Planning a play space

I'm sure I've mentioned that I love the idea behind Montessori play. I love the independence and the simplicity. I also love how it helps over stimulated children find a plumb line of peace. 

A huge aspect is wood toys, wood puzzles- no flashy lights, sirens & sounds.  I've done a great job of collecting way too many toys for the little lumberjack to grow into. Part of this method is to keep the amount of toys available pared down to a very minimal number. These items are rotated out on a regular basis, some sooner than others. 

So, imagine my joy when my daughter sent me a link to our church swap site for a Melissa & Doug wooden tool bench! I showed the lumberjack the picture and he offered to go get it. It was a major score. $20 cash and it retails for almost $100. I hate spending retail on anything! So Papa brought it home and I swear it has magnetic abilities. It drew baby lumberjack to it and he was stuck there, playing with the hammer, saw, screwdriver & wrench for a couple hours. Baby lumberjack has never done that before. 

Above are the images that the seller put on the swap. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere how to remove ink from anything, probably on Pinterest. So, I wasn't bothered by the ink scribbles. However, after realizing that there isn't a stain or varnish, I've decided to lightly sand it. 

I think that this might find itself living in the barn quarters. A special little something to play with when everyone else is using big tools. 

I've been thinking a great deal about Montessori shelves in the livingroom. I think I might use them as a room divider of sorts. Perhaps around the back & sides of the couch. I also plan to have some set up where he has a few toys to play with on the covered porch. The majority though will be stored on shelves in the basement to be rotated in and out. 

Just a few more days to go! 

Still packing, purging & cleaning. 

Pre-Closing Walk Through

I am so very excited! Today we were FINALLY able to get back out to the farm and do a walk through with our realtor. The house has remained empty this last month. There was no real big surprises, other than the carpet that had "some pet stains" was actually much more stained than we thought. The ceiling fans are caked with dirt & grime, the blinds all really, really dirty. The windows need washed, floors scrubbed and cupboards and drawers wiped out. Overall, the house has a little bit of maintenance that needs done as we have time. I think we are in a good place, as the basics that need details will only take a few hours, with the exception of the carpet.

This is the first time that we have actually seen the house "Naked". What a huge difference it makes. I ended up having to switch to my small lens, then the Rebel began acting all crazy. I did get some pictures, so lets have a look!


This is what my view will be as I am washing dishes...

 I can easily see the livingroom and diningroom. I love the big open space.

 This is what you would see sitting at the diningroom table.

 And what you would see sitting in the livingroom

From the livingroom

From one end of the house looking down to the other end

Kitchen Island

After having painted cabinets for the last 20 years, I am over it. I can't wait to enjoy these oak cabinets.

Princess 1 room

Laundry/mud room

Main Bathroom that the girls will share

Baby lumberjacks lair

Master

Master looking towards master bath. There are 2 walk in closets. One on each side of the hallway.

Remind me to leave toilet paper for the people buying my house.

From the master looking towards the Livingroom. Keep in mind, I wanted a bedroom as far from the kitchen as possible and I will FINALLY have that!

Princess #2 room

Nice big closets even in the bedrooms

Very steep stairs to the unfinished basement

A completely empty basement. THIS will be storage space for all the stuff I have no desire to drag upstairs!

I am just going on record here. There is NO electrical outlets in the basement at all. We are going to need some outlets!

A two car garage that I more than likely will never be able to park in.

And that wraps up this grand adventure! I'd write a little bit more but baby lumberjack is ready to sleep and I need to see to his needs.

We close on Thursday, God willing.

Retail Therapy

Some women like to shop. In general, I do not. I don't mind looking through pinterest for hours on end until I narrow down what I really and truly like, but please don't ask me to go to the mall. My answer will be no.

I'm a thrift store, consignment shop, antique shop, online garage sale kinda girl. I love upcycling, crafting, painting... There are some things that I prefer to buy brand new. When I am buying new, I am always looking for the best quality product for my dollar.

So having retail therapy is an odd occurrence. I'm guessing it's because I haven't been to retail America much since Black Friday. Sometimes, I just need to FEEL things. Having a new house, and not buying anything for it what so ever was a killjoy. The princess and I hopped in my car and headed to Hobby Lobby. Now, if you must know, I adore Hobby Lobby. I could decorate my entire house AND buy beautiful fabrics all at once. I love Hobby Lobby so much that I have the App on my phone.

We spent a couple hours looking at all the new pretties that they have on display. We found a couple themes that we both liked and since our main focus was on the bathrooms, we narrowed the selection down. Both of us found these "Brave" line that we thought was darling. Everything we wanted was 50% off... So we managed to get these three pictures for the Main bathroom. We are looking for an arrow that has hardware to hold towels. I think we will add a gray shower curtain and perhaps something with a little splash of yellow and blue for the rug. It's very playful and light hearted. We actually found them in the nursery section.

Two grown ladies picked out these little braves for the bathroom. They are just so cute and whimsical. We also added a light blue mason jar soap dispenser and tooth brush holder.
I'm still debating but I really liked this glass box for holding things like cotton balls, make up pad removers, Q-tips or even rolled up washrags and hand made soaps.

