December Update (the house, the workshop, me and the fam)

I haven’t shared any progress on the workshop since October. For my part, other than making 10-15 trips to the dump, I haven’t done much out there. But progress has been made. Also, this update is a good time to share happening in other areas of my life as well…

Workshop Demo – Second Floor

I didn’t try to take video or photos of the upstairs “before”. It’s a giant space that had been framed into a very odd maze-like configuration. It was framed and drywalled (with some electrical in the walls but no lights) with a halfway finished kitchen and a fully completed weird bathroom just like the one in Madison’s room in the Clinton House. The “floorplan” made no sense (literally no one could figure out was any room was supposed to be meant for) and the electrical work looked pretty shoddy. So It ALL got demolished and chucked out the window into big piles of debri that I would spend the week hauling to the dump.

Well, we removed the kitchen cabinets nicely so they could be donated and I kept a big pile of studs that may be reused.

But everything else got chucked out the second floor window — because that was faster and easier than hauling it all down the stairs.

New Tractor and Dump Trailer

I bought a dump trailer a few months ago which has come in ever so handy! After Calderwood where we had to unload every load by hand at the dump, I swore I would buy a dump trailer before I did another renovation. Madison helped me research and we went and looked at as many options as possible before I wrote a check for this Diamond C. It’s been SO nice just pushing a button and driving forward a tad…whole load – gone in seconds! Wish I would have made that investment years ago.

We also purchased a tractor with a few handy implements. This grappling tool took me about 2 hours to get the hang of.

Wes likes to think “he’s the man” when it comes to the “farm” equipment and he teased me a bit about how little I was able to pick up. I saved a couple loads for him to show me how it’s done. There’s still a load or two that needs to go to the dump but I have a flat tire on my trailer (something I didn’t have the foresight to get a spare thrown into the deal when I purchased it). It’s ok though because Wes needs to make sure he’s properly recovered from his shoulder surgery before he takes up farmin’ again.

Life Stuff

Which brings me to family updates. I haven’t been back out to “work” in the workshop since I got sick and tired of the heat–in October. I came inside and installed the plank ceiling in the Piano room and re-freshed the kitchen. Then Wes and I FINALLY went on vacation!

Vacation

This year has been especially busy and stressful) for both of us. Me (and Julie) finishing Richwood and Wes had a HUGE (6 month long) project for work. After crushing that, he turned right around and took on an additional role for the company. So he’s hardly had a moment to breath this year. (Oh yeah, and he moved into the Clinton house in the midst of his big work project.) We actually celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary this July but weren’t able to get away until October. We were both happy to lay in the cabana all day, every day and just relax! And eat, of course!

Getting Sick — ’tis the season

The evening we flew home I felt a tickle in my throat. Next morning I was sick AF and that lingered for a couple weeks. Then started over and lasted a couple more weeks. Then I coughed up a lung or two for the next couple weeks. Wes and Madison were able to stave off that bug — thankfully!

Wes’ Surgery

Especially because Wes had a surgery scheduled for his shoulder which has been hurting him constantly for ages. Steroid shots helped initially but didn’t last long. The whole family got up at 4am to get him to there on time (I do not get up at 4 am for much! Lucky I like the guy… Madison is sentimental like her dad because she wanted to be there also. (Probably, mostly in case anything went badly…she’s a worrier like her dad as well. Two peas in a pod, those two.) Anyway, he survived and is doing physical therapy and hopefully on the mend.

Four legged family members

Brody tore his ACL (or CCL for those that will be bugged by me calling it an ACL). Poor little guy was hopping around on 3 legs for four days so we decided it wasn’t a sprain or whatever else would heal on it’s own. Vet’s orders are for him not to use it so he has to be put in his crate or held. Otherwise any leaf that falls or (other interesting sound) sets off one or the other dog and instantly they’re both running for the front door, barking! This situation isn’t terribly interfering with me making any progress anywhere but since I’m scheduled to have surgery next week, I don’t want to get into anything yet. So I’ve been sitting on the couch a lot, on my computer, drawing up plans for the Clinton house remodel/addition. (And letting Brody snuggle up beside me (and Bella too because what one is doing — the other can’t be left out.)

Workshop Delays

Another issue that made me hold off on moving forward with any plans for my workshop was me waiting and waiting for a WINDY RAINY DAY to check to see if my leaky workshop was actually fixed or not. (After all, I never saw any water getting into the shop on regular rainy days. It was when we had a torrential downpour that I made the discovery that TONS of rain water was pouring into my shop. It was a really lucky thing that we had that crazy storm so I was able to see what was happening and KNOW there was a pretty major problem.) Anyway, I had a guy do a thing…but I wasn’t going to feel secure that it was fixed until we had another torrential storm. We had 2 months with no rain whatsoever so … that was frustrating.
Anyway, a couple weeks ago we finally had such a storm and, sure enough, water. It wasn’t fixed -completely. Last Saturday it we had another such storm and on Sunday I vacuumed 47 gallons of water out of the back room of my workshop.

I already had a repair scheduled for this week. This time around there were 5 guys going lots of things — so now I’m waiting for another big storm. ( I wonder if I could get a firetruck to come out and spray water at my building?) Freddy (owner of business I hired to come do the fix) says he’s 100% positive that they fixed the issues. (And MAN do I hope he’s right!)

My Impending Surgery

I have suuuuch big plans for this building but I’m not doing ANYTHING until I am sure 50 gallons (or even a cup) of water is not going to be making it’s way into my building. In the meantime, I’m having surgery next week and then I can recover while waiting for a storm to reveal if Freddy is right in his 100% positivity.

For those that want to know why I’m having surgery…

I have quite a substantial fibroid in my uterus and it needs to come out because it’s causing issues. I should go home the same day and just have to take it easy while I heal. Hopefully all will go well with no surprises and I’ll be back to business after the Holidays.

What’s Next?

While I recover from surgery, I’m having some additional work done around the base of the workshop building. Waterproofing, French drain on the other side that didn’t do before, and replacing some very unsightly insulation/flashing stuff that is attached to part of the building.

Also, I have LOTS of designing to do. I’m planning and designing the renovation/addition of this weird house as well as workshop building! I’m so ready to be start making this place awesome. I’m pretty close to having a house design that Wes and I are both happy with. It’s going to be very exciting to actually start building stuff! I hope, very, very soon!

Happy December!