These days, I’m living by the old adage, Better late than never.

And so here we are, almost two weeks into the new year, and I’m finally getting the finishing touches on our look back at Cockamamy Farm in 2016. This year, we have been consumed by bigger building projects, which equates to fun before-during-after visuals (which I know is what you’re really here for!). So, without further ado….

2016 Project #1: Healthy, happy pups.

In late January 2016, Okra was hit by a truck and we almost lost her. Thanks to our amazing vet/neighbor, Okra is just fine. I won’t re-cap all the painful images of her wounds and healing here, but if you’re interested, you can relive that nightmare on these posts: week 1, week 2, week 3, month 2, all better.

   

   

   

 

2016 Project #2: Our Flock

This year, we (mostly) survived what seemed to be a coordinated raccoon attack on our and neighbors’ chicken coops. We have one neighbor who lost 50+ birds over three consecutive nights! Luckily, we fared a bit better thanks to Ben who stayed up all night like a Dad waiting for his only daughter to get home from her first date (read: shotgun in hand), set live traps, and deployed other  anti-raccoon-mischief techniques.

We also welcomed sweet girls Marigold and Daisy (now laying!) to our flock and just a few weeks ago brought home 16 more hens to bring us up to 30 birds.

   

 

2016 Project #3: The Kitchen

It is still a work in progress, but the kitchen is slowly but surely becoming the room I have been imagining for almost 3 years. This year we’ve made some major headway—from old appliances and the 1970s cabinets that we inherited with the house, to new appliances and new cabinets and countertops.

 

From my sketch….To those awkward in-between stages…

   

To the almost-finished cooking nook…I obviously need to take this photo again with the countertops in place, but you get the idea. Read my post about the new cabinets and countertops here.

And here’s a look at that same progression on the sink wall…but here, I tried my hand at tiling! Read all about it here.

   

   

Barnwood bookcase, floating shelves, and trim to come soon!

 

2016 Project #4: Back Porch

When we re-sided the house during the summer of 2014, Ben built a 12-foot-wide deck to span the entire 30-feet-long back of the house. This summer, he took that one step farther by building framing and half-walls and covering with extra steel roofing panels (leftovers from our roofing job, also in summer 2014). So now we have an open-air, covered porch (read about it here). And, in the spring, we’ll screens the openings to create a screen porch with living and dining space. Oh spring…how I long for thee!

   

 

2016 Project #5: Garage

This is one big-build we totally expected to have done before winter. I mean, we hired a builder in April. Before the ground thawed! If you want to read all about this hot mess, you can do that here and here. And the work still continues! A new-for-2017 update coming soon to the blog, but for this post, a recap in photos…

       

 

 

   

I hope the