More Projects

Before our holiday company, I wanted to finish our second guest bedroom - there's nothing like company to make you get things done!  We had to remove the wallpaper border (surprise, surprise) before I could paint, which was much harder to remove than the other wallpaper in the house.  We used chemicals this time instead of the steamer and it ended up leaving the wall in much better shape.  The day before our company arrived we took stuff to goodwill, I painted the walls and the window, and we put up new curtains.

 

 

The before:

 

 

The after:

 

 

We also put in a permanent section of horse fence and the first gate.  The rest of the fence will be wire but this is where the water tank will eventually go when we run water to the horse shed.  We also put up the liability sign that I got for Christmas.

 

 

And here's a short video of the horses playing yesterday when it was really windy.

Christmas

This year we hosted Christmas at our new house.  Jane, Richard, Cecilia, Harald, Maggie, Ingrid, Emily, and Miran all came to visit from Sunday afternoon to Tuesday morning.  It was quite a houseful!  We spent our time eating, visiting Savannah, playing games, and, of course, opening lots of gifts.

 

The girls showed Miran how to play their computer games.

 

We had our Christmas dinner of lamb on Christmas Eve.

 

 

Playing Settlers of Catan.

 

The space around our tree was not quite big enough for all of the presents!

 

Matthew with his new bear.

 

 

Opening a gift from my parents with a little help from Ingrid.

 

 

The girls enjoying their gifts.

 

 

Miran opening a strangely wrapped present.

 

 

The aftermath of Christmas:

 

 

And a picture of the two of us from the Great Dane holiday party.

 

New Truck

We finally traded in the Envoy on Wednesday for our new truck.  It took us a month or so and about six trips to dealers before we could find it, but it was worth the wait.  And, of course, it is maroon just like the Envoy, Matthew's old car, and my parents' truck, haha!  We still need to hook up a brake control before I can start hauling the horses but I can't wait to see how it hauls.  I probably won't even know that there is a trailer back there!

 

 

The Envoy as we left it.  It was a good truck while it lasted but we think something serious was broken inside the engine.

 

 

This is the cleanest you will ever see our new truck.  It already has kitty prints and mud splashed up on it (since we live on a dirt road).

 

 

It's just a little bigger than the Envoy...

 

 

We had them install a spray-in bed liner to protect the bed since we know that we'll be hauling all sorts of stuff in it.

 

 

Although both of our names are on the title, I'm claiming the truck! :)

Cookies & Games

Last weekend we had a cookies and games party at our house.  I made two batches of my Grandma's cutout cookies and lots of buttercream frosting.  We decorated them all and ate most of them while playing Cranium and pictionary telephone.  It was a great way to get in the holiday spirit!

 

 

Decorating.

 

 

Lots of cookies!

 

Playing games. 

 

 

Matthew put up the tree about a half hour before the party and I decorated it last week.  We don't have a lot of floor space in the living room so we decided to put the tree on the TV stand (since we don't have a TV anyway!).  Now the place is all decorated and ready for Christmas company.

 

 

And a random photo I took out of the car window one day after dropping Matthew at work.  This beautiful red-tailed hawk was posing for me!

Master Bath

The latest house project was to re-do the master bathroom.  The walls were pretty rough, like the guest bath, so I decided to use the same wooly technique but this time chose a purple that matched our new towels. 

When we pulled down the mirrors, guess what we found - wallpaper!  They must have really loved wallpaper when this house was built in the '90s.
















The painting in progress:

And some before and after shots of the room.  We put up all new hardware including towel rods, hooks, and cabinet knobs.  We also added a 3-way mirror medicine cabinet for my side.  We plan to replace the sinks, faucets, and flooring in the future but everything else is complete.

My side:

The toilet closet:








































Matthew's side:

 

Thanksgiving

I always seem to be about two weeks behind in posting, but here are some photos from our trip to Charlotte for Thanksgiving with Emily, Miran, Azra, Cecilia, Harald, Maggie, and Ingrid.

Despite not having a working oven, we were able to make some wonderful food for our Thanksgiving meal!
















The girls each blew out a candle after we finished eating.














Here the girls are using their tickling and WWF wrestling moves on Uncle Matthew (check out his facial expression!).














On Black Friday we were able to get the correct tools for Matthew to fix Emily and Miran's oven.  It may have been a day late, but at least he was able to fix it!















The (adult) girls also went shopping on Black Friday and I was able to find a wonderful gown at a thrift store in Charlotte.  Matthew and I drove back to Savannah the Saturday after Thanksgiving, quickly fed all of the animals, gave Matthew a haircut, then showered and got dressed up for a ball at the American Legion (where we were married).  Here we are in all of our finery:

We put guests to work!

Matthew's parents, Jane and Richard, came for another visit two weekends ago on their way down to Florida.  They brought us some beautiful hand-made furniture and also helped us with a few projects around the house.


Matthew and Richard cut out a doorway and installed a new door in the barn.  This will eventually be my tack and feed room.  The door opens into the grooming stall part of the horses' shed.

















Jane and I worked on clearing some of the mess that the loggers left.  We started with all of the brush on the driveway.

















After burning all of the brush, we planted three fruit trees - a pomegranate, a plum, and a peach. (they are hard to see in the photo, but they are there!)
















The next day we all worked on clearing the trees and brush from the garden area.  Unfortunately, there was a burning ban and we broke the chainsaw so we didn't get quite as far on this project as we would have liked.  We did, however, end up clearing about half of the garden space.


The before picture of the garden:

















During cleanup:

















Two days later I was able to burn all four brush piles but we still have a long ways to go!
















Here's the fish tank stand and canopy that Richard made for me.  I can't wait to set it up!  (unfortunately, I need to completely re-do the kitchen wall behind it before moving the fish tank...)

















We have already filled up both of the book shelves that Richard made for the "nook" in our bedroom.

















And our new headboard looks great with our new matching touch lamps and comforter. 

Solo TN Trip

Two weeks ago I took my horses to TN for a week to visit with my parents at their cabin.  It was quite an adventure as my truck broke down both directions.  On the way there, it overheated (in the mountains of course!) and started smoking.  I managed to limp it along for the last 100 miles by stopping every 30 miles or so and pouring in more coolant.  I was able to take it to a shop during my visit and they installed a new radiator.  My mom and I drove the Envoy to Nashville to pick up my dad at the airport and everything ran fine.  On the way home, however, it all of a sudden started running really rough and I lost a lot of the engine power.  The check engine light came on and I stopped at an autozone.  There were three different codes but none of them were life threatening at the moment so I once again limped it home (this time for about 300 miles) by going slow and not pushing it up the hills.  At least we eventually made it home safe!  Looks like we will be buying a new truck for Christmas...

 

My parents and I did have fun while I was there (although my horses managed to escape from their pen twice) and put a lot of miles on the horses.  Here are a few photos from our rides.

 

 

My mom also sent me home with an early Christmas gift, lots of home-grown, home-canned goodies!