Stairway to...heaven? NOT!

I hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year celebration!

Up the stairs...

I thought I would start the new year off with the part of my house that is NEW to you...the second level of the hut...

This charming and and..uhhh...vintage... room...is the Master Bedroom..this is what it looked like the day I got the house....the water damage was extensive..BUT!  to my utter glee...that rain had literally washed off a lot of the BLUE PAPER! YAAAAY!  We all....from previous rants....know exactly how Lisa feels about all of the blue paper in this house...stuck on with something akin to hide glue...that scrapes off..but only scrapes off in little, bitty pieces....but then becomes attached to whatever it falls on...including your hair....and the bottom of your shoe...and you find it in everything...even your soup...and you find it days later too....even when you double checked to make sure you got it all...even when you went over the walls and the floor with Super Clean and a scraper... again......it was worse...and you all  know that this was a very traumatic experience for me...it was worse than picking white paint....that BLUE PAPER almost cost me hundreds of dollars in therapy...

Door from Master bedroom into 2nd bedroom

And this? is the other bedroom...I know...it looks like something out of a Scary Potter Movie....and it was...along with the bedding, clothes, garbage and other debris? There were six...yep...six....full to the top...overflowing...petrified...duh...duh...DUM!   Cat boxes...

of all the things I cleaned in this house, these rooms made me the most sad...their were children in here...with all that filth...their toys and clothes and crayons were everywhere...anyways...the beds up here were so soaked with urine and cat feces we dressed in plastic rain gear to get them down the stairs...

I can soooo hear the collective...EWWWWWW! Coming from all of you...hee hee!

I put this pic in here so you could see how dark it was up there

old linoleum

and how light it was after curtain removal

yes, those are cat turds...

light...aaaah....

This second bedroom...was my treasure room for a long time...I spent an entire weekend reading the walls in this room...underneath all the wall paper...perfectly preserved... were hundreds and hundreds of newspaper articles from 1919...they were incredible and lot's of them were in Finnish and Norwegian...there were also 1950's newspapers under the linoleum....now, I hear a lot of expressions relating to the "good ole days"...well, I don't think the papers today? can come close to the grisly, murderous, daily goings on of the year 1919 in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan... from what I could tell...people were beating the tar outta each other, their wives, children and neighbors...daily! but the agricultural news held vast information about what a large farming community this was and after reading for awhile... I completely understand where Michigan's right to farm laws came from and why they are so perfectly preserved and stringent today! and I am so very pleased that they are! 

After yanking down the curtains and washing the walls and floors of these rooms, we installed a bed in the treasure room...the weekend we were supposed to "camp" here...(and I refused to leave, a bed...a toilet? what else do you need? lol!) there was so much light as the Master bedroom window faces East and the little bedroom window faces West...the morning sun streams thru both rooms and then again in the afternoon, it is all lit up...It is one of my most favorite features of this house! It was built to capture every spec of available light from every direction...well, as long as you don't have a kook covering up every inch of glass with sheets, towels and ugly curtains! oh...and dirt...you should prolly wash the grime off too...;)

One day I was rearranging treasures and I started seriously looking around at these two rooms...hmmmm....they would make an incredible Master Suite with a little rearranging...and since I do not plan on moving for a very long time...and there is only the two of us...why not make one large room? and the closets? wow...they ran the entire length of the house with little, tiny doors to access them...the one at the top of the stairs was the worst! you had to bend over at the top of the stairs to actually get in the room...my Honey is 6ft 4inches tall...a chiropractor would seriously be in his future...the closets were lined with mildewed cardboard that kept the blown in insulation in tact...they were nasty! and I was NOT sticking anything I owned in them anyways! 

Top of the stairs where the closet used to be...

I went and got a hammer and crow bar and started prying the boards off...I finally got  all the boards off...ripped off that nasty cardboard and stuffed every inch of that insulation down into the living room wall with a broom...called my Muffin and asked him to pick up a large roll of insulation and re insulated the wall...I cleaned out 9 bees nests and 50,000 spiders...next came the wall at the top of the stairs that separated the staircase from the little bedroom...

