Remodel Mondays – Outside ambiance

So I’m not quite ready to post before and after photos, but I will, I promise. We’ve had a few people over to see the new house, and they don’t recognize it at all!

Moving in has been a bit crazy… There are still a few odds and ends of things that need to get finished, and we’re living in the middle of it.

One of the things I really didn’t like about the old house is that there was no good outdoor space to hang out. We live on the top of a hill, and we have great views, but we had nowhere to sit and enjoy them. One of the major changes with this remodel were two giant porches.

Our front porch used to just be a concrete stoop. Now it’s a bit more elaborate.

Mini birthday cakes

My birthday was last week. And unless I want a cake from WalMart or an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen (which sometimes I do), I need to bake my own cakes.

(Don’t tell Hubby Doc, but I really don’t mind all that much. I do love to complain about it though.)

And, I will freely admit, I am a bake-it-from-a-box-mix kind of girl. I want to be a bake-it-from-scratch kind of girl, but I’m just not. And that’s the way it is.



I did want to try something a little different this year, though. I’ve done the round 2-layer cakes, which are fine. I’ve done 9x13 cakes, which are kind of boring. I’ve done cupcakes, and I just make a giant mess.

Remodel Monday – Living in Chaos

Our goal was to sleep in the new house on Wednesday night, April 18. Things weren’t quite as far along as we wanted, so we waited a few days. We did sleep here Friday night, April 20!



Things are still pretty disheveled, and the construction isn’t quite finished yet. But I moved my coffee pot here from the office, which means we are officially living back at home!

One of the walls in the bedroom still needs a little repair and another coat of paint, but we’re sleeping in there!

Remodel Mondays – Finishing Touches

We are getting so close… Most of the major work is done and we are working on the finishing touches for our new house now!



The kitchen is pretty well put together. The (giant) refrigerator is in place and hooked up. I love getting ice water right out of the door! They still need to finish installing the gas stove, but everything else is ready to go!

Little boys all grown up

During calving season last spring, we had to do a C-section on one of our cows. The surgery was successful, and Charlie the bull calf was born.

In November 2011, we loaded up our bull calves and sent them to Purdue’s Indiana Beef Evaluation Program in Bedford, IN. We had to pay to send the bulls there, but they took great care of our boys and also collected a lot of data about rate of weight gain and growth.

At the end of the program (about 5 months) they host a sale of all the bulls. They have criteria for which bulls make the sale, and unfortunately Charlie didn’t quite fit the bill. I think he didn’t grow quite fast enough, but to be honest I’m not sure of the details.

Since Charlie didn’t make the sale, we had to find our own buyer for him. We did that, without much trouble, but Charlie had to leave the test farm before his new home was going to be ready. So he got to come home to visit for a few days!

Remodel Mondays – New Old Floors

From the beginning of this remodel project, one of our goals was to save the original hardwood floors in two rooms of the house. At one point, we weren’t quite sure we were going to make it, but we did salvage those floors!

We pulled up the carpet and refinished the hardwood floor in the living room not too long after we bought the house. (And by “we” here, I totally mean Hubby Doc. I had no part of that project.) This floor was actually in pretty decent shape when we first emptied the house to start the remodel extravaganza.

The miracle of life is beautiful

And slimy.

In the last five days we’ve had three calves born on our farm. We’re only waiting for one more, and that should be any day now.

Lucky for us, none of the births have been eventful, and everything has gone smoothly.

One of the calves was born backwards, but he still came out fine and did well after he was born. (He’s about an hour old in this photo.)

Remodel Monday – Kitchen cabinets

Okay, this is actually Remodel Tuesday. But yesterday I posted with some of my other Real Farmwives about some great Carhartt gear for the guys. (Did I mention that there is a Carhartt giveaway going on right now?)


The cabinets are here, the cabinets are here! I’m so excited… I’ve been waiting for this part for so long!
I was really nervous when there were two boxes that wouldn’t even fit in the door…

Carhartt for the boys

Er, men.

Last fall, we had a great partnership with Carhartt where the Real Farmwives got to show off some of Carhartt’s new women’s line. Now it’s the guys’ turn… Carhartt partnered with the Real Farmwives again for the men in their life (the Real Farmers? The Real Farmhusbands?) – the guys got a chance to try out some of Carhartt’s spring line early!

And want to know the best news? Carhartt and the Real Farmwives have a giveaway for you! Check out the Real Farmwives website and enter for a chance to win some Carhartt gear for your guy!

Hubby Doc tried out the Astoria Jacket in black. He’ll be the first to tell you that he’s a big guy, and needs a big jacket. We did have a bit of a hard time finding a jacket that was available in the 2X size he was looking for. But, Carhartt came through with this choice.

Even though this March has been unbelievable warm, it still is cool in the mornings and evenings around here. And I may have mentioned before that it gets just a tad windy up on our hill, so the jacket has come in handy on a few occasions. The farm dogs take their pills/treats every night. (They’re such good girls!)