We plan, God laughs

I have always been a early riser. I was the kid at sleepovers that was up first, and sat talking with the friends parents because the other kids wouldn't be up for a few hours. I still find the early wee hours some of the best times to get things accomplished. There are no distractions, and there is peace and quiet (and around the farm these days, those commodities can be hard to find!) So, this morning, it was laying out my tile pattern. I found an awesome wet tile saw on craigslist for a great deal, and we will get a chance to try it out finally today.

Also, I have always been the one with just a bit of bad luck. Stitches, broken bones, bee hives on the more extreme end of my past luck, I have always been plagued by things just not going quite right (typically through no fault of my own!). Originally, we had hoped to get some tile laid two weekends ago. But, as I am finding out around here, timelines are more of what you'd call "guidelines", or a least a rubric of the order of whats to come. I had been told, and am now seeing, expect the unexpected with these old farm houses. There has been no major issues as of yet, but enough little snags along the way, that we are, well, behind schedule. As it turned out, the professional guidance we had lined up to get us through the addition part of the renovations has turned out to be a little less than professional. Seeking out construction help in the middle of summer in Michigan is not really an easy task. Everyone is booked, and has been that way for months. We have been fortunate enough to have someone to at least tell us what we need to do for the next few steps, but we will be executing a lot of framing work on our own - and a lot more of it than we originally thought would need to be done.

Not to worry, we have our muscle lined up and ready to work with us next weekend. Big push this week to get some more demo done, and put up a temporary wall, so that next weekend, with a generous time donation from family, we can work towards getting things back on track.

 We picked up 2 gallons of paint to cover the laundry room/half bath/ pantry area. I've done my fair share of painting, but never over new drywall. We primed the drywall, but it still soaked in way more paint than I anticipated. So, a few days later, I went back and got 2 more gallons to finish the job. I gave the lady at the paint counter the exact same paint chip I had used the first time. I went home and started touching up areas that needed it, and painting the walls that hadn't be started. Everything looked great. Felt good to see some progress. Until the next morning - when we could clearly see that the new paint was just a shade lighter than the old paint....  So, everything gets a third coat! And I make a call to customer service Monday morning to get some free paint.

I know, I know, extremely hard to tell. But this was the best I was able to do at showing the difference in colors. There is a vertical stripe next to that hole in the wall that is lighter than the rest of it. It is far more noticeable in person.

And, if I needed a little more bad luck, it came in the way of a little bump. What started out looking like a bug bite on Rudy's eye, grew over a two week period into a "mass" next to his eye. I use that term lightly - we don't have a biopsy back yet, and it likely benign, but poor Rudy has been forced into the cone of shame. Little guy has not gotten used to the new size of his head, and runs into everything - including our legs. 

On the bright side, I found a killer fridge at Lowes on clearance. It looks good as new, but they were clearancing it at half price due to the fact they had had to fix/replace a water line. This beast is 35 inches deep and has the showcase door on the fridge. It's amazing! Then, Dad found an entire kitchen at the ReStore including a stone counter top for less than the builtin stove it includes originally cost. The cabinets were all custom built and are beautiful. And for now, it is living in the chicken coop :(.  Back to work!!

There are 3 toilets in my car!

I admit, that is not something I ever imagined saying, let alone be excited about. There are multiple levels of excitedness to that statement. 3 toilets in one car...not the Focus!  I got myself a little Subaru Forester (actually slightly older than the Focus and has slightly more miles, but this car can fit 3 toilets in the back!)

Shameless plug....

( also, if you or anyone you know is looking for a reliable car with lots of great features like heated seats and remote car start, and gets about 30mpg, let me know!!).

 Anyway, the toilets!  The only reason to buy a toilet is that you have a place to put it, right!? We are at the point that we are ready to install a new toilet!  

I know, it's been a while since my last update. But, we were busy for a few weeks moving mom and dad here and cleaning out the Northgate house. We took time to enjoy the 4th of July holiday and show off the farm to family and friends. Then, we had to wait for an inspector to come check out the new floor and plumbing we put in before we could cover it all up with walls. Now that that is all out of the way, we have started putting drywall up in the half bathroom, and can actually do laundry (I'm beginning to get super excited about little things being able to do laundry, it's a big step people!!) 

So when you have a coupon for 10% off at Lowe's, and a house that needs 3 toilets, why would you not buy all three at once?! The plumbing guy at Lowe's thought I was nuts, and he wasn't too thrilled about helping me lift them onto my cart (and getting paged to help me get them into the car), but when the toilet is on sale and your coupon expires tomorrow, you get matching toilets all at the same time. And then you get oddly excited that you have 3 toilets in the back of your car. The next big step is finishing the drywall, painting, tiling the floor, and....getting that toilet installed.  With 5 people sharing a bathroom, I am just a bit excited to get that half bath finished! We are a little behind schedule already, so with the next few days off of work, Carla and I are gonna rock out the drywall and get us back on track. We are down to just a few short weeks until the second story is going up and we have plenty to keep us busy in the mean time.

Oh yeah, and, we planted raspberries!  Before moving out of our respective houses, we dug up raspberries from our gardens.  Those poor plants have been sitting in pots for the last 6-8 weeks and were starting to look to pretty sad.  Problem is, we don't have the means to till up any sizable portion of land. Sure, we bought a tractor, but we don't have a tiller yet. I tried valiantly for all of about 10 seconds to sod bust an area, but the ground was so solid, and so thick with roots, it was not gonna happen (and I did my whole garden by hand at the old house).  Luckily, we have neighbors!  The nearest one is about half a mile away (I'm guessing really - there's a corn field, a small forest, and more corn, then his house - we can't see it from here. But his family has been on that land for 100+ years).  Well, he stopped over and introduced himself, and said if we needed anything, let him know.  Later that afternoon, he came over and roto-tilled our little raspberry plot for us.

Raspberries!! It actually looks a bit better than this now, I just don't have a picture yet to prove it....

This little boy LOVES anything with a motor! The tractor is probably his favorite.










There's always time for entertaining guests, and we love showing the place off. We had such a great time with Grandma and Ari!