I put our 9' tree on Craigslist and we picked up a new (albeit cheap-o) 7.5' tree this weekend. The old one (only used twice) is just too big for this new house. I'm also going to go through all the Christmas bins. If I don't use it to decorate this year, I'm going to let it go. Sell, free cycle, donate . . . It's going to go.

Today we also cleaned up leaves, dead perennials, etc., from the front yard. We also formulated a plan for hanging some rugs on the walls -- from the ceilings, actually. And I took two boxes I was "saving" for some far off future unlikely yard sale are in the back of my car ready to be donated tomorrow.

One of my concessions on moving to DH family farm was to have a fresh Christmas tree every year. There is a giant tree farm about twenty minutes from us where we cut our own trees, and then we come home and have hot chocolate. I want to have more traditions with my DD than I did with my family.

I just started cutting the fabric for DD's next quilt. It's a hexagon pattern using brightly colored solid fabrics so it will look like a giant bag of Skittles.

My DH is trying to talk to his dad and uncle how we could buy the farm. He's nervous about it, but the only way it will happen is if he starts that conversation. I mean it is the reason why we moved to the farm last year.

We're also still saving to build a small house. We currently live in what was DH's grandpa's house, but it is in really bad shape. I would guess it's around 1000 sqft, and we will probably build between 600 and 800 sqft for the three of us (2 beds, 2 baths). I would like a modern farmhouse but with vintage flair.

I also made an advent calendar for DD. She filled it with candy, and I put a little note in each day that will suggest a fun winter activity like today was decorating a gingerbread house and tomorrow is making pine cone bird feeders.

IowaCommute, hey lady, we are so proud to have you join us here. I have friends, excellent friends, in Letts, eastern Iowa near the Mississippi River, and oh boy that is a cold and snowy place. I love to visit them, because it is all surrounded by farmland.

When you design your 2 bed 2 bath house, be sure to make it possible to add another "wing" or extension to it so you can remain there a long time. That is one thing about old farm houses....they grew with the family.

Me? well, we are continuing the house remodel here, Lavender. We see it not being done before the new year. Today the roofer came over to look, will be back tomorrow to strip the old off, put on underlayment, and wait for the UHD shingles to arrive late in the week. Our windows are being constructed and will be here in slightly less than 3 weeks. Hmmm, then they break into the existing house and begin demo of 3 walls and kitchen cabs. I think we'll be eating out for Christmas dinner. The cabinetmaker James should come over when the kitchen/dining room demo is complete. Then, he will begin to build our cabs. I'm seeing that the old exterior wall depth may be 4 inches, and the new addition wall depth is 6 inches, so possibly one part of the cabs must be about 2 inches deeper than the others. This is a mystery that will be revealed when the old kitchen wall comes down. Unless they completely tear off the plaster wall in the kitchen and start it over (not messing with the heavy indestructible stucco exterior....that takes heavy machinery to take out! But I don't mind if they remove the old kitchen plaster walls, for the sake of the uniformity of the run of cabs for 18 feet. It might give us some room for an extra cabinet I should think.

Nice thread. So much going on this month!

A couple of days before Thanksgiving I took advantage of the stretch of nice weather and finished the trim around the French doors in the gathering room. I painted the trim on the other door and windows to match. It's so strange not to see the blue painters' tape that was covering the edges of the sheet rock. After I'd finished the room upstairs, my SIL had carried the miter saw downstairs--I moved it to the patio table and cut the trim on the front porch. I also ripped and routed narrow baseboard for that room. The (many) closet doors are more like cabinet doors, and are so close to the floor that regular baseboard wouldn't fit. Saturday I painted and installed the baseboard. I need to cut and paint interior threshold trim for the two doors, then that room is FINISHED.

