldn't). Floor plan, mechanical systems, fixtures, finishes, materials, it all requires weighing and choosing. I'm a good planner and researcher, but a terrible decision maker, so all that just seemed like too much.

Welcome to my "too much"! Our previous old houses have required some repairs, renovations, and remodels, but nothing on the scale of this one. We love that the farmhouse has so much potential, but that's also code for "lots and lots of work (and money)". I'm starting to realize working with a historic building (or any existing structure, for that matter), can be much harder than just starting new. Lots of people say that, but I never believed it. Now I do!

Take for example our heating and cooling decisions. No, we still don't have central heat and air. It was suppose to go in around November. But then we couldn't get the electrical and plumbing changes we needed for the kitchen done, so it had to wait. The ductwork will take up a lot of room in the basement and crawl space, so we have to think through all kinds of other wiring and plumbing decisions. Will we want extra plugs in the living room one day? Can we still get under there if a trunk line is in the way? Should we do it now instead of wait?

What about the size of the unit? Is 3.5 tons big enough for downstairs given our high ceilings and leaky windows? Too big? Should the cold air return go in the hall and use up our understairs storage? Or should we put it in the dining room but have to go in there just to set the thermostat? Should we go with a heat pump? Or will we be happier with the quick heat of a gas furnace? If gas, should we stick with propane or run a natural gas line? If we switch to natural gas, should we stay with our existing copper lines or install black iron to avoid regulators on every appliance? If we run new black iron gas lines, should we add a line to the firebox for gas logs eventually, since it will be hard to get into the crawl space later? If we're running new lines anyway, should we try to move the water heater out of the back entryway? Where would we put it? If we can't find a place, should we upgrade to a tankless hot water heater? But the natural gas company gives us a free regular water heater just for switching; what would we do with that one? And if we switch to natural gas, what do we do about the propane tank we just spent hundreds to fill? Can we use it up in the next month? Since they charge so much to pump it out, can we just give it to someone? If there is a chance we might do a heat pump and stay on propane, should we lock in rates now for next winter?

All this doesn't even include what brand unit, what efficiency, what installer, etc. regarding the actual HVAC equipment. That would be all we had to think about with a new build. But those questions come with their own issues, like what crew do we trust with our old house and what rebates can we get if we upgrade to higher SEER units and such.

So if you check in on the blog and wonder at our slow progress sometimes, it isn't just because so much of the work is DIY. It's often because I've spent months researching, debating, gathering info, interviewing contractors, calculating costs, weighing options, and am struck with indecision! I'm glad Jeff makes the final call on everything, but when it's thousands of dollars and he's asking for my input, I'm afraid I'm rather useless despite all my facts and data gathering!

(The good news is that indecision is a pretty funny topic and I found plenty of good cartoons on the subject!)

House Lights

I'm happy to say one more box is out of the shop. I'm even happier to say it's because we finally got the new porch light installed!

I had purchased a matching flush-mount porch ceiling fixture when I bought the lamppost light several months ago. But with all the other work on the house, a little detail like switching out a light fixture was at the bottom of the priority list. But Sunday was a pleasant, sunny day and we felt like being outside (but close enough to the house that we could enjoy the NPR program "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" on the radio). So the porch was the perfect work environment.

As with all things old house related, it's never as simple as it seems. The new hanging bracket did not match up with the old junction box, so Jeff had to do some finagling. I scraped errant paint off the sidelight glass while he worked, with the happy surprise when I turned around that he got the task accomplished. We like it so much, we may try to figure out a way to put matching lanterns on the four front posts!

Before and After:

After:

While we worked, we were serenaded by a lovely little song bird in a near by tree. We went to get a closer look, and to our surprise, the bird didn't fly away. We stood directly under the tree and watched and listened to him (or perhaps her) for several minutes. If anyone knows their bird species, I'd love to identify this happy little avian!

Hurray for Dr. Jeffy!

A big congratulations to my smart and successful husband! He was honored yesterday at the E Week banquet (it is National Engineers Week, for those of you not familiar with the hoopla, pomp and circumstance, and general festivities that accompany this geek week)!

I was able to attend the dinner and award presentation as his guest. While enjoying our Beef Wellington, I had the opportunity to meet several of his coworkers and students. After dinner, we heard Dr. Michael Griffin, former (and perhaps best) NASA administrator, give an address. Awards were then presented, with Jeff receiving the Outstanding Junior Faculty award for the College of Engineering! I'm so proud of him.

The Dean presenting Jeff's award

In good company: awardees for outstanding senior
faculty and lifetime achievement were also given

He left for work this morning with the plaque in a plastic grocery bag and the comment that he really needs to take a hammer and some nails to the office so he can hang all these awards. That is a nice problem to have, Darling!

