Smokey Hollow

Posted on October 3, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

This year’s birthday present is one of the most special gifts I’ve ever been given. Matt, my family and his parents all went in together to buy me a painting.

The painting is of a waterfall in the town where I grew up.

I hiked the trails around this waterfall and waded in this creek so many times. The waterfall doesn’t really have a name, but the whole gorge around it is called Smokey Hollow (which is also the name of the painting). I’ve heard a couple of explanations for the name Smokey Hollow. One is the mist from the waterfall made the hollow “smokey.” The second is literal smoke which came from all of the mills that used to be throughout the valley. In fact, the creek that runs over this waterfall is called Grindstone Creek.

Wherever the name came from, this is a beautiful spot that’s very special to me, and to have it memorialized in a painting was something that I couldn’t resist.

This was painted by a local artist named Brian Darcy. He paints nature and farms and the countryside. I could buy pretty much every one of his paintings.

This particular painting, I’ve wanted since I was in high school. It means so much that my family came together to give this to me.

Since we painted the living room and set up the bookcases on the opposite side of the room, we had a perfect wall for it.

Matt made all of the arrangements to buy the painting, but what made this extra special was that we actually got to meet Brian. We saw some of his works in progress and learned about his painting process and heard some of the story behind the Smokey Hollow painting.

He even gave us copies of a little study he did from the painting. Down in the bottom right corner on the shore of the creek, there’s a little cluster of pink wildflowers. Flitting around the flowers is a Swallowtail butterfly. Well, Brian took that scene and did a separate small little painting.

My family has known for a long time that I wanted this painting. Last year, my Mom went down to Smokey Hollow and took a picture for me. She had it printed and framed and gave it to me for my last birthday.

I still need to find the perfect place to hang this one. Since Smokey Hollow is such a special spot for me, I think I’m allowed to have two pictures of it.

Anyone else have a story of finally getting something you’ve waited a long time have? Do you have any mementos of where you grew up? Even though this was a gift, this is Matt’s and my first time spending any significant amount of money on art. I have to say I’m feeling pretty grown up about it. Have you invested in art?

One room challenge – Laundry room makeover

Posted on October 1, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I am so excited for October’s project. Remember back in September when I didn’t have a project on my to-do list and I took apart the laundry room? Well now it’s time to put it back together.

I’m even more excited for this makeover because I’m going to make the laundry room my part of the One Room Challenge.

Linda at Calling it Home created the ORC three years ago as a way to help people stay on track and finish a room. Over the next six weeks, a group of bloggers and a whole bunch of joiners like me will be making over one room. We’ll be posting weekly updates on our blogs. So it’s not all that different from how I’ve handled my other projects so far this year.

Now, I will admit that I’ve gotten a little bit of a head start on this challenge. I trimmed out the cabinet doors and painted them last month.

I wanted to complete the makeover in October, but I knew two weekends this month were booked for non-DIY activities. As a DIYer with a day job, I absolutely need my weekends if I’m going to finish this in one month.

Well, it turns out that the ORC gives me six weeks. So I’ll have a bit of a cushion.

The purpose of today’s post is to introduce my room and tell you my plan.

Everyone, meet the laundry room. Laundry room, meet everyone.

Here’s the part where the laundry room tells you a little bit about himself. We are very fortunate that we have a great space to start from (and yes, I took these photos after the makeover had already started–bad blogger). There is lots of counter space and built-in cabinets. We have a utility sink and our new (okay two-year-old) front loading washer and dryer. Even though we’re in the basement, we have a nice large window.

Now we redid the basement when we first moved to the farm. However, the makeover pretty much stopped at the edge of the laundry room. I scraped the stipple ceiling, took down the fluorescent light fixture, removed some posters that had been tacked to the front of the cabinets (why?) and that was it. Oh, except for our new washer and dryer (love you babies).

Since the room is open to the rest of the basement, I’d really like it to be as pretty as the rest of the basement. And right now, it’s not.

So this makeover is purely aesthetic, and I’m working with what is there in the laundry room already.

