We Bought a House
Another room gutted and framed, and a garden ready for planting
By Christopher Miller
We’ve done it.
The past three weekends in a row were a complete whirlwind of activity at the homestead.
With my parents visiting and gutting an entire room to my in-laws camping in Loganton and helping us for nearly entire days on Friday’s – Monday’s, we are tired and ready for a weekend of just my wife and I at home. Though we still will be doing house things.
So here is what happened.
Bedroom Work
The room we were working in is next to our second floor bathroom and it is what we refer to as “the orange room.” It was painted orange prior to repaired water damage work on the southern corner.
All of our rooms are out of level and out of square, so we completely reframed this room in order to properly insulate the walls and build a new closet. As well, we are adding almost two-dozen outlets to this bedroom, all new electrical. When we bought the house this room had only one floor outlet, so seeing the expanded opportunities for electrical is ever-so pleasing.
My Memorial Day weekend project was to insulate the walls and begin drywall work.
Garden Work
The previous homeowners were known throughout the area for their beautiful gardens, so we feel like we owe it to them to bring this back.
We took the outline of the former garden and tilled the soil, adding mushroom soil into the mix. I then began to dig a hole for fence posts. Did you know it took me almost an hour to dig a 24” hole? There’s a lot of rocks out there!
After a little debate I rented an auger and had 20 holes drilled into the ground within 2.5 hours. My wife then dropped the posts into the ground and back-filled around them. She’s a swell gal.
With the help of my in-laws, we were able to wrap the fence posts with the wire fencing all before lunch on Monday. Phew! Our project is to now buy plants and get them in the ground! Keep an eye out for “Miller’s Home Grown” in the very near future.
Kitchen Work
The kitchen is still largely the same as when we bought the house aside from my painting project last summer. The real difference now is that we have a kitchen light that actually works!
The summer humidity caused our kitchen light to not turn on the summer. We ended up swapping out the strange round neon-like light fixture for a $3 ceramic light socket “temporary fix.” Hey – it did the trick just fine.
If you’re enjoying reading this column, please feel free to follow our progress on Instagram! @millersfarmhome
Until next time…happy home projects to you!
