So Happy!

Joe from Right Angle Works and his buddy Clay were back out on the job this week. They did such great work on the custom build out for the barn doors and wanted to quote me on painting the stand. I was so lucky to find these guys. Never seen a contractor and crew so professional and motivated, they were at the job site at 7am (before my chickens were up!) and had an entire team on it for 4 days - even on the weekend- making miracles happen over here.

Beee-u-ti-mous
Stained the decking and adding extra kicks to dress up the columns. Joe really got into the job and took ownership of it, which I appreciate after previous contractors had left me hanging.
A peek inside. C'mon How killer is this?? It's turned out to be everything a farm girl could dream of. :)
Truth be told, don't think the guys were too excited about my creative idea of the blackboard paint. (I got the tilted head with a - really girl?? you serious? look) lol. - well, saw it in some magazine and I couldn't help myself! But luckily they obliged and it turned out stunning, not to mention hope it will serve as the majority of the signage I will need. Apparently this chalkboard paint is very thin stuff, so it's a pain to cover. It required 4 coats at that. - 2 of the accent walls were dark chocolate and the other 2 a lighter latte. (not your mama's plain old green or black chalkboard options anymore!)

Eat your heart out Martha Stewart. Maybe it will end up in a magazine about farm stands one day...

As you can tell, I just could not be happier with the paint job, downright magical.

Well the future is calling and good news is on the horizon for next month. Booked a local singer/songwriter - Justin Clements, to shoot his music video here on the property in October- whoo hoo. He has a whole Regent University film crew behind him making it all happen so am super excited to be involved in his project.

Love to see this farm being put to great use !

p.s. To celebrate the stand completion just ordered a batch of Rent-A-Chicks for Sept. 28th. The little peepers are incubating now. 18 Easter Eggers and 18 Chocolate Eggers this time. Was such a hit back in May so this time there will be a professional photographer on hand capturing the moment when kids meet their little bundles of fluff for the first time. awww so sweet. :)

The pick-up your chick party will be held at the farm stand on the 28th.

Fun way to experience farming!! e-mail me at backbaybotanicals@yahoo.com to reserve your 3 baby chicks and I will have all the materials and supplies needed to care for them during their 2 week stay with your family!

Farm Stand Complete & Final Inspection Done!!

Party on Wayne!! Farm stand passed final building inspection with flying colors. Big thanks to Scott Hart for doing a fantastic job on finishing up the building beautifully. He did a great job carving out some custom details for the pergolas. Got both sides finished, custom handrails on handicap ramp perfected, and 2 dump truck loads of topsoil graded just in time as the inspector rolled up.

Only painting, staining and landscaping left, but pains of building inspection is finally over!

- This is a major accomplishment :) -

Transformation of a 1870's Farmhouse

"Dont let the fear of time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway, we might as well put that passing time to the best possible use"

- Earl Nightingale

I thought this quote was fitting for this post. This b&b project has been taking FOREVER! My big goal for October is to finally start moving over to the farm house. With only 1 renovation left at the guest house I'm ready to start the next big chapter. The early close of flower growing season (thanks Irene!!) has helped me shift gears and get ready to spend this fall and winter creating the bed and breakfast vibe over at the main house. With a total of 7 rooms on the farm its been one bite at a time, overwhelming task to get it all renovated and decorated. But feeling like the last 3 rooms are on the horizon.

Labor Day Weekend was spent packing away alot of old family photos and books - Ironically I stumbled upon some inspiration I really needed - a photo album full of pictures from when my parents first bought this farm in the mid-1990's. It was a documentary of all the construction they poured into the farm during the first 2 years. I uploaded a few of the best shots for the blog so future visitors and followers can what has gone into the making of this place.

Hardly recognized this pic as the original farmhouse! (circa 1870) but it brings back memories!! Summer of 1996 I can remember our family driving down the unpaved dirt road to the house to meet with the real estate agent for the first walk-through. Even as a kid I had one of those jaw-dropping moments as we drove up. Hell, dad refused to even get out of the car (his first knee-jerk reaction for the majority of my moms real estate projects, lol!).

As my kid sister and I opened the car door to explore this place, we were collectively horrified and slightly afraid to set foot inside; the old house smell filled our lungs, failing floor boards and creek-ing doors were less than welcoming, and a porch ceiling infested with wasps nests and the buzz of flying stinging insects all around had us on edge. It was the kind of house that gave you a fight or flight response.

One of the most vivid memories is of my dad finally getting out and walking the perimeter, shaking his head the whole time, grumbling how "ALL this place needed was a good wrecking ball!" Even me, (16 at the time) thought mom and dad were downright nuts for the amount of work this was going to require. It was uninhabitable for years to come.

