Blog Action Day 2007

Today, October 15th, people in the blogging community were called on to speak a bit about the environment as part of an effort to raise awareness, it's being called Blog Action Day.



I would love to say that I have undertaken some major project here at the farmhouse, but I can't. So instead I am going to pass on a cool article I read in our local electric company's news letter. It gives steps on how to do a do-it-yourself home energy audit. I haven't tried it myself yet, but I definitely plan to. I'm just holding out because there is a contest where you can win all of the tools they mentioned in the article (well, maybe not the dollar bill). I'm going to hold out for a month and keep my fingers crossed. Well that and I think I will become severely depressed if I try the incense trick. I don't need the incense, you can feel it blowing in and the cracks are VERY visible to the naked eye -sigh- But anyway... here's the link, check it out:



How to save energy with an incense stick, a flashlight and a dollar bill.



Also, for those of you who read in from the area and belong to the Butler County REC (like us) check out their Change a Light Campaign. Defiantly something we will take advantage of.

Mystery A Brewing

Where's the paint?

Tim's folks were going to be busy today so we ended up staying home. Elsa, even though she is only 2 months old, has decided this ticks her off and is protesting by being VERY fussy today.

I did find the door knobs for the bathroom doors so they can be removed from the dining room. Then I started looking for the paint and primer which we bought sometime before Molly was born. Can you believe it's MI-nonA?

Maybe Tim will know where it is.

Hard to test a paint brush without paint or primer.

The Paint Tool Arriveith

Need the back story? Check out yesterdays post.

The paint tool is here. And I am already developing issues with the paint job and the brush isn't even out of the box. You need a garden hose to clean it. This seems to be the major selling point of it. Tim is impressed. I opened the box and he said, "Cool, why don't I ever think of things like that."

So back to the garden hose. We don't actually have a "real" outside water hook up. That was on the list of things to do this summer. And since we didn't do much house-wise this summer it's not done.

Our current hose hook up situation right now is you have to attach it to the bottom of the water heater in the basement and then run the hose up through the basement doors. This is Tim's area of expertise. i.e. something Becky doesn't want to do because learning to do it will limit her ability to whine about there being no outside water hook up. Yes, I use ignorance as a weapon. Better that then -ahem- other things.

So again back to the garden hose. This is what I know if it. These pictures suck because I wasn't in the mood to trek around to the back of the house so I took them out windows. Sorry.

Here is a photo of the hose tangle on the scaffolding we built over the basement staircase to side the house.


This photo shows parts of a garden hose. I worry that the ones it the tangle have this same issue. I'm guessing here, but I thing Tim ran it over with the lawn mower. I was watching mow a couple weeks ago and saw him take out an extension cord. I don't know if it was plugged in or not. I didn't want to know. I really need to up the life insurance on him -sigh-

And in case you can't tell I'm not cleaning out the dining room. And it's definitely going to rain tonight/tomorrow so off to Grandma and Grandpa's (Molly's not ours) house we will go. I will clean Monday. I promise, just don't hold your breath.

Oh My, What Have I Done!

Deep breaths. I need to take very deep breaths.

I have a problem. I have a weakness for free things. If you want to get me to purchase something. Put a "buy one, get one free" sign on it. It works every time. In fact, I will usually buy 5 or 10 or 27, even if it's something I never use. Ask Tim. He'll have multiple examples of specific products. It's one of those problems in our marriage.

So I signed myself up for a free paint tool over at Houseblogs. Figuring I need a little motivation to paint the dining room. We are still planning on having Christmas this year. This is a running joke with my family because we volunteered our hospitality back in 2003 and every year since have been canceling on them. However, we really need to get a move on because back in 2003 there were only 20 of us. This year there should be 25. Already two of my cousins are pregnant so that's a 27 count already for Christmas 2009. Soon our enormous house won't hold everyone and we'll have to rent out a pavilion.

The catch. And there always is one, is that it needs to be done by October 22.

So why freak out. It's just a little prime and paint. It will take a day at the most right? Well maybe pre-kids.

Here's the current dining room situation.

I figure Tim will be in the field this weekend so that gives me Saturday and Sunday to get it cleaned out in anticipation for the wonder tool. Stay tuned for what's likely to be a mess.

Halloween Decorating

Last week instead of doing laundry like I should have I dug around in the closet up-stairs and found some fall and Halloween decorations. It's not much, I really need to get all crafty on the place ala Martha. I just keep telling myself next year when one is out of diapers and the other can motate on her own.

