Posted with my Christmas present...

Christmas was all about "new" this year. We celebrated in a new place, welcomed new people, and cooked in a new kitchen. We had decided not to do presents (just stockings for the boys). But there were a lot of gifts, just not many under the tree.

Brent and Jeremy cheated and gave me some unexpected presents: a kick spindle (for faster spinning) and a new LED flashlight. But, otherwise, we mostly had a ton of candy.

Our first Christmas being warmed with sunshine.

One big gift was the long awaited appearance of the sun. We learned that passive solar is amazingly effective and decided to regulate the temperature by opening windows. It was a windy 50 outdoors and a toasty 73 inside with some strategic open windows.

Family was our greatest gift by far. All our boys joined us Christmas morning. Then we hosted dinner for my family in the evening. My parents came bringing my aunt Evie and her husband Dick. I stood up with Evie in their wedding on the 20th. He was our "new" person. We were also very fortunate to have my brother and his family. In all, 15 people celebrated this first Christmas with us.

Me with the nieces and nephew.

All these loved ones helped us discover the gift of cozy spaces in our new home.

The boys testing out the family room.

We are definitely blessed to have all these gifts - not the least of which is the smart phone I'm using to write this post.

I sure hope I get better at typing on this tiny keyboard. This took forever!

Quick note...

We are in!

The Happy Apple's Farm mailbox

It is a continuing monumental effort to get the house finished to the point that the bank will be satisfied that it's done, but Brent, Jeremy, and I are living at the house. Doogle is now a farm dog (only he still spends most of his time sleeping on the couch).

We love being there everyday. And we love getting to know our new home.

Oh, I almost forgot. We have no internet. So the posts will be fewer and limited to the times when I run to the Shawnee house to pick things up.

I will keep updates coming.

Merry Christmas!

So, so close...

Well, the last two weekends have been like most - busy. Brent and I have worked hard to put everything in place to (drumroll, please) MOVE IN :-)

I am incredibly excited to spend the night at our new place - and actually sleep in a bed, not in a tent or on the floor in a sleeping bag. And being able to know that our little herd of alpacas had a good night because I am there with them will be a relief, too.

The two weekends after Thanksgiving were full of cleaning floors for me. The pictures would have been super boring, so I didn't take any. But it made a big difference in how livable the place feels. I even swept and vacuumed the garage. It was full of sawdust. That really reduced the footprints that we were leaving all over the new flooring. (I'm going to get really good at cleaning floors, I think.)

We also installed some mirrors in the bathrooms. Being a woman, that seemed to be a big deal for me. Although, the older I get the less I seem to want to look - or, maybe, the more shocked I am at what I see!

One really important job that Brent worked on during these last couple of weeks is the railings. We have a few spots in this house (the top of the stairwell near the entry and the top of the sun space) where stepping off would be a disaster.

Brent finishing the stair railing.

Brent has actually installed 4 sections of rails and that should be enough to satisfy finishing the house for the bank. The railing for the stairs was the toughest. These "ready made" railings are pretty difficult to put together and Brent added some extra reinforcement in the stairwell and at the top of the sun space to make them really sturdy. And now they are exactly that, sturdy and safe, and they look pretty, too.

We also purchased all of the door knobs. Those are really expensive when you are buying for a whole house! I've only got 8 more to install but I'm getting pretty good at it. The interior knobs only take about 10-15 minutes to finish now. I have several external doors with deadbolts left to do. I'm sure those will take me a little longer.

Pantry and coat closet with knobs - and another of the railing sections.

Probably the biggest thing that happened, though, is the carpet in the master bedroom. My step-dad, Pete Hoover, has been a carpet layer for about 50 years. So he was nice enough to spend his Saturday installing our carpet. He made it look easy, but we know that's only because he knows what he's doing. The carpet is super-comfortable and looks awesome. Thanks Pete!

Carpet and pad for our Master Bedroom.
This is a handy van to have (it also moved our alpacas).  Pete's a pretty awesome step-dad.

Pete (right) installing the tack strip. Brent measuring for the closet shelving.
This is the last view of paint and sheetrock mud-splattered construction mess.

Carpet installed!

We had to spend a little time walking around on this soft stuff as soon as it was vacuumed for the first time. I am so happy to have all the messy construction stuff covered up. It looks like a home now.

The only other finishing touches were the shades for the master and Jeremy's room and the shower curtain in the lower level bath. The shower curtain and bar were easy and I installed those yesterday. I found some shades on CraigsList that were the perfect size and installed them yesterday, too. Those were super inexpensive. Nice to have an easy job for once.

Master bedroom with shades installed.

Next step - move in!

(Okay, I know there's still a bunch to do - like shelving and bars in the closets - but we will be there!)

I'm calling U-Haul today :-)

Thankful in 2014

This year there are so many things to be thankful for that finding the "important" ones to fit into a blog post would diminish them all. So I will only take this space to discuss those in the last 2 weeks.

Brent (probably my all-time favorite person to be thankful for) has finished all of the interior plumbing (which is probably the necessity I am most thankful for). Most significantly, he completed the plumbing in the kitchen. The kitchen even has a dishwasher - just need to move one of our refrigerators in and we're set. Of course, this time of year outside is, pretty much, all the refrigerator we need.

Our kitchen sink!

Our brand new dishwasher.

I'm glad Brent could figure out this plumbing.
The black valve allows us to divert the water for irrigation use in the summer.

Those diverter valves are placed only on the kitchen sink and the master bath sinks and shower. As our summers here get pretty dry, having these valves will allow me to use this "grey" water to develop some gardens with edibles and natives that require more moisture around the east and west sides of the house.

I am also thankful for our boys. Every parent dreams of seeing their children become contributors - and when they give back to you, well, that's really special.

Blaine installing our new locks.

Logan and Jeremy painting the last bedroom.

You can see from these photos that everyone (even Skylr who isn't in the photos) has been helping.

Since Rick (our builder) is about done with the final fixes to the trim, he has also installed our front door. Previously, we only had the final sidelight installed since the "real" door is full glass and might have been broken by the construction.

Our front door. We even have a door mat :-)

Brent and I spent so many days dreaming of the view from that door - and now it's a reality. And, yes, it brings to mind how fortunate I am to experience dreams come true. And this is just one of many.

And how can I end my Thanksgiving post without acknowledging these guys? They are so obviously thankful everyday for their feed. Of course, I pretend like it's me that they are so happy to see - so I get daily gratitude and alpaca smiles.

Mr. T eating his feed. He eats with his mouth open; they all do :-)

Okay, so these are a few events from our recent weeks that I thought to record with visuals. There are so many more and I could go on and on.

In short, life is good - amazing, in fact - and I am sincerely thankful.

Plywood flooring and our first hot meal

Last weekend our floor was finished. Brent has been working, pretty much, non-stop since Friday morning to apply the finish. And it is beautiful!

Flooring on the main level

This project began with the discovery of a plywood waste product. Brent discovered that the waste from a manufacturing process contained a regular dimension of lumber that could make a beautiful flooring. One of the things I admire about Brent is the ability to see possibilities like this and not be discouraged at the insane amount of work it will require. He milled, cut 12-ish slots for joiners in each plank, joined and glued, filled, sanded, sanded again, stained, and applied the finish. It was "only" 130+ planks :-) Wow!

Most of this floor finishing occurred during a super-cold November that has unveiled the fabulous ability of our house to stay warm - even with windows open and fans running to exhaust the fumes. The radiant heat in the floors is unbelievable. Even though the surface of the floor doesn't feel warm, the heat can be felt on the bottoms of your feed through your shoes. With temperates outside in the teens and twenties, the house never got below 68 degrees. I can't wait to see how nice it will be when all the door knobs are installed and the windows are closed.

Brent will apply the finish on the stairs and landings next.  

A few minor fixes were made to our kitchen cabinets last week and we were able to enjoy our first hot meal at the house. It was only leftovers heated in the microwave, but still! It was nice to have something  homemade (not Sonic, Subway, or McDonalds).

