PJ Jonas

Series: Construction

  • 4 Lessons Learned Through Construction

    Building a house was not something our family had ever planned to do.  But with the growth of Goat Milk Stuff, we needed a new farm and soaproom. And since the property we purchased did not have a house, we needed a house too! The construction project took almost two years from start to finish.…

  • Outfitting the House

    Outfitting the House

    Once most of the painting was done, the house started getting important items like kitchen cabinets, counter tops, thermostats*, bath tubs, and bathroom cabinets. We spent hours in the house helping to open cardboard boxes and then carting the empty cardboard away. With all the cabinets, bathroom fixtures, light fixtures, ceiling fans, doors, and everything else…

  • Colorful Bedrooms

    Colorful Bedrooms

    When they painted our bedrooms, we were that much closer to living in our bedrooms. We still needed carpet, lights, switches, trim, doors, and a whole lot more, but the rooms were very colorful. Which made all of us beyond excited!    

  • Chicken Board

    Chicken Board

    When we were building our house, the stairs were some of the last things to be built, and it’s hard to jump up a three foot wall when you’re carrying things. So Lucky built us what was affectionately called, “the chicken board”. First it was on the side of the house, when they were framing…

  • Playing on the Piles

    Playing on the Piles

    The Jonas children love when something is being built, because construction means that there are lots of piles. Dirt piles, rock piles, concrete piles –  they don’t care, as long as they’re allowed to climb them. And slide down them. (I’m just glad that they each do their own laundry – the Youngest Person Rule strikes again.)…

  • Goofing Off

    Goofing Off

    Construction was a very serious time. Every day, there were decisions to be made that would impact our farm forever.  So there was a lot of talking to Lucky, sitting down with plans, magazines, and paint colors, and thinking hard about what we wanted. But it wasn’t all serious.  We had a ton of fun during…

  • Framing the House

    Framing the House

    A lot of work went into the house – clearing the land, digging the basement.  That was cool to watch.  But the best part was when they started framing it. That was when the new house became real for me – when we had walls and rooms framed out.  That was when I realized, “we are…

  • Talking to Lucky

    Talking to Lucky

    Lucky, our contractor, is absolutely amazing. From the very beginning, he’s been here to help us make our property the best it can be. In order for him to help us with that, we have to talk to him a lot. I made it my personal mission to take as many pictures of Lucky talking…

  • Chicken and Buck Barns

    Chicken and Buck Barns

    We’ve already given you the tour of our main barn, but that barn is only for the female goats (does) and baby goats (kids).  We had to build two smaller barns for our bucks, dogs, chickens, and rabbits. This is the buck/dog shed. The concrete walkway leading to it is now lined by the female…

  • The Freezer Room

    The Freezer Room

    When we were building the soaproom, Mom asked Dad and Lucky, “Is there any reason to have a ten foot ceiling on the soaproom? Because if we don’t need it, we can just build the soap room eight feet high and save some money.” No one could think of any reason to have a ten…

  • Moving into the Soaproom

    Moving into the Soaproom

    Once our new racks were set up, Lucky said we could start bringing more stuff into the soaproom. Each day we would fill the Hulk with something new. It took us several weeks, but eventually we had everything brought up to the soaproom (and mostly put away). Our extra USPS boxes were some of the first…

  • Outfitting the Soaproom

    Outfitting the Soaproom

    As soon as Lucky said we could (well, okay, maybe a few days before he said we could) we started bringing stuff over to the new soaproom. We were so excited to get set up!  But first, we had to put together a lot of new racks and cabinets. The little girls were such a big…

  • Building the Soaproom

    Building the Soaproom

    After the soaproom was framed and the roof was on, it was concrete time!  Concrete truck after concrete truck arrived – a steady stream of them that left what would become the front yard of the soaproom a muddy mess filled with ruts everywhere. (Not that it bothered the kids – they love playing in the…

  • Footprints

    Footprints

    Since we did our handprints in the concrete at the soaproom, Mom wanted us to put our footprints on the barn’s porch. (Mom also suggested we do butt prints on the porch of the house, but Dad said no. LOL) First, Ramblyn put the “broom finish” on the concrete – basically, going over the concrete…

  • Handprints

    Handprints

    Moving our farm, our family, and our business was a momentous occasion.  It took hours of dreaming, thinking, planning, and working to make it a reality.  Mom asked me to put together a series of blog posts about the construction process. I wanted to start with this one because it means a lot to all…