The right color yellow!

After Tim running back and forth to Sherwin Williams about a hundred times, we finally got the right color for the outside of the house. The problem was, the color that Shell and I picked ended up being an interior color so they had to mix it from scratch. Tim has been so nice with all this " painting stuff". He had to have the minted green ceiling paint remixed also but it all turned out. I know once the floors and furniture is in the house....the colors will be just what I wanted.

Built-ins

Hallway bead board....framed pics will go above it.

Bedroom bookcase

Studio paint shelves

When ever I asked Troy if he could build me something.....his answer has always been " Sure!" So, as I lay in bed at night, thinking about the house and how much fun it's going to be living in it, I come up with " ideas". One of them was a bookcase, in my bedroom, behind the door going to the sun room. I have so many books and I didn't know what I was going to do with them besides stack them on the floor. This will solve my problem. Troy even came up with the idea of using the left over bead board that he put in the hallway, to go behind the shelves. It's going to be painted white to match all the trim. I love it! The next idea I had...was for all my paint bottles in my studio. I had Troy ...actually, I think it was Tommy who built it but who ever built it....thank you, cause I love it too! It's behind the door and the shelves are just the size to hold one row of paint bottles. ...but it goes all the way to the floor. It will also be painted white. My last idea...was for the kitchen. It's on the wall that is behind the french door...going to the back porch. Troy made a BIG frame...from the top of the door to almost the floor and Tim ( the painter) is going to paint the frame white and the inside with chalk board paint. One giant blackboard!!!! Won't it be so much fun to draw on it? Troy said it was for Chuck's " honey do list" that was going all the way down to the floor. I told Troy at the bottom of it...it would say " call Troy and his number". Troy said..".ha...that number will be erased. " LOL. We have laughed a lot with building this house.

Pears, pears, pears!

I spent the whole afternoon in the kitchen, with " the pears". First I put a crock pot full on to cook, with a little sugar and cinnamon...sure smelled good! Then, I walked over to the BNOE to see if Charlotte had any " mint" left in her flower bed. It had taken a beating through this really hot summer we had but I was able to pick enough for what I needed it for. Came home and made a mint syrup and started peeling and halving 7 pounds of pears. After cooking all those in the mint syrup, I canned six pints. Next, I made six half pints of pear jam and I still have enough pears to make a couple loaves of pear bread. That will be tomorrow. I need to buy some of the "throw away loaf pans" so I can share the pear bread. In fact, I plan on taking a loaf to Gail ( who gave us the pears) along with the recipe. Next picking adventure....APPLES!!! which will be made into apple butter and apple sauce. I should make apple jelly....just for Bud...it was his favorite. :-)

FIVE!!!!

I knew this day would come sooner or later....but really didn't think it would be this soon. All five of " the girls" laid an egg today! Five eggs!!! Two of them were even " large size". We haven't used any of the large size ones yet so we don't know if they are just double yolks or regular size. Will let ya know. We have three dozen eggs in the refrigerator right now....it's time to share again. All five eggs were laid in the same nesting box. Tommy, (the trim guy) who has 200 chickens...whoa! huh? told me to put golf balls in the other nesting boxes and the chickens would think they were eggs and would start using the other boxes. Well, Chuck gave me three golf balls and I put one in each of the other boxes, but it didn't work. So, I took those out and put a fake plastic egg in each of the boxes and so far, that hasn't worked either. The girls get in the boxes....look at the plastic egg, get out and jump in the first box and lay their eggs. They sure are funny little creatures. ...but I love them.

Colors!

The cabinets aren't as dark as they show in the picture.

My room ...lilac with green ceiling.

