Posted By FarmerJ on June 10, 2010

It all started back in April, shortly after I’d finished rejuvenating the living room and kitchen, when Darling Husbie asked when I was going to get rid of the rest of the nasty peach color painted on the walls.  The next room to get a makeover was going to be the office ~ the nucleus of all things happening at the Prairie Farmstead.  It’s the room where Darling Husbie’s and my computers are set up; it’s where the weather station computer is set up, along with the weather webcam (lovingly referred to as ‘The Bobblehead’) which takes snapshots of the front yard; and, it’s normally the room where Darling Husbie and I begin and end our day together coordinating schedules, discussing projects and enjoying our coffee.

Since the office is the hub of the Farmstead, I thought it would be cute to decorate it based on a farm / tractor motif.  I thought that would be something Darling Husbie would get a kick out of and enjoy, so I wanted that part of my scheme to be a surprise.  I did discuss wall color options with him, so he knew I was planning something in my head…he just didn’t know exactly what.

I’d sent an email off to Spark Plug ~ my bestest buddy who held my hand through getting the pictures hung in the living room ~ letting her in on my plan and asking her to get her thoughts sparkin’ because I needed her help once again.  I reminded her of Darling Husbie’s tin ‘Ford Farming’ sign he’d gotten when we first moved here, and told her that’s what I wanted to base the rest of the decor from, both colors and style.  Oh, and I told her my budget for this makeover was just a little more than nil.

Darling Husbie had to go to Guernsey, Wyoming for a couple of weeks in May [Gah!  That was a month ago, already!], so the timing was perfect.  He left on a Monday morning, and I immediately went into action.  A quick phone call to Spark Plug giving her the secret code words, “He’s Gone,” and away I went in Dinkie Doo ~ I was on my Search & Nab mission.  I was on the hunt for anything farm / tractor related and some picture frames…with a self-inflicted budget of just a little more than nil.  After visiting what felt like seventeen stores, but in reality was only seven, I had an ample little arsenal of goodies ~ the little metal tractor coaster set in the photo above, being part of it.

Now, part of the great humor in this whole sneaky adventure is that I’m a terrible liar, and I’m not all that smart when it comes to being devious [well, I'm not all that smart any time, but particularly when it comes to being devious].  And, nobody on this earth knows me better than Darling Husbie.  So, the fact that I’m trying to be sneaky with him only raises the bar on the funny factor gauge.  You see, generally when Husbie is away from home, he’ll call at night for a daily SITREP (SITuation REPort) ~ and, me being me, I’d normally go into painstaking detail about everything that happened throughout the day.  But, not this time.  I couldn’t tell him I’d gone to seventeen seven stores looking for tractor motif, and I couldn’t make something up, so when he asked me what I’d done all day, I just said, “Oh, just ran some errands and piddled around.”  Clue Number One I was up to something.

So, with coffee freshly brewed and phones fully charged, Spark Plug and I set about redecorating the nucleus of all Prairie Farmstead happenings…together…with 1,400 miles between us.  I started on the east wall of the office, because I thought it would be an easy wall and sort of get me in the groove of things.  Well, my thought process was wrong, but I was tremendously happy to have that wall finished.  That wall is the wall with the window, the built-in cabinets, the built-in desk…and Darling Husbie’s weather station.  My original thought process led me to believe that with all that cabinetry, there would be less wall space, and therefore, it wouldn’t take all that long to have it painted and to be able to see some progress.  Wrong.  What all that cabinetry really meant was a bunch of masking that needed to be done before painting could even begin.  Tedious and time consuming.  And, Darling Husbie’s weather station?  Well, in my devious scheming mind, I knew I didn’t dare shut the computer down and disconnect all the cables and cords so that it all could be moved out of the way and allow me easy access to the wall space behind it.  Oh, no.  For if I’d done that, it would have undoubtedly been the precise moment Darling Husbie dialed up the weather station and would have wondered why it was down, and I surely would have had to account for that in the daily SITREP.

You understand now why I say I’m glad I got that wall out of the way first, yes?  I persevered, slowly and steadily, trimming first where the wall adjoins the ceiling; then the window frame; then the cabinets; then the baseboards; then underneath the counter of the built-in desk; and, finally, twisted like a pretzel, all around the cables and cords of the weather station.  When initially discussing painting the room with Darling Husbie, we decided we wanted to use the same colors we’d used in the living room.  And, we decided we wanted the east wall painted the Designer White color to add a little brightness to the room, as that corner always seemed to be a little dark.  It did a fabulous job of bringing out the natural beauty of the pine cabinetry, too. Several hours later, the ‘easy’ wall was finally complete.  Spark Plug had checked in on me throughout the day to make sure I was working like I was supposed to be ~ and Darling Husbie called late that night for his SITREP.  “So, what’s going on around there?  What did you do today?”  Ummm…”Not much.  Just piddled.” Clue Number Two I was up to something.

