Dust to Roses: 2012

The house came with a vegetable garden plot in the back yard, and I figured I should put it to use this summer. I'm not very good at eating the recommended amount of veggies daily. When I buy them at the store, they usually go bad before I can eat them. Hopefully keeping a garden going will motivate me to eat vegetables more, and nothing beats fresh vegetables! While Mom and Dad were in town, I recruited them with helping me to chose plants and plant them in my garden. Katie and her girls joined us. The girls were so excited about the garden! I hope it means that I'll have lots of their help this summer.

Farmer Katie

Dad's wielding the dandelion killer

The last owners left their compost bin.

"Work Hard." The signs were backwards but they would not hear of it.

Day two. We treated ourselves to a Kneaders picnic.

Finished planting!

We planted peas, beans, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, rhubarb, onions, shallots, carrots, melons, pumpkins, cucumbers, asparagus, chard (whatever that is), spinach, and broccoli. We also planted herbs like cilantro, basil, chives, oregano, and lavender. I hope I can Keep everything straight. The tomatoes are going through a bit of shock, so hopefully they survive. We'll see what I am able to keep alive and what I kill!

A Possible Second Story

One day, while I drove up my driveway, I noticed that the roof is very tall. It made me wonder if there was a possibility for a second story. I asked my parents who promptly brought our favorite builder down from Wyoming to check it out!

The very tall roof

We were really hoping that there might be some treasures up in the attic forgotten by former residents, but that hope was dashed. There was absolutely nothing up there but a left over chimney from a now non-exhistent wood stove. On the bright side, we found that there is plenty of space in the attic for some additional rooms! We were thinking of having an additional bedroom and bathroom above the master bed and bath. We would like to put a loft above the kitchen that looks down into the living room. The living room ceiling will be taken down so that there will be a beautiful vaulted ceiling!
Here's what was found:

Do we dare go up there???

Some of the old rock wall coming up through the ceiling

Lots of old insulation

This will be the vaulted ceiling over the living room

The brick is left over from an old chimney. We would like to keep it up and use it as part of the wall, keeping the old patina of the bricks exposed. Behind it is the space we would like to use for an additional bedroom. We would like to put the bathroom in front of the brick wall.

Another view of the leftover chimney.

My beautiful and brave mother standing in front of the loft area

Our favorite builder

There is plenty of standing room in the loft. He's measuring if we could put a wall there so the ceiling didn't slant all the way down to the ground. Maybe we will put shelves in the corners.