Ashes & Dust...

So, I thought it would be poetic to start this post with the "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" line and I thought it was from the bible, but apparently it's not!! I had Ecclesiastes in mind. You know, "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven." Ecc. 3:1 It flows, right? But it's not there.

Anyhow, now that I've destroyed the poetic entrance of this post, I'll get on to my reason for writing.

I find it absolutely amazing how a structure that stands and provides shelter and warmth for over 100 years can be reduced to dust in almost no time at all. In December, we watched an excavator take down the original farm house on our yard in under an hour. I'm sure he could have done it faster, but he had to pause and clear rubble and debris as he went.

Did you notice how much dust flew out of those walls as they came down??? As we moved out, we found extension cords that were browned near the socket and I can't help but thankfully praise the Lord that our house never burnt down on our heads.

I know there are people who are saddened at our decision to take the old house down. There is a rich heritage and history that lived in that house and that fact is not lost on us. It was a good house/home, but the reality is that it needed a LOT of work and we aren't the people who can make that happen. Quite frankly, with a busy farm operation, it's not the priority. I did write a blog post that made light of the many shortcomings that old house possessed. If you're interested, you can check it out HERE.

As the original century old farm house came down, there was a somber feeling in the air. I'm glad my father/mother in law were away, because I think it would have been hard for them to watch. I couldn't help but think about how temporary things built by "man" are. One hundred years is a long time, but really just a drop in the bucket in light of eternity. It's the things that God builds that last.

We really did try to sell (or give away) the house to someone who would re-locate it. We had it listed on Kijiji for a year and there were several inquiries, but it just wasn't a viable option economically. The moving costs were MUCH higher than for a new house and most towns have by-laws to regulate houses that are moved in (electrical work etc.). They are leary of a hundred year old farm house and any of us who have watched even a little bit of HGTV have a pretty good guess as to why.

SO, down it went.
(We did remove most doors and re-usable things inside.)

The spectators were kept captivated while the excavator worked. Crazy to think that my kids will hardly remember ever living in the old house! And yes, I think that is a smile on Mitch's face. He was actually pretty excited to see the house come down. We had hoped to have the house gone several months sooner. Our sight lines from the new house to the barn significantly improved (by 100%) when the old house was gone.

Reduced to a pile of rubble. Things did get cleaned up fairly well, but I know we'll have a mess to deal with come Spring.

Have no fear, the whole is filled in :)

I think we are going to love our HUGE front yard. Mitch was fairly quick to get a rink flooded for our little up and coming hockey player.

While it is sad to think of the original farmhouse being gone, we are truly SO thankful for our new home. It is very comfortable and more than adequately meets the needs of our busy family. Life really is easier in our new space.

We begin a new legacy.
Doesn't our new house look like it fits on this yard?

Getting my DIY on... Pallet Style

For those of you who know me well, you know I am NOT crafty!!!... not on a regular basis, anyway. I also wouldn't say I have much for artistic talents and my patience wanes when projects take too long. There are moments though, when an idea takes root in my mind so deeply that I am compelled to DO something about it.

SPOILER ALERT!!
I did this: (with MUCH help from my wonderful husband)

As you've noticed (if you follow my blog at all) we built/moved into a new house this year. This spring/summer has been a gradual process of piecing together our "outdoor living space". I watch too much HGTV and therefore, my dreams are grander than they used to be! ;) I mean, have you watched Decked Out??? Incredible. (AND entirely unattainable without finding a massive secret stash of $$$)

ANYWAY, my husband has built us a beautiful large deck that has quickly become a favourite space for our family. We have some cute small table/chairs deck sets (2) but I had a dream (cue music) of being able to lounge comfortably on my deck, sipping soda and watching my children play without any fighting or tears for hours and hours... ;)

I have admired the beautiful sectionals that were on display at Costco for months (knowing that we do NOT have money for one) and I made a casual comment to my sister one day about how great one would look (and feel) on our new deck. My sister (thanks Carrie) introduced me to the idea of making my own using pallets. You see, I'm not on Pinterest. It's one of the few social media spaces I've avoided. I hadn't heard of the concept, but the comment sparked a seed of an idea/desire that took root and grew in me...

I immediately began to look for images of pallet furniture all over the web. I drew inspiration from images like these:

And that was it. It was decided. We needed a pallet sectional on our deck. ;)
(My dear husband took a little more convincing than that)

I began by hunting for pallets around our farmyard.

