03/01/20 I received a letter from a descendant of Mary Miller and updated some information on her and added a great picture of the Miller family women from 1914 on the History of the Miller Family Page. 

10/10/19  I just went through the website and made sure all photo links are working, and updated my e-mail address as I changed providers for my e-mail.  Since the last update I finally built my music studio, no pictures yet, so perhaps I will work on that soon.  No major house updates though.  We're focusing on other things lately, updating storage in the barns and working on kids and animals.  A side driveway was made and a solar powered gate is in progress currently (no pun intended). 

09/20/17  Well, big changes are still going on, but the documentation has ceased.  The carriage barn is up, a riding arena is being built, Kass' daughter Alex graduated from college with her masters and is married.  Boom!  I lost my job at Harry's Fresh Foods in 2016, still trying to get something under my feet.  Kass' father suffered a stroke in April this year, and it's been rough but we're all pulling together.  As the rainy weather hits I will put some actual effort into updating things here.  Meanwhile I did manage to update the Basement page, and even found more pictures to add in between the current point and the last time we updated!

08/10/14 "Pictures to follow soon" should be added to 'Famous Last Words'.  After moving into the house and living in it, we slowed way down on the renovation and restoration.  Progress has been made however.  A flagpole was put in off the front deck, a front walkway as well.   The bedroom & bathroom in the basement have been mostly done, and there are plans for the rest of the basement as time & money allow.  However we are slowing down and I wont make any promises for when things will get updated next.  :)  I will make the effort to get new pictures in many of the rooms and areas that have been updated.  Kass has moved on to a new project; a 'carriage house' barn for her horse and horse trailer.  I'll be adding that to the Exterior section.  If you are still with us, thanks for hanging around!

09/08/10  Can you believe its been two years since we moved into the house? I sure can't. I know its been a long time since we updated the website, but life has a way of getting in the way. We didn't do a lot of stuff on the house this winter, but Kass and her daughter Alex have been working on the landscaping. Its starting to look like a yard again!  For Christmas we got Kass a yard light that looks like an old Street lamp. We installed that this summer and her oldest son made her a bubbler rock to replace her mud bog /slime pit that used to be a garden pond. We have also managed to put the siding on the outside of the railing on the front porch, hang a porch swing and build the front stairs. We hope to get the upper deck waterproofed, the railing up on the upper deck and the wiring done on the front porch before winter comes. Time will tell. (pictures to follow soon)

11/27/09  Ummm, Hi!  Long time no see!  Been a very busy three months and I apologize for the complete lack of updates.  In no particular order we have:  Built permanent stairs off the side of the main deck, installed storm doors on the back porch, front door and side door, laid extra chunky bark dust over the side landscape to keep the mud in check, built and installed storm windows on most of the 1st floor, took the old front porch from the manufactured home and attached it to the front of the 'guest house', completed sheet rock, taping, mudding, texturing, painting, plumbing & electrical in the guest house, installed a toilet, shower & bath enclosure and sink, and installed radiant floor heating in the guest house as well.  Cleaned out much of the basement and plan to install our old wood stove down there for backup heat when the power goes out (Note I said when, not if).  Kass has also decided to host her company's x-mas party so we're preparing for that as well!  We have completed the new pole barn, currently in use for feeding both the horses & the cows.  Sadly we lost Dante, our second dachshund puppy during hay season.  After some time missing him, we went a new direction, and acquired a boxer puppy we have named Bentley. 

I sincerely hope to do updates more often, and apologize for such a long delay in news!

08/31/09  After a catastrophic motherboard failure, and a whole new computer, we are back online.  Meanwhile, Kass' camera had to go in the shop as well!  Updates:  We have removed the manufactured home from the property, and replaced the wall on the end of the Master Bedroom addition where the manufactured home previously was.  However, the promised studio that Rick was going to get has now become a 'guest house' and our first guest will be Kass' daughter Alex. :)  She had to move into our guest room when we removed the manufactured home.  Our refinance went through (only 8 months to process!) despite all the red tape the federal regulations put in place to block it.  Who would have thought rescuing a classic home would be so anti American?  We are attempting to get some landscaping completed as well as putting metal siding on the walls of the new pole barn to replace the barn that collapsed last winter.  Hay season has come and gone, new acquisitions over the last two months include a porch swing, a bench for the back porch, and gutters for the entire house!

06/02/09 The sun has finally found its way to Oregon and along with the sun comes LANDSCAPING!!!  Kass has been working hard getting the yard laid out and started building flower beds, pathways and having Rick carry heavy rocks for retaining walls. Hopefully by the end of the summer we will actually have a yard for the first time in 5 years.  Still trying to get our refinance to go through, who would have thought it would have been so complicated. A funny thing happened on the way home from the plant nursery this past weekend.  Rick, myself and the nurseryman heaved a huge rhododendron into our truck ( about 8ft wide and 6ft tall) strapped it in, paid for it and headed down the road, about a mile from the place my tie down strap broke and the Rhody went flying out of the back of the truck onto the 2 lane highway blocking our lane of traffic. A nice gentleman about 4 cars back hopped out and helped us load it back into the truck and we were on our way again. (It seemed much lighter the second time we loaded it..<S>) It had a few bumps and bruises but no major damage thankfully! It is now in its new home at the front of the house.

