Rooster Work, Summer 2012

That's my dearie!  Working much too hard but then he does love his ol' biddy!  lol

I got all the pavers lined up in a row. We got the neighbour in with his handy dandy machine and things happened.  He is right!  I always under estimate how long it takes to do things.

But the walk is done.  We have to include a drainage trench and we have moved it just inside the new fence line.  This area will be the entrance.  We'll add 2 posts for the double gate.  It needs to be wider as I wedged the lawn mower in the gate once.  ooops!

Hubby is just amazed at how long that walk is!  We went out and bought a wagon to haul groceries to the house and then we designed a step in it! :(  LOL

Replacing the old fence is next.

The wall of fence left people confused as to where the gate was so I decided an inset gate was the way to go.  We have had more arguments discussions on how that should look that I'm at the place of just do it already.  It needs to be squared with the house. Me!   But the fence curves. He!  It needs to be parallel to the main road. She!  But the barn is slightly twisted in relation to the road so it doesn't exactly line up to the house.He!    eeek!  But he concedes that the pavers have added something to the big opening to make it seem smaller.  And I have conceded that his detailed measuring doesn't lie.   We'll get er done, yet!

How great that a fence pounder is available for rent only 3 miles away!!! Phew! Also great that the fence posts are leaving my area of the barn!  We used every spare post on yard and a couple from the reject pile.

How great that the Rooster has an assistant!  I can hardly wait to be replaced. lol

The veranda needs to be closed in and then we need to think about the gravel walk around the entrance as I luv the sound of walking on it but the gravel is always jumping into the flower bed not to mention the grass!

This veranda is a PROBLEM.  I luv it and it is our main entrance but it has always moved as frosts heave it around.  Last year we put down some kind of in-ground posts and better beams. So far, so good!   Next we need to be creative to disguise the one post and beam by the steps.  Now the roof is sagging. :(  That needs another creative solution before the window guys get up on it.  Rooster to the rescue!  lol

The old windows have square glass sections that are going to be put in the big barn along the sides.  The original barn windows were removed and boarded up so we will be 'letting in the light' on my future workroom. I'm hoping to find 2 longer windows that open for the front of the barn.  These boards are for the fence but I had a 'good idea'!  I need two walls put up and I want white but rustic.  Boards would be good!   The next job for my Rooster. ;^)  Far behind that wheel barrow is the raised bed garden area. That is definitely his work as he is the 'real' gardener.  He finds weeding to be very relaxing.  Probably because I'm not around to add to his Rooster list!  lol  It's a good thing he likes eggs because as a chick, I'm not much of a pie maker!

The summer is drawing to a close.  Fall is fast approaching.  Time to start stroking off the completed projects.  I don't want to count those chicks before they are hatched but things are looking like they just might be worth crowing about!

Working on Wonderland

The time has come. 

The roof on the barn has been fixed.

New windows were ordered for the upstairs of the house and I'm hoping to make use of  the square glass sections from the old ones for my workroom.

The siding on the barn needs replacing but not this year.

The fence is down and ready for remodeling.  The walk has been scraped and is ready for sand and the cement pavers.

I hate to think how many times we've handled these pavers but I'm pleased to see that the long discussions on where to lay them have ended and we are committed to this line.  The decision wasn't so straightforward as originally they were to curve a bit to follow the curve in the flower bed border surrounding the front lawn.  But that  worked better with a full cement sidewalk than with the pavers.  Another consideration is that the house is parallel to the road but the barn is skewed somewhat.  And then the new beams under the veranda from last year's work project stick out about 12 inches which means the walk can't be centred on the front step.  So we get creative. 

Now that the excitement is all over the grand kiddies will be returned to their life in the city this morning and I will pick up Jenn.

My creativity 101 student is available for some extra work these next two weeks.

Today we will make some room for maneuvering in the barn.  In the front are the boards for the fence and the bag of wool.  They'll leave soon. But we can certainly shuffle some of the stuff around. We will take a tape and some graph paper and do a bit of figuring once some of the dust settles. 

Just maybe all the excitement isn't quite over!