I Wasn’t Born in a Barn…But We Built One…

…. Well…Kinda. 

Welcome back!   I am glad you stopped in to see what’s new!

I WAS going to share another room in my house that I did a little work on…but decided that it can wait.   This post is WAY more fun to share!

As you remember, my little family moved out to the country …it was one full year ago on Halloween to be exact.   I recently shared a little bit of where we live.   Click here to see what home looks like to us now.   And if you have been following Tootsie Time a while, you know we have a horse.



A spoiled...



ridiculous...



gentle...



brat of a horse.



He has a saddle, and all the things that a horse needs...but ...Well…Cruise…(that’s his name) didn’t have a house!  He does have an annoying magpie friend though...ugh.  That stupid bird hangs out on him quite often.   ugh ugh!



Not having a house to live in is NOT an option at our place.   Every pet we have is loved to bits and pieces and well, lets face it…treated pretty much like royalty and spoiled rotten.   Cruise is no exception to this rule.



The previous owners of this place had horses…but they didn’t have any kind of shelter for them.   There’s a tack shed…and a garden shed…and a quad shed…but no barn.  This would NOT do!

When Cruise came to live with us, the plan was to be that before winter got to this part of the world, he would have some sort of shelter from the elements, should he need them.

Now…if it were up to me…he’d be living in the garage with the heat on and a blankie to curl up in…but the Cowboy says that is not good for him on any level…so that isn’t going to happen.  That is when the plan was struck.

We happened to have some of the second cut spruce slabs left over from the tree house that the Bickering Builders put up about a month ago…and we had some other wood sitting in storage from another project that we had done…so we decided that all we needed was another bundle of the slabs, and some screws…and we were good to go.   We like the rustic natural look of the spruce slabs…some of them still have bark on them, they are imperfect and they seem to be just charming enough to use around the yard.   We didn’t want the ‘brass and glass’ look…we wanted it to kind of blend in with the trees.

This is what we came up with.



Easy…simple, and very inexpensive shelter.   It measures 16 feet by 14 feet.  Nothing fancy…but big enough to hold a couple of horses.  (hint - hint Cowboy) *)

Cruise seems to be okay with it.   He ‘helped’ us with all of the building…snoopy bugger that he is…and he’s super calm, so the sound of the chain saw and other tools didn’t even phase him.   ha-ha.



Here he is checking out his new digs…gotta inspect every corner…



I gave him a little grass in there to see if he’d stay…



…he did!



He went in and out a few times… it was cute to watch him checking it all out.



I think his winter hair makes him look all wooly and snuggly…



Say Cheeeezzze!   Ya…I know…But I just adore him.



So that’s the little house that my Cowboy and I made …it took us one full day to start and finish it…and we are pleased with the end result.

I might ‘cute it up’ a little bit down the line…but for now I think it will be fine the way it is…that way Cruise can get completely used to it before I go hanging decorations on it.

That’s it for me today!   Thanks again for stopping by!

Until Next Time…Happy Building!

(¯`v´¯)
`*.¸.*´Glenda/Tootsie
¸.•´¸.•*¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•´ .•´ ¸¸.•¨¯`•.
www.tootsietime.com

today’s post has been proudly sponsored by Chic-a-Boot…

Tootsie’s Master...

...BEDROOM!!!   BEDROOM!!!   My goodness!   Those of you who know me well, KNOW that I would not fare well if I had to have a MASTER!   ha-ha!

On that note…lets get down to business.   Today I am giving you a little peek at the interior of my house.   I thought I’d start with the Master BEDROOM.

I got to have this past weekend all to myself.   So…what does a girl do when she’s unsupervised?   No Cowboy…no kids?   She takes a weekend off from her work, and decorates!

We are coming up on one full year of living in the country, and are finally feeling ‘safe’ enough to start to share a few images of our home.   There were some reasons that I have not shared much until recently, but now that we have the ‘green light’ …I am good to go!

Before we get going...please excuse the ugly paint job on the walls.   It was here when we moved in, and WILL be changed as soon as possible.   

THIS is the master bedroom in our home.



I am considering a change to the headboard…It will still be  done from barn wood, but will be taller, and maybe a touch less perfect.