After living with the painted plywood floors in the gathering room and new bedroom, I'm still considering that option for the kitchen/dining room. If I can get in gear, I think I can do it in a week--two days for osb underlayment, two days for plywood planks, three days for priming/painting, but I'll need to wait until the next weekend that my grandson is at his father's, to paint. That gives me another week to make up my mind. My father has offered his two-man crew for the heavy lifting, including moving the island so that I can remove the sheet vinyl in the kitchen.

Now that I've told you about it, I'll feel obligated to follow through. ;)

moccasinlanding, I agree about designing a small house to accommodate future expansion. We've added on three times since we moved into this house, and my dream is to some day add a small sun room off the master bedroom. My family is starting to refer to me as Mrs.Winchester.

We finished the tile and plumbing on the second floor 1/2 bath so we officially have three bathrooms! I decided instead of a formal Christmas tree to put a small 4 foot tree with lots of bright LED lights in the breezeway window that can be seen from the road. It is really bright. :)

Next we will put an engineered hardwood floor upstairs and that space will be done. So much work completed there, from removing the abestos ceiling on. Glad to see it almost completed.

I have to order some gifts for my kids / gkids and get sent to them. Then think of something for my sister. And get a working car. I sort of have 2 now (well, 3 but we won't address the 3rd one). My usual car has a dead battery and a tire that needs replaced. The other one is in shop (given to me by my sister and BIL). the car computer won't 'talk' to the mechanic tho. It needs to in order to pass emissions (in 1.5 yrs). I could drive it that long anyway. But still a mechanic couldn't tell if something goes wrong. He gonna price out changing the car computer. Sounds like big $s to me.

Other than that I'll be packing up the old place. Jed's sister will come to help me. She came here a few wks back and cleared a huge space in my LR/DR to put more stuff. Also cleared out most of my laundry room. (sorting, tossing, moving stuff etc).

My 1' plastic tree has been out all year so I don't have to look for it... that's about all I'll do. I gave my lights to Jed last yr. If I run across a strip that's battery operated w/ a timer I might pick that up.

MamaGoose, please tell me where they get Mrs. Winchester. Is she a heroine in a book? If so, let me know which one, I'd like to read about her. I think she is a fine heroine and a "can do" female if her behavior is similar to yours.

Steph, you can get a battery operated string of lights or a strip that works for a wreath would serve for a 12 inch tree. My goodness, what a cutie that must be! :) Drug stores carry them, so easy to find.

I'm doing the same thing as I've been doing in November, and the previous 30 months or so- working on the house! At least this year I'm working indoors, with insulation and heat, no less. I hope to get the master bath done before Christmas- I just HAD to get fancy with the tile work in the shower!

This year, Christmas will be upstairs for the first time. Last year, we were huddled in the basement trying to keep warm. We bought a balled-and-burlapped Norway Spruce, and after a week indoors, we planted it out front. it seems to have survived the move, and grew a lot this summer. It will be nice to always have our first Christmas tree! I put little white lights on it for the holidays. I also hung up my big 6 foot wreath on the barn, and my 'construction wreath' on the front door. This year, I'm going to cut one of the scruffy Virginia pines that grow all over this year. It will definitely be a 'Charlie Brown' tree, but we blew the budget last year, so free is good.

Our son was here for Thanksgiving, and will be back for Christmas. We also have old friends coming on the 26th, and our son's friends may come up for New Years to camp in the basement. Should be a busy month!

Pictures from last year:

Hope ambition continues to de-clutter, bit by bit. Freecycle, thrift stores, selling, and the trash bin. Should take about a year, so no hurry.

Mrs. Winchester, the wife of the wealthy gun manufacturer, was an eccentric who never stopped building onto her mansion, even if the rooms had absolutely no purpose. From looking at the house, even a nonprofessional could tell that the owner had serious mental problems. Mrs. Winchester had a delusional belief that something bad would happen if she stopped building. I forget exactly what it was, probably that she would die. The former series "America's Castles" had a segment on her mansion.

Below is a link with pictures and history of the Winchester house.

