New House New Year New Memories

Christmas in the new house was wonderful!  I got Keith the "Bird Girl" statue for his upcoming rose garden.  He was so excited!  Now he's talking about finding a birdbath with a pedestal to display it on.  He's obsessed with planning his rose garden.  You know what?  I'm delighted!  His rose garden will be HIS mark on this place.  It's an important part of our future plans.  He's already been gathering ideas and tips and drawing out the plans.  God bless him! 

Last week we ordered a new couch.  It's on back order so it won't arrive until February.  Oh well.  We've lived more than a month now with a lawn chair and a dining room chair in the living room.  It works, but it's not all that comfortable or cozy.  I finally put throw blankets on the back of the chairs.  Seems odd, but those are the things that make you feel cozy when you sit and watch tv.  Anyway, the cool thing about the couch is that it is electric!  It's an electric recliner!  I have trouble getting the recliner to kick back down.  It's also firm but plush.  I can't wait to get it!

This week a lot was accomplished!  Our friend Lee pretty much gave us two whole days of work out of the goodness of his heart.  He really looks out for me.  I really appreciate that.  He and Keith worked together.  They removed the anode rod from the hot water tank.  Now our water doesn't smell wonky!  Yay!  They hung my big curtain rod in the living room and the coat rack that Lee made me in the dining room too.  So now I have a place to hang my coat and I hung the curtains that Amy gave us!  Thank you Thank you Thank you!  (and yes - we still have our tree up!)

Today I came home to find the boys on the barn roof.  They had already replaced some shingles on the house and a piece of roof vent, re-secured some flashing around the chimney, and cleaned the gutters.  They were patching a hole in the barn roof so now it doesn't leak!  Yay!  In the meantime I started scouting in the yard for burnable material like pieces of the roof, shingles, tar paper, and branches they had trimmed from nearby trees.  I also swept out the exposed downspouts and the front porch and filled the bird feeder.  It's good to feel productive!  Oh and Lee also put in a new exterior door on the chimney.   60 degrees in January is unheardof!  We took full advantage.  I was really tempted to rake all the leaves away from the areas around the porch, but I'm afraid to uncover the insulation that any plantlife has there.  It might be needed until spring.  I have no idea what plants are here, but we will find out in the months ahead. 

What else is on the To-Do List?  All sorts of things!  Let's see...

• Remove shrubs that are too close to the house.  Must wait till spring so we can replant them elsewhere if we choose.
• Electrical work in the basement.  Keith is waiting for his friend from work who wants to help him so he can learn how to do that.  Keith will enjoy teaching him.
• There are junk piles here that must be burned, sorted, and probably eventually buried. 
• Barn!  It needs cleaned out so badly!!!  We have stuff to scrap, burn, and organize!  It needs to be re-sided.  I want to price out Hemlock for that.  Then we'll address electric/water.  Once that is done, I'll need to install a barn floor for storing hay and add a couple stalls for the horses.
• Survey - we need a property survey or at least someone to come show us where the pins are.
• Fence - then we can put up fence! 
• Tractor - we need a tractor to mow and hopefully plow.  One with a front end loader would be ideal, but I doubt we can afford that just yet. 
• More curtains - I have a window in the living room and the entire dining room to decide what to hang.  Any suggestions? 
• The stove needs moved to a different area of the kitchen.  That requires moving wires. 

So so so much... but we have our whole lives ahead of us to work on it.  I'm feeling very blessed right now!