Friends & Fun

Matthew and I finally have internet, I have a new computer, and I finally have some down time to post our long lost photos!

A few weeks ago we went out on a boat with some friends.  We hung out on a desserted island, swam in the rivers, and turned a delicate shade of burnt!

Self-portrait:

















Some pelicans flying over the island, Wassaw.

















The new "aqua girls"  practicing their water polo skills.

















We also had some more company earlier this month and I wanted to finish one of the guest bedrooms.  I managed to paint the room but not finish much else.  We also cleared out the other guest room so it no longer looks like a storage unit.

Before:
















After:
















My college friends Sam and Dani came for a long weekend visit.  We went horseback riding, went to a roller derby competition, played board games, hung out downtown, feasted at Mrs. Wilke's, swam at the beach, and virtually shot animals at a local archery place.  We had a blast!

A little work, but mostly fun

Our work level around the house has definitely slowed down over the past few weeks.  Now that the horses have shelter and most of the house is put together, we have been able to relax and get back to some of our normal activities.  Two weekends ago we started the rabbit shed but the heat and a surprise visit from my best friend and later my aunt and cousins has kept us from making a lot of progress.  Last weekend we finished putting away most of the boxes in our second guest room, set up that bed, and finally shampooed our living room carpet.


The day lillies from Jane seem to love their new home.


















The posts for the rabbit shed are set and cemented in.  This shed should go much faster than the horse shed because it is smaller and will have a simple roof.


















Matthew and I went to Charleston for a quick visit with Julie while she was there with the army.


















Eventually we will replace the carpet in the living room and bedrooms, but until then we used our Kirby to bring back a little life to the carpet.

Guest Bath and More

Matthew and I recently finished a couple of our big projects and have had a little more time to relax.  It was my goal to have the guest bath finished before Cecilia & family came last week.  We did manage to finish it, but just barely (9:30 pm the night before!).  Here are some photos of the process.  I did not take any photos of their visit, so you'll have to check Cecilia's blog for those.


This is what the bathroom looked like when we moved in:





















The hardest part was patching the walls after removing the rest of the wallpaper.  It took gallons of mud and hours to sand them smooth!





















I decided to try a texture technique that my mom and I had used a few times to paint the walls.  It is called The Wooly and uses a piece of sheep's wool to blend different paint colors together.  The colors I chose ended up being pretty subtle, but I really like it.  It also helped to disguise the parts of the wall that aren't too smooth.
















More of our wedding gifts finally made an appearance in this room, including the shower curtain, trash can, and all of the towels.













































Last weekend Matthew and I were able to finish the horse stalls and pasture (at least for now).  The horses have about twice the pasture space as well as a lot more shade and two stalls for when it rains.  Of course, it hasn't rained since the day after we put the shed roof on and there is no rain in the forecast!  We still need to build real gates for the stalls and finish off the grooming area, as well as clear a lot more land for pasture.



Rabi & Mow enjoying dinner in their new stalls.

















After more tree-cutting and clearing, we used some round pen panels to create the new pasture and took out a section of chain link in order to connect them.  We still have to dig out the chain link posts, which are all cemented in, but we're saving that for another day.

Raising the Roof!

Last weekend we finished the main structure of our horse shed!  Unfortunately, it rained most of Sunday so we were not able to finish the horse stalls or fencing and the horses had to stay out in the rain.  The rabbits, however, are now cozy and dry.  We hope to have the horses moved in by next weekend.  Matthew and I are very proud of our first big project and the fact that we stayed happily married throughout construction :)

During the week we finished installing the rafters.

And put up the purlins.  (usually I am the photographer, but I had to have at least one photo to prove that I helped and know how to use power tools!)

The roof metal was delivered on Friday.  The small pile was sort of disappointing compared to the huge pile of wood and concrete.

Attaching the roof went very smoothly and we finished early Saturday.

The finished main structure.  The first "bay" will eventually be my grooming area for the horses and the middle and last "bay" will be a stall for each horse.

We moved the rabbits into the first bay until we build their shed on the other side of the barn.  In the background you can see that we started putting up some of the wood for the stalls.

Recent House Work

We are still spending most of our free time working on the horse shed.  This past weekend we were able to put up all eight beams and finish 2/3rds of the rafters.  I also dug and set the two posts for the stall gates.  We had hoped to finish all of the roofing structure but made a slight miss-calculation and thus must re-do 1/3rd of the rafters (ugh!).  The metal roof has been ordered and we are hoping to start putting it up next weekend.

Matthew put large bolts through the rafters to attach them to the posts (after trimming and notching each post).

















While waiting to help Matthew, I finished some of the landscaping around the barn.  These railroad ties were left at the house and make a nice rustic flower bed.  I planted 3 eggplants in addition to the flowers since I do not have a veggie garden yet.

















Most of our progress last weekend on the barn.  We still have to do the middle section of rafters and put up some small boards before we can place the roof.


















We blame our rafter mess-ups on the fact that our supervisor spent most of the weekend asleep under the azaleas!


















Here is one of our lawn mowers in action.  He has done a great job keeping the grass in check and can even edge (and fertilize!) as he goes.  We haven't had to start up a gas lawn mower yet.

















Last weekend we also bought a new desk for my computer.  I knew it would be some assembly required, but didn't know it would take us two hours to put together!  (notice that we have two indoor supervisors as well in the lower left corner of the photo).

Company and More

Two weekends ago we had our first visitors, Jane & Richard.  We really put them to work and accomplished a lot!  Matthew and Richard rented an auger to dig holes for our two sheds.  They dug 12 four feet deep holes for the posts as well as three more holes for some trees that we had to move.  Jane and I worked on flower beds and clearing branches for the horse pasture.  This past weekend we continued working hard and the house is finally starting to look like we imagined it would, at least on the outside!


New comforter, sheets, and pillowcases from our wedding (we can finally use them!)
















Digging holes for the rabbit shed.

















Removing the old mailbox.

















Our new mailbox, thanks Mom!


















Here is the pile of wood that someday will turn into two sheds.
















Matthew and I spent last weekend setting posts and pouring 1.5 tons of concrete into eight of the holes.  We were tired.

































I also finished edging the flower beds that Jane & I started and laid down some mulch.  Once the flowers perk up a bit, I think they will look wonderful.  Thanks for all of the flowers Jane!  We also had to redo all of the gutters so that the flowers did not get destroyed as Beryl dumped many inches of rain on us.

Cats!

Now that we have a barn and our house is not close to the road, we can let our cat, Zia, outside.  Last weekend I took her to get her shots and then we put in a cat door for her in the barn.  She has been living in the barn since we moved in but had to learn how to use the cat door.  It only took her about a day to get it all figured out.  Now she loves to be outside with us and chase lizards, bugs, dead leaves, etc.  I'm just hoping she doesn't find a snake!


















Zia has been very helpful around the house, she supervises all of our work.
















About a week and a half ago we got a call from a friend who knew of a mother cat and her two-week-old kitten that desperately needed a home.  Although we weren't quite ready, we had been thinking about getting two inside cats so we decided to take them in.  The vet thinks that the mom is less than a year old and that this was probably her first litter.  We named her Bagheera and she was very thin when we took her in.  The kitten, on the other hand, is extremely round and we named him Louie.  They are both friendly and sweet and the mom likes to follow you around for attention.

Bagheera the day we brought her home (she has a tail, she's just laying on it).

















Louie at approximately two weeks old.
















Mom & Baby exploring the new house.
















Louie at three weeks old.
















Louie was living in a box in the laundry room, but now Bagheera likes to bring him out and play with him.  Here he is nursing on the laundry room floor.