….. Well, it’s July. Actually, it’s almost August. I don’t know how that happened. We’ve only taken a handful of “days off” since August 2017. That’s insane. I didn’t think it was possible to work as hard as we did for as long as we did. Somehow, all the crazy lists got completed. We didn’t sleep much but we managed to stay healthy and not get any winter colds/flu/etc.

I use to roll my eyes at people who paid for takeout all the time because they “didn’t have time to cook”. I’m sorry, people I judged. We hardly had time to eat this past year, let alone cook.

But, things have finally slowed down.

We finished the barn reno, cleaned up the cabin from our winter tenant (never doing that again…), built some things, landscaped some things, and hosted our FIRST WEDDING. A few days later, we packed up our entire house, sold it, and unpacked it all… during the absolute hottest week of the summer.

Then we crashed. Since July 11th (a whole two weeks ago, hah), we’ve been taking it slow. Smaller projects. Quitting time happens around 4pm. We sit down to drink coffee in the morning. We play video games and watch movies and go out for drinks with friends. Except we’ve been in the “work mode” mindset for so long that we feel guilty whenever we aren’t being “productive”. I’m sure anyone who is self-employed can relate.

So, what exactly happened from March – July? Let me show you.

 

^Old vs new. 
^ Joists getting set.

^It was pretty exciting to walk on the floor without the fear of falling through.

^ Quit early one afternoon for a trail ride.

^Found some interesting things in the walls and floor when we ran new ductwork.

^ Boom. New flooring.

^There were days when I hated everyone and everything. But then a sunset like this would light up the sky, and it was a good reminder that even the longest days only have 24 hours.

^ If you think that living in Maine looks fun, you’ve obviously never visited during mud season. Hint: don’t.

^ I got antsy waiting for spring weather, so I learned how to make some outdoor benches. Not bad for my first ever project, eh?

^ Starting in on building the loft area.

^And this is why I try *really* hard to not complain about summer heat. This picture was taken on the first day of spring.

^We had to climb the scaffolding to get up here after the contractors left one day (couldn’t resist).

^ The loft area is all new, but the crew used old boards/beams to make it look like it had always been here.

^I’m a big fan of the metal railings.

^Working on building tables.

^Cleaning the barn. Oh, this was an absolute nightmare. We spent a long time researching the best way to go about this part. Google suggested pressure washing (can’t do that here, the water would get trapped and rot the boards) or sand blasting (messy and very $$$). In the end, we had to just grit our teeth and put in the manual labor. This barn was built in 1865. It’s never been cleaned (of course not, it was for animals). Ryan did the upper half, I did the lower half. Notice the tyvek suit and respirator? 1000% necessary. So, how do you clean a barn to be used for weddings? Leaf blower to get the “big stuff”. Blow it onto the ground. Then go back with a grill brush. Yes, a frigging grill brush. Scrub every single board. TWICE. Sweep + shopvac until you want to burn the barn to the ground. Then shopvac the walls one more time with a soft bristled brush attachment to get all the fine dust particles that were kicked up from sweeping.

^It was worse in person.

^I needed some green things in my life, so I started seedlings. But I did it WAY TOO EARLY. And then they all died, because they were too big before the ground had thawed yet.

^It was actually kind of fun to varnish/poly the tables. Staining is far more enjoyable than painting.

^ Oh my. The mess. THE MESS.

^My “work clothes” attire has certainly changed over the past couple years.

^ Little signs that the horrible winter was drawing to a close.

^The old garden area in the back yard. I should have raked it up in the fall… but I didn’t.

^ Aren’t they pretty?! Say yes.

^ I surprised Ryan by building all the ceremony site benches. I did have a helper for the assembly line, though.

^ We learned real quick that leaving the doors open while the poly was drying was a bad idea.

^Starting the walkway. Looking back at all these photos make me tired.

^ Help.

^ A bit better…

^ My grandfather cut up a tree for me. These logs became legs for some of the ceremony benches.

^After I got the garden area raked, we had a company come out to hydroseed it.

^ We moved the bee hives to the farm from our old house. That was easy, because the hives were dead 🙁 They didn’t make it over the winter.

^ So. Much. Debris.

^ We had a privacy fence installed in the back yard.

^ And then it was time to get some light in the barn.

^This was one of the most exciting days! Ryan doesn’t get angry very often… but when he does, I leave and go buy pizza. We made it through this day with only a couple minor setbacks.

^ The parking lot was installed.

^ Some lights were more tricky to put in than others.

^ Spring became real! Except that meant we needed to hustle even harder.

^ As soon as the lights were all functional, we started in on cleaning, sanding, and staining the barn floor.

^ It’s not easy to get a picture of, but the “before” is on the left. “After” is on the right.

^ It warmed up the space and brought out all the natural wood tones.

^ I love the contrast of the dark tables with the light floors.

^ After carefully escorting people around the mud path for a couple months, we finally had a proper walkway put in.

^ Then we needed to start the ceremony arbor.

^ It took us three full days to put this thing up. We thought it would only take one afternoon. That process seems to be a trend around here…..

^ All the happy flowers.

^ Arbor is up!

^ We had to cover the space underneath the barn so that guests (and critters) didn’t go wandering. This little fix turned out better than I expected.

^ Then there was the lawn. This spot was destroyed by grubs. I figured it would just be an ongoing battle, so I decided that this area would be the perfect spot for a little patio/fire pit.

^ But, as it turns out, the flagstone was WAY heavier than I expected. Rocks are heavy, who knew. I had my brothers come help move them.

^ We also did a little tree trimming.

^ Ah. Right in the middle of all these big projects, we were trying to sell our home. Ryan was away for work when the home inspection was done. Thankfully everything passed, except for needing a small handrail off a back door. It’s not the prettiest thing in the world, but I figured out how to build one. In the dark.

^ Okay, back to the yard. After all the stones were laid out, my mom and I filled in the edges with paver sand. Then we had to level out the tippy ones. It was pouring rain that day… but what can you do?

^ My dad installed the pretty french doors in the back of the barn. That was another all-day project (with rain for most of it). The tricky part is that glass doors need to be level/straight… but this old barn certainly isn’t.

^ After we got the sand laid out, we filled in the gaps with pea stone. It looks a lot better in real life than in this picture.

^ Done!

^ I’ve been a walking mess of cuts/scrapes/bruises for months!

^ We ran out of time for a proper. So here’s a quick one I threw together. It’s still out there, but we will be updating it with a proper sign soon…

^ Is this real life?!

^ Our FIRST WEDDING! We were so happy for the bride + groom. Ryan was away at work, but my “helpers” (in-laws) came out to direct traffic/people and to bring me dinner. My mom (not pictured) came to bring me champagne and cheesecake and to hang out with me until the end of the night. The next day, I laid on the couch and didn’t get up for 48 hours (except to walk to/from the refrigerator).

^ A few days later, Ryan got home from work and we had to pack up our house. All 3000 sqft of it. What a nightmare. We moved into the farmhouse; this is our temporary “home”. We are staying here while we build a new home on the farm property.

^ This picture was the very last time we left our home. The final load of things that needed to be moved. It was a miserable day… 95 degrees with high humidity, and we were sad. Also, it was the 4th of July and we missed out on all the fun of camp/lobster with family. Selling our home wasn’t part of the original plan when we first started this business, but in the back of our mind we knew that it might need to happen. It was a big sacrifice, but we are hopeful that it will all be worth it someday!

^ First dinner in our new “home”. Yes, you can laugh. We wanted to cook a nice big meal, but we were exhausted and didn’t know where any of the pots/pans were.

All the pieces are coming together, and we know how lucky we are. Thanks for reading.