For Someone Who Hates the Country...

... I am mysteriously DRAWN to the quaintness of it! I find it adorable to visit, and want to take aspects of it with me back to the city. I also wish I had something more sophisticated than Mr. Moneypit's iphone to take photos with (wah waaaaah)...

This weekend we headed down to the Southtowns to visit family that has a farm – NOTE TO OUT-OF-TOWNERS: Buffalo is a city, you have to drive about half an hour to reach a farm. :) Anyway – they were having a corn roast. That's right, they pick all the corn on the farm, and roast it up for all their friends and family members, and it's a big ol' end of summer party. It was actually way more fun than I thought it would be...

Okay... chickens? I want chickens. I really do. Only like, two, and I don't really want to ever have to touch them or clean up after them, but in the city you're allowed to have up to five (I think?) and the idea of an endless supply of farm fresh eggs makes the whole thing seem totally worth it!

I mean... they're kinda cute? 

There was also tons of old machinery just sitting around... like this rusty old tractor? That's pretty cool. 

Then we ventured into their barns. (They had a few!) As a sidenote: I LOVE the show American Pickers. If you've never seen it, they go around the country going through people's barns and old collectibles to find lost treasure to sell at their shop. So I had quite the high hopes for the contents of these barns, and was not disappointed.

I want this. Want. Want. Want. I want to take it into my studio and store letterpress type in it and love it forever. 

Old boxes = swoooon in my book.

Not entirely sure what this was storing... but I love the look all the same.

Huge glass jars everywhere. Um hello, aren't these like $80 at Pottery Barn?

And my favorite:

When was the last time you saw something actually labeled "POISON"??? Hahaha!
Well that was our trip to the farm... hoping to have something new and interesting on our contractors' work soon, but I was informed today that even though I was told this week would be a big week for getting the big stuff started, people are already thinking about the weekend, so it might not happen.

Fantastic.

Slowly Upgrading Ourselves From Squatters to Rednecks...

I figure our "curb appeal" has somewhat been upgraded this summer, perhaps not by much, but at least now it looks like there's someone actually living here. This porch ceiling revival is taking a ridonkulous amount of time to complete... but a check-in is in order, as we finished the priming stage this weekend:

As always, a "before reminder":

We fixed and replaced the panelling, and after uncovering some original (what we consider) outdoor "crown," we put on some new matching lower moulding:

And now after the repairs, some new moulding and a couple coats of primer:

It's still by no means "done" but it's at least a blog-worthy improvement in my opinion... maybe we can elevate ourselves to full-fledged "proud homeowners" before the end of the summer, with a full HGTV-esque fancy schmancy curb appeal "reveal."

Who Says There's No Nature In The City??

So a few nights ago we noticed this in the backyard...

Do you see it? Look closer...

We have baby bunnies!! We found a nest a couple nights ago, you can see one still in it!

(well you can see the ear, at least... kinda...)

Then this morning, Nick sends me this picture:

With this caption:

"We played a little. Now I'm late for work."

Hehe... cuteness overload.

(and yes friends, I'm sorry, but I did have to dismantle some of the kissing booth to protect the little buggers. I didn't want them disturbed by a lawn mower... or a curious puppy!)

[Still Jumping Up and Down Giggling]

Don't judge me.

Plans officially approved? CHECK! Permit? CHECK! Electrician coming today and tomorrow? CHECK CHECK CHECK! heee... we might actually pull this off...

Seal It Up, Baby!

Well, it only took 3 months, but we are FINALLY finishing sealing that envelope! That's right folks, the new windows are FINALLY here and getting put in, little at a time! No more worrying about birds and bats and God-knows-what-else flying around inside the joint! So without further ado – extremely bad quality, relatively boring photos!

So this is a taste of what we've been dealing with on the second floor... one's a mess, two are boarded up... this is what we've looked at in the back of the house, where we park our cars, for the last year... 

I got home yesterday and I was greeted with..... 