Here’s the vision:

Sources: Black and white cabinets, chrome cup pull, rustic drying rack, clothes pin chandelier

And here’s the plan:

~~Add shaker style trim to the cabinets~~
~~Paint the cabinets~~
~~Install doors and drawers~~
Remove ceiling rack – By Oct. 3
Patch ceiling and walls – By Oct. 3
Prime walls and paint ceiling – By Oct. 10
Paint and install baseboard and paint window trim – By Oct. 10
Deep clean (sink, counter, floor, machines) – Oct. 13 (Happy Thanksgiving Monday!)
Paint walls – By Oct. 17
Build and install ceiling rack – By Oct. 24
Build and install towel bar – By Oct. 24
Install cabinet hardware – By Oct. 24
Build and install light fixture – By Oct. 26
Decorate – By Oct. 31

Fourteen easy steps to laundry room bliss. Simple right?

Is anyone else doing the One Room Challenge? Do you find pretty laundry rooms as exciting as I do?

Bringing back the books

Posted on September 29, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I didn’t really have project this month, but I did say that I wanted my books back. That meant finishing the bookshelf makeover that I started in August.

You might recall that in my original photo you could barely see the bookshelves because they were painted such a dark brown (oh, and hidden behind boxes that have been packed for two and a half years).

Well, not anymore. Behold the view from the same angle.

Bright and white and, best of all, filled with books. Hello beloveds.

The bookshelves wrap the one corner of the living room and tuck behind the comfy lounging chair that I inherited from my grandmother.

I’m pretty happy with how things have come together. I know a lot of people struggle with styling bookshelves, and I’m no different. I’m decently satisfied with the middle section right now.

As always, the contents of the shelves have a lot of meaning for us. Besides the books we have some very special treasures.

The trophy is Matt’s grandma’s won for a school running race in 1935 when she was in high school, my dad made the small lidded wood pot on his lathe, and the hammer on the top right was a gift from my grandmother to Matt and unscrews to reveal decreasing sizes of screwdrivers. Towards the bottom, we have a brick I found in the backyard of our first house that has our city’s name stamped on it. Below that there’s a picture of Matt and me at Niagara Falls back when we first started dating, and beside that a miniature replica of Rodin’s The Kiss. (Rodin is our favourite sculptor. A miniature of The Thinker is on an adjacent shelf). The half naked man (or more accurately naked half man) was a high school art class project.

I want to tuck a few more knick knacks in some of the empty spaces, and I definitely need to get some bookends. I’ll continue to futz with the arrangement, but regardless of what things look like, I’m thrilled to have my books back.

Perhaps it’s because I had bookshelves on the brain, but as I was pulling my shelves together they seemed to be popping up on other blogs as well:

A wonderful sarcastic treatise from View Along the Way reminding us that bookshelves are for books
Another version of the corner bookcase from Cape 27 (found via Rambling Renovators)
Little Green Notebook’s super tall custom bookshelves. Talking about arranging bookshelves, Jenny’s are a great example. Nicely balanced, but not rigid or linear.
An alternative to the ubiquitous white bookshelves from Making it Lovely
Have you heard about the Year of Change? August’s project was to style bookshelves.

I cannot explain how thrilling it is to have my books back. I came across a few I’d forgotten I had and of course lots of old favourites. In fact the borrowed book that I was half-way through may have been set aside in favour of an old favourite. (I never do that. I’m always a one-book-at-a-time woman).

Plus, setting up the bookshelves gave us an excuse to paint some more of the living room and unpack about 16 boxes that had been piled in the corner. The room feels so much more finished! … Well, we’re still a long way from finished. At least it’s a little bit closer to the vision in my head.

How do you handle book storage at your house? Besides books, what’s on your bookshelves? Any tips on styling bookshelves? Who else is a one-book-at-a-time reader?

Liebster Award

Posted on September 26, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

A few weeks ago, I got a tweet from The Party Girl that they’d nominated me for a Liebster Award. Like most blogging awards, this one’s about spreading the love. I’m definitely feeling the love from Ashley, Fernanda and Victoria. Thanks ladies!

This post is also my chance to pass on the love. I have 11 nominees of my own a little further down.

Here are the rules for the Liebster Award:

post the award on your blog
thank the blogger who presented this award and link back to their blog
write 11 random facts about yourself
nominate 11 bloggers who you feel deserve this award and who have less than 250 followers
answer 11 questions posed by the nominator
ask your nominees 11 questions

You can see the number 11 figures prominently in the Liebster Award. So here we go.