This is how many nails were in those boards...

the only place I couldn't reach that danged paper! I did end up screwing a 2x4 to the wall in the stairway and laying  a plank from the floor to the 2x4 to use as scaffolding...my Honey was not happy about my doing this..he was convinced that I would succumb to death... by stairwell....but hey! not everyone has the advantage of having legs as long as a giraffe! AND I got ALL the paper! When this wall came down the light down the stairs and into the kitchen was amazing!

This looks alot like my upstairs!

There were quite a few treasures amassed from up here...the closets were stuffed full of hunting gear, old dishes, antique snow shoes...a tiger eye maple dresser with the mirror and the keys to the drawers!

When I get to paint the upstairs I am going to paint it the same color as the kitchen and living room...my dilemma is this: What do I do with the stairs? I tried to get the paint off but wow...it is so thick and stuck in the grain...I am afraid I will have to sand off half the tread to get it off...soooooo...

What do you think of these?

I just loved the painted stair runners...my sweet school teacher friend has thousands of stencils I could use...and the paint would tie my kitchen in with the stairs...Any suggestions?

Hi Everyone...MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I hope you can all bear with me! My 3 day a week job has turned into much more! I have received pictures from Donna, wait til you see what she shared! BEAUTIFUL...if anyone else is going to share, please send your pictures to thedilletanteproprietor@yahoo.com along with a description of what it is you love so much about it or why it is not your favorite spot or room and I will get a post up about it! I am so excited about Donna's,  I can't wait to see everyone else's!

Can you believe Christmas is day after tomorrow? I have worked so many days in a row, it has completely gotten away from me!

Last year, when I moved into this house, we had a little" Charlie Brown"  fake tree...well, this year? I still have it! HEE HEE! When we set it up last year, we had no decorations beyond a few bows and a couple strands of ribbon....we had no money...we did have 3 rolls of curly ribbon...so we spent a couple of hours making bunches of curly ribbon strands, the kind you usually put on presents and were absolutely delighted! We had so much fun making those and putting them on our tree...that this year? We decided to do it again! The ribbons were mostly free since we bought them several years ago and saved them for when we got a home...the memories of how happy it made us? They are priceless! In addition to the ribbons this year, we spent the evening making Gingerbread men...I tried  using red hot candies for buttons and that worked out o.k...but don't use them as eyes! They tend to turn into "Gingerbread Aliens" instead...the one's with red hot eyes creeped my Honey out so much, I had to stick them in the back down on the bottom of the tree...

My living room smells of gingerbread...YUM! I overcooked them a wee bit and they are  ginger bread rock men...so my little guys...Rudy and Louis...

do not even try to eat them! Louis, however...he seems to have a love/hate relationship with the tree...he loves the ribbons...but the tree itself? he has declared war on it...he takes a flying leap... runs up the center... snarling and hissing...my poor little tree was bent all to heck for the first week...now? he only snatches a few curlies and takes off...

You can see the bottom is still lopsided from Louis....had to close the curtains, it was so bright I couldn't get a picture!

Tons of cookies....I love cookies!

It is such a winter wonderland in my back yard...

Rudy...the snow man...

My Honey has snow blowed a path to each pen...

With all the lights out there, it is quite enchanting to walk out to the chickens and ducks at night...and walk along the paths all over the yard...I so miss my garden, though...buried under all that snow....I spent quite a bit of time yesterday pouring over seeds and flowers and dreaming about the improvements I am going to make to my gardens...I was so tired and sore from work that I couldn't get off the couch...it was a really wonderful day....can't wait to share my thoughts with you all about my plans for spring!

May your holidays be inspiring...full of love and the wealth of family and friends...MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I was wondering if anyone was interested in a chicken and duck processing tutorial? It is a sensitive subject to some so I thought I would ask first!

My 3 day a week job has turned into 6 days a week...but it's fun and I will have my bed soon! Hope all of you are staying warm and enjoying all the sparkly lights!