Yellow sun room with green ceiling

Green laundry room

Blue bathroom with green ceiling

Dining room


The whole house is painted " bagel" with white ceilings and white trim...until you get to the " south wing". That's where all the color comes in. Troy told me this morning, with all those colors...it looks like a " Florida house"... then he laughed....lol. He knew what would get my goat!!! The pictures don't show the true colors but you can get an idea with them. They are so much prettier in person. The "bagel color " looks darker in the pictures. All the walls need another coat of paint. That will happen once they finish painting all the trim, white. They are suppose to be done painting by the end of the week...at least the inside. Tomorrow we are off to Huntsville to pick out our appliances and light fixtures. This is the end of the " picking out stuff". ...it's been fun! Troy told us today that next week he wants the AC turned on in the house so they can put down the wooden floors. The humidity needs to be controlled while they are laying the floors. So, the electrician will be coming and once the floors are down, the bath tub, toilets and sinks will be installed so the plumber can hook them all up. The tile guys were here today putting down the sub-flooring and they are coming back tomorrow to lay the tile and do the shower. Chuck thinks we could be moving in, in three more weeks. It's hard to believe huh? Troy had told us that he could put a house up in 3 1/2 months...if it didn't have a basement. Well, even with our basement, it's going to darn close to being 3 1/2 months. ...and I'd do it all again. It's been so much fun. I had heard of horror stories from people, building houses and they said they would never do it again. I looked forward to getting up each day to see who was coming,what was being delivered and what was going to get done. Nothing has really gone wrong. We had a few days where the rain held things off but that was no big deal. Everyone that has been involved has been just super nice and we feel like we have become friends with several of them....and that includes Troy. I told him that we were going to miss seeing him every day and that he was going to have to stop by once a month to see us. Nickie( Troy's wife) told me that Troy has had several houses that he dreaded doing but he has had a lot of fun building ours. I wonder if Chuck having a cooler full of beer for the guys, every Friday has anything to do with it. ..lol.

Book Club Book Signing

Our book club's book to read for the month was " My Father, the Ghost". It was written by Jack D. Smith. His father was the Sheriff of Lawrence County from 1950 to 1959. His family lived in the first floor of the County jail that whole time. Franklin Smith was known for getting rid of most of the moonshine stills during that period. Lawrence County is still to this day, a dry county. We were lucky enough to have Jack. D Smith come to our monthly meeting last night and talk to us about his life and what he went through, writing the book. His sister who was also mentioned in the book, came to the meeting. Jack is from Auburn but his sister still lives here in Moulton. Both were very nice and interesting people to talk too. Jack took the time to sign every one's books and everyone brought lots of food to share, including a cake for Jack. Betty, a member of the book club (and also my quilt guild) had painted one of the cotton gins in Mt. Hope, where Jack had lived before moving to the county jail. Betty presented Jack with the framed print and he was very appreciative for it. People of the community were invited to the meeting and there were around 30 people who enjoyed the book signing. Chuck had read the book and also went with me. It was a really fun evening and something that we would have never done when we lived in Florida.

Front Porch

The posts have been wrapped and the railings are all up. We thought it would make the porch look smaller but it doesn't. It actually looks wider. The painters put the primer coats on the front porch ceiling today. It's going to be " blue". Supposedly blue ceilings outside are suppose to keep the wasps away. Guess we will see. Both of our porches will have the blue ceilings.

