i've been just a tad bit busy lately...

it's been busier than usual around here, but we have been getting lots of things done. (that is, if you don't count the fact that meals and laundry have been a bit spotty... or that the house is a HUGE mess. other than that...)

I've been working feverishly in the mud room, trying to get that "done", and we have pretty well accomplished that, with everyone working together. i finished all the painting, spackling and trim work that was hanging over my head, and now Dave just has a small amount of trim to do.

i had a rare opportunity last week to spend some time sewing. M was watching the girls, and i was able to finally piece together the split 9 patch that i cut out ages ago. i really like the way it turned out. i still need to put on the borders, and of course quilt and bind it. hopefully i can get to that before too long.

Dave was out checking on the chickens, and found our first egg! A was thrilled, and thought that it was an "Easter egg". we are now getting 2 eggs a day, and while the hens seem to be steady layers, we need to work on their "delivery". it is rather like an egg hunt to gather the eggs. we've found them in buckets, in the bird feeder and in other random places.

Dave is still working in the kitchen, and the mess is slowly spreading all over the house, despite my earnest attempts to contain it. (but remember, I'm not complaining!) he has properly insulated the kitchen, even going the extra step with the fan fold insulation, and now has hung plywood on 2 of the walls. he's done this just for some extra stability to mount the cabinets. the next step is to fix the ceiling- there is a 24" gap between the old kitchen ceiling, and the new kitchen wall. he'll hang that drywall tomorrow, and we're hoping that we can blend the 2 nearly seamlessly... but of course there is our new family motto: "a fresh coat of paint can cover a multitude of sins."

our original plans for the mud room floor were just to leave it ugly unfinished for now, with the plan of tiling it sometime down the road. (sometime very far and very long down the road.) however, my good friend Susan came to visit us last week, and she inspired us to paint it. we had been thinking of that possibility, but quite frankly, were overwhelmed by the whole decision making process. in my Internet wanderings, i discovered that the wide board colonial flooring, with the hand-cut, square nails was rather much in demand, and it seemed a shame to cover it over when there were some who would pay $mucho mucho a square foot. when Susan suggested painting it the same tealish color that is inside the butler's pantry, we looked at each other and thought- "why not? sounds good to me" so, a project that had been near the bottom of the list got catapulted right to the top.

and of course, no project around here is ever easy, simple or quick. but we worked hard, and it's done now- and looks very nice, if i do say so myself!




first was the prep work- we scraped and vacuumed all the dirt out of the cracks. you don't want to know about the 100+ years of dirt in those cracks. 'nuf said. G and i worked all day doing that. and were glad that the mud room is actually one of the smallest rooms in the house!

then Dave and i worked the rest of the evening scraping off most of the paint splotches, and sanding the greasy spots- leftover from where someone had stored their extra FORD engine. becasue we all know, the best place to store your extra, greasy FORD engine is in your house.






i primed it with 2 coats of Kilz, and then finally got to roll on the soothing tealish color. it does look really nice, and we like it. (if we could only find the baseboard cover that goes on the last heater along the wall, that would really help, too.)

the mud room is now bright, clean and has lots of room and storage. one room down, only eleven more to go...