Here is a link that might be useful: Winchester Mystery House

Jay, so glad you gave the diameter of your wreath as 6 feet, it lets me judge the size of your barn. Good grief, Charlie Brown, it is BIG!! You did an amazing job. Love the construction wreath, might make one for here too.

WantTo, thanks for link to Winchester House. Unbelievably eccentric woman. I consider MamaGoose totally normal and admirable in her ability to build, but Mz Winchester is the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland. TexasGal, she was a mental case sure enough.

Texasgal and wantoretire, thank you for the clarification.

moccasin, thank you for the vote of confidence--my sister, the culprit, was joking of course. We discussed Lewy Body dementia on another thread recently. When I first learned of the the hallucinations and delusions of LBD I thought of Sarah Winchester. I've read of no evidence, but I wondered if the spirits that she reportedly was trying to confuse were a manifestation of that, or another dementia. One version of the story is that she thought the spirits belonged to those killed by Winchester rifles.

Jay, the stovepipe wreath is such a great idea!

Last year my house was on the Christmas Home Tour, so this year, it is much slower at my house....although I did find myself bringing out many of the decorations that I used last year.

Following my emergency back surgery and recovery, I have eliminated some of the things that I usually did...who needs all of the cookie bakes, excess shopping, etc.? My kids are grown and my youngest grandchild is 14, so I am making a trip to the bank and using an idea that I think will suit everyone. Take a pint canning jar, put an empty toilet tissue roll inside...put wrapping paper around the roll...fill around the outside of the roll with red & green M&Ms and in the roll! put cash...put on the lid and a tag.....how simple is that? The amounts will be smaller this year...a big portion of what they usually get was sent to a family who lost everything in a recent fire. We have been so blessed that no one is in need anyway.....and "wants" are not necessary.

Also.....gosh, I am getting lazy!....but I am choosing to make personal calls to wish people "Merry Christmas" instead of sending cards....nothing new to put in a letter and I like to hear people's voices....so hope to get those calls made this weekend.

My kids/grand kids will be here for the usual traditional Christmas dinner...so hoping this will be a simple Christmas in my "small house"....which I still love and enjoy.

It is my hope that each of you wonderful friends on this site has a very Merry and Healty Christmas filled with all of the things that makes your heart sing!

I am working on putting together a sliding barn type door for the laundry room to kitchen doorway. It would not be used often but would be nice for the times I want to run the washing machine at odd hours.. It will be in two sections to slide all the way out of the way , on both sides of the doorway when not in use. I will use three sections of bi-fold doors I have saved in the loft.

The idea just came about when ML was telling us about her sliding barn door to her new master sitting room.

This means I have to move the ladders that are stored on the one side of the door which means I have to clear out the hallway closet of unused coats. And you all know how the rest of the story goes. One thing always leads to another until you get to the end of the line.

I do not do Christmas. Every year I consider setting up my nativity which I love so much then it just all seems to be too much work.

I did lay another section of my new patio heading out under my clothesline. I need a few more pavers. LOL Story of my life. I did that yesterday late. Hard to imagine I can be working in the yard in December. We should have 2 foot of snow by now. Not a lick of it left from the storms we had before Thanksgiving.

Next year I plan on adding a bit more yard to the court yard room in our side yard. My little secret room will be fenced in. Then hoping to extend this fence across the rest of the yard to keep the neighbors cows out because they do not keep up their fences. I am tired of their cows tromping our lawn. It will still be my little secret room just more enclosed than it was. AND I will be adding a wider gate to that bit of fence to be able to drive the Ranger into the courtyard when needed. So all is good. Saves me from having to rebuild the front bed frame fence to get a bigger gate. I am enjoying how our yard is evolving.

The thresholds are finished in the playroom, painted to match the floor. I've had a reprieve on the kitchen floor, though--my daughter wants to do a lot of baking between now and Christmas, so I don't want to have the kitchen floor in a mess, with tools scattered around. I'll just wait until after the holidays--I need a break anyway.

phoggie, Merry Christmas to you--I hope you have peaceful, relaxing days.

shades, I hope the snow holds off for you. We're also experiencing a warmer season than usual. But I'm not complaining.

