Another Friday mystery for you.
This arrived at the farm last week.
Once again, it’s up to you to figure out what this is. Leave your answer in the comments and tune in next week for the answer.
Wishing everyone a great long weekend. Happy Canada Day! And to my U.S. readers, happy early 4th of July.
If you’ve been following along for a little while with our renovation saga, you’re familiar with some of the lighting that we started with in the basement: ceiling fixtures mounted on the walls, a ceiling fan recessed up into the joists. As you can probably imagine, I have a bit of a need for new lighting.
With the Barn Light Electric giveaway making the rounds of the blogosphere, I saw an opportunity.
Once I was browsing the web site, however, I was seduced. I was sidetracked. I decided I can live with bare bulbs and pigtails in the basement.
But I absolutely positively cannot any longer live with this.
The green and brass and faux wood ceiling fan in the living room.
Wouldn’t this be a fun replacement?
We have a beautiful big living room with lots of natural light, wonderful vaulted ceiling, great rustic beams and a stone fireplace (that admittedly could use a bit of work). In the middle of all that, we have a huge, horrific green ceiling fan.
This is never appropriate.
Barn Lighting has tonnes of great options that will satisfy my need for a pretty, polished, traditional aesthetic that’s in keeping with our rustic country setting. We have an actual barn on this property. We should choose a company with “barn” in its name.
Once I was focused on the main floor, it was easy to line up other lighting options.
Mystic Seaport Chandelier (in dark brass) to replace a distinctly non-country chandelier in the dining room.
Two Mayfield Semi-Flush Ceiling Lights (in old bronze) to replace a pair of unfortunate boob lights in the hallway
School House Pendant “The Brevard” (also in a bronze finish) to replace a flush mount fixture over the island in the kitchen–a pendant is much more appropriate and will balance the space nicely.
While I need the Outer Banks Chandelier for the living room, I just want the Halstead Semi-Flush Ceiling Light. I’d put it in my sewing room to replace yet another boob light.
Or I’d put it in the bathroom to replace a weirdly located globe that’s straight out of 1989.
Halstead is not really country and it’s definitely not rustic, but oh it’s pretty.
Do you have some lighting needs of your own? There’s still time to enter the Barn Light Electric giveaway.
The contest ends Monday, July 2, 2012. If you don’t have a blog, but do have need of beautiful lighting you can still enter. Find out how by reading the Official Rules.
Playing catch in the backyard is one of the joys of summer.
Batting practice in the hayfield is one of the joys of summer at the farm.
With a mowed field and no neighbour’s windows nearby, the farm takes baseball practice to a whole new level.
Of course, with only two people and a big field, the pitcher/basewoman/outfielder gets a workout.
Our baseball team plays tonight. We’ll see if all of our practice pays off.
What’s your favourite summer sport?
As neat as it would have been to find an old newspaper hidden in the wall–as we’ve heard other renovators have–that was not the case for us.
The answer to last week’s guessing game, if you haven’t already guessed from the title of this post, is that the “antique newspaper” is wallpaper that graced the walls in the basement.
I work in communications. I appreciate good journalism. However, graphics of old newspapers pasted onto my wall are not good journalism.
While the wallpaper trend in decor shows no signs of going away, this particular pattern is not in keeping with our decor vision for the basement. The newspaper wallpaper was going away.
In my experience, removing wallpaper goes one of two ways. You either spend hours and hours scraping with a trowel only to have it come off in teeny tiny chips approximately the size of your smallest fingernail, or you smoothly peel the paper away a few minutes after you spritzed it with hot water.
Over the years, I’ve tried a variety of scrapers and scorers, tools and techniques, chemicals and solutions. I’ve suffered burns from heavy steamers and patched pock-marked walls when the wallpaper peeled away the paper on the drywall.
You never know how your paper is going to come off until you start trying to remove it. Fortunately for me, our newspaper wallpaper came off very easily. Fortunately for you, I’m going to share my method.
Unfortunately for some of you likely, this is not a tutorial of how to remove stubborn wallpaper. This is how to remove wallpaper that’s a single layer, has been installed correctly and isn’t sticking like bubblegum to the wall.
If your wallpaper has an attachment disorder, you have my sympathies. My best advice is to keep going and remember you can fix the divots and tears afterwards. Drywall compound is your friend.
Here is my very simple chemical-free method for stripping wallpaper. First, assemble your tools.
There is nothing fancy here. You need a scraper or trowel, a bucket and a sponge. Optional equipment is a spray bottle and gloves. If you’re working in a nicely finished area as opposed to a gutted basement, you’ll likely also want a tarp or a sheet to protect your floors.
