Lots of Summer Projects...of the Non-Fabric Variety

I've had quite a few folks wonder if we ever get bored around here. The resounding answer is no...never. Life is full and there is always something going on and yes, it almost always involves work. The list is long and the ranch house is often at the bottom of that list. I'm fine with that. I'v never focused on all the things these old ranch houses really could use. I'm a glass half full kind of girl so I guess I get really excited about the little things we DO fix and for the most part...99% of the part...it's US doing the fixing. I'm so grateful for DH's handy genes. But this summer we called in reinforcements.

Our 10 year old air conditioner sprung a leak in the coils and when it's 110° and hotter, we truly appreciate working refrigerated air:

So Jared came out and replaced the coils. Nothing is ever easy in an old ranch house. This installation required a saw

 
and a flame:

and some demolition:

Which led to some new sheet rock and a new door for the heating cooling units:
                                       

That didn't solve the problem though and he ended up coming back and replacing the entire unit:

And while we're at it, let's replace the hole in the wall that was here when we moved in. A strategically placed cabinet hid it all these years:

We've also needed to replace some doors and windows in the bunkhouse

as well as 2 windows in our house:

I cannot tell you how excited I am to no longer have electrical tape on this 95" long window in my mudroom-entry way-laundry room::

And I don't think anyone has ever been happier to have a new kitchen window...especially one with rain on it!

The old one was double-paned and it leaked water and dirt horribly.

Proof: my windowsill would be covered in dirt when the wind blew

                                 

You could not get it clean and it wouldn't stay open so I improvised:

                                 

Not that I have a view, but a clean window makes me exponentially happy! The window installation also made it necessary to paint the side of the house:

                             

Wonder what I could do to make it necessary to build a porch. It should be illegal to have a house without a front porch. And the new cake bin was delivered:

This is where we store the cake...aka: cubes, or feed for the cattle. DH built and welded the supports and then he and the north camp man dug deep holes and set the supports with a pallet of quick-crete:

The country was out working our road:

Leaks needed fixing:

Hay was delivered:

And all these extra hands needed sustenance in the form of cookies so I've been busy:

And as I shared at the start of this post, MOST of our projects require work. Most. But not all. After DH cleaned out a storage tank,

 we went swimming:

And then I went home and took a nap. I'm not even the one doing all the work, but this summer is wearing me out.

The Hot Water Heater Blues

Our 11-yr old hot water heater chose to quit a while back. Turns out a while back was in January. LOL. But there's a reason I haven't shared this post until now so bare with me.

 At Christmas, last year, we had a blizzard that dropped a record snowfall. They called it Goliath and I shared several posts about it back then. After 20 days, we were still fighting the snow, but DH fought his way to the pavement and brought home a new hot water heater.

And before long we were back in business:

I'm very thankful that DH is so handy and I'm very thankful that the hot water heater didn't go out when I had a house full of company!

 While DH was in town, I  moved the fridge and cleaned. It wasn't too bad, but it sure felt good to get that floor really good and clean. Our hot water heater sits in the corner of our kitchen which is already tiny. I haven't a clue as to why it was ever even installed there in the first place, but I'm thankful I have one so I won't fuss about it. This is an old ranch house and I'm sure that back in the day, a hot water heater was quite the deal. Maybe they wanted it in the kitchen so that everyone could marvel at it. I've been without hot water enough to not take it for granted. However, I don't particularly like looking at it all the time. It's squished into a corner and I've been on the lookout for a way to camouflage it for years. DH said we could build a box around it, but it would be kind of a pain if we needed quick access to it. I had a screen in mind, but the space is narrow and a regular sized screen wouldn't fit. I've got a huge fridge on one side and a cabinet a local woodworker built for me on the other.

Fast forward 10 months. As fast as this year has zipped by, that's not much of an exaggeration. But the other day, when I was in town I stopped by the antique-junk-treasure store that I like to pop into every now and then and spotted some shutters that I was pretty sure would fit that space nicely. They are actually 2 sets. one shorter than the other, but stacked on top of each other, they are just the right height. I didn't want anything taller because that would only make my already tiny kitchen feel even smaller. There are 3 panels and each panel is just 9" wide and that makes for a perfect fit.

I still need to paw through a box of odds and ends and come up with a couple of braces in order to stabilize the top and bottom together, but I'm happy with the end result. I just started pulling out Christmas decorations 2 days after I brought home the screen:

My kitchen may be little, but I like it and I've managed to cook a lot of meals in it. Sure a 6-burner stove and double ovens would be nice, but this tiny space has kept my family well fed and happy for many years. I did have my eye on one of those wrought iron pot racks that hangs from the ceiling at one point since cabinet space is at a premium here and I love...and use...my cast iron all the time, but I'm fairly certain the entire ceiling would come crashing down if I did that and as handy as DH is, I'm betting that replacing the ceiling isn't something he'd be too keen on tackling. :)

I'm a simple girl and hiding the hot water heater this way keeps me from singing the hot water heater blues and it only took 11 years to find a solution. :)