We have been busy little beavers...

Our old kitchen from 1942

We took the plunge and did a total remodel of our old and outdated kitchen.

We decided that we could do this now and enjoy it for the next two years. Or do it later, when we move out and the next tenant can enjoy it.

We wanted to enjoy the new kitchen.

We started the demo on March 9th.

Today, I did the last of the touch up paint and Mr. Farmer is working on the tile under the wood stove. 

The first day of demo

We have plywood walls. 

This IS and old house and they used what they had.

new pantry wall, primed but not painted

before the counted tops were installed and the appliances are put back in place

I love not having the refrigerator right next to the front door.

  I love the wide open feeling.

I love the blue cabinets.

looking down at Waikiki from Diamond Head

I even managed to squeeze in a trip with my youngest to Oahu.

We spent five wet and warm days in Ko Olina.

We hiked everyday, in the mud.

Not what I wanted to see...

When I returned from a weekend with my girlfriends,

I did not expect to walk into my dryer in the kitchen!

The element had gone out just as I was leaving the house three days before.

While I was gone, my sweet husband fixed it.

He was waiting for help to put the machine back on top of the washer.

YEAH! I love it when he fixes things!

And I have a few quilts finished.

The first one is from the book '3 Times the Charm' and the pattern is Fiona.

I used a layer cake I picked up a couple of years ago.

I love the soft colors with the poppy red accents.

This quilt is Nice Day from 'Schnibbles Times Two'.

I used fabric from my stash and free hand quilted many feathers on this top.

And this patriotic Friendship Braid from 'Jelly Roll Quilts'.

I love red, white and blue quilts.

I also freehand quilted this top.

I am putting my Farmers Wife quilt top together and I have completed all the blocks for my nieces baby quilt.

But right now, my lawn mower and tractor are calling me to come ride.

Where have I been...

Grand Canyon

Bryce Canyon

Zion

We took a fantastic road trip to Arizona and Southwest Utah in November. 

We spent our days hiking and enjoying being in the outdoors with our dear friends.

And we are doing some research into a total gut job on the kitchen.

This kitchen is original to the house.

The house was built in 1942.

The cabinets are made out of plywood, as are the walls.

The counters are slopping towards the floor.

 And the upper cabinets are too low and don't allow for prep space.

We received our first full bid.

We choked, as it ate up our whole budget.

The bid included Formica counters and reusing our existing appliances.

 And we have other work, besides the kitchen we need to address.

Like replacing the floor.

 

 Here is a peek at my design wall.

My niece is expecting a little bundle this summer and I have started this Scrappy Trip Around the World for the new baby.

The instructions can be found over at Quiltville.com.

 

My little business...

 

The reasons I get up and go to work...

• To pay for my girls collage eduction
• To buy that kick-ass Dyson vacuum I have always admired
• To pay for that last trip to the dentist

Thank you to all of my faithful and loyal customers over the past season.

You came and picked produce to feed your family, share with a neighbor or impress your co-workers.

And I am grateful you picked my farm to visit!

A Little Farm Life

 I picked a few treasures in the garden the other day.

We have had a stretch of dry weather that is going into the record books.

Therefore, my garden is overwhelmed with cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and beans.

But all this dryness means it is dusty.

It has been windy too.

The wind comes from the East, right down the Columbia Gorge.

And into our island.

And this is the view from the Poodle Palace.

The youngest farmer daughter has finely moved in...

and she was offered a job else where today.

What to do... take it or stay?

And look at how our Tug has grown!

He tops the scales at 55 pounds.

He is a big boy!

He still barks at cats and eats apples off the trees.

But we love him.

The view from Mt. Hood

We recently spent the night on Mt. Hood at Silcox Hut with Mr. Farmer's family.

We were celebrating my father in laws 85th birthday.

This first photo is from Silcox Hut looking south at Mt. Jefferson.

A very smokey view as there is a forest fire to the south east of Mt. Jefferson.

 This is Mt. Hood the next morning. 

Beautiful!

Not a cloud in the sky kind of morning.

Our family hiked up to the hut and hiked down from the hut.

Part of the way down, we followed the Pacific Crest Trail.

Beautiful!

And the work continues on the Poodle Palace.

We hope the youngest farmers daughter will be moving in soon.

The house does not smell like dogs any more... yeah!

Every wall upstairs has been washed and painted,

The wood floor has been cleaned and waxed.

    And the carpets have been shampooed.

Doesn't this look wonderful!

I Have Been Quilting

This is a quilt top my mom asked me to quilt on Gene.

The pattern is called Tucson Sunset and can be found here.

