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In February of 2009, my husband and I bought our first home located on a few acres in Johnson, Vermont. We live here with our dog, Ollie, two cats: Elvis and Atticus, six Nigerian Dwarf goats: May, Chutney, Poppy, Juniper, Willow, and Jokers Wild, and about fifteen laying hens. And to top it all off we welcomed our daughter, Isabel, into the world on January 11th, 2011.

We're slowly updating our 1850's farmhouse while steadily working towards a healthy, meaningful, self-sufficient life together.

This blog details our endeavors along with our successes and failures- all in good fun. Thanks for stopping by, hope to see you again soon!

May

May
May and I enjoying some sunshine

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The start of our new 'laundry room'

Lovingly Posted by Melissa Sunday, December 20, 2009

Friday afternoon I arrived home from work to find the house was a disaster area.  My darling husband had taken the day off to work on the house and his Dad came over to help.  It was wonderful that they were able to replace the old, copper pipes going to our kitchen that were always in danger of freezing because they ran underneath the house in a section where we only have an uninsulated crawl space (if that).  So, while my house was a mess, I DID had running water again in my kitchen- so, needless to say I didn't raise a fuss.  Along with the new plumbing for the kitchen, Kyle had started our newest project- making preparations to move our washer and dryer upstairs into our main bathroom. 

When we moved in almost a year ago, the washer and dryer both resided within our dining room.  This didn't really look all that great but we were fine with it for the time being.  Once we had all the new wiring installed to replace the old knob and tube wiring there was a slight oversight and the 220 outlet for the dryer was never finished.  So, being the creative problem-solvers that we are, we moved the dryer into the kitchen, installed a new plug, and then we were able to plug the dryer into the outlet for the oven.  While this enabled us to dry our clothes, we could not, however, dry clothes while cooking dinner...or doing anything with the stove/oven in general.

Also, we had to vent the dryer out onto our porch which, during the winter when we put the windows back in, creates alot of trapped moisture/ice...not the best thing.

So, on Saturday we got to work.  Kyle had already drilled all the holes into the floors so we could run pipes and electrical wire so we started with the drain for the washer.  I don't really want to get into it because it was one of the most frustrating projects I've ever helped with- so lets just say that when dealing with PVC drains, be sure everything is going to line up perfectly BEFORE you try to glue it all together.  Also, wear a ventilator- that PVC primer and glue have some serious fumes.  And don't spill any of the glue.  Oh and don't leave he cap off the jar of primer (fumes, remember?).  Ok, enough said.  After a couple hours the drain was in place and appeared to be sealed well- no leaks- HOORAY!    *I need a beer*

While Kyle dealt with wiring stuff I insulated the closet that we worked on last weekend as well as behind our new pipes in the kitchen.  Then we ripped into one of our finished walls in the bathroom to make more room for the washer and dryer.  It was nice to see, for once, there was an adequate amount of insulation already between the studs, so we didn't have to re-insulate.  But we put up a sheet of plastic as a vapor barrier and to keep the old insulation from falling out while we worked around it.

By the end of the day we had the drain, the wire, and the PEX tubing up in the bathroom.  I feel like we did alot more than that, but at this point I can't remember what happened yesterday and what happened today...besides a few memorable moments.  Today was just as busy, hence my sleepy-head at 8:00 this evening.  But it was a great day, we had one of our girls bred today so we'll have some little goat kids the end of April.  It wasn't the goat we planned on having bred- but, just like anyone, they do have minds of their own and they certainly had opinions on what their plan was for the evening.  But I'll get into that tomorrow.  Until then, I'm going to lounge on the couch in my pajamas and dream about little baby goats.

1 Responses to The start of our new 'laundry room'

  1. what a fun day , and you guys are doing a great job! Kyle really is awesomesause! You are too!