East Kentucky Fibers

The babies are getting frisky, it’s a lot of fun to watch.  They both like to run and play.  Roanan comes up and Lily will touch noses with him for a second, then she kicks him.  She likes to play by herself and with her mother, not with dorky red haired boys

Today was the first day that Joey’s baby, little Lily May Ledford, let me give her a rub down. At first she’d only come up to me and sniff, then she might lick me or try to suckle on my face, then she’d let me rub her nose and play with her lips, then she’d let me scratch her face and neck. Today she discovered the joys of the butt scratch (so I guess I’ve got a butt man and butt girl.) Oh she loves getting her butt scratched, and her sides, and her mane, and her legs, you can just scratch her anywhere and she’s in heaven. That’s a nice development, I thought she might end up being unfriendly, but I was wrong! Someday I’ll make a friend who will take pictures of me scratching little Lily, until then, bucking and farting pictures!

Now, for the BIG project. Oh it’s so big. I’ve started tearing into the house on the Cherry Grove Road in Flemingsburg. I want to make it sort of nice. The way it was when I first started, it’s like somebody did things to it to make it seem nice, but when you actually start looking, everything is shoddy and gross. Cheap materials were used, sup-par workmanship, and everything is coated in a film of nicotine and kerosene. Yuck. So I made a discovery one curious day, I found that under the gross paneling is gross dryway, and under the gross drywall is this:

I call that beautiful wood boards painted sea green. I started exploring in a couple other spots in the house and found more of the same. In fact, I started exploring in the dining room (or bed room, I haven’t decided) and I just couldn’t stop.

Before:

Now, I’m totally into the walls. I love the boards, and I think they make the place look nicer than bowed out composite paneling. I’m going to paint them because I’m not into lead paint, but I think they’ll work out nicely. Do you notice something else that wasn’t there before? Look closely. No, it’s not the pile of debris on the floor. It’s a secret creepy closet! Oh it was so creepy. When I finally got the nerve to pry it open (it had been nailed shut - a big contributor to the creep factor) I was sure I was going to find a pile of human bones, or a bat colony, or a rabid possum family.

But no, it’s just a creepy, dirty closet.

I tried stripping a little bit of the sea greenish paint from the walls, but neither of the strippers I tried did too good of a job. The best stuff I’ve found is Peel Away 7, it’s nice and thick and does actually strip paint, but it wasn’t great on this stuff, and it’s too expensive to do all these walls, so I’m just going to paint over and hope for the best. Here’s the little bit I managed to scrape away:

There’s a pretty green underneath, and the wood is pretty too. I took out carpets the last two days I was there, but I didn’t take pictures of the floors. They’re in good shape, a few layers of paint around the edges and bare in the middle in both rooms. I guess they saved on paint and painted around the rugs or something. I had already put 3 coats of primer on the paneling in the living room when I found my beautiful boards, so I think I’ll stick with it and go ahead and leave the wall coverings in the living room and maybe the bed room (or dining room, I can’t decide) too. Here’s the living room with the walls and ceilings primed.

Before:

I don’t think the before picture does the nastiness justice. The ceiling was super nasty, and the walls were regular nasty.

There are a lot of things I need to do in there.
In my dreams, I’d like to:
-Refinish all the woodwork and the staircase
-Refinish all the floors
-Strip the walls down to the bare wood and repaint
-Get new windows and doors
-Get new bathroom furniture (what’s the word for toilets, sinks, and tubs? I don’t think it’s furniture)
-Remove the groundhogs from under the house and the squirrels and birds from the attic/chimney
-Buy and install a wood stove (and have a little fairy split a winter’s worth of firewood and leave it on the porch)
-Strip the ceilings of any extra coverings and paint them
-New wiring so the house doesn’t burst into flames
-Not freeze to death in the winter

So all that is a lot to bite off. My more realistic list:
-Scrape off the chipping paint on the woodwork and doors and repaint
-I still want to refinish the floors. I’ll at least strip the paint off and give them a good cleaning.
-I’ll repaint the dining room boards and probably stick with painting the paneling in the other rooms. I’ll tackle the kitchen if a big strong tradesman who works for bacon comes to my door.
-Winterize the existing windows
-By a pretty shower curtain so I don’t have to look at the nasty tub
-Make friends with the groundhogs and learn to love their racket. Smoke out anything residing in the chimney. Pray for the attic.
-I’m going for the wood stove, I’ll make sure the kitchen and bathroom have electric heat so the pipes don’t freeze, and hopefully the wood stove will heat the bedroom and living room, or I can just pick one room and live in it.
-I think I’ll try to have the wiring inspected at least, and the biggest problems addressed.
-And I can’t paint the ceilings, that’s no biggie. I did the living room, it’s not as horrible as I thought it’d be.

So, It’s going to be a busy summer!