January 4, 2020

We took some time to celebrate Christmas, New Years (at an Irish pub), and John’s Birthday (his favorite gift was a wrist magnet to hold screws while working on the house), but then got right back to working on the farm. Needing hot water in the apartment really motivated us!

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After quite a bit of research, we bought a tankless hot water heater.  Unfortunately, the lights flicker when we run the hot water. Then, we added 2 electrical outlets and totally overwhelmed the electrical system.  Nothing is EVER easy!  Fortunately, a friend volunteered to climb through the very tight attic to run wires and the electrician is going to add new circuits to our electric panel.

We added hardware to our kitchen cabinets.  We installed the barn door to the bathroom, and we LOVE it. Who needs a conventional door?  Katie’s parents gave us a medicine cabinet and vanity lights, so we got those installed, too.

The price for the glass shower wall was WAY out of our budget, so we are going to have to figure something else out, for now, at least.

We are going to wait to install flooring in the apartment, so we decided to paint the plywood to help keep the dust down. We used an oil-based paint, but the fumes were so bad, we had to stay in a hotel that night.

We installed the first part of our security system.  We aren’t really worried, but since the farm is right off a busy highway, we wanted to be able to see what is going on around us.

The previous owner moved out of the stone building. We were letting him store some things there through the end of the year.  Once again, he left lots and lots of stuff so we started cleaning it out.  We are going to use the building for our various crafts and we are planning to turn the front part back into a store to sell our apples and honey.

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While we were working our regular jobs one day, our youngest son burned some wood and brush for us.  The fire jumped the fire ring at the very same time the well pressure tank failed and he had no water.  Fortunately, there was a rain barrel nearby that he used to control the fire. We are now the proud owners of a new tank.

We are still undaunted!