New flower beds

After completing the drainage work, Mike decided to rework the plantings that line the driveway.

I didn't get the chance to take proper "Before" photos... but you can (kind of) see a portion of the flowerbed in front of the picket fence in this photo:

Mike removed the rock border, and dug up the patch of grass:

He then planted some Oak Leaf Hydrangea & Lavendar.

 

On the other side of the gate/walkway, Mike did the same...

Grass gone, plants in its place

Further down along the fence it steps in a little (to give extra room for a car to park and still keep the driveway clear), we decided that lavendar would be perfect here:

You can see the hose on the ground marking where we are planning for the edge of the driveway to fall...

The last step was adding mulch to all these new flower beds.

This one was taken this morning...
leaves are starting to fall!

The driveway guys are working at the house now and said they MIGHT be ready to start paving today!  Yippee!

More Drainage

Here's a follow up to the outside drains Mike has been putting under the driveway (in preparation for the blacktop)

I didn't have final photos for the electrical connection into the garage, so here's that:








Then there was the drainage near the Well House.  In addition to the drain Mike had going near the arbor, Mike also tied in the well house gutters...

And then ran the piping under the fence & driveway so it will drain into the field.



A last drain he decided to add to a section of yard behind the pump house, where some water had been pooling when we get big storms.










This also had to run across the driveway to drain into the field.



Mike also rounded out a section of the driveway that someone (can't imagine who- haha!) kept going off into the grass every morning when backing the car up.  It's now much easier to turn around!

Yesterday Mike went to the town office to see what permits we needed, etc.  Happily, they gave us the green light to proceed!
The driveway guy is scheduled to come on Friday!!!

Barn Door Handles

I love finding unique little things to fall in love with around this house!
Here's the latest...

Isn't that prettiest little door handle?!?  Even with the spider webs!

This little gem was hidden away on the inside of the little back barn door.  It's so dark in that stairwell, that I never even noticed it until we had the door hanging open all day while the guys fixed the roof!

Now I'm trying to think of a more visible place to use it... we'll see!

And while we're on the subject of door handles, I might as well add that we've finally purchased some for the sliding doors of the horse barn.  (Who knew that it would be so hard to find ones that we liked?!?)

The old ones were mismatched, and all of the new ones at Home Depot, Lowes, & Tractor Supply didn't feel heavy enough to me.

Then we found these on eBay for a set of 6!  That gives us 2 extra, which I'm sure we'll find a place to use (like maybe when we make doors for the goat barn?)

Mike installed them last week...

Outside

Inside

I love how solid & smooth they feel when you pull them- no fear of breaking them, or of hurting your hand.

Another little job done!

What goes up... must come down!

We see plenty of hot air balloons taking off from the field across the street from us over the past two years. We've even gotten up close when we've been at events over there... but the other night I heard the flame of a balloon, looked out the kitchen window & saw this one LANDING in our neighbor's yard!

Here's how close it was to our property- the fence is ours!

 It was neat to see how they put it all away...

Then they folded it up (in a much less exact manner than I would have thought!) 

and stuffed it in a bag... 

but I got talking to the neighbors, and missed getting photos of that part.

I hope they someday land in OUR field- I never get tired of seeing them.

Running out of Steam

Another project from Labor Day weekend... removing the wallpaper in the 2nd & 3rd floor hallways.  This one was a bear (and still isn't completely done!)

The hallways were apparently wallpapered and painted over many times through the years.
And now it's started peeling up at the edges.
It was time to get rid of the vines...

Peeling at the corner of the window

Peeling above the bathroom door

I started by removing as much as I could by hand with a little putty knife.
Which left me with this...














This....



And a whole lotta this...










That final layer of pink paper is the same as what we found in the foyer... and there's even traces of the same hot pink ceiling!  Eeek!


A more recent layer of wallpaper was a floral pattern...

And yet another layer was embossed (though it's hard to see the paisly-ish design in the photo)...

There was at least a 4th layer-that was just brown & had stamped numbers on the back, I think it was a quick-fix to paint over.  Which they did- many. times.

I got out the steamer and spent about 8 more hours to get it all down.  The brown & pink papers weren't too bad... it was the areas with spackle fixes & layers of paint that kept bubbling up which made it a bit difficult.

Mike had to build a little scoffold for me to stand on above the stairs- that section still needs to be finished (I had run out of steam both literally & figuratively!)

So here's pretty much how it's looking...

I didn't take 3rd floor photos, but that's done except for the highest part that requires the scaffold balancing act- which I'm dreading!

In the meantime, see all that gray plaster?  It is the original horse-hair plaster.

Before the paper was down, we considered embracing the old style & texture and just painting it... but now that it's all exposed it's rough to the touch, and you can see the hair in it.  Kinda gross- plus there are a bunch of random smooth spots where fixes were applied through the years.  We definitely need a skim coat.

So, we're currently in the midst of getting estimates.  My goal is to get it done before we have houseguests in October!

It's looking quite dilapidated right now- but it's gotta look worse before it gets better, right? So for now, I'll just continue to close my eyes as I walk down the hall!

The Big Dig

Labor Day Weekend Project #1...

We've been in the process of getting estimates for blacktopping the driveway.

Back half of the driveway

The weeds/grass growing in the gravel is driving me crazy.  Plus, it'll be nice to have a surface for the kids to easily ride their bikes & scooters on... and they'll be too big to find riding back & forth on the driveway exciting if we wait much longer!

BUT, that means we had to quickly get moving on a couple of items:
-Mike wanted to add two more drains to divert the downspout water away from the house & well house.
-We want to run electric to our garage.

Both of these items required digging ditches (extra deep for the electrical one) across the driveway and putting PVC pipe across. Better to do this now, than after we've blacktopped!


Here's the gutter/drain work Mike did >>>
The little piece jutting to the right is capped, but will eventually connect to the kitchen gutters.

He also needed to remove a big bush that was right at the corner of the house. (I didn't get the chance to take a "before" photo)












 He transplanted the bush up to the back driveway (where we have our bus stop bench).

<<<Next was the trench for the electric, and cutting the hole in the side of the garage






Since we aren't doing the electrical yet, we put a rope inside the tubing and capped it.









Lastly, was the drainage near the well house....  Water has been pooling right under the gate when it rains, so Mike is installing a drain and running it across to empty in the field.

As of this morning...
The drain closest to the house is finished.
The electrical tube to the garage is finished.
The drain by the gate needs one more PVC part, and Mike is going to shorten the swinging gates a little.

The rest of the photos are in this post!