Living in a grain bin

People ask all of the time, what it's like to live in a grain bin.  To us, it's normal.  As you can see, we have coats hanging in the corner, junk on the tables and counters and dishes in the sink. 

Yes, that's a dog bowl on the step AND the battery to the drill!  Must keep that charged and handy!  :-)

Real plank floor

After  we removed the carpet (YUCK) we put planks down on the floor.  I spent time scraping each board until it was properly "dinged up".  The idea was to try to get it to match the foyer floor as close as I could. As you might remember the foyer floor are boards from the old corn crib.

Wood Stove to Fireplace

What do you do when you want a fireplace?  Build one!

But the first thing you need to do is hack a big whole in the wall.  Here is how I made our fireplace.  It may not be how you would have done it, but that's how I did it and it works for me!  The bricks on the floor are re-claimed from the old Opera House that was in town.  When they took it down, I went with my truck and picked up hundreds of bricks. The firebox is from Menards. (I would not recommend you buy yours from there. It was expensive and I'm not that impressed with the quality.) In the case you are wondering... the shelf on the wall is where the great big TV calls home. Since these pictures, I've washed off the mortar from the bricks. 

Upstairs extra bedroom

Everything in this room was from other rooms.  The "redo" was about $60!

The plant room turned spa

 I've shared pictures of the plant room.  Which turned out to be WAY to hot to grow plants in the summer time. So we've changed the room into the spa. 

It's a pretty nice place when the sun is setting and the breeze is blowing!

Curved Steps

The second thing that I finished FINALLY was staining and varnishing the steps. The very top step had never been finished (remember I made the steps just one more step higher at the last minute). With that step finished all I needed to do was sand, stain and varnish. They look so nice. Makes me feel like they are now inviting you to look upstairs. Hmmmm... what do we have up there? That's for another post.

A look around the farm

It's going to snow soon so I just wanted to share some pictures that I've taken this year. This is my maple tree that when it was little I twisted the branches together. I'm told the tree might die because I did this, but so far so good.

Here is a picture of my "whites" I love percale sheets and my white dish towels have all of the months on them. I of course hang them up in order.

This is my grape arbor. I planted them the first year we moved here and it took about 4 years to get grapes. The metal frame is from a gazebo that blew away and as usual, I recycled it.

And of course, they are the reason I love to make our farm a cool place to visit.