Brent warming our lunch in the microwave.

We are almost home!

Front porch, closets and floor (that's a lot!)

What a big weekend!

Brent's brother Bryan came to help again this weekend. This time, rather than painting, he shared another of his wonderful skills - carpentry. He finished out one of the closets in the downstairs bedrooms.

Bryan and Brent with the closet in Skylr's room-to-be. Dang, they're a good-looking couple of men :-)

Meanwhile, another something really wonderful happened; the front porch appeared and we can now use our front door! After all those pictures of this spot, we can finally walk up to the door. And the view from the door is incredible - just like we dreamed.

The front porch

And, even better, we got to uncover Brent's salvaged plywood floor and see how our stain pick ties in with everything.

Uncovered, sanded floor.

Brent applying stain. What a big job!

Here's a look at the beautiful grain in the plywood.

Brent spent his entire day working on the stain prep and application. We had windows and doors open but the fumes were pretty intense. We were thrilled, though. The color of the floor really ties in with the dark lighting fixtures and sets off the warm brown of the kitchen cabinets. The mass walls will be a very dark brown that will coordinate with the floor color. It's pretty wonderful to see an idea come to life. Brent made this bunch of manufacturing scrap into a floor that anyone would love - and there isn't another one like it anywhere!

The next step is the urethane. That should intensify the grain and deep brown tones and protect the floor from damage. It will take 2 days.

Unfortunately, we were unaware of the scheduled return of the cabinet maker to repair the gap in the island countertop and the microwave cabinet tomorrow. So we will be covering the floor back up in the morning. We will do everything we can with RamBoard to protect it. Then we will cross our fingers and hope that nothing gets scraped or scuffed too badly as they work.

The urethane seal will happen as soon as they are done. We will repair any damage that happens tomorrow then seal this beautiful finish for good.

Wow! Nice job mio marito :-)

Finally…electricity and indoor plumbing

This may only be incredibly exciting to me - but we have a toilet! We don't have the faucets connected for the sinks in the bathroom yet. But, still, a toilet that flushes? What person wouldn't love that after more than a year of a Porta-Potty?

It's beautiful :-)

We also have all of the lights installed now (thanks to Jeff with Teague Electric). I was so happy to see last night that the kitchen is well lit. Our stove is also in place and we discovered that the countertop for the island needs to be rebuilt because the opening for the slide-in range is a little too deep. Other than that it looks great.

All lights are installed.

Brent and I did a lot of work shopping at ReStore and on Craigslist to get most of the light fixtures. We even got our ceiling fans - and they are really cool! It feels good to re-use these things - and in almost all cases it saved us a ton of money.

Even the bathroom cabinets, countertops and faucets came from Craigslist. Yesterday we did some shopping and found more things at ReStore. Our "new" toilets are a matching, pristine set from the 87th Street store. They were complete with working flush mechanisms and cost us $25 each. That's an incredible deal! And they look brand new. All that made it easy to get over the idea of a used toilet. And what is there to be squeamish about after a year of using a Porta-potty?

Brent will focus on getting the bathrooms totally functional this weekend. Then he will shift his attention to the monumental task of staining and finishing the main level flooring. This will include an intensive cleaning job for the upstairs to eliminate all of the construction dust.

The rest of us will continue to "chip" away at the painting job. That job gets closer everyday to being finished. We will finish up the downstairs and start on the master bedroom. Logan painted the entire half-bath side of the master bathroom yesterday. We are very lucky to have such a hard-working son :-)

Alpacas are home!

How many alpacas fit in a cargo van?

Ever wonder how to move alpacas? I found an answer: in a cargo van. We moved our guys to the farm last weekend in my step-dad Pete's cargo van - all SEVEN!

All 7 of the boys are "cushing" as we drive on I-70 through Kansas City.

They were quite packed in and we lined the van floor with a drop cloth and some matts that we got from the Harrison's with the purchase of the alpacas. They had no mishaps or accidents on the 60 minute drive across town. Several times a few of them would stand up but, as soon as we hit bumps or curves they would cush again. There were a few instances of spitting (at each other) that got the windows a little dirty. And it was fun to see people behind the van pulling up close to take pictures with their phones!