This painted oil can and the shingle in the top picture are done by this really cool artist from Minnesota. One of the shops in Osage carries her work, she paints on reclaimed items (there are some really cool old windows). I stopped in to the shop and asked if she had a website to share with you all, but the owner got a little nasty with me. I guess she thought I was trying to cheat her out of her commission. My mother-in-law is the one who bought these things for me and she has some cool pieces herself. I'll try to remember to take a camera next time we head north and I'll also see if she remembers the artist's name.

The lighted cat in the window isn't really my style, but Tim really likes it so I put it up. There was a bat one too, but it died.

These little ghosts were a surprise. I found them in a box separate from the rest of the decorations. Neither one of us can remember where they came from. I'm thinking we bought them while we lived in the house in Waverly to sit in the four porch windows.

So for the time being if I want to sit anything on my little plant stand (plants included) it has to be Molly-proof. This little trick or treating basket gives her a chance to practice for the big day. Now we just have to get her to say trick-or-treat.

There are three little bat candle holders in the center of the piano that are hard to see. My hope is next year we will be able to put them on the dining room table. The pumpkin is on it's last legs. You can't tell from the picture, but the stem is broken and it's pretty dented up. Plus, the little blinking light inside decided to die last year.

I don't think I like these leaves here. The looked really cool over the door at the house in Waverly, but I'm just not feeling it here. I tried them on the staircase, but they weren't long enough. I originally wanted to drape them from the kitchen light fixture, but got scared that I'd burn the place down. The fixture gets really hot and the leaves are cloth.

Last, but not least is the cool luminary we got from the Pottery Barn (that's where we got the bats on the piano too) during a sale. The only way it will ever be lit is if Tim does it with out my knowledge. It's made of wax so I'm afraid even though the candles inside are small they will still melt it. And I'm way to cheap to throw it away and buy another.

It's not much, but it's a start.

Houseblogging With Children

Tim finally got Molly's birthday (May 6th) swing hung on the front porch.

A while ago I read an entry on a blog I enjoy reading that made me terribly uncomfortable and more than a little self conscious about the content of my site. It basically was a quick little comment at the end of a post about houseblogs that "devolve into garden or baby blogs." I don't think they meant to be mean, but it kind of hurt my sensitive post-baby hormonal feelings. I really wondered if there were a lot of others out there that felt the same way. I thought about creating another site, but I'm already not blogging as much as I should here what would splitting myself between two sites really accomplish?

So here is what I've decided. I will keep blogging here. There will be entries about my children and what I am working on landscaping wise. And this is why... I feel that the acreage and its look is important to the house. Our vision for this place when we bought it was so much more than just the house, and I think it is important to share all of it.

Also, our vision included living in the house with children. This house still bears marks of the girl who's parents built this house. I'm almost 99% sure that our children's bedroom was once hers. Our attic has her name and the names of friends written on a lower part of the ceiling during a play date. She is part of the house and someday my children will be too.

I like most owners of an old house am curious about the families that once lived here. Luckily I have been able to meet a few. I hope someday when another family owns this house they will be curious about me and my family, a kind of circle of life of an old house. I want to be able to show them how happy my family was here and wish them the same.

Life changes and therefore peoples blogs also evolve. It's not a bad thing. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Punch List Revisited

Back in 2006 I made punch lists to go along with my anniversary posts. Now I am setting up the nifty project tracker bars on Houseblogs so I need to revisit those lists. Would you care to join me? Note: It ain't gonna be pretty.

Exterior:

• new roof -major leaks have been replaced
  install peak shingles
  touch up paint
  re-do north porch
  fill animal hole
  build stairs
  install trim work on porch bottoms -DONE, see post
  landscaping -started, see post, and post
  finish siding
  screen doors -two purchased and partially installed

Kitchen:

• refinish windows
  refinish doors
  clean up door hardware
  seal doors
  hang curtains -done

Pantry:

• refinish window
  install door hardware
  hang curtain -done

Dining Room:

• install trim
  fill nail holes
  refinish windows
  find swinging door hardware
  clean-up door hardware
  prime and paint
  refinish floor
  install light fixture
  hang curtains
  install outlets

Downstairs Bathroom:

• install trim -done
  fill nail holes
  refinish window -done
  refinish doors -they are refinished, but not hung
• clean up door hardware
  purchase and install light fixture
  install wall tile -just some touch-up work to do here
  install outlets

Foyer:

