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.

Ok so let me just say right off that I really do love winter.  One of the things I love the most about Vermont is its changing seasons- its variety.  In the summer we can hike, bike, kayak, play frolf, and garden.  In the fall we have the foliage, more hiking, cidermaking, and more biking.  In the winter, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing (if you've got the coordination for it, which I most certainly do not), skiing/snowboarding, sledding, hot chocolate, and making snowmen!  And, of course, in the spring we've got mud season...thats all I have to say about that.  But honestly, over the past few days it has been just too cold.  We've been having sub-zero temperatures even during the day (with windchills around -20).

Luckily we bought our heated water bucket for the barn a few weeks ago so we didn't have to worry about the girls' water freezing all the time.  But our barn is just a little too big for two little goats and a dozen chickens to really keep warm.  Last night I plugged in a couple heat lamps to try to cut through the frigid air in the barn, which seemed to help a little.  Granted, the barn is incredibly comfortable compared to the air outside it- but the girls were still shivering, so I made some warm oatmeal with carrots and applecider and brought it out to the barn. 

May happily crunched away at the warm carrot slices (I couldn't get Chutney to even try it) and the chickens took over the oatmeal...it was too funny to see them all eating out of the same little bowl.  I wish I had brough my camera out.  I also had to give May a shot of Lutalyse to induce her heat in preparation for her "date" on Sunday.  Hopefully she'll be ready to go and we'll have some new additions to our farm around the end of April.  But it was convenient to have her occupied with her warm carrots while I had to stick a needle in her butt.

On another note, we officially had our first pipes freeze yesterday!  Yippy!  (That last exclamation laid heavily with sarcasm.)  Yep, thats right folks, who would have thought that our beautiful old house would lack sufficient insulation in some places?  Surely not I!  (Sarcasm again.)  Luckily the only pipes that froze were those going to the kitchen, the water in the rest of the house is still working, so I am exceedingly thankful for that.  So now we've got all our drawers and cabinets open/removed to expose the pipes behind them in hopes that they will thaw slowly enough that they won't burst.  Hopefully by the time I get home today we'll have running water back in the kitchen- Kyle's on it.

That lucky duck has the day off today.  The original plan was that he was going to run wiring and plumbing up to our upstairs bathroom so we could move our washer and dryer up there.  But he might be taking a good portion of the day to run new PTEX tubing to the kitchen to bypass our frozen, copper piping.  He is fairly sure the problem is that the current pipes run under the house where there isn't any insulation.  So his solution is to run this new tubing so it will go through our walls and floors where it will be a little warmer.  We'll see how it goes.  Personally, I'd rather have the washer and dryer upstairs than running water in my kitchen right now...a girl gets a little sick of not being able to use the dryer and the oven at the same time (more on that later).

Our busy day turned into a busy weekend.  Saturday afternoon, after a lovely visit from my Mom, Kyle and I got ambitious and decided to tackle the last major project in our guest room (which, then, overflowed into our Sunday).

So, as soon as Mom pulled out of the drive on Saturday, we grabbed the ventilator masks, and headed upstairs.  Pulling down my beautifully-painted plaster wall took no time at all, the lath came right off with a little help from the crowbar, and as it was an interior wall there was no old insulation to deal with!  Yippy skippy!  We threw the lath out the window- we'll burn it later- and swept up all the plaster.  I tried to snap a few photos but with all the dust floating in the air they didn't come out all that great, but you get the idea.

Now, we had to take down the lath on the other side of the wall- but how to do it without leaving a huge mess to clean up on the stairs?  Kyle was brilliant enough to grab a tarp and lay it over our too-low railing and across the floor.  Then, using a reciprocating saw, he cut out a square from the wall.  With just a little shimmy and a shove we pulled the wall down where we could remove the plaster and lath without sending stuff flying out into the hallway.  We're pretty smart cookies, huh?  Well, you try dusting every surface of your house twice a day just to have it covered again the next morning, trust me, you learn fast.  A little prevention goes a long way when it comes to home renovations (and it goes twice for demolition).

We needed to finish removing the old insulation from the closet and install a light.  After removing the rest of the plaster and lath from the walls we found a few spaces that were letting daylight in!  Yikers- of course we had to run out to buy more cans of that spray-foam to seal all that up.  We bought seven cans this time, we're not fooling around anymore.  When we returned from the hardware store I got to work sealing all the little gaps and cracks while Kyle ran electrical wire around the closet.  After an hour or so we had successfully stopped all the major air leaks in the closet, installed an outlet, a switch, and (drumroll please) a light!  Woo hoo!  Ok ok, so we didn't happen to have a wall sconce for the light so we've just put up a temporary light for now, but it will make working in there alot easier.  Working in the closet with headlamps is a little fun when you first start out but it definitely gets a little old.

1. 
   
   Build wall
   
   
   
2. 
   
   Finish insulating closet
   
   
   
3. 
   
   Finish putting up sheetrock
   
   
   
4. 
   
   Mud/tape sheetrock
   
   
   
5. 
   
   Build shelves in closet and install rod for hanging clothes
   
   
   
6. 
   
   Prime and paint
   
   
   
7. 
   
   Install light fixtures (one for the closet, and the new one I got for the bedroom)
   
   
   
8. 
   
   Fill gaps between floorboards with wood caulk
   
   
   
9. 
   
   Install baseboard trim and trim around windows
   
   
   
10. 
    
    Put up curtains and blinds
    
    
    

We've been having an interesting warm spell the past week or so, temperatures have been hovering around the 50s.  So on Sunday we decided to tackle our window project.

ARRGG!!


I am SOOOooo exhausted! We've only got two more weeks until our requirements from VHFA must be completed and I feel like I'm running out of steam. We are so close to being done and I just feel like I'm halfway through a marathon (not that I've ever run one...but I can imagine) and I've hit a wall. We're only a few days away from having the rest of our wiring updated (even though the last few rooms are going to be wired with "electrical molding" aka conduits) and we're pretty close to having a NICE bathroom on the second floor...but I just can't WAIT for it to be over!!!!!


In preparation of this final push of the wiring we have completely dismantled any sense of comfort in the living, family, and dining rooms in our efforts to make all the walls accessible to the electrician. Our television is now up in our bedroom so we can still watch movies in relative comfort but our poor dogs are left to try to squeeze onto the couch between stacks of books and other nick nacks. My dining room table is covered in tools, bags, mail...beer bottles (empty) and an empty pizza box from Friday night.



I am anxiously looking forward to having things back to how they should be. Or at least in a way that I can get home and relax and not have to look at piles of boxes and construction materials.



Along with all the house stuff I've been pushing Kyle to get me the rest of his family's addresses so we can FINALLY send out the last of our wedding invitations! Yeah, we've got a month and a half to go and we are still sending these out. On the up side we've decided to just have Top Hat DJ play music for our ceremony as they are WAY cheaper than paying a musician and I am sick of searching and searching for a musician who can play half-way decently.



So yeah, I'm feeling just a bit overwhelmed. House, wedding...ok...so I guess its just that two, but they are HUGE. And please don't ask me what we're doing for a honeymoon...as we still don't know yet.