Trees

I remember driving through Waukazoo Woods with Colt a couple years ago, in midsummer, with the oaks and maples at full canopy. Waukazoo Woods, to the best of my memory, was initially settled in the early 19th century by a band of Ottawa Indians. They would eventually move away and over the course of a hundred years houses were built up but the integrity of the forest was preserved. After driving through the area for about 10 minutes and finishing our errand we pulled back out onto Ottawa Beach road and drove back to the east, towards more commercial and developed area. After a couple minutes, two and a half year old Colt asks, “Where'd the trees go?” “Progress”, I muttered, “Progress”.

One of the first orders of business this summer was to clear some trees around the house. The two acre lot had many mature maples and various other varieties. Sadly, a large maple on the south side of the house needed to come down. It was both too close to the house and also needed to be removed so the grading could properly shed water from the foundation. It was beyond my skills and abilities to take it down without risking life, limb, and house.

Thankfully, I know a guy. Actually I know a guy that knows a guy.

My brother-in-law Mike, has a buddy, also named Mike, who has a unique set of skills and tools. I just needed to rent a lift and supply the beer. (Relax). And rent a lift, “the biggest Taylor Rental has”. The Nifty Lift TM50.

I gave the Mikes a few weekends in September to pick from and Friday the 11th worked best for them (and me as well). I wanted to get the trees down as soon as possible as at this time we still planned on closing on September 18th (on the Ranch) and on the same day close on the Farm. The new buyers of the Ranch had agreed to give us significant time past closing which we wanted to utilize to get the house in a livable condition. Recall that our initial plan was to live “only a few weeks” with parents until the Farm was livable. We were so dumb.

As with each facet of the project, I did not want any work I was responsible for to delay the contractors. Really, there was just one issue to overcome. We did not own the house. We did not have insurance on anything.

Well, nothing ventured nothing gained. The gamble paid off.

South side of the house. The tree we took down is the large one in the center (rising above the shrub) and leaning toward the house.  

I picked up the lift Friday afternoon with the Acadia. I am not sure how much it can safely tow but it is really close to Nifty Lift TM50. Like within a few pounds. I did not exactly feel in command and control all the time towing it; but I got it home safe for naps and then dropped the boys off at Uncle Mike and Aunt Gina’s house for the evening.

I had chainsaw blades sharpened; though I put one on backwards. Turns out they smoke like sin if you have them on the wrong way.

The plan for the evening was to get the large tree on the south side taken down and then trim back some of the large arms from the big maples in the front yard (west side). All I wanted from these was the arms that stretched back towards the house cut out. If time allowed, there were several pines on the north side of the house that had to come down to make room for the garage and master suite addition. There were four more along the driveway that had also outlived their prime. I especially hated to cut these down as it was primarily for cosmetic reasons but they were not healthy anymore and would have made all the heavy equipment coming and going for the next several months much more bottle necked. I also wanted to cut out the large yew bush that had overtaken the front porch of the house. This thing was mighty to behold. It will all be replaced, in time, with tasteful landscaping.

I told Mike, my brother-in-law, that I felt the Acadia would struggle pulling the lift through the yard and he volunteered the services of his Yukon which handled the job with ease. It took a little remembering on how to operate the lift (it seemed so clear when the feller from the rental place gave me the one-minute tutorial) but had it up in the trees before too long. And Mike (the lumberjack) went to town.

If I have learned one thing throughout this process so far, it is that it is a thing of beauty to see a man skilled at his craft go to work. Tree guy. Excavators. Builders. Roofer. Mike was notching and felling branches with unflagging speed and efficiency. He worked his way down the big limbs until he finally made it to the trunk where he finally got out the big saw and, as you can guess, dropped it right where he wanted it away from the house, lift, Yukon, and people (me and other Mike). As he was dropping branches we hauled the felled limbs to an arbitrary spot on the last bit of yard before the corn. I did not want to burn them at this spot but the corn was still up and I was not about to go trampling into it to start my pile. Plus I did not even own anything yet and I wish to remain in good graces with the farmers.

Since we were in the backyard we trimmed up another old tree, which, after weeding out the dead stuff did not leave much left. But, out of principle, we left it standing. It offers some shade and a fine branch for a tire swing. And most importantly, it is leaning away from the house.