My co-pilot took a selfie :-)

Jeremy and the alpacas in the van driving through the city.

A big THANK YOU goes out to Pete for loaning us the van and following us back to the farm in the truck! We couldn't have made this happen without you.

After the alpacas unloaded at the farm we had to figure out how to corral them and remove the halters. Jeremy was a big help. And I was able to use the handling techniques I learned at the Camelid Dynamics workshop I attended last Spring to get them into a small area and avoid grabbing them by the neck and wrestling the halters off. It was time-consuming but a calm procedure.

Removing the halters.

Jeremy and I spent the night at the farm to make sure our herd fared well in their new spot. We were anxious to find out if they would be comfortable with all the coyote antics that go on in the wee hours of the morning. And as the sun came up we were glad to see everyone was happy and healthy.

The alpacas' first day at their new home.

Amazingly, they slept out by the fence in the dirt (which they seem to love to roll in). They were wet with dew! Which, of course, turned to mud where they were rolling in the dirt. All dirt is apparently good in camelid personal grooming practice.

Dew-covered alpacas.

I've been encouraged to see them getting more and more comfortable. They've been exploring the barn and all the areas of their small enclosure. They love the neighbors cats and the horses that live to the north and south of us.

I'll keep you updated on their antics :-)

Painting (with a lot of help!)

Now that we have the floor and cabinets installed it's time to paint and, boy, is that a big job!

Brent's dad, Bob, flew in from Washington state to give us a hand last week and over the weekend. The previous weekend Brent's brother, Bryan, drove up from Springfield, MO. The three of them put primer over the whole interior (main floor and lower level). And by the end of the weekend they had painted the ceiling in the large family room and were ready to paint color on the walls.

Bob taping around the kitchen window.

Brent and his dad taking a break for a picture.

Finally, we got to see the color. Beautiful!

We still have a ways to go. Getting everything painted seems a never-ending job but it really does make it seem much less like a construction site and more like a house. The walls look so clean!

I am so inexpressibly thankful for these hard-working Ragsdale guys who made it possible. There is no way we could have done this big job ourselves in any reasonable timeframe - and no way to thank them enough.

So, THANKS, Bob and Bryan. We definitely owe you a big favor (probably several). You guys are the best!

Alpacas are coming

Over the weekend I visited our little herd of alpacas at their current home in Blue Springs, MO. They are in the process of getting their health certificates so they can move to Happy Apple's Farm next weekend. I am so excited!

The boys look good. But we accidentally walked them all through a patch of cockleburs and I'm afraid their fiber may be ruined for another season :-(. The cockleburs mean that we may not be able to have the fiber processed anywhere. I could process it by hand, though. In fact, their current owner has given me last year's fleeces for hand processing for the same reason - cockleburs.

I didn't get any photos of them while I was there because we were busy pulling out fencing and posts to set up their new enclosure at our farm. Because they are the last of the herd at their current home, the owner is giving me all the fencing, gates, buckets and equipment that he has. I'm very happy with the deal. These boys came with a lot of equipment and that has set us up pretty well. But moving it and installing it was a lot to accomplish over the weekend.

Here's how their new pasture looks at our farm:

New fence encloses between 1/3 to 1/2 acre. Brent is making it look even more handsome :-)

A tarp will provide temporary cover at the barn if they need it. Nothing would make this more handsome.

I was hoping to have a roof on the barn prior to moving the boys in. But building a barn almost on my own is WAY more time-consuming than I hoped - especially only working on it weekends and evenings. (Brent is helping too by staying focused on moving the house construction forward.)

Funny thing about alpacas is that they don't really need protection from the rain or cold. So the cover is only for shade. Thankfully, it isn't too hot right now so even the shade isn't essential. And they still have plenty of grass to eat so I don't need to store hay yet. Keeping their hay dry is the other purpose of the barn.

The boys will move in next Saturday or Sunday depending on the weather. I can't wait!