Of course, my mother was un-moved by the farms sad state of neglect, massive amount of labor needed, and horrified gasps from the rest of the family. She could no doubt visualize the entire transformation before the first contractor was on the job. She has a gift of vision and determination!

Here's a few photo highlights from the first 2 years of my parents renovation efforts:

Back of the house, ready to get its pitiful 1960's addition torn off.

Dad with tractor enjoying some good old fashion demo. No doubt mom was having to continually shoo him and his tractor away from the rest of the house!

Making a clean break for the new great room addition.

Removing the old tin roof, laying the concrete foundation for the new room.

New great room addition going up.

cute pic of ma - waving from upstairs. Addition of laundry room downstairs.

Addition of an bathroom between the two upstair bedrooms.

Only 1 tragic bathroom in the entire house was not going to do.

Kitchen gutted...oh dear total rehab to say the least...many walls came down to open up the flow.

New open airy farmhouse kitchen, and my new inspiration for cooking, learning, teaching.

Many breakfasts creations to come!

The whole farmhouse was gutted and ripped down to studs...amazing what the walls of an old house can contain...snakes, old newspapers, wild animals, coke bottles, liquor bottles, even some hidden guns found between the panels. I recall how finding a wad of crumbling yellow newspapers would bring demo to a crawl as we would have to take a moment to read what this time capsule of a house had been through in history.

More than a few dumpsters were filled for sure, but original pine floors were salvaged and kept in what is now the sitting room area:

Original woodwork from staircase and ity-bitty stairway (luckily wallpaper was drop-kicked heehee!)

Start of the master bedroom and another bath addition.

Well as you can see, alot of work has been done to get to this point and more is still needed. I have much to look forward to with only smaller renovations left, decorating and making this place my own. The hard part has been done!

Mental list already forming - Need a cool butcher block table for the kitchen, large inviting couch for the great room, and themed bedrooms with personality.

All in all, got alot done in the way of cleaning and packing during this long weekend along with some much needed motivation through photos.

Even stopped a minute this weekend to enjoying a sunset moment with loudly purring kitty - Every b&b should have a front porch kitty right?

Once a shy guy he's starting to become a major ham anymore - Seems as if he is Purrfecting his job skill of guest greeter!

Construction of Bridge over Muddy Creek

Along with the tragic state of a farmhouse renovations needed to make the home habitable, the farm had a whole other challenge as well... A failing bridge. The property is surrounded by water on 3 sides and there was no getting around having to install a new one at the entrance as one of the first projects to tackle.

Can't believe I found the faded polaroid photo they took of the original bridge 1996. It was the kind of structure that groaned with the weight of a car and each plank would individually pop up as the car wheels rolled over, as if to give you further doubt of its craftsmanship. The kind of bridge that would make you hold your breath until you made it safely to the other side. Rick-ity. No getting around it had to be redone.

Yes its cool to have a moat around your farm, until you realize you have to construct your own bridge!

Forgot the serious amount of Rip Rap, construction crews, heavy equipment required for this gig!

Whoo hoo two major reno's going on at once. No wonder my parents were a bit stressed during this time! (probably wasn't the best time to be asking for a pony! lol)

Here is dad in the green sweater. Recall him being super stressed coordinating a construction crew, crane conductors and engineers.

With all these people on the clock, now I can understand why.

: )

Finally success and a test run...

Glad I found these pics, yet another one for the history of farms projects.

Shut the Barn Door!

My new motto...When 1 door shuts...hire a kick butt carpenter to make you a few more to open!

To think last week I was blogging how I needed to find someone to make some barn doors for the farm stand. If you would have told me that in 3 days I would have 5 custom built doors completed and installed I would NOT have believed you!

But indeed it is true and here is just the preview...thanks to the handy work of:

Joe Rivera @ Right Angle Works!

My vision for the stand was to give it a barn look with big "X"'s in dutch style doors. Partly for style but also for the functionality...so I can swing upper half open on hot days, leave the bottom closed to help direct foot traffic through the main doors, or have all the doors open for a cross breeze in the summer. Really I just wanted style and options and that is exactly what was delivered. Here is a side single door installed :

The door below is the one directly facing the road and I am thinking of using the top swinger for some creative signage. May continue with the chalkboard paint idea. Think it would be fun way to have an price menu when I have seedlings or bouquets on the porch for sale...or maybe a great place to hang a big OPEN sign since you can see it from the street.

Back Door was set on sliding tracks from Southern States. Thank goodness they carry barn door hardware already in stock, so we didn't have to wait around for days on a special order.