04/08/09 We finally put the first coat of paint on the entire house, nothing like a deadline to force you to get something done!  Luckily the weather cooperated this weekend and with the help of Kass' brother Kevin, her kids and her dad we have it done! This summer we will have to put the second coat on but that is for another day.  Rick was able to complete the sub-floor on the upper deck (walk-out roof?) and so now the lower deck will stay dry (hopefully.)  We put a railing in front of both doors on the upper deck so no one can walk out there, until we get the actual railing completed.

03/15/09  After a week of fairly good weather, Kass primed most of the house.  On Friday, her son Rick came out and they painted most of the front of the house.   Big Rick taped & primed the windows on the back of the house and the Living Room windows as well as finishing the primer on the chimney chase.  During the week he also cut the door trim for the Living Room door to the deck, and finished the trim under the Spare Room window as well.  Kass' dad Fred came out and installed the lights across the front of the house except for the corner we hadn't primed yet as there was nothing to stand on to get to it.  Kass took care of that this week and her son put in the final light as well.  Using a ladder bolted to the tractor (another of Fred's inventions) Kass painted the West wall of the house too on Friday.  Now the entire house has one coat of primer on it, and a little over half of the house is painted!  We're hoping to find more siding to do the deck railing with but if not we will use plywood until we can find some.  The railing needs to be complete in order to refinance.  Getting SO close!

03/05/09  Can we say sore muscles?  Kass spent the day climbing up and down ladders repairing the soffit and prepping the east wall for primer, its about a 25-30ft climb UP to the top. She managed to get the soffit repaired, the chimney chase closed in, added a missing eave board and has the whole east wall prepped for primer. She was even able to prime most of the wall!  She is feeling it today, who says you need to go to a gym!!!

02/19/09 We found out yesterday that we MUST have at least a coat of primer on the house before we can refinance, along with the railing finished on the lower deck. So, yesterday afternoon Kass used her paint scraper for the drill and went to town on the front of the house, she finished the lower level and then we started priming!

02/15/09  Over the last two weekends Rick, Kass, and Kass' dad Fred Kirchhofer have put up the beams for the second story deck, and installed almost all of the deck joists.  On the 15th Rick & Kass also repaired the door between the Living Room and the deck as well.  We are expecting a call from an assessor to come appraise our property for the consolidation loan. 

02/05/09  Kass worked the last couple of days framing the deck railing for the lower deck.  With the help of her dad, she finished it today.  Now we need to either get siding or plywood for the outside to "close" it in to make it "code". There will be a 5 ft stairway on the side of the deck and a six foot one on the front of the deck. As soon as we get enough "man power" we will set the beams for the upper deck. Any one have any extra "muscle power"?  Fred is working on a Boom for the front of the tractor to help lift the beams up to the top of the post, until then we will continue working on other projects and general clean up around the place awaiting the arrival of the home appraiser.

02/01/09  This weekend we resumed work on the front deck, putting up all the posts across the front of the deck, and the ledger board across the front of the house.  Kass' dad Fred Kirchhofer came out to help and her son Rick Close and his friend Bryan Shanniak also came out to help, and all it cost was Big Rick making a large dish of spicy beef and rice, which incapacitated the two boys for the duration of the Superbowl.  Rick & Kass spent the remainder of the day cleaning up the yard and loading up garbage to haul away.   Last week we found out we had been pre-approved on our refinance loan and have an appraiser coming to look over the property soon.  Hopefully we can finish up enough little projects to make things look very nice for them.

01/18/09  Friday we submitted paperwork to refinance all our bills and consolidate our debt at a lower rate and lower overall monthly payment.  In the meantime, we are cleaning up everything trying to finish off every little project we can before the appraiser comes by to assess our property.  We removed most of the debris from the collapsed barn and hauled off just about all of the moldy and smoldering hay, re-stacked most of the lumber we were able to save and braced up the remaining portion of the roof on the old barn to cover what hay is left.  We also put up the scaffolding on the deck and repaired the siding & trim outside of the upstairs Bathroom and Jayden's room. We almost repaired all the boards on the eaves as well but darkness fell before we quite finished that project.   Kass managed to complete the trim around the stairs on the Back Porch. transplant a shrub into the rock planter we put in at the bottom of the stairs there and with her dad & son chipping in, we cleaned up a lot of the property as well.  The weather is supposed to stay clear for the next week (fingers crossed) so we shall see what we can get done.

01/10/09  Just a quick update on the Guest Room with furnished pictures of the room.  We began dismantling the barn that collapsed and have plans for a new barn that will allow us better parking by the farm house.  Silver lining in that storm cloud?

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

We are part of a web ring of house projects.  To see other people's house projects click on
the links below.  << or >> will take you to the next page in the link or the
word House Blogs below will take you to their main web site!