So Good it's Wicked!

Jeff took me to see Wicked in Birmingham! I've been wanting to see the hit Broadway musical for some time now. The catchy musical numbers are out there ("Defying Gravity", "For Good", etc.), and I also heard great reviews from the Malones. The intricate story line is the parallel tale of the Wizard of Oz, focused on the misunderstood and maligned Elpheba (who becomes known, of course, as the "Wicked Witch of the West"), and the much adored Glinda (the "Good Witch").

Jeff tolerably enjoys movie musicals (Rogers and Hammerstein and the like), but he really does like musical theater. We saw Les Miserables a few years ago, and he still hums some of the numbers. We didn't know much about Wicked (other than the little I mentioned above), so he was very pleasantly surprised by the humor, quality songs and singing, and overall message of the show.

Because it was a Tuesday evening show down in B'ham, Jeff worked from home so we could be flexible and leave early. I made a light frittata for lunch and we ate outside in the sunshine.

Late afternoon, we drove down to Cullman to visit an antique store I've been wanting to see, and then had an early dinner at a (regionally ;-) famous steak restaurant we've been hearing about. The location on the fourth floor of an old bank building afforded a view of the downtown skyline (such as it is in a small Southern city).

We ordered the Chateaubriand for two and enjoyed our meal very much. Jeff was quite enthusiastic about the steak in particular, but it came with rice, baked potato, roasted tomato, mushrooms, asparagus, pearl onions, salad, and a dinner roll. Followed up by their famous sweet orange rolls, of course, as an after dinner sweet.

An easy drive down the interstate found us at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex. Parking was a little tricky, but after I stood in a parking place to hold it until Jeff got the car through the narrow, convoluted, and uni-directional lot, we had ourselves a decently close, free space. We walked a few short blocks and happened to enter on exactly the correct side and entrance, which made finding our seats in the orchestra section painless.

The iPhone doesn't capture it well (and the house lights were still up), but we had a great view of the stage and thoroughly enjoyed the show!

Entrenched

We had a productive Sunday this weekend. We got all the paneled doors off the SubZero fridge, I sanded them, and even got the first coat of paint cut in around the molding.

Naked fridge


Painting the profiles first

Jeff opened his new Dremel set and began exploring all the bits and accessories. We even managed to squeeze in a little basketball watching during lunch (Jeff has been wanting to see Jeremy Lin play).

After that small reprieve, Jeff got the edger going (I bought it used on Craigslist for just a few dollars, so it needed some tweaking).

He used it to mark the digging line along our walkway, then we shoveled and hoed out a nice, deep trench where I can plant the monkey grass and daffodils, and hopefully the landscape lights, too. It was good practice with the edger because I'm hoping to use it to bury the cable for DaVinci's inground fence one of these days.

The trench looks a little drastic for just some plants and low voltage
wiring, but I want to replace some of that awful clay with good
topsoil and amendments.

Discoveries

I have been searching for a windowseat-like object for a few months now. I had a guy who was suppose to be making me one, but that was way back in December. He only does it on the side, so it takes a backseat to his other work. When it became apparent I wasn't going to see one anytime soon (or perhaps ever), I starting looking around for something else that would work.

I was excited to find a small cabinet at our Habitat for Humanity Restore that I thought would work. It was quite cheap, so I dragged it home and Jeff helped me carry it to the shop. When I explained the painting, hardware, door, molding, and interior changes I wanted to make, he pointed out that perhaps it wasn't quite worth all that effort. I was disappointed, but knew he was right that we didn't have the time to take that much on at this point.

A day or two later, while cleaning up one of the upstairs rooms, I saw again a piece I had forgotten about. It was a left behind trunk of some sort, one of the multitude of items we inherited when we bought the house. Most of the things have been junk and we've been making regular use of our town's "large item" trash pick-up. But this raggedy piece had seemed sturdy and perhaps useful storage, although an asthma attack waiting to happen from the dusty, tattered fabric enshrouding the wooden sides and top. I decided to investigate what it would take to reupholster it by grabbing a loose fabric corner and giving a hearty pull. I was thrilled with what I found underneath!

A quick trip downstairs for my upholstery tack remover and a measuring tape, and I soon had a naked, clean box almost the right size for my windowseat! It's still a bit low, but I can add feet and properly upholster the lid with foam and batting to increase the height and comfort. I wish I had a "before" photo, but here is my new/old piece with a velvet flocked linen remnant I had in my stash.