Often when we buy seed etc. for our crops, they come packaged on pallets, so we have quite a few. I counted more than 20 in several shapes and sizes. Some of them weren't in a "usable" state, so it's debatable as to exactly how many we had. ;)

Much to my husband's chagrin, I hauled a few pallets up onto our newly built deck to check out the size and feed my dream a little more. They sat up on our deck "as is" for a full month before we finally tackled the project. I think Mitch was just seriously sick of looking at old pallets on his new deck that he worked so hard on, which is fine by me if it motivates action! ;)

While in Target one day, I found these blue outdoor mats on sale for half off in the clearance aisle. I liked how they looked/felt, so these brought on my first expenditure for this project. I believe I paid $24.99/each.

Last Saturday (July 26th) we were supposed to be playing in a Slo-Pitch tournament but it was cancelled due to the fields being to wet and unusable after large amounts of rain. Voila! A window of opportunity to begin work on our pallet furniture. Yay!

My husband and I went through the pallets, picked the best ones and began laying them out on the deck to come up with a plan of action. I have looked at many pictures and sites that talk/instruct on how to build a pallet couch and even watched youtube videos, but the problem is with the varying sizes and construction of each different pallet.

Honestly, this was the most challenging part of the entire project. I think I changed our "plan of attack" at least three times as we moved/cut pallets. This drives Mitch crazy! It was like we had our very own marriage course that morning. Communication was the main focus. :) (Isn't it always?) With much restraint and a test of patience, we both worked at carefully choosing words to relay our ideas and encourage/discourage each other. I'm happy to say our relationship survived this test! We were able to work together, complete the task without saying anything too awful ;) and I think we're better for it now.
PHEWWWW!!! (sigh of relief)

I think we used a total of 8 pallets. We debated making the seat of the couch 3 pallets high, but that was fairly tall and patio furniture is meant to be sunk into, so we opted for two. We first made our base and cut off some of the back of each pallet to make them even and narrower. The base is still fairly wide; 33 inches, I think. We were able to use two of the pieces we cut off as the arm rests for the couch. Without much fore-thought, they actually fit pretty perfectly and added a lot of strength to the construction.

We selected the pallets with the widest boards to be the back of the couch and also cut some off to make the back not so tall. Thankfully, we have lots of tools on this farm. We had all the tools necessary to make this project happen. We also had more than half a bucket of 3 inch deck screws left over, so we made no additional purchases in the construction.

Making a "chaise" to put with this couch and make it a sectional was the easiest part of the day ;) We cut it to be the same depth as the couch and fastened them together with several screws. Easy peasy.

I was very happy with how my patio furniture turned out. The blue mats were not quite long enough or wide enough to cover the couch, but this could be remedied with additional cushions. This beach umbrella was a temporary fix for some shade on the space.

My intention was always to paint the pallet furniture white because I thought it would look better against our house and go well with our white trim. I went on a hunt for partially used cans of white paint from past renos and to my delight, I found an UNopened can of white paint in the basement of our old house. It was perfect. This specific shade of white was called, "Forget me not," which I found funny considering it was a can of forgotten paint. Mitch thought I was lame ;)

We used the entire can of white paint. Mitch went over as much of the surface as possible with a roller. (He's a man who values efficiency). I used a brush and worked patiently trying to jam it into as many nooks and crannies as possible. I wasn't sure how much effort to put into trying to paint the inside boards of the pallets. Having constructed it first and then painting, it was difficult to get at several inside spots. I think it's okay, though; especially after putting cushions on. It's white enough. ;)

Jysk has their patio umbrellas and bases on sale already and I was thrilled to find this grey one that goes marvellously with my house/deck. I am a grey lover, I suppose.

I put some extra effort into painting the back of the couch since it's eye level to anyone walking on the driveway below. Until the deck railing gets put on, it will be very easy to see any cracks I couldn't reach!

I couldn't resist putting a little pic of this beautiful plant I bought for half off at Garden Architecture on the corner of Idylwyld and 20th. If you haven't been there, GO! It's gorgeous. I did inquire about getting cushions made for my pallet couch there, but... it would have come to at least $1000 which would defeat the purpose of my economical DIY. I have no doubt they would be stunning, though.

Rather, I opted for the more palatable prices offered at JYSK. ;) Those cute throw pillows along the back were $7/each and the cushions on my "chaise" were $12. The patterned navy/white pillows on either end were $10/each.

There you have it! My first larger scale DIY. I love the way it turned out and already we are parking our hineys there several times a day. It's comfortable to sit on and even though pallets aren't known to be made of the highest quality lumber (my dear hubby informed me of this more than once), I expect it will last several years. I think I will pick up a couple more cushions and pillows yet, but I'm happy with how it is now.

Here's what it set me back:

SO, our marriage successfully survived this DIY. :) We'll see what's next... We DO still have more pallets. Is there a protocol or recommendation for how many projects (i.e. stress) to put on your marriage? Or a suggested interval of time between projects?

