Fire Pit Project

I wanted to share a photo of our new and improved fire pit area. My boys did a great job building it for me. Come on Fall weather...I am so ready to start using it!

Curb Appeal

Here are a few photos of "Part II" of our This Old House Project. We had a sidewalk that led from the street to our front door. It was 70 years old and in pretty bad shape. Rob was concerned someone might trip, so it had to go. It was a little more difficult to remove than we thought it would be. It was 4 inches thick! We hauled 4 truck loads of concrete away. It weighed about 2 tons!

Breaking up the old sidewalk

We decided to relocate the sidewalk to come off of our driveway.

The cement truck arrived!

My awesome cement finishers!

We wanted to match some to the brick accents that are on the original part of the house. Andrew was the wet saw operator!

After the concrete dried for a few days, Matthew applied the bricks.

He also matched the brick work of the original house on the addition we had build several years ago.

The finished sidewalk.

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 Strangers & Pilgrims on Earth

This Old House

    

 Once a upon a time, back in 1987, a young married couple set out to buy their first house. They looked and looked trying to find the perfect place. They desired to live in a small town. They wanted a quiet neighborhood, with a large yard. After many, many weekends of driving around and looking at houses, they found the place they would call home. A house build in 1944 with a large yard, fireplace, three bedrooms, and two bathrooms. The first time they went inside the house, the previous owner was baking bread in the oven and the house was full of primitive antiques. The couple just knew this was the house for them. The wife had big ideas of renovations for the house and just knew that her husband could make her dreams come true. They bought the house and have lived their for the past 26 years! They have added on to the house, build a barn, painted, removed walls, installed hardwood floors,renovated bathrooms, and landscaped. Their children have grown up there and learned many skills as they have helped make improvements over the years. This year the house will be 70 years old and so they decided it was time for the old girl to get a "face lift", so they have been working hard, along with their two sons, to make some improvements...

The front of our house before

Here is the north side of the house before

 Here is the after photo! We put cedar shake shingles on the gable ends of our house. Rob and the boys spent hours cutting each shingle. It was like making a quilt. Then Rob stained and sealed them. I love the way it turned out!

 We are still working on a few more projects. I hope to post some of the results soon!

Rain Chain

I wanted to share a project that my son made for me. It is called a Rain Chain and this is how it works. When it rains, the water runs off the roof and down the chain into the "catch basin". (In this case we used a terracotta pot with river rocks in the bottom.) The pot helps the soil from eroding and the water goes into my lily bed. It was pretty simple to make and I think this looks a lot better then a traditional plastic or metal downspout in this spot on our sun room.

Here are instructions on how to make your own Rain Chain.

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Raising Homemakers 
New Life On A Homestead

Back Door Guests Are Best!

Here are some photos of our finished back porch project. It's been done for a while, but I realized that I never posted any photos. Rob and the boys worked so hard to make this happen. They tore off our old deck, and built this wonderful back porch and sunroom with all kinds of cabinets for storage. I love the benches! Not only are they great for seating, my grain buckets fit perfectly inside! It is also large enough for a ping pong table that we have also used as a big table for holiday dinners and parties. We are spending a lot of time in this room!
The last photo is of a mason jar shelf that Rob and Andrew build me for the kitchen. I love the way it turned out!

My New Project

I recently told my husband that I had a project in mind that I would like to do. He promptly asked me if it involved him and if he would be required to build something. (Our last project was a major bathroom re-do!) I told him yes, but it would be well worth it! So here's the deal. I have been very convicted about the amount of money we are spending on food each month. I would like to be more self reliant when it comes to the food we are consuming. Do we really know where the stuff in the store comes from? I am very concerned about all of the processed food my family is eating and we are eating out way to much! So... I proposed to him that we (OK, he and the boys) construct a long term food storage pantry. I also would like to purchase a wheat grinder and grind my own flour. In the process of researching this, I have found some great resources to help me accomplish my goal. Check out the links on the "Simple Living" tab at the top of this blog. I know some of you are trying very hard live a self-reliant and independent life, so if you have any suggestions, please let me know. And so my journey begins...