Office organization progress report

Posted on March 21, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Last week when I shared the progress I’ve made on my March projects, I was all about timelines and staying on schedule. This week, things ran off schedule a little bit… or the schedule got rescheduled.

I had two tasks left for the second half of the month: get my home office under control and pretty up my work office.

I made zero progress on my work office.

My excuse is that I made outstanding progress on my home office.

Remember this really embarrassing picture that I so reluctantly shared with you at the start of the month?

Well, I don’t mind sharing it with you this time because now the view from the doorway looks like this. (And the poor quality of this photo in no way reflects the warm feelings I now have for this room. I was losing light. What can I say?)

Here’s the order of how I originally planned to tackle the to-dos in my office:

Sort and file the mountain of paperwork that’s built up on top of the filing cabinet – By March 16
Add organizers to the new dresser and start filling the drawers – By March 22
Make a bulletin board – By March 22
Pull together all of the forms that we need for our taxes this year – By March 30
Figure out how to make better use (temporarily) of the closet – By March 30
Unpack a few boxes, repack some of the boxes, repile the boxes – By March 30

Last weekend, I found myself more enthused about the last two items on this list than I was with some of the items higher up, so I decided to be flexible and follow my motivation.

When we moved into the house, my office became the dumping ground for things that we didn’t have a place for. Since I didn’t have any furniture aside from a desk that was left by the past owners and a small bookshelf that Matt had from his childhood bedroom, everything was left in its packing boxes and piled against the wall. Even though it’s been two years since we moved in, everything was still piled.

After my organizing binge, I still have a pile of boxes, but it’s about half a dozen boxes less than it was before. That’s major progress for me.

There were two things that allowed me to unpack some of my boxes:

1. Matt gave me a small cabinet that used to be in his office. Filling that cabinet with craft supplies, sewing patterns and some sewing tools meant that I could use Matt’s childhood bookshelf as an actual bookshelf. Even though this shelf is small, it holds all of my knitting and sewing books, magazines and patterns. I even have room for a bunch of decorating magazines. It’s so nice to have these accessible again.

2. In the category of making better use of the closet, I finally filled some storage caddies that had been left behind by the past owners. This seems like a really obvious solution, and you’re probably asking why I didn’t do this long ago. The simple answer is that the caddies were disgusting. Really, really dirty.

It was easier to just tuck them away–empty–in the closet, rather than scrubbing them out. However, there comes a point when clutter is more annoying than cleaning, so I threw the caddies in the bathtub and scoured them inside and out. The result was 11 drawers for everything from yarn to fabric to wrapping supplies. Some of the drawers are still empty. Yay for room to grow!

I realize my office still isn’t pretty or even super functional. I have big plans to repaint, add more furniture, and style it into a really, really useful and really, really attractive space. However, there’s no timeline on when this is going to happen. In the meantime, I’m working with what I have and trying to make the space as organized and useable as I can.

The trick now is to avoid it turning back into a dumping ground.

Anyone have any tips to share on organizing a temporary space (one that you know you’re going to redo down the road)? What’s your “room of shame” (please tell me you have one)? How do you store craft supplies? Any recommendations for furniture I should look for when I redo my office?

Vintage cut glass lights

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

We’re all familiar with the way too common boob light. Now meet the nipple light.

(A really bad picture of a really bad fixture).

This light graced the main bathroom.

Honestly, the light fixture is the least of the problems with this bathroom, but it really bothered me. It was painted, rusted and had absolutely no personality.

Browsing Value Village one day, I found a perfect replacement.

At first glance, you may not agree that this is the perfect light, but let me show you the other lighting in the bathroom.

I’m sure your first reaction is not unconditional love for these lights (mine wasn’t), but they’ve totally grown on me since we’ve been living here. Sure they’re vintage. They’re a little bit rusted in a few spots. But they have personality. The shape of the shades is pretty unique and the glass, in my opinion, is just plain pretty.

