Before + After House (a million years later)
Contrary to what this blog would make you think about our lack of progress on the house we have been working like crazy. Our recent big project was a hen house for our girls, Chunky Penny, Lady Whistle and Ms Jackson.
Naturally before building a hen house we thought we should go ahead and tear out the non-retaining retaining wall that the previous owners "built" out of broken bricks and concrete blocks. Here's a quick BEFORE shot to make you see just how heavenly our back yard looked when we moved in:
FULL DISCLOSURE: the yard didn't look this nice when we moved in. I took this the morning we started the new retaining wall which was just a couple of months ago. Since we moved in we added the butterfly bush and the rain barrel that will eventually catch the run off from the garage.Anyhow - after a day of building the wall and learning that our next-door neighbors are really amazing, wonderful and generous (even moreso than we previously suspected) this is what we had to look at:
The next step was to build the hen house. Little Brother Anthony arrived (in jorts) to aid in the construction.
We made a ton of progress that weekend and then promptly walked away from the project for awhile due to work, travel, etc. You can see by the change in attire and the leaves on the trees how much time passed.
TIME WARP:
This is much nicer to look at, no?
Now the girls live out there as happy as can be. I love to look it every day as more leaves fall and it settles in to look like part of the landscape.This project would not have been possible without the help of friends and family who donated time, supplies and food. I feel like I'm dedicating a book. Huge thanks go out to Anthony for jumping in and getting us moving on the construction; to Sierra and Tommy for helping to engineer and build the wall; to Ton and Sonja for lunch, tea service, gravel and dirt moving and all around moral support (and for giving birth to Sierra all those years ago); to Tammy, Barbara, John, Eric and Jan - neighbors who donated scrap lumber, chicken wire, shovels, etc.; to Dad, Kate L, Terry, Natalie, Cliff M and Janice D for donating license plates; to Mom for hanging out with Whistle and most of all, to Steve, who continues to indulge every crazy whim I get.I am so happy to have built something for the hens to live in that makes our home a more interesting, fun place to live, with the generosity and kindness of so many people involved. My heart swells.
Little Orphan Blog
am gothic
entry
stilts
dinig room
When I started this thing my husband said "just don't let it become an orphan." And then I did just that. To my credit, in the past six weeks we packed our whole house up and moved to a new fixer-upper and then tore out some carpet, removed some walls, pulled out 4356 nails, get the floors redone, had plasterers camped out for three days, balanced buckets all around the basement to catch the surprise leaks, met some new neighbors, applied for permits, got bids and everything under the sun and played a lot of trains with the boy. So, I've been too busy to paint or draw or print or make any art. And certainly no time to take pictures of it and throw it up here for six people to see! I do miss it. I am so guilty of looking at other peoples' work and being green with envy - not necessarily at their image making or talent or anything - just jealous of the fact that they made the time and DID IT. I need to get back on the horse. I'm too good at making excuses. I need a deadline. In the meantime, here are some pictures of what life looks like at Camp Foxbury.