Home sweet home

It has been a monumental weekend at the homestead, and one I won’t soon forget. However, I’ll start with a story from Thursday night. It was warm and raining on Thursday, and I had a few early mornings at work so I went to bed early. I was awakened to the loudest noise that I had ever heard. I was terrified. I ran downstairs and heard it again. It was like lightning struck just outside the house, but we were not having a thunderstorm. I was literally shaking I was so scared. I didn’t know if something had exploded? I was expecting to see my cabinets on the floor and my stove shattered, but did not see anything. It was just past 11 PM, yet I called my parents.

I was almost too scared to talk. My Mom answered and said she was sure it was the snow falling off the roof. I went out and check and half of it was off. She was right. They had been there when some of it had fallen off before. Apparently, the steep pitch of the roof and how the metal was put on a certain way with the nails makes it extra loud. I’m glad that I will know what it is next time, as I don’t remember ever being that scared in a long, long time.

I’ve been living here for about two weeks, but the ‘construction zone’ aspect was driving me crazy. I was determined that this weekend we were going to make progress on the mess. Prior to the progress, I spent Friday night tung oiling the kitchen cabinets.

Saturday all I wanted to do was clean and get tools out of the house, but it was so warm that we could not get the truck close enough to the house to load it up as there was too much mud. We spent a great deal of the day organizing, however. We cleared half of the downstairs so that we could seal the concrete to reduce the dust.

Saturday night I stained the upstairs bathroom, which is making great progress as well. After church on Sunday, we worked on getting a lot of the stuff out of the house! We took two loads down to the barn and one load to my Dad’s workshop at their house. We also gave an entire box full of wood pieces to a neighbor. We then moved all the remaining items to the other side and sealed the remaining side of the concrete.

Monday, we brought the majority of my furniture from the spare bedroom to the living room. Most of the tools that we still need at the house are now living in the spare bedroom, and I’m ok with that. My Dad and I managed to get a couch out of the spare bedroom that I honestly did not think that we’d get out. I remember that it was a struggle to get it in the bedroom when my brother-in-law and I put it in there. It’s a sleeper sofa so I wanted to take the metal frame off and saw it up and throw it away, but my parents continued to say where there’s a will there’s a way and we finally got it into the living room.

We also brought the entertainment center, end table, lamps, rug, and coffee table out. I also bought a tv last week. I don’t plan to get cable, but I want to be able to watch movies. My house is truly starting to look at feel like a home, and I could not be happier.

Yesterday, while in my Dad’s truck, I picked up his camera and began looking at photos. It is unbelievable how far we’ve come. Just this past summer we were framing in the rooms downstairs. There is still work to be done, but the progress is truly unbelievable.

Laura Reed

About Laura Reed

After 15 years in college athletics, the last seven as an assistant athletics director, I was burned out with 70-hour work weeks and extensive travel. I resigned my position and accepted a position in marketing at a small, vibrant college in my hometown of Unity, Maine. In the process I wanted to go back to my childhood where we raised polled Herefords, had a Christmas Tree Farm and spent many hours outside. I decided I wanted to build my own home on beautiful farmland that my family owns. With help from my Dad, the most talented person I’ve ever met, we are building my home together. I have decided to blog my experience – the ups and downs, the joys and frustrations. What was once an open field will one day be my home! The dream in my head is becoming reality. I can just see the lambs frolicking in the field, chickens in the barnyard and going running with my Alaskan Malamute!