The cut glass on my thrifted fixture was a much better match than the nipple light. What wasn’t a match was the pseudo brass base. It took me three attempts to find the right colour of spray paint. ORB was way too dark. Pewter was too bright. Rosemary (what kind of a name is that for a metallic spray paint?) turned out to be the closest. It’s a silver with some gold undertones. It’s still a bit light, but it’s close enough.

Here’s how the lights look all together and lit up.

I love the patterns the cut glass makes on the ceiling. It’s a bit of prettiness that distracts me from the rest of the ugliness in the bathroom.

Alright, let me have it. What do you think of my lights? Are you a cut glass fan or are they too vintage for you?

How to refurbish a ping pong table

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

It’s St. Patrick’s Day, so today’s post is all about something green. Our new(ish) ping pong table.

This ping pong table was a bit of an experiment. We found the top (in two pieces) in the barn when we first moved in. It was pretty dirty and had even been pooped on by the swallows that live in the barn.

I am always optimistic, so one day last summer, I dragged the two halves outside. I have no idea how I managed to move them by myself because each piece is extremely heavy. I haven’t been able to carry them on my own since. I scrubbed with a brush and sprayed with the hose until all of the poop and dirt (and a fair portion of the original green paint) washed away.

Matt did not share my optimism that the table could be rehabilitated. That night he tucked the pieces deep into a corner of the driveshed. I have no idea how, though, because the tabletop is heavy even for him to move on his own.

Despite his lack of enthusiasm for the project, Matt did help me carry the top into the house. Then, one weekend while he was out of town, I went to work.

This project was a total experiment, and I’m sure ping pong purists out there will be horrified. But (spoiler alert) everything worked out, so I’m sharing my technique with you.

There were two big issues with the table: 1) We had no legs to go with the top. 2) The top itself was not in great shape.

The leg issue was easy to solve with six trestle style legs from Ikea (Lerberg).

The top took a little more effort.

I started with a coat of fresh white paint over the lines. After sleeping on it for the night, I realized I really should have sanded the top first, so the next morning I basically started all over again. I sanded down the top, which was not an indoor task. Sanding resulted in a fine green powder over the whole room–not the best scenario with our nice light carpet. There was a defined line between where the drop cloth had protected the carpet and where the green dust had floated beyond the drop cloth’s reach. I was very glad Matt was not home to see the mess I had made.

The Shop Vac erased the green mist, and I was able to get back to the painting.

White paint went on again, and, then once it was dry, I taped off the lines. Since painter’s tape doesn’t come in ping pong line widths, I had to very carefully trim it.

Then the tape got a quick coat of white paint to seal it, and after some drying time I moved onto the green. Since I wasn’t sure if this was actually going to work, I used some regular latex paint that we had left over from Matt’s office. It’s Manor Green from Benjamin Moore in case anyone’s interested.

The green took about three coats, I think. On the final coat, I carefully peeled off the tape to reveal the white lines. Some of the white flaked off (I think giving the white more time to dry, or even doing two coats would have been helpful).

Chips aside, the finish was a massive improvement over the table’s previous state. In fact, Matt was so impressed when he arrived home that he started to think that maybe I wasn’t entirely crazy in wanting to save the table.

So now I had a tabletop and I had table legs. How to put them together?

It turned out that the Lerberg legs are a bit shorter than regulation ping pong height of 30 inches–hey, I have some standards. Using a few 2x3s and my Kreg Jig I built a frame to attach to the underside of the tabletop.

I screwed the frame to the tabletop… or at least to one half. The top ended up being too unwieldy and heavy as one big piece, so I didn’t screw everything together. We set the top on the frame and the frame on the legs, and we think each piece is heavy enough to stay in place on its own.

The six Lerberg trestles mean the table is very leggy. However, we really needed the support in the middle of the table as well as at each end.

We got a very simple cheap net at Walmart. It’s called an “everywhere table tennis” from EastPoint, and we just clipped it onto the table. Again, I wasn’t sure that this refurbishment was actually going to work, so I didn’t feel the need to invest in a professional net.