11 facts about me

I’ve never broken a bone, had stitches or a cavity. But I’ve gotten nosebleeds since I was a child… in the winter I get them daily. Not fun.
I would gladly eat pizza for every meal. Lots of mushrooms, please.
I had long hair pretty much all my life, and then when I was 28 I cut it all off into a pixie cut, which I love. My hair is stick straight and won’t hold a curl. I’ve never dyed my hair.
I’m the oldest of four kids.
I can sleep for 12 hours straight and am happiest with 10 hours a night… although I hardly ever get it.
Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day.

French toast is good for dinner too.

I hate ironing, but I don’t mind washing dishes.
Easter is my favourite holiday. Even better than Christmas or my birthday.
I wear earrings everyday. My face looks funny without them.
My favourite music is 80s classic rock. And I love to listen to music while I cook.
I love junk food–candy, chocolate, Coke, chips. Salty always wins over sweet for me.

Answers to The Party Girls’ 11 questions

1. What’s the story behind your blog’s name?

I think my blog’s name is pretty self-explanatory. I write about our 129-acre farm and our efforts to make it our forever home.

2. What are you favourite blogs?

Oh there’s so many. Sticking with the 11 theme, I’m always happy when I see posts from DIY Diva, Yellow Brick Home, Little Green Notebook, IHeart Organizing, Young House Love (hope they come back to blogging), Smitten Kitchen, That Mutt, Manhattan Nest, For the love of a house, Amanda’s Adventures in Sewing, and Four Square Walls in my feedly.

3. Where were you born and where did you grow up?

I was born and grew up in a small-ish town in southern Ontario about an hour west of Toronto. One of the requirements of our perfect farm was that it be in the same area as my hometown. Matt and I now live just a half hour away from where we grew up.

4. Do you like to travel? What’s your favourite place you’ve been to?

I like to travel, but since buying the farm I’ve become a real homebody (farmbody?). For our honeymoon, Matt and I went to Costa Rica, and it was amazing. Body surfing in the ocean, horseback riding up a mountain, zip-lining through the forest and swimming in a river in the middle of the jungle were experiences I’ll never forget.

5. What do you love about blogging?

I love having a record of the life we’re building on our farm. Sometimes it’s easy to get discouraged by the amount of work needed for the house and the property. Looking back at my blog reminds me that we’ve actually made progress and how special it is to live here.

6. What is the number one thing you’d like to get out of your blog?

It’s been really cool to connect with people who share my interest in renovating, country living and of course doggies. I hope that continues.

7. What’s one thing you’ve always wished you knew how to do?

It’s a toss up. I have always wished I knew how to dance. I love to dance, and I do it whenever I get a chance. However, I’m not super coordinated, and I’m always jealous of those who are. I also wish I could drive standard. Matt had a standard car, and let me try a few times. I didn’t practice enough to get really proficient, though.

8. What is your favourite post from your blog?

Oh I don’t know what to say. I went through my archives of 416 published posts and I can’t pick. I love everything in the family category, my before and afters, and projects like my nightstands-to-dresser and my barrel-to-ottoman. A post that stands out for me is an early one from a month after we moved into the farm. We had just started the basement reno (oh, if only we knew it would be 9 months before our basement would resemble a basement again), and we’d removed the woodstove that had been in the basement. This was the first moment that I realized I could write funny. I didn’t know I could do that. (At least I think it’s funny).

9. What is one lesson you’ve learned since starting your blog?

My blog has taught me how easy it is to “work” on something that you love. Writing three posts a week for going on three years is not a small commitment, but I love doing it.

10. What’s your favourite movie and why?

Thomas Crown Affair with Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo. Humour, mystery, adventure, love and a happy ending. Plus, Rene Russo is a super strong female with a great wardrobe.

11. What are you reading right now?

The Next Best Thing by Jennifer Weiner. My favourite books have likeable characters and a happy ending. I’m not sure yet that this one fits the requirements. Regardless, spending 10 minutes with a book while I eat my breakfast cereal is a nice way to start the day.

My 11 nominees

11 questions for my nominees

What is one lesson you’ve learned since starting your blog? (Yes, I copied Party Girl)
Describe your ideal weekend.
Would you rather wash dishes or do the laundry?
Are you crafty? What’s your craft of choice? If you’re not crafty, what do you wish you knew how to do?
What’s one post we’ll never see on your blog?
Who would play you in the movie about your life?
What colour have you considered painting a room in your house but haven’t had the guts?
What advice would you give someone who’s just started blogging?
If you were on an island and could only bring three things, what would you bring?
What was the last gift you gave someone?
What has surprised you about blogging?