After the adoption of the starving horse in Sept., I'll be giving more well known portraits of presidents this year. I think the M&Ms are a great idea. And what could I buy the grandchildren that they don't already have?

No snow here, either!! Almost all of the preThanksgiving snow has melted. I am so relieved because these "warmer" temperatures mean the starving horse doesn't have to use calories to keep warm. I still need to wrap the fruit trees and I would like to get that second piece of snow fence up. How long can I keep saying that? I need some sun! The temps are "good" but if the sun would come out, they would be better AND I would have some motivation.

I got my mother's 1942 tiny tree out of the Fibber McGee closet and plugged it in. I'm done! I used to just go nuts decorating but I'm over it.

Lov, I admire your adoption of the starving horse. Does he have a name? If not, may I suggest MARVIN? We had several small diners here in Mobile, went by the name "Starvin' Marvin's" and that comes to mind as a good name if "Starvin'" keeps following him around.

Would a horse blanket be a good thing for this creature who needs to conserve his body heat? I have no idea what one looks like except it is a big version of a doggy coat. I saw several horses at a boarding stable wearing such coats/blankets up in Massachusetts. Looked to me that they appreciated the extra warmth.

Have a good December everyone. I'm not doing any Christmas decorating here, but I am trying to bake more often. Scones are on my list of favorite baked goods. Presently cook them in my toaster oven, will not be denied the pleasure of baking simply because I don't have the range connected yet. Might try the outdoor gas grill though. Come to think of it, it could work!

Okay, where is everyone today. Out shopping? I had such a shopping trip....made mine online for the most part. It has been years since I went to the mall in Mobile. Congestion is ridiculous.

But, our kitchen may be on the endangered list now, and what we can operate in the sunporch should be all we have. So there will be a different Christmas dinner, a small steak done on the grill with baked potato, pecan pie, vanilla ice cream, mushrooms, broccoli, and Waldorf salad. It's been a long time since I made Waldorf salad. And I'm baking scones with dried cranberries in them today. I figure that will counteract the dreary gloomy overcast day, the very day of winter solstice beginning here at 5:03pm.....I usually take pictures of the shadows cast around my house so I can plant things accordingly, but this time not happening.

Not out shopping! I did what little I do online. Books, cds and dvds! Will wrap them tonight. Will get them mailed out in a day or 2. My things don't really need to be there by the 25th. With my car out of operation, I'm dependent on someone else to take me out - so will go with the flow.

My pups present is in the closet hiding... it's another toy like we play with in the house. This one is a different color and for outside play time. And some goodies are stashed up high for now.

And I guess I can count the maybe 5 CDs I bought for me as my Christmas gifts! I ran across 1 I'd been trying to find for a few decades - it always came up as 'no longer available'. I have it on an album but wanted a CD - presto, there it was - I bought 3. 2 are for my 2 youngest kids who should remember it from Christmas time while growing up. Then I found a few Christmas CDs by favorite country singers (Loretta Lynn, Tammye/George, Joe Diffie). And I saw a CD by John Starnes with the 'Lighthouse' on it. I heard him sing that many, many yrs ago and loved it (and his voice) but always needed/wanted something else more. Well, seeing that his music seems to be getting unavailable also (or as in 1 CD - 58.00!) I decided I'd better get it now or I'd never get it. If I can't buy it at about 10.00, I'm sure not gonna buy it at 50.00+! So, I've loaded up on CDs to last my lifetime I think... I still have a few on my list (non Christmas ones). I'll spend the next 2 wks playing these to death...

Can't wait to see what gets done at your place this coming week. Maybe it'll just be tear out this wk and put back together next week?

btw, that's sounds like an awesome Christmas dinner! enjoy it while you dream of that completed kitchen and future meals made in it.