How I got the house....Needs vs. Wants

GOOD MORNING!

 I have a few new followers this week and I want to say WELCOME to our blog! I read the profiles of everyone who chooses to follow us... if they have one...I also check out the blogs that they follow and wow, there are some incredible blogs out there! Thank you for sharing the wealth!

I also got a request to share how I came across a $600.00 house...from Starrwit on Rate My Space...this post is for her...she is also "trapped" renting...and wanting her own dream...

I have one new follower in particular that I would like to mention...her name is Daisy...Her profile is wonderful...Daisy? you sound just like me when I was out there...wanting some dirt and some homegrown food...I wanted it so bad I could taste it! I dreamed about it daily and planned, schemed....I would stick my head out the window of my truck and take a big breath every time I passed an agricultural truck...when I had my ranch in Montana...I was also in the medical field...I was the Training and Orientation Specialist for United Cerebral Palsy and I brought special needs folks to my ranch...the animals did wonders for them..

I miss that place so much but the drought and the way things were in my life...I couldn't stay...I went in search of another place...

The way the economy was going at that time, I thought I had to save some really big bucks to buy a place...and my account was getting rather large!  but it never seemed like enough...There are things I knew I had to have...things I really wanted...things that would be very nice...and things that people told me I JUST HAD TO DO before I could start searching...

We had planned to buy a large acreage in a remote spot and build a cabin...we looked at tons of plans...but the one that stuck out the most to us was a vertical log cabin...it seemed easy for two non builders, well...easier than most structures!  It was the way the early Canadian Settlers built their housing structures as their was not a lot of man power to help with the building and they had to go up quickly...

Dorothy Ainsworth Vertical Log Cabin

Dorothy Ainsworth Inside Vertical Log Cabin

We searched and searched for directions on how put one together...and I finally found some e-books on how to build one...the books were fantastic and for the price...they made it seem very real and very plausible that two do do's with no sense and no skills could actually do it! So, if we got a piece of property with trees on it, we could very well do it cheaply too! And this incredible WOMAN! Built the above vertical house mostly by herself and EVERYTHING in it... even the doors! I would encourage anyone to read her story, she is awesome!
http://www.dorothyainsworth.com/
http://www.alaskacabin.net/

We knew from experience that windows were easy to find cheap and for free and so were doors...we were willing to live without conventional electricity...we put together plans for building solar panels (which are really easy to do!) and which, people are really doing....plans for how to get water...we found a couple that...since the 70's...have been pumping water into tanks to run their house...by using a bicycle to build pressure in two 40 gallon tanks...in their basement... from a shallow well outside...they get water and a 6 minute work out every day! FORGET the gym! LOL! The magazine had the plans and how to do it...it had a filtration system and they shocked their well with bleach so the water was amazing! It is relatively inexpensive to build and cost nothing but a few minutes a day to pump water...right up my alley! They are going this route in Africa to get water to villages as they have no electricity...http://www.off-grid.net/2010/06/09/bike-powered-water-pump/

Bicycle water pump

You have to dig a shallow well...approximately 25ft deep...but we had plans for this too!

This is how the early settlers did it.... and we actually built a motorized one with the help of my Son, Garrett...with a lawn mower motor and scavenged metal pipe for the tripod...a few pulleys and a railroad track section hooked on to a cable as the drive point...it works! and I am thinking of driving a shallow well in my yard for irrigation and to water animals...wash the car...etc...this summer! Our water table is very high here...and from the experience of digging 3ft post holes for fencing, we would not have to go 25ft!  It would save me an enormous amount on my water bill every month...

