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Planked it!

Done, da, da, da, da DOOOONE!

Yes, the VERY FIRST wall has been planked, and that officially means, the Smiths have made their mark!

I've been super excited about finally having a fireplace in our new house, but the lack of shelving, built-in storage or really... ANYTHING around our little fireplace, has underwhelmed me since we moved in.

Oh, and yeah, that's Cason's ginormous TV on a iiiiitty-bitty folding table. There are plans for all of that corded mess and humungo screen to go down in the basement once it's finished. We're getting close (more on that later) - but for now, it's the only TV in the house that the kids can watch, so this is how we live for now.
Super "industrial" right!? #trendsetters! 

Since I was so in love with our planked wall in the last house, I knew I had to recreate it somewhere here, and this wall seemed like the perfect place.

For a FULL tutorial on how to do this sort of wall treatment, you can look at our DIY wood planked wall how-to here.

No messing around this time, I was determined to get the planking done in ONE day, if it killed me. Cason's dad came to the rescue and acted as the official "measure-er dude" and the twins even did the majority of the sanding once we brought the 6 inch boards home. They were life savers! 

What A Weekend!

We aren't done yet, but we feel light as feathers!

It was a big pain and an even bigger relief to get the solar panel racking built and in the ground. Over the last week we have been steadily tying up loose ends. I sanded down all the areas of siding that I applied wood filler to, and then went out and got a stainable kind- which should make things way easier. We also finished building the rest of the posts needed for the panels, continued siding work, and then this weekend, mounted the posts in the ground. 

Talk about work! It took us almost two full days and some extra help to get those posts in the ground, level, plumb, and ready to rock. Luckily it was flat out amazing weather. Mostly sunny, low 70s, and breezy. When you are digging holes, the weather can play a big part in your experience. We definitely got frustrated and threw shovels (ahem, DAN) more than once, but I can only imagine how it would have gone down if it were say....98 degrees, 99% humidity and zero breeze.













The soil at the farm has a LOT of rocks in varying sizes from baseball to "Why don't we just put a koi pond here by the time we get this freakin' thing out!".  On day one, we did most everything ass backwards. Maybe it was the added stress of possibly moving the next day (which didn't pan out) but we both were approaching the task in a not so efficient way. We dug holes first and expected the rest to fit flawlessly. Never again! Thankfully, most of our holes were not too far off, but we did end up digging more than the 6 you see in these pictures. 




Dan's Dad came by later in the day and helped us get the first row secure, level, even, and pretty much any other direction descriptor you can think of. Man, can it be hard to get things lined up when they can go wrong in about 8 different directions! We put in about 9 hours on Saturday.

On Sunday, we came back and finished the second row. We had the holes dug, and things looked relatively straight. That was until we started measuring with tools. HA! Long story short, we had to dig our holes deeper, and of course we ran into a very large rock right where the pole needed to go. Deb and Michael were home Sunday, so Michael came to the rescue with his tractor and dug a great big hole before that stupid boulder was out. The second hole seemed fine, so Michael went off to tend to his own chores. When we got to the third hole, we realized that the poles were not in a neat row, and the hole had to be moved about 6 inches over and be about 6 inches deeper. We found another rock. We battled with that thing for about an hour, using every technique we could come up with including using an 8 ft 2x4 as a lever. 
Layla knows just where to lay down and relax...
After enough grunting, screaming, swearing, sweating, tripping, shoveling, filling, packing, twisting and tweaking, we had our second row in order. We thought it would only take an hour or two, but ended up taking the better part of 4 hours. We plan to add some more supports to help brace against wind. We will put a small leg under the front low arm and another 2x4 bracing against the back of the pole too. 






Our site supervisors. If only they were as helpful as they were attentive! :)

Pointing directly south? Check! 



Needless to say we are two pooped, sore, but very happy people. Sure the job sucked, but the land, the weather, the view, and all the wildlife made it worth it. The farm is SO beautiful and we cannot wait to get there! 











Solar racking: MOUNTED! 



Mid-Weekend Update

So much going on! I had to report back real quick!

This week and today, we have been steadily tying up loose ends. Ill admit, I'm reporting to you a little inebriated- just returned from my little cousin's grad party...CONGRATS AMY!  :)

After a day of digging more holes, we certainly enjoyed ourselves. I'll keep it short n' sweet- lots of visuals... 

Over the last week:
We secured the kitchen counter. It had been resting loose since last October. We applied a coat of poly and added splash boards. There was something specifically satisfying about seeing the kitchen counter have a durable gloss on it. To me it said, "Hello, I am scrubbable!" And for that alone, I love it. 

We also finished up the second wall with siding, completed all of the brown trim, worked on the kitchen drawers, started the third wall of siding, began packing up our loose items, dropped the Pod to the ground, filled the tires, adding additional supports to the solar racking, and so on. Basically, we covered a LOT. And tomorrow- we MOVE THE TINY HOUSE. 

Needless to say, I am less than totally calm and cool. When we are being reasonable and considering all aspects- we are going to be fine- but when you let the mind roam.....I keep thinking of all these worst case scenarios! Can't wait for it to be moved and safe and sound in the new spot!  It all happens tomorrow! Stay tuned for video and excessive photo coverage of the moving event! AHHHHHH!







Preppin' the tires...



The Pod is on the ground!!








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