Things to do in 2012

Many people like to make new years resolutions when the calendar turns.  I don't.  In the years that I did, I usually would forget the resolution in the course of the first week, thus making it pretty useless, laughable.  So, instead of making personal resolutions, Amy and I decided to do a month by month of what we want to accomplish this year.

It is a bit more broad, but it gives the opportunity to get things done at our own pace while still achieving a bigger goal.  Here is our month by month breakdown for the first 5 months of 2012:

January
January could also be known as updating the house month.  The house is old, some parts are from the 1890s.  Thus, it is not in perfect 2012 shape.  For instance, the upstairs has no duct work that leads up to it, thus it is always a direct reflection of the temperature outside (right now it is around 40 degrees upstairs).  This essentially renders 3 of our 5 bedrooms useless, but we need to start thinking about kids rooms up there in the next year.  Thus, the heater guys are coming this week to update our whole house and make it heater/cooler friendly!!  We will also get both kids rooms (1st floor) ready for business this month with new coats of paint.  Custom shades are being installed in late January.  This is a busy month for the inside of the our house

February-April
In February we will welcome our first son to our home and our lives will be consumed by trying to figure out how to balance a 3 year old and an infant.  Wish us luck.  The home/land will have to wait, although we will seed our 2.9 acres that was corn field last year and start it's conversion to pasture.

May
By May it will have been almost nine months since we added an animal to or lives.  This will not sit well with Amy (who is our residence animal enthusiast!) We will order our first crop (batch?) of chicks.  Amy has had the catalog literally since the day we moved in last April and is super excited to get going.  All that has to be done for this to become a reality is really simple stuff...build a coop, fence in their area, ready the barn, all stuff that should be simple.
  Gardens, raised beds and produce will also dominate the late part of the month.  We will have a sweet set up for veges this year darn it!  

These first five months look like a combination of fun and craziness, luckily we have figured out how to mix both of these concepts well and are excited for the challenges ahead.

The Ups and Downs of Owning a 100+ year house

Raise your hand if you would purchase a house that has 5 bedrooms.

I see your hand is still up.  Let's see where your threshold is.  

When will you put your hand down?

-2 of those bedrooms (including the master) is downstairs, the other 3 are upstairs. 
-4 bedrooms require significant cosmetic upgrades and the fifth needs quite a bit of wall work
-2 of the bedrooms have zero electrical outlets
-1 of the bedrooms has no closet (which technically makes it not a bedroom)
-Oh yea, the three bedrooms upstairs has no heating or air conditioning.

Hand still up?  I am betting after that long list of chores and to-dos not all of you are willing to own a house in what appears to be such disrepair.  Actually, the house is in very good condition, especially when you consider it's age, but it does need some significant updating.  We have decided that the first serious upgrade this house will receive is air flow to the upper level.  Who knows the countless number of children that grew up in this house freezing in the winter and sweating in the summer, but our future kids will not have to endure this hardship.  That is a bad habit left over from our urban days.

So the task at hand is calling various heating and air specialists and have them float us some quotes and come up with a plan as to how to install this elaborate new system.  2 specialists have come out and it turns out it is much more difficult to add duct work to a already built home than it is when you build a new one.  The best and most affordable plan is to install an interior unit upstairs and run duct work through the ceilings.  We haven't received any estimates yet as to how much this will cost but I am not crossing my fingers.  Luckily everyone we have worked with has been friendly and genuine with wanting to do the job right.

Ok, you can put your hand down those of you who are still holding on.  If nothing else scares you then the 70's dreary shag-like brown carpet in the master bedroom will!