We moved to the front yard and were delayed by an issue with the lift. It seemed as if there was some safety interlock that we could not get past. After almost deciding it was broke or we were too tired it suddenly worked. The few branches were pruned and as dusk settled in on the prairie we lowered the lift shut down the saws. And then put a dent in the beers.

It was the first significant work done to the estate, possibly in years, and it drew attention. First off, out here, everyone that drives by waves to you. And a lot of them stop in. Out here it’s just what people do. I was not really prepared for it. But this has been one of the lessons God has taught me over the past several months. I need other people in my life. God’s kingdom is bigger than me and I was not made just to go to Heaven. He has prepared me in advance to do good works (Ephesians 2:10). And the gifts He has given me are mine to share with others and to further the Kingdom.

29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’  Matthew 25:14-30 (verses 29-30).

The following day, the lift was returned and I also continued deforesting the property. With the help of neighbor and supervisor Jon we tackled the pine trees. They were not daunting in size but still considerable to take down and buck up. His lovely wife even put in several hours of hard work hauling pine boughs to the pile. And then, there was just one more to take down. It was the biggest. And also leaning towards the uninsured and not-yet-formally mine house. We decided to tie a rope on it. Just in case.

The notch he cut in looked really good from where I was standing – holding the end of 50 feet of climbing rope. The tree should have begun falling in my direction. But then, suddenly, though ever-so-slightly; the tree rocked back, the chain saw bound, the rope went taught, and we both cussed.

You see, about 20 feet from the tree sat a Ford Fusion. Mine. Why we did not think to move it before hand is a wonder. It seemed so obvious now as I held the rope, heels dug in. Jon ran over to me and grabbed the rope and helped me play tug-of-war with a pine tree. Sweet Carolyn, taking a video and holding 2 year old Ellis, from a safe distance, was now called on to swiftly move the car. Which she did, though not with the urgency we would have liked. The tree was not yet falling back but rather just balanced precariously. After what seemed like minutes but in reality was probably just minutes Carolyn got the car out of the way and we were able to muscle the tree back towards us and it fell safely to the ground.

The remaining pines came down over the next several weeks without incident and it opened up the property, especially coming from the north. The excavator was able to literally pluck the stumps out with his compact excavator. The large stump on the south side of the house also came out with only minimal negotiation with a backhoe. There was a fear that it could be tied into the foundation however it was cleanly detached.

The rest of the property has many healthy maple trees, some of which will inevitably have to be thinned to avoid issues in future years. This decision will wait until the grounds are cleaned up and some time is spent living here and deciding what works for the land.

About a week later, Carolyn's dad helped us rip out the vegetation around the house and took down the old deck and lattice fence on the north side.  It was hard work; those vines were well grown and healthy, to say the least.  Also, we found the septic system, which was actually a very good thing.  We were waiting on this for the township to do their inspection and appraisal of the system.  

This is the remaining stump from the tree that came down.

Floors for days

When we took on this blogging endeavor I thought for sure I'd be able to keep up with it on a regular basis. Who am I kidding. Alas...another delayed post...

So. It's been six months since we put in an offer on the house. Things have progressed differently than we thought. We're handling the stress differently than we thought, at times. It's hard. Ben spends most of his free time at the house trying to get it ready for us to move in as soon as possible. I get that and while I appreciate it, I miss my best friend. BUT...the house is turning out better than I originally imagined, so it's getting even more exciting to dream about the future we'll have there. I found an image online one day in August when we were in the early planning stages. It stopped me in my tracks. Imagine if we could take this:

To this:

While there are vast differences in lines and architecture, the basic concept is the same. Use your imaginations. I knew we weren't going to end up with something exactly like this, but it helped me visualize a little. I sent it to Ben and he loved it but immediately pointed out the reasons why our house would be different (peak dormers vs. shed, double garage door vs. two separate, "I thought we wanted white siding", etc.) and I was all like, bro, I get it, it's not an exact science here. All I was looking for was a general idea of what we were dealing with. He takes things very literally. I sent the picture to Greg too, and the next time we met with him he pointed out the same differences and I was like okay...maybe this is a guy thing? I don't know. But either way...our house will look kind of like this but also really not. Kapish?