• prime and paint stairwell
  install trim -about 75% finished
  fill nail holes
  seal window/build storm -ended up buying a storm
  clean up door hardware
  wall paper
  order door chimes
  refinish exterior door

Living Room:

• install trim -done, see post
  fill nail holes
  seal windows/make storm -ended up buying a storm
  refinish exterior door
  clean-up door hardware
  wall paper -done, see post
  install light fixture

Master Bedroom:

• fill nail holes
  refinish windows
  refinish doors
  clean-up door hardware
  touch up paint

Master Bathroom:

• order curtain
  install missing trim
  fill nail holes
  refinish windows
  refinish door
  clean-up door hardware
  touch up paint
  attach shower plate

Laundry Room:

• install missing trim
  fill nail holes
  refinish window
  refinish door
  clean-up door hardware
  touch up paint

The Girl's Room:

• fill nail holes
  refinish windows
  refinish doors -all that is left is the closet door
  clean-up door hardware
  touch up paint
  install light in closet
  install outlets

Guest Bathroom:

• install missing trim
  fill nail holes
  refinish window
  refinish door
  clean-up door hardware
  touch up paint
  fix shower head

Up-stairs Hallway:

• refinish windows
  refinish doors
  clean-up door hardware
  install missing trim
  fill nail holes
  touch up paint
  install outlets
  install register

Guest Bedroom:

• refinish window
  refinish doors
  clean-up door hardware
  install missing trim
  fill nail holes
  touch up paint
  install outlets

Hobby Room:

• refinish window
  refinish doors
  clean-up door hardware
  install light fixture
  touch-up paint
  install outlets

Back Stairwell:

• patch walls
  prime and paint
  install light fixtures
  install outlets
  install missing trim
  refinish stairs
  fill nail holes

Mudroom:

• refinish doors -all that's left is the exterior door
  clean-up door hardware
  install shelves
  install sink

Office:

• install threshold plate -it is purchased
  hang curtain -DONE
  clean-up door hardware

And of course the past couple of years have added more projects to these lists. However, if you look at the big picture, compare what we've done with what we have left, like I have when doing my project tracker it doesn't seem quite as bad.

Mums

My plan was to share these for the Autumn feature entry in Houseblogs, but didn't meet the deadline. Plus, it's not the greatest composition in the world. I was kind of in a hurry when I took it- hungry baby. Tim bought them this spring at Home Depot (I wanted nothing to do with them because I was a little leery of the quality of plant you purchase from said store). I might have to be a little more accepting of the big box store garden centers now because these puppies flourished. There isn't a square inch that isn't covered with flowers.

I love Martha Stewarts pages on how to care for particular plants (OK so I just love Martha Stewart all around). Here is her page on mums although I have to say I did nothing that she suggests. They pretty much got planted and watered every other day when it was dry.

5 Year Wedding Anniversary

Yesterday was our five year wedding anniversary and so much has changed. And we talked it over and have decided that since the first five worked out so well we'll give another five a try :)

Either a year or two ago I said I would post a photo of the great old church we got married in and so true to my word here is the inside the day we got married.

Some where I have another one that the phototgrapher took from the balcanony (yes, I know he took this one from the balcony too) that shows all the pews and more of the church, but I of course can't find it any where.

Here's the outside sometime ago. We found this great old post card a year and a half after we were married. I need to get it framed.



We didn't do anything special. The girls and I headed down to Waterloo to have lunch with Tim.

Here's Elsa all spiffed up to go.

Tom and Jen's New Porch

My brother and sister-in-law put an new porch on their Victorian farm home this summer. Tim was supposed to help do this in exchange for all the help Tom's done for us over the years, but Tom must have gotten tired of waiting for him to get around to it and hired a local crew to do the work. If you want to check out the progress over the summer here are the links...

A little bit of remodeling...

Finally finished...

A couple more...

Cedar Falls Tour of Homes

Aging Beauties

Hey everyone in the area. I noticed this in the Sunday paper. I'd love to go, but Tim said maybe, which usually means no, but I don't want to fight about it now. I'm going to keep pestering him though because it looks like a nice tour, and I'm not that familiar with Cedar Falls and it's always fun to find "new" places.

So Why Don't You Just Move To Sweden

So as I was writing my last post I was actually thinking of how this wouldn't happen over in Europe. I myself have never been, but from what people who have tell me I would love it because of all the great architecture.

My sister has a Swedish boyfriend (yes that sounds like the start of a bad joke), and it's always interesting to talk to him about building and materials and such. From talking to him I gather that it's not so much creating a museum out of the structure, but using today's technologies to preserve a heritage.