My mom will be using on a bed in Arizona, so the pattern is perfect!

This is a close up of the quilting.

The pantograph is called Curly Q and can be found here

I enjoyed working on the quilt.

 I have missed Gene...we need to spend more time together.

And I did a little research into the bag of silver we found in the Poodle Palace.

It can be found on Ebay for $3000.

Do you think the previous owner misses the silver?

Doubt it!

My dad took the Seth Thomas clock we found to a friend of his who repairs clocks.

I am waiting to hear back.

Curious... is the clock valuable too?

Work on the House

A friend asked what we were going to call this house.

I didn't have to think on this too long.

The former owner raised show dogs; poodles to be exact.

And not the small ones; big ones.

So, Poodle Palace it is!

We did manage to take the truck to the dump.

3162 pounds of junk

And I removed and replaced most of the grout in the kitchen,

cleaned the oven, washed the walls, cleaned the basement,

washed the blinds and lined the cabinets with new shelf paper.

The girls have been busy painting their rooms and dreaming of moving in soon.

Mr. Farmer has been clearing the trees and brush from the property.

And he has been shipping pumpkins and squash too.

This is wagons loaded with boxes, waiting to be filled with pumpkins.

I am looking forward to Fall.

 My favorite season!

And Tug has been loving the warm, dry weather.

Here he is, working on his digging skills.

We have been very busy...

We recycled two van loads of just wine bottles.

We have made two trips to Goodwill.

And we took a van load of paper to the recyclers.

Go ahead and say 'this woman has a hoarding problem.'

I found stacks of newspapers from 1996; which is the year she moved into the house.

Mr. Farmer cleaned out the refrigerator and freezer too.

Notice he is wearing a respirator?

The fridge still had food in it and the owner moved out over five months ago!

It smelled so rancid, I could not get close enough to take a photo.

I found this in the freezer.

I know the photo is fuzzy, but the label on these chicken livers says

 'use by 09 23 98.'

WHAT?

This is what we are dealing with. Not pretty! 

We moved one of Mr. Farmer's trucks to the house, 

and we have been loading it with junk, furniture with dog odors and carpet.

Things are starting to look better.

 This is what the garage looked like the day we closed.
(She hoarded toilet tissue, among other things.)

 And this is what the garage looks like now.

All nice and clean. 

We found six dog kennels and two Oriental rugs hiding in the garage.

Plus a mama mouse and her babies.

And this treasure was in the basement.

Made of wire and Poodle hair.

Priceless!

Exterior of the New House

This is the front of the house.

Very plain, a lot of grey paint.

I don't understand people who use grey paint in our area.

People... the sky is grey 10 months out of the year... choose a different color on the color wheel.

This is the river side of the house.

I was standing on the dike looking down onto the house.

I love all the windows!

This is the huge blackberry patch that Mr. Farmer removed today.

A Few Photos of the New House

This is the corner of the living room, looking into the little office area.

The walls are covered with floor to ceiling windows that face the river.

The view is gorgeous!

But first we need to remove some trees along the dike.

Behind the wood stove is a little office area.

Here is the small kitchen with a door to the utility room and the stairs to the basement.

This is the larger of the two bedrooms.

I love the corner windows!

And you can see our farm from these windows too.

This is the smaller of the two bedrooms.

Tiny.

And one photo of the basement... Yuck!

The basement is FULL of JUNK!

Smelly junk.

The previous owner raises large show dogs and has a bit of a hoarding problem.

The basement stinks like dogs.

This is where we will do most of our work.

Starting tomorrow.

The American Dream Is Ours!

We bought a house!

The neighbors house, to be exact.

The house is river front with a view of the Columbia River and four Cascade mountains.

The house is old... like old as dirt.

The house is small... like less than 1000 square feet on the main floor.

And the former owner has a slight hoarding problem.

And we bought it; lock, stock and barrel.

Now the real work begins!

And our little Tug is growing like a weed.

He is gaining about three and a half pounds a week.

We are settling in just fine. 

Although the cats still do not like him.

Maybe because he chases them?

And I hit my foot on the bathroom door last week. 

I think I broke my baby toe.

I hurts and I can't wear shoes.

Which means I have not been on the treadmill.

I have not hoed my 2 acres of blueberries or my u-cut flower patch.

Things are looking wild here.

I hate wearing flip flops.

This is the one!

Meet Tug.

He came to live on the farm on June 21.

Mr. Farmer is happy.

So is Tug.

He is adjusting to farm life. 

And a life with three cats.

He likes to play hard and sleep hard.

And sometimes he shows off his junk.