And for another 11, this post is now longer than 1,100 words. Time to stop typing and hear from you. Pick a couple of the 22 questions in this post and share your answer. Or weigh in with random fact about yourself.

Transplanting season

Posted on September 24, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

In case you missed it, fall is here. (The autumn tablescapes, fall home tours and Hallowe’en decorations proliferating the blogosphere are a big clue. We bloggers appear to have trouble living in the moment). Anyways, we’re officially into fall. And it’s official transplant season.

Now I have to confess that I got a bit of a head start this year. I transplanted peonies back in August, and a couple of weeks ago Matt and I moved a few trees around.

I generally pay little attention to gardening timelines. With our gardens in the state they’re in, if I wait until the “right” time to move my plants it will take me decades to get things where I want them.

You’ve seen that we have lots of peonies spread all over the property. My mission this year was to move a few of them into the gardens I’ve established.

I don’t profess to being any type of transplanting expert.

My usual technique is to try to keep as much of the soil around the plant intact as possible. Of course, the first peony I dug up was surrounded by weeds, and I had to hack at the roots to get rid of everything non-peony. If you’re curious, here’s what peony roots look like.

The other thing I’ve learned over the years is to not replant the plants too deep. Transplanting makes it easy because I just keep them at the same level they were.

The other component of my not-at-all-scientific transplant process is to water the heck out of them. I remember when I first started gardening I read an article that recommended aiming for “quagmire”-like wetness. So far, September has been pretty rainy, so we have had plenty of help keeping up the quagmire factor, although we have supplemented with hoses and buckets as needed.

We have a few more trees and bushes yet to move before fall gets too far along. Oh and bulbs to plant. Don’t forget to do those too. The transplanting PSA just never stops.

Are you doing any transplanting this fall? Do you have any transplanting tips?

Golden beans

Posted on September 22, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I know, I know. In the story the eggs are gold and the beans are magic. But in our case, it’s our beans that are turning gold.

This is our first time growing soybeans, so we’re learning as we go. It turns out that as the beans ripen, the plants turn yellow.

The pods are plump and fuzzy.

Inside, we have actual beans. Edamame anyone?

In other fields in the area, where the beans are a bit older, the plants have gone past gold and are all the way brown. I still have no idea how far away we are from harvest time. We’re continuing to learn about this farming thing.

Is it harvest time where you live? Do you like edamame?

Dreaming in front of a crackling fire

Posted on September 19, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

A couple of Saturdays ago, while my father-in-law and Matt assembled some deer stands with Baxter’s help…

I took advantage of the log splitter my FIL had brought with him and cleaned up some firewood that had been lying around.

Never mind that we still don’t have a working fireplace. Tree management is ongoing here.

In the category of wishful thinking, let’s take a minute and talk about this fireplace, though, shall we?

I have always wanted a wood burning fireplace. When we moved to our little house in the city, the fireplace in my parents’ family room was one of the things I missed most. Redoing our fireplace has been on my list since we moved in. But it’s been delayed due to finances.

We discovered quickly that making the fireplace what I envisioned wasn’t going to be as easy as we thought. I wanted to pop out the insert so that we had a beautiful open hearth. And I wanted to reface the whole thing with fieldstone.

Unfortunately, the chimney won’t accommodate an open hearth. I don’t understand exactly what’s wrong with it, but it’s not entirely right, even for the insert that’s there.

Fixing the chimney means rebuilding the whole fireplace as though we were starting new. Great for getting exactly what I want. Not so great for the wallet.

Matt, my wonderful, accommodating, frugal husband, thinks that we will be able to scrape together enough money to do the fireplace this year. I’m a little more skeptical.

But let’s not let a little thing like the budget derail this post. Let’s talk about what needs to be done.

The biggest question is the location of the fireplace. You’ll notice in the picture above that it’s off centre (look at the beam at the apex of the ceiling). This actually isn’t a bad thing, in my opinion. By centring the furniture arrangement on the fireplace, we have room to walk around the edge of the living room to the dining room. If we shift the fireplace so it’s centred, passage to the dining room will be a little tight.