Last time he was here he was questioning the use of asphalt shingles. He asked if they are really cheaper. To which I replied with out thinking it through first, "Yes." But as soon as I said that my mind started working and I replied that, "No, when you take into account cost verses the amount of time the product is durable, then they are probably not the cheapest option."

And I think this is our problem a lot of the time. Our thoughts are not far reaching. When our children grow up and see pictures of this beautiful structure will they curse us for not saving it for them? So there isn't a use for it right now but who is to say there won't be in 10 or maybe even 5 years? How responsible is it of us to keep tearing down (filling up our landfills) structures only to build something new (draining fossil fuels, destroying natural resources, etc)?

When I was a little girl there was a house just a mile down the road from our farm with what was probably a pretty average white four square farm house. But to me that was the most beautiful house in the world. I loved it and was going to live there when I grew up. Well the farmer tore it down. Now I am thirty years old and live three miles from where I grew up. So that house could have actually been a very viable option for me. I don't know that I would have lived there, but the option was taken away long before I was able to make a choice.

Are all the options being considered? Is it really as black and white as tear it down or fix it up? What about maintaining the roof and keeping the place secure, and then really make an effort in the next five years to find a solution that would work. So maybe that wouldn't mean preserving the layout of the original school, but at least you would still have this unique structure in your community. Trust me, no one will ever be able to recreate it.

And yes it's an old worn out building. But give those Swedes and other communities working to maintain their treasures a couple of years and you could see the advancements you need in building processes to make these sort of buildings born again. After all if virgins and Christians can do it why can't Decorah? And what if there is some dreamer out there who loves this building and just needs time to come up with the solution? What is five or ten more years to a 100-year old structure that if given a chance will stand another 100 and out live both you and I.

Decorah's East Side School

I was watching the news last night and saw this story.
KTTC news coverage of story

What really sucks is the donation to demolish the building.
Decorah Newspaper coverage

It's one of the National Trust's 11 Most endangered places.
There's a photo in this link.

New Family Website

My sister-in-law Jen has started her own blog to show case photos she's taken. She's sure to have more than a few shots of the girls as time goes on. I love the collages she did!

Check out Newton Boer Goats! (That's where Elsa's onsie came from)

Golden Birthday

Today is my golden birthday. Guess how old I am :)

So I thought I would share my beautiful gift from Tim with you all.

New tip for my fellow remodelers out there. When you hang your light fixture make sure you give enough clearance in case you are ever the recipient of a ridiculously huge bouquet of flowers.

Toilet pictures next time I promise!

Meet Elsa Jean

Sorry it's taken awhile to get this post off, but things are pretty busy around here even though we technically aren't even doing anything.

I'm trying to get a schedule going, which is made more difficult by the fact that Tim has taken another job. He's now going to be running the privet pilot operations at the Waterloo airport. It will move him from second to first shift. Which wouldn't be such a hard transition if we could just do it, but he had the week we had Elsa off and ran a first shift schedule and then transitioned back to second. Now this week he has off at Deere and he's working the airport job and then next week he'll go back to Deere to finish his final week. -sigh- It wears me out just to type it.

So down to business.

Here's Miss Elsa two days ago. She's a very sweet baby. Much easier than Molly who had colic so bad. The only problem is while she is sweet tempered she is also VERY clingy. And she is definitely a mommas girl. That and her constantly wanting to eat. She completely freaks out if you don't feed her every two hours and she when she finally eats she just kind of munches along not really that into it. So it takes at least a half hour to feed her if not more. I am breast feeding so I am spending 1/4 of my life feeding her. Which drives a busy body like my self nuts.

Here she is on the day she was born. I can't believe we got this shot. Molly was only that close to her for about five seconds. Long enough to decide she wanted nothing to do with this thing with the silly bow on it's head. She's doing much better now. In fact she now can say Elsa and is the first thing she says when she gets up. And then she's not happy until we've found Elsa and make sue she's OK. After that she pretty well ignores her, we'll unless Grandma or Grandpa have her. Then we get a major case of the jealousies.

Here's the big sister yesterday. She was all wrapped up in her blanket trying to get my shoes on. Definitely a girlie-girl.

P.S. Tim did get the toilet in so expect a post on that soon!

Is Privacy Over Rated?