The Bathroom window

Troy was building the frame and setting the antique leaded glass window that I had bought about 20 years ago in Birmingham, while shopping with Gene and Melanie AND....the nail hit the corner of the window and .....yep...BROKE! the corner piece of glass. Troy felt soooo bad. He got on the phone and called a friend that he knew that did stain glass windows, here in Moulton. The man told him to bring it over so Chuck and Troy took the explorer so they could lay the window down in the back of the explorer on the carpet. Mr. Burch said it was no problem for him to fix it. When it came time to pick the window up, Troy asked Chuck if he would pick it up in the explorer....so off we went. ( Chuck wanted me to see all the glass stuff that Mr. Burch makes). We knocked on the door and Mr. Burch comes out and takes us to his work shop. When he showed us the window we couldn't even tell which corner had been broken. Chuck asked how much we owed him and he said " not a thing"! He said that Troy has done him a lot of favors and this was just one to pay him back. He then asked if we would please come inside and meet his wife, Gail. She was in the kitchen..." putting up some pears". Nothing doing, that Chuck and I each have a fork and taste the pears she had cooking in her crock pot. They sure were good! They have a huge pear tree and insisted that we pick all we wanted from it. I told her that I have a great recipe for " pear bread" and that I would drop it off to her the next time we were in town. Her kitchen was " blue" and she had some really pretty pottery dishes from Poland. She told me all about them and opened her cabinets so I could see all the pieces that she had collected. Mr. Burch had made a "blue rooster" out of glass and Chuck asked him to please make me one for my new blue kitchen. By the time we left with the window, we felt like we had known " The Burch's" all our lives. We were invited back any time and to come pick all the pears we ever wanted. Life is " wonderful" in a small town. Oh yeah....Troy got the window put into the bathroom with no problem this time and it looks so pretty. He sure was nervous doing it though. He keeps telling me he doesn't want to do anything to anything that is " OLD" any more....LOL. I told him that my wrought iron window box that is going under my bedroom window is at least 60 years old, but he can't break wrought iron.

George the TT cat

It didn't take long for George to feel at home with us. He spends the day ( and night, I think) on the porch of the TT. He knows when it's " meal time" and is so happy when his bowl gets filled. Chuck has been able to pick him up a couple of times but not without a lot of wiggling on George's part. I am able to "pet" him as long as he is busy eating. He's part of our entertainment when we sit on the porch. After he gets his tummy full, he jumps down and runs through the woods and up and down the trees. Yesterday evening, I had to chase him out of the house. For being a " wild kitty" he isn't afraid to explore.

Egg Basket

Since I am getting three eggs every day, I decided I needed an " egg basket" to collect them in. I dug into my "chicken fabric stash" and hemmed a piece before putting some hay in the basket to cushion the eggs. Every morning, I grab my basket and walk down to the " mansion" and there are at least two eggs waiting for me. Lately, the white egg is laid in the afternoon. I have already shared a dozen with the BNOE and I took a dozen to some friends at quilt guild, yesterday. We have another two dozen in the refrigerator. Guess it's time to boil some more cute little eggs.

Beautiful Houses

While Chuck was looking at all the old cars at the Watermelon Festival ( they really aren't my thing) I walked down the street to look at all the pretty houses. I am paying attention to people's yards up here lately so I can get some ideas on how to landscape ours. The plants and flowers are waaaaay different than I am used to in Florida. One of the houses had beautiful " gingerbread work" on it. The man was sitting on this porch so I walked up to talk to him about it. He said he had ordered it from a magazine. I have a band saw and I plan on making my own to go all the way across our front porch. I had Troy leave off the molding at the top of our posts so the gingerbread will fit flat up again the over hang. It's going to take me awhile to cut them all out....there will be at least 18 of them. Then, I will probably want some on the breeze way to the back porch. As soon as we move my sewing corner from the barn, to the house, I will set up my band saw corner. So many fun things to keep me busy!

Watermelon Festival

HUGE watermelons!!!!

All you could eat....red or yellow meat.

I love my watermelon!

Down town Russellville..don't ya just love the old theatre? They are going to redo ours in Moulton too.

Gotta have your typical Big A__ truck!

The old tractors

Chuck has always wanted one of these old Broncos Saturday was the " Russellville watermelon festival". Russellville is a small town about 27 miles from Moulton. They closed off the " down town" roads and set up all the booths. There were lots of different crafts, which Chuck and I got some " ideas" from. BUT!! there were no watermelons to be bought, or watermelon crafts any where. Not even a " Russellville Watermelon Festival sign. There were the usual old cars and tractors that have been at all the festivals we have gone too. Oh yeah!...of course homemade ice cream....and yes, I had some. Summer will be winding down here soon and there won't be any more homemade ice cream until next summer. Chuck looked at the old cars while I walked down the street and took pictures of beautiful homes. We also went into a couple of " junk/antique" stores. We did find the irons for our fire place. They are really old and really pretty. We just have to paint them black and they will go with our antique mantel. After walking around, we heard someone say that they were giving " free" watermelon away, behind the church, so we headed that way. They were having a watermelon contest and you could eat all the watermelon you wanted. " Red and yellow meat" . ( notice in the picture of me eating...how my face looks swollen.....I'm allergic to hot peppers and I had eaten some cold slaw with some kind of peppers in it the other day. My face has been itchy and swollen for four days now, this has happened to me before. That's why I kinda know what the cause is) One of the booths was stuff made out of some kind of cement/resin. There were some really neat benches. A couple I would love to have at Brambly Pines, but they were expensive. All in all, it was worth going to the festival....since I could eat all the watermelon that I wanted. :-)

