As we were eager to move out to the homestead, we prioritized getting the joint space ready to go. Now that we are all settled in, I CAN NOT wait to get moving on the Cabin!! It’s going to be a long arduous process, but I’m sure (I hope) equally as rewarding. We have been in an RV since October of 2016 to pay off debts and start saving up for the dream property, so needless to say, I am over the RV living. I loved it at first, but around a year and a half in, I missed cooking in my own kitchen and having people over for dinner and drinks, and BBQ’s with fires in the backyard. These are the things I am most excited to start doing again. When we first looked at the Cabin, it was a disaster. Initially, the in-laws were planning on renovating the Cabin into their home, but upon seeing the interior and the mass amounts of work it would require, a lot of their excitement vanished. We all agreed that we wanted to keep the Cabin as a centerpiece on the homestead and couldn’t think of a better way than by restoring it back to its previous glory, so my husband and I decided we would restore the main Cabin and rip off the deteriorating addition, and add our own addition in a few years when we can afford the hours and dollars.
As you can see, she needs a lot of love. The addition is shown above and has extensive water damage due to a bad roof as well as leaking pipes, it just isn’t worth saving; and it’s not actually part of the original 1890’s cabin anyway so it’s not too big of a loss. Below, the first few images of the cabin are all downstairs, and the final image shows the south facing room upstairs. We’re hoping to seal that wall from the weather and remove the floor so that a portion of the cabin will have a vaulted ceiling. A lot of the damage visible in the actual cabin is due to the previous owner’s start on the restoration. They had already replaced 2 of the 3 building’s roofs, put in underground electricity all the way up to the buildings and updated the well system! They also started to pull down the 70’s wood paneling, and removed the chimney and fireplace. It’s amazing the layers you find in a cabin thats nearly 130 years old! Unfortunately, their plans ended up changing and they decided to move on before they did any further restorations. Fortunately for us, a lot of the big items we were hoping for when searching for a property had already been checked off the list!
Before getting to work on the Cabin, we had to get the old septic system replaced (HOLY MUD), and I decided to clear back some brush and trim some apple & pears trees over winter break. It’s weird being back on the school schedule after nearly 10 years away from it! I couldn’t just sit back and do nothing, so I just putts’d around the yard doing chores I knew would need to be done eventually. I also started carrying all those bricks downstairs…but I got tired after around half way through and convinced my hubby to help me out the next time! We decided moving bricks down stairs is a great workout.
Unfortunately I didn’t really document any of my tree trimming, but apparently you’re not supposed to trim back overgrown trees all at once so they don’t look crazy different yet anyway! My love for instant gratification did not love learning that…
There are TONS of fruit trees, and ALL of them are grossly overgrown. A lot of them look like their trunks are dying and they may not last too much longer :(. But I trimmed around ten of them, and I still have a couple more to go! Apparently if you mass prune them then their root system is too large for the tree so the tree will shoot up tons of new branches (that don’t even produce fruit) to try to compensate. Then the next year you have just as many or more to trim! I read that trimming around 25% of the limbs per year will help get them back under control. We’ll find out in a few years I guess!
The Homestead Journey 