Right now, I like how it looks, but should my Cowboy come home and say “lets go junkin’….”   I am ALL over that!   We have a stash of the ‘good stuff’ that we can use if we need it.



The bench at the end of the bed (where I see I tucked the blanket too tight on one side…lol) is from an antique shop.   We found it one day while we were out and about.  It was intended to be used at the kitchen table, but …as you can see…the plan changed…and I could not love it more in the bedroom!



Cowboy and I found a pretty set of antique dressers while we were out and about one day, and we love how they look.   We got a steal of a deal on them and had to have them!   I have considered painting them…but just don’t know if I have the heart to change their original look.   For now this vanity is paired with an old chair I found in my travels…and sits beside the antique geriatric chair that we found in an antique shop owned by some friends of ours.



The old window has been kicking around in my decor for years…the pillar…well I have 4 of those, and they move around from room to room…I do want to add a small old wooden ladder to the corner, but I have to go get it still.   I think the ladder will finish the space.

OH HOW I HATE THE PAINT ON THOSE WALLS!   lol

The old crate was found in the attic of the old house that I have been fixing on for my Cowboy.  I just added some wheels to the bottom  and that’s it!

To read the series I shared about the 108 year old house I have been slowly working on for my Cowboy (so far)  click HERE.



I do like to use my antique tea service collection still.   I have them all over my house in various positions.



This is a view of the far side of the room.   There is the top of an old desk, and the hi-boy chest that goes with the Vanity.

The chair…well, I love this chair.   It reminds me of a chair that my grandmother had when I was a little girl.   I always loved to sit in that chair when we would go visit her.   It is worn and faded…but I love it the way it is.   One day I might re-do her…but for now, she is just right!



You will notice that there isn’t much on top of that hi-boy chest…There is a reason for that.
We have two very spoiled, very ‘bad’ cats.  Marty and Ginger.   They like to sit up on that dresser and ‘hunt’ out the window.   (they are inside only kinda cats)   Should I put anything in the empty spot on that dresser…Marty will just toss it onto the floor and take his rightful position.



The door beside the chair is to our walk in closet…and the one beside that is to the little 1/2 bath in the master bedroom.   (I will share that in another post)

I can't say it enough!!!   I just HATE the way the old owners painted walls in this room, and do plan to fix that in the near future, but with work and my health issues lately, paint has not been on the top of the list.   SOON …soon I will erase the 80’s from these walls.   lol



Every effort was made to try to incorporate some Cowboy charm into our bedroom.   There are not a lot of ruffles, or fru fru…not that he’d probably care…he likes my rustic, french country style…but he does like his Cowboy ‘stuff’.    He was hoping I would get tired of the pretty  top quilt on our bed and put HIS comforter set on…It has images of MOOSE and BEARS on it…ya…sorry Cowboy…no matter how much I love you…that comforter is NEVER going to be the top quilt in my master bedroom.   That’s what the 108 year old house was made for   <3   I also just could NOT bring myself to add any guns or horns to the decor…at least not yet.   (I saved those for the living room )



That’s all I have to share with you this time…

Until Next Time…Happy Decorating!

*) Let the leaders lead, the followers follow, the haters hate and the lovers love...Just don't let them effect who you are!

(¯`v´¯)
`*.¸.*´Glenda/Tootsie
¸.•´¸.•*¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•´ .•´ ¸¸.•¨¯`•.
 
www.tootsietime.com

today’s post has been proudly sponsored by Chic-a-Boot…

The Bickering Builders Build aTree Fort?

Hey! 

Thanks for stopping by, and a Very Happy Thanksgiving Weekend to all of my Canadian readers!

Today I am excited to share one of the projects that has been in the works now for a few days…The Tree Fort.

Yup…I said a FORT.

This is the story of the ‘Bickering Builders’.

My Cowboy  (bickering builder #1) is really just a large kid…and he knows how kids think.  He likes to play…and build…and really likes to give my youngest  (bickering builder #2(Busy) and her little friends (bickering builders #3 & #4) a very hard time about Boys…and just about anything else that will get their dander up.  haha.   So…when he noticed that Busy and her bestie were doing their best to build a fort in the trees out back, he decided to give them a hand.

