Foot Stool Fix

Since I had some left over fabric from re-doing the chair, I decided to also cover this little foot stool.

The stitching that was on it was in great shape, but didn't match my colors...
So I left it intact, and just put the new material right over it.

Ten minutes later, I had this:

Here it is with the chair I was working on, even though they aren't going to be placed together in the room!

More Chair Care

Another chair project...
This guy has been sitting in the barn, just waiting for some attention.  It actually sat in our garage at the old house for about 7 years!
 
In fact, here's a photo of it in the barn  --->
(along with several friends!)






I love the carving on the chair back, but I needed to replace the material, and glue the bottom rungs back together, and somehow never got around to it- until now!

One of my favorite parts is taking the seat off, and seeing the past lives of upholstery.

The top striped fabric was faded & dirty 

Second layer was this tapestry material

While the top was off, I took some wood glue and secured the rungs.


There was also a crack on the corner (I think it fell during the move!) that I needed to secure.


We used a screw on the inside, so it shouldn't be noticeable. --->




Here we are all cleaned up and waiting for the seat.

This is the material I found- on sale for $3.00/yard!
It's tan & sage green, which will go perfectly when this becomes the formal living room.

Anyways, I got out the staple gun and got to work...

Here's the completed project:

I think I'm going to pair this chair with my desk, since I currently don't have a chair for it.

I love when things (finally) come together!

Chair Repair- toothpick trick

I love old chairs.  I see them at yard sales and can't resist bringing them home.
Our dining room set is made up of various old chairs- I love that they're similar, yet not quite matching.


Unfortunately, many of these old chairs need a bit of TLC.
I decided to work on some chair care that I'd been putting off for WAY too long.
Here's the first of three chair repairs I did last weekend...

The seat kept falling off this guy.  No matter how many times I screwed it back in.

My friend's 5 year old child almost fell through when they were staying with us one weekend- yep, that was embarrassing!  
Turns out the holes in the seat board had gotten to big, so the screws didn't have anything to grab to.

Here's a tip for fixing that- courtesy of my father-in-law!



You can see here how the hole in the seat bottom is all frayed.

Take some wooden toothpicks, place them in the hole one at a time and snap off so they're at approximately the same height as the hole.  


Repeat until the hole is filled.

This now gives you a surface to screw into. 

All that's left is to line up the frame onto the seat (a little tricky, since you don't want to turn the seat upside down or your toothpicks may fall out).






Ta-dah!  The chair is as good as new!

Coop Reveal

The painting is done!

BEFORE

We decided to go with a solid color stain, rather than paint.  Hopefully the stain will just fade, as opposed to chipping like the paint would.


We matched the original color as best we could, although the original looks rather pink since it's so faded!  
We'll get around to painting the other sides eventually!



The kids were excited that I was actually letting them do the painting!  Since it was just the side of the barn,  I wasn't worried about it looking "perfect".


It turned out to be lots of fun, & the boys are very proud of their work!





While we did the painting, Mike finished making the new chicken door:

And ramps for the chickens to enter & exit.

Waiting for the ramps to dry

Door from the inside

We're also making progress on the inside, though there's still more to do:

Buck got a little punky- he couldn't resist rubbing up against the painted wall.  

Here's where we are on the To Do list:
-Fix rotting sill and chicken entrance- DONE!
-Replace some insulation- DONE!
-Replace siding- DONE!
-Paint new siding- DONE!
-Replace fencing
-Add a fenced top to the chicken yard
-Scrub down the inside
-Make door for goats
-Make door for chickens- DONE!

The Pits

Mike and the kids have a little experiment going...
Growing peach trees from pits. 

Mike read about it online, and decided it would be fun to do with the kids.  And if we're lucky, perhaps our grandkids will someday be picking peaches from them! 
(Yeah- we know it's going to take FOREVER to get a fruit-bearing tree... or even a decent sized tree for shade!  But it'll be a good learning experience for the kids, and hopefully will instill in them why cutting down healthy trees is short-sighted, considering how long it took the tree to get there.)

First, they saved all of the peach pits from peaches they ate last summer. 

I allowed them to cordon off a bottom refrigerator drawer to store them in plastic baggies.

Once they had plenty collected, they cracked the pits, put some potting soil in with them & returned them to the  fridge for for a couple more weeks.

This weekend, they checked on them, and believe it or not- they're sprouting!

Next step was to plant them in a bigger container. 

