A Package for the Goodwife.........

Hmmmm, what can it be?

Let's open it and see!

How beautiful!  I think I could have gotten one even bigger, but that's ok, I still like it!

  Now I need a matching one for down the hall......

And this one too, it's perfect!  Looks great in front of the tub!

I ordered these rugs from an ebay store.  They are new braided wool rugs and they are handmade in the USA, which was a big selling point for me!  They are just gorgeous and very very well made.  Heirlooms they shall become, but it just isn't complete until........

There, that's better!

Till next time..........GOD BLESS FROM GOODWIFE FARM!

Kitchen is done..........well part of it anyway!

Ok, so after 5 straight days of working from 8:30 am til around 8:30 pm The Man and I got the kitchen and my bathroom done.  I can't even tell you how happy I am with the way it looks!  Just gorgeous and now I can't wait to do the other half of the kitchen and The Man's bathroom.  I'm supposed to be getting stuff put back and organized today, but a girl needs a day off right??  I'm not sure if I mentioned this in a previous post, but we have decided to hold off on refinishing the floor in the kitchen and the hallway until spring.  That way we can leave our three big dogs outside 24/7 until it's good and cured (probably 3 days or so) and also we can open up all of the windows and turn the attic fan on so as not to get ourselves all whacked out on fumes! 

This is the view from standing in the main part of the kitchen looking toward my front door and slightly left

This is the view from standing at my front door and looking to the left

This is standing in the main kitchen more straight on so you can see the new cabinets and counter and you can see the new ceiling fan.  I can't tell you how in love I am with that gorgous 6 feet of counter space!!  Yipeeee!!!

This is the view from the front porch as you come in the door.  Please excuse the disastrous mess that is over there by the fridge.......oh yeah and see that shiny dishwasher?  Know what I use that for??  I use it as a dish DRAINER, so that I don't have to have one cluttering up counter space.  I don't use it to wash dishes as it doesn't get them clean enough for me, but it's fabulous as a dish drainer!  ;)

I also want to say thanks to everybody that's been leaving me comments!  I love getting them!

And this is another view of the fireplace and the new mantle.  I love it so much! I'm standing in my bathroom door, the Hoosier cabinet is to my left and the front door is on the wall to my right!

Ok.........till next time............and I've got lots of other stuff to update you on, from my seed starting adventure, to kidding season, to Steve's new apartment, to The Man's dodge.......

GOD BLESS FROM GOODWIFE FARM!

Kitchen Remodel.........Day Twaaa...... ok, it's actually the end of day 3 but who's counting!

So this is where we are so far........

This was last night........

The Man putting up the backing board for the cedar...

Me, last night, painting the second coat.....

Here's me last night sanding the floor one final time.......

K now it's this morning..........

Me nailing the cedar up.  The Man measured, cut, and glued, and then I nailed them in place.

The finished wall........ain't it purty!!!!

Here I am putting the clear coat on the bathroom floor........I am soooo in love with these floors!!! (please don't click on this picture to make it bigger or you will notice that I have on striped underware .......)

Here is The Man and I putting the face board on this beam.  I HATED this beam.......greek colums so aren't my thing.......but now that we are boxing it in with wood, I'm totally in love!

See this?  It's a hole in the hardwood floor that somebody at some point patched with concrete........(you can see that Miss Brandy isn't impressed with the goings on of late)

Now it looks like this................it's hidden under that gorgeous newell post thingy.......yes that was expensive, but we figure it lends a bit of class to the joint!

The Man is staining the boards for the beam.......

The finished beam.......ain't it soooo lovely!!!

And finally, The Man putting up the corner piece to finish the wall...

So that's where we are at so far.  Now it's off to the shower and beddy bye.  On tomorrow's agenda is putting the baseboards on the cedar wall, putting the cabinets in, and sanding and putting the second coat on the bathroom floor.  I'm sure there's other stuff we'll do as well, but I'm at a loss right now.......LOL!

We have decided to wait on staining and clear coating the main hardwood floor until it is warm enough to have all the windows open.  That will also give me time to see if there is hardwood in the two bedrooms on that end of the house! 

Till next time...........GOD BLESS FROM GOODWIFE FARM!

Kitchen Remodel Update..........part 1

The Man is on vacation this week so yesterday we decided to tear out the old wall where we plan to put up cedar planking. 

Upon getting the old wall out.........we discovered this.......

Which made the Goodwife squeal with delight!!  And which quickly turned into this....

and this.........

and this.........

Whoo hoo!!  Hardwood floors baby! 

Then The Man started on this......

He is sanding the texture off the walls, because it was so thick it looked like the top of a coconut pie, so that we can do this.....

So that's where we're at right now.  The Man is doing the trim work, cause I'm the roller gal (I know, backwards right? but I don't have the patience for detail work) and then we've got to pull the washer, dryer, toilet, and vanity out of my bathroom cuz we've discovered that the hardwood is in there too!  Then we will pull up the lino that's on the floor in there, then off to Lowe's to rent the floor sander and back to work we go. 