At this moment, our house looks like this:

Since the last post all of the electrical is in and most of the windows on the original house have been replaced. HVAC is mostly set, with the addition of two new furnaces and the removal of radiators. We decided to move forward with replacing the boiler system and feel completely at peace about this. Ben has made several trips to Padnos to recycle the copper and other metals we've pulled out of the house, and so far we've made about $200 in scrap. If that's not a great reason to update the heat source in the house I'm not sure what is. Ben's dad also took some copper wire back for us as well, but not before burning off all of the remaining insulation to get us top dollar. He's in the know in the recycling circles.

Tearing off siding and replacing windows

Isn't he handsome? 

Drywall started going in this week so that's really exciting! And now that there are functioning furnaces it's no longer an ice box in there. It's starting to feel like somewhere we could spend the rest of our lives, which is pretty much what you'd want to feel with such a large undertaking.

Ben and I spent the better part of three days (including New Year's Eve until 11:30 pm and New Year's Day) sanding the maple floors in the kitchen. We took off layers of paint, grime, glue, you name it. There was even a patch of tar which was kind of baffling until Ben decided it must have been the location of the sink at some point in the 130 year history. The whole sanding process was a learning experience for sure. There were several moments (hours) of doubt when we didn't think the drum sander was enough to get through to the maple. We spent a lot of time on our hands and knees scraping glue off with chisels. Later we realized that if we had just trusted the process and the 36 grit drums, we would have been fine. Live and learn...but also...never again. Anyways, we're happy with the flooring we uncovered and Greg found a place in Kalamazoo with the same stuff and ordered enough to patch in where we need and to cover the new space where the original stairs to the basement had been. Once we get that patched in we'll have to visit Ben's friends at Taylor Rental again to get an orbital sander then poly up that floor. After reading up on how tricky maple can be to work with, we decided to forego staining it and just seal the original wood. This plan could change again...we tend to do that...work in progress as they say.

Day Three

We can live with that

Ben's proudest moment...a dumpster diving wife. I think he actually shed a tear.

We couldn't have made it through those days without our families. Ben's parents, my parents and Tim & Tiff all took turns with the boys. It's a season of life where we need some extra help and we are so thankful for lots of family nearby.

We also discovered yellow pine flooring in the entire upstairs. We knew it was there in some places, but didn't know it ran throughout. We got the hallway and landing area sanded down enough to put a fresh coat of heavy duty paint on it. The plan was to keep this flooring exposed and patch in where needed, then put carpet in the upstairs addition. The original floor had already been painted, so it seemed like the easiest solution for now. And yellow pine isn't my favorite because it's just a little, well, yellow for my liking. But then we had this discussion the other day:

Ben: Would you consider putting pine flooring in the addition too, to tie in to the original floors?

Me: NO.

Awkward two minute silence.

Me: Well, could we stain it a darker color?

Ben: Absolutely! Whatever you want.

Me: Well...let me look online a little...

Two minutes of Google. 

Me: It would be a lot of work. We'd have to re-sand the floors to get them stain-able, lay all new flooring in the addition, stain and finish everything...but I always said I didn't want to pay for carpet ever again because it gets kind of gross with the pets and you and the boys spill so much...if we could make it darker I think I could be on board...okay why don't you see if we can even get the same stuff and find out how much it is. 

Ben: You realize you just had an entire argument with yourself and I never said a word, right?

Me: Yes, but you chose to marry me, so this is not my fault.

This used to be a chimney. It did not survive Ben.

Whenever people find hard woods (or in our case soft woods) under carpet on HGTV it's like winning the lottery. I don't disagree...it's pretty exciting. But I'd like to know how they sand, stain and finish it all in 45 minutes because I'd really like to implement that technique here. At any rate, the upstairs flooring remains undecided for now. This also changes the discussion about the new staircase as we had planned to carpet this as well. It also changes my shopping needs because I'll be in the market for area rugs and stair runners if we go this route. As my mom says (or quotes), "blessed are the flexible, because they will not be bent out of shape."