 We planned all this...and how long it would take and what we wanted to end up with...we bought stuff in our travels, scrounged things and put them in storage...and then...my Honey hurt himself and had to go home and visit the Doc...He went thru a couple months of therapy...while he was there...he realized how homesick he was and how much he wanted off that truck...I wasn't thrilled about living in Michigan...I knew nothing about it...over the course of a couple of weeks...with his cajoling...I finally did some research on it...Hmmmmm....where he was from was beautiful...small...rural...INEXPENSIVE....and they had a right to farm act, even when you lived within city limits! SOLD...
During this time...I ran across an article for homesteaders...it was all about needs vs. wants...that article was the start of whole entirely different perspective for me... I had always had big houses...new cars...large bank accounts....clothes...100 dollar hair cuts...but the only thing I have ever really wanted was to be on a piece of dirt with animals and a garden...I was tired of having to be somewhere at a certain time every day...racing thru my life with the attitude to have more...more...more...and I began asking myself...more what? "Lisa...you have survived living in a 18ft square place for three years...no running water, no bathroom, minimal electricity...food that was substandard..."  for what? Money....that I never seemed to have enough of....so I pared down my wants to almost nothing and started ruminating on my NEEDS....Shelter...food...water...clothing..dirt...animals...seeds...my life became very simple...and very clear...I threw out all the clutter in my head...

We started looking for a place...we could pay cash for a sizable piece of property...or we could settle for something that would fill JUST our needs...and pretty much retire to work that piece of heaven...I, of course, still wanted that enormous tract that could feed any animal or grow large crops...but I became realistic...

While searching on the net for Michigan in September 2009...I came across this site....http://www.tax-sale.info/...it had all the tax foreclosed property coming up for auction in the month of October, by county...I found several houses...they were in town though...well, my Honey, being at home with his injury... went and looked at all of them...some were immense, rambling houses...on little lots...the ground is what I wanted most...and there were a few very small vacant pieces of land...and a couple miniscule, mining houses...they were all in terrible shape...nothing was move in ready..they had been vacant for a long time...people just got up and left...didn't want to deal with the taxes...or the up keep...some were properties given to them that they just didn't care if they had or not...my house was one such house...the man that had it...got up one day...and left...that was it...

My Honey went and looked at it several times...against my outright "ABSOLUTELY NOT!"  and he kept on me...he said "this is the one, Lisa! wait til you see it!" and my response? "I can see the pictures...nuff said"...well, he kept looking at it and he kept on me...and finally...I went to Missouri, turned in my truck and set out for the Upper Peninsula...the auction was in 5 days...I spent the first couple of days touring the town...going to the shops...looking at the Hut...and he was right...I fell in love with it...at that time the city was buying up all the vacant property and demolishing the houses as people were buying them from out of state and letting them fall into disrepair, neglect and the yards were over grown...and then trying to resell them for more money on ebay and such...the city had plans to buy them all and knock them down...they were prepared and determined to buy up every tax auction property to save the city the liability associated with vacant properties...I literally had to fight them not to outbid me...make promises that I was going to live here and that I was a resident...and that I would not leave the house to fall down...and I also had to promise to tear down all the out buildings...as they were considered hazardous...We finally made friends with the city officials...thanks to my Honey prepping the way...he had been showing up in their offices on a daily basis..and went to the auction...there were two bidders for this house...and of course...the city...well, as soon as the other party found they were bidding against the city and what the story was (I told them..in hushed tones...of course...hee hee) they quit bidding...and I got this house for $600.00...flat out....the tax bill for the year of 2009 was $33.90...there are two separate bills...one for summer and one for winter...that was my winter bill...my summer bill? $237.00...I think...I can handle that! LOL! I have since, filled out a Primary Resident Homestead form and submitted it to the county...they will never be able to raise my tax liability as long as I own this house...according to Michigan's " Homestead" laws...my needs, thanks to the Blessed Lord above...were being taken care of left and right...by the time we were able to get home from the auction...it was dark and we decided to go to the Hut first thing in the morning...I opened that door...and the smell was awful...it was raining in all the rooms and there was a river running down the stairs...I went to the car...got a sledge hammer and beat the tar outta the couch that was blocking the path into the kitchen...it was soaking wet...and I pitched it, in pieces,  into the trailer  we had backed up to the front door...so begins the journey of my very first day of living my American Dream...

