A Year in Review (or: where the Heck have you been?!?!?)
Well, well, well...how the heck are ya? Me, I am well. Been a little busy of late trying to maintain, renovate and keep up with this crazy project know as SALO Farm. I never knew I could be this tired, or this happy.
Forgive me readers, for it has been about over a year since my last post. And forgive me as I promised in writing in my last post to be better about posting. Going forward, blogs will be posted each quarter - I promise!.
So, where do we start?
After the initial shock and awe of the first few weeks of owning SALO Farm wore off, late Spring/Summer 2015 was full of fun, frustration, failures, and victories. Like peeling the layers of an onion, each new undertaking around the property revealed some history, some drama, some frightening moments or some combination of all. I was able to quickly get comfortable settling into my home base in the White House (now named the Farm House). Everything was in working order there, all plumbing and heat issues taken care of, and I had gotten used to all the sounds of an unfamiliar house.
In May, I retrieved a bunch of family furniture I had in storage which became the furnishings for the Farm House (thanks for your help, Rob!). It was bizarre how well this collection of mid-century Danish modern style furniture fit in with the house - like it was meant to be there. And it was comforting to have it there - definitely a stamp of my own on this new project.
Also in May, my father arrived for a long weekend to assist in re-configuring the upstairs of the Red House (now named the Lodge, in honor of its historic purpose on the original farm). What was formerly one very large bedroom, a second slightly smaller room, and an awkward hallway became 3 bedrooms with a sitting room in between (which includes the smaller upstairs fireplace). We only managed to get the framing and some of the drywall up that weekend with the remainder of the renovation and cosmetic improvements taking the better part of the year, including: 1) a few failed attempts and cutting glass for the new transoms (ever tried to cut tempered glass before? epic fail!) and 2) a steep learning curve on the art of taping and mudding drywall (I still haven't quite go the hang of it, but I guess it fits in with the "rustic" look of the house). Check out the the updates page to see some of the before/during and after pictures.
We also managed to get the old riding mower running, to discover it needed some major work to get it out on the lawn for a proper mowing. Cue another crash course for me in learning how to repair small engines and replace various parts of the mower (I managed to keep all my fingers, save a few cuts and scrapes). When it was finally up and running, I discovered that a full mow of the property takes about 4 hours (not including trimming, etc.). A few months later I was listening to an interview on NPR where someone was describing working the fields on a tractor as some of the best "thinking time" there is - I now know that feeling well.
Many good and faithful friends visited from late May to mid-July, all willing to pitch in and work on a variety of project, a never ending list that kept growing every day (I am talking about you Liz, Kim, Tim, Timothy, Tanya, Rob...). And my appreciation for these people is undying since I had just finalized my very first booking for later that summer with the HERE Artists Residency program (HARP). So much to do, so little time to do it...
Many of the projects involved just a really good deep cleaning of buildings that had not been in full use for years in some cases. The was also tons of yard work to do, trash to be hauled away, etc. Even taking on simpler tasks like making sure all the kitchens had basic items like plates and cookware became a huge help.
New beds were built for the Farm House bedrooms, and a new section to the loft area built so the fourth bedroom could have its own door (rather than going through the third bedroom to get to the fourth). The piano that was given to me as a house warming gift by the Real Estate broker for the sellers was tuned and deemed to be in working order (an upright from 1895 which reminder me of the piano I had as a child). Lots of painting to freshen up the place. Slowly but surely the old place was being resurrected.
Also as the spring/summer wore on, it was fascinating watching the gardens, etc, around the property come to life. So many exquisite flowers, shrubs, and flowering trees to behold. So many amazing birds populating the area. So many squirrels inhabiting the roof of the Lodge....
WTF?!?!?!
To be continued in the next post. Take a break, dear readers, so much more to come....
Forgive me readers, for it has been about over a year since my last post. And forgive me as I promised in writing in my last post to be better about posting. Going forward, blogs will be posted each quarter - I promise!.
So, where do we start?
After the initial shock and awe of the first few weeks of owning SALO Farm wore off, late Spring/Summer 2015 was full of fun, frustration, failures, and victories. Like peeling the layers of an onion, each new undertaking around the property revealed some history, some drama, some frightening moments or some combination of all. I was able to quickly get comfortable settling into my home base in the White House (now named the Farm House). Everything was in working order there, all plumbing and heat issues taken care of, and I had gotten used to all the sounds of an unfamiliar house.
In May, I retrieved a bunch of family furniture I had in storage which became the furnishings for the Farm House (thanks for your help, Rob!). It was bizarre how well this collection of mid-century Danish modern style furniture fit in with the house - like it was meant to be there. And it was comforting to have it there - definitely a stamp of my own on this new project.
Also in May, my father arrived for a long weekend to assist in re-configuring the upstairs of the Red House (now named the Lodge, in honor of its historic purpose on the original farm). What was formerly one very large bedroom, a second slightly smaller room, and an awkward hallway became 3 bedrooms with a sitting room in between (which includes the smaller upstairs fireplace). We only managed to get the framing and some of the drywall up that weekend with the remainder of the renovation and cosmetic improvements taking the better part of the year, including: 1) a few failed attempts and cutting glass for the new transoms (ever tried to cut tempered glass before? epic fail!) and 2) a steep learning curve on the art of taping and mudding drywall (I still haven't quite go the hang of it, but I guess it fits in with the "rustic" look of the house). Check out the the updates page to see some of the before/during and after pictures.
We also managed to get the old riding mower running, to discover it needed some major work to get it out on the lawn for a proper mowing. Cue another crash course for me in learning how to repair small engines and replace various parts of the mower (I managed to keep all my fingers, save a few cuts and scrapes). When it was finally up and running, I discovered that a full mow of the property takes about 4 hours (not including trimming, etc.). A few months later I was listening to an interview on NPR where someone was describing working the fields on a tractor as some of the best "thinking time" there is - I now know that feeling well.
Many good and faithful friends visited from late May to mid-July, all willing to pitch in and work on a variety of project, a never ending list that kept growing every day (I am talking about you Liz, Kim, Tim, Timothy, Tanya, Rob...). And my appreciation for these people is undying since I had just finalized my very first booking for later that summer with the HERE Artists Residency program (HARP). So much to do, so little time to do it...
Many of the projects involved just a really good deep cleaning of buildings that had not been in full use for years in some cases. The was also tons of yard work to do, trash to be hauled away, etc. Even taking on simpler tasks like making sure all the kitchens had basic items like plates and cookware became a huge help.
New beds were built for the Farm House bedrooms, and a new section to the loft area built so the fourth bedroom could have its own door (rather than going through the third bedroom to get to the fourth). The piano that was given to me as a house warming gift by the Real Estate broker for the sellers was tuned and deemed to be in working order (an upright from 1895 which reminder me of the piano I had as a child). Lots of painting to freshen up the place. Slowly but surely the old place was being resurrected.
Also as the spring/summer wore on, it was fascinating watching the gardens, etc, around the property come to life. So many exquisite flowers, shrubs, and flowering trees to behold. So many amazing birds populating the area. So many squirrels inhabiting the roof of the Lodge....
WTF?!?!?!
To be continued in the next post. Take a break, dear readers, so much more to come....
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