Christmas and more

I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas. It's not always easy to make it through the Holidays. There is usually someone you're missing, somewhere else you'd rather be, sicknesses getting in the way of family time, an ache or longing for something or someone more, crabby kids due to lots of parties and too many late nights and missed naps...you name it. Thankfully, as Christians, we have the hope of eternal life with Jesus. That is what we remember at Christmas. We have the Good News of Great Joy.

This Christmas was undoubtedly strange for us. Last year, we didn't have the slightest idea that it would be our last Christmas in Zeeland. It hit me this summer shortly after we were under verbal contract on the Farmhouse. We were vacationing at Big Star Lake and Ben and I were able to make it to the Chapel that Sunday morning. The soloist that morning sang "Christmas Offering" by Casting Crowns. It totally hit me that we had spent our last Christmas in our home where we had brought our puppy and our babies home to. I lost it, and Ben thought I was crazy. I later re-told the story to my friend and former neighbor, Candace. Before I could explain why it made me so emotional she said "you had your last Christmas here and you didn't even know it!" Exactly. Mommies unite.

We had originally assumed that we would be in the Farmhouse by Christmas, so while it was sad to end the era of Yuletide celebrations in Zeeland, it was exciting to think about the memories to come. Well, Christmas has now come and gone and we are still in limbo. And we are at peace with that. I am starting to get anxious to be in our own house again and to start making memories there. But it is so easy to look ahead for the next best thing, it's not uncommon to miss the wonder happening right in front of you.

So yesterday, after we lost power, we trekked over to the Farmhouse, made a fire, and roasted some marshmallows on a sunny 45 degree Christmas Day in Michigan. Memories made. My brother Matt and his flock of girls randomly stopped over when we were there and they got an updated tour. I kid about the girl thing, but really it is funny watching him pile out of his van with his wife, first grade daughter, kindergarten daughter, college freshman daughter, and high school freshman daughter (oldest two are international students and blessed additions to our family). Ben taught Ricky how to use a drill, and Ellis showed her how to bang a hammer. Memories made. This was the most hilarious Christmas to date. And it really hits home the fact that Christmas is not about a place or a house...it's about the ones you love.

House updates. It's incredibly hard to keep up with everything. Since the last post, the addition is completely framed in and roofed. It's basically water tight now, though we are still missing a few doors and don't have a garage door yet. We did finally decide on a garage door. That turned out to be more of a hassle than I ever thought it could be. Took some convincing but Ben finally said "I trust you" which is code for "if it looks bad I blame you." All of the new windows for the addition are installed and a few of the old windows have been replaced. I went through with a marker a few weeks ago so the guys know what windows to try to save for us for future use. We'll see how they come out. We are also saving old joists and 2x4s for various other projects. I'm pretty sure we are keeping an old "ship lap" style wall from the original structure in the mudroom and just adding drywall where needed. The shower is installed in the new master bath and all of the other pluming is roughed in. The plumbers also added runs to the garage so we can have a utility sink with hot water in there. The plan is to have hot water outside too for a shower. Don't worry, neighbors...this is mostly for feet, the dog, and the boys. Ben won't be out there, I don't think.

terrifying. 

View from the backyard

View from new upstairs family room into new hallway/old bedroom closet

View from new family room into new master suite

Kitchen. North wall opening goes into the mudroom. East wall opening will be a pantry.

The kitchen is completely gutted now, and to our surprise, we uncovered maple floors throughout. We knew there were areas of wood flooring in the kitchen, but we didn't expect what we found. Plan is to rent a sander and see what we are dealing with. It will require some patch work, but Greg said it wouldn't be a problem to find the wood we need. We didn't think it would be...where there's a will there's a way. How's this for irony? We ripped up the kitchen flooring together. On our 8th wedding anniversary. After I threatened the "D" word if Ben did that exact thing a month ago. I've come around, and we got the go-ahead from the bank to do what we needed to do. Once I explained to our draw specialist what we were looking at with the kitchen she agreed it needed to be addressed correctly. That made me feel 100% better. Someone's got to follow the rules and it isn't going to be Ben. I digress. Nothing creates a bonding experience like pulling 50 year old linoleum flooring staples with vice grips for four and a half hours in the damp, poorly lit kitchen. Nobody said this was going to be glamorous.

