How Time Flies!

Wow, we have been in our home for one month now, yet I feel like we just moved in.
We are settling in, getting into the groove of things and acclimating to our lives here.

I took a few days off from painting since my body was just aching and I was definitely feeling exhausted, but now I’m definitely more refreshed and ready for the next project.

So far, I did some of the prep work this past weekend, and today I’ll be finishing it so I can start to paint.

Our bathroom, like the office and laundry room must have had some work done to it, because upon closer inspection, I can see where they fixed the walls, sanded them down and left them with a very smooth surface.

There were little holes just from nails and then all the holes that I made taking the molly’s out of the wall. There were old wooden towel bars which were painted over, and when I removed them, off came the top layer of paint, to show the oil based enamel underneath.

I have no problem with enamel, but when a person just applies semi-gloss paint on top without doing the prep work, you can take just a fingernail and start peeling the paint off. Not good!

The next problem was the god-awful light fixture that looks like a relic from the dark ages to me. It glows yellow when the light is on, to match the “sunshine” yellow paint that covers almost every room in the house…floor to ceiling.

We have the same problem with the front entry door. It has this orange glass that when the sun is shining through, it casts a yellow/orange haze into the foyer and dining room. Anyway, Dom removed the light for me yesterday so that I could get back to work in there.

When I tried to remove the light fixture myself, after unscrewing the face plate, I was standing on the sink in horror as I saw wiring that was just coming out of the wall.

There was no box inside the wall to house the wires! Horror. He’ll be putting in a new box over the next few days, and when I’m done painting, the new fixture will go up.

I know that in the future we’ll be doing an overhaul on the bathrooms, getting rid of the old cabinets and cultured marble vanity, and bringing each of them into the 21st century, but for now, a paint job, new fixtures and faucets, mirrors and such will go a long way!

While I was enjoying those few days off, my mind began to focus on the exterior of the house and the land.

We have a great slope to the property. I was busy observing where the water has been flowing down the property and also the greenest areas overtaken by tumbleweeds that are still young.

It helps to know where the water flows so we can best decide which fruit trees need more water, and where to place other trees that do not require much at all.

It makes me antsy just sitting there planning it all out. I want to do it now! A week ago I ordered Italian Cypress seeds, Honey Locust and Quaking Aspen seeds.

They are the first in my collection. Next will be Acacia, Black Locust, Choke Cherry, Sand Cherries, Mulberry, Apricot, and a few others that will definitely serve as forage for our future chickens.

I’m only talking about some trees right now, but the list kind of keeps growing so I don’t want to put everything here in this entry.

I’ll talk more about the chickens and the kind of coop we’ll be building at a later time.