Moving Month

I love this picture because it shows our old house and the farm yard through the window
AND because my sweet Kalena Jane is in it ;)

I believe that when most people relocate their family into a new home,  they pack prepare and then rally friends and family for one crazy/hectic "moving day." OR you may go the route of hiring movers to make your experience less hectic. Either way, the climax of the experience is "moving day," when all of the contents of your former house migrate to the new house and you now refer to a new/different house as home.

Our experience, however, has not been the typical move. As you know if you've read previous posts of mine, our house was moved onto our farm yard in late November. You can read/see that move, in my post: Our House Grew Legs if you're interested. Since then, we have been eagerly waiting to live in our new abode and we really thought we'd be in long before we were.

As eager as we were, we knew we had to wait until a few minor details were completed on the house. You know, heat, water, sewage, a basement floor... okay maybe not so minor. 

Being that our move was close to Christmas, and work was backed up with some trades, there wasn't much progress made in December. I know that many people experience hold ups as they build, but ours was especially painful as we also awaited the arrival of our sweet Zavier who's 8-day overdue birth had us about crazy. Most of December felt incredibly unproductive for both Mitch and I. If you know us well, you know that we're big fans of productivity.

Our appliances were delivered to our new house before Christmas, and a few furniture items we purchased (bunk bed, mattresses, sectional etc.) were delivered right around the New Year (I can't remember exactly when). Those were the first items to be moved into our house and it was great because they were delivered right to our front door and even carried into the house for us! Easy peasy. However, having those items in the house made me that much more eager to start living in that space!

As soon as I got a green light from our contractor, I started moving some things into the bedrooms and pantry. I literally started moving in an arm load at a time. I would pack up a section of a room, pile it by our back door and either Mitch would carry it to the new house if he was available, or I did it during nap time. In the past month, I think I've made hundreds of trips between the two houses. 

Now, let me tell you, the path between the two houses is glare ICE. We had a path packed down in the snow and then when we had that warm weather mid January, it half melted, got rained on, and could likely serve as a skating rink. Needless to say, I have wiped out a few times as I hurry to get as much done during nap time as possible!

Practicing safe moving ;)

Nearing the end of January, I was feeling discouraged and as if we would NEVER be living in our new house. Our contractors had given us the green light to move in, but we still were awaiting an inspection and Mitch was pressing hard to get the basement to a certain point. It is very helpful having in-laws who live on the same yard as us because we have excellent (and often eager) baby-sitters who love on our children regularly, allowing us to get lots done. We lost my in-laws to the south for a time, though. I am truly glad they could get away, but we definitely missed them as we pressed to move in. We had all thought we would be living in the house well before their holiday.

Initially, we weren't going to finish the basement at all (for now), but then we realized we needed the mechanical/utility room closed off and the bathroom roughed in. Then it turned into the framing/insulation being done, too. Mitch casually made the comment to me, "Just make sure the kids don't poke holes in the plastic..." Ummm, right. The chances of me being able to keep the kids from poking a MILLION holes in the plastic are nil. That would be the very first thing they would do. SO, we decided to also get the drywall up, but we have no plans to "finish" it for some time.

Anyway, Mitch was working hard on the basement (We are thankful for grandpas and uncles who also helped with this endeavour!) and I was trying to make some progress moving while also entertaining 3 children. (Not to mention feeding them, changing diapers, etc.) SLOW going.

I should stop right here and acknowledge that we really have a GREAT network of family and friends around us and I had several people offer to help us with this move, for which I am thankful. I didn't know how to have people help me with this move, though. It wasn't like I was organized and had boxes packed and ready to move. I also have a sweet little newborn (although he's almost 2 months now!) that had to be near mama. Having a baby and a new house so close together just wasn't the best planning on our part. ("Planning" wasn't really involved ;) ) We have had friends/family bring us food and watch our older two children. Thank you!!!!

My sister came through for me in a big way to help us actually take the big steps to start living in our new house at the end of January. She came over and helped me move almost my entire kitchen over in an evening. My mom watched my kids and helped me put them to bed and then held Zavi, while Carrie and I went to town. She expertly packed up my old kitchen and brought me box after box while I unpacked and organized my new kitchen. I never could have done it so fast on my own!

