If the barn needs paintin'

     It's been a long time joke at our house; Superman says, "If the barn needs paintin' ", referring to me wearing makeup!  lol Well this time it was the porch that needed paintin'.  Ladybug and her mama came up to help. And "Uncle" came for the weekend! We got busy on the porch while Superman and Randy tore up the kitchen floor; literally.

We had a lot of fun. Ladybug found out the hard way that you should never stand  under mama when she is painting! We thought it was funny but she didn't find it funny at all.

Uncle made it his project to tear off the remaining siding from under the porch. You can't imagine how many nails were used for the tar paper.  He finally got all shingles, tar paper and nails removed. It looks awesome.  We discovered that there was a door on the East side of the porch that had been covered up.  Some of the boards need to be replaced. We thought it would look cool to keep the original boards exposed and finish them.  Now we have some other ideas. We haven't decided yet so the porch will be continued.

Superman and Randy tore out the floor boards to see what needed to be replaced. The kitchen floor shimmied when you walked on it. It turned out that we had to replace all four support beams. The kitchen just has a crawl space under it.

While Superman and Randy ran to Lowes (not a quick trip like at home), I tore the boards and rocks away from the exterior of the kitchen wall. I have been wanting to do that since day 1! It drove me crazy.  There were random boards, grills, and rocks stacked up to TRY to keep critters out. It looked terrible and it didn't keep anything out! You should have seen the gaping holes underneath.

On Sunday, Ladybug helped her "Boo" secure things up with some cement. That got rid of the gaping holes and secured everything in place. A firm foundation is key. (I'm sure there's a Sunday school lesson in there somewhere! ) Ladybug had a blast.  She also helped "Boo" meausure the boards.

When it was time to place the last support, Uncle helped muscle it in. But when they cleared some stone and dirt away to put the new support in, look what they found!

At first we thought it was a toy because it's so small. After looking closer, Superman confirmed that it is real. It cleaned up really nicely.  We will keep this with all our other "treasures" we've found along the way.

A couple last minute projects before we left......
     Superman found these cool leaded glass windows for me. I thought they would look great on the porch. I was right! They look so pretty. Then Superman trimmed out the front door.  What a nice finished look.

She's starting to really come together!

Just whistle while you work

It was labor day weekend. Dewey made a return visit. This time, he and Superman put in a new, custom, cottage style kitchen window! The window reminds me of the kind you would find in the little cottage in the middle of the forest in "Snow White". Snow White flings open the sashes and little birds come and help her clean the kitchen. She hums and whistles as she sweeps.  If a bird flies in MY kitchen, I will be swinging a broom at it to get it out!!  The good news is the kitchen is officially under way.

Next, they took down the chimney. The house had two chimneys; one in the living room and one outside the kitchen. The one outside the kitchen was used for a cook stove back in the day.  We had no intention of using a cook stove, so the chimney needed to come down. Superman thought it would be a long process, guess again.

Then friends, Jeremy and Katie, came to help us.  Katie helped me paint some chairs.  Jeremy helped Superman take out the base of the chimney and then they tore out the drywall and cieling  in the kitchen. It looks so different! After much thought, I think I'm going to paint the cieling white. I know there are a buch of wood lovers out there, but it's a cottage, it needs to be white.

Before I knew it, it was Sunday. Ladybug and her family came for the day. We had a bunch of projects for them.  John and Sunshine helped Superman carry the rest of the chimney block up the hill to the trench. It was HARD work.  Ladybug and AJ helped me put a second coat of paint on the chairs.

Then John and AJ headed upstairs to tear out the wall between our room and John and Sunshine's room. AJ pulled nails out of boards for probably an hour or more. After the wall was down, I stood looking at the large open space. John suggested that it would make a great master suite. For a fleating moment (two days) I thought about that possibility. Then I decided it was better to have the extra bedroom. But it was fun dreaming about it.

Our new friends, and neighbors, Jim and Linda, came over for a house tour. Jim's  grandmother used to live in the house.  He stood in the doorway and said, "I haven't walked through this door in 50 years!" It was a very cool moment.  We showed them all around and talked about some of his memories in the house.  I'm sure at some point, I will be able to introduce you to them.  In the meantime, they are putting up with all of our clammering, hammering, and big machines!

Things were quiet on Monday. That is until I fired up the pressure washer! I had been wanting to pressure wash the porch and get rid of all that flecking paint for some time now.  It only took about an hour. Now it's ready for some primer and new paint. Superman took my picture.  I don't make it into many pictures because I'm usually the one taking them. He should have told me to take my glasses out of my pocket. They made my butt look big! lol

Oh, before you go, I wanted to show you how the chairs turned out.  They are just adorable!

  

Chipmunks and squirrels and mice, oh my!

August 29 & 30, 2015

It was a fairly quiet weekend at the Red berry.  We had a little helper with us.  Lady bug came along to assist in all the projects on our list.  We started by scraping some paint off of the front porch.  We didn't get finished but we got a pretty good start on it.  She wore those safety glasses all weekend!

We also tore some of the siding off of the porch. We plan to expose the original wide boards under the porch roof. It will give the cottage a look of originality.  I love the old boards. We figured they wouldn't get too weathered under the porch roof. 

Later, while Lady bug entertained herself with my ipad, Superman and I started to tear down the rest of the ceiling in the dining area. (Lady bug was in another room with plastic barriers; safe and sound)

This is where the title of this post comes in.  I wish I was joking when I say we emptied the shop vac 5 times and filled an additional 30 gal. garbage bag with nests.  There were skeletons of the critters that used to live there. I'd rather have a skeleton than a furry creature any day. We seriously found an entire squirrel skeleton! Lol.  It was pretty gross. Once the ceiling was down and all the nests were cleaned up, I vacummed spider webs and dirt from the beams. They look beautiful! 

We took a lunch break and made mountain pies....yum! 

After lunch, we took a walk to the "big pines".  Superman cut some low branches off of the trees so we can walk around the area safely.  

Here comes the fun part and probably the highlight of our weekend.  Lady bug is very soft spoken in this video so I'm going to give you the sub-title here. Then you can watch the video and know what she is saying.  

Lady bug-  "It's afternoon. I just took my nap. And Boo is going to cut a hole in the wall from Glam and Boo's room to my room". 

Me- "For what?" "Why do you need a hole in the wall?"

Lady bug- "Cause, we're going to put a door in"

Me- "What kind of a door?" 

Lady bug- "A secret passage door"

Me-" What did you say?" A secret passage door? "That is so cool!"