Finally!

Hi All!
It may seem that we haven't been doing much on the house for the last couple of months. Truth is we've been working on the same thing for what seems like an eternity. We had this grand plan for the master bathroom floor that has been difficult to make happen, to say the least. The vision was to have a stream (complete with fish) running through the bathroom and into the shower. The rest of the floor is flagstone, as you've seen in previous posts. That was easy.

First I'll show the pictures of the finished product and then I'll explain what went into it.

After watching countless videos on YouTube and asking everyone we could think to ask via email and in person we were told it just wasn't going to work. But we just couldn't let it go. Two main problems, the clear epoxy that looks like water in the stream was going to a) try to run down the drain when we poured it and would be b) very slippery when wet.

After multiple attempts with multiple tactics we solved the problem with the epoxy running down the drain by putting a collar around the drain and pouring the epoxy right up to it level with the flagstone. In order for the shower to drain properly the floor has to slope. Hence the problem with the epoxy running down the drain.  A sawzall (recipricating saw) and belt sander removed all the excess epoxy and created a slope down to the drain.  Fortunately a thin coat of fresh epoxy fills in all the sanding marks and makes the epoxy clear again.

Slippery? Oh baby was it slippery. One shower told us it was a major medical expense waiting to happen. Early on in the project our stone mason had suggested some grit that is made for mixing in floor sealers to make floors less slippery. We had tried it a couple of different ways in some tests we did. It always made the epoxy cloudy to the point we lost the effect of water in a stream.  We had to come up with something so we tried again. One teaspoon of grit in 100 ml of epoxy ended up being just right when applied with a paint brush. The epoxy was still clear enough to appear as water and there was enough texture so as not to feel as though you were taking a shower on an ice skating rink. Actually it feels very safe.

Now we can get back to other house projects that will hopefully move much faster than the bathroom floor did.

An update on livestock. Chickens are doing fine. We get between 3 and 5 eggs a day. Of our two turkeys, only one made it. We really wanted more than one, so we bought two more at about the same age as the lone survivor. We set about making a shelter / roost for the turkeys and put them in a fenced enclosure right next to the chickens.

The Turkey's new home

Set up in the pasture next to the chickens

We moved the turkeys out to their new home on Sunday. Monday morning we went to check on them, no turkeys. I cannot believe that some varmint got all three of them the first night. And the netting around them is electrified!  Seems they got lonely and jumped the fence. The were over with the chickens. We let them stay there until today when we combined their yards into one. Who knows who will roost where tonight.

Thats all for now.
Take care.

Brian

Taking a break

Hi all!
The last few weeks we've taken a break to do some butchering, camping, fishing, racing and visiting. While in Austin we visited Brian's grandson Alec and then went on to Mason to visit friends there. Here are a few pictures...

You know you live in the country when your neighbor brings you
a feral hog in a trap by tractor. He's in the freezer now

We added a couple of turkey chicks to our flock

Brian as a flag marshal at the MotoGP event at Circuit of the Americas
in Austin

Ranch Road 152 outside Mason, Texas. Bluebonnets and open range cattle.
There are cattle guards in the highway

Ready for Easter. And we didn't even have to color them!

That's all for now.
Take care.
Brian

The Dogwoods are in bloom

Hi All,
Just a few pictures so you can see what has been going on around here lately.  Over the last couple of weeks we've cleared some hiking trails through the woods. On Sunday we walked one and marked with surveyor's tape close to a dozen dogwood trees. As far as the house goes we've been working on the floors. Just about done with the bathroom. Stay tuned!

The dogwoods are in bloom!

We put a nesting box up for some Wood Ducks we've had around. 

Hard to make out the small stick coming out the top of the aluminum foil, it's
a Pawnee Pecan grafted to the trunk of a Hickory tree. We learned to graft in our
Master Gardeners class last week.

That's it for now.
Take care.
Brian

Fishing for Chickens

Hi All.
No, we haven't been fishing for chickens. But grandkids have been fishing and we got some chickens.

On President's Day we had grandkids for the day and were very successful with our fishing experience.

Adelynn with a bass

I took about ten pictures of Gracie with her fish. The fish was
spinning around and every picture it was flat and almost
invisible so Susan helped out by holding it still.

Landon with his bass, one of three fish he caught.

And then there were chickens. As planned, we bought some chickens on Friday. Three full grown hens and four chicks.

The three hens in their chicken tractor

The four chicks in their box in the living room. Their home
for the next six weeks or so.

On Sunday, our first egg.

Not the goose that laid the golden egg but the hen that
laid the first egg!

That's it now.
Take care.
Brian

Green Acres is the place to be...

Hi all,
Once again I've neglected my posting duties. We are making progress but not quite as fast as when we had someone here helping us. It's not just the help but the longer hours we work when someone is here.

As far as work on the house goes, we've been working on floors and our shower. Wood flooring from the building in Arp is now down in our bedroom. Besides a step closer to being able to move back into the master bedroom, it has opened up a bit of space in the living room. We've also  got the flagstone down on the floor in our bathroom. There is plenty more to do there but it's a start. The tile in the shower is also up.

The wood flooring is down in the bedroom

The tile is up on the walls in the shower and the
flagstone part of the floor is in place

Besides working on the house we have finished up our hen house for the impending arrival of chickens. We plan to buy four adults this coming weekend and then raise some more from chicks. Anyone need some fresh eggs?

News to me: Chickens eat not only grain / seeds and bugs but also grass

We will move the chicken coop every few days, along with a fence to keep the varmints out,
so they can have fresh grass

We made the chicken coop pretty much out of left over this and that.
It isn't pretty but it will be getting a coat of paint.

That's it for now. Once we have some chickens running around I'll post some pictures.

Take care.
Brian

A few pictures

Hi All,
Thought I'd post a few pictures so you could see what we've been doing lately.

Stacking wood in the great room that will eventually be flooring

Putting up beaded board that came out of the $200 house in Arp
 for an accent wall in our bedroom and bathroom

Also put an accent wall in the guest bedroom

Black pipe and water spigot lights we made for over our bathroom vanities,
when we have vanities.

Shiplap going up on our bedroom walls.
This is what we will use on most of our interior walls.

That's it for now. Sorry some of the pictures are a bit dark, should have taken them a couple of days ago when we had sunshine.

Take care.
Brian

Dereliction of Duty

I was surprised to see it has been over two months since my last post. Work on the house hasn't progressed as much as you might think since then. We did get everything we wanted out of the house we bought in Arp. Since then we have moved my son and his family to Kaufman and my daughter and her family to Denver. We volunteered at the Formula 1 race in Austin, had our friend from LA (Lower Alabama) visit for a while and our friends Kent and Heather that we met when we were in the Bahamas came for a long weekend that included T+2 (our Thanksgiving celebration on the Saturday after Turkey Day). We have a neighbor that is clearing some pasture and we've so far cut about three cords of wood. Some of it is split and most of it is stacked. 

On to some pictures of what we have accomplished...

A good bit of our time has been spent trying to get our bedroom door working. It's a bit....   different.

Susan laying bricks for the pad the wood burning stove will sit on

The finished product

The mat for the heated floor in the master bathroom is figured out

The mat is taken up and a cork underlayment is glued down

Then the mat is put on top of the cork

Self leveling compound is poured over the mat

The flagstone that has been sitting in front of the house since forever is starting to be put in place

That's it for now. I'll try to be better about posting. Right, I'm sure I will.

Take care.
Brian