Something borrowed, something blue, something old, and something new....

Our house, not just our wedding, is a reflection of the borrowed-blue-old-and-new saying.  We have been doing a lot. I never posted a March into April report, and now April is nearly up. In large part we've been doing the prep work for the bigger projects.  I have been busy with church work the last six weekends - one weekend left till programs are over for the school year.  Thomas has also been busy with out of town trainings.  I'm grateful for the opportunities he can take with his "big city" travel to pick up some of our supplies.


We've been borrowing Pop a whole lot.  He and his tractor have been hanging out at the house, plus his occasional sidekick Andres.  Pop's been working on the trench for our electric service cable.  That tractor has logged more than a few hours at our place.  I enjoyed getting to help Pop and Tom with maintenance on it a couple weeks ago when a nut popped off inside a chamber of hydraulic fluid.  We fished out washers and pieces and managed to put it all back together again with no extra pieces.  I was grateful to contribute - my magnetic wand for pulling canning lids and rings out of boiling water came to the rescue pulling the nut out of the dark.

The dark gash along the driveway is where we will lay the conduit.

In April thus far we've been doing a bunch of door work.  In addition to trimming out the rest of the front door and the cellar-to-outside door, we hung our bedroom and guest bathroom doors.  These new doors were a great find at the Habitat ReStores.  I particularly like their rough look. 

These doors are made with a knotty alder - very beautiful.

We also pulled this blue dutch door that was on the wood porch (original to the property).  It has certainly weathered through a lot, but will actually become an interior door once the mud porch makes the move across the property. 

The floral decorations came with the door - not sure who painted them, but they are sealed on with silicone.  They'll probably stay. 

And I mentioned that we found an old claw foot tub in March.  Gratefully, we amassed enough manpower this past Saturday morning, and it left its home of five weeks - the back of the truck.  This will go in the guest bathroom and add a nice bit of character.

I haven't decided if I am sold on the brass finish fittings, but this was a definite score - great condition, not chipped up or anything.

We've also started on the siding.  We got the flashing in in March, but the winds have been so strong.  We also learned after getting up the first board, that we didn't have the right equipment.  We're now the proud owner of a roofing nail gun - which fires a wider head nail for holding up the siding.  As a bonus, the color finish on the boards has really caught our eye, so we may have ended up with a house color to boot!

Before we can install any more on the south side, we will be adding foam and nailing strips to boost the R-value on the south wall. 

On the inside, we installed electrical boxes for some of our outlets, switches, and ceiling fans.  We also added fire-blocking on our walls over 8 feet.  The progress never ceases to excite me.