Do Nothing Small

Ben came down with something last weekend, so I suggested he have some Thieves Tea. I drank this many nights this winter and generally stayed pretty healthy. If you know anything about essential oils, you probably know more than I do. But I do buy into the health benefits of Thieves. So anyways, the tea is hot water, a drop or two of Thieves oil, some lemon oil or fresh lemon, and honey. Ben knows this. I've made it for him before. I reminded him this was the recipe. What he did instead was to fill a glass with cold water, add four drops of Thieves (which is A LOT), lemon juice, and honey. I went crazy bug eyes on him when he told me four drops, and he replied, very seriously, “do nothing small”. Ain't that the truth. 

The plan is to be done by the end of March. In fact, the bank says we HAVE to be done by the end of March. “Done” means Phase I plus the kitchen will be complete. This doesn't include updates we want to do to the original rooms, the front porch, the barn, the landscaping...but done enough that the bank will sign off and give us the rest of our money, and we can move in. The way this loan has worked is that 10% of every draw is held back until final inspections, when the inspector, the contractor, and Ben and I all agree that the project is complete. So the 10% differential between what the bank gives us and what we owe the contractor is out of pocket for now. So move in day will technically be kind of lucrative, even if just replenishing the savings account. But four-ish weeks!! This is both incredibly exciting and daunting. In four weeks we might be living at the Farmhouse. But that also means that for four weeks there will be no sleep.

The bathroom floors are tiled, grouted and sealed. This was kind of a bummer for Ben, because it was very time consuming and he was very critical of his work. Apparently cute little hexagon tiles are kind of unforgiving when laid without spacers. Snobs. I still really like the floors and will probably spend the next 15 years convincing Ben of the same.

brand new master bath

downstairs remodel

The ceilings in the new family room upstairs and our bedroom are finished with tongue and groove pine paneling. There were a few reasons for this. First, Ben likes wood and didn't think he already had enough on his plate. But more seriously, installing these ourselves would save enough in drywalling costs to cover all of the new drywall in the kitchen which was an unanticipated expense right now. So, it seemed like a good idea. Ben's mom also pointed out that we still have an old house that will continue to settle, and wood ceilings won't crack like drywall will. Seems reasonable. We are going to paint these white, ultimately, but there was no space to do that right now before we hung them. We did prime all of the tongues and grooves so that once they are hung we can quickly (hopefully) run over them with a roller. Funny thing about the partially primed boards is that when up on the ceiling, they kind of look white washed and somewhat cool. Like...we might be so sick of projects that we might just leave them. We had a lot of help with these. My brother Matt helped paint one evening, my dad helped a lot with hanging, Ben's cousin Chris helped hang, and I helped hang. I asked Ben if I was the worst assistant and he said I definitely was. I think it's just because I panic sometimes when I'm afraid he's going to tumble down the stairs to serious injury. He did also say that I was the hottest. I will take it. 

Oh yeah, and Ellis helped too.

The tub/shower surround in the main floor bathroom is tiled and just needs to be grouted and sealed. This was a solid day's work and really, REALLY, displays the slope in the charming edifice. Old house problems. The bottom row and the top row are both pretty janky but the REST of the rows are perfectly level. I promise. This sloping issue is why Greg talked me out of kitchen cabinets going all the way up to the ceiling like I wanted. I should have applied the same reasoning here, but oh well. Guess I better keep my day job.

Speaking of kitchen cabinets, the uppers are in and look great even though they stop six inches below the ceiling. I'm over it, really. They need some crown molding and hardware yet, which we need to re-think a little. Ben was set on getting cup pulls, or half moon pulls, like a good old farmhouse should have. However, the top drawers don't have much space on them due to the shaker faces so I don't think those will work. It's alright, we'll (I'll) figure something out. It's about time I get to make a decision. I've started keeping track and right now, I think I've only won on the garage door. He has somehow weaseled agreement out of me on things I still think are a mistake. Like wood floors in the mudroom/laundry room and MORE pine flooring than we already have upstairs. Not only that, he talked me into natural yellow pine floors. I don't even know who I am anymore. I digress. The kitchen counters are also in and I love them. I guess I technically chose these too...at least going with polished side over the honed side. I'm so glad we were able to get past our little miss-communication on those and that the guys didn't strike us from their schedule. 