With the table set up, Matt broke out the paddles, tapped one of the balls across the net, and it bounced. It worked! We had a functional ping pong table.

I had no ping pong skills, but after a week of daily practice, I’ve improved a lot. I finally won a game against Matt yesterday (he also may have let me win one). My ping pong prowess aside, refurbishing the table was a definite win.

Have you ever rehabbed a piece of furniture that seemed beyond hope? Anyone have any ping pong pointers? How are you celebrating St. Patrick’s Day?

Post-vacation progress report

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Ahhhh… a week’s vacation… so nice, so productive, so relaxing… so sad that it’s coming to an end. 😦

Curious exactly how productive I’ve been with my week off?

Well, I slept in everyday. I went snowshoeing twice a day until the snow melted enough that Baxter and I could safely go for a run on the road. Wow are we out of shape… although only one of us ended up with his tongue hanging out of his mouth… not mentioning any names.

Hmmm… what else? I cooked. I baked a pie for goodness sake. It’s only the second one I’ve ever made. (Pastry and I do not get along). I snacked. I read some magazines and a book. I watched movies. We visited with family and friends.

Oh, and I made some really good progress on my March projects.

The fourth item on my list, light fixtures, is completely done. (Although I’m not sure the foyer light is going to stay).

~~Buy a second light for the kitchen island – By March 9~~ Done March 9
~~Finish foyer light fixture – March 10~~ Done March 9
~~Install foyer light fixture – March 11~~ Done March 10
~~Install a new light fixture in the bathroom – By March 16~~ Done March 10

The first item on my list, the ping-pong table, is also completely done.

~~Figure out how to configure the legs and what I need to attach them to the tabletop – By March 11~~ Done March 10
~~Buy lumber, screws and whatever other materials I need – By March 11~~ Done March 11
~~Build a frame – By March 16~~ Done March 11
~~Drill the legs – By March 16~~ Decided this wasn’t necessary
~~Attach the legs and frames and tabletop together – By March 16~~ The frame is attached to half the tabletop and then the whole thing is just set on the legs. Done March 11
~~Set up the net – By March 16~~ Done March 11
~~Practice my ping-pong skills… which currently do not exist~~ Done everyday since March 11. And I’ve actually found a few skills… not very many, but some.

Item #2, my home office, is in progress and on schedule.

~~Sort and file the mountain of paperwork that’s built up on top of the filing cabinet – By March 16~~ Done March 12
Add organizers to the new dresser and start filling the drawers – By March 22
Make a bulletin board – By March 22
Pull together all of the forms that we need for our taxes this year – By March 30
Figure out how to make better use (temporarily) of the closet – By March 30
Unpack a few boxes, repack some of the boxes, repile the boxes – By March 30

Item #3, my work office, is not started. Wop-wop. However, I have three days until my deadline, so I should be able to return to work next week with a few pretty pieces in tow.

Make a bulletin board – By March 16
Recover the shade from my desk lamp – By March 16

Once again, setting deadlines has saved me. Heading into my holiday, I had a moment of “I don’t know where to start! How am I going to get everything done?” Then I reminded myself to check the blog and see the timelines I’d laid out.

I realize that I may seem really rigid, but I promise I did relax and have fun this vacation as well. I’m sure my approach wouldn’t work for everyone, but honestly having some kind of structure is really helpful for me.

Can you believe we’re already halfway through March? How’s the month going for you? What do you like to do when you’re on vacation?

Hope springs… and hopes dashed

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

This week began with a few warm days. Snow is still at least knee deep in most places, but along the edge of the house we have a narrow strip of bare ground.

In the garden I built around the well, peaking up through the sopping mud, are some very small spears of iris.

Could it be possible that spring might come this year?

As if!

The weather forecast for today calls for temperatures to dip below freezing again and for 10cm (nearly 4 inches) of snow to fall.

