The Country Cottage

Porch Lumber Delivered

We use an amazing local company, friend Lumber, located in Licking, MO, for the majority of our supplies. Not only are they wonderful to work with, but also they deliver! This comes in really handy for our bigger loads.

Porch lumber supplies! Whew, that’s a lot!

We were SO thankful there was a tractor nearby to help unload it. We would have taken forever to do it by hand.

Making a New Friend

Dad and Carla have a young mare named, Fancy, who we walk by each time we decide to walk over to the cottage. She is quite social and looks forward to seeing Rick each day.

Rick and Fancy getting to know each other.

A poppy, carry over from the previous homestead garden. It’s right up by the front porch. I’m so enamored with it.

He was picking up the freshly mowed grass and feeding it to her.

Putting Washers & Nuts On – Then Off

Apparently, there are conflicting opinions on how to attach a porch to a house. So, we started with the guidance to put a washer and nut on the existing bolt that comes out of the side of the brick. According to this school of thought, it is the only way to get a straight line on the face board – which goes on next.

We nearly had all of the washers and bolts on all three sides of the house. Then, it was decided, based on different guidance, to remove them. So, we took them all back off.

Putting the washers and nuts on across the front.

Adding washers and nuts down the side. If only we knew that we would be taking them back off very soon.

Very exciting times – installing the porch!

Backyard Clean Up & Excess Rock Removal

After installation of the septic tank, the back years was a complete mess. There were mounds of dirt, pallets of excess rock from the side of the house and retaining walls and at least one pallet of garbage (excess shingles, old carpet, etc.). So, since Dad already had his skid steer out and he had some extra time, which is rare, we worked on cleaning up the back yard.

Pallet of excess rock and pallet of garbage are shown in this picture.

Another pallet of excess rock siding heading out of the back yard.

Dad in the skid steer and MLM rock hunting.

A pallet of ‘extra’ rock siding that Dad plans to put in a designated spot near a low water point in case anyone wants to use them for a future project.

Yikes! Look what we found under the third pallet of rock. A snake as well as the remnants of a mouse nest. We decided to let the snake live since it was harmless and we’d rather not have mice.

We had to help load some of the big rocks since they kept drifting to areas where Dad couldn’t safely get to them. I sent this photo to Rick’s coach at the gym to ask about his form on the squat. 😂

Smoothing out the dirt and uncovering rocks.

Backfilling Dirt Around Piers

The next step was backfilling dirt around each of the piers. We were lucky to have Dad’s help in getting this completed.

Dad picking up and dumping dirt in the holes around each pier. Hip, hip hooray for his new toy making it way easier and faster than alternative methods.

Next, we laid down landscaping paper and Dad picked up white gravel and placed it on top. This will, in theory, prevent weeds from growing up underneath and through the deck.

Selfie in the sunshine. Plus, the pile of gravel that was used for under the porch. We will also use the white rock for a circle driveway once the yard is finished.

This is the finished dirt and rock work. If you look closely, you can see the top of the concrete piers in a row at the edge of the rock line.

Izzy, the cow dog, is helping to keep the parameter safe (and also giving me lots of wiggles).

Summer Time Restart: Forms Removed

Now that school is out, we went back to the cottage to get to work on the next steps in the building process. First up, was removing the wooden forms off of the porch piers that were poured last fall. we need to back fill dirt and rock in order to build the porch/deck on this side of the house.

Dad helping Mikiah with unscrewing the screws that are holding the wooden box together to create the concrete form.

One down, five more to go. You can see what is left of the box up near the house.

Many weeds grew up and around the house and yard making it hard to get down in the hole and remove the forms.

I pulled weeds around each pier to make it a little easier.

As 2021 Ends, How Did We Do?

As we wrap up 2021 and prepare to bring in the new year, I decided to do a look back at our 2021 resolutions to see how well we did. Here is the report:

Outcome Resolution 1: crushed! He gets better and better every year!

Outcome Resolution 2: owned! He towed the mark on this intention. 😂

Outcome Resolution 4: partially met. Charlie definitely got more treats, but we didn’t go on as many walks as we should have. He did have a couple of what we call ‘joy runs’. He got to go to Grandpa’s farm and run free a couple times. He got out at least once at home and ran free, until deciding to accompany Baby back to the front yard where they were found.

Outcome Resolution 4: failed. Baby didn’t get nearly as much tissue and/or paper this year. We have almost modified this bad habit.

Outcome Resolution 5: failed. Shucks! It just didn’t happen this year!

Outcome Resolution 6: achieved plus some! I not only signed up, but also completed both doses of my vaccination and when it became available for teens, MLM got his also!

Outcome Resolution 7: achieved and plan to continue. Yippeee!

Outcome Resolution 8: crushed! I finished 6 quilts this year! 1 king size, 2 queen size, and 3 baby size. Yay!

Outcome Resolution 9: achieved! Yay! Things are going great and I plan to continue this resolution.

Outcome Resolution 10: crushed! Not only did we complete the house, but we also extended the rock to cover the retaining walls.

Outcome Resolution 11: failed. We didn’t get on very many bike rides this year.

Outcome Resolution 12: partially met. We went to Vegas for a wedding and Seattle to visit Rick’s mom.

Outcome Resolution 13: partially met. I was pretty diligent about the blog until hitting a lull when school got back in session and life kinda threw a couple curve balls.

Outcome Resolution 14: failed – still on the list.

Outcome Resolution 15: completed.

Outcome Resolution 16: completed.

Outcome Resolution 17: completed.

Outcome Resolution 18: completed.

Outcome Resolution 19: failed.

Outcome Resolution 20: partially met. I did lots of research, but no decisions will be made until the interior walls go up.

Outcome Resolution 21: achieved, definitely more camera time and much more attention with pets.

Deck Piers Poured

The day after the concrete footings were poured, we placed the wooden boxes we created several months ago on the footings. There was a lot of measurements and calculations to make sure the piers were straight and at the same height. Rick Ichord led us through the process – which was extraordinarily helpful.

Here is a views looking down the row of piers.

We had to order more concrete to fill the boxes.

Pouring deck footings

With the holes dug and cleaned out, it was time to order up concrete and get the footings poured.

I like the question on the concrete truck.

Rick M. and Rick I. making sure the concrete is spread around and most importantly not higher than the rebar that was in the bottom of the hole indicating how high to pour the concrete for the footing.

Baby decided to be a model for the photo showing the completed footings.

The concrete is still wet, but this is how it looks after being poured.

Digging for Deck Footings

Once we had the water line from the well to the house back filled, it was time to get to work to determine the placement of deck footings on the west side of the cottage.