Rainy days and Chandeliers

The weather changes fast up here in the North.  Last week we were inhaling smoky air which only lasted a few days before the rain came, and we have been enjoying scattered showers ever since. Along with the rain came fresh, crisp air - autumn is here.  In the valley it seemed like September stayed warm and October was the transition month.  We went from wearing sandals, shorts, and summer skirts to wool socks, pants, and flannel shirts.

A fully functioning bath and shower

 Thankfully, Corey finished up our bathtub/shower and installed the toilet before all of the rain.  It would have been interesting to take a shower in the rain, but quite chilly in this weather.

A huge milestone was crossed this weekend.  I had told Corey that Haefen would not really be my home until I could take a bath in the bathtub.

 A toilet that flushes

You see, every Sunday I take a long soak in Epsom salt water along with about 15 drops of lavender essential oil and I cleanse, exfoliate, and moisturize with my own specially-formulated cocoa butter mask.  I have not been able to keep this routine for about nine weeks until this last Lordsday, which truly made the day a "day of rest" for me. I am very grateful for Corey's hard work and Bruce's help a couple of weekend's ago.

Now some texture, a sink, some paint, and wood trim is all we need to complete our bathroom.  I do not plan on posting more photos of the bathroom until it is finished.

As you may know, we have been eating outside all summer on our deck, which has been great!  We did not want to move our dining room table into the dining room until all the painting was done.  Even though it is a small room it took me weeks to finish the job.  We had to take down the chandelier so that I could paint the ceiling and rather than spend $200 on a new one that I liked, we decided to upgrade the old one which also had to be swapped out with the largest chandelier in the living room.  As usual, lots of details had to be worked out to simply put a table in the dining room!

After everything in the dining room was painted, the kids and I manoeuvred the hulking, solid wood table we bought off of Craigslist (from a very nice lady) into the house.  We brought in all six chairs that came with it from the garage and looked at the small space that we call the "dining room".  It was kind of hard to give up our huge hallway into the kitche, but eating indoors in a small dining room seemed better than freezing through dinner every night in the spacious outdoors.

Dinner by flame

The chandelier was still missing when this picture was taken.  We had been eating by kerosene lamp which is cozy and totally fits in with our house.  It felt rather primitive and rustic, like Little House on the Prairie.  The first time that we lit the lamp was when Greta and Bruce were still here and we continued using it until last night when Corey installed our new and improved chandelier.

three-light chandelier in the living room

I forgot to take pictures before we took our chandelier down, but it looked very similar to the two wagon wheel chandeliers in the living room.  The living room had one five-light chandelier and one three-light chandelier which is pictured here.  There was another three-light chandelier in the dining room.  We decided to put the five-light chandelier in the dining room and the three-light chandelier with its matching partner in the living room.
As you can see, this beauty has bright brass hardware with kerosene lamp glass sconces.  The base looks like a wagon wheel.  When I was looking for glass sconces on Amazon a lady described having these exact chandeliers and said that they had been in her house for thirty years which confirmed my suspicion that these fixtures were straight from the 1980's.
I am not a fan of the Eighties and I tend to abruptly turn away from anything that even remotely resembles that tacky and ostentatious decade.  However, the wagon wheel held my attention and beckoned to my creative sensibilities.

not so 1980's chandelier 

So, I finally decided (after several people told me that I should) to paint the hardware and find new sconces.  This seemed like a much cheaper option than buying a new light fixture and salvaging the wagon wheel seemed worth it.

I spray painted all the hardware matte black and found alabaster white glass sconces at Lowes.  Corey helped me do some touch up work and he reattached all the hardware, then he hung this chandelier in the dining room so now we have electric lighting.

We are so happy with the results.  Not only do we have plenty of light in the dining room, but we also get to enjoy our truly unique rustic/chic light fixture that we transformed.  Good-bye 1980's, you can't have my chandelier back.

underside of the wagon wheel

the dining room is complete!

Phase One - Bye Bye Wood Paneling

I wish that I could boast that clean, fresh mountain air is filling my lungs, but sadly we here up north are inhaling a smoky haze instead.  It is forest fire season and I do live in the forest so there you go - smoky air.  On the worst days I keep the windows closed during the day and do my best at not letting the gloom sink into my bones.

This is a view from my balcony

On the worst, smokiest day I drove to Westwood Nursery and bought some plants to put into a couple of pots that sit close to the RV pad.  It is a cute little garden center that cheers my heart here in town.  I spent the day planting my pots and building a little rock border around them in the smoky air in hope of brighter days ahead.  I thought that the mums, violas, and cabbages would also make a nice welcome for Corey's parents when they arrived with their camper.

One of the RV pad flower pots that Asa and Eleanor have commandeered for their toys to live in.

