i want goats!
we stayed at a friend's farm over the weekend where they had 2 baby pygmy goats. oh man, they're cute.
wonderful farm...incredibly inspiring. they had a great little fruit and vegetable garden and beautiful eucalyptus trees. we took home some lovely apples and a belly full of grapes.

along the way home we stopped at a few antiques stores. got a neat little cabinet for the bathroom. i'll post the refurbished version later this week.

as soon as we got home curt went to work building me a new oil/spice rack for the kitchen....recycled wood again! i love having piles of scraps to pull from. it feels so rough and ready-to-rumble!

so remember when i promised before & after photos? well, i think i was a bit ahead of myself there. we're not quite ready. i'm starting to feel like maybe we won't ever be ready. i'm a tad overwhelmed at the moment. i love it all, but it's a bit daunting.

i thought that the transformation from this:
to this:
was a really big deal. it took us all day to chop/dig out the old dead tree stumps, irrigate the soil, dig out weeds and then plant our succulent clippings (thanks dee!).

but then.....the boys took me on a hike (yes....a HIKE) to the top of our property. i'm embarrassed to admit that it was actually the first time i've been up there. i'm not kidding when i refer to it as a national forest. here's what it looks like:
the machete came with the house (made in bolivia, no less) and is completely necessary if you are not immune to poison oak and blackberry thorns.it would be nice if all of the fallen trees and brush were somehow magically cleared, but i'm starting to doubt that will ever happen. maybe our grandchildren's children's children will be able to see it landscaped.... still, who am i to complain about our forest when we have views like this???

birthday break from blogging. i'll be back later this week with more updates...in the meanwhile, look what i got for my birthday!
built with old wood from the house....decorated by the best.

before & after. part 1.
the kitchen:

we're back....nice vacation from working on the cabinhouse. but oh boy, was it ever wonderful to come home and feel at home. i got excited all over again and ran around saying "oh! i love our home! isn't it great?!". yeah, i'm a dork...
i have no photos or updates today. working on getting together some before and after pics together. check in on monday(ish)...i'm still in vacation mode.

by the way, thanks for all of the wonderful comments. it's been really nice to hear all of the great feedback. i put this site up so that i wouldn't have to keep repeating myself to my enthusiastic family members so it's kind of funny to see how many people have been following the progress. thanks again.

there have been quite a few questions regarding the stained glass window we put in. we didn't make it, we bought it on ebay. when we took off the porno panelling in the bedroom, we could see that the back bedroom was actually an addition and the living room wall had originally been the back wall of the house. underneath the panels there was a window frame, so curt (being brilliant) suggested we stick some stained glass in there to let light through. the window in there is actually just a panel we set in to the old frame. our buddy added the lovely molding....

more pics later.

cheers!

s