Spring into summer 2014

It was a busy spring, the building next doors roof blew off destroying half of our front yard. It took out two large trees, our shade patio area, an arbor and the angel statue, so we re-designed.
and added...

the coop that was started 2 years ago, yup.. and in the front yard - hahaha..
(Its really a temporary home that will turn into a great garden area, well fertilized. but too much fun not to tell people that..gotta live up to the insane people who bought a HUGE school thing, right?)

 Every coop needs chickens, so along came...

 Hawk and Contessa two adult hens and 4 pullets - Shadow, Eggplant, Lulu and..

 Raddish - she loves onions and laid her first and perfect 100% organic, antibiotic free and non-gmo fed unfertilized egg yesterday, she is now an adult. I never knew that chickens each have their own personality - or ate so much.

Working on a rock sink outside and thinking about adding an outdoor pizza oven by the new (almost finished) tree shaded patio along with the bbq..cept summers here and days are getting long, hot and lazy.

School daze

 The Burbank School built in 1926, rebuilt in 1936-7 and re-modled in 2006 - present. The top is the earlest picture we've found. Somewhere along the years the (gymnasium and auditorium) windows were removed and bricked over, other then that not too many negative changes had been made thru the years.
I do wish the front fence and landscaping were still here when we got it.
Which leads me to why the in the hell we (2 adults), would buy a 19,000 sf building on top of a hill out in the middle of the country.  ...insanity ???
I don't really know..
I remember the first day after we got the keys.. kinda sat in the semi-dark hallway wondering what to do.
Its when we kinda realized there wasnt a bathroom..well not a real one - there was a girls room and boys room - 3-4 stalls each and a sink, then the old gym showers way in the back of an addition. Ever been in and old school restroom that hasn't been used in a few years? Not nice.
Demolition time!
Hauling out all the trash came first, years of old files..paper, anything that might be left and unwanted in an old school, the literally TONS of massive old pipe from the outdated steam heat. We were told the heating bill averaged $1500.00 monthly so knew that had to go to something more efficient. We decided on separate room heat/air units and lots of ceiling fans to take advantage of the 11ft ceilings.
It was 3 months till we actually got a working bathroom in..first tub delivered arrived cracked.. so took another month re-deliver.
ahhh..the bathroom on the 3rd floor.. theres the tub that took 3 months to deliver

It still not quite finished - we built a wall separating the toilet and shower, on the other end is the washer/dryer build out, still would love to put in window/storage bench/seats the length of the windows and get the new lighting and fan up..

Has instant endless hot water heating, elongated tall toilet and fireplace, 2 person tub - its a dream bath.

there's 4 large rooms on the 3rd floor, a center hall..(12ft wide), and a side hall which leads to the 300 seat auditorium - have not done any work on that yet other then to replace some broken windows, has a cool stage- all the old lighting. Roof/window leaks (fixed now) and moisture from them in that area had damaged the plaster pretty bad so will prob be going for an exposed brick look in there ..cant find a pic on this computer..

this is the largest..finished the ceiling, now we are arguing about how many ceiling fans it needs...

                       Here's the center hall..we plan on a small kitchen there, have the wet bar sink in..theres a rooftop out that window and we planned on putting steps and french doors going out to it, would be perfect for morning coffee and dinner watching the sun set.

Havent thought about all this in awhile..after messing up my knees and back I've just worked my paying job (art)..and now..believe it or not - I want to start making bread!  from scratch..like really scratch - making the flour..

This former city girl might, after 7 years, actually be getting used to country life.

Ok..on to the 2nd floor - 6 rooms..2 hallways...2 entryways.