The Front doors are my favorite.

You can imagine my face when I drove up to this for the first time!

Gasp! so pretty :) team of carpenters were on a roll, custom made windows and all. So used to looking at unfinished holes in the wall, it was a complete shock. The doors gave the stand instant charm and personality!

The "x"pattern was continued on the inside so when you swing open up the doubles they still rock the barn look.

After I finished dancing around, (was doing sun-drop girl dance in front field for a few minutes) I drove to the back pasture and spotted this gem.

The guys were really trying to butter me up with constructing one of these babies:

eat your heart out Joel Salatin :0 Heehee...another floorless chicken pen on the way, but bigger, better, and way lighter. The way I would want to do it, if i had any gift or talent to swing a hammer that is.

Roofing panels that match the stand roof are going on tomorrow.

Well as I finish this post, I can hear thunder rolling in from a small storm, a preview of the hurricane currently churning its way to Virginia Beach.

Just glad the stand doors are done locked down and secured before Hurricane Irene hits.

Thinking the stand is ready to battle the weather, but with 80 mph winds...just follow the trail of chicken feathers and Zinnia Petals to find me and the girls!

Friday and Sat will be spent preparing and tying everything down and moving the Eggmobile to higher ground! :)

Epic Summer 2011

"Hands full, still smiling"

(Photos from this post Courtesy: Matthew Williams @ Eye of the Shutter Photography)

This picture perfectly describes the summer of 2011

Yes my hands have been completely full handling this place by myself but..lots to smile about! For the first time - money was made directly off this land through flower farming! Don't get me wrong, it's not enough to quit my day job by any means, but thanks to my little honor system box installed out front, its been enough to cover the expenses of the supplies for row and irrigation installation, seeds, and a little extra to throw towards the money pit of farm stand construction. Might not be a ton but certainly has given me a taste of what is to come. I know there is so much more potential and so many more creative ideas on the horizon to tap into. This summer is just the beginning!

As the last weekends of August are upon us, I am filling my notebook full of ideas to apply for next season, what seeds to order, what color flowers were most popular, which were not, and lessons learned to assist planning of 2012.

Some of the notes include...grow more herbs...dual purpose ones for culinary and bouquet fillers...more fillers, more fillers, more fillers! print up a great pesto recipe to hand out to customers...more blue egg chickens, heck...more chickens in general...can never have enough eggs! Create handout with little farm tour with philosophy/descriptions/future vision for visitors, get labels for plant rows, expand spring seed swap party into the coolest farm networking event ever. Rent a chick was the bomb - need more coops asap so we can rent chicks every month of spring,summer, fall.

Will be busy using the off season to figure out the workshops and events to be held here, finding great people to partner with, as well as seeking local products to sell in the farm stand.

I have noticed neighboring farms putting their "closed for the season" signs up, and feel families mentally shift from their carefree beach mode into their back to school mode. Despite the visual signs, I've been steadily tending to my flower acre and expect blooms to still be going strong for another few weeks at least...

The "OPEN" for business sign is still up and the buckets of flowers are still rolling in.

In addition to the success of the farm, it was an epic summer emotionally for me. Temporarily blindsided by a unexpected and head spinning-ly swift divorce, I've found relief one day, one chore, one construction project, one to-do list at a time around here. I have come to realize that I can handle the farm as a suddenly single farm gal and everything will be alright. I'm already beginning to see its going to be beyond alright and in fact, so much better than it was before. Lots of help from friends and family to partner with, and customers feedback and encouragement has kept me going. Plus, a gigantic sigh of relief was felt when I got master carpenters on the speed dial.

Having a creative outlet of photography and blogging has kept me farm focused too, and its fun to help showcase the farm business and what it can and will offer. Started this blog with just a camera phone, remember a few months ago when I was too afraid to take this Nikon out of its box when it arrived. That was until I met Matthew, who owns his own photography business. Despite his hectic schedule in frenzy of wedding season no less, he found time to bring his family out to the farm, give me a photo 1o1 and sent me off to do my damage. :) Life through the lens was never the same. Very cool dude with much patience, knowledge, and also a great educational blog about what it takes to be a photographer www.eyeoftheshutter.wordpress.com

Well Matt preaches that every small business owner deserves some uniquely personal "about me" pictures for busting tail to make their mark on the world. Seems he could detect some tail busting and that it would be a good time to turn the camera on me to capture the moment. Thanks Matt for giving a glimpse of the new and improved spokeswoman to this farm.

One summer lesson's for sure: This farm is my baby, I'm gonna rock it!