UPDATE OF OUR JOURNEY AND PLANS

There are many new followers, or 'Friends of the Farm' as we like to think of you, and with the new year upon us now, I thought it was the perfect time to give everyone an update on our journey, our progress and the plans for those who are curious.

Recently, we've had some new friends ask about before/after pictures.  The answer to that is that for awhile, I couldn't find where I stored them (new computer since then) but good news, I've found the original "before" pictures and will soon use those to take some "after" pictures thanks to my new camera and create a post of those.  Then a very dear follower from almost the beginning recently asked if we ever spent the night or entertained at the farm.  Yes, one or both of us are out there every single weekend (except during cold/flu season, ha) and we spend the night out there at least once a month, several times a month during the really nice weather.  We haven't entertained though, for example having a dinner party, since we still have some things to fix to make it comfortable for guests, but we've had friends out to see the progress many times.

Farmhouse after we had cleaned it up a bit

We bought the farmhouse and land in the Spring of 2011.  The land, other than the yard immediately around the house, was overgrown.  The house had been lived in but not updated for a long time.  We had to decide what we could do and what we'd hire to be done.  We found a contractor who was awesome and he and his crew helped us update the inside, painting, re-staining the floors, patching up some walls, and making some other minor modifications.

Then we needed to buy stuff for the inside.  Mainly furniture.  Decor.  Beds.  Sheets.  Towels.  Rugs.  You know, the things you need to make a house livable.  Then there was some electrical work to be done.  And some plumbing.  And clearing the land.  And working on the outside of the house.  And, well, the list goes on (and on and on, ha).  We aren't in ANY hurry though, much as I often seem to think we are.  We sometimes worry because some little something doesn't get finished quickly enough or we didn't get to it before bad weather.

What we are doing at the farm is building the place we will eventually retire to.  For now though, it's our weekend getaway.  It's also our 'bug out' location in case some terrible disaster befalls Houston (major hurricane, tornado, zombies,  asteroids, etc).  And in the not too distant future, it will be a place to bring friends and family together to create awesome new memories for all of us.

So, we came up with a multi year plan to help put things into focus, give us goals, and of course keep our budget dollar$ in line.  Since we bought the house in the Spring of 2011, and started work later that Summer, we use that as our starting point.  We make our calendar year from July to July (more or less, ha).  The year dates below are pretty much July of one year to July of the next:

2011-2012: Inside of house and its infrastructure

(paint, sheetrock, floors, electrical, plumbing)
DONE, with a few minor tweaks needed

2012-2013: Furnishing the house, decorating it, making it livable

(beds, couches, dining table and chairs, pictures, appliances, etc)
DONE, technically but decorating is always a work in progress

2013-2014: Property infrastructure

(clearing areas on the property, raised garden beds with fence, irrigation, planting fruit trees, landscaping, barn with fence)
WORK IN PROGRESS, we're still six months to our goal deadline for 2014 but some of these have already been done and the rest are coming soon

2014-2015: Outside of house and its infrastructure

(painting the house, railings, porch ceiling, gutters, new roof, etc)
PLANNING, this is underway now, and with our hot summers, we may go ahead and start some of these this Spring instead of waiting until Summer, and then finish them in the Fall

2015 and onward:  Enjoy it, ourselves of course, and start hosting wonderful parties and get-togethers with family and friends.  The plan is Fall of 2015.

BUT..of course, some of these are always ever expanding projects:

I'm always clearing a new area for something new and we seem to find something that we want to change up a bit after it's done. 

And then some things are constant and ongoing; I will always be planting trees and flowers and plants.  That never ends (and it's my favorite part).

 And then we have the bonus things that we can do at any time but have on our bucket list.  Beehives, chicken coop (and chickens), a pond, the walkways and paths, etc.  We'll try to do those when we have a random pocket of time or the opportunity to do it.

So as you can see, we are pretty much on track to getting things done.  Now this doesn't mean we won't have friends out.  We're planning a dewberry picking party this Spring (if the dewberry season is good).  And we're thinking of a 4th of July ice cream making party as well.  We just might even host a small Thanksgiving dinner next Fall, once we have the outside house work done.

We've done a lot, but we have a lot to go.  Still, not bad considering we're doing this as we work it into our schedules.  This year, I plan to go out there during the week, at least once or twice a week after work, to make sure the garden is growing so that we can start getting a return, in food anyway, on our investment of time and energy.

While our year ended, sadly, on a couple of down notes, here's to hoping for a great new year full of wonderful and productive things!!