Our new summer project

Posted on July 11, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Last week I mentioned that we’ve added a new summer project to our to-do list. Unfortunately this project is driven by a problem. You got a bit of a glimpse of the problem in this photo that I shared on Friday.

This is the drywall in the long room in the basement. And in case there’s any confusion, it’s not supposed to look like this.

We’ve had water issues off and on ever since we finished the basement. This spring was the worst.

In the unfinished space just beside the long room, this was the scene. Water seeping in at the joint where the foundation wall met the concrete slab.

We surmise that this happened along the whole wall, including in the finished area. The baseboard swelled and stained. The carpet was damp. And behind the baseboard mold grew.

We had some water-proofing contractors come in a few weeks ago and give us quotes to fix the problem. Work starts today. So our formerly finished long room now looks like this. And it’s about to get worse.

With the drywall removed the studs don’t look too bad. Yes there’s mold, but it doesn’t go too high on the wall, and the wood isn’t rotted at all. Even so, I’m not sure much of this will be salvaged, as our contractors are doing the waterproofing from the inside.

The other area of focus outside of the long room is the cold cellar. The cold cellar is an addition, and when it was added, the concrete floor was poured just up to the old footings. In the spring or even on rainy days, the whole perimeter of the cold cellar leaks.

This area isn’t as worrisome, as it’s unfinished, but nonetheless we’d rather not have water in the house at all.

Our contractor is also going to redo our sump pump pit and put in a two new pumps–one on a battery back-up. During a power outage in one big storm this spring, Matt bailed the sump pit for four hours. We’d prefer not to repeat this situation… or worry about the power going out if we’re not home.

Waterproofing is one of those projects that I’m not super excited about. Cutting into our drywall was a bit heartbreaking after all of the work we put into finishing the basement in the first place. Plus it’s a lot of money just to get us back to where we were when we first finished the basement.

However, it’s a very important project. Knowing that this is our forever home, we want this problem solved.

Have you ever waterproofed your basement? Do you have any water leaks?

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Guess what?

Posted on July 8, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

On Monday I alluded to a new project happening in our basement this summer.

I’ll be sharing details next week.

In the mean time, any guesses to what it might be?

Update and a new adventure in Illinois

Posted on July 6, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Sarah in Illinois is back today with a bunch of updates on what’s happening at their home. Hint: some new additions are on the horizon.

This may be a disjointed post. I had been working on a project, and I thought I would be done before I had to send this week’s post, but it didn’t turn out how I had planned. (Argh. So frustrating when that happens, Sarah.) I will be sure to include why it didn’t work and I had to regroup in a future post.

This post will be a little bit of an update and share what I have in the works.

Kittens

As of when I am writing this, the black kitten has been reserved and the tiger-stripe is still waiting for a new home. The mother cat has been to the vet and spayed so I will not have to be in this situation again.

The cutting garden

There are about a half dozen different varieties of flowers that are growing. Right now the only one ready to cut is the zinnias.

Future posts

I hinted in one of my comments a while back that I am getting chickens! My neighbor has been raising several chicks and offered four of them to me. They will not be ready to lay until about September, but I can get them as soon as I have a secure place for them.

So my free time has been spent reading and reading about chickens and working on making a secure coop for them. I have never had or really even been around chickens so this is all a new learning experience.

Some of the books I have been reading include (not affiliate links):

Backyard Chickens: the beginner’s guide to raising and caring for backyard chickens by Rashelle Johnson
Barnyard in Your Backyard: A Beginner’s Guide to Raising Chickens, Ducks, Geese, Rabbits, Goats, Sheep, and Cattle by Gail Damerow
The Mini Farming Bible: The Complete Guide to Self-Sufficiency on ¼ acre by Brett L. Markham
Dirty Chick: Adventures of an Unlikely Farmer by Antonia Murphy

I think I am ready to start this adventure. I have been told that I am overthinking everything and that chickens are a lot easier than I am making it out to be. I hope so! I will be sure to post about my adventure and in the meantime, any advice would be appreciated.

Cute kitten, pretty posies and exciting news–this worked out to be a post after all, Sarah. Congratulations on the chickens. I confess, I’ll probably take the same approach as you when it comes time to add birds to our farm. Your forethought just might make you a more successful chicken farmer.

Having grown up with backyard chickens, my best advice is to make sure to collect the eggs a couple of times a day. We got a bit lazy and our hens started eating their eggs. That was a hard habit to break!

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Home Goals 2016 mid-year report

Posted on July 4, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Six months ago, I shared my Home Goals for 2016. We just crossed the halfway point of the year, so it’s time for my mid-term report.

Beyond sharing my Home Goals, I also started the year by sharing some of my ideas for the major renovation that we want to do… someday. And the first goal on the list was to get an idea of how much the reno is going to cost to help us figure out when that someday might be.

We consulted with a contractor, got some feedback on our plans and got some numbers. They’re big numbers… as in not any time soon numbers… but it was helpful to give us an idea of where we’re at.

In terms of specific projects, here are the rest of our goals.

Guest room

The guest room was our first project of the year, and I’ve already done the official “reveal,” so I’m feeling pretty good about crossing this project off. However, there’s one task left on my original to-do list, which has also made it onto my summer to-do list.

~~Paint the walls and trim~~
~~Replace the light fixture~~
~~Make window treatments~~
~~Refinish the desk chair~~
Strip the paint off the metal bedframe (and maybe repaint)
~~Decorate and personalize~~

Finish the basement

The basement was essentially finished a looong time ago. However, those niggly finishing details are still hanging around. Plus, we have two new summer projects, one that you know about and one that you don’t yet. (I’ll be talking more next week about things that are going to affect our basement progress).

Trim around the cold cellar doorway
Finish the built-in storage area in Matt’s bathroom
Make/buy art to finish off the space
~~Build shelving in the closet under the stairs~~
NEW Build a new closet in the basement
NEW Mystery project (more to come next week)

Furniture

I’m always on the hunt for a few key pieces of furniture. So far this year, I’ve found one piece–the china cabinet for my office–but it’s still awaiting its makeover.

~~China cabinet for my office~~
Coffee table for the living room
Reupholster slipper chair for my office

Vegetable garden

My all-consuming summer project every year has become the vegetable garden. Thanks to Dueling DIY this spring, the garden is in really good shape.

~~Hang the gate~~
~~Edge the garden~~
~~Build raised beds around the perimeter~~
~~Build trellises for the raspberries, tomatoes and squashes~~
~~Plant perennials: grapes, asparagus, rhubarb, more raspberries~~
Run a waterline out to the garden
NEW Spread hay mulch over the garden

Outdoor clean-up

I ambitiously added another outdoor goal to the list, although I realized I’d have to pick my battles in terms of which area I chose to clean up.

Thanks to a bit of distraction at the start of the garden Dueling DIY, I’ve cleaned up the large lumber pile on the north side of the centre field and burned the long grass and weeds on the south side of the garden. Matt’s been mowing the burn, and it almost looks like a real lawn already.

I’m feeling pretty good about what we’ve accomplished so far. Work on a farm never ends, but I love seeing the progress we’ve made.

How are things going at your house? Do you feel like you’re making progress on your goals?

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Happy Canada Day!

Posted on July 1, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Today, I and my fellow Canadians are celebrating our country’s 149th birthday.

I’m also celebrating because I’m a new contributor to homify.ca. homify is a new online platform for housing and construction. The goal of the site is to connect architects, designers, builders–all of the professionals you need–with house and apartment owners.

My first homify.ca post is appropriately Canadian: ideas to incorporate a bit of Canadiana into your home decor.

(I totally want this eh! pillow for my house).

Source: Samphire Bay

To my fellow Canadians, happy Canada Day. To my American readers, happy almost Fourth of July. No matter what nationality you are, happy weekend, everyone!