I love the original label on the front! It even has the shipping sticker on the back when it was sent to Albany, AL, a town just over from us that only existed from 1887 until 1927, which really helps date it. Since the original builders of this farmhouse owned and farmed hundreds of acres around here, I wonder if their crop seeds came in this very box many decades ago!

Wonderful Wildlife

Spring is arriving, and with it returns the appearance of the animal kingdom. I saw an egret on the pond yesterday:

And Jeff zoomed in on this cute chipmunk outside our kitchen window:

Boot Scrapin' Boogie

We have had a mysterious object at the farmhouse under consideration. We first noticed it when we were cleaning years of accumulated leaves and debris off the front steps. It was a black wrought iron piece of barstock twisted around with each end planted firmly in the concrete. We thought perhaps it was the remnant of an old handrail support, but it didn't make any sense. We've seen old black and white photos of the house and there was never anything mounted to the steps.

But life goes on and gets busy and we forgot all about our iron oddity. Until watching an episode of "This Old House" on PBS. We love the show, although Jeff calls it more of a "what's possible" show rather than a "reality remodel" (their budgets must be astronomical, they never live in the house through the renovations, the detail and craftsmanship is beyond the scope of any other crew, etc.). Well, they were wrapping up a whole house restoration project and went to a local handcrafted blacksmith's shop for a few final detail pieces. One was a door knocker; the other was a boot scraper. As soon as Jeff saw what the craftsman was making and how it would be mounted at the front stoop, he said that must be what our mysterious piece was. I saw immediately that he was right!

So now that we have a name for it, here is a picture of our vintage, original, handcrafted boot scraper (that makes it sound much grander than it is, but it's nice to have an explanation for the otherwise random bit of metal sticking up on our steps)!

Day Trip

I've been sick for the past week. It wasn't too bad most days, but I did have the "it gets worse before it gets better" experience. Saturday and Sunday were the most symptomatic and unpleasant, but I seem to be over it now. Jeff had a little something similar a few days before I came down with it, so he blamed himself as the carrier.

I'm glad I'm all recovered now, since I had plans today. Some girlfriends (or womanfriends, since they are all a bit older than I ;-) went down to a cute little historic downtown area for lunch and some window shopping and browsing. They swung by to pick me up, and stopped in the farmhouse to get a peek at our progress. We are all friends from the Master Gardener class, so I was almost more anxious about the exterior and landscaping appearance than the interior!

We had lunch at a fun little eclectic cafe. The decor was all over the place! It looked like an old fashioned soda shop/antique mall/junk store/storage barn. There was "stuff" covering every surface with mismatched tables and chairs in a maze of rooms. It sounds a bit overwhelming, but it was a fun place for ladies that lunch.

More interestingly, at least to me, was the bathroom decor. Each gender had its own single bathroom (as opposed to the multi-stall version). When my friend needed toilet paper, I sneaked across the hall and borrowed from the men's room. Little did I know what I was in for when I opened the door!

Yes, that is the toilet tucked over there behind the pine tree!

I guess you could hop up on a barstool and
enjoy a drink after making room in the bladder!

I had to take a photo just to show Jeff! He always jokes how the lady's room has sofas, nice art, decor items, etc., and the men's room never does. I'll came back to the table remarking on a restaurant's bathroom appearance, and Jeff will go to the men's room only to find a bland, sterile interior. I now know just where to take him for our next meal out so he, too, can enjoy the toilet retreat!

Behind Door Number One...

I have a big kitchen decision to make. Not that I haven't had a lot of large ones up to this point, but this was an unexpected cross-roads.

I had been planning to reuse the existing kitchen doors. This entails sanding, reworking, painting, and hanging. The first snag was that I couldn't just swap out old hinges for new self-closing ones; the holes nearly aligned, but not quite. So I either fill, patch, and drill for new hinges, or I use the old and install magnetic closures. Not the end of the world, but disappointing. Then the decision to add glass panels to a few doors became complex because my existing slab doors are just thin plywood. Still doable, but not so simple. Lastly, my idea to rip the eased edges straight and add flat stock molding to all the doors was revealed to be more labor intensive and expensive than I had thought. So I would be investing a lot of time and a decent amount of money into cheap, simple doors that would never quite look as good as I hoped.

I decided to get a quote on new, unfinished cabinet doors. I hoped it would either be sky high (and clearly out of range), or so affordable it was a no-brainer. I sincerely doubted it would be the latter, but you never know. Well, the quotes are surprisingly reasonable, but not so low as to be the obvious decision. So now there is more weighting, considering, thinking, planning, and budgeting. In the meantime, I can move most everything back into the open cabinets, it just looks really messy!