Kristen in the Country

Our youngest daughter has this Leap Pad thing that's basically a baby iPad.  Last winter she played the same video over and over again until she had the song from it memorized.  The video was really, really stupid and had a Halloween theme and the chorus to the song said, "It's much to spooky for me!" only our daughter, who has the most endearing habit of pronouncing words wrong, sang at the top of her lungs, "It's much to smooky for me!"  It was pretty much the cutest thing ever.   Which brings me to our basement.  I don't even know if "basement" is the best word for what lies beneath the house.  It's dark.  It's damp.  Once I saw a centipede on the wall down there the size of my femur.   It's much too smooky for me.   Starting from the (sub)ground up is maybe, kinda, sorta - for - now our plan as we get to work on the house.  Like I said, the cellar was dark and damp so we decided the first course of act...

Aside from clearing out some tall grasses and brush on our property and along the roadside, one of the very first things Rob wanted to do was get his workshop organized and ready to use.  Although it's still in the early stages, it 's starting to resemble an actual shop, complete with a workbench and lineup of frequently used equipment .  His shop , located on one-half of the garage ,  is framed out but not insulated or dry-walled, which is on the long list of tasks he 'd like to do so he can heat it in the winter while working on projects.  For now, he wanted to build some storage shelving along the back wall of the other side of the garage (opposite his shop) to hold totes and items that were taking up precious floor space .  He did this by taking advantage of the high garage ceilings and vertic al space, which saves room without making the space feel smaller. In the building process   Initally, the shelves spanned 16' but after looking a...

Our new endeavor : Continuing the tradition of raising our kids in the family house that both my husband and his father grew up in. Our goal : Work the land to establish supplemental income as we remodel and restore the home back to its late-1800s roots. The challenges : Money, time, skills that are lacking (ME), and living here while we do the work. Advantages : My husband is a rock star with all things that need fixed or built and what he doesn't know, he isn't afraid to learn; he also knows the house and property inside and out because he grew up here.  This house and its crazy old workings are like an extension of his body. Why this blog : To document our progress (or lack thereof?), what we learn, how we grow, and help others who want to do something similar.  Also, to document all the things about country living.  (If you can call being one mile from a CVS "the country."  Which I do. Ahem.) The Family Home circa a long, long time ago The Famil...