Changes

I have become interested in other people's building projects
as they are posted here. I like seeing before and after shots.
Although we built new from the ground up, we are still able
to offer some before and afters. Here's a few.

If, for some reason you are interested in the entire log
building process, a slide show may be found here:
http://www.loghomeu.com/profile/MelandJaneLane




The same angle in '09.



I don't know if that does anything for you, but I like to see
before and after shots. This was one reason Jane and I used
to watch "Extreme Makeover Home Edition". This is the area
and angle where the barn now stands.


Again there has been more progress on this than I can how here.
We've painted the rest of the barn and only need doors and cement
to finish. This was the only picture I could find from the same
angle as the "before" shot.


From approximatily the same location, the next two show the front
of the house facing the pond. See the pines?


You can't really see but a little bit of the pines between the garage
and house. The porch roof and screen wasn't up yet.


So here's the area where the rear of the house will set. (Use the
the twin pine trees as a reference in both pictures)
You can see a little of the shack as it exisited when we first saw
the property in february 2008.

There's a little diference in angle but you can see from the

back of the pond towards the back of the house.
Please note if you will, that the weeds and grass are now cut as this
was taken last year before we began any real outdoor fixing up.

39th week on the pond

39th Week and Fall is set-in.

Week number 40

Week 41 brings a little trimming.

Week 42 and hardly a leaf on a tree. Most of them are on the pond.

There's nothing spooky-pooky about this, the 43rd Saturday morning of 2010 Go to January 2011 to finish

On the campus

In July of this year, I wrote about touring the Wylie House Musuem, and I
mentioned that a barn was under construction to the rear of the main house.
Well, it's finished and about to be opened to the public. Jo the Director
met Janie and I on Saturday for a personal tour of the barn.




To the left of the main entry you'll see this super nice stainless
steal mail box.




From the entry, I have a tendency to look up at the vast openess of the barn.
Beams! give me old wooden beams.




There is an open space which will be utilized for special events and so on.
Art will soon fill the walls.

As you go up the stairs to the second story you see old
things as art, like this barn pulley.

What a desk! The second level is full of outstanding
pieces, put together nicely to make a working office
with the feel of history.

This room is dressed out as a library for books owned by the
Wylie family.

Books with age.

Those shelves, those books, that funiture, .... it's like going back in time.

A close-up of a 1700's era desk used by the Wylie family up to the
point it was donated to IU.

This office is somewhat longer and shows off lots of old barn wood.
It sure beats the office i'm in every day.

I enjoy details with whimsy, like this inside window looking into an upper story office from the balcony. It surely wasn't needed, but it adds much.

Back on the outside we see the attention to detail continues with these nice
eyebrow windows. A nice source for natural light and a nice look too.

The shadow of a nearby tree falls on the East side of the barn.

Thanks Jo, for the personal tour.

Low water level

Due to a lack of any real rain the last three months, the ponds
in our area have lost a lot of their volume. Our's was no exception.
What we thought was a bad thing, turned out to be a blessing.
The low water levels have made it easy to accomplish
a couple of repairs to the pond. The first was to find and
fix a leak that became apparent in the Fall of '08. We found
it at the overflow pipe. (Can you see how sad the pond looks?)



First we dug out around the pipe and built the forms to
shape the concrete.





Next pour the forms.

Here's the finished product. Now you know what 800#'s of

concrete looks like.
(Please note the date: 10-10-10, very cool)

Another advantage of the low water this Fall was
having the pond dug deeper in sections. We had a guy
come and remove dirt (mud) from three areas that had
gotten shallow over the life of the pond. When the water
level returns to normal, the pond should appear very
much larger.



You can see here how wide the new bridge is as it spans
the East arm of our little pond. We expect enough room
to be able to glide under the bridge while feeding the fish.




The West side was made deeper as well. Perhaps a nice place
to dock the canoe.

Barn red

We have been busy with painting the barn these last couple weeks.
Stetson likes it. One more side to go.

Pond weeks

At the beginning of the 2010 I began taking pictures of the pond
area (see April) in an effort to show the changes that take place
over the course of the year. I ended up skipping most of the Summer
because so much of it was identical. Here I resume with the last
week of August and so on.




Week 34 and it's great to be outdoors




Week 35 during the heat of Summer






Week 36 with smoke







Week 37 in the sun

Week 38 at dusk

Outdoor improvments

Labor day weekend and after weeks and weeks of no movement,
the garden area in the front has taken a huge step forward.
I gave in an bought some rocks from a guy and he delivered
them to our driveway the last week of August. We've got
them arranged around the garden and we're very please
to have it finished. Janie will be buying some stuff to fill the
garden and there-you-go.
We agree that having gardens and planting around a house
"anchors" a structure and makes a big difference in the total
look and feel of a place.


Kevin and Sarah came Saturday to help me with two things that
required more hands than I had. We're preparing for a bridge over the
pond and these are the 6x6's that will be the base.



Here's a little fresh face who visited us over the weekend.

The effort continues on the barn. Janie bought paint from

Tractor Supply, (our favorite store of all time) and began painting

the East side. There's another section completed on the other

side as well. It should be finished before October !!

The color is just right. So many red out buildings we see have

this "purple" hue that we don't care for. Oh, also, I planted my

PIV at the corner.

On Monday (Labor Day) as we were headed to friends house

to care for their horses and such, when we came upon these

deer. I have never seen an albino deer and here were many.

They had ear tags and we suspect they were pets as they

were very calm and unconcerned about us being right there.

Our area is full of deer, we saw at least 14 during that little trip.