a walk in the weeds

The Blessings of Raccoon Poop

January 12, 2019 Liz Comments 1,116 comments

***UPDATED***1/19/19***SCROLL DOWN TO THE END OF THIS POST TO READ THE UPDATE*** Did you read that right? Blessings AND Raccoon Poop in the same sentence! Yup! Today we’ve decided to deviate from the house remodel posts and tell you about a more personal journey we’re facing. Remember waaaaaaaay back when we were worried that we’d been exposed to a deadly parasite via the raccoon poop infested 2nd floor? Well, when we took a trip to the infectious disease doctor, he…

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Finding the House in the Trees

January 7, 2019 Liz Comments 15,058 comments

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had time to relax and unwind during the Christmas break. We enjoyed time in Nebraska with my parents and were thankful for good traveling weather both ways. Speaking of great weather…we have really lucked out with some nice weather this past month. It’s enabled us to do some tree demo work to get ready for this spring when the second floor will be coming down. Ok, we won’t be doing any of the demo…

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The Evolution of a House Design

December 24, 2018 Liz Comments 7,747 comments

Chris & I have been working with architects to come up with our final house design. Obviously, we went with the house design that we liked best but also one that fit well with the house. We put a lot of value into the expertise of the architects too. Together we weighed the pros and cons of each design. Dutch Hip Roof This is a very unique design and fit the modern farmhouse feel. We both feel it integrated the…

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We Hired an Architect

December 16, 2018 Liz Comments 10,914 comments

An architect. An architect? Did we really need one? We’ve done a house remodel before. We could do this ourselves, right? Looking at what we’ve done so far and what we have ahead, there are many decisions to be made on this house remodel project. Whether or not to hire an architect was a rather big decision! I am forever trying to cut costs and find things we can do ourselves. Chris has the same mindset but believed that an…

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The Design Process Begins!

December 10, 2018 Liz Comments 4,715 comments

It’s been hard work cleaning out the house and preparing for this house remodel. We’re to the point that we can start thinking about design! Woo-Hoo! Cabinets, outlets, bathrooms, OH MY! So many things we’ll need to think about. I watched an episode of Dr. Oz last week. He talked about decision-making exhaustion. The number of decisions we make throughout the day correlate to feelings of exhaustion by the end of the day. With the number of decisions we’ll need…

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We’ve Been Sunlighten-ed!

December 1, 2018 Liz Comments 5,068 comments

Through this house remodel, Chris and I have had a few things on our “wish list”. We haven’t shared any of them…until now. I’ve got to say, the timing on this particular wish list item could not have been any better. So what is this so-called “wish list” item you ask? An Infrared Sauna! Say What?!? Yes, a Sunlighten Infrared Sauna! An infrared sauna was totally my idea. I deal with an autoimmune thyroid disease and have been reading about…

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And The Walls Come Tumbling Down

November 25, 2018 Liz Comments 6,729 comments

As we had left off of the last post, we had taken a long shot approach and found a local farmer that was willing to take down the machine shed. After more than a year of cleaning out and cleaning out and cleaning out…we actually get to do some demo work! We cannot begin to explain how excited we were to see something done other than shoveling raccoon infested trash into a dump trailer. After a bit of logistics, the…

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Frustration Turns to Excitement

November 18, 2018 Liz Comments 4,933 comments

Last week we shared how we painstakingly took down one of the shelves in the back on the machine shed. If you haven’t read about it, check out this post. One of the top goals of this year is getting down the machine shed before winter. In order to do that, we felt that we needed to have it totally clear of all the stuff inside. Time was running out. We still had a lot of work to do. Once…

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The Shelves Are Coming Down!

November 10, 2018 Liz Comments 9,260 comments

If you love a blog post with lots of pictures, you’re going to love this post! After our move, getting the machine shed cleaned out, so it could be taken down, was our top priority. We were getting so close to getting it totally cleaned out. We decided that the shelves in the back of the shed that go floor to ceiling were up next for deconstruction. Luckily Chris doesn’t have a problem with heights! Each shelf was constructed with…

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Meet Big Blue

November 3, 2018 Liz Comments 5,563 comments

Meet Blue..Big Blue. Big Blue is the newest addition to our remodel project. It is a full-size, 8′ by 40′ shipping container. Blue has most likely made thousands of trips across the ocean. And now it sits contently in our backyard. So how did this happen? We knew we needed a secure place to put all our remodel/construction stuff after the machine shed gets taken down. And of course, when construction begins on the house, everything will need to be…

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