After much fretting about how to get the barn doors to slide evenly across an uneven floor, we think we figured it out.  It needed a bottom track on the floor as well as one on the top.  
Here are the completed barn doors.   Bedroom is now complete, except for a light fixture. 

One of the more eventful times in Kansas City, Kansas is the bi-yearly burn permit.  After going to the fire station to obtain the permit, we burned the junk pile that had accumulated from all the house demolition and yard debris.   This is as close as you could get without your face melting off. 

Our gate had some issues with sagging.  It needed cables and turnbuckles supporting it from all angles.  The big crossbeam keeps the doors from scraping against the ground.  Here is the completed gateway to our magical yard of fat goats that fall over. 

Painted our laundry room, here's the before and after.

Also painted our stairs.  

David's parents visited for a few days in October.  We had some nagging projects on our list that really needed to get done, but we had been putting them off because they were no fun.  

Becky scraping the final set of windows that still had paint from when the trim was painted in February.  

After the burn permit, we all cleared off the asphalt driveway that goes into the yard.  This had not been cleared out since we moved to the house.  Perfect spot for ladder golf.

.

  A much more fun activity was preparing the garden for fall/winter.  Dean helped with that. 

Much thanks to David's parents for their assistance with boring tasks.  Although they seemed to enjoy all of it.  Maybe the next blog posting will have the completed stained beams and bookshelf in the living room.  

So many things to post!  However, I've become lazy about taking pictures.  Here's a glimpse at what's been happening...

Barn doors - they're up and they look AWESOME but I keep forgetting to take a picture of them up.  So to continue the suspense, here's what they looked like as they were being made

I painted our front door, a big improvement over what I called the "almost-same-boring-blue as the rest of the house color".  The front of the house still needs a face lift, but the front door was a good start.

Did a little more work on the TV room upstairs, found a nice rooster lamp at an estate sale.

Bought a piano off of Craigslist.  The cats especially liked it.  David's mom sent us some old piano books that have already been put to use for many hours.

We also spent a long day splitting wood.  Rented a log splitter and invited some helpful friends and family over.  Only about one half of the wood got split, we have a massive pile to work with.  

We've also been spending a fair amount of time relaxing, enjoying the house and hanging out with these girls

After a few months of catching our breath and allowing our bank account to have a break from daily withdraws at Lowe's, we've started work on the upstairs.  First task was the bedroom floor.  It wasn't in good enough shape to sand and refinish when we did the other floors, so we chose to ignore it until now.  Here's what the room has looked like since we moved in

First David fixed the hole and large gaps in the floor then painted the walls while I resumed the tedious task of scraping the windows.

Next we went an easy route and painted the floors white.  They turned out great.

We had to reconstruct our one of a kind bed, complete with a mural of our last cat.  It had been light blue, we repainted it orange.

Then I got to have fun arranging the new room while he worked on painting the other room upstairs.  This room will be our TV room and arts and crafts room.  Still need to move quite a few things in and hang pictures, but it's coming along nicely.

Coming soon, David's working on building barn doors for the closet.  Then we might have to take another break for a few weeks.

Finally after much toil and post hole digging, the goat proof fence is up!  Took about a month (while juggling other jobs) to get all post holes dug, pickets up, gates built and two interior fences thrown up.  It's about 450 feet of privacy fence and four gates.  Here's how it all began...

David and friend rented a two man auger with hopes of digging all post holes in one day.  Even though the auger got snagged on quite a few tree roots, they managed to dig 65 post holes before the day was done.  I (Jessica) even helped use the auger for the last two holes.  

Here's a snap shot of a small percentage of the posts before they were concreted into place.

We found a lady on craigslist selling premade panels of privacy fencing.  This made the first part of the fence go very quickly as David was able to put up 8 foot sections at a time. 

The premade panels work where the ground is fairly level.  But where there are slopes, David had to put up individual pickets.  This was the fence with just the panels up - waiting to finish with the pickets.

A few different sections of the completed fence

Last part was the big swinging driveway gate.  Some metal fabrication was needed to make a frame so the gate wouldn't sag.  This is the metal frame in place and David is attaching various hardware needed. 

Finished gate - it took three full days to weld the frame, spray paint the frame and get the wheels, handles and pickets attached to the frame. 

Once the big exterior fence was finished, we tossed up a fence around the garden and let the chickens roam the entire yard. 

Last fence was for the goat pen - after collecting about 60 pallets, we were able to make an almost free fence for the goats (still had to buy the screws and metal posts). 

David completed the last gate while I drove down to pick up the goats.  Luckily he finished about 10 minutes before we all came home.

A few things I've been working on while David made the fence...
 - made some new flower beds in the front of the house

 - rented a massive chipper and made a nice big pile of mulch

chickens enjoying my mulch pile...

And of course I've been busy working in the garden, playing with our goats and taking pictures.

We're so happy to share that the fences are finished and we can hopefully begin to enjoy our summer in our beautiful backyard.

My mom came this past weekend and helped make some much needed curtains for the house.  Luckily my aunt Cami had also sent us random pieces of fabric so we had fun making due with what we had.  We're focusing on the windows that people can easily see in. 

Mom's temporary sewing station.

Mom is a little more of a perfectionist than either of us when it comes to curtains.  She really wanted an iron to make a more definite crease - not sure the iron made it through the move.  So I insisted she use my version of an iron...my hair straightener.

As crazy as she thought it was - it worked.

Finished products -

Thanks mom and aunt Cami for making the house feel more homey.

Kitchen shelves are completed!  What an accomplishment.  David put so much thought, planning and work into these shelves and it was all worth it.  They're better than either of us could have hoped. 

To begin, the studs in the walls had to be located.  David drilled level holes into the studs then inserted these steel rods.  The important and difficult part was that the three rods had to be level and at the same height.  

After he'd set the rods in place he stuffed the holes with plumber's epoxy and Bondo.  These rods are NOT moving - they're unbelievably secure.

Next step was to drill matching holes in the boards that were to be the shelves.  The shelves will then slide onto the rods - everything had to fit perfectly.  If you're thinking this process is sounding simple, I encourage you to give it a shot (not saying I can do it either)

 Time for the test...everything fit snug and David decided it was strong enough to hold him.  Which made me quite confident to set dishes on them.

A little sanding and some Shellac and the result was....

Couldn't be more pleased with the end result.  Now the last thing in the kitchen is redoing the horrible counter tops. 

David also tiled the entryway last week.  Tile color looks very nice next to the hard wood floors. 

Probably won't have too much to post for a little while.  Our next big project needs to be our massive privacy fence - hoping to start it next weekend...but it might slow our progress down a little.