the Latest..

SOME photos from this post got lost.

Although it may seem I havent made much progress, dont forget I work full time!!  Wish I had something other than WORK to share but thats all I seem to be doing lately...as the work continues on The Old House.  The weather will soon come into play since Spring is normally short in these parts we go right into HOT...really hope to get a lot of the outdoor work done before it turns so hot...

meanwhile I will enjoy working outside while its spring..

The project house 

It took a while but we finally evicted the family of squirrels that was living in the porch attic...and the pack rat from the tool shed! HE was up in the rafters...what a messy nest... I didnt get any photos of those pesky critters but we relocated all safely. 

I removed the awnings on the end of the porch because the wood underneath was water damaged, and bad.

 and that is where the squirrels chewed their way in, so with that removed we put back new wood.  I dont plan to put that awning back up...

We peeled the screen wire back its going to be removed and the porch uprights painted, then new screening

I was thinking of making awnings from some of the redwood scraps I have and corregated acrylic roof panels instead of the metal...that way water can't blow in when it rains and yet light can get in....SO that's next on the list AFTER we finish painting the entire roof overhang and the porch itself!

This is how it came out.

 I think it would give a more modern look to the old tired porch

I had to get WAY up there to paint his gable end...the fascia board, and soffet Im learning these new terms...this gable end is done, that was hard!! THERE's 2 more gable's to do one involves getting UP on the roof again...not looking forward to that.

(The gable ends are the high peaks) 

Got a sunburn for my trouble, tomorrow I'll be on the shady side I hope!

I sprayed the English Ivy it seems to be dying, I have more to spray I wanted to see if it would work, it took about 3 weeks to start dying.  The label says it only kills what you spray it on, so I have to move some things before I spray the rest...

Meanwhile my annual flower seeds have sprouted and soon they will be ready to plant in the yard! I save plastic food containers that have lids to start my seeds, the Zinna seeds sprouted in 3 days! The lettuce is also up...

AND i found this unique  junk shop buy, a tiered unit that cost all of $5...its very sweet looking!

Tiered shelf unit right side corner  

I do hope to get in a waterfall hike sometime in May, around the 10th if all goes as planned...and thanks to all of your well wishes to my Mom she is much improved and watching her favorite Western Shows as I type this!!  That makes me HAPPY!!:o)

So that's what Ive been up to lately!

PEACE

A new Door Opens!

I know I should be doing a year end wrap up post, but dang what a bummer that would be. Instead of talking about what I did; I'm gonna talk about what Im gonna do.  I had a difficult year.  It did end well though and I just have to get my head around "what's next". 

So I ended up buying my x's share of the old place, its right next door to where I LIVE now.  We had already split the land up between us and my Mom and I had added to my Mom's house and am living here..but I just didnt want to let go of that land next door so I traded 4 acres of wooded land for some cash and added a bit to it and now I own the old place...its in bad shape but it can be made nice.  NOW The big question is WHAT TO DO WITH IT? I  could sell it and have it moved off the land....or tear it down and sell it for salvage,  or rent it out or just keep it for my son...

I showed you the house in snow in my last post, here it is in summer..

SO now the clean up will start, 13 yrs of neglect to erase and spruce up and on my beer budget that means a LOT OF DIY projects.  Im no stranger to hard work...but dang Im getting up there in age and although we all like to think we can keep right on doing what we did at 40 at 60 but the truth is WE CANT!!

So anyway....the first order is to tear down the old tool shed it had a potting shed on one end, and its all too rotten to replace so I plan to tear it down, salvage what I can of the timber and tin and use that to start roofing over the old barn.  The backside of the barn has a 3 ft x 24 ft area that was used to store feed and hay when we had horses, so that will become the new tool shed for the big stuff...I plan to add a lean-to shed at the back for the lawn equipment...and KEEP the barn stalls for critters that I plan to adopt!

NOW Ive made some progress, I tore the old roof off the barn a couple yrs ago, and Ive been keeping the pasture mowed so most of that brush is gone...

Before ....

after...

Now even the old rafters are gone, I took those off on a different weekend...so this old block barn is 24 x 18 feet it has 2 barn stalls with a wall separating the two stalls, and a wall separating the storage area from the stalls.. It will cost less to put a roof on this old barn than to start over building a new tool/storage shed.

I moved my martin houses back to the middle of the field and I am very hopeful I will get martins since the neighbors who used to house the colony sold their house and they took the martin houses with them! SO When that colony returns they will find their home is GONE..but mine is right across the road SO I hope to get all sorts of new life into this old house! 

I hope to include some of these projects in the blog, as time goes on... so stand by for more...

in 2013 !!

PEACE