A Workshop. For ME!

I know I've been embarrassingly absent here on the blog. I haven't been working on any big projects (or little ones either, for that matter). Unless you count canning and school as projects. :) My older 2 boys went back to school at the end of August and I haven't really felt like starting into anything. Mind you, I have a TON of pending projects and when canning is finished, I will take on a big project again. I currently have 2 bushels of pears to can and 4 bushels of apples to turn into sauce yet before I can say I'm DONE canning for this year.

Anyway, enough excuses. :) Today DH and I are working on insulating the old chicken coop. We're (mostly he) converting it into a workshop for me. I normally work on projects in the garage or the kitchen (depending on how messy the project is) but we want to park the van and the car both in the garage this winter so my stuff needs to go.

The "chicken coop" that we're converting is the white building attached to the barn in the above picture. It is the back part of DH's shop and there was a wall separating them. He tore out the wall so now my shop and his are joined. It won't be anything fancy but it will be much better than the uninsulated and unheated garage. And it has room that all my things can be together. Woo hoo!

I will try to do an update post when we get everything in place. Have a great weekend and Happy Fall, y'all!



From the Farmhouse,

The Barn Project {updated}

At the end of September, I did a post on the barn project. I promised to re-visit it when the barn was finished to show you what it looks like now. It's been pretty well finished for awhile now but I wanted to have a star on the end before I showed pictures.

Well, life has been a little crazy lately and the star still hasn't happened so I'm showing you anyway. IF I ever get the star made, I will update this post.

Sherwin Williams "Utterly Beige" was the color DH chose to paint it. My personal opinion is that a barn should be red. Obviously, DH does not agree. But, he did let me make some shutters from scrap wood I found in the barn and paint THEM red. We decided to do a 2-tone to tie in the 'chicken house' part. This part has newer white metal and DH didn't want to paint it so he made the bottom level of the barn white to help it blend in a bit.

My bathroom project has gotten shoved to the back burner for the past 2 weeks. This past week I was working in our rental house getting it ready for new renters and the week before, we took a family vacation (Wednesday - Sunday). I had tried really hard to get done by Thanksgiving but....

life happened.

I think I'll cry if it's not finished by Christmas. I REALLY want my house back and a working bathroom for guests to use when they come over. This project has dragged on way. too. long.

I'm wanting to get some decorating done for Christmas but I feel like any time I have, I need to do bathroom stuff. Anyone want to come decorate for me? :)

Linking to:

Best DIY projects @ Beneath My Heart


From the farmhouse

The BARN Project

Most (or all) of the posts I write are house or house related projects. So today, I thought I'd share a project DH has been working on for the past few weeks; painting the barn.

I neglected to take 'before' pictures but these are some pictures I shot this morning of 'during'. The barn was white (but very weathered) and DH took a wire wheel grinder to the WHOLE THING. Yes, he's tenacious like that. I mean that in a good way! It took him HOURS and HOURS of standing in the bucket of a the bucket truck moving his arms up and down, over and over again. I would have gotten sick of it and given up LONG before I was done but not him. (One of the many reasons why he's MY man.) So these pictures show the barn in it's 'stripped' condition. Today he is priming it so hopefully I will have some 'after' pictures to show you soon.

I couldn't help but include this 'distant' shot with the windmill in the foreground.

This is the end of the barn that faces the house. DH is planning to remove the spouting and
Yours Truly is thinking that a huge lighted star needs to go on the end for the holiday season. :)

This is the "road" side of the barn so this is the best shot I could get without going into the pasture (which is very muddy right now.)

This is the 'driveway' side of the barn. 

And this is the 'shop' end of the barn.
(Please try not to notice that I haven't gotten any further on the bathtub since July.)

So there you have it. Want to guess what color we are painting it? (Since it's his barn, DH chose the color.)


From the Farmhouse