SNAKE!

A couple of days ago, I went down to let the chickens out into their yard. The day before, I had given them a bunch of watermelon rinds to eat and they never eat the whole rind, so I went into the yard to pick up all the rinds, before letting them out. As I was picking up the rinds, I looked over by the ceramic rooster and right in front of it...about three feet from my feet was a "SNAKE"!!!!!! I high tailed it out of there and headed up the drive way to get Chuck. When I got about half way, Troy was coming down in his truck so I told him about the SNAKE! He grabbed a shovel out of the back of his truck and went into the chicken yard and cut the head off of the snake. I wouldn't have had him kill him but I knew it was a " poisonous" one! (by the shape of it's head) I came and got Chuck to look at it and sure enough...he said it was poisonous but he wasn't sure what kind it was. He knew it wasn't a "rattler" though. It looked a lot like a " copperhead" but it didn't have any orange on it. He's still in the process of trying to find it on the internet. Now, I check out " the chicken yard" before I ever let the " girls/Sipsey" out every morning. I'm going to buy some " snake repellent" at Tractor Supply next time we go. I told Chuck that I can take the " spiders, bugs, chiggers, worms, ticks, armadillos, raccoons and coyotes" but NOT the SNAKES!! Luckily, I've only seen three snakes in the last nine months and the other two weren't poisonous. My brother used to tell me that he couldn't believe that I would come up here and camp out in tents and the TT (before we moved) because I have always been the " prissy" kind of girl my whole life.( ask any one who has known me my whole life) ...like...ewwww get the dirt off of me, don't lick me dog, kind of person. ..ha...sometimes I wonder what happened to me too. There is no other place on earth that I would rather live. I am the happiest I've ever been....living here in the woods with all the " icky bugs and the above mentioned." I just have to get rid of the SNAKES!

Sand Bath

"the girls love it when Chuck puts new sand in their yard. They lay down and kick the sand all over themselves. To them, that is a bath. I guess it gets their feathers clean. Now Sipsey on the other hand, doesn't do it as often as " the girls". That's because he's a BOY! You know how boys can stand to be dirty and don't care when they take a bath.....ha! He sure is proud of his "crowing" though. I was soooo set on only having hens...but as I have told my kids their whole lives...." things happen for a reason" and I'm glad there was a reason for me to have Sipsey. It's funny...how I'm so proud of him when he stands up straight and puffs out his chest and crows as loud as he can. It makes me laugh every time.

The Fireplace.

Tommy cutting the door jams

Jason, nailing the base boards

Troy, building the door jams

Troy, Tommy and Jason hung all of the doors and they have the base boards, window casings, crown molding and door jams all done in the one end of the house. The rest of the rooms just need the crown molding and the base boards and crown molding is needed in the hall ways. They have only been working on it all for two days and I'm sure they will finish up in one more day. Troy also put our antique mantel on the wall over the fireplace. Next the guys will come and tile the hearth and inside the mantel. The fire place is prettier than I even dreamed it was going to be. We bought the mantel in Wetumptka, Ala probably around 20 years ago. At one time it was in our dining room as a fake fireplace and then in the living room. It has spent the last three years in the barn, just waiting to be a " real fire place".....and now it is!!!! I can't wait to decorate it for all of the holidays. I wonder who's house it was in around 100 years ago? At least it's back in Alabama!