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Garden at the end of June

Posted on June 29, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Much progress has been made on the garden. You might notice in the photo above that we have a gate! And it’s not just propped in place. It’s actually on hinges, and it swings and everything. It’s only been 10 months since I built the gate. Not at all unreasonable to wait that long to fully protect the garden, right?

Inside, things are slowly filling in. I’m trying to remind myself to be patient and things will grow… eventually.

Let me take you on a tour of around our garden as it’s growing right now.

Quadrant one is our most well-established. It is home to five rows of potatoes–three red, one Kennebec and one Russian Blue. Although I really could have done two Russian Blues given how many we had and how much space there is in this quadrant. There are also three zucchini plants. Then in the perimeter beds there are onions, beets, carrots and a selection of herbs.

I’m a bit disappointed in the onions. They are spindly, some of the ends are brown, and I’m not confident that they’re going to size up. But I keep watering them and sowing new rows for my attempt at succession planting. (The beets in the background are doing excellent, however).

Quadrant two is bordered by our perennial crops: raspberries, grapes and asparagus. The middle is empty however, and we don’t have plans to plant anything here. One of the things I’ve realized is that we can only handle so much with this large vegetable garden.

The asparagus isn’t that much farther along than the onions, but I’m beyond excited by it. I’m trying to grow asparagus from seeds, and I thought I wasn’t going to be successful. These seeds took so long to sprout. Almost three weeks. I thought it wasn’t going to happen. So these little tiny ferns are tremendous progress.

Quadrant 3 has a lot of growth, but not the kind I want. Welcome to weed central. Ugh. There are some watermelon seedlings in here, but I’m not sure they’ll last that much longer without some defense. The outside edge has our sunflowers which are growing incredibly.

Quadrant four is slightly better than weed central, but not by much. This is our first year planting this half of the garden, so it’s taking more effort to clear out the weeds on this side. In this quarter we have two rows of tomatoes (under the wood frames), one of peppers, one of beans and three more zucchini plants. The outer edge has some more herbs, more sunflowers and our hollyhocks.

You’ve caught glimpses of the centre axis already, but here’s the view that I’ve been working towards for the past two years. A long look between our two rows of raspberries, through the squash A-frame and out to the back fields.

On Monday I posted about vision. The vision for this vegetable garden has been a long time coming, but it’s oh so wonderful to see it come to life.

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Seeing it all come together… sometimes

Posted on June 27, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

When I finished the guest room makeover, I started thinking about vision. By that I mean having a vision for a space and seeing it come together.

I loooooove the guest room. And it was an easy makeover. For me, easy means two things:

I had it clear in my mind what I wanted the room to look like.
I was enthused to work on the room. The makeover didn’t stall out halfway.

If I contrast that with the master bedroom, it’s a bit of a different story. I still really like that room, but the makeover was a project that I didn’t really love. It dragged on and on and on. From picking a paint colour to building the headboard to sewing the curtains, I wasn’t sure what I wanted. I didn’t have a clear vision. And so the room felt like a chore.

I’m a very visual thinker. If I think back to my university days when I was studying, I could visualize a page in my notebook and remember what was written on that page. It’s definitely not a photographic memory, but it’s about seeing pictures in my mind.

My approach to home renovation is the same. Usually, I can see it in my mind–very clearly–what the room is going to look like in the end.

And when I do, that makes me excited about the project. It gives me energy to keep going and to make the picture in my mind a reality in my home.

Fortunately, I’ve been thinking about our forever home long enough and we’ve been living here long enough that I’ve been able to develop a pretty clear vision for most of the spaces–both inside and out–at the farm.

Now if there were just enough hours in the day (and money in the bank) to bring them all to life!

How do you approach home reno projects? Are you a visual person? What makes you excited about a makeover?

Peony victories and failures

Posted on June 24, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Our peonies were spectacular this year. After lots of transplanting and splitting in past seasons, each bush is getting more established, and we had a beautiful mix of fuscia, blush and white blooms.