Barn update

I'm still working on the barn (I think it may take forever).

The truss carriers are all installed now and the barn is ready for the trusses. That will require more than just me to accomplish. So I'm hoping to tackle that in a couple of weeks. You will notice in the photos that the gravel floor is also in place. That made it a lot easier to stabilize the ladders.

Here are a few of the latest pictures:

Truss carriers installed. Doesn't look like much, does it?

Me, after work, driving the huge ring shank nails.

I learned a lot about hammering nails. I also bought myself a good hammer. It's pretty darn obvious when you start trying to drive big nails that a good hammer saves a lot of time and trouble.

We received several different types of nails with the barn kit. All the wall girts and skirt boards were attached with regular framing nails. Those seemed pretty big to me when I started. Then I opened the box with the ring shank nails for the carriers!

The top 2 nails are the 5" long ring shank nails that hold the truss carriers.
Bottom nail is the typical framing nail.

 After our first day of trying to drive those ring shank nails, I realized that even with a good hammer then weren't going in. They needed pilot holes.

First attempt at driving truss carrier nails (bent over nails). The flush nails had pilots.

We had to do a little shopping to find the long drill bits needed at the correct size. But after all that, we piloted and drove all 108 nails for the truss carriers (actually more than that, because I put in extra if I thought they were needed).

Hope the roof stays up after all that!

Trim and doors are in the works

Rick and Dave have been concentrating on installing all of the knotty pine trim and the interior doors. And those are looking great. Here is an example of their work in the lower level.

Closet doors in southwest bedroom.

It's really turning out nice - very simple and rustic.

They have also nearly finished the stairs. I'm excited to see the stain on the main level floor and the stair landings. It should contrast nicely with the unfinished knotty pine trim.

Kitchen cabinets!

Yesterday a kitchen was born :-)

Kitchen cabinets installed

I left work in time to catch the installers putting the finishing touches on these. They look perfect - simple and clean. The only problem we had was the lack of our kitchen sink. It was supposed to be onsite for this event so the hole could be cut into the countertop.

So our big open living space went from this:

 To this:

It was a big day! And it meant we were finally able to pick the stain for the flooring :-)

Alpaca barn building

Brent and I worked yesterday on the barn for the alpacas.

The last time I posted, I had installed the skirt boards to define the floor of the barn. In doing so, we discovered exactly how much fill we still needed to make the floor level. At that point, I worked with our builder, Rick Robson, to schedule the dirt and gravel work. We also wanted to put as much structure in to support the poles as possible to avoid having the poles shift.

The dirt work was scheduled for last week, but will be done tomorrow (Tuesday) due to rain delays. Brent has finished his work on the flooring in the house and decided to help me yesterday. We also got a hand from my step-dad, Pete. Things go a lot faster with those guys around! We did a lot to prepare the barn for its new floor.

I particularly needed help with cutting the poles to the right heights so that the truss carriers could be installed. It was not a job for me. Not only do power saws scare me in general, but the thought of running a power saw on a ladder seemed way beyond my ability. Being ready to install the truss carriers (and perhaps the roof trusses) next weekend is a very significant step. I was really thankful that Brent found the task relatively simple.

Pete and Brent cutting the tops of poles.

Most of my time was spent getting the wall girts put up. Pete helped a lot with that job. The girts are the boards that will support the metal for the walls. They run horizontally between the poles on 3 sides of the structure. They also are a lot easier and more stable to climb than a ladder - especially since the ground is still uneven.

Here's a shot near the end of the day.

Our worksite.

Brent cutting the last pole and using the wall girts as a ladder.

I finished the last row of wall girts right after Brent finished cutting the last pole. The wall girts make the three sides really stable. But the rest of the structure needed temporary bracing to keep things in place. That bracing also creates support for the larger 2X10 truss carriers we will attach at the tops of the poles. Brent also used them to level everything at the top.

Rick and his wife Kelly showed up at the very end of the day and we had an opportunity to chat with them before we cleaned everything up. Brent and Rick exchanged details on the flooring. Rick will be using the same plywood floor planks to make our stair landings.

