The Heap

Here they are- the pictures you all have been waiting to see! The Heap is a 2 bedroom, 1 bath farmhouse south of Paola, Kansas. It was originally built in the 1920's, but appears to have had two additions over the years. We don't know much about it because it was a foreclosure and the bank knows nothing about it, or so they said in the many, many papers they made us sign stating we understood that they know NOTHING about it. We will have to have different folks out to look things over and let us know what things are functioning properly and what things aren't.....like the septic tank, for instance, but that is a different post completely.

The "front" of the house leaves a bit to be desired. I'm not sure what I'm going to do to "hide" the electric meter hanging right next to the front door....guess I'll have to get creative. Here we hope to add a wrap around porch and some flower beds.

When you walk in the front door you enter a large room that will be our living and dining areas. We're rockin' some beautiful orange carpet right now, but that will soon be gone. Underneath we've seen glimpses of hard wood....we're hoping it's all in good condition and can be refinished. The house does have central heat, but not air currently-only a window unit and an attic fan. I am of the opinion that this situation is priority #2, right after the septic tank- the Hubs is a little less concerned. Luckily, I sorta have the Hubs wrapped around my little finger so I expect we'll be having an air conditioning unit installed pretty shortly.

There are two bedrooms currently. The kids have chosen the first one as their bedroom (that'd be the one with the "pretty" brown and orange carpet) and the second one will house the Hubs and I for awhile. Once we get the third bedroom done we'll move there and bedroom number two will become our schoolroom/office. That's right folks, the kids are sharing a bedroom....permanently. Don't fret, I intend to make them an option for some privacy, but gone are the days of locking each other out of their bedroom......should be an interesting transition we're gearing up for.

There's only one bathroom, but it's a good size, with lots of storage space. It will be an adjustment for us to share one bathroom, for sure, but I'm confident we can do it. Bug took one look at the shower/tub today and said, "We ARE replacing that, right?" Yep, sure are, but it may be awhile.....

The kitchen is small, with a lot less counter space than I'm accustomed to. It is also weirdly mismatched and well, just gross. A good scrubbing will make it usable, but the plan is a total remodel at some point. This is one of those places where the change has hit me hard. We don't have room for special dishes and kitchen tools and gadgets that get used rarely so I've had to put my big girl panties on and get rid of all of my former catering and hostessing life. I am mostly at peace with it. Mostly.

There is a space beyond the kitchen that has been framed out, but not completed. One side of this space will be the third bedroom and the other will be a laundry room and pantry area. Hopefully we will one day be able to put a mudroom/porch off the back door so the outdoors isn't tracked immediately indoors.

Outdoors are where things get really exciting. We are on almost 3 acres and we have 3 different outbuildings already in place. They are all in decent to excellent condition. One is the garage/storage building, one is an outbuilding we plan to convert to a chicken coop, and one is a loafing shed that will probably shelter some sort of animal on one side and a small garden tractor on the other. There is room for a large garden and fruit trees too. And, of course, there is the kids' favorite part of all.....the little pond that is currently home to little frogs and crawdads and will soon have a few ducks hanging out as well. And, oh yeah, there's a greenhouse! I'm going to have to figure out where to get replacement panels since some of them are broken or missing completely, but I'm super excited that I'll have a greenhouse!

So, there it is....our little Heap. We are pretty excited and ready to get to work, but first we have to finish packing up the McMansion....more on that later!

Tonia