I don’t usually do cut flowers, but after a bunch of the white peony blossoms proved too heavy for their stalks, I cut them and brought them inside.

I don’t do cut flowers because they quickly turn depressing on me. I’m not one to remember to refresh water or pamper my plants. So blooms wilt, stems droop and the flowers look more funereal than fabulous.

But with these peonies, I think I beat even my own record. One day–just one day–after bringing them in, a blossom shed every single one of its petals. I scooped the white flakes into the composter and carried on. Three more flowers disrobed the following day. At that point the whole bouquet–or the remains–went in the composter.

So lesson learned, I will focus on enjoying the peonies outside and refrain from any further florist failures.

And it’s Friday, so I will be spending a lot of time outside this weekend.

What do you have on tap for the weekend? Do you have any peonies either in your garden or in a vase at your house?

Wild raspberries in Illinois

Posted on June 22, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Sarah in Illinois is kicking off summer with a quintessential summer activity: a family berry-picking outing.

One of the perks of my husband being a farmer and spending long days driving around backroads and secluded fields is that he finds secret spots.

Like the best mushroom hunting spot. Or like one day this spring when he took us out into one of the fields that he was getting ready to plant and showed us an eagle’s nest. The nest was so very big. We waited for quite a while but never got to spot an eagle.

His latest secret spot came to us Friday.

When he got home he said, “Tomorrow we are going raspberry picking!” In years past when he would see that the raspberries or blackberries were nearing ripeness, we would wait too long and the birds got to them first. So this year Steve said we had to go and we had to go immediately.

Saturday after breakfast we rounded up ice cream buckets and baskets, picked up Steve’s mom and headed to the field.

I think we were still a little too early but we picked for at least two hours.

And believe it or not, after Julia posted about her run in with a turtle, we ran across one in the field.

We ended up bringing home enough raspberries to freeze 3 quarts.

We have given Steve instructions that as soon as he sees these blackberries begin to ripen to take us back! There were even more blackberries than raspberry vines!

What a great bounty of berries, Sarah! Strawberries have just started in our area, so we have a little while to go until the raspberries are ready. I can almost taste the sunwarmed berries when I look at your photos. Enjoy!

Summer to-do list

Posted on June 20, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Summer officially arrives this evening. While I have grand plans of sunshine and hammocks and hikes and gardens and lots of time outdoors, I also have a handful of projects that I’ve been saving up for my favourite season.

Build a closet in the basement

Our house has fabulous storage. However, none of it is a match for my husband. I’m not sure Matt’s office ever successfully contained all of his stuff. Over the winter I had a brainwave. Remove some of the cabinets that are tucked between the dryer and the freezer in the laundry room (they’re already filled with his stuff anyway) and replace them with a full height closet. I think I can just about triple his storage space. And it should be a pretty simple build with some basic framing, drywall, bi-fold doors and shelves.

Sand scrabble tiles

Source: insideways

One of my Home Goals for 2016 is adding some art to the basement. Going with our fun and games theme, I want to DIY some Scrabble tiles. I’ve had the wood cut for months. Months, I tell you. I just need to sand them and then paint the letters. Sanding sounds like a good way to enjoy some time outside in the sunshine, doesn’t it?

Strip paint off the guest room bed

The only thing missing from our beautiful guest room makeover is a proper bedframe. I have a great rustic metal frame in the barn, but the finish isn’t the greatest. I’m planning to strip it back to bare metal and see what it looks like. Paint stripping is an outdoor job IMO, so another good way to enjoy the outdoors.

Makeover office cabinet

Last week, you saw the china cabinet I’ve bought for my office and heard about my plans to rebuild the upper hutch. I’m so excited to have my office organized that I can’t wait to get started on this project. However, I have to put this lower down on the list, as other projects have been hanging around much longer. So this one’s a maybe summer project.

Puttering on some projects, keeping up with the gardens and relaxing on the farm. That’s my recipe for a good summer.

What’s your recipe? Do you have a summer to-do list? What are you looking forward to this season?