At first, he was telling them that he was building himself a fort even better than theirs, and that his fort would have a NO GIRLS allowed sign on it.   BUT…that didn’t last, and the plan was struck to build the BEST tree fort EVER for Busy and her little friends to hang out in.


So..they set off down the path that we have been working on  through the trees for the quad and the ‘little truck’ to go through…bickering about this and that, in search for  a perfect spot.

After a little bickering…okay…who am I kidding here…a LOT of bickering… they decided that this looks like a perfect site for a tree fort... right?  

They needed to stake it out…and bicker, measure and plan and bicker and scheme…and bicker…did I mention that my Cowboy and my Busy are always bickering?   Ya…but it’s not a serious bickering…they try to get each others goats…but it's all in good fun…STILL…to the outsiders…it’s bickering …and it requires a lot of tylenol sometimes for this old gal.   haha

SO…How does one build a tree fort if there are no trees on the spot they chose?

They bicker and argue until they find a couple of good ones…and chop them down….


They dig a few holes…and plant those logs into them…(still bickering about how to do it.)

…Making sure to bicker and argue about who’s working harder the whole time…(or it’s just not fun!)

OH MY WORD!!   The tree fort is going to be RAISED UP off the ground????    OH MY!   This is where the mother gets a little skeptical…I just don’t know about this…

Making sure it’s level…and bickering about that too…ha ha

I wonder if she is excited?   It’s no wonder that she waits desperately for the Cowboy to come home from work…he’s one of her absolute favorite playmates.   Those two are always doing something silly and fun…but I think this is the best project yet.

One base frame done.

Now what? 

More bickering? 

More calling each other Grandma and Grandpa??? 

ha-ha  Yup.

The Bickering Builders put on a floor.

While the older one got the walls ready to assemble…the younger one secured the floorboards.

HEY!!!!   That’s MY drill!

SOMEHOW the Bickering Builders roped me into helping put up the walls…and gave the camera to big sister to take all kinds of embarrassing photos (none of which will ever see the light of day)…and one or two that cold be shared.

So far SO GOOD!!!    Even I am getting excited!
  
Just after this photo was taken, I had to run to town quick to pick up some head ache medicine and a couple of helpers…and when I got back…to my surprise…

The Tree Fort was DONE!!!   Just in time for the Thanksgiving LONG weekend off of school!!!   YAY!

Slide and all! 

The Bickering Builders had accomplished what I thought was next to impossible…and neither of them were injured…AND they are still the best of friends!

The girls had found this ‘slide’ out in the bush when they were exploring one day…and they just HAD to have it. 

I think that the bullet holes in it just add to the rustic charm of the place don’t you agree?

Move in time…The extra helpers were absolutely delighted to see the fort was ready to decorate!  Everyone grabbed a pop and headed for the fort.

Some VERY happy faces.

These girls raided MY stash of spare tables and chairs…and got to work.  

It was like watching an episode of Divine Design!   ha-ha

Comfy chair and... a coat tree…?

They built themselves a shelf…and isn’t that my drill again???

They invited me up…which wasn’t a big deal…I do ladders quite well…

It was the getting out that had me a little worried.

I did it…but can honestly say..it was COLD.   ha-ha

These ladies even talked the head builder into building them a swing…which the next day turned into a double swing…and there was some talk about a zip line...but I think that was put on hold for now.

It’s not hard to tell that my Cowboy made three little ladies VERY happy with this fort.   Good Job Cowboy!

The decorating is not quite finished…there will be a curtain type door…and a few other odds n ends in there…but for now they are happy as can be!

That evening, it was quite chilly outside…but those girls wanted to spend as much time as they could in that fort…so they bundled up, took flashlights, and their Cowboy (you know for protection from Moose and Bunnies) and hung out for just a little while...then they played hide and seek in the dark…and headed into the house.   Big sister and I were there too…but we didn’t have near as much fun as the three bickering builders.

That’s all for me today…Until Next Time….

Happy Thanksgiving Canada!

(¯`v´¯)
`*.¸.*´Glenda/Tootsie
¸.•´¸.•*¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•´ .•´ ¸¸.•¨¯`•.
 
www.tootsietime.com

today’s post has been proudly sponsored by Chic-a-Boot…