We finally got a tree of sorts put up. Last year, we blew the budget on a live tree to plant afterward, so we decided to go with an organic, free-range, sustainably harvested tree. In other words, I went out and cut down one of the scruffy Virginia pines that grow like weeds here. With most of our stuff stored, we made do with one box of ornaments. My defense is that our house is supposed to look like the 1920's, so they wouldn't have had a perfectly shaped flawless tree anyway. Charlie brown would be proud!

{{gwi:2137551}}

About as authentic 1920s as you can get, Jay. And the sled is a real nice touch, the paper is appropriate too.

It reminds me of the paper we had which we used for years. My grandma would gather each piece and smoothe it out, save it for next year, remove all the ribbons. Not much tape but ribbon and string yeah. So some designs stayed around for years. I remember putting my finger on the tie until grandma made the knots.

Have a merry one. I hear something, must be Santa, trying to break down the cement plaster and get in the bedroom. The chimney cap had NO HOLE in it, so he cannot get in that way.

I had the idea of painting my living room. Given that there is no ceiling light, it was optimistic to think that I could do this when the days were shortest, never mind that this is one of the least sunny places in the United States.

I haven't given up, but I'm taking time away from it to cook a 5-course French Christmas dinner - and I don't celebrate Christmas!

Jay, I think that is an incredibly beautiful tree! We always looked for one that needed love. Yours looks to be full of love! The limbs are very graceful and open - not being overfilled with decorations doesn't crowd the space and detract from it's beauty.

I like it too, it fits that unfinished space so well - simple and elegant, yes I said elegant!

Hope you are celebrating a nice Christmas Day.

I've recently downsized and I've been doing lots of house projects. I don't intend to do extensive paved paths and side yards with all native landscaping that surrounded my old home. I'm wrinkled and retired and since all that work brought absolutely 0 financial return upon sale of my "last ever" home, I learned that perfect does not matter and forever is an illusion!
Did not mean to sound sad - New house is very easy to live in and exactly the right size for my 2 birds 3 dogs and me. It's quite open and I really love the new location -near family!
I'm busy fabricating cushions for a hideous chair I rescued - and I love the way things are coming out. That chair has a chance of being cute and comfortable again! Well I'm not sure it was ever cute - but it will be.

Trickie, so good to have you join the party. We have a good time here. I know what you mean about never getting out of it what you put into it. Which is what I realized when we began this remodel now underway. But, after considering all the options, knowing we won't get it back is not the most important thing.

Interested in your birds and dogs as well. I now have only one male African grey, my heart child, and 2 little girl doxies.

Glad you found this board. Come around often, we like new and different homes to visit. :)

I remember TrickieWoo :). Is one of your dogs named for him? I inherited my aunt's fat little pup, Cujo, who often reminded me more of Trickie, than his own namesake.

We love seeing pictures of rescued and re-worked treasures.

Well I veered off from the bi-fold doors between kitchen and laundry. They are in the house but this is as far as I got. I have not even cleaned them of dust yet.

We also had amazing weather for December so I put up about 100 foot of fencing across the back property line. I also extended my court yard another 16 foot to make it all tie into the new fencing. I still have a small bit of cross fence to put up. Less than 10 foot and it will have a double gate in it so I can drive the mower and Ranger through it to get to the lower yard. All of a sudden it looks like I had a plan to begin with. Which I did not. Now the two yards transition nicely to each other.

I finally was snowed and froze out. I also had to redo the front head board fence to rob some of the steel fence posts. I really had more out there than I needed. Still some tweaking to do out there but not much.

This ends the constant battle to keep the neighbors cows out of our lower yard. They have not been very responsible about keeping up their fences. It makes our yard a bit smaller because their fence was several feet away from our property line. I am ok with this too and will now be planting bushes along the new fence. I used wood posts because we had them left over from our last fencing job. I put steel posts between them and put up what they call Ranch Panels here. I still need to nail them onto the wood posts and finish clipping to the steel posts. All is nicely tied up with orange bailing twine. It will last until I can get the long staples and clips, I am actually using hose clamps.