(Hey I know the pics suck, but you can't complain about sun in Buffalo... let's just imagine it's the clouds parting, and a ray of sunshine is shining down on us, with choirs of angels singing and playing harps!)

So I ran in like a kid on Christmas, stole the hubs' iphone (for slightly less sucky photos – I LEFT MY CAMERA AT WORK!), and ran upstairs to see from the inside. 

Check out how dark this room was... 

That crazy solar flare above the board is where the sun rises every morning... but even in the evening, this is what the room looks like now!

Aw, so sad to see this go... (no, not really...)

We also got one of the windows in the front in!

Before:

After:

Ok, it doesn't look that exciting, but the other one was cracked, and rotted, and all sorts of wrong!

Reading corner:

(what you can't really see is that is plexiglass covering that broken window frame... BROKEN plexiglass at that...)

nooooow:

Okay, I AM painfully aware that these photos are completely anti-climactic, but please trust me, this is a huge deal... and I'm jumping-up-and-down-hand-flappin' giddy about it! More and more and more to come... FINALLY!!! 

So Much For Being Ignored...

So remember when I said I didn't want to be FEATURED on the Garden Walk, I just wanted my house to be "ignorable"... Well...

Siiiigh. How can I say no to something this hilarious? Well, maybe this was the best cover for the front yard AC unit!

Anyway, as per usual, the to-do list expectations exceeded the ability to actually do them, BUT, I'm happy with the progress made. First up, the walk way:

Before:

After:

(this was a sh!t-ton of work, surprisingly... that's annoying...)

The porch; 

New moulding, primed, full update coming soon...

The driveway;

Still a hot mess (shock me shock me shock me!)

Back door;

Likewise

Back of house;

Trip to "the dump" planned... for reals...

And the crown jewel of our new "curb appeal"... the garden!

Let's see what took so long... as we discussed, there was rototilling...

then plant transplanting

and then topsoil

then more tilling...

then plant planning...

with Brick supervising...

then mulching and finallyyyyyyy...

Let's remember before, shall we? (because that's the only thing that makes this impressive, haha!)

Before:

Afterrrrr:

(will be replacing sucky sun-flarey photo tomorrow...) SO we still need to redo the flagstone pathway, and line the garden with the bricks we found on the side of the house, AND cover that massive eyesore of an AC unit... BUT... le sigh, it's ignorable. :)

So our garden was definitely not the star of the Garden Walk... but I don't think anyone noticed... 

We're stars for better reasons... with neighbors like these, who cares about the effing garden anyway? :)

Sacrilege, or Daringly Awesome?

I have recounted... on more than one occasion... my outrage – nay, disgust – with people who cover original hardwood floors... Alas, here I stand before you, asking the question – to paint, or not to paint...[GASP] the wood floor in the family room! 

Here is where the thought process is... Flooring in the reno is an issue. It's an issue because when we bought the house there were piles and piles of flooring (tile and hardwood) in the rooms upstairs, waiting to be installed. So we did not factor flooring into the budget. Fast forward a year later, and I've changed my mind on the tile for the bathroom, and after measuring out how much hardwood was there, we realized it was not enough to do the hallway AND the family room (which already has an existing, albeit a bit beat up, hardwood floor). Leaving our choices to be a.) buy flooring out of pocket (which we are already doing for the bathroom, leaving the metaphoric "pocket" looking like a cartoon with a moth fluttering out of it....) to do ALL of the family room plus hallway, or b.) keep the existing floor in the family room and have it not match the new wood flooring going down in the hallway. 

As you can see in the sketchup, it's a pretty large expanse where the floors meet. Which leads me to today's question, and possibly choice c.) [wincing] paint?

I was a little unsure on the idea, until I saw these photos from Sunny's Goodtime Paint (don't you just love the name?) via Young House Love...

Admit it, are you smitten? Outraged? Banging your head against the wall, wondering if I've truly, finally lost it? I dunno, I might be convinced... especially that first one; I kinda love...