New Bathroom Flooring

It took pretty much a full day, but we got new flooring installed in the kids' bathroom. There was nothing at all on the floor originally- just the original, raw, wood floor- not the best thing to have in a moist environment. So, after laying down new plywood, we treated it with a latex primer, and then installed vinyl tiles. We'll eventually put good ceramic tile in here, but this will suffice for now.

Here's a before picture, showing the cabinet prior to painting as well:

Here, showing the cabinet after it had been painted:

 BELOW, AFTER: the new flooring looks SO good!

Makes the whole room look so clean and bright. I love it!



Slowly but Surely: Parlor Progress

In this post, I'm going to give you a run-down of the parlor project. Perhaps you'll get a better understanding of WHY it's such a slow-moving project.  

Some of these pictures you've no doubt seen before, so bear with me.

In the beginning, the walls looked pretty simple and unassuming,

being covered in hideous wood paneling:

Beneath the wood paneling was sheetrock, and beneath that a couple layers of wallpaper (one of which had been nailed on), and finally, our wonderful tongue and groove oak that had been painted a scary grey color.

The ceilings weren't quite as time consuming, as the "tiles" come off pretty easily. After that it's just a matter of moving your ladder over every few minutes as you remove all the staples that held the tiles on. We have 9-foot ceilings in this room, so the ladder was a necessity.

Pulling out staples:

Lots of wall scraping:

Here's a detailed picture of the nails that the wallpaper was nailed on with. There are literally thousands of these things covering the entire walls:

 After filling the nail holes, our walls now look like Dalmations:

Oh, by the way, we're not even done with all the spackling yet. I promise you the next time I even MENTION the parlor, it will be because we've painted it. Promise!

Summer Fun

Kids & Kids

R.I.P. Princess

We lost our beloved Nubian doe Princess this past Sunday night. After laboring too long with no progress, her babies were pulled (both dead), and she later died that night.

It was such a horrible experience that she went through, and I have decided that we will no longer be breeding the goats. There is nothing in the world cuter than a newborn kid, but the trauma they go through at times like this is not worth it.

My handy husband did a wonderful job assisting our neighbor, Farmer James, in pulling the babies. We knew they'd be dead on arrival, and our main concern was saving Princess. Our efforts were fruitless. I believe it was all just too much for her. She died during the night, surrounded by her herd that she watched over and protected all these years.

Superheroes

While still doing the electrical in the boys' room, and working on two of the walls that need some sheetrock patching and touching up, we went ahead and put some of the boys' superhero decals on the two good walls. They turned out really nice and the boys love them!



More Kids!

Dolly finally gave birth, after a uterine prolapse scare, to two beautiful little doelings. Mom and kids are doing great!

 Dolly is one of the most loving, attentive goat-mommas I've ever known. She is constantly talking to her babies, checking on them, and keeps them close.