This Old House: 2009 at The Ballard Homestead

Remember this?
At the beginning of this year, we set some goals concerning our little homestead here. We pulled some unfinished or overdue projects into the spotlight for completion in 2009.
I'm sitting here laughing at myself a little for how much control I thought we would have over how/when we would get these things done.
It's funny the things you can learn in a year. (I say that now, but I'll probably find myself learning the exact same lesson throughout this year...I can be a slow/rebellious learner)

Anyway, it was nice to have a sort of list to refer to and I've put together a list of pictures of things on and off that list that contribute to the overall progression and well-being of our home this year.

Motion Detector Lights Installed
JC did this one first thing in January! We spent a lovely day outside doing this or that and he got those babies up and working. The lights have come in quite handy and it's one more bit of peace of mind for me! Now we know if there's so much as a cat in our backyard at night! We, and our neighbors, also know if it's just really windy...
Isn't he studly carrying that ladder?

Bethany's Windows
I already posted this when I did it, but here, again, is the finished project of her curtains. Only, it's actually not finished because I decided I wanted to add more strands of ribbon, etc. It looks a little bare for my liking. And, actually, the ribbons are all unraveling at the bottom so I may need to replace some strands when adding more, while coming up with a good way to keep that from happening again. Or do something different completely? But, in the meantime, I'm glad I did this.

Floors
No, no new carpet, but I am pleased to say that this is one area of our home we are taking better care of these days. So many maintenance-type things escape me on a daily basis, but one thing we have all gotten better about is trying to keep our carpet not-gross. I'd love to say that it stays clean always, but I'll stick with not-gross for now! (Especially because we have popcorn for snack quite often and that stuff just gets everywhere and seems to stay everywhere.)

Anyway, we got a coupon for a non-toxic eco-friendly carpet cleaning and you know how I like my non-toxic eco-friendly options. So, we got some choice areas in the house done last January.
It was one of the best days of my life.
I kid you not.
Fluffy goodness under our feet for several days. I feel like I would commit any number of crimes to have this done again.

The kids also started pulling their weight occasionally. :)
Alright, maybe it's not on their everyday chore list (I will leave you to believe that they actually have an everyday chore list...) but they all really love vacuuming! I usually give the floor a good once-over, then let one or two or all of them have a go at it. They love it.

Turns out we also discovered the trick to clean hardwood floors in this house.
Wet towels spread all over. They can be walked away from, walked on, moved, etc.
It's actually been a long time since I've done this.
Another thing that plagues me. It seems an odd thing to be unable to keep up "until the kids are older." So, what, we just walk on gross floors between now and then? Haha, I think just recapping this stuff is starting to overwhelm me!
I guess it's about time to bust out all the big towels again though!


Sprinkler System Re-routed
True to my word, this one got done. And, true to my word, we had someone else do it! It was kind of a fun project to watch as it developed. Plus, it left cool lines through the yard's surface that made for a lot of inventive games. This project leaves us one step closer to growing our own food in our own backyard!

Garden Fence
As you can see in the above pictures, we also got our garden fence built. After much deliberation in early March, we finally decided on the final location for our fruit trees and our garden to grow. So, even though it wasn't on the to-do for the year, we went right ahead and started buying sections for the fence and, as you can see below, getting it all built.

Doesn't it look beautiful?
Now that it's all beautifully in place, I am trying to decide whether or not to paint it white...

One Tree Planted
Um...so, the goal was to plant one fruit tree. A citrus tree. We decided on tangelo because they are mine and the kids' favorite (JC doesn't have another favorite, he just didn't weigh in really) and they will be perfect for picking and eating plus juicing. So, we went tangelo tree shopping one week when fruit trees happened to be on sale at Whitfill Nursery on Gilbert Rd.
Came home the proud new owners of five trees.
Plum, Peach, Apple, Pomegranate, and, of course,Tangelo.
Our grove has begun.
(Looking at this picture, I can just feel the warming March air and the soft, friendly spring earth under my toes. I can't wait for spring to come again!)