Winter just totally gave spring the cold shoulder.

What’s the weather like where you are? Have you seen any signs of spring yet? What first flowers are you looking forward to seeing? I feel like I don’t have to ask this, but who else is ready for spring?

The furniture in my wallet

Posted on March 10, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I have a few key pieces of furniture that I’m on the hunt for. I’m fairly particular about what they look like, but what size they are is even more important.

To avoid constantly running to my measuring tape, I sized up all of the spots that need furniture. Then I typed up the measurements, printed them out and slipped them into my wallet.

Whether I’m in a thrift store, at the office or browsing online (all places I’ve found furniture), I can reference this slip of paper and know if those nightstands, that sideboard or that table will fit where I need them to go.

Of course the other key part of this is carrying a tape measure with me at all times.

Since writing this list, I’ve actually been pretty successful at finding the furniture that I’m looking for. Since taking this picture, Matt found the cabinet for the laundry room (which we assembled yesterday), so I can cross another item off the list.

I’m sure there’s an app for this, and I know I could just save the measurements on my phone, but I’m old school. Plus, there are lots of times I forget my phone or let the battery die, so paper is actually more useful for me.

In fact, now that most of my first list is crossed off, I’ll be printing myself a new one. Next up on furniture most wanted: a cabinet for the dining room.

How do you keep track of furniture measurements? Who else always has a tape measure in their purse?

The odds of March

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

This month is going to be about, in the words of my paternal grandmother, the “odds and sods.” Or, in the words of Sherry from Young House Love, “Dude Get On That Already.” (I’m pretty sure my grandma never used the word “dude”).

It took me awhile to land on a goal for March. After our success in February with finally painting the hallway, kitchen and foyer, I really wanted to keep the momentum going and choose another item from the Home Goals 2014 list.

Furniture kept popping into my mind because I have some updates to share in this area. Plus we extended our painting to include one wall of the living room expressly so that I could set up my bookshelves. Clutter overflow in the basement is making me more impatient to find some of the furniture pieces that I’m looking for, but I need a reminder to check out kijiji and my thrift stores regularly.

Setting furniture as a goal would absolutely address all of these wants. However, the main task in furniture month will be painting the bookshelves, and the idea of spending another month with a paint brush in my hand really did not appeal.

So ~~cross~~ furniture off the list.

Sorry books

Then I thought of the kitchen. I have a bunch of small fixes that I want to do in there. Now that it’s freshly painted, it makes sense to finish the rest of the tweaks. But the kitchen doesn’t seem pressing. I can live with it. Why bump it to the top of the list?

Then, the nagging little tasks rolling around in my brain suddenly coalesced and said, “What about us?” I thought about it for a minute. There’s that. And that. Oh yeah, and definitely that. I felt excited. I felt energized. I felt like I’d found my goal for March. So I said, “Yes, please.”

A lot of this month’s tasks stem from last month’s painting. I don’t know about you, but when I finish a project usually tools and materials are spread around everywhere. That chaos causes other messes, and I ended up feeling very disorganized.

So it may not be the most creative or challenging collection of tasks, but March will definitely be full of variety. Most rooms have some issue that needs to be addressed. Spoiler alert: This month you will see my most shameful space, my poor, poor ~~catch-all~~ office.

My challenge is to avoid making March’s plan read too much like my regular to-do list. After all, dusting and vacuuming and mopping do not make the most interesting blog posts (although starting on spring cleaning is definitely on my mind).

Here are some of the major odds and sods on my list:

1. Set up the ping-pong table

Figure out how to configure the legs and what I need to attach them to the tabletop – By March 11
Buy lumber, screws and whatever other materials I need – By March 11
Build a frame – By March 16
Drill the legs – By March 16
Attach the legs and frames and tabletop together – By March 16
Set up the net – By March 16
Practice my ping-pong skills… which currently do not exist

2. Get my home office under control

You don’t really want to see the before, do you?

Ohhhhh. I cannot tell you how much I don’t want to post this picture.

