What A Summer...

What a summer it's been so far!

We've been incredibly blessed with some gorgeous weather this past week...gorgeous enough that it almost makes me forget the horrible, humid, hot days that we had a few weeks ago!  The breeze is blowing through the house, the birds are singing outside the windows and the blue sky with puffy white clouds is welcome.  When we look south out of the barn in the mornings and see the hills clearly, we know it's going to be a good day!

We've had a lot going on here, and I haven't had much time to read or write blog posts lately.  I have a few minutes today, and some pictures already on the computer, so here's a snap shot of what we've been up to.

Jim finished 2nd cutting hay on June 15th, and baled barley straw that week also.  That Saturday, June 17th was my parents' auction.  They'll be downsizing and moving in less than a month, to a house right across the road from us.  That's our big project this summer.

Here are a few pictures of the house renovations...

The original owners liked the "Bermuda" look.  It looked very nice in it's time, but we were ready to make it our own, and it was sorely in need of new paint and new flooring...

My sister and I, and Jenna started painting the second week of June. Because we knew we were replacing the carpet, it was nice to be able to not worry about dripping paint on the floor.  We chose a darker shade for the front living room, and a lighter shade for the rest of the house.  As you can see, it has a very open floor plan, so it would have been tricky to paint several different colors not in the same family...

Jim ripped out the carpet over the past several days, and the new flooring is scheduled to be installed soon!

I spent most of yesterday pulling up tack strips where we'll be putting vinyl instead of carpet.  Namely the bathrooms, kitchen and laundry area.  They were glued and nailed to the concrete floor, so it took a while.  There was a little damage to the concrete to the floor where we pulled the nails out, but shouldn't be too complicated or time consuming to repair before the vinyl goes down...

While I did that, Mom did some more painting, and she and Jenna did some clean up work.

Next we have to decide what to do in one of the bathrooms where the wallpaper is coming off, and we need to repair some loose ceramic tiles around the shower.  It's been quite a project, but it's been fun to see it coming together!  

If I'm awol from the blog for awhile, it's because I've been just a little bit distracted.  Bear with me...and stay tuned for some "finished" pictures soon!