Hello Again!

Well, it's been a while since I've written anything down on our farmhouse expedition...  This can be interpretted one of two different ways.  One, we are more than overwhelmingly busy with remodeling a farmhouse, work, and raising four children and I have no time to spare, or two, I managed to break both our home computers and haven't gotten around to replacing them yet.  The first reason is really the main one...  but the second is also true.  You know those people who seem to emit some kind of electro-magnetic pulse and can manage to break any electronic device they touch?  I have turned into one of those people.  In one week I managed to break my washing machine, our lap top, our desk top, 2 iPhone chargers and the entire fetal monitoring system at work.  Watch out...  If you make me mad I will just sneak into your house and touch your computer too.  Hehehe...

The good news is, Matt and I managed to figure out the problem with the washer, we should be able to replace the lap top in the next couple of weeks (and really, who actually NEEDS 2 home computers) and iPhone chargers are reasonably priced on Amazon (although it is easier to order the charger when you have a charged phone or home computer)...  And the really good news is there are very few electronic devices located in our 100 year-old farmhouse.  So, the house is still standing and I am hoping to have gotten through my destructive phase.

On to news of the house...  We are moved in!!!  I say this very casually.  We sleep  and (usually) eat in the main house these days, but we are still using the kitchen in the mobile for now.  We are almost done with the living and dining areas in the new house (we just need to finish it off with a little rope trim) and then we will be starting on remodeling the kitchen and bathroom.  We are hoping and praying to add on a master suite at the end of this summer.  So every time I feel like our family of 6 is a little cramped into our 2 bedroom, half-way finished farmhouse, I remind myself it is only one winter and smile when I remember that I have 13 acres of land and that is more than enough space for this family to grow.

I will work on taking some pictures and posting what we have done.  I was just looking back at the before shots of our little house and it is amazing the changes.  Each step has been an adventure and usually more work than I had planned, but it has been a lot of fun. 

I have been working on the doors of the house.  I started with the front door and to Matt's disbelief, I painted it the brightest blue I could find.  I think Matt thought I had lost my mind, but it is growing on him.  Then I got to work on our bedroom door.  I planned to paint it bright red (really), but in the process of working on it I had to do some sanding.  I found it had some beautiful colors under the white top coat, so I began playing with paint stripper and a sander, until I thought I had the most beautiful door around.  As I was hanging it, Bella came into the room and asked me, "Are you gonna put that nasty old door in my house?"  I'm starting to doubt my taste, or at least the words my 5 year-old is hearing.  I'll have to post a picture of my "nasty" door so you can put your 2 cents in. 

The Sunday after Christmas my cousins came over with their husbands and I took advantage of the available man-power.  I recruited my dad and Matt to help and had them move the piano into the house and hang the tire swing I made for the kids for Christmas.  It's the small things that are making this feel more and more like home and less like a long camping expedition.  Matt came in the other day and told me our swing looked like a picture out of Sunset Magazine...  A tire swing surrounded by green and huge oak trees.  We are so blessed to have space for our kids to enjoy God's creation every moment of the day.  We wake up every morning and look out the window onto our property and I can't believe how very blessed we are.  It is a lot of work, and there are a lot of days when I think we might be crazy for taking this on, but this is home.  And we still love it here!