Rick and Dave will be working on the stairs and trim in the house this week - and the kitchen cabinets are scheduled to be installed this week, too. The garage is full of knotty pine trim, closet doors and wood for shelving.

I can't wait to see what this week brings: a floor for the barn, a kitchen and some trim. It should really start looking like a home. So look for more pictures mid-week.

Barn update

Today I was back at my regular job after a week of vacation to build the barn. Obviously, I didn't finish the barn, but I got the "foundation" done. Amazingly, after all that measuring and double-checking, I still am a half to one inch off on the dimensions. With any luck that won't throw things off too much.

Here's a photo to show where I left off when my vacation ended yesterday:

All 18 poles are set.

After consulting with Rick (the builder of our house), we've decided we need to add more fill dirt before we gravel the floor of the barn. And, since our poles are set only on the concrete "cookie" footing and stabilized with back-filled dirt, we need to add more than the temporary bracing to keep the poles in place before that can happen. To raise and level the site a Bobcat will work inside the "barn" to compress the new dirt and its weight could easily shift the poles. To avoid shifting we will add the skirt boards, wall girts and truss carriers to make things super-stable.

Yesterday I started adding some of the skirt boards. You can see them in the photo. Since this barn is open on one side, there are only skirt boards on 3 sides. Those are all in place. I've also started adding some temporary ones to stabilize the poles on the open, south side of the barn and the poles that support the lean-to covered space that is also on the south side.

Applying the skirt boards made it possible to measure all the poles… and find out that I have a small fix to make. Because the site is still pretty sloped, the holes on the east side were too deep to leave enough pole exposed and I had to fill them a bit with gravel. Unfortunately, I realized that a little too late for one pole and it is now about 6" shorter than it needs to be. It's the only one, though, and we should be able to extend it a little given the way the truss carriers attach.

Ah, hindsight.

Still, so far, I'm feeling pretty good about this first building attempt.

Barn construction and house exterior finishing

I noticed that it's been a long time since I've posted an update and we have made some progress.

There has been a significant shift in the weather since last I posted. It now feels overwhelmingly Autumn-ish. The high yesterday was 62 and today is forecast to be 56. That's over 20 degrees below normal!

Skylr, our 18-year-old son, has been helping me work on setting posts for the barn. Blaine, our 21-year-old, and Jeremy, out 15-year-old, have also lent a hand.

Here are some photos of the progress:

First 6 poles set last weekend - we learned a lot!
This day was definitely still a Summer heat day.

Carrying the 18' poles required 2 people.

Measuring and re-measuring took a significant amount of time.

I actually set 2 poles alone yesterday using an idea Brent had.
The ladder held the pole in place as I filled the hole for 2 of the 12' poles.

Today, I am only one pole short of being done setting the poles. That's my task to complete before the end of the day.

I've learned a ton about construction! Not surprising, since I've never done this before. My biggest learning has been about measuring and using scraps to build "helpers" when you're on your own.

Meanwhile, Rick and Dave made some wonderful progress on the house. The exterior paint is done and they've applied the barn metal to the sun shades. They've also nearly completed the deck and worked on the shower in our master bathroom.

Here are some pictures:

Here's the East side of the house now showing the paint colors, metal awning,
and the deck. This is the view from the barn. Nice!

Dave shoveling the substance that forms the shower floor into the shower.

This is the finished shower floor substrate after Dave formed it. He has also finished the
wall substrate. It's about ready for the tile!

Brent made more progress this week on the flooring. He's actually gotten farther than this.
He has only the small living room area left to do.

I think that about covers it to this point. We are still working. Brent is off work today to continue the flooring job. I will be setting the last post for the barn and starting to measure for the skirt boards. Rick and Dave were off yesterday but should be making more progress today.

Of course, I have also taken time to scope out our crop of morning glory flowers. They came up in the disturbed dirt in the pasture over the septic system lateral field. But I won't bore you with those - just wish me luck in gathering seeds or transplants. We have at least 3 different colors - all beautiful!

More to come :-)