Teresa & Mike CHS - Our journal

[frustratedearthmother]

Oh wow - the before and after pics are amazing. You've worked your ptootey off and it looks great!

 

[Baymule]

A quick note for the hard headed men on the forum. If you are hard headed enough to wear shorts while weed whacking poison ivy, expect some "I told you so" looks even if your wonderful better half doesn't really say "I told you so" when your legs turn into one big sore.

This is NOT an I told you so......but the very first thought blip across my mind went "Oh no, you really weren't that stupid were you??

Because I break out horribly from that stuff and because I feel sorry for the misery you are in, here's my remedy.

Draw up a tub of hot/warm water. Pour 1/2 cup Clorox in it, stir and immerse your self in it. Soak, get out of tub and pat dry. I have terrible chemical sensitivities, but I throw that to the wind for poison ivy/oak. Clorox works. The sooner the better. If a half cup doesn't dry it up, use a full cup.

Teresa, delighted to meet you! Your home is looking great. We moved a year ago and still have boxes, LOL. You will have to post more!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Oops, I forgot to mention that the pot rack looks nice. Maybe, when one of you has time a close up pic would be appreciated.

 

[Latestarter]

Very nice to meet you Teresa! Quite the hubby you have there. Does he ever sit down and do "nothing?" Makes me tired every time I read one of his posts, knowing that he's accomplished much, and I not so much The pan rack looks great and have to echo how nice the place looks with everything put away! Grats on getting settled in your new place!

 

[Mike CHS]

My husband is quite the man, and keeps quite busy, and yet often he has to tell me it's time to stop!....lol I will be glad when everything in the house is done so I can be working outside with him more, we do enjoy doing stuff together.
The pot and pan rack was a returned item (on sale) at Lowes had two screws with wall anchors that you could tell pulled out of the wall. Who could use a pot and pan rack with only 2 screws in the wall??
To avoid the same problem we made a glue up out of some curly maple that he had. We anchored the pot and pan rack to it with bolts coming through the back and nut attached at the front.
Then secured the wood to the wall with 3 lag bolts into a stud.

 

[Pastor Dave]

Nice to meet you Teresa. You'll have to create an account to personalize yourself.
I told Mike a while back ago that you two are doing what I want to do in the future. What I have going on here is sustaining me til then. All the pics and details he has sent(and most recently your pics) have looked great and let me daydream through your experience. Nice pot rack. Sounds solid and well-anchored.
I have had to soak in an oatmeal bath as a kid for poison ivy, but do not remember the details. Clorox sounds good to use though.
Welcome to the site.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I love the rack - thanks so much for the pics!

 

[Mike CHS]

I have done most of the posting but Teresa has done the majority of the house so I just stay out of her way and mostly tend to the outside. If it had just been me by myself I would have bought a travel trailer and parked a lawn chair in front of it. That way I could have sat there looking out at the hillside that I could not see because of trash and over growth wondering "WHAT WAS I THINKING"

Mike

 

[Mike CHS]

An update is due because we are happy to see some progress. We wound up staying in Charleston until the 24th of May. I gave notice early April and planned on April 30 being our last day there. The owner of the company told the government supervisor that I worked for that I had given notice and planned to leave the end of May. The supervisor was not only my boss but he was one that I had been stationed with multiple times so he was also a friend. Anyway we got here Thursday and decided to keep tackling the outside before the heavy heat started.

A neighbor is taking the hay off so I don't have to do my 12 hour marathon bush hogging so we are concentrating on getting rid of some major rock buildup and putting in some raised beds. We have a 1/2 acre garden spot on our place but it's over 1000 feet away and we want some beds where we can walk out the front door and get some peppers, tomatoes or other quick grab items. We first had to move a pile of telephone poles that were previously destined for fencing but I won't use them - off to the burn pile with those things. The spot they were piled up on is also the place we wanted at least one raised bed. It took a half day for each of the two beds we added because there was a stone slab right where I wanted the beds. Between one of the 25 lb rock breakers and some creative front end loader work we got them ready. We think our neighbor thinks we are a little touched to be building beds when we have 19 acres but he still tolerates us. We plowed up some more ground to finish up our orchard. Hopefully now that we are here full time the deer will leave these alone now - if not there will be some tall fencing going up.

We also had a bad dip next to the retaining wall we built to divert water away from the house. That had settled so added a lot of top soil to it. Possibly planting grapes there. Here are a few pictures:

Mike and Teresa

 

[Hens and Roos]

looks like you are making good progress!!