windows. {in progress}

A few months ago, when our renovation and hopes for a working farm were still baby dreams, Hank and I booked a trip. It was a bucket list item for us both: His, to see the Avett Bros and Zac Brown Band at the same venue; mine, to see Washington DC. I’ll post more about that trip tomorrow. Today’s post is all about what we came home to after our trip.

Windows…and a new building.

Yay!

Remember this view of the wall at the west end of our newly expanded kitchen area?

We now have a new, giant window.

The light is incredibly lovely in the late afternoons, and I’ve noticed it streaming toward where our new farm sink will live. I’m also extremely thankful that we waited before ripping out all of the juniper on that side of the house. Instead of ripping it all out, we now think that it’s a pretty cool view and might just trim it back, remove a dying arborvitae that it’s overtaken, and tidy that spot up of construction debris and leaves. It’s quite overgrown, but with a little manicuring, I think it will be the right decision (so far…but that could totally change).

We also have a new north-facing window. The previous window was removed and the new window is a little larger and moved down further in order to accommodate the new sink and stove.

New master bedroom windows. Since we eliminated two closets and added them back on the opposite wall, the previous window was off balance. I am giddy about these two. They’ll flank our bed and add beautiful morning light.

We have a new pocket door frame leading to the guest bathroom (along with piles of materials, such as our new stove hood & lighting):

And our cabinets all came in too early. They’re being stored in the guest bedroom.

It’s a good thing that they’re here already, but awkward for the drywallers to work around. Not quite sure how that will play out this coming week… :/

Outside, we have a new World Headquarters Office! It’s completely dwarfed in all of this space, but really quite spacious inside and will serve our needs perfectly.

Plus, there’s a great view of the boys’ baseball field out of the garage area, which will be our new bike shop.

The inside will be finished within the next couple of weeks and we’ll be so happy to have a new office home. We need to install a gate from the backyard to this area of our property here (the white construction debris marks the spot):

Later this year, possibly in the spring/summer of 2016, we’ll replace all our chainlink fence. For now, our focus is on building the chicken coop and goat pen. Our baby chicks are not so baby anymore; their feathers are almost all in and they’ll be ready to move from their brooder in the barn into their new coop soon.

One bit of a setback is this, however.

That pretty piece of paper was slapped and taped onto our front window. Permitting is a little backlogged, and the county didn’t have the rough-in house permit filed as “entered” when the inspector came out to inspect the new office building. All work has ceased for the last three days, but should start up again either Friday or Monday. It’s hard to allow for mistakes when your entire world is upside down, but truly, in the grand scheme of things, life is good. Dusty, but good. :)