New to Us Dressers

Remember when I showed you this. I told you I would finish them in the next six months.

  

I beat my deadline!! They're done. Told you we have been busy.

 I took two beat up dressers found on Craig's list. ($100 for a matching pair of solid wood dressers, you can't beat that)They when from looking like this.

With a little paint and some TLC they now look like this.

And this. 

Remember matching pair. 

Mr. B installed new drawer slides on all thirteen drawers. The existing ones were a tad beat up. They slide much better now. 

(He used the heavy duty ones for kitchen cupboards.) 

Rather than buying all new hardware we just updated the existing brass looking ones. Spray paint. Much classier in the dark brown. 

They now reside in the master suite, full reveal coming soon I promise. For the first time since he was eight, Mr. B has a dresser for his clothes.

Crazy, I know, but we aren't going there, 

Dispatching of the Ducks

It's been a while. Like over a week awhile. Don't worry all is good, we have been super-duper busy. I have so much I want to show you and tell you about! But first I need to tell you about the not so fun part. The ducks, all fifteen of them, no longer wonder around the yard digging craters and munching on bugs. They now reside in neatly packed food saver bags in our freezer. 

Mr. B's parents and brother came down Friday afternoon and helped us with the deed. It isn't something I would like to do again any time soon. Let's just say I had some not so pleasant images of bloody decapitated duckies that night when I went to bed. My poor babie birdie wordies.

Thank goodness we had people there to help. I didn't have to do the deed myself or clean them, thanks Rick and Andy! I just had to dunk 'em in the hot water and pluck the buggers. Have you ever plucked a duck? It's not a fun task. (there are some amazing step-by-step tutorials out there if on home butchering in case you were wondering. I studied up before D-day.) 

It needed to be done. We couldn't keep all twenty-one birds over the winter. We just couldn't; the food and water supply isn't there. We hadn't planned on all of them making it to the fall when we got them. Last year our survival rate was less than a third. When we ordered the babies in the spring we had planned on mother-nature doing more of her thing, you know, survival of the fittest.  She didn't so we needed to. 

Mr. B and I had a long discussion about who would stay and who would be sacrificed for the good of the many. We were going to keep a few ducks to hopefully replenish the flock in the spring but after some research we learned that runner ducks aren't the greatest at hatching and raising their own young. So after much consideration it was agreed on that they all would go. Then it came time for the to decide about the geese. We even went so far as to sex the geese to make sure we had a good ratio of males to females. We picked out one. We named him Christmas. 

Funny story about Christmas. We had dispatched all of the ducks and it was Christmas's turn at the chopping block. Andy, Mr. B's brother entered the run to catch him. We had kept the chosen few in the run for the morning to make it easier to ketch them. So any way Andy is chasing Christmas around the run and that silly goose gets up some speed, flaps his wings, and flew the coop. After that I didn't have the heart to have the boys chase him down. We let him live. No Christmas goose for us this year. 

So that is that. We offed all of our ducks and kept the six geese. Now if any of you have some good recipes for duck don't hesitate to share. 

A Pair of Baby Quilts

A good friend of mine is having a baby in a few weeks. Actually she is having babies. The new mom and dad are going to have not one but two little boys to love.

As a welcome baby present I made..... you guessed it, a quilt for each of the little munchkins. Since they are twins I just had to do something matchy-matchy. Each little boy will have his own quilt in the same pattern as his btother but in a different color schemes, one in oranges and the other in blues.

I was able to whip these two quilt tops together in an afternoon using fabric from my stash. 

The quilting took a little longer. Both are hand quilted with white thread, using a simple cross hatch pattern.

I found the cutest flannel for the backing keeping with the monochromatic theme.

(Monochromatic is a big word meaning all one color, makes me look smarter don't you think?)

These two will be off to their new homes were I hope they will be well used and loved.

Mud Room Progress Part II

Just wanted to give you an update on the mudroom. Remember how Mr. B had drywalled and put down the sub floor a few weeks ago. The plan was for my to do the mudding myself, I even borrowed the proper tools and got a crash course from a friend who used to do it professionally. Well the room sat for a while with nothing being done. We have been busy working on the "master suite". (The big reveal is coming soon I promise.) Any way we have been working on a gazillion other projects around the house and the mudding got pushed to the back burner.

Two weeks ago Mr. B suggested that we just give in on this one and hire someone to do it. It would save us time and it would save my sanity. Seriously, there is always so much to do around here and too little time! I called around and found someone who could do it without braking the bank.

I think it turned out wonderfully. I do feel a tad guilty for not doing it myself but it was so liberating to come home last night and have it done. Now all I have to do is find time to prime and paint the walls and lay the flooring. And get Mr. B to put up the trim and baseboards and make me a storage bench and hang coat hooks and get a work bench..you know the easy stuff!

For now let's just relish in the fact that it is mudded and looking great.

How to Paint a Wood Floor

I have been painting the wood floors here at the acres. We decided to go with paint for several reasons. It brightens the room. It is easy to clean, the Gus bunnies gather into the corners and are easy to ketch with the vacuum and is easy to scrub and wipe up. Unlike carpeting it doesn't hold smells and doesn't stain easily. If it starts to look dingy simply repaint. We also feel that it stays true to the farmhouse look that we are going for. When we tore up the carpet there was already paint on the floor. People used to paint the edges of the floor and put a rug in the middle. Look in some of your trendy furniture catalogs, you will notice painted floors. Thanks mom for pointing that out! (she was hesitant two years ago when I told her my plan, she has since converted)

So how does one go about painting a floor? It isn't that hard. I'm sure there are several ways to go about doing it. This is just how we do it around here and what works for us.