I pretty much decided that I wanted to do a dock/fishing theme in the master bathroom. While the lumberjack has a boat and enjoys spending a day on the lake fishing, this woman would fish several times a week if I could. I love to trout fish especially. Anyways, I am leaning more towards water/ dock/ lake/ pond look than the whole over done fishing theme. This is where my problem lies. I also love the French Country look...

It complicates the challenge of actually decorating. I did buy a little minnow bucket along with a couple of "Hot Bath" cast iron wall hangers. Granted, anything I don't find fits in my space, I still have the barn bathroom to move it to.

We also found a few items that we liked. This is a pretty rare list as we don't normally find a thing we like when we are out.

 The Princess really liked this desk and stool.

 I really likes this side table buffet and the 3-tier basked holder next to it.

 Princess is thinking that she likes the style of this little organizer, just not so much the colors

 And this thing... Really could have come home with me to live forever. Only problem is I have absolutely no idea where I would put it or what I would use it for.

 I took this picture because I really like the simplicity of this 2x4 bed frame. There are a couple of 2x8's included. I could totally make this.

This little secretary desk folds completely flat like a drafting table. I liked how compact it is and also how rough and earthy it appears.

This is how I spent my day. Mostly window shopping because NO ONE wants to move more things! The few items we did pick up can all be packed into a little trunk that needs contents.

Still no closing date. We have one set of Realtors tentatively saying Feb 4th at noon. We will see.
Till then~

Looks a bit different...

Tomorrow was supposed to be our close date. It's not. We have our fingers crossed and prayers going up that it will happen before the end of the week. The weather here is supposed to rocket into the 50's & 60's and then tank next week, bringing a huge snow storm with it. If you are not familiar with winter in Missouri, it's generally pretty cold and frozen, so having warm weather to move in would be a huge blessing.

I had to run down to the little town in which the farm is located to put down a deposit on the water. This was the last of the utilities that I needed to take care of and it had to be done in person. Imagine my surprise when I was directed to go to the local accountants/tax office to drop off my check. You also pay dues for the fire department there as well. I thought it was kind of efficient, having 3 businesses all in one place, one employee, three piles to work from. Since we were already down there, I decided to run out to the farm and see how badly things looked with all the rain and the traffic from the auction they had a couple weeks ago. The current owners have moved out and the house is empty. I was a little bit sad about tomorrow not being our possession date, however the biting wind quickly helped me get right over that thought.

We were able to get into the stables to see what exactly we will be dealing with. As a side note, we ended up buying the farm As-Is, and got the property 34K cheaper than their asking price. While they were over priced to start with, the property in it's current state ended up having no problems with appraisal. The way that I look at it, 34K can make up a lot of what is lacking, so I am not going to complain much.

Let me state here something that I just came to the conclusion about. I set my expectations too high. It's okay, better to wrap my brain around it right now and quickly get over it than drag it out and have an unthankful spirit.

Let's take a little tour of the stables, shall we?

This room is a toss between an office and an efficiently apartment. I imagine that if you had to be near your animals when they were birthing or if you needed space to keep records and grab a cup of coffee while spending time in the barn, this would be epic.

 That door there is to a bathroom that appears to be winterized at the moment. It has a hotel style heating and cooling system for this room. I am doubting that this is much insulation for this area.

 The door to the right is the one that you enter into this room. There are two windows. One that looks outside and one that looks into the stables.

 The window in this view looks towards the house and the door to the right is the access to the stables.

 Nice little kitchenette here. It does have running water. The precious owners had a little fridge to the right of this. I can envision a coffee pot and a microwave out here.

 While I didn't notice before how badly the floor was, I did today. I think after a good scrub and a couple carpet rugs, it will be fine since this really isn't a living space.

 Both the toilet and the sink in the bathroom have some kind of antifreeze in the system and there is a heater attached to these pipes.

The window that looks into the stables. I would totally steal this room as a craft/sewing room but I am afraid that mice would ruin my belongings.

 In previous posts I have shared a full listing picture of the barn. This was the first time we were actually able to see it cleared out. There is still hay in the stalls but the center part and the workshop on the right have been cleared out.

 There is a little work area and then a shop area, after that there is a stall that is for washing and foaling it appears. After that there are steps to the loft and an area to store hay.

 This is the upper loft area. The youngest princess who turns 15 today has claimed this as her hang out spot. She has plans to build a railing, add some furniture, a table, strings of lights and a box of board games. Who knows, maybe she will move all her art supplies out here too and paint here. Looks like she has a good deal of cleaning up to do. I am sure this spring she will be happy to get moving on the project.

left behind is an alpaca swimming pool. Maybe the baby lumberjack will be able to use it on the back patio and share with our lab Sadie. I do plan to store my "manger people" and manger at the far end of this area.

Normally I would end my entry for the day with how many days until we move and indicate that I am packing, taping and praying. Today I can do no such thing since we have no idea how many days are left, almost everything has been packed, and we are now praying that the moving company can fit us in on such short notice.