Just Like the Seasons, Things Do Change.

Once again, I have fallen behind writing. Apparently, it has been so long that they have changed the format of the website and I am finding myself struggling. Oh well, I’ll figure it out along the way, maybe. We are now starting the last week of July. It’s ridiculous how time passes and the next thing you know another season is in full swing, you blink and that month is over. Spring took a wee bit to warm up and come around. The garden was slow growing due to the ground temps being low and after waiting weeks on end for cucumbers to sprout, I ended up with 15 plants, because I thought they were bad seeds and reseeded. They all came up at the same time. The lettuce took its sweet time growing as well, leaving me to think that I’d have to replant that too. And then the weather changed. For much of the country. Ninty degrees and HUMID. Which the vegetables and flowerbeds love! Me. Not so much. There is a reason I don’t live in the Southern states, this time of year especially.

Last week, I had posted outside pictures on my personal FB page, before and after, of the Schoolhouse. The older photos had come up on my Facebook “Memories” from 8 years ago (when it was still camp). I couldn’t believe how naked our beloved home looked, even after doing a lot of work and basic upkeep, and then seeing all the changes we have made over the past few years, as we’ve made this small place our full-time home. The addition of the farmers porch, the foundation plantings and the butterfly garden gave the old house some extra color and life.

A few of my friends had asked if I had pictures of the inside. I thought I had shared some in an earlier blog. After going through nearly 2 years of blogs I noticed I had only a few and most were of the galley kitchen. So here we are, writing a blog. As a lover of old house and buildings, I GET IT! I have urges to go knocking on doors and asking complete strangers for a tour of their personal space. Just recently, I drove by a gigantic Victorian. If I had driven any slower, I would have been at a full stop. It needed a bit of TLC, but I knew that house had a story to tell and I wanted to hear it. I wonder if people would be willing to let me in????

I love showing our beloved Schoolhouse to people and sharing the history that stands amid these walls and among our family. To see the expression on peoples faces when they first step in is priceless to me, and how their eyes almost immediately go straight to the 12 foot tin ceilings and back down the tin walls. You can see they are taking a step back in time, nearly 200 years back. The large windows on the west side also draw a lot of attention, as well as the blackboards, that hold names of every individual who has ever stepped foot onto the original, oiled hardwood floors.

Back when the Schoolhouse was camp, it had three partition walls that separated the living area from the sleeping area. The sleeping area had three full size beds and very narrow paths between each bed. A small closet had been constructed at some point in time near the bathroom doors and we had no use for it, as storage places usually meant really good hiding spots for mice. Same as the bureaus that were here. We cleaned out all the drawers, threw out chewed up debris, and stopped storing things in drawers and cupboards. We toted our belongings back and forth, as the mice were here more than we were. We were essentially just visiting their home.

One of the first things we did, as we were preparing to move in, was tear down two of the partition walls to make room for our furniture. Which honestly wasn’t a whole lot. We kept one of our living room sets, our dining room set, kept a few dressers that had multifunctional use and traded out our king bed for our queen that we had in one of the spare bedrooms. We did a tremendous amount of down sizing. And 2 years later, I’m still ridding of things we thought we would need. We are basically minimalists at this point, living in 400sqft. Storage space is minimal and nobody actually needs half the crap that they have. If it has no sentimental value or use, it’s gone.

The best part about living a minimal life style, it took me an entire 20 minutes this morning to clean the house. I have better things to do with my time at home, then clean. Nice days, I’m outside as the sun comes up. Rainy days I can putter at my leisure. I know some would say not to worry about cleaning, but I have to have order and when you have five animals in a small space, it can get hairy and dirty pretty dang fast. SO I will continue with my 20 minute cleaning sprees.

As you can see, 400 sqft is not a lot of room. For us though, it works quite well. I was asked recently how I liked living here. When I said I loved it, their response, “I need my comforts, I couldn’t do it”. We have everything we need close at hand and have plenty of comforts. We finally began the first step of our water catchment barrels, so I no longer have to go a mile down the road for water to shower, to do dishes or wash the dogs. We changed satellite services and now have amazingly fast service. All we need now is take-out delivery. 🤣