The last year ... inside edition

The last year has been busy with lots of things, but we have taken it slower with house projects. We haven't taken the year off completely though. 

We were excited to add a player piano to the barn from our great neighbors. The piano is powered by a foot pedal and plays music from punched rolls. We have quite the selection and Margaret loves dancing as David plays the piano. The piano made it first appearance at our Barn Dance this past August. Photos from the festivities here.

 

In the main house, one of the most significant changes was in Margaret's bedroom. We said good bye to her crib in September and introduced a toddler bed. In a few months, the crib will return as we welcome Margaret's new baby brother into our family.

We did some comestic work on the second floor before the summer in preparation for a visit from my good friend Amy. We painted and decorated the hallway and furnished the front bedroom (which we had originally painted when we first moved in).

 

In the hallway, we added a foot treadle sewing machine that we found in the barn when we moved in. With some simple cleaning, it looks quite different. Above we hung an embroidery piece created by my aunt that plays homage to my great grandmothers yarn shop in England.

The bedroom was outfitted with a twin bed, dresser and new rug. We painted a telephone table and headboard also found in the barn when we arrived white to make the room.

Next on our plan is demolition upstairs and repainting our bedroom. Stay tuned for updates!

The last year ... outside edition

I can't believe it has been almost a year since my last post. We have had a busy year with lots of toddler activity although fewer house projects than our first year. We have been enjoying living here and taking time to do other things! David has enjoyed working on the outside of the house especially adding to the landscaping and gardens. Margaret and I have loved spending time exploring the yard.

   

We added honey bees to our backyard last spring. My parents and Katie have had several hives at their house for a few years and were excited to expand to our backyard. We have already enjoyed lots of honey from the hive and look forward to adding a second this spring. They are great for pollinating our trees and the vegetables in our garden.

David enjoyed planting our vegetable garden for the second summer. We had great success with cucumbers and were able to eat and pickle lots. Tomatoes had a rough season, but we enjoyed lots of roma tomatoes later in the season. We had a beautiful flower bed in the center of the garden too.

 

We bought a swing set off Craig's List, repainted it and added a new slide and swings. Margaret loves playing on it - especially the swing, slide and telescope!

 

Our chickens continue to do well. We add three new hens to the flock bringing the total to nine. The new additions are Dominiques with pretty black and white feathers. They all went on strike for a few months late fall, but have now started laying eggs again.

 

 

We have had a lot of snow this winter already - but it has not stopped us from being outside. Margaret loves playing in the snow and was more excited this year to try snow angels and sledding. Even the swing set enjoyed some winter use ;o).

We love spending time in our yard regardless of the weather!

 

Spring ...?

It's almost the end of March and we still have close to a foot of snow on the ground and more in the forecast for this weekend. We have had over 80" of snow this winter so we are ready for mud season to begin. We did enjoy exposing Margaret to snow since she was bigger this year and able to play in it more. 

 

David did a lot of shoveling and snow blowing with several storms of over a foot of snow in a day. Margaret enjoyed watching from the window where it was warm. Margaret went sledding for the first time and gave making snow angels a try. 

 

Our chickens weathered the winter well and didn't seem to mind the cold or snow much at all. Margaret loves letting the chickens out in the morning, feeding them and collecting the eggs.

 

We enjoyed celebrating our second Christmas in our home and with Margaret. It was a busy time so our tree had a very natural look :o).

 

 

No projects on the house this winter - other than the addition of Margaret's new kitchen to our kitchen. We are looking forward to warmer weather to continue our work on the outside of the house and plant another vegetable garden.

The porch is complete!

 We finished the other end of the porch this month and it's already proving very useful. The "mudroom" end has a bench, shoe storage, coat hooks and large pantry cupboards. As with most old houses, we have virtually no closets in the main house so we desperately needed somewhere to store paper goods, vacuum cleaner etc. These big cupboards are perfect and already full :o).

 

In the sitting room end of the porch, we add three chairs. These chairs were in the barn when we moved in and have been caringly restored.

The before and after photos of the chairs definitely show the difference!

In the kitchen, we added a comfy chair by the french doors. It's the perfect place to sit while Maggie plays or watch the fall colors in the back yard.

Fall is all around us! We created a scarecrow that is helping us with the renovation work. He is part of a town-wide fundraiser by the Women's Club. You can find others on the town Scarecrow map.

We have also been busy in the barn with a lot of clearing and cleaning. We put up a wall along the back by the stairs to divide a bike work area from the open party space. We also added a few pieces of furniture that we cleaned up from the barn and hung farm tools that were also found in the barn. We were able to use it for Maggie's first birthday party.

Happy Fall!