I did a little bit more on it today but the ground is starting to freeze now and the rest can wait until spring unless we get a long string of warm weather.

The Bi-fold doors just need to be cleaned. I decided to leave them wood not painted. At least until summer when I can open up the house to paint. If I decide to do so. The wood looks better than I thought it would. I can not use a top rail like ML is doing. I will add small wheels to the bottom of the three doors. It is too heavy for me to lift. I need to move a hanging plant or put a smaller one there.

So I have a big head start on the spring fencing we had planned but a little stalled out on the inside the house stuff. I also have lost 20 pounds. Woo hoo doing the happy dance. It is a start. I am far from thin.

shades:

Mama Goose, you are priceless.
Never saw that before.

Hahaha Mamagoose. Love it. If I could do all of that i would be thin soon!!

Mushcreek, I like your tree.

Well today I washed up the bi-fold doors. It was quite a job as there was thick layers of dust on them from being stored. I marked where I have to move one set of hinges and Joe is looking for the casters for them. He said the way I want to do it I should have the swivel casters so I can roll all of it into place and back easier with out having to life it at all. WOO HOO this project is going to happen soon. I will get them hooked together tonight. Have to because they are spread across my kitchen counters.

Shades, you are squeezing into the month of December one last project. Awesome. I think you said three panels of bifolds? They should look really nice. I had not thought to mount them that way.

I have an old pair of bifold fixed louver closet doors out in the Teahouse too. And, a pair of door height plantation shutters with louvers which can be opened/closed. Those two I'm thinking to stand in the new sitting room, one on each flank of the cased opening between there and the sleeping/bedroom. I don't know if you remember I had a very wide double drapery rod mounted in that now-removed wall, at ceiling height, on the wood crown molding. I plan to put a double layer of sheers on those two rods, which I can then swag back or push aside to clear the space. Depends on whether we have guests around. I have some of the panels already, which I removed from the front bedroom. With the plantation shutters on those two pair of windows, who needs curtains/drapes? I also have some heavy sort of microsuede drape panels, the kind with the big eyelets at the top? you know what I mean? Maybe one day I'll be interested in hanging those again, because they are nice, also some which are floor length espresso like shantung silk, lined. Right now, I want to have the OPEN FEELING. But they will be available for shopping my own stuff.

Guess I'll hear from you folks on New Year's Eve, so I won't wish you Happy New Year right now.

This will be another short week on the remodel job. So tomorrow night we are having some special Irish cheeses, some spumonte or champagne, and crackers. Anything more exciting than that might give one of us in this house palpitations! We'll be trusting in a healthy 2015.

Well the door project it done. I bought big wide bed wheels to use ad they are good I just need to learn how to drive them. Hubby actually helped me with the final design and it is even more like a barn door with out the top rail. We put two large hooks on either side and drop a bar into them to hold the doors shut. With Joe on one side me on the other pushing and fussing with it the doors did not fall down so I think the cats will not be able to knock it down. The big wide wheels help. Still deciding on if I should paint them or not. The cross pole will be changed when I can get a nice wooden one.

The doors folded up and a bungie to hold them just in case the cats or dogs or us bump them when not in use.

Doors from the back =laundry room side.

They turned out really nice.

My hoya used to look like that until it nearly died. Don't know why. It was 20 years old or more. I managed to save two runners to get going again. My philodendron survives even when I neglect it.

I never thought much about the age of my Hoya. It is over 20 years. A dear friend gave it to me. I also started a second one and it loves living in the bathroom. Good light and humidity. Maybe I should get some more start going. I think I might need to change it for a smaller plant. I do not want to beat it up slipping the door into place.

HA the cats are not happy. They have to go around to their food when it is shut. I have not tried the washer to see if it cuts down the noise. the whole reason for doing this.

Looking good there Shades. On the kindle , one finger typing, computer down.