Though quite a bit has happened since my Christmas post there hasn't been so much that I felt the need to post an update. But time flies. So here are the few good things that have happened since Christmas.
In my last post we had moved into the new Farmhouse and Jackson moved into the tiny home. Since then we have finished the kitchen cabinets and counter-tops. The cabinets all needed to be painted but we had primed them in white prior to moving them into place. Once they were all put together I painted them all and put knobs on all of the drawers and doors. The knobs we used had been sitting in a bag of knobs I had collected throughout the thirty years I worked in home renovations. I don't know why I toted that bag through four house moves, but the fact they are now in the new Farmhouse makes it seem worth it. Ann simply loves her new kitchen and has not spent much time out of it since we got it finished.
The new bathroom seemed so luxurious when compared with the tiny home. The water heater is ten times the size and we really appreciated the long showers it gave, but waiting for hot water to reach the bathroom, from the pantry, was about eight minutes. We had planned for this with the intention of putting a secondary tankless electric water heater in the linen closet in the bathroom, so when the time was available I put one in. Now the hot water is quick on the draw and when the hot water does reach the bathroom from the pantry the new tankless heater shuts down to save money.
Ann got our exterior lights installed a few weeks ago. They compliment the electric candles in the upper windows and will eventually light the space under the wrap around porch we'll build in the next few weeks. The outside of the house is very well lit, but the picture my phone takes of it makes the house seem overly bright. It isn't. The house looks spectacular from Sell Road and Highway 26, looking so much bigger than it really is. This was all to plan, we did everything we could to make this little farmhouse look very large. People often think this is a two story house of about two0thousand feet. It is only one thousand feet and only one floor.
Every house has some things that show up only after beginning to use the space. One place needing attention is the big room heating. The bedroom section of the house is very well heated, but the big room stays a bit cool most of the time. Our really huge ceiling fan wasn't working when I installed it and I found a bad wire nut at the wall switch. This solved the problem with the fan working but showed us another -We didn't put in a furnace to heat the house, using underfloor heating instead. We did it this way to save energy. The plan was for the ceiling fan to moderate the heat and bring warmth back down from the high ceiling. But in the cold of Winter the heat wasn't sufficient and the fan only cooled things down a bit too much. We had a plan in place to put an auxiliary electric heater, but haven't got it done yet. The weather has warmed a bit and the heating system we have is sufficient so long as we don't turn the fan on. We'll figure it out before next Winter.
Other than a few things: painting the laundry room and putting in some Craig's List cabinets; hanging the many dozens of pictures we had packed away in the shipping container; putting up closet rods and bringing our clothing in from storage; etc; . . . All of these have combined to make us walk around enjoying the new house more every day. There are still a few things needing done, but things are in motion.
I ordered part of the wood for the new wrap-around porch last Friday. Our permit extension is likely to time-out before it is built so we are likely going to apply for another extension to give us some time. We still have a lot of little stuff to do before the final inspection so a bit more time will ease things a bit. We are coming into the busy season.
One of our girl dogs, Laffee Taffee, is having a litter in March. Since we couldn't put the new kennel in place before then we are building temporary accommodations in the Pantry of the new house. She will be comfortable there and we will work hard to keep the new house from becoming dog worn.
I have begun making dog coats for sale and have a good pattern which I came up with after a few less than perfect attempts. The new coats fit Basset Hounds very well, can be washed in the machine over and over, and so far haven't had much go wrong, so I'm confident enough to let them go out to people needing them. It's not certain that our coats will be a success on the market, but our dogs love them.
We bought ten new Orpington chicks to replenish our flock. We have done this every year because we lose them to cold or other causes and occasionally have given older hens which have decreased egging. This time we bought Lavender Orpington chick, which are slightly purple, to set them off from the buff colored hens we have been raising for four years. The idea is, and always was, to cull our own hens and put the meat in the freezer, but we've never been able to tell how old they are with certainty so buying a different color every year will tell us when the cross into the third year and are ready for the soup pot.
The Farm is nearing Spring, so soon we will begin tilling to prepare the soil for planting. We brought in many yards of hardwood leaves to begin turning the Farm into a no-tilling concept and these pile will be mulched enough to till into the soils we have. This ought to be a pretty good year and we have begun buying seed for April planting.
Much more to do. So much has been done.
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