The Garden!

We have started a pretty large garden this year. It has definitely been a learning experience. I have too much of some things and not enough of others and some things I totally forgot. We have tomatoes, cucumber, spaghetti squash and basil at the moment. I wish I would have done less squash and put some zucchini in, but there is always next year. Olivia loves to go to the garden and count the ponatoes (tomatoes). I did catch her pick a small squash today and throw it and say "Football!" The joys of country life are growing on her fast!

Father's Day!

We decided to have our first gathering at the house for our family for Father's Day. Both sets of our parents came over and we ate like pigs! The meal turned out awesome (if I do say so myself) and was followed by swimming in the baby pool for Olivia and a food and US Open induced coma for Josh and my Dad. once everyone had left we decided to take a Gator ride down to the creek to play. Olivia loves riding on the Gator and splashing in the water at the creek. We are so lucky to have all this at our fingertips! I hope Josh enjoyed his first Father's Day at the farm. I'm so lucky to have him as my Husband and partner in this journey!

Demo, Demo and More Demo!

Demo of wall in dining room

Demo wall where sliding glass door is now in dining room

Removing the wall between the living and dining room

Widening the kitchen opening

Getting ready to demo the old stairs (outside wall of the old stairs)

Hole cut into the roof for the dormer that holds the kids bathroom

Opening the wall between living and dining room (opposite side view)

Wall is almost gone

The Amazing Floating House

So our first order of business was to fix the foundation. It was constructed in 1894 from limestone and the mortar in between the stones could now be crumbled with your fingers. The front part of the house was the worst and was pretty much sitting on the ground (hence the massive amounts of termite damage). They brought in huge jacks and lifted the house and tore out the old and prepared for the new. They also added a french drain system to keep water out of the basement.  You want to see some hard work, this was it! These guys busted their butts dragging rock and mud out of our basement by hand and worked in 100 degree heat day in and day out. We had some cracking in our plaster from the raising of the house but not too bad for everything they did. The new foundation and steel beams have given us much more piece of mind. The basement is also much drier than it once was, but not totally. Here are the pics of the process.

The old foundation removed

Our high tech security system we had...plywood!

Yep, that is daylight you are seeing.  We were home to squirrels and a cat for a while : )

These are the jacks that were holding the house up

The stones from the old foundation, we are using them to make a sidewalk

New concrete blocks going in

Some of the cracking we had in our bedroom

That was then...This is now

I don't even know where to start.  Last April Grandpa and Grandma decided it was time to leave the farm.  We are so blessed that they have left the farm to us, knowing how much it means to them.  Grandpa was born there and lived there for 82 years!  I'm so excited for Olivia to grow up enjoying the same things I loved as a child.  Catching baby frogs in spring, mushroom hunting, fishing...the list goes on and on. 

The house and land are beautiful but we knew the house needed repairs and we wanted to add some things to make it perfect for us.  We wanted to add an attached garage, bedroom and laundry on the main floor.  We needed to repair the 118 year old foundation and also some termite damage (we had no idea how much).  Here is the house on day one. 

We started demolition and the foundation work in August and fell down the rabbit hole shortly thereafter.  We thought we would be in the house by Christmas 2011, little did we know!  After an exhausting year of work we are so excited to be where we are today.

I think I'm going to break the rehab down by rooms so this terribly slow country Internet connection doesn't drive me to drinking!  Hang with me and enjoy the ride.