 The good news is that Bruce and Greta did arrive with their camper, but unfortunately they were not able to be the first to use our RV pad.  Our gate wasn't big enough and the uneven entrance coupled with some crazy tree branches rendered the smooth cement, flower-pot laden slab unreachable. Bruce considered the obstacles and decided to park his camper in front of our garage doors which worked great.  He and Greta still had access to electricity and they were relatively close to our front door.  Hooray! The kids could still enjoy eating sugary cereal in the mornings while visiting with Grandpa and Grandma in their camper.  We had a fun and productive week together.

The bathroom is still a work in progress.  The tile is installed and grouted and all the dry-wall is taped and mudded.  Bruce and Corey worked together to install the bathtub drain and put all the hardware in the shower.  Installing the drain looked very challenging, but finding faucet knobs that I liked and fit on our extra long knob stems was an on-going project.  Bruce and I frequented Ace Hardware several times while he was here and we became familiar faces in that store.  The last time that I purchased a faucet knob the cashier clerk asked me, "What are you doing now?".  Eventually Corey went to Lowes and bought all the faucet knobs that looked promising and finally we found a match.

So shiny and white

 We are still using the composting toilet and outdoor shower.  I don't mind using the "dry toilet" so much now.  I just read a great book by Gene Logsdon called Holy Shit and it really opened up my mind to considering alternative means of waste removal.  Using clean, potable water to flush away all our poop and pee is convenient, but requires a lot of infrastructure which is expensive and complicated.  Dry toilets are more demanding for the individual but much simpler to maintain - plumbers are not necessary.  You are more in control, less dependent on specialists and government agencies.

What a beauty!  It has literally saved our  you- know- whats.

The dining room is finally painted and I am pleased to announce that 95% of all the wood paneling has been covered with paint or removed!  The utility room which houses our dry toilet, washer and dryer, and food pantry is still completely paneled, but it is not on the Phase One list - whew.  I think that we will eventually take down the paneling and dry-wall this room.  I will send out pictures of the dining room once we rehang the chandelier.

Isaac's face is mostly healed and other than a chipped tooth he has no permanent damage - praise God!
 We joined a home school co-op and our classes started this week which helped motivate me to start our daily lessons at home.  We are reorganizing ourselves to meet this new challenge.  Every year is different and adjustments must be made.

Phase One - Bathroom Remodel Update and an Airborne Accident

I am pleased to announce that the bathroom remodel is progressing and hopefully we will soon have a brand new, plumbed. indoor toilet and a freshly tiled shower with a new bathtub.  Yeah!  Corey did a marvelous job of getting the bathroom ready for the tiler.  The bathtub actually sits about 3-4 inches below the sub floor, so he had to do some creative thinking to get everything matched up for the tile to be laid on a firm, smooth floor.

subway tile in the shower

black and white octagons on the floor

We are about five days in on using a composting toilet.  Corey installed it in the utility room.  We thought about renting a port-a-potty unit, but they only rent by the month and we thought that having an extra, back-up, emergency toilet might come in handy anyway.  It is definitely an interesting experience.  I can't say that it is my preferred method of eliminating waste, but it is better than having to find a safe place in the woods in the deep dark of night.

The outdoor shower is a big hit!  Some of us actually prefer outdoor showering to indoor showering.  It took a few days to figure out how to get the water temperature just right.  At first the bather needed to have a helper standing by to adjust the water faucet knobs on the utility sink.  The helper had to stay close to an open window and listen carefully to orders shouted out by the vulnerable showerer, "Too hot, turn up the cold!" or "It's freezing, turn down the cold!"

Five satisfied showerers

Part of the initial problem was that once the helper started turning she would usually forget which way was "on" and which way was "off".  As you can imagine the poor bather was subject to some pretty extreme temperature changes!  We also had to wait for the temperature to change after each adjustment because the hose is about 75 feet long. But all that was last week, now that we are pros most of us no longer need a helper.  Corey is the brave one, he usually takes his shower at night.  At first he would make Willa (our dog) go outside with him, but now he is comfortable going solo with just his battery-operated lantern.  He loves showering under the bright stars every night.  We like this new experience so much that we would like to build a permanent outdoor shower that we can use during the summer months.

You may have noticed Issac's huge face scab in the above picture.  Last night when I was grilling pork chops he and Asa made a bike ramp at the bottom our hill.  Asa volunteered to be the first contestant in the "Let's see who can break his neck first" game, but fortunately Isaac showed enough wisdom to hold his little brother back and give his own body as the first sacrifice.

This picture was taken the day after the incident at the scene of the accident.

Lillia figured that something other than the boys' wildest dreams would come true and stayed on the scene to provide first aide.

This is how far  Isaac landed from the ramp - about 12 feet

Lillia, our eye-witness reported that Isaac flew over his handle bars and apparently skidded across the grass and dirt by the looks of his face.

Another day of adventure at Haefen.

Thankfully Isaac is not badly hurt.  He feels stiff and sore today.  His eye is swollen and he did chip a tooth, but nothing else is broken.  Isaac did say that he probably will not be riding his bike down the hill for a while.