1 down, 7 to go

It's with great excitement that I share out first officially finished & remodeled room! This room had some interesting features... a light switch hidden behind wallpaper that lead to nowhere, the one plug in the room was wired with a piece of lamp cord, and behind the drywall... crumbling plaster and lathe with no insulation.

But, my husband worked hard and persevered for over a year on nights and weekends so we could create a beautiful and warm space for our little boy to call this own.

1 room down, 7 to go.

DURING

Plaster and Lathe was hauled out one 5 gallon bucket at a time

New wiring & insulation done; drywall going up

Drywall almost complete

Spring arrives and the new window goes in!

Custom mixing the wall color because I'm crazy like that

almost there!

Ready for baby boy to move in!

Fini.

Fini.

It's a happy day when there are no longer mushrooms around the sink

It's so nice to finally be able to post a final before and after shot of work on our house. There are so many projects and it seems that we spend a lot of efforts just putting bandaids on to get by.

I present to you... the new bathroom sink! It's no secret that the previous owners made lets say, interesting choices. This is a classic example. They surrounded the sink with unfinished wood. Genius, right? When we moved in, it was growing mushrooms. I sealed, primed and painted it, but no luck. Nature prevailed and the mushrooms would return time and time again.

Now the clean freak in me looks at our new sink and feels a great sense of calm. All is right with the world.

The Kreiser family is growing!

On Aug 22, 2015 we welcome the newest addition to the Kreiser homestead... our baby boy William J Smith Kreiser. I can't wait to watch you grow and thrive along with our farm.

We're making it official.

Our wedding will be Aug 9, 2014 at Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore (Glen Haven) with our reception overlooking Lake Michigan at a private camp in Northport. But the night before our wedding, our farm was the setting for our wedding rehearsal and ice cream social.

As we prepared for our big day, we were surrounded by our most dear loved ones.
Our farm never felt more like home.

Thanks to my sister, Candice, for the photos!

New life. Finally.

Winter is our time to get some fun projects done.


If you remember what my pantry looked like before we gutted it, then you remember the gorgeous wood on the walls that had to come down.

Well, that wood has found new life as a coffee table, & we love it.

I love trees but dead ones, not so much.

We finally came to our senses and decided that the 3 extremely large dead cottonwoods in front of the house needed to go. We weren't in danger of them coming down on the house but were very afraid of them coming down in the road.

On a side note: 3 years ago I saw the hydraulic log splitter my Dad built from scratch covered in dust in my Grandpa's garage,  so I asked my Dad if I could have it. I knew it would come in handy some day.

Let there be floor!

Our poor pantry room has been stripped down and turned inside out over the last year. Remember the cinder blocks supporting the floor joists? (See post from

Sunday, June 16, 2013)

 Well, we are proud to say that it now has a proper floor!

On the left side of the photo: Our future master bedroom, full of construction rubble & missing walls
On the right side of the photo: The temporary wall between the pantry and the kitchen