We made due with a part from the old "fountain" that we ripped out of the front yard.  More potting soil, and they planted the little sprouts.

Now they have been placed up in an East facing window in the attic with a plastic bag over the top.

The hard part is going to be making sure our cat doesn't creep his way into the attic and tear it all apart.

I'll let you know if/when they make the move to be planted in the yard!

Coop Scoop #3

The siding is up!

And just to remind you where we started:

Better, right?

There's still some trim work to finish up...

I love the old clapboard siding, however, this was the only side of the barn that had it.  So it's kind of nice to have the whole thing matching (once it's painted!)

At first we were hoping the old boards that were in good shape could be saved for repairs on the bigger barn, but unfortunately they're a different size. 

But I am going to find some good uses for them- some crafty projects are brewing... Pinterest awaits! 

(Mike- don't roll your eyes!)

:o)

So Checking back in on this To Do list:

-Fix rotting sill and chicken entrance- DONE!

-Replace some insulation- DONE!
-Replace some siding- DONE! 

-Paint new siding and anywhere else that needs it
-Replace the fencing
-Add a fenced top to the "Chicken yard"

-Scrub down the inside
-ADDED- Make (?) door for goats & chickens

Slow & Steady!

Coop Scoop #2

We started the repairs to the chicken coop!

First thing we did was removing the old fencing around the chicken yard, so we'd have easier access to get the tools close to the barn.

Next up was removing the siding and replacing the rotten sill.


Here is the chicken door- you can see the rotten sill there too.

 



Here is a "before shot" from the inside.
I'm sure lots of little critters, and probably a small fox could get through those holes!

The previous owner said a fox had gotten the last chickens that she had... yikes!

So Mike patiently got to work, removing the siding, the insulation, and cutting the necessary pieces.

See those sheets of siding leaning against the back of the barn? 

We'll share a story about those in a few minutes...

First back to the barn...

The bottoms of the studs were also rotting, so he fixed those too.

That board in front of the new wood was the old rotten sill!  Pretty bad!

Then it started getting dark... so Mike packed it in for the day.

Here's the only bump we've hit so far...

We were hoping this barn work was going to be done on the cheap- having the tools, and lots of scrap wood already.  The biggest thing we needed to buy were the sheets of new siding. 

Mike went to the store, purchased the wood, and used bungee cords to strap them down to the top of our crossover (aka: my car!).  About two miles from home, one of the bungees snapped, and the wood slid forward over the windshield. 

Thank God no one else was on the road, and the only damage done was a big crack in the windshield.

A father & son were outside a house nearby and helped Mike re-secure everything.

And that, my friends, is how 4 sheets of siding end up costing an extra $250!

What can you do?

Anyway, the siding got up the next day... I just have to snap some new photos, so more to come!

Soup up the Coop!

I don't know how we forgot it, but this should have gone on our 2012 To Do List, since we definitely want to get chickens in the spring!

The Chicken Yard
I hope the chickens and goats get along,
since they'll be living side-by-side!

Mike surveyed the state of the chicken coop, which is inside the goat barn.

Here's the To Do list:
-Fix rotting sill and chicken entrance
-Replace some insulation
-Replace some siding
-Paint new siding and anywhere else that needs it
-Replace the fencing

-Add a fenced top to the "Chicken yard"

-Scrub down the inside

Inside the coop

This is going to be one of those projects where we take it a little at a time... needing the weather to cooperate, and hopefully we'll be ready for the little chicks to arrive this spring.

The only thing that might hold us up is that Mike also has to finish reading the "Chicken Book" that I got him.  No chickens are arriving before he's read that book cover to cover!  I took on studying-up on the goats, now it's his turn! :o)


My 7 year old wants us to get the kind of hens that lay multi-colored eggs (like a girl in his class has). 

As long as the kids don't balk (haha) at eating eggs with blue & green shells, that's fine with me! 

And another bonus- it'll save me from having to dye eggs at Easter!

Rolling Rock

Or more accurately, Rolling the Rocks.

We've got TONS of them!  So, we decided to use them to create some flower beds.

To start, we moved them over to along the fence.  (Yet another good use of the tractor!)

That's our little Christmas tree from the front porch.
Not sure where we're going to plant it yet!



Here we are, with the stacking in progress:

It's looking a little rough and scraggly now, but it IS the middle of winter. 

This spring or summer I'll post an update once we get some mulch and plantings in...