The day after we moved my kitchen, my sister kept ALL of my kids (we had bottles ready for Zav) for most of the day, so Mitch and I could get more done. My parents and brother-in-law, Braden joined us late in the afternoon, and that evening we moved the "big stuff" such as our bed, the crib, washer/dryer etc. We ate our first dinner in the house that evening, but I forgot to take a picture to commemorate the event. My parents took Jett and Lena to their place to sleep that night because we didn't have everything "set up", it was late, and I didn't want to have their first night in our new house go too badly. Mitch, Zavi and I spent our first night in our new house on January 31st, so we can say we moved in January ;)

That next day, February 1st, was filled with organizing and putting stuff away. My mom kept my two eldest kids at their house for the day and a sweet neighbour brought us supper which allowed me to be very productive. :) Mom and the kids joined us for our 2nd dinner in the house and this time, I remembered to take a pic. (Albeit, not the best quality pic)

Our first night with everyone in new sleeping space went okay. Kalena was up from 2-4am, which is not our preferred way to spend the night, but our poor girl has experienced a lot of change this winter. In spite of being up with a baby through the night (and occasionally a toddler), I am thrilled to be back to sleeping in a bed. Due to the logistics of our old house, I slept on the couch in the living room with Zavi for almost 7 weeks and I was ready to be off of the couch.

Since that first night, we have fumbled into a routine of putting Kalena to bed in a playpen in Zavi's room at the same time Jett goes to sleep in their room. Later, after Zavi's been tanked up for the night (or a few hours...), we transfer her to her lower bunk (Jett is on the top bunk) and put Zavi to bed in his room. It seems to work fairly well, and Kalena sleeps well even though she's transferred.

Last night, Zavi slept a 5 hour stretch for the 2nd time ever! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to fully appreciate 5 consecutive hours of sleep because BOTH Jett and Kalena were up during that time. :( It is what I have feared with having the two of them sleeping in the same room; that one would wake the other in the night... This was the first time it has happened, though. I hope this doesn't become a habit! Thankfully, after a glass of water and a short search for a beloved Mini Mouse, we were back in dreamland.

I wonder how long it's been since I slept, uninterrupted, through the night...
I wonder if I'll ever sleep through the night again...?

Enough babbling. I blame lack of sleep. ;) Let me just show a few pictures from the last weeks.

I felt ambitious one afternoon on one of our first days "in" and tackled several armloads of  "stuff" (mostly clothes) during nap time. I had all three kidlets sleeping in different rooms, so I would run to the old house, throw stuff in boxes, bags or just grab an arm load and transfer (across a treacherous icy path) to the new house. As you can see, I loaded up our main living area. :) As long as the house was still quiet, I would run back for "just one more load..." The tricky part was keeping the kids from jumping on these piles once they woke up... 

We LOVE the island in our kitchen. The kids love the barstools because they lift and spin ;) We've had a few wipeouts, but nothing serious. We have taken to eating most of our meals here. 

Zavi spends some time in this bouncy chair, which has served me well through J and Lena as well. It is often sitting on the table or up on the island so I can coo at my little sweety who is becoming very social. Don't worry, I know that some of you are having heart palpitations worrying about the chair falling/ being pushed to the floor, but I am very cautious.

We have a bath tub!!! Actually, we have TWO as well as a shower in our mudroom bathroom. It is a dream! ;) The kids haven't asked for our old rubbermaid container from the old house... ;) 

We have games/puzzles in that cupboard behind where the kids are playing, but no "toys" upstairs. My kitchen/living area finally isn't littered with cars, trains, blocks, play dishes etc. :)

I'm sure I'll rearrange things a few times yet, but here is what I've done with my fireplace wall. I have written in previous posts about this wall and what I should do with it (The Home Stretch). I opted for pictures and floating shelves to fill the space and I'm loving it. I did have a bit of an issue finding the studs, much to my husbands chagrin. I remedied the situation with some wall braces and everything is now secure :)

Here is the full view of that wall as it is right now.

The glare makes it difficult to see, but that top pic says "SCHULTZ". I found a great deal online through Frame the Alphabet (maybe a groupon???) a while ago and I've had this tucked away. I quite like the way it looks on this wall.  

I am SO thankful for this crew. We are loving our new space to live in.

Here's a little peek into our bedroom. I really love having my bedroom on the same floor as our living area. I've been MUCH better about making our bed each day!

We opted to put a heated floor in our basement and I don't think we'll ever regret that decision. It makes the basement so much more pleasant (and warm) to be in! This above pic is before the drywall was all tacked up and floor sealant painted on. We didn't haul down most of the toys until after those things were done, but the kids enjoyed riding around. ;)

Our toy area is now taking shape.

I am NOT a crafty person, but we made a little "art corner" for painting, colouring, etc. and I think the kids enjoy it!

Today it is two weeks that we've been in this house. It will still be quite a while before everything is DONE (the inside of the garage won't be done till spring, as well as the deck, etc.), but more and more the space feels like home. We've already made our "mark" on it and broken it in with some scuffs and marks on the walls/floors. We are thankful, content and feel incredibly blessed to call this our home.