Delivering the counters. Nice bird's eye shot, Ben.

Countryside has been back the past few weeks and most of the interior doors and trim work is finished. We're having someone paint all of the doors, windows, and other new trim. This will save us a ton of time and will look a ton better, likely. They should also be finishing up siding next week. Things are really starting to wrap up! There's a bunch to do yet this month, including a ton of cleaning. Aside from the new stuff, we'd also really like to get the boys bedrooms painted, but they need a significant amount of patching first. Recall that Ben took the old radiator runs out so there are several inches of walls that haven't seen the light of day in maybe forever, and a bunch of plaster also came off with the runs. There's also water damage and other cracks in the plaster throughout. My dad has been working on patching the bedrooms this week, which we are so thankful for. He knows what he's doing, and it's one less thing to worry about. He's retired now, which works out pretty great for us.

Both of the bathrooms need some vanity work. Like any good dutch people, we can't pass up a good retro-fit project. For the downstairs we found some cool black cabinets at the Habitat for Humanity restore, and Ben is making a counter top out of reclaimed wall studs pulled from the house. For the upstairs bathroom, oh wow, I found a gem. I had wanted to find a dresser or buffet, something vintage to paint and drop a sink in for a unique and old feel. I found a few pieces at local thrift stores that I thought could work, but needed some color inspiration. So I went to R. Lucas Scott one day, a fine retailer of Annie Sloan chalk paint. And what to my wondering eyes should appear but a fabulous piece of Victorian gold. Sold. It was of course a nasty snowy day in December and Ben was too busy working on the house to help me. Normally something like that should fit in my Acadia, but not with car seats in the middle row and it was time to pick up the boys. So my dad came back with me and the boys and a trailer (I was too chicken to maneuver the trailer myself on an icy day) and we hauled it home, but not before the boys spent 15 minutes chasing around the shop dog. This thing is the perfect size, already painted and sealed, and adds a pop of color to the otherwise white and gray bathroom. Don't worry, Ben has watched the “This Old House” video of how to make a vanity out of a dresser about 8 times.

I don't know where the middle drawers are. If you've been in the house since we took over you understand why.

A few weekends ago the boys and I made work of cleaning out one of the bedrooms upstairs so that I could vacuum and they could have a safe space to play and hang. I put them to work collecting nails and screws and they were actually quite helpful. Also, they have their own Mickey Mouse work gloves thanks to Lowes and Ben. Having this space has worked out well for weekend afternoon rest time. We set up our laptop with DVDs, bring blankets and pillows and tons of snacks. They are happy to be at the house and we are happy to both be there getting work done.

Acid washed jeans went out of style in the 80s, right?  I don't know, I was only 5 at the turn of that decade.

We've got some sitters lined up for the weekend so we can keep working, thanks to nieces who live nearby and Grandpa and Grandma Reuschel. Last weekend they went to Tim and Tiff's. A few afternoons they've been by Grandma Stob. They've spent extra time at daycare. We've been trying to keep things as stable for the boys as we can, but we're kind of at the point where we just need to push through and finish. At least when we offload them on someone else they have lots of fun!

Ellis loves to pretend he's "working". But he has to look like Ben to do so.

We may or may not let the boys "drive" between the Farmhouse and the rental sometimes. Maybe. But don't tell the cops.

Now's the point in the HGTV show where everybody scrambles to get everything done in the last 5 minutes. But to us, 5 minutes will feel like 30 days. I think maybe we will be able to relax a little in April. That is after we take care of a diabetic dog for a neighbor/friend/co-worker that needs insulin shots twice a day. Why not.