First you need to make sure your floor is clean. You don't want to skimp on the prep work. Like any project it will make for a better finished product. Tap down any nails and pull up any staples. Sand the really rough spots and as it was in our case any glue off the floor.  Vacuum up all the dust and then wipe down the floor to get any dirt and dust that remains. You don't want your roller picking any of that up. We have five inch pine boards for flooring, so before we vacuumed we took a screw driver and scrapped the 100 years of dust and dirt that was packed in the cracks between them.

We end up with something like this.

Now that the floor is clean it's time to prime. I am a strong believer in priming. We have found that it works best to use an oil based primer, I like Zinsser 123 oil based. Oil based is the best at sealing the wood and locking in stains. We tried water based on one of our floors and had some stains bleed through. It looked like I split coffee all over the floor. We went over it again with oil based no stains came through with that. After that mishap we have used oil base and haven't had anything bleed through with one. 

As with painting any wall I edge it in with a paintbrush. I go along the baseboard with an angled brush and pull the paint in towards the center a few inches. Mr. B use a roller to paint the rest. (That's team work) Let the primer dry for at least three hours, overnight is the best. 

Then it's time to paint. Use a paint that is made specifically for floors. You don't want to use regular old wall paint. You will be walking on this, and you want to use something that will hold up to the heavy traffic and beating that a floor takes. I like Behr porch and floor paint. The friendly people and your paint store should be able to tint it to whatever color you like. I use a shade of whit on all my floors. I have also used a dark brown on my stair.

Just like the primer edge in around the baseboard with a paint brush and use a roller on the rest. You will want to do at least two coats. Remember you will be walking on this. You might need more depending on the color you use. I think I did three or four coats on the stairs with the dark brown. So when you are done you end up with something looking like this.

Some people put a coat of varnish on top of the paint. I opted out of this. I think it would make the floor to shinny(slippery) and it would show the scratch marks from someone's claws. 

(Mr. Gus) Like I said if it starts to look nasty and beat up, we can always freshen it up with a new coat. Our bathroom has been painted for two years, and we haven't had to do that yet. 

To recap you prep by sanding problem areas and give your floor a good cleaning. Give it one coat of oil base primer and two coats of paint. The whole process will take a weekend. After doing four rooms my only regret it that I wish I would have invested in a pair of knee pads. 

Mr. Gus's New Toy

Mr. Gus found a new toy laying in the yard this weekend. He carried it around and munched on it all afternoon. 

You know what it was. 

A zucchini. 

That's right a zucchini. By the end of the afternoon he had eaten the whole thing. At least someone around here is getting his vegetables. 

Funfetti Cake

I built a bed this weekend. Yup a bed. Headboard, footboard, and a frame. OK Mr. B helped me. But still, we built a bed. We turned a pile of lumber to an awesome piece of furniture.

But more importantly I baked a cake this weekend.

A Funfetti Cake.

With Sprinkles on top.

My friend turned the big 3-0 today.

Sprinkles are needed to celebrate this occasion.

I promise more details on the bed tomorrow.

For now lets admire the yumminess.

I Felt Bad, But Only for a Minute

Last night, like every other night, a while after it was dark I ventured outside to lock up the birds. Remember the birds have free range during the day but at night they get lock up in their fortress. I was trying to coax them inside and they were being sassy. The would would just walk back and forth in front to the gate. That wasn't like them at all. Normally I just have to walk them in the general direction of the coop and they all go right in, the ducks enter as a large mob and the geese single file after the ducks.

While I was trying to coax them without getting them all worked up I saw something. It was a shadow figure on the other side of the fence. After a second look I thought it might be a cat. I went quickly up to the house to get the flash light for a closer look. Quickly because what ever it was looked like it might be trying to stalk my babies and I didn't want to be too late.

I grabbed the flash light off the counter and yelled at Mr. B that something was stalking the birds. I was barely outside and he comes running out behind me with the twenty-two. It must be the possibility of shooting something is much more appealing that playing a video game, I've never seen him put down a game that quick!

The birds were still pacing, but they were all ok. You could tell they were nervous. When we came up with the flash light they ran to the other end of the yard by their pool. They don't like the light shinning at them, it really makes them nervous. Don't ask my why, they are silly birds. I pointed the light into the run and there was a raccoon climbing the fence.

Mr. B and I positioned ourselves, me shinning the light on it and Mr.B the twenty-two. The coon was now in the crab apple tree. He really didn't stand a chance, he didn't try to run away, just sat up there staring at us. It was a clean shot and a quick death. I let myself feel bad for a minute. But then it hit me. That coon climbed into the run. He was stalking my babies. He climbed over the fence like it was nothing and was hanging out three feet from were my birdies spend the night. I couldn't let that fly. It was like he had been there before. He wasn't that big so maybe he was coming and looking for eggs. But soon that small coon would be a fatty-Mcfat-fat and eggs would no longer be a good snack. He would move on to something more filling, like one of my ducks.

And we can't have anything munching on one of my ducks! This mama goose won't stand for that.