Argh.

Sigh.

I’m so ashamed.

File this under the category of “keeping it real.”

Aaaah. Please stop looking at it.

Keep scrolling until it falls off the screen.

Let’s look ahead at how I can fix this disaster.

Sort and file the mountain of paperwork that’s built up on top of the filing cabinet – By March 16
Add organizers to the new dresser and start filling the drawers – By March 22
Make a bulletin board – By March 22
Pull together all of the forms that we need for our taxes this year – By March 30
Figure out how to make better use (temporarily) of the closet – By March 30
Unpack a few boxes, repack some of the boxes, repile the boxes – By March 30

3. Pretty up my work office

Make a bulletin board – By March 16
Recover the shade from my desk lamp – By March 16

4. Finalize light fixtures

Buy a second light for the kitchen island – By March 9
Finish foyer light fixture – March 10
Install foyer light fixture – March 11
Install a new light fixture in the bathroom – By March 16

I may even make time for some sewing. I try not to post too much about fashion or sewing here, but I have had a wonderful green dress cut out since November. Julia Bobbin is running her annual Mad Men Challenge this month, and I think my dress would fit in perfectly. The April 1 deadline and cleaning my office so I actually have some sewing space may be the motivation I need to finally get stitching.

You’ll notice that I have March 16 as a deadline on a lot of things. That’s mainly because as of 4pm this afternoon I am on vacation for a week. Yay! Forget jetting away to a tropical destination or cozy resort, I am excited to have a week of uninterrupted farm time to connect with family, work on my projects, sleep in and “get on that already.”

This month will definitely be a mixed bag (to borrow another term from my grandmother). You will hear about some of our new furniture pieces along with these other to-dos. As usual, I’ll keep you updated and hold myself accountable throughout the month.

What’s on your list for March? Do niggly little tasks build up for you too? Anyone else have any odd sayings that you use regularly?

Blog-iversary 2

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

At the start of this week, I celebrated our second farm-iversary. Today it’s all about the blog-iversary. (In case you want to compare, last year’s blog-iversary included a stats post and a goals post).

Two was the theme for my second year of blogging, as the number of people visiting the blog more than doubled–a 132% increase, to be precise.

Last year, I said my goal was to attract more readers, and I was hoping that I might get to 100 views per day. I did it, averaging 107 views per day. For the past few months, I’ve had a gradual increase as you can see below, and now the blog has around 100 visitors per day. Thank you all for visiting.Like last year, visitors came from all over the world. However, there was one change. In year one most of my visitors were my fellow Canadians. This year the majority of you are American.

Here are the top 10 countries and the number of visitors from each. Interestingly, the same countries are in the top 9 from year one to year two, and they’re in roughly the same order. The only change is at number 10 where South Africa replaced the Philippines.

United States — 19,694
Canada — 14,817
United Kingdom — 1,247
Australia — 599
Germany — 349
Switzerland — 155
France — 155
India — 142
New Zealand — 133
South Africa — 99

In year two, I was able to stick to my three posts per week schedule and published a total of 154 posts.

Last year’s most read post about the bridesmaid dress I sewed for my sister’s wedding reigned at the top for a year. At the end of July, it was overtaken by my post about how to make a wood countertop. The countertop post continues to get the most views every day. The bridesmaid dress has slid back to number four. Rounding out the top three most viewed posts are How to stain and waterproof a wood countertop and Not so fab freebie, the post about our uncomfortable wing chair.

The wing chair post has surprised me. This post is the first time I professed my love for Ikea’s Strandmon wing chair. It’s not the post where we actually buy the chair or where I actually talk about Strandmon in any detail. Apparently, a lot of people are interested in Strandmon. I published this post at the start of September, so it rocketed to the top very quickly.

