A Week of Visitors

Tim's parents were out of town for part of last week so we were lucky enough to dog sit for them. Jake spent a lot of time perched on the back of the couch (Timber's usual spot) making sad faces and watching for them to come back. Lola is hissing at Bear, who she liked to slap in the face and boss around.

Here are Lady and Bear after a walk. I love Bear's happy face!

Yep, definitely missed Teri and Grant.

Timber and Bear relaxing after a walk.

My nephew had been waiting to help out with the Hen House ever since we mentioned building it, so we had him and my niece sleep over Saturday. This is after the first coat of paint. He is a hard little worker.

One of Bear's favorite things in the whole world is a hose. This is a neighbor friend giving him some water. Later Bear laid down next to the hose hoping someone would turn it back on.

Taking a little break from the painting.

Jake hanging out under a table, safe from being stepped on by any big dogs. The weather this weekend couldn't have been more perfect!

Bear wishing someone would turn back on the hose.

We made "Monster Eyes" to pass out to the neighbors. *Thanks Jessi and Ali for teaching me how to make the cake balls :)

Bear stayed up stairs for the entire several days he was here. He was terrified of going down stairs. It was too funny watching him peek his cute face around the corner down at us. Tim and Bear were both exhausted after a day of play here.

Isaac and Dave came over to go to the dog park with us. We had six people, six dogs, and lots of fun.

Putting the second coat on.

We chose "Candy Apple Red"....at first it looks a little pink then dries to a nice bright red.

My nephew loves to help out, so when he found out that Tim needed to mow the lawn he offered to do it.

In the meantime, my cute niece helped me gather leaves from the front garden beds. We took them to the back yard and put them on the lawn to be mowed and put in the compost. Tim and I had so much fun with the kids and love that they had fun helping us with our work.

Now to put on the roof, a few latches and hinges, and we will be all ready for the hens!

Lola discovered the gopher (?) hole. She sniffed around it, tried to reach her claws in and pull something out, than sat for over an hour just waiting to try and catch it.

Every time the door rang with trick-or-treaters Charcoal would run to the door and greet them. They thought he was a great little Halloween cat.

Lola was up to her usual shenanigans, climbing and balancing on things. I put up the baby gate so Timber's bark wouldn't scare off the little kids. Lady slept through most of it. I heard that there weren't a lot of kids last year, so I only bought one bag of candy and a bag of plastic frogs that jump. Within forty-five minutes everything was gone and I had to run to the store for more.

Projects in Pieces and Pictures

A summary of our past week in pictures.

 Grant and Tim measuring and cutting. I get a kick out of seeing Tim and Grant working together because I see how alike they can be. They are both hard workers and both good with working numbers in their heads.

Walls starting to go up.

A vent for circulation.

Tim cutting the dividers for the laying boxes.

The laying boxes. This way we don't have to walk into the Hen House to get the eggs.

After narrowing it down to three, we chose the far left (Candy Apple) with white trim.

Lola being mischevious as usual.

 A bee on our flowers. Our neighbors have beehives and we were lucky to receive a jar of honey on our doorstep the other day. Just in time to go in my tea when my cold hit. It was delicious.

A bag in pieces (The Sunday Sling by Amy Butler.) Now to cut the lining.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend and were able to enjoy the beautiful weather.

The Beginning of the Coop

Tim has spent the week working hard to check one more big project off the list. The CHICKEN COOP. He spentThursday and Friday clearing the area and tilling the gardens. Saturday he bought the wood and unloaded it. Sunday Grant, Tim's dad who happens to have awesome building skills, came over and worked hard all day to cut wood and build the base. Thanks Grant (and Teri for letting us borrow your husband for the day and hopefully a few more to come.)

 

The view out our kitchen window looks right back to where the chicken coop will be.

   

The view from the coop.

 

Tim is ready to unload the truck.

 Timber checking out the area.

Tim and Grant putting it together.

Meanwhile, in the house, I was scrubbing floors until they shined!

 Lola watching the bird on the feeder....one of her daily activities.

Charcoal taking a nap under the table "Lady" style.

And finally, over the last several days Tim and I have turned half of these into....

These! 

I just hope they taste as good as they look.

Dinner time....

One of my favorite things on a chilly night is a hot bowl of soup. Tonight, I decided to make this soup and it was delicious. Not too sweet but not to salty and perfect for dipping grilled cheese sandwiches into. I changed a few little things.....fresh sage from our garden instead of dried, and also fresh Aristotle basil from the garden as a garnish. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did if you give it a try!

Lady All Bundled Up

Lady in her jacket.

