Hidden Treasure

This house is 116 years old. There's lots of history there, and we know very little of it. So, one of the things that we have been looking forward to in taking down the walls is the prospect of finding hidden treasure.  Sure, in my wildest dreams, I imagine a bag of gold (seriously, wouldn't that be awesome!!), but realistically, I'm just hoping to find bits and pieces of the past.  Over the past few weekends we have found a few odds and ends. An old concert ticket to a Boxcar Willie show (had to Google who that was...), some scraps of fabric, the beater to a hand mixer, and an empty pack of Camel's. All at least interesting, even if they won't payoff the mortgage  ;) .

Oh yeah, and in the attic were a number of really old boxes of mouse poison.  Today, I discovered why the mouse poison was necessary. Those mice built a nest in the ceiling, and in the walls.  A tight bundle if shredded insulation, fragments of newspaper, bits of string and the odor of really old mouse waste.  It was gross!  But, those little guys must have had a bit of a hoarding streak too. In that stinky pile of ancient mouse were some fun finds. Let me show you...

Old leather mitten, missing the thumb.

Scrap of leather

In between these studs was filled with mouse nest, and it went up above floor level on the second floor. There was more near the floor a few studs over. I didn't think to take the picture until I'd already taken the shop vac to it.....

Ok, so maybe the mice didn't hoard this, but it was at the bottom of the wall under the nest. 

Probably my favorite thing that I have found so far.  It is stamped "sterling" inside. I'm debating if I should shine it up, or let it be.

Oh yeah, and I found these....I guess that mouse poison did it's job (and I'm certainly glad it did!)

Playing Catch-Up

Whoa! It has been a crazy couple of weeks!  I have so much to share, I'm sure I will miss something, but I'll do my best to catch you up. Originally, we had planned on closing on the farm when I closed the sale of my house, giving us 30 days to jumpstart the work that needs to be done here. However, we ended up with about 36 hours from when the farm keys hit my hand until I was totally out of my house. In that time, all the nasty 1970's shag carpet (in avocado green and rusty brown) came out, the bathroom was disinfected, oh yeah and Troy, Carla, Dad and I stayed up until 4am framing in the new half bath and laundry room for the plumber that was showing up at 8am Saturday. Whew!!

This left me with a living room as a bedroom/pantry/office/closet/dinning room. The couch is my bed, which the dog thinks is his bed too. The bathroom could be compared to a camp bathroom where you don't want to actually touch the floor with your feet, flip flops required 100% of the time. We're on a well, and the softener and filter are a little rusty (by a little, I mean, when we tried to hook them up, water spewed into the basement), so if you let a glass of water sit around, it literally turns golden rusty brown from the iron oxidizing. So, while we've made it "livable" there's a loooooong way to go!

All right, so I'm being maybe a but dramatic. It's not perfect now, but the end result will all be worth it. More than once I have had the feeling that I am on vacation (at a cottage, the hard water smell, open spaces, flip flops in the shower...) and then realize, this is our farm. We own this. We get to make it everything we want. We have the opportunity to make something great here. The potential for so many things is just within reach. None of us are afraid of hard work, and our plans change and grow daily, and I could not be any more excited! So now,  I think in lieu of writing a book here, I'll start with the photos...

Overnight, this pile of lumber became my half bath/laundry room/pantry.

We've still found some time to play too :)

The west field is hay. A neighbor was interested in the hay, so has already sent his team out for the first cutting and we sold the him bales (gotta love a little extra income!) Plus, the sunsets out over the field are spectacular! (Rudy loves it too!)

Home Sweet Home! This setup has already changed numerous times. There's now a chest freezer, a washer and 2 driers in this space. A little motivation to keep working!

Before, during and after. Phase 1 of demolition - The plaster is already falling off the walls, and we're adding a second story over this portion of the house. So, the walls and ceiling are coming down. Super dirty job!

Demolition Phase 2 - This past weekend, Troy and Zach and I finished taking the ceiling down.  After Troy had a near death experience involving a falling sheet of glass last week, we got a little smarter and knocked the ceiling down from the attic, instead of from below. Really hot, but much better than having the insulation rain down on our heads.  The initial take down looked a little bit like a bomb had gone off in the kitchen. The window in the bedroom became a trash chute out to the dumpster, which make the clean up a bit easier, but still a teriffically filthy job.

Just a little bit of dust!

The house was built in 1900 and these are most definitely original. These beams span the entire length of the house, about 20' long. No breaks or seams - one piece of timber. Since we are adding the second story here, new floor trusses will be installed, and these guys can come down. Not to worry - we will find a use for them!

One thing we were sure of, even though we will be insanely busy building and cleaning and fixing things all summer long, Carla and I wanted a garden.  We took 2 afternoons and built and filled this raised bed. We moved about 5 yards of dirt (you should see our muscles!) and planted enough that we can have some fresh food this year. We had hopes of some larger scale canning, but that will have to wait for another year. This year we had tomatoes, peppers, a variety of squash, green beans leeks and herbs.

This little friend found his way into the basement somehow last week.  I had been hearing noises from below, and reluctantly ventured downstairs to check it out.  Luckily it was only this little black bird. I was able to open up a window and shoo him out. But the poor guy had been trying to fly out the closed windows, accounting for the banging I had heard that clued me to his presence :(

 

And finally, not to be forgotten, my animals. The kitties took a bit of time to not be totally ticked off about their new home, but are adjusting well now. Bailey is doing better than Gil, and has actually become quite curious - he even kept trying to join the clean up efforts this weekend, but settled for this view from behind the plastic sheeting. Rudy reverted back to some annoying puppy behaviors (accidents in the house, and eating my tablet - yes, he ate my tablet!) but is happy to be a farm dog, even if he is the most lazy dog I've ever had!

That's about it for now (as if that wasn't long enough!). Now that I have my computer up and running and internet streaming, I hope to update a little more frequently so these posts are not so large.

Finally!!!

This is finally getting posted. I still do not have WiFi at the house and can't get it to upload, so I'm stealing a connection from mom and dad....hopefully by the end if the week the house will be live.  I'll try and get more updates posted soon

Fri 5/27: We finally have the keys to the farm. I'll spare you the details, but after numerous ridiculous delays and changing our closing date probably 5 times, yesterday was finally the day. The prior owners gifted us with pictures and a bit of history on the house, which is absolutely priceless. They even had an inventory of the bulbs that the owner before them had planted in around the house. This couldn't be more perfect!! (Just to clarify....the couple we bought the property from never lived in the house, they farmed the surrounding land. We purchased 16 acres from the larger 95 acres surrounding us)

Anyway, I closed on my house, um, almost a month ago. I am turning the keys over to the new owners tomorrow, or possibly tonight if I can get everything accomplished that I need to. But that means having adequate living space in the farm house that I am comfortable moving the kitties into, knowing they won't get into anything, or get hurt on
tack strips, etc. So, I made it to the farm before 7:30 to get going.  Rudy has already christened the living room, so the sooner I get the old pet odor filled shag carpet out the door, the better. I'm still waiting on the dumpster to be delivered....

There is no shortage of work to be done ( and this happens to be a great way to stall and drink some coffee 😊) and we will be busy all weekend. We'll be framing in the new laundry and half bath area tonight so when the plumber shows up tomorrow morning, he can actually install the plumbing. I'll do my best to keep the updates coming and thankfully I don't go back to work until next Friday.  This next week will be busy!

And if I didn't love this place enough already, as I have been talking with you, I have also been enjoying the presence of a Ruby Throated Hummingbird visiting the hanging plant I put up just a few minutes ago.  I should probably get back at it, coffee break's over 😉.