Expanding an Old Farmhouse and Getting Ready for Winter Part One

Old houses are often pretty small. I know they survived this situation in the olden days. They tolerated having large families in these teeny houses. But in our modern day we I simply ain't used to it. 

Here at Sanctae Familiae Villa we are trying very hard to stay within the footprint of the home. We wanted to stay true to the home, true to our homestead lifestyle while still knowing we have to live in this modern age with our family. How could we achieve a little more comfort and still be true to our lifestyle. We did this using an existing mud room that was adjacent the living/dining area. 

We also wanted to add a more homestead friendly heat source which we decided would be a wood stove. Oil is not homestead or pocket friendly.We had 2 very old chimneys. One was for the furnace the other had clearly been abandon long ago. So we decided we would expand our family space and get ready for winter. 

With all these things in mind we jumped into the remodeling of our little humble home.

Here are only some pics of the process:

The ugly mud room at first demolition stage.

View from the existing living/dining area

A room with a new view!

 Note: You can not just knock out load baring walls. You must leave supporting wall joists or build some type of temporary structure until you put the proper beam(s) in place. 

For this job you need patience, skill, education on structure stuff, strong offspring and some great strong friends that are willing to help. Besides having such a understanding, patient wife - Rob has all of these requirements for this job!

Rob and Kolbe watch our friend
Dennis (do all the work) prep the beam.

Bonnie waits for the new beams.

Rob shows off his tools.

Dennis shows off his wounds.

Beam one going into place.

The guys await and put in the third and final beam.

The rooms become one. 

The room looks great. Thanks so much Dennis and Brian!


Look for more in the next posts:
-  adding a field stone area for the wood stove
-  choosing a wood stove and it going in
- adding a mantel and finishing the walls

Homestead Reality

A pretty little display
I set up in my kitchen

Before I started blogging about homesteading, I used to read a lot of homestead blogs. I would wonder about these blogs. I would see all the pics of their pristine land and beautifully clean homes. They would write about doing all these different things. How in the world did these people do all this stuff? Their homesteads stayed clean and they have the time to blog about it. Since I started homesteading it has been anything but clean and perfect. It has been more like: mud, sweat, tears and sometimes blood. 

Calm, cute goats hanging out by the fence.

So why did I add myself to the many other homestead bloggers. It may have started with our friends telling us we were unique and we should blog about our life. Seriously? I could barely get through a homestead day never mind blogging about it afterward. 

Just when I started to think I was a homestead failure I started to see our homestead from a different angle. The angle from the lens of my 14 yr. old son Kolbe's camera. And so I began to blog. Wow, pictures and a little thoughtful writing can really put things into perspective. I guess I could make us look as cool as all the other homestead bloggers.

HOMESTEAD REALITY: Goat getting into the feed
bins in the barn. Donovan and I struggle to get her out!

But for the sake of honesty to myself, the homestead and my faithful readers I have to show and tell you some of the  bad realities of homesteading. 

Homesteading is a lot of work. It is often times messy and tiring and downright gross.  Rain, snow or sun chores must be done.

HOMESTEAD REALITY:
Home under construction.

HOMESTEAD REALITY: Endless hours
in front of the
stove in a tiny, messy kitchen.

We make plenty of mistakes, but we learn from them. Every time we are completely exhausted we appreciate our rest.  I could give you so many examples but I will spare the long boring post.  Just know only a few homesteaders continue to live "the simple life" I just hope we are one of them.

HOMESTEAD REALITY:
Getting hay in the pouring rain.

I know I am starting to make it sound horrible. But for every homestead bad reality there is so much amazement and joy. Watching our garden grow, watching our kid goats grow, watching the chickens and collecting there eggs. We get to watch our children grow and learn so close to all of God's creations. Homesteading with all of its realities good or bad is just the right thing for us.

Fresh goat milk being poured into a filter.

HOMESTEAD REALITY:
Covering a milk pail
with a towel
to keep flies out!

HOMESTEAD REALITY: Junk piles from old barns,
home construction and other toys and projects.

Beautiful serene farm scene.