Happy New Year!

Posted on January 2, 2013 by prairiemoonquilts in Prairie Moon Ranch, What's New

Today is an exciting day here at the ranch. We finally got our internet service installed and working. Funny how dependent you get on technology these days, isn’t it? I’ve felt so cut off from the world for the last week or so. I couldn’t even check the weather forecast, so I totally didn’t see that huge snowstorm coming our way Monday.

Today is also a good day because we got our new furnace installed and working. We have real heat! I’m so happy I could cry. (Mainly because of how much new furnaces cost!) But it will be nice to be warm, and to know that the furnace won’t have anything wrong with it for a lot of years to come (or at least it better not).

My Cowboy and I have taken on quite a project, it seems. Our house is a big old 1920s 2-story 6-bedroom farmhouse that hasn’t been lived in for a while, so every square inch of it needs something done to it: patching, painting, scrubbing, repairing . . . we’re gonna have a work in progress for quite some time. And right now, he’s not even allowed to lift anything or raise his left arm! I wish the cats knew how to help like they think they do!

But I’m so excited to get to make this place all our own, so it’ll be a labor of love. A year from now, please remind me that I said that, OK?

And please don’t recommend that I watch the movie “The Money Pit”. This could get depressing enough as it is . . .

In the few days we’ve been here, I’ve already learned so much. For example:

* I’m absolutely horrible at, and have no patience for, stripping old wallpaper off of walls. Any helpful suggestions for how to do this more easily are all welcome.

* My inability to make choices is seriously impeding my progress on whipping this place into shape. I can’t decide what color I want to paint anything! I think I want the bathroom to be some shade of turquoise or aqua. But then which room will I paint lime green? And where can I use yellow? And what about my favorite – red? See my dilemma? What would you do?

* Having no stove or refrigerator yet requires you to become very inventive using a crockpot, toaster oven, and microwave. And to be glad it’s cold out so that you can keep all your fridge items in the cooler on the back porch for now without a problem. We do have a working freezer, and I predict that I will be extremely tired of TV dinners before too much longer.

* And finally, living in this 2-story house will cause either one or the other of the following things to happen: I will develop a really good memory, or else I’ll get really fit running up and down the stairs because I’ve forgotten something in one place or the other!

Happy New Year, everyone!

I’ll be back soon . . . I need to let you know what the Final Countdown prizes are, and I’ll have some other news as well.

 

12 responses to “Happy New Year!”

  1. Linda says:

    A spray bottle filled with warm water and a little tool that has spikes on it (which you can probably get at Home Depot or the like) will take off wallpaper. Spray the paper with water and give it a little while to soften the glue and then score it with the spikey tool. I am assuming that it is so old you will not be able to peel it off in sheets. After you have it scored you can spray more water if needed and scrape off with a putty knife. Just be sure not to go too deep so you don’t damage your wall.

  2. Doris says:

    Most importantly, you have walls to paint, right?! BTW, stripping wallpaper is the one home renovation project I refuse to do, I hate it that much. I grew up in an 1890s house and helped my parents through many a project, and in my early 30s renovated a 1917 bungalow almost entirely by myself. Looking at houses to buy now, if there is too much wallpaper I usually don’t even want to look. I would have to REALLY LOVE A HOUSE to dedicate the time to stripping wallpaper again. That said, Frank recommends the perforator tool available at any hardware store, and rent a steamer (forget all the home remedy sprays and spray bottles of stripper you can buy–Just rent the steamer, you can thank me later). I just gave Frank’s youngest this exact advice two days ago.

    p.s. I’ll come down and help you make final color or decorating decisions any time you want.

  3. Ranch Wife says:

    Oh, I’m so excited for your new adventure. Rest assured that I would be right there to help you with all of your projects if I could, Of course then I would drag you over to my place to work on mine! 🙂 Hope your cowboy is doing well and will soon be back in the saddle. You’ve both had a lot on your plate lately.
    How much wallpaper are we talking about? Can you just put bead board over it? If not, then do what Linda said. 🙂 On the red: Paint one dominant wall in the dining room. Good luck choosing the shade – I’m in the same boat when it comes to paint colors.

  4. Jocelyn says:

    Wow I guess I thought you were moving back into your old house. YES for Aqua in the bathroom. I wanted aqua, but because of the color of granite it did not work. I visualized aqua walls with white bead board half way up. And Yellow for the kitchen would be bright and cheerful. Send us some pictures so we can see what you are working with. And hopefully if your cowboy is a good boy, he will be able to help before the year is out.

  5. Hope says:

    Shelly, Happy New Year, and your house sounds wonderful! Fixing it up will be just like eating a whale — it can be done, but you’ll have to take one bite at a time.

  6. Jane B says:

    Wow, I really admire you and your cowboy! I hope he is back in the swing of things soon and able to tackle the honey-do list. I’d give you advice on decorating, but I am certified as “decorating impaired”. I love your paint colors! I don’t think you can go wrong with a yellow kitchen, its pure sunshine.

  7. Billie says:

    good luck with this dream project…..your cowboy will mend and he’ll be right there with you, knee deep in the mess. you’ll find your color as time goes on and you live there watching the sun come and go. remember, one room at a time……you can do this.

  8. Tricia says:

    So funny you asked about wallpaper! Just found a new quilting site where the blogger used equal parts warm water and liquid fabric softener and scraped it off quite easily! She detailed her experience in her Oct. 29th, 2012 post: seejennmakestuff.blogspot.com

    Hope this helps! Good to have you back in blogland again!
    Tricia

  9. Susan says:

    I live in the same house except mine is owned by my FIL and anything we want to do has to be cleared by him first, and he’s grumpy! I envy you your furnace – our furnace is 60 years old and uses oil…we keep the house at 60 and it costs $1,000 a month for oil!!! I freeze and it’s so expensive my stomach gets upset every time we need to fill the tank. Do you have single-pane windows too? And tiny bedrooms? And a lovely view with no neighbors in sight??!!!

  10. Rose Marie says:

    New furnaces are so lovely. I think that the whole continent would have been settled faster if central heat had come along a century earlier. I recommended white and more white in all its lovely permutations……cream, beige, manila folder, icey gray. NO TURQUOISE OR AQUA
    bathrooms. But turquoise and lime green towels. Spare me those other colors……well, except for red. YOu use red better than most people.

  11. Genny (Bocke) Wright says:

    When you see the views from your upstairs bedrooms in the spring, you will know it was all worth it.That house was my grandparents and I have many happy memories. You met my husband Bobby when you were moving in. Welcome Welcome

  12. Did you get yourself a steamer for that wallpaper? That makes a big difference. We’re 2.5 years into our Money Pit. As I told you, I’m tired of it. It’s all so torn up still. Hope your progress is faster than ours!

Leave a Reply to Rose Marie Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *