Home Updates

We finally got the wood stove installed. The inspector comes next week to approve of it, I call the insurance agent and get him the important info he needs, and THEN we can have heat!! We have had one minor leak in the system (water not smoke). Isaac climbed up on the roof today and shmeared it with tar. Hopefully that solves the problem.

Our second bathroom has been sitting empty since we moved in and we have been using it as a storage room. The working bathroom is actually pretty icky, but it had a toilet, shower, and sink, the "storage" bathroom didn't have a toilet, so we continued to use the icky bathroom...that is until this past weekend! I gave it a coat of this awesome blue paint, which is a little darker than I had anticipated, but bright and clean feeling nonetheless, and we laid some really really really cheap vinyl remnant down for flooring, painted the cabinet and medicine cabinet white, put up white baseboards, and we are in business! The shower still needs to be worked on, but at least we have a bathroom that company can use and I can stop feeling embarrassed. What really makes me happy about this redo is that after we get the shower up and running I can tear out the other bathroom...totally gut it...lay new sub-flooring and put up new drywall and eventually it will be my pantry/laundry hamper  room/a place to hang coats and place shoes. I know it sounds funny, but that's my plan.

The icky bathroom is laid out exactly the same as the new one, I will rip out the tub, toilet, and sink. Put in a utility sink where the sink currently is, with shelving above it for my laundry supplies, and other things that need to be stored out of the way, like my crockpot, dehydrator, etc. Next to that, where the toilet is, I will have a three hamper system for laundry, with more shelving above that for linens (no linen closets here) and towels. Where the tub currently is, is where my pantry will be. It will have deep shelves, floor to ceiling, with lots of bins to keep things handy and organized. I'm not sure if all my canning will fit in here or not, but it will work well until we get the root cellar done, which will happen sometime next year...right now it's just a 6 x 5 foot hole in the ground :-) So...across from the utility sink and hamper area is a blank wall. It is perfect for a row of hooks with cubbies above for hats, gloves, dog leashes, and other outdoor things we need. There will be cubbies below for shoes and boots, or probably just a long rug where everyone can put their shoes when they come in the back door which is right next to the washer and dryer that sits directly across from my future utility/pantry room. :-) It's all rather exciting and I feel like dancing about just thinking of the utilitarian possibilities of this new space.

In the mean time, in the blustery Michigan hurricane weather, we are going to build a goat milking stand and a hay feeder for the goats. The bathroom will have to wait until funds are appropriated for it, and other areas that are more important get taken care of. Like wood for the wood stove...