One of my other favorite things, the Braoctopus. He is perfect for drying bras and having them keep their shape.

It's The Little Things in Life that Make Me Smile

For those of you that don't know, this is not a child's jacket. Technically it used to be.....until I altered it to fit Lady, our dalmatian. She lived in it all last winter and would get mad if we didn't leave it on her at night. How did we know she was upset? If you know Lady, it is very clear. Her behavior included stomping the walls and walking over to where the jacket was and whining. We got the hint. Now that the weather is cooling down again at night Lady has started "asking" for her jacket at night again. She is pretty adorable in her jacket.

Our pear tree is sagging from the weight of all of the nice, plump fruit dangling from its limbs. I can't wait until they are ripe to bite into one. If any of you like pears and would be interested in coming over to pick a few, just let me know because we have plenty to share.

Our living room and book nook are finally both areas that we have been putting to use.

And last of the list, my shower octopus. It makes me smile every time I get into the shower.
On a different note, Tim and I both had a twenty-four hour stomach flu yesterday. He had a temperature of 101.9 with stomach pains and I had my hair tied back and was hugging the toilet for several hours. Yuck. Luckily we both woke up today feeling like new. Nothing like a little "bug" to make you appreciate your health.

A Weekend of Mishaps and One Exchange

When you move into a new house it doesn't take long to figure out things you want to change right away, things you may want to change over time, and the things you want to stay the same. Together, Tim and I have a list and each week or two we prioritize what moves to the top and is urgent to us. The list before moving into the house was like this:

1. Have a new doorway knocked out from kitchen to dinning room.
2. Build chicken coop.
3. Buy patio furniture.
4. Buy a queen sized bed.
5. Make the book nook.
6. Etc, Etc, Etc....

The list, as you may have guessed, changed after the big move. The patio area is where we like to spend a lot of time with friends and family, so making it a livable space became top priority. Getting my books out of boxes and put away was surprisingly at the top of Tim's list, so the nook also made its way to the top. Adjusting to a kitchen with very few drawers made a new kitchen island move its way into the top five. The new queen sized bed also crawled its way up. Here is the list now.

1. Patio Furniture. Done.
2. Paint book nook, buy bookshelves, and put room together. Done.
3. Buy kitchen island with built in drawers. Done.
4. Queen sized bed. Done.
5. Chicken coop.
6. Have a new doorway knocked out from kitchen to dinning room.
7. Etc, etc, etc.

Acquiring the patio furniture went smoothly. We found a great deal on some super comfortable swivel chairs that we love. Then the search was on for the right table. That took a little longer but was well worth the wait. After that there was no looking back. We absolutely love our patio and spend a good amount of time out there.
Putting together the book nook was a little more stressful. Choosing colors, painting, building the bookshelves, and finally getting the books on the shelves all added up to a lot of time and even a little bickering (yes, that is right, Tim and I can occasionally bicker and we even consider it healthy in small doses.) The end result is a room that we enjoy and even the neighbors come over to borrow books.
We thought the next project was going to be a new doorway, but after trying to get our kitchen settled we decided to get the new kitchen island. Having our silverware divide up into little drawers just wasn't working, not to mention the lack of storage. This weekend we made a trip to Ikea and picked up the chosen island. It looks very similar to the old one (which is now my project room table...woo hoo....it was nice to kill to birds with one stone.) Putting the island together was a different story. We made a MAJOR mistake and put holes where none should be. Lucky for us, Ikea swapped the parts out. It helped that the instructions weren't very clear at that point. Yikes.
We also picked up a queen bed and were so excited to put it in our downstairs bedroom. I guess we didn't learn our lesson when we initially moved in. Let me explain.
We have a matching couch and loveseat. The loveseat went easily into the basement. Then we tried to take the couch down. After removing three doors and one banister it was inches from fitting....INCHES. It now sits in the living room upstairs. We plan to give it one more try, but have to take a door off a shower first. It might be a lot harder than it sounds, so we are feeling a little intimidated by that project.
After several weeks we must have forgotten how awful it was to try and squeeze furniture down the stairs. So we bought our new bed, brought it home all happy and cheerful, then tried to squeeze the box spring down the stairs. Now the new bed is upstairs and we are still sleeping on our old bed downstairs until the nights get a little cooler.
I also took Tim to meet our chickens this weekend. He is even more excited to get the coop built after getting to know his new gals. Looks like we have a weekend of building coming soon.
So at the end of each day we have big lists and little lists of things to do. And yet at the end of each day I feel happy and content, knowing that our house is slowly metamorphosing into our home.