Here are the top 10 posts of the past year and of all time and the number of views for each:

Posted 2013-14:

How to make a wood countertop — 6,056
How to stain and waterproof a wood countertop — 1,728
Not so fab freebie — 1,723
Birthday wish come true — 530
Celebration — 517
How to match seams across an invisible zipper — 324
Lakeside Living Home Tour — 129
How to build simple closet shelves — 127
What once was lost now is found — 124
DIY fail… sorta — 109

All-time:

How to make a wood countertop — 6,056
How to stain and waterproof a wood countertop — 1,728
Not so fab freebie — 1,723
Change of pace — 1,120
The reveal… aka how to strip wallpaper — 845
How to install a pot light — 619
Birthday wish come true — 530
Celebration — 517
How to use preglued veneer edging — 346
How to match seams across an invisible zipper — 324

Searches for wood countertops and and wing chairs are by far the top search terms and bring a lot of people to the site every day. But there are also lots of you who are regular visitors every week. Your loyalty means so much to me. Thank you for reading.

I have to give a special shout out to Jan Elizabeth, Sarah In Illinois, Margaret, Lindsay of ThatMutt.com and Dave & Sharynne Wilder of Dockwood Furniture for their frequent comments.

Jan Elizabeth stumbled across my blog in the fall, and she proceeded to read the entire archives and comment on pretty much every post in the span of about a week. Sarah has been reading since nearly the beginning. Margaret and I got to meet at BlogPodium in September. It was really neat to talk with someone whom I had previously known only from online. Lindsay’s dog blog is one of my daily reads. Dave and Sharynne always have great suggestions, and their blog is full of their own really inspiring handmade furniture.

I have to give another shout out to Danica of Country Chic Renovator and Diane of West Lake Musings. Back in August, they both guest posted while I took a week’s vacation. This was my first time having guest posters, and I really appreciated Danica’s and Diane’s willingness to share their stories. In case you missed them, here are the links for Danica’s post and Diane’s.

Blogging is such a network. I am frequently amazed by the connections I’ve made online. I’d like to do a better job at connecting with other bloggers. I read a post recently about content curation versus content creation–meaning featuring content from other sources versus writing my own original content. Original content has always been really, really important to me. However, I think that I could add some more variety to my blog and encourage other writers by collaborating more with other bloggers.

I did broaden my blogging network this year through a few events. A year ago, I speculated that I was considering attending a blogging conference to learn some new skills and make some new connections. Well, I made this speculation a reality. In fact, in keeping with my second year theme of two, I participated in two conferences: Word Camp and BlogPodium.

These events were very inspiring and motivating. I don’t think I necessarily took full advantage of the networking aspect of the conferences, but I did make a lot of connections that are still with me today. I definitely learned a lot, and I’m so glad that I decided to go to the conferences.

One of the really simple lessons that I learned was to write headlines as though I am writing tweets. Writing post titles is something that I struggle with and probably my least favourite part of blogging. Thinking of titles as tweets has been pretty helpful, although I still turn to Matt every so often and say, “Any ideas for a title for a post about…?” He’s totally my secret writing weapon.

In last year’s blog-iversary post, I wrote “The biggest thing I’d like to do over the next year is decide where I want to go with this blog over the longer haul.” Today, two years in, I’m less worried about this.

Sure, I like the idea of spending my days at home, hanging out with Baxter, receiving tools and building supplies from sponsors, writing and DIYing as much as I want. However, blogging professionally is not the same as the blogging I’m doing now.

I love that my stats increased this year and that there are lots of you out there who like what I write. However, more than that, I like blogging for myself.

Since realizing that, I’ve been worrying less that I’m not active on every single social media channel out there and that I’m not aggressively courting more readers so that I can attract sponsors. Jen at Rambling Renovators and Kit at DIY Diva posted about some of their feelings on this topic earlier this year, and a lot of what they said really resonated with me.

So while this year I’m all about goals for getting work done around the house, I’m not going to make any blogging goals as I head into year three of this online adventure.

I hope that you will tag along as the adventure continues. I’ve said it a couple of times already, but I’ll say it again: thank you. Thank you for reading and for being part of our projects, part of our farm, part of our lives.