My Honey was on his way to beg roofing materials from anybody and everybody..the next day, he was on the roof...patching and redoing sections with green, red and  black shingles...seemed everyone had one bundle saved from redoing their roofs...he had also got a roll of rolled roofing to seal the eaves...and it is still holding strong THIS winter! We decided to not redo the roof last summer..we are waiting because we wanted to tear off the siding and build the porch first...with all that was done in the first seven months to this house? It was just too much...over the course of the first month...it was dry finally, we got a free wood stove to put in the basement...scrounged firewood and installed our cookstove...we ran a lamp and power tools off of a borrowed generator and left when it got dark...we got plumbing parts for Christmas and scrounged romex from anyone who would listen and be generous...plug ins, light switches, fixtures...all given to us...or found in "free" boxes on curbs...it was a lot of work and I would do it ten times over again...exactly the same way...the neighbors all walked by...thinking I was another crazy that moved in...but over the course of time...they started stopping and talking...and thanking me...and then? they started contributing...anything they would see that was beautiful or nobody wanted...they would bring in boxes and either give them to me or put them inside my back door...thinking about it brings tears of gratitude to my eyes...especially to Christine...she is a lady....she lives directly diagonal from me...two blocks up...she brought residents that were born in the houses surrounding mine...to give me information...and she brought me beautiful lilies from her church to put in my garden and she also let me have the pick of flowering plants from her garden...her generosity is great and her support is a wonder...and also Aaron and Christel...they snowblowed me out of my driveway every day til I could aquire my own tools...they brought me food and laughter...and a family of my own...support and safety in a community that watched out for us and inquired as to our needs...I am blessed in my little hut...

My needs are small...my wants? LARGE...but I am happy...happier than I have ever been in my life...and basically...according to American standards...I live in poverty...I make do with what I have and what is provided to me and I feel amazingly wealthy...wealthier than 99 percent of America...


So Daisy and Starrwit? if you read this post...and you have a "barnheart"...do it now...don't wait...you can have all your hearts desire with not much of anything...

Every state has these auctions...it is just a matter of finding them...I encourage everyone with a barn heart or a desire to own a home... to look at the link I provided for Michigan...there are no less than 5 houses that sold for less than a thousand dollars...I also encourage anyone with a state of mind like myself or Daisy? to really search their hearts and pinpoint what is the difference between their Needs and their Wants...I can pretty much guarantee, from experience, that once you do? and you throw out the clutter that has become an American standard...you will get everything from it....Simplicity is the key to HAPPY!

So...I've been thinking...

I know..".UH OH"...that is what my Honey says when I say that!  Hee Hee!

I was wondering if any of you would want to show your homes to all of us on here? or maybe if not a whole room...maybe just your favorite nook...I know that when I come down my stairs every morning...my eye is captured on a certain spot...and if you haven't noticed, I seem to keep taking pictures of it over and over again cuz I love it soooo much!  That spot..is this corner of my kitchen..

It might be that because...when I wake up...my only thought is "COFFEEEEEE".......I haven't quite discerned exactly what it is yet... but I love this corner...

I thought it would be wonderful to show all of YOUR favorites rooms or nooks in a post...or maybe a favorite piece of furniture? something you love just because of where you found it? or a loved one gave it to you? or that it just has something you love about it...you can even send what you don't like about something...that would be fun too!


I think for Christmas...since this is a house blog...that maybe...to me, at least...that would be the ultimate in sharing this season...


Please tell me what you think and if you would be willing...o.k. o.k...! I admit...I think about all of you all the time...talk to you in my head...wonder what your responses will be...can't wait for your input or opinions...however off you think I am...but I just love knowing that you all are willing to help me and be candid about what I should do to make my home exciting and beautiful....and I would love to see what your own homes are like and where you sit to read our blog! or cook dinner or share with your family....


If you are willing...I thought you could send a picture to my email  thedilletanteproprietor@yahoo.com with a description and why you love it so much....and we could all share our homes...or pieces of our homes... this month...

I have thought about this for awhile now and if you think I am a nut...it is perfectly fine to say so!

BIG HUGS!
Lisa