Will update more progress tomorrow if I can snatch a second of time!

Till next time..........GOD BLESS FROM GOODWIFE FARM!

So Much to Share.............

All of my life I've wanted a Hoosier Cabinet. As some of you know, we are getting ready to do some minor kitchen remodeling. The Man came home from work last week and said, Why don't you buy yourself one of those cabinets that you been wantin'. Well let me tell you, that was all I needed to hear. I got right on Craigslist and started looking. I found one about an hour south of us that was VERY reasonably priced. It had been restored in the 70's and had been in use in the couple's kitchen for the last 33 years. That just happens to be how old I am now ;) So on Saturday we went and picked up this beautiful piece of history!  I can't wait to spend Monday getting it all set up the way that I want it.  Since it's been restored it will be strong enough to stand up to the rigors of daily use that I intend on putting it through!

Also on Saturday my folks came to spend the night with us so my Mom and I played with Steve.  I learned a great deal!  Mom taught me how to bind my quilt.

And here is the finished baby quilt.  I've decided since I'm setting up a hope chest for The Youngun, that I'm going to put this quilt in it for her.

Steve and I also finished my blouse! 

I really like my blouse!  It's comfy, modest yet cute and I've got such a sense of satisfaction knowing that i made it myself. 

I've got a bit more to share, but will do so in a day or two! 

Till next time..............GOD BLESS FROM GOODWIFE FARM!

Our New Project........

As I stated in my last post we have a new project in the works. I am SO excited about this!!

This is my kitchen

As you can see............it's TINY!!! I hate my kitchen.

There I said it. I like where we live and I like the layout of our land. I mean someday I'd like to be way back in the hills miles away from civilization but until The Man doesn't have to go to work every day, we are very happy right where we are. I love my beautiful barn for my girls, I've got a cozy barn for Luke (my Kinder buck) and a wonderful chicken house. The Man has the garage and his shop. We have beautiful shade and a lovely barnyard and my fruit trees will bear fruit soon. My garden spot is just about perfect, with wonderful drainage, the right amount of sun and fertile black soil! But............I can't stand my kitchen. For a homestead wife there just isn't room to do anything. I constantly have stuff stacked on the floor and canning is a chore because I don't have enough counter space. The Man and I have been wracking our brains to figure out a way to get me a bigger kitchen. We've gone from bulldozing the entire house down (not exactly feasible) to knocking walls out (again, not very cost effective!) to building me a new kitchen where our backporch is now. None of these are going to happen any time soon due to the cost! We were laying in bed last Saturday morning talking about things as we usually do on Saturday mornings. It's really my favorite thing about Saturday's! Anyway, I said something about too bad we couldn't move the icebox and just add a counter in there. The Man said he had been wondering the same thing.

We got up and measured and figured out that moving the fridge would give me THREE more feet of counter!! Not to mention three more feet of cabinets top and bottom. We can move the icebox onto the other wall. It might stick out a bit and look sort of funny until we get used to it, but I've got no problem with that at all if it gains me THREE FEET! of counter space! Sorry for the caps, but I'm so excited about this! We went to Lowe's and looked at the instock cabinets. We were getting prices to know what the cost of all this would be. The base cabinet was going to cost $218. I wrote it down on my little book and we went to look at the instock countertop. I saw a base cabinet sitting at the end of the row. I looked at it and it said it was damaged and the price was reduced to 100$ Whoo hoo! The only damage to it was a hole in the back. Who the heck is going to see a hole in the BACK of a base cabinet?? We bought it right then and had to go home to get the truck to bring it home. That evening after picking the cabinet up we were in bed when the phone rang. It was the guy from Lowes asking us if we picked up the cabinet. I said that yes we did and he proceeded to tell me that they gave us a brand new cabinet instead of the damaged one. We hadn't even looked at it. We just rolled the cart out to the truck and loaded it up! We told him we'd be happy to bring it back and get the damaged one, but he insisted that we not do that, he just wanted to be sure that we got our cabinet so that he could sell the damaged one! So we got a brand new cabinet for over 100 dollars off the price. I feel a little guilty about it, but the gentleman insisted we not bring it back, so I suppose it's a big of good fortune for us. I ordered the faucet at a great price from Overstock.com and now all we have left to get is the top cabinet, the sink, and the countertop. We should be able to do that shortly after Christmas and then I'll have a nice new kitchen.

So in the photos above where the fridge is will be a 36" base cabinet and a 36" top cabinet. I'm getting new counter tops (standard laminate from Lowes) and a new kitchen sink and faucet. That's the other thing. My current kitchen sink is less than 7" deep! Washing canner pans is so very hard! My new sink will be 9.5" deep and this is my new faucet.

It is very tall so between this new faucet and the new deep sink, washing canner pans will be a breeze!!

I'll post updates and photos as we go alone with our project. I just wanted to share my excitement with you all!

Till next time..................GOD BLESS FROM GOODWIFE FARM!