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Building a Home

It's November 2014, Part II

9 years ago

Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow builders! I'm sure many of our recent completees (is that even a word?) are enjoying their first Thanksgiving in their new homes.

For Jdez- Here's a picture of our 'farm lawn'. The tall stuff to the right (neighbor's property) is what it would look like if I didn't mow it. I did throw down some winter rye a few years ago, with no preparation or care whatsoever, and it did come up, providing erosion control on our sloping property. I use a Gravely walk-behind brush hog, as it was far too rough for a regular lawn mower, although the Gravely has knocked down the high spots pretty well. The little evergreen in the middle is a Norway Spruce we used for last year's Christmas tree (in the basement!) which we planted, and it seems to have taken OK.

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Comments (17)

jdez
9 years ago
MushCreek - your "farm lawn" is gorgeous. I bet you love driving up to your house. Funny you should mention rye grass. DH has been thinking about putting it around the house to help me with my inside dirt/sand war. That is so neat that you were able to plant your Christmas tree.
redheadeddaughter
9 years ago
MushCreek: That is my idea of the perfect driveway. And now I need to google a brush hog. Never heard of it, but we have acres that look like your neighbors - and I thought we'd have to weed sack it all (for fire safety). :) So thanks for the tip.
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mushcreek
Original Author
9 years ago
You can't imagine how hard it was to get the contractor to make the driveway intentionally winding. He really thought that dead straight would look better.

A brush hog (or bush hog) is just a heavy duty lawnmower, usually towed behind a farm tractor. A big one can easily go over saplings up to 2" thick. Even my antique Gravely can go over anything I can muscle it up and over. The downside is a very rough cut- hardly a lawn. I bought a second blade for mine, which converts it to more of a finish mower. If you have acreage to maintain, a small farm tractor is very handy for a lot of chores, including mowing. Alternately, you can have someone come in and brush hog it, then have it hayed a couple times a year. Depending upon how many acres and the type of hay, you may be able to get a few dollars for the hay, or at least get it cut for free.

You can't have stumps, though. Nothing will mow those. We had the stumps removed, but our neighbor didn't, so they have to work theirs with a weed eater. I'm trying to get our neighbor to sell us the parcel in front of our place, as we only have 60' of frontage.
kg4951
9 years ago
Happy day after thanksgiving everyone!

Mushcreek - I love your drive, I think you were right to fight for it!

We finally have a front door! And lots and lots of mud after all the rain and snow the last few days. We are looking forward to insulation today and then drywall will start hopefully next week.
musicgal
9 years ago
Happy post Thanksgiving everyone. We had weather in the 60s for our dinner yesterday- color finally coming in down here after some light freezes. The kitchen was tried and tested to its max capacity yesterday as extended family found their way here and milled about in the wide-enough aisles:) Nary a bottleneck to be found due to some end stage tweaking. One thing I was really happy about yesterday was putting in a bigger sink. Even at 36" we utilized it completely. Could actually have been bigger...lots of dishes;)
Aims
9 years ago
Brick and stone are here! Acme Brick "Spanish Bay" and lueders stone.
Aims
9 years ago
Oh and the winding driveway is awesome!
iowafarmhouse
9 years ago
Hello all! I've been reading on the site for a couple months now, but just found the monthly update thread. I appreciate all the helpful advice I've read on everything from windows to electrical walk-throughs. We are building a farmhouse on a couple acres in Iowa. Framing and windows and doors are complete, and the metal roof just went on last week. Don't have great photos of the roof yet.
yellowducky
9 years ago
crafty - I hear you on the mud!! My kids have loved tramping through the "yard" with mud splashing everywhere and my poor van looks like we've been on off-roading adventures - inside and out! Ahh, the country life. :)

We are waiting on the electrician to finish up so we can have our rough-in inspection. Hoping for the sunshine to stick around and maybe he'll be done by Wednesday.

I've been comparing shades of white for about 2 weeks now, and it's about time to just pick one. Do any of you have a favorite white? The kids are enjoying making things out of all the paint chips laying around!

mush - my husband is eager for his tractor. I'm not sure when it will fit the post-build budget, but I'm guessing he might sacrifice quite a bit to get it sooner!

I thought black Friday prices would have been better for some appliances I've been eyeing ... oh well. There were poor reviews for many that had the deepest discounts. Did any of you find a great deal?

Here is a link that might be useful: our home
zkgardner
9 years ago
Craftygrany- would you mind sharing where you front door is from? I love it!
sboivie
9 years ago
I did a separate post about it below, but we did just enjoy our first Thanksgiving in the new house. We did an extensive post with pictures and descriptions of the rooms on our blog.

Here is a link that might be useful: Interior Pictures of our house
kg4951
9 years ago
Mrsfireman - our door is from the Simpson door company. I don't recall the model number but I'm sure I can look it up for you. Hope that helps.
goosie8360
9 years ago
I've been away for a while with life craziness but back to lurking the past few days. We sent our plans off to bid today.....so I guess now we wait! The plan is to start digging in about 45 days. Wow. That's even scary to type!
gscott991
9 years ago
Brick and Stone completed today!
gscott991
9 years ago
Photo 2
gscott991
9 years ago
Photo 3
gscott991
9 years ago
Photo 4

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