I do appreciate your feedback, so if you have any suggestions of what you’d like to see more of (or less of) on the blog, please feel free to share.

Farm-iversary 2

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

Two years ago yesterday, we took possession of the farm.

As I did last year, I’m going to take a look back at the milestones and accomplishments from the past year.

This year wasn’t as big on projects as year one. As much as I love DIY and improving my house, it was really, really nice to sit back a little bit and enjoy the comfy spaces we’ve created.

Part of settling into the farm was focusing a little more on decorating, rather than renovating.

I found inspiration on a local home tour and took in the Toronto Home Show with one of my friends. I got crafty, making a monogram, dice and painting a tray. I revealed my obsession with chairs and added two to our collection, receiving Strandmon for my birthday and winning Austin at Blogpodium.

I also went thrifting more than I ever have before, scoring a metal washtub to hold firewood, lamps, flags, pillows, tchotchkes and our beautiful dining table. Thrifting worked the other way too, as I sold the woodstove, our original kitchen stove, a rotisserie and a wing chair on kijiji.

However, we did still accomplish a few things that fall more in the reno category.

We increased storage and counter space in the kitchen with the addition of a kitchen island, complete with a DIY wood countertop. We added more storage and reorganized the front hall closet. We made over the mudroom to be a bright welcoming space. I finished a cozy reading nook in the basement, including my favourite chair and a simple DIY ottoman. Oh, and then there was our most recent project, painting the kitchen, foyer and hall.

Landscaping was supposed to be the big project for year two… and it turned out to be a really big project. Too big for just one year.

I swear, landscaping at the farm equals rocks. There were the four hours Matt, my Dad and I spent moving a pile of rocks from beside the driveshed to the official rock pile behind the barn. Then there was the new garden around the well that I edged with rocks. I finally had to enlist Matt and his Dad to move the most massive boulders into position.

The path across the turnaround was the one place where I wanted rocks–or at least bricks–but of course Matt and I first had to dig up another big rock that was in the way.

An extreme summer heatwave put an end to my landscaping. The intense heat was just one example of the extreme weather we saw in our second year. Spring came really late. Summer was really hot. And winter has been really snowy… and really, really, really cold. On top of it all, there was the ice storm. Spending three and a half days without power (and water and heat) was a challenging lesson in the realities of country living

Despite the difficult weather, we managed to grow some of our own food for the first time last year. We only picked a few tomatoes before the rest of the fruit was struck down by a blight, but we are keen to try again. The annual raspberry harvest was much more successful. A vegetable garden is still on our wish list.

Beyond our small vegetable plot, our fields produced another crop of hay, though our farmer only took one cut. In the fall, the fields were prepped with manure for their transition to soybeans coming up later this year.

Waste was a bit of a theme for year two as I did my own much smaller manure application, we had the septic tank pumped, and I did a major clean up of our 2km of roadside.

Change was also a theme in year two. In the fall, I left the organization where I had worked for the past 10 years for a new job. I was a bit scared to leave, but I was ready for a new challenge. I’m loving my new job–it’s definitely a challenge–and I’m really glad that I made the leap.

Interestingly, I wouldn’t have had this opportunity without the farm. We’re now located within reasonable driving distance of a bunch of new cities that were too far away before.

The biggest change that came to us in year two is of course Baxter. Matt and I both wanted a dog for a long time. However, we agreed that we would wait to get one until we were living in the country. We thought it might happen in year one, but we ended up waiting until year two. I think that we were just waiting for Baxter.

He is absolutely the perfect dog for us, and I love experiencing the farm with him. Rain and shine, day and night, hot and cold, I’m spending way more time outside enjoying the property than I did before.

There have been some not so perfect moments: the three run-aways, the pink-eye, the brownies, the chicken bones, the nail clippings and the skunk come to mind. Nonetheless, my love for the sleek sleepy creature dozing in the corner is immense. I have become a massive dog person.