The next couple of days went much the same way ~ a fresh pot of coffee, a fully charged phone, a loving wake-up call from Darling Husbie shortly followed by a Plan of Action call from Spark Plug.  I painted the remaining three walls with the Linen color, extremely thrilled to cover up that nasty peach color.  I took this photo just to show you the difference in the two ‘tan’ tones, and why Husbie finally agreed with me that the original color was ‘peach.’    I thought this was going to be the difficult wall, because this is the wall that my computer desk is against.  It’s not exactly the easiest thing to move, but fortunately I had the Pecks-O-Steel [aka oldest son] around to help me.  I’d decided that I’d go ahead and leave my computer connected since I’d learned to paint around the weather station ~ and this one had to be easier than that because at least I wouldn’t be contorted under a desk.  The daily SITREP: “So, what have you been up to?”  “Oh, just kind of piddling around.”  Clue Numbers Three and Four I was up to something. For four days had gone by now and my Beloved Husbie knows me better than to not be busy doing something, and to not blab on to the point of overkill in details.  There was a chuckle on the other end, and a “What are you up to?  Are you and Spark Plug sparkin’ again?”  I guess he’s got my buddy’s number pegged to, eh?  I finally confessed, “I’m just workin’ on a project, boyfriend.”  He knew by my ways I wanted it to be a surprise, so he didn’t press the issue too much.  Good thing, too ~ remember…I’m not so good at being devious.

I don’t know what it is about this house, but something in the design creates the need for dangerous drastic measures in order to reach sections of the walls.  There was no way ~ believe me, I tried all angles ~ I could reach the wall in the corner above this cabinet from the safety of the 7-foot ladder.  It just wasn’t going to happen.  So, once again, I got a little creative with my step stool.  I really do not recommend this!

Day five rolled around and it was time to start putting the room back together.  This is where I rely on Spark Plug the most.  It was time to get the curtain hung.  There were three renditions of curtain rods, including one I’d purchased one and one I’d tried to resourcefully make from a piece of hoe handle [how 'farmy' is that?  a little too farmy!] before the final rod was put into place.  I ended up going with one I’d taken down from elsewhere in the house and had tucked in the corner of the closet…completely forgotten.  It was white, so I painted it with my favorite hammered metal bronze spray paint.  It matched the motif magnificently!

Now, the curtain didn’t come like this.  With Spark Plug’s brain and my brawn, we made this curtain.  Thankfully, my sewing skills have improved a tad since my bedroom curtain adventure.  The tan curtain is one Spark had found on clearance in her JCPenney store and just had to get it for me, knowing I’d use it one way or another in the office.  The stripe section is actually a piece taken from a remnant of drapes she had left over from a project and had sent to me quite some time ago knowing I could use it for something someday.

We’d gotten the bottom sewn on ~ she, over 1,400 miles away, but on ‘speaker’ and tucked into my apron pocket ~ and discussed how it was going to be hung…whether we were going to use a tieback, etc.  Leaving my computer up turned out to be quite handy, as I could send her photos of our progress and whatnot.  It was almost as if she were here with me.  Anyway, we decided against the tieback, so it needed a little something more for color.  So, we cut and sewed another section of stripes from the drape remnant.  It turned out too stinkin’ cute!

Once we were finished with the curtain and had it hung, it was time to find just the right thing for atop the cabinets above Husbie’s desk.  Spark found a guy who makes wooden silhouettes and sells them on eBay.  They were absolutely adorable and perfect ~ and they were handmade…even better for the atmosphere of the Prairie Farmstead hub.  So, I ordered them.  Whoops!  Do you recall the part about me being not all that smart when it comes to being devious?  Well, yeah.  There was just one little hiccup with me ordering the silhouettes.  I used Darling Husbie’s eBay account to do it, which meant he got the confirmation emails in his inbox.  Oy!  Just brilliant.  Not!  Well, okay.  So he doesn’t know what I’m doing with those silhouettes, right?  Shortly after that snafu and regaining composure after realizing my complete idiocy ~ I was, afterall, supposed to be sneaky about this ~ Darling Husbie called for the daily SITREP.  Um…er…yeah.  Let’s just say it was Clue Number Five I was obviously up to something.