Balcony Screen Doors
One day, while cleaning my kitchen on a beautiful spring morning, I had my back doors open. They allowed a sweet-smelling, cool breeze to create a picture perfect hour full of dish soap for me and Sesame Street for the kids. Then, just to pop my lovely bubble, one of those gigantic black bees found his way into my kitchen. I will not relate all of the events that came to pass after that but I will tell you that it involved a broom with a blanket wrapped around the end, more than one war cry from me, violence of sorts, my pantry door being closed and a towel stuffed in the crack under the door (just in case said violence didn't fully do the trick), loss of feeling in limbs, and a phone call to JC in which tears were involved.
I begged him for screen doors so I wouldn't have to give up my springtime air and so that, for heaven's sake, I would never have to deal with that again.
He went on his lunch break.
Yes, really.
Take a look:

A shot of him being manly with his power tools...

...and one of him teasing the cat with his power tools.

These screen doors have been invaluable. One of the best things we have done to the house since moving in, for sure.

Ball Pit Upgrade
Since we have started this whole ball pit thing, it has progressively become a much bigger deal than I originally intended! What was once a small circular swimming pool in the little cove of our downstairs play area has become...the downstairs play area. We had a medium-sized ball pit at the beginning of the year but have since upgraded.
Here is the old ball pit, slowly deflating...

And the new one, ready for action!

Which it has certainly gotten.

Baby Steps in Home Preparedness
Like in any area, I have a really hard time taking it a little at a time with this. I feel like I just have to hit it hard until it's done. So, that's kind of what I did for the first bit of the year. Really tackled making a plan, then starting to get things in order so we are ready for any situation that may come our way. Everything from food storage, disaster know-how, supplies, skills...I felt like I really needed to GET. IT. DONE.
I tried. And I overwhelmed myself. The first section of my preparedness plan was about making a Family Plan for emergencies. The item of business, out of 11 steps, for a Family Emergency Plan was to discuss, as a family, how to respond to the dangers of fire, severe weather, earthquakes, and other emergencies.
This item of business took me about six months.
To almost finish.
I also followed a purchase plan for a bit and got a few items for 72 hour kits as well as some good supplies for around the house.
Such as a hand wheat grinder, a solar oven, these tube tents:

and this dehydrator:
But once I realized that my sanity was hanging on by a thread and it was highly due to this subject, I pretty much dropped it. Do I feel good about that? No. Does that mean it was the wrong thing to do? No. Does that mean it doesn't still drive my mind into spinning and give me a headache any time I even think about it? NO.
This stuff is important and, believe it or not, really enjoyable and exciting for me. But I can't stand to do something without being super thorough. I'd rather not do something than do it sort of. So, therein lies my lifelong sorrow. Maybe it's something that can't get major attention until the kids are older...though this thought drives me mad and preparedness feels a funny thing to put off...
Anyway, this is clearly something I could have a one-sided conversation about forever and therefore, I will call it quits for now. :)

Backyard Misters Installed
This was something we had mentioned here or there, but when JC's sister, Melissa, told us about an amazing sale on these babies, we didn't take a second thought. JC bought the equipment and within a couple of weeks, we were operating with a cool mist on our balcony and downstairs patio. Just in time to be utilized for summer.
We were less hermit-like this summer due to this!
Here's JC getting them all hung up:

Here he is, working on getting it all connected.
The boys are "helping."

Balcony Carpet
So, we quickly learned that, due to the fine mist we were so enjoying from those misters, our wooden balcony floor became so wet it caused much slippage and near-injury. JC had the great idea to check out some cheap outdoor carpet to temporarily lay down. Which we did.
The kids helped. It was so cute.

Goodbye Old Stove!

This old guy occupied a good portion of the wall down in our basement family room...back when there was a basement family room. I suppose that someday I shall document the transformation certain areas of our house have undergone over the past three and a half years. We will take that journey someday but for now I just wanted to document that after a couple years of non-use and quite a while of sitting on our back patio, this old stove was hauled off by some stranger for some purpose I can only imagine. But, for us, it is finally gone.
Too bad we didn't have anywhere for it...it was kind of a nifty old thing.