Fill your bucket and spray bottle with hot water. You don’t need to boil the kettle. I find hot tap water works just fine. Just make sure to run the water for a few minutes until you have truly hot water.
Here’s what I started with. Just a small wall covered with wallpaper.
The easiest method I’ve found for removing wallpaper is a two-step approach.
Start by soaking your paper using either your sponge or the spray bottle. Just like drywall compound is your friend after the wallpaper is removed, water is your friend during the removal. Start at the top of the wall and work your way down. The water will drip and run down the wall, but making sure the paper is fully saturated will make your life easier in a few minutes.
Once you’ve completely soaked the wallpaper from top to bottom, find a seam and use your trowel or your fingernails to grab an edge. Peel back the paper.
You can let the water soak in for a little while, but I usually find at this stage I can go right from soaking to peeling without delay.
You’ll likely notice that when you peel off the paper you are only removing the outer layer, the one with the pattern printed on it. There is still a second layer that is stuck to the wall. Do not despair. Remember this is a two-step process.
Once you’ve removed the outer layer, your next job is to–surprise!–tackle the inner layer. This is the part of the paper that’s actually adhered to the wall. The patterned side of wallpaper often has a glossy or smooth finish on it that prevents the water from fully soaking into the paper and reaching the glue that’s holding the paper on the wall. By removing the outer layer first, you can then fully soak the inner layer and (hopefully) easily loosen the glue.
The left shows one panel of the outer layer removed. The right shows the inner layer after I’ve spritzed it with my spray bottle of hot water.
Again, you want to saturate the paper that’s on the wall. Don’t be shy with your spray bottle. Just like before, start at the top and work your way down. I usually find it helpful to let the paper sit for a few minutes to let the water fully absorb. Then, go to work with your scraper.
Catch an edge on the wallpaper. This time, instead of pulling the paper off by hand, let your trowel do the work.
Scrape with your trowel. I usually try to keep my trowel at a fairly shallow angle–less than 45 degrees off the wall. This allows me to easily get under the paper and scrape it smoothly off the wall.
If the water has done its work, the paper should scrape off the wall fairly easily.
Apply more water as you need to to keep the paper peeling off easily. I like to spray a large area so that it can soak while I’m working on another section.
Halfway there
Once you have scraped all of the paper, wipe the wall with your wet sponge. You’ll find small shreds of paper and a film of glue left behind. The remaining pieces of paper will usually come off with a few swipes of your sponge. Go over the wall a couple of times to remove as much of the glue as possible. Before you paint, you may want to consider washing the wall with TSP, just to make sure there’s no residue.
At this point, you should have a nice clean wallpaper-less wall.
The after.
And a pile of paper on the floor.
I get a lot of satisfaction from seeing the wallpaper on the floor instead of on the wall.
Even if your wallpaper came off with minimal effort, you may have a few spots on the wall that need smoothing out afterwards with drywall compound. In my experience, wallpaper can hide a lot of lumps and bumps. Remember, drywall compound is your friend.
Now, some of you may be wondering why I’m spending time stripping wallpaper when we don’t even have walls in the rest of the basement. Shouldn’t I be hanging drywall instead of flitting around with a spray bottle? The answer is probably yes, but I do have two good reasons for focusing on the wallpaper now:
So, here concludes my method for stripping wallpaper. Anyone else have a method they’d like to share? Or any tips? A lot of people have horror stories of stripping stubborn wallpaper. Feel free to share your saga in the comments. We will commiserate with you.
A Friday mystery for you.
We found this at the farm.
Now you have to figure out what it is.
Take your best guess. Leave your answer in the comments.
Next week, I will reveal all.
We have hay!
I’m definitely not a farmer, even though I live on a farm. However, I think I have an instinct for this country thing.
A week ago I was showing you photos of hay growing in the field and saying that I thought harvest was imminent. It turns out, I was right!
Last Friday night I came home from work to see that all of the fields had been mowed.
Here’s the scene from the big field, which you saw last week.
Saturday work began to get the hay out of the fields and into a more useable form.
First step is drying the hay.
This tractor came through around midday and “stirred” the hay. In my ongoing attempts to show you as much of the farm as possible, I took pictures of each haying stage in different fields. This is the “field behind the drive shed” (official name).
After this, the hay was strewn all over the field. Good for drying. Not so good for baling.
Early evening, this tractor (and the really cool pinwheel attachment he’s towing) combed the hay into long mounds. Now we’re in the front field.
I thought we might be done for the day, but nope. (Maybe my instincts aren’t so good). A little while later, the baler showed up.
The baler scoops up the hay and little elves inside that big red box spin it into a huge bale. (What do you think about my farming know-how now?) My sense of direction is still working though. We’re now in the corner field.