The next day, with yet another pot of fresh-brewed coffee and a fully charged phone, was picture frame day.  Here, you can see the tin ‘Ford Farming’ sign which was my focal point all along.  I found the large frame for it on sale at Wal-Mart, and the 8 x 10 frames were on clearance at my second-favorite store of all time, Gordman’s.  [I apologize for the poor color quality of this photo, the time of day was wreaking havoc with the lighting.]

It was Spark’s brilliant idea to utilize some of the heirloom seed packets Darling Husbie and I had ordered for the garden this year as the ‘pictures’ in the smaller frames.  How much better can you tie into the farm / tractor motif than that?!  And, really, these seed packets are vibrantly colored and just plain beautiful, as far as seed packets go.  Once again, with her brain and my brawn, we utilized more of the stripe pattern from the drape remnant to create the corners of the small frames.  We’d gone back and forth over what to do with the tin sign.  I finally came up with this final version in the wee hours…probably long after the daily SITREP on this day.  Oh, and regarding the SITREP ~ at this point, I just had to say, “I’ve been working on my secret project.”

Over the next couple of days, I continued working on the final touches.  Spark Plug had other things to do besides hang out in my pocket all day, and I was ready for this project to be complete…not to mention, Darling Husbie was due home in just a few more days!  Here, you can see a cover I made for the vinyl cutting / printing machine using the second tan panel from the curtains and more stripes from the remnants of Spark’s drapes.  The corner of the desk you see is my desk.

The silhouettes I’d ordered finally arrived and I was able to strategically place them where I’d been instructed by Spark.  The one on the left is a farmer man and his dog at a Farmer’s Market stand.  The one on the right is a farmer man on his tractor pulling a disc behind.  The wooden tray in the center is from a cheese and sausage platter we’d been given a couple years ago as a Christmas gift.  I used the vinyl machine to cut ‘Prairie Farmstead’ using a Ford tractor copycat font, of course!

Here’s Darling Husbie’s corner of the nucleus of all Prairie Farmstead happenings.  You can see the little cork board I made for him, covering the old icky one with a canvas-type fabric I’ve had for a long time now, and using the stripe remnants to add the color in the corners.  The corners are actually useful little pockets Husbie can tuck stuff into ~ like the photo of his airplane.  The other two silhouettes are there, too.  The one on the cork board is a farmstead, complete with a little tractor parked beside the barn, and the one in the frame is a little farmer hoeing his corn rows.  Cute!  I gave that frame the same corner treatment I did with the seed packet frames.

I used the vinyl cutting machine to make this to put above the laundry closet doors.  It’s one of my favorite scriptures and seemed to fit so perfectly with the farm / tractor motif, yes?  It also quite accurately describes things around here, for we are seldom idle here on the farmstead.

I got the rooster clock hung because, well, no farmstead office seems complete without a rooster clock.  This gives you a distance shot of the scripture above the laundry closet, too.  I guess I took this photo before the silhouettes arrived, as the little corn man isn’t in his frame here.  Heehee!

Last, but not least, here is the final wall.  This wall is to my left as I sit at my desk, just to give you a little [perhaps unwanted] perspective.  The frames contain actual photos of happenings at the Prairie Farmstead.  The top one is of Darling Husbie in Winston the Windrower making the first cut of alfalfa this year.  The bottom left photo is of Darling Husbie on Samson the Ford 8N planting his first eight rows of sweet corn this year.  And, the bottom right photo is of both round and square alfalfa bales on the field during the summer of 2008.  These pictures are perfect for adding just the right amount of personal touch to the whole farm / tractor motif, don’t you think?

Now, if you’ve read along this far, bear with me just a little bit more.  For we have reached the most humorous part of the story.  The entire time Darling Husbie was away, I was trying to be sneaky and devious about this project.  My goal was to have everything absolutely perfectly in place when he walked in the door.  The whole scenario is one I had choreographed in my head, and Spark Plug and I were both about to burst at the seams in anticipation of Husbie’s reaction.

Well, all that perfectly planned business?  Completely out the window.  You see, in the process of printing those three photos of Darling Husbie working on the farmstead, the printer ran out of yellow ink.  I’d gotten two of the three photos printed, but the bottom left frame remained empty.  Perhaps Darling Husbie wouldn’t notice, at least not right away, in all his excitement over everything else.  Yeah, well, that’s something we’re going to have to ask him about because I ended up not even being here when he got home!  Can you believe it?!  I’d agreed to help a friend out of a jam, and I was gone until well into the evening.  Darling Husbie had made it home before me.  So, he walked into a lonely house…and into a dark nucleus…with an empty frame left hanging on the wall.

And, that, my dear, is about typical for how things happen around here on the Prairie Farmstead!  ♥

Categories: OSB Palace Projects
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