Kitchen after anniversary demo/staple pulling day

Maple floors we didn't know were there! Crossing our fingers we can do something cool with these.

We've decided on a new kitchen layout, picked out the appliances we want, and had picked out some flooring. That's obviously on hold for now until we know what the maple looks like. Fortunately (I hope) we are going with white cabinets for (what we consider) the classic farmhouse look so whatever happens with the floor should work with the cabinets. I'll be accepting donations of magic erasers and am slightly nervous about it, but nothing else was catching my eye at all. Maybe we're crazy for going with white. Oh wait, of course we are crazy but not just because of white cabinetry. We're renovating a farmhouse that's 130 years old with two small boys in tow.

We had a walk through with the electricians the other day to decide where outlets and fixtures are going in the addition. This process was exactly why I said I could never build...too many detailed decisions all at once. We were originally supposed to meet with them at 8:30 Wednesday morning and we had daycare all lined up. I'm usually home on Wednesdays with the boys, but we were able to flex our schedule because of the holiday week. That plan went to crap after the boys came home sick from daycare on Tuesday. Not terribly ill, just enough to need to keep them home Wednesday too. So the backup plan was Ben's sister Gina. She wasn't concerned with colds, so I was going to drop the boys at her house for the morning to play with their cousins while we talked details at the Farmhouse. THAT went to crap when Ellis was up puking all night Tuesday. So we decided to have Ben do the walk through and I would just have to trust him with the lighting plans. THAT went to crap when Greg texted at 8:00 Wednesday morning to let me know the meeting moved to 11:00. I seriously wonder why I even try to plan ahead sometimes! This ended up working out great, because it gave Ben a chance to sleep in. He was a gem and took the nighttime puke shift. Once he was awake at 1:00 am there was no going back to sleep for him anyways, thanks to his day (night) job. I moved to the couch after Ellis finally crashed with Ben in our bed around 2:30. They both woke up at 10:30 and Ellis was like a new kid.

Precious. This is two sheets and four pairs of pj's later.

We decided to take the boys along so we could both be at the house. Good thing, really. Turns out we have some opposing ideas for lighting. It was chaotic, yes. The boys both ended up covered in mud. And I mean covered. Like tripped and landed in the puddles. Like boots got stuck and one of Greg's guys had to help me get one of Ellis' back. It sure takes a village.

Oh Colter...I don't even know what to say.

He sure is happy, and Ben is clearly amused.

Solving the world's problems. I mean the Farmhouse electrical problems.

Even though I'm sure we missed some details, I do have the peace of mind knowing that Ben can add an outlet at the drop of a hat. At least he used to be able to before there were hundreds of competing priorities. I remember one time in Zeeland I mentioned that it would be nice to have an outlet in one corner of the basement. Before I knew it, he had delivered. Ben, my electrical genie. Don't worry, he was trained by his dad, a true electrical engineer.

It's starting to come together. We really need to make work of deciding on light fixtures, flooring, and paint colors. We have a lot of tiling to do, a ton of painting to do, and we can't do any of it very well until we have some heat. Hopefully HVAC guys are coming back next week. Please pray with us for a wise decision here. The existing house runs on a boiler system which currently works, but obviously nobody knows for how long. The addition will be fueled by a new furnace and AC unit. This AC unit will apparently work for the other bedrooms as well, and right now we are not worried about keeping the downstairs cool. Greg told us on Wednesday that he's getting a quote for new HVAC service throughout. It likely makes sense to just bite the bullet and replace everything now while the house is in a state of disaster anyways. This would provide peace of mind and more efficient heat, while also allowing us to pull out all of the old radiators which, I'm not going to lie, would be an aesthetic bonus. However, it comes at a steep cost, so we just want to make sure we ultimately make the best choice for the house, our family, and our emergency fund. Actually, it would probably come out of Ben's tractor fund.

What we look like coming home from the Farmhouse. This clay is no joke.

Occasionally helpful big brother

Gross. And so much fun.

Rainy 60 degree Sunday splashing through the flooded front yard of the rental. Time of their lives.