This is my first post on Beth’s great blog. I’m going to talk about concrete today, but
let me first make a confession. I wasn’t all that enamored with this farmhouse idea to start. It was
going to be a TON of work, a huge disruption (not to mention expense) vs. staying where we were.
But Beth is used to this behavior from me by now. I was opposed to getting
chickens. Turns out that was a great idea. I was opposed to having a third kid at first.
Turns out that was also a great idea.
The idea of buying and renovating a farmhouse was at minimum intimidating.
Expensive, even if we’re doing a lot of the work ourselves. Draining. With three kids
and a growing business, would the investment of blood, sweat and money be worth
it?
We have a long way to go, but it’s already clear this was a great decision. Beth is a
visionary, seriously. She could see in this house what I couldn’t, what our contractor
couldn’t initially, what his crew couldn’t initially. But as it starts to really now take
shape, not to mention the land and options outside of the structure, I think we
struck gold.
I have a ton of plans for the outside of the house. A smokehouse. Tons of new raised
beds for Beth. A mini-orchard for her fruit trees where a previous graveled
driveway was. A back patio with a fire pit.
But first, we concrete.
Yet another project neither of us had ever done, didn’t know how to do, and
approached with trepidation. Actually, it was me (as usual) who approached with
trepidation. Beth approached with vigor, YouTube videos and her amazing can-do
attitude.
Moose let us borrow his electric cement mixer, his flatbed truck for the day to pick
up a pallet (yes, an entire PALLET of concrete mix), and also walked us through the
process.
Making concrete, if you haven’t ever done it, is pretty simple. Not too different than
mixing a cake. If you get the balance between concrete mix and water right, you’re
basically done.
On a warm Saturday morning this past weekend, we got to work. It went relatively
quickly. I manned the concrete mixer, Beth manned the trowel and 2x4 to smooth
everything out.
Only a couple minor dips of E’s feet into the wet concrete while we laid everything
out.
And of course, once it was done, it was time to put the kids’ handprints in as a
signature.
All told, it was less than three hours of work. And less than $160 in materials.
We have a ton of work ahead (inside and outside) but every time we try something
new, we get a little more confident about what’s next.
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