While we gained Baxter, we lost Easter. In the fall, she disappeared for a few days, came back for one night and then disappeared for good. We’ve not found any evidence of foul play, so I am still wondering whether she might return this spring.

I think that’s some of my naive city-girl optimism overshadowing my realistic country-girl side. It’s been hard to think that the little fur ball that was born in our driveshed and that we watched grow up from a helpless baby into a spoiled kitten might not be part of our lives any more. I called her baby all the time for goodness sake, and she loved to be cradled like one.

Ralph, whom I still call mama, is as constant as ever. She’s packed on the fur–and the pounds–as she presides over the barn. She humours us and now allows us to hold her like a baby. She’s learned that she gets the best belly scratches that way.

Beyond our family animals, we continue to keep a tally of the other animals that come through the farm. Year two gave us a few close encounters that we’ve not had before.

We went beyond seeing turkey footprints to seeing actual turkeys. We saw more deer (and then Matt hit one with his car and his Dad and his shotgun added another to our freezer). We saw a skunk for the first time, and then got sprayed for the first time (but not all at the same time). Down at the pond, we had what we think was a fisher. Watching all of the birds who come to the new feeder we built has been a highlight for me this winter.

In last year’s anniversary post, I came up with two words to summarize our first year at the farm. Last year’s theme of “big and more” still applies to all of our experiences at the farm, but I wanted something specific for year two. It was harder than I thought to come up with a theme, but I feel like wins and losses sort of summarizes this past year.

We were successful at a decent number of projects but didn’t accomplish as much as I’d hoped. We lost power, and I won a chair. We lost one precious family member and gained another extremely adored one. We settled into the farm a bit more, and the wins have far outweighed the losses. Year two confirmed that it’s definitely a country life for us.

February goals wrap up report (and a reveal)

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

It’s the last day of February and time for the final report on how we did on our goal for the month of painting the main floor hallway, foyer and kitchen.

Want a sneak peak?

Yup. We have light fixtures, art and fresh paint. Hallelujah.

Just for a reminder, here’s a look back at how this project unfolded over the month:

Heading into last weekend, the final task on our list was installing light fixtures. I chose school-house type fixtures from Home Depot (a complete source list is below). There were lots of options through their web site, and these were about the cheapest. I love how the dark oil-rubbed bronze contrasts with the light coloured walls, our pristine white ceilings and echoes the dark tones of our picture frames.

The light fixtures came in both a semi-flush mount, which I used in the hall, and in a pendant, which I used over the island. I love these lights and have wanted to use them for awhile. They have so much more personality than the boob lights that were there before, and I think they work very well with our casual country setting.

The final task on our to-do list was also where we fell off schedule a little bit. If I zoom out a little bit you’ll see that we’re still missing one light fixture in the foyer. I’m DIYing this one and need just a bit more time to pull it together. This angle also gives you a glimpse of the kitchen, hallway and foyer all together.

This one miss aside, I’m declaring February’s project a success.

For us, a month was a realistic timeline to completely transform these spaces. My schedule worked really well to keep us on track. I kept a rough tally and for just the painting, we spent about 25 hours. We worked steadily but didn’t stress ourselves out trying to get it all done too quickly. I’ll definitely be mapping out monthly goals again.

The main floor feels fresh and new. Having Matt’s grandpa’s paintings on the walls really makes the space feel like ours. I’ve fallen even more in love with my house.

Anyone else go through a transformation this month? What did you accomplish in February?

Source list:
Wall paint: Abalone from Benjamin Moore (75% intensity)
Trim paint: Cloud White from Benjamin Moore
Light fixtures: Luray Collection Oil Rubbed Bronze 1-Light Semi Flush mount (this one doesn’t seem to be available online anymore) and Luray Collection 1-Light 34-5/8 in. Hanging Oil-Rubbed Bronze Pendant both by World Imports through the Home Depot
Paintings: Family heirlooms painted by Matt’s grandfather