Farm Dreams

Homesteading, Organic Gardening, How to Farm, Preparedness, Self-Reliance

The first week!

We have had a crazy busy week on the farm as we work full-time and go out on weekends and after work. We have alot of repairs to do before we can move in.

The first thing we did was change the locks - 5 on the main house and 3 on the 2nd house (that our son will occupy). We still have locks to do on the equipment shed and barn.

I worked with my son on removing the carpet from the 2nd house which was very bad and smelled strongly of pet urine. My husband repaired the kitchen sink plumbing which was being held together with wire and duct tape and leaking. He replaced the valves downstairs in the basement for the humidifier drain and the hot/cold water supply for the washer. It is all copper piping.

We tore off the ceremic tile from the main bath - due to previous water damage getting behind it. We will replace the sheetrock and existing tub with new. We tore out the paneling from the basement and the sheetrock due to mold damage. We tore out the old shower. The basement had 2 finished rooms and a bath which will be where our daughter lives. She was a huge help with the labor on this as she tore out the paneling and sheetrock. We also have electrical to do in the basement as nothing is "code" and my husband (who is an electrician by trade) wants to make everything right.

I got Grandma's bedroom painted - it looks nice. We have her closet to redo and then her room is ready.

Of course with all this de-construction the trash to haul from the basement and bathrooms has been significant. And it isn't a walkout basement so everything is upstairs, out the garage and to the trash pile. We will eventually get a dumpster but for now we're putting it all on a concrete pad so we can "size it up" for the right size dumpster to have come.

Fun things we did the first week (all of it has been fun, let me say relaxing things we did) were a camp fire and roasted marshmallows, made smores and hotdogs. We fished around the lake - have caught 3 large mouth bass (catch and release of course), seen 4 deer, a red hawk and multiple other bird species), learned to drive the tractor (my daughter and I that is-guys knew how) and hauled away trash piles with the tractor/trailer from various places on the land.

We couldn't be happier! Lot's of hard work, but so worth it. Hope to get moved in and finished with repairs by end of December.

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Comment by Lisa Pankowski on December 4, 2012 at 9:26am: Good luck with your move!

Comment by Delanie Trusty on December 4, 2012 at 9:31am: Thanks Lisa, we have so much to get done still but I reminded myself, we are only in the beginning of week 3 since we closed and we have really accomplished quite a bit.

Comment by Karen Paro on December 4, 2012 at 7:17pm: Sounds like it's been very productive!!! Good Luck with the move and everything else involved.

Comment by Delanie Trusty on December 5, 2012 at 7:53am: Thanks Karen! It is amazing how much work is required to rehab a house but I know the end result will be great! Nothing wrong with alot of sweat equity :)

Comment by Karen Paro on December 5, 2012 at 11:34pm: Delaine, I know just what you mean about how much work to rehab a house my sister & I have been doing a lot of work on her's and mom's house the past few years. We've been making it our winter projects and do 1 room at a time ( that's why it's taking so long) the original parts of the house are 86 yo and the addition is 40 yo. The first winter we did the dining room last winter we did most of the kitchen and a small room upstairs for my sister to have for a craft room. This winter we're going to be finishing the last little bit of the kitchen and starting on the livingroom.

Comment by Delanie Trusty on December 6, 2012 at 7:31am: Karen, that is quite a project you are describing. I bet it will be so nice though when you are finished. The main house on our farm is 41 years old. The owners built it themselves. Some of the wiring and plumbing and framing seems odd but it had worked for them for 41 years. The time it takes to travel between our existing home and the farm cuts into the progress as well as our full time jobs. But we need the jobs to pay for the repairs so it will be a slow process for us as well.

Comment by Karen Paro on December 6, 2012 at 12:00pm: Well we found out yesterday that the power company wires that run from the road to the meter & from the meter to the circut board are just as old as the original part of the house. Yesterday afternoon all the lights in half the house went out and 1 of them kept flickering so my sister and I went down in the cellar to see if we could find the popped breaker and couldn't find any that were popped so we traced the kitchen wires back to the box and went to the hardware store and bought a new breaker that hubby installed but still no lights so sis decided it was time to bite the bullet and call an electrician and find out what was going on. What he found was that the wires coming in were so old & corroded that the insulation had rotted right off them and every time it rained or snow melted the water was running in on the wires and the result was the main breaker was over heating and melting. The power company had to run all new wire from the road in and in 2 weeks the electrician has got to come back and put in a new circut box and rewire the whole thing. And then this power company wonders why those of us in this area want the right to sign on with the local power company, the company we're forced to deliver our power never inspects their lines until there's a huge problem.

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