So I was catching up on some blogs and I noticed Greg over at the Perch house put a "deadbolt type lock" on his bathroom door. That got me thinking. Should I have locks on my bathroom doors? People who have visited is that a concern? Did you leave saying to yourself, "Gee, I'm going to remember to use the bathroom before I get to her house next time." Just the thought of this leaves me slightly panicked and embarrassed. What would Martha say?

I grew up in a farm house with one bathroom that was directly off the kitchen. I remember brushing my teeth in front of company, and it never even occurred to me to be embarrassed that someone might hear me pee. The door did kind of have a lock on it. A hook and ring sort of deal that was about six foot off the ground. Most of my time living there I wasn't tall enough to even reach it.

So in the spirit of democracy here's a poll for everyone out there with a burning desire to make your opinion known (i.e. the four people who still read the blog since I've stopped posting so often: Doug, Em, my mother, and my crazy sister Mary).

Do we need locks on our bathroom doors?
	No, I'm a risk taking dare-devil.
	Yes, I'm a nervous prude.
	Don't care, just get the stinking down staris bathroom done so you have something better to blog about.
Free polls from Pollhost.com

7 Wonders of the Newton Home

OK, seems like there's been a lot of hype about the new 7 wonders of the world. So we here at the Newton house would like to submit our own for your enjoyment. Alas, like some of the world's original 7 wonders, some of them have not survived the renovation, but they still live on in our hearts.

#7- The 3-holer out house. Yes, you and two of your closest friends can share the joy of the call of nature together. Pass the Sears catalog please.

#6- The mysterious locked freezer. Which became less mysterious when we discovered weeks later it was not really locked, but we were to stupid to figure out how to open it.

#5- The 52 ft. high roof peak. I don't know what the requirements are for one of those rotating beacons, but my ego says the house should need one. The story behind our insanely pitched roof is supposedly this: The farmer who built our house was in competition with the farmer a half mile down the road. Every time one of the men put an addition on their house the carpenters just packed up and headed down the road because the other farmer would what something bigger and better. Well, our farmer discovered that the other guy was going to end up with a taller house so he calculated just what height it would take to beat him. This also explains why the north side of the roof was built to look like it is caving in. Since if a pyramid's height grows so must it's base the roof had to be dented in a some point to make up for lack of space where the house meets the roof.

#4- Our "first" toilet, the toilet in the master bathroom. Ask anyone who's restored a house what a civilizing moment having a toilet in the house is. Especially if you've had to use nature's facilities when working at the house for over a year.

#3- The light fixture above the kitchen sink is the only fixture original to the house, and it's even in its original place on the wall. Don't believe me, check out the kitchen photos from when we first saw the house.

#2- The mint green toilet on a sticky tile pedestal. What makes this even more spectacular is the fact the PO's plumbed it to empty directly into the crawl space below this section of the house.

#1- The industrial tile floor patters in the mudroom and laundry room. We have purchased some pretty pricey and unique items for this house and it seems like these two floors are what gets us the most praise.

Wow. Now that I'm reading over this post I've noticed 3 of the 7 wonders are toilet related. I must be a little more stressed out about the up coming baby and the lack of a toilet downstairs than I had realized. What would Freud say?

Nothing is Happening

because there is a helicopter in town. -sigh-

On Eating and Toilets

The offical due date has now been decided. July 30th at 7:30 AM. I've been taking my mind off the fact that they are once again going to slice me open and for a while my guts will be outside of my body (OK maybe it's not so off my mind- if you can think of anything better for me to obsess over right now I'm VERY open to suggestions) by reading a really cool book Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma.

It's about the food chain and it gives you tons of things to think about. What really hit me is the sustainable ag farmer he followed said that it's not about starting a movement, but giving people who want a choice that choice. You need to read this book! And if you do and want to see a local couple's attempt at keeping things local visit Tim's cousin's web site- Sugar Creek Farm.

And on a related note, what goes in must come out.

This afternoon we went toilet shopping. We had actually been before and picked out which toilet we wanted for the downstairs bathroom. Unfortunately that toilet was $600+ dollars and now that we are a one income family that wasn't going to fly. So back we went.

Kohler's Iron Works Tellieur elongated toilet

I really wanted a Kohler. That's what we have in our master bathroom and I'm really happy with it. I don't remember what brand we have in the guest bathroom upstairs, but it's a dud. So I think this is what we are going to settle with. Although it's always hard to say until the thing is purchased and sometimes you still can't say even when it's in place.

Kohler's Devonshire elongated toilet

And to make mom happy (and maintain the plumbing theme) here's Molly a couple of months back helping load the dishwasher. She's so helpful it's annoying.