Once the elves are done their work, they wrap the bale in a web of green mesh, and then the magic door opens and the baler spits out the bale.
These round hay bales are huge up close. They’re about 5 feet in diameter and really, really solid. And when they first come out of the baler, they’re warm too! (We’re still in the corner field).
By Sunday morning, we had five fields full of big round hay bales. (We actually have six fields total, but one–the far front field–is in rehab, so nothing’s growing there this year).
Here’s the scene from the back field.
The saying goes “make hay while the sun shines.” For the farmer who rents our fields, I think he follows the motto “make hay while the sun shines, as the sun sets, and by tractor light.”
Baling lasted well beyond sunset. We’re back in the field behind the drive shed now.
Perhaps our farmer’s instincts are better than mine though. When I would have quit and come back tomorrow for baling, he finished it all in one night. And early Sunday morning when the rain started, the hay was tucked nice and tight in its bales, protected from the precipitation.
One thing I do know about farming is it’s incredibly hard work. I’m happy to enjoy the sights of the harvest from the side of the field.
Our blue-eyed babies in the roses.
Imagine walking in your front door after a long day at work and seeing one of these grey fluff balls bounding towards you, completely overjoyed that you’re home.
Imagine sitting on the couch, a warm ball of kitten curled up beside you.
This could be your reality.
I love tummy rubs. Here, I’ll make it easy for you.
If not for yourself, then for your children. The school year is winding down. They’ve been working really hard. They deserve a reward. Just think of the lessons in responsibility they will learn from caring for a kitten over the summer. Never mind all the fun they’ll have playing with their new furry friend.
The kittens are six weeks old, and adoption proceedings are now beginning. We have three girls and one boy. They’re all light grey. And they are all free to good homes.
If you’re interested in a kitten, please let me know at homeon129acres@hotmail.com.
In a true blend of the rustic and the fine, a big hedge of bright red roses has grown up at the front of the barn.
The big bushes edge the whole side of the bank, spilling over the old timbers stacked on the ramp.
Anyone have any tips on caring for roses? These seem to be doing just fine on their own, but I’d like to make sure their gorgeousness continues.
Up until this past weekend, we hadn’t really cut the grass at the farm yet this year.
Yes, we are those neighbours.
A few weeks ago, Matt ran around the house a few times with our push mower until it ran out of gas, but that was it.
Things were starting to look a bit unkempt.
And then last week, Wiley arrived.
Sunday, we fired him up and got busy.
First up, Matt and Wiley moved a pile of lumber up to the barn.
Matt and I have done a couple of walk-abouts recently picking up wood and sticks and rocks so that Wiley doesn’t hit anything and damage his blades. We still kept his mower really high, and I did all of the edging with our old push mower so that Wiley didn’t have to get too close to anything that might hurt him.
Yes, the grass was a little long–so long that we can probably bale the clippings on the driveway and Matt had to raise the bucket to see where he was cutting.
I’ve learned that the term “lawn” doesn’t really apply on such a large property. Grass cutting is more of a question of “Where do I stop?”
Matt and Wiley mowing the meadow down by the road.
Wiley is a good little worker. He cut grass, moved stumps and logs and even gave me a ride in the bucket.
Of course, his driver pretended he was going to tip me out of the bucket, but that wasn’t Wiley’s fault.
Once Wiley was done his work, Matt and his Dad went to work with their matching weed whackers and continued the battle to beat back the invading horde. There’s a manifest destiny thing going on in the fields, and the hay is definitely looking to expand its territory.
The property looks a little more groomed, and I feel like we’re making headway in tidying up the outdoors. Well done, Wiley and Matt.
This weekend it’s my turn to drive. Wiley better get ready.
What’s your mode of mowing? Anyone out there muscling along with a reel mower? Or are you a weed-whacking wizard?
It turns out that one thing that can cause a traffic jam on a country road faster than a slow-moving tractor or a run-away cow is the start of strawberry season.
Ruby red strawberries just waiting to be picked.
Friday afternoon, a farm near us opened for business.
A lot of people had the same reaction that I did. “That sign said strawberries!” Hard brake, sharp turn, park the car immediately. “I have to pick my own? No problem. No, don’t worry about my pretty office shoes. Shall I just pick them into my purse, or can you sell me a basket?”
Mmmm… strawberries for dinner.
Yesterday morning, I decided to stop in before work. This time I was a little more prepared. I wore my rubber boots and brought my own baskets.
What a nice way to start the morning
The scent in the air is amazing–pure strawberry sweetness.
In no time at all I had a full basket to share with people at the office. Yum!
Have you ever gone strawberry picking? What’s your favourite way to enjoy strawberries? Any good recipes to share?
Home on 129 Acres 