The Evolution Of A Farm Apartment

When I first purchased the farm back in February, I thought I might be wise to rent out the main part of the house for income (and just to have someone living there) until it came time for me to retire. There was a room added onto the back of the house which I figured I could make into an apartment in which to stay when I came up on weekends. The room at that time had just barely been framed in and was filled with junk. This is what it looked like back then:

After Rick finished remodeling the house, he began working on the apartment. He insulated the floor, the walls and the ceiling. He put in a new plywood floor, lots of electrical outlets and began sheetrocking:

Rick installed a new doorway from the apartment into the mudroom so that it would have direct access to the main entrance of the house:

I'd purchased an old sink unit at a neighbor's yard sale. Rick installed a new faucet, ran water and drain lines and spray painted its rusty surface. In this photo, the apartment is looking better although it's still missing one window:

When I drove up to the farm this past weekend, my job was to move out of the main house, leaving it ready to rent, and to move into the apartment, making it my weekend retreat up at the farm. This is the finished product which I found when I arrived. It was all insulated, sheetrocked, taped and painted. It had multiple electric outlets, three 4' x 4' windows, a kitchen stove, a small refrigerator, a functioning sink and two ceiling fans:

The new mini-kitchen:

Fergus is all excited. "Is this our new home, Dad?"

The new look, with furniture, lamps, rugs - and lots of dogs:

I dragged an old computer desk in from the mud room to use as my - well, I guess I'd call it my kitchen cabinets. In this photo you can see that Winky and Wren have made themselves at home. Fergus is, as usual, rarin' to go and trying to get me to play:

I did buy some sheets and a comforter for the bed after I took this picture. I also bought some really cheap pillows for the dogs to sleep on. Only 3 of them sleep with me on the bed (as if 3 wasn't enough!) :

The dogs are getting comfortable in the new place with my kitchen table, radio and pot of coffee:

"Can we go outside and run around now, Dad? Can we? Huh, can we?"

My new chicken lamp, a birthday gift from my sister, sits up on my new mini-refrigerator. Next to it I placed two tiny glass figures (from Red Rose tea) I found in the old house - a lion and a lamb, which I thought seemed appropriate: