With the weather warm enough to do outside work my mother and I just about killed ourselves cleaning up the yard and filling the dumpster for the 5,000th time. Someone once told me that manual labor builds character and all I can say is that, at this point, I have more character then I know what to do with and I’m sure my mother would honestly agree on that. Last weekend we hit the yard very hard, Joe with a rented Bob cat and mom and I with shovels and pick axes. We cleaned up what will someday soon be my horse pasture (I can’t wait to move them over here within the next few weeks) and an old steel lean-to off the back of the barn that will be their shelter. The barn is in such dire condition every time I think of it it makes my heart ache and my stomach hurt. The roof has finally given up and the entire hay loft is so dangerous for walking now even I’m a bit hesitant to go up there and with that rotting out from the water pouring in through the holes in the roof it really is only a matter of time. We talked about the amount of money we could put into the roof just to save it for a few more years but other then pure sentimentality and love of old and amazing things there is just no sense in it. And, besides, I don’t have the money to save it anyway but it is something that hurts me every day.

Saturday I spent six hours straight taping and mudding half of the main floor and the rest of the second floor. I’m tired of eating mud dust. However, all of the tape lines that exist are now DONE. Wow! Too bad that’s only about half the house but I’ll take any victory that comes my way. I woke up the next morning with my fingers slack and tingling and numb up to my elbows. Doing this same work six years ago I tore the contractor muscles in my fore arms/elbows and they never have been the same since. So, as you might expect, I am really looking forward to get the taping and mudding done.

Joe got all excited and motivated to start putting stone over the old stucco on the house. Admittedly it is times like these when I wish he wouldn’t start another project until we get something else done… say, maybe the sheet rocking? Because right now we don’t NEED the stucco covered on the outside of the house!!!! But one of my major tips for a renovation is to work on what you are motivated to work on. It all needs to be done at some point, do what you want to be doing and it will feel a lot less like work and you’ll get it done faster when you’re doing something you want to be doing.

Until now I don’t believe I knew the true meaning of “home” but with each completed project this place is transforming into something that is incredible. This will be the place that will always come to mind whenever I think of home.