What do you think? Should we centre the fireplace?

My plan for the new fireplace is roughly the same location, roughly the same dimensions. The biggest change will be to make the fireplace itself symmetrical. One continuous wide hearth across the bottom. No weird bump out on the left side. A rustic wood mantel (I have some great old beams in the barn) at one continuous depth. Fieldstone face. Open hearth.

I know the insert is more efficient and is a great way to heat the house. However, we are not going to heat this house with wood. Our geothermal system works really well and costs us very little. This fireplace is more about ambiance and appearance than function.

What would you do with the fireplace if it was yours? Are you a fan of the ’70s asymmetry? What would you face it with? Brick? Tile? Stone? Plaster? Would you keep the insert? Or would you get rid of the fireplace altogether? What’s your opinion on centring the fireplace versus leaving it where it is?

The Monarch Project

Posted on September 17, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Have you heard of the Monarch Project? Karen at The Art of Doing Stuff launched it this year.

A couple of years ago, Karen posted a five-part series on how to raise a Monarch butterfly. This year she’s raising more butterflies herself and encouraging her readers to as well. Last week she posted a video of a Monarch emerging from its chrysalis. It was absolutely amazing. Seriously. Go watch it and come back. I’ll wait. It’ll make your week.

As a kid, Matt and his brothers would raise Monarchs every year. It was just something they did, catching the caterpillars, putting them in a bucket, feeding them fresh milkweed, watching them form their cocoons, watching them hatch and then releasing them.

I, however, have never seen anything like this. Karen’s video is amazing. I so want to see it in real life.

I’ve seen more Monarchs around the farm this year than I have in past years. Unfortunately, more means about two. Remember that milkweed post that I did earlier this year? It took me most of the summer to get that one single photo of the butterfly. And he was the only butterfly I saw that year.

We have milkweed everywhere on the property, and I check it often for caterpillars. So far, I haven’t found any.

A couple of weeks ago Baxter and I found a Monarch when we were out for our walk (the guy pictured in this post). Unfortunately, he seemed to have a broken wing. We carried him home and set him on some milkweed behind the barn, but I don’t think he’s going to be one of the guys that makes it to Mexico.

The Monarchs are a simple example of why I’m glad that we bought the farm. Maybe we can protect a little bit of their habitat. Maybe we can help raise the odds in their favour. Maybe we, and Karen, and the people participating in the Monarch Project can help to keep the Monarchs flying.

What’s the Monarch population like where you live? Have you ever hatched a Monarch yourself?

Surprise laundry room makeover

Posted on September 15, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

So you saw on Friday that I’ve started making over our laundry room. As I said, this project kind of snuck up on me. Yeah the laundry room was on my Home Goals 2014 list, but I wasn’t exactly sure when I was going to tackle it. Fall was always in my mind.

But then the stars aligned last weekend.

My thought process went something like this:

“Dad’s here today. He can help me get the table saw running and cut the strips to trim out the cabinets.”

“Dad brought his air compressor. Maybe he’ll leave it with me so I can attach the strips to the cabinets.”

“I have the Advance paint out for the bookshelves and a good stash of foam rollers. I might as well paint the cabinets at the same time.”

So my go-with-the-flow non-project plan for September has resulted in the biggest project of the year.

That’s absolutely okay with me. Here’s the before picture. I think you can probably see why I’m so excited to have this makeover started. Functional? Absolutely yes. Pretty. Not so much.

I feel good about the possibility of having the makeover done before the end of the year, thereby meeting one of my home goals for the year. I feel even better about the possibility of the makeover matching the picture in my head. It’s not just going to be pretty. It’s gonna be puuuuuuurty.

Here’s some of my inspiration for the laundry room.

Sources: Black and white cabinets, chrome cup pull, rustic drying rack, clothes pin chandelier

I’m not doing one of my formal project plans. At least not yet. I’m sticking with my September plan of going with the flow. So, I’ll be back with an update when I’m back.

Do you have a pretty laundry room? What’s on your dream laundry room wish list? Do you have any suggestions for what I should do to my laundry room?

The most exciting project yet

Posted on September 12, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Yes, the laundry room makeover has begun. It kind of snuck up on me, but I can not tell you how excited I am by this project. I’ll be back on Monday with details.

Hope you have a great weekend. I’ll be in my laundry room and lovin’ it!