Setting up the Homestead Part 2

This last weekend, Mr. Gillis’ mother was able to watch Izzy all day Saturday and Sunday. This was a perfect opportunity to get ourselves some flooring and get some work done down on the homestead.

We dropped Izzy off around 9 am on Saturday morning and proceeded to drive the 40 odd miles to Houlton, the nearest place we have access to box stores like Tractor Supply Club, Walmart, Grocery Stores and MARDENS, the true destination of our trip.

We really wasted no time in going to this mecca of must haves -their slogan is literally “should have bought it when i saw it at Mardens”. I dare you to start that sentence in front of your native Mainer and not have them sing the rest to you.

Suffice to say, our trip was a success, and we indeed bought it when we saw it at Mardens. We found a 17’x12′ piece of vinyl sheet flooring for $141 and the glue for $25. Tax and all, we are officially able to put floors down in two rooms for about $175.

We also bought a gallon of special killz, and a gallon of noname bright white interior paint. These two gallons bring our gallon total to 7.

We rushed home to get to work, but still had to be impressed with the fall colors coming out on the ride. We really are lucky to live in such a beautiful state.

We pulled into the driveway, unloaded our wonderful find and got to work.

Mr. Gillis got to work on finishing the electrical problem he was having with the old wiring in the future plant nursery- its important we have reliable and safe power in this room.

I grabbed the killz and started going at all the water damage I could find in the storage room I had been working on. When I took up the floor we found a fair amount of old water damage from when a washer had been running improperly. Once the Killz was on, I threw on the last coat of bright white to the entire room.

Shot the sunday because I was so impressed with my paint job

Mr. G’s side of the wall where he was working on the wiring

My side of the wall which he destroyed.

At this point, Mr GIllis had gotten his wiring done, but had in the process, ruined my paint job on one wall. He apologized and I sucked it up pretty fast. I guess. Even tho I obviously felt the need to post a picture of the devastation.

We agreed to break for supper and come back after. After scarfing down some nachos at our current home- they were homemade and delicious with turkey meat and lots of veggies – we rushed back to the homestead and got back to work.

Mr. Gillis went back to working on getting walls up in the plant nursery and I decided it was time to salvage what I could from the kitchen.

After a grueling hour and a good portion of a container of clorox wipes, I saved the fridge. Then I ripped out the cupboards and as much or the counters as I could without destroying our only sink area. We took stock of what I had torn out and decided to leave the rest for another day and call it a night.

The next morning, we got up and got to work around 8 am. We assessed the situation in the kitchen and made a couple decisions. 1. The stove top needs to be hooked up to some propane and tested before we decide to keep it or not. 2. the sink needs to stay as it is for now so we have a place to rinse our paint brushes. 3. Their is a lot of water damage in the ceiling and that and the walls needs to be torn out and replaced and 4. the water heater is most likely the cause of this water damage and needs to be junked.

Mr. Gillis went back to work on getting walls up in the plant nursery and I started tearing out the bathroom. First I tackled all the shelves and the cabinet. Then I took out the shower, revealing a window. With a little talking amongst ourselves, we decided to uncover this window all the way and leave the bottom of the shower stall in case we needed to give a chicken an emergency bath. As we look over the walls and ceiling we see that these too need to be torn out and replaced.

So now the kitchen and bathroom are both at an impasse.

I convince mrgillis that in order for me to do anything else we need to cut the flooring.

We got both pieces cut for the 8’x10′ rooms we’ve been working on. I go to sweep up the floor as good as I possibly can and I look to mrgillis and say, hey mrgillis, I think we should remove this big black plug that will never get used and will ruin our perfect floor.

so he turns off the power. and the power is not turning off.

needless to say, this giant black plug is a giant road block in our plans to do any flooring.

So, we reassess again. I decide that the only thing left for me to do is move EVERYTHING from the front room and start painting the ceiling, because well, we don’t want to tear out more walls until the plant nursery is done.

Our Mega Giant 5 Gallon Bucket of Paint

I’d like to take a moment of silence for the pine boards we had to cover. We really didn’t want to, but we couldn’t afford to restore them- and we need this place to be easy to clean and maintain.

With my painting and mrgillis’ hard work in the future plant nursery, we are getting step by step closer to turning this place into a useful work space for us come this winter.

We definitely ran out of time, before we ran out of work – so that’s the standing plan for this coming weekend if we can swing it.

Until next time, have a wicked good day.