Mutant Weeds
This was the year we experienced mutant-like weeds that popped up once our trees started getting established. They would grow to this size overnight - - I am not kidding - - and the leaves were HUGE and fuzzy. I can't think of many things that are huge and fuzzy that I care much for and these were certainly not an exception. I always felt uneasy when these would appear and I am quite interested to see if they show up again this year!
So strange.

Workout Room
So, this was a project I was really excited about and still am. But it is a long project. So, this is the only picture I have...hopefully more to come this year! This room is the third section of our garage but it is sectioned off and air conditioned. So, it's more like part of the house and has become our workout room. I used it a LOT this year. And we did get quite a bit done in the way of transforming it to be less garage-like. Right now, since the weather is nice and I have been walking for exercise, it has become a place for our Christmas boxes to hang out. Those are getting put away soon so it should go back to normal and hopefully this year will be when the project gets more refined.
As you can see though, we did get the walls painted...though you actually can't really see it. Hopefully more to come of this one soon!

Peaches!
Our first 'harvest'! The peach tree gave us four lovely peaches this year...

...and we enjoyed them quite thoroughly!

Love Sacs
This was the year we acquired these babies. Need I say more?

The Kitchen...it's a start!
We didn't do a whole lot of decorating this year but we did find ways to use what we already had in a lot of instances...or what other people had. My parents were getting rid of some blinds and we took them and hung them above this ridiculously large pot shelf we have. This kitchen is literally going to take years to get all decorated and even more than that to really get to its full potential. I have a love/hate relationship with my house especially my kitchen.
Someday it shall shine. (in both a clean way and a pretty way)
Here's JC creating my wall hanging...

Closets cleaned out
I don't have to explain to anybody how clutter accumulates in a closet. The closets throughout the house have held all kinds of stuff ever since we moved in, some related to the particular room the closet is in, and most of the stuff...not. Anyway, I started working on this last August. As in 2008. Then someone got sick...then, someone else got sick...then, it was the holidays...and anyway, I landed at about August again this year getting them actually done. Not bad, right? A year-long project? So, maybe that's why I care more about this than I should.
These clean closets were a long time in the making!
Here are James' old clothes all ready for Ben to grow into. Hand-me-down clothes and shoes were about all that was left in Ben's closet! Finally!

Something I found when cleaning out Ben's closet: one of his premie hats. No, he wasn't premie but you know how they take a while to grow into even the tiniest of baby clothes? Especially him, he was the smallest of my babies.
So so so sweet.
Look how it barely takes up the palm of my hand! And I have small hands!

James' closet with the same ingredients.

Bethany's is no different.
(These pictures are way cooler if you knew what they looked like before...which was something like being unable to see the carpet or discern what was what on any given shelf or stuffed in any given corner. Seeing these closets makes me so happy.)

Filters
This may be only exciting for us, but we have pretty good quality air filters that we got after getting sick of being sick all the time last year. There are so many things we have around here that get neglected, it is happy to me that we no longer neglect keeping our air filters clean.
Seriously...this feels rather lame.
But, it still makes me happy.
So, I'm documenting it.
Plus, the picture is cute.

Laundry
Bethany started helping with laundry. Sometimes. At one point in time, I had her always help with her laundry, doing most of it herself, just with me right there guiding her. Then...like every other really good habit we get into...it went away when things got busy, someone got sick, etc. :)
But, now that I'm thinking about it again, I think I'll try to get it started again. And I thought it would be fun to, in the future, look back and see when the kids first started 'helping' around the house!

Pantry Organized
This was another project that went on, on and off, for about a year. And, of course, it still goes on! But, here is one point at which I felt it was somewhat 'finished' being organized. At least once you have a place for everything, things stay a little neater. I feel one step closer to being more self-reliant, just having this area of the house in order.
(Can you see my little sticky notes labeling what goes on what shelves?)Backyard Cleanup
I really wanted to get the backyard in good working order since now that the kids were older we would be able to spend more time out there. So, little bits at a time, once the weather was nice, we got things ready for function and fun! This picture is actually from later on in the year when we hosed off the balcony (and the rest of the back of the house) to get rid of summer dust, grime, spiderwebs, etc. It always looks sparkly and smells like rain when JC does this. I love it. Plus, the kids sit inside and look out the window until he sprays the window they are sitting at and they all scream and run away and it's cute.
But, yes, we did get our backyard all cleaned up...except for the side of the house. That's coming this spring. :)

Down two trees!
Not only was this the year we planted our first five trees, it was the year we lost two of those five trees. Here JC and the kids are pulling up the old plum. The plum and apple didn't make it through the summer. I was quite sad. But, luckily, the plum tree was still guaranteed when it died so Whitfill Nursery didn't make us pay for a replacement when it was time to plant again. What was extra nice was that even though the apple didn't die during the time it was still guaranteed, they still didn't make us pay for the new one.
We love them.

The Newbies!
And here they are!
The new plum:

It's hard to see against the backdrop of more trees but here is the new apple!

And we got this guy for the front yard...The Sissoo Tree.
We LOVE him.

Kitchen Table Glasstop
We bid farewell to the good ol' glasstop we got to protect the lovely wood of our kitchen table from the banging silverware of children. As sturdy as it was against silverware, it was no match for James and his canteen. No more, no more.
Here is JC, cleaning up after the incident.

Clean out of BIG closet
I guess I could have included this under cleaning out closets but it is like a whole world itself so...
Anyway...
I turned this

and this

into this. Another project that just makes me breathe easier. Like the pantry, it will probably always be on-going but at least it has an organized start. (By the way, all those bins have baby clothes in them. If anyone wants baby clothes, you better tell me before it all gets hauled off to Goodwill!)
This is what this closet under our stairs and music room is used for right now. Someday I dream of it being an extension to my pantry and, if we're getting really excited, a panic room of sorts.
Because that kind of thing excites me.

Bye-bye Baby!
We found a new home for this

and this

and this

and...sniff...this.
All of Ben's old baby furniture. He's actually still in a crib, James' old one, but we found someone who could use a whole baby set and we knew it was time to move on...

We've also moved on from these...no more changing tables in my house. Not a one. In two years, we've gone from three down to none. Same for cribs. Same for rocking chairs.
Oh my. I'm not sure if I want to cry or do a cartwheel. :)
But...more like cry! Haha, now that they actually sleep at night, I can't help but want them to stay babies!

But it's okay because we get to see the excitement when they get things like this:
James' big boy bed.

and the boys' dressers to replace baby furniture and changing tables!

Pomegranates!
The pomegranate tree...as I like to call her, Queen Anne, (She really is lovely) brought forth a few pieces of fruit this year. None of them edible, unfortunately, but we have so many years ahead of us to enjoy pomegranates! Here, Bethany is cradling one of the ones we actually brought in and cut open:
So cute. (Um, this is also the year, Bethany cut her own bangs...)

Front Room Forest
Remember this? Even though it wasn't a permanent change to the house or anything, our front room was a forest for a couple of weeks due to JC getting a hernia during his hunting season and being unable to go. We couldn't let him miss out on everything so...there it is:

Helping in the Kitchen...the early years
Already did a whole post about this, but, again, thought it was worth documenting that the kids started stepping up to the plate (at least in effort) helping in the kitchen.
Ben and his favorite thing - silverware fresh from the dishwasher.

Tangelos!
So, yes, that is THREE trees that gave us fruit this year! (Two edible) The tangelo gave five tangelos, which is just perfect. And they were delicious.
I can't wait for all the years to come. This guy is going to be our biggest producer, I'm sure.
Beautiful.

Okay, to be quite honest, I only finished this post because I had started it and didn't want to have wasted time. Haha, I started it a couple of weeks ago and just have been busy or uninterested since then! But, all year, whenever there was something we got accomplished around the house, I thought to myself "I should document this." And then I would think, "I'll document it all together, all at once, at the end of the year."
I now know which option I will go for in the future. :)

But, seriously, we are blessed to have a home we love that provides what we need and has a lot of potential. I am excited about the years to come...and even though we didn't get all of our to-do done that I had planned, we got a lot done that we didn't plan and we have a whole lifetime to get it all underway!
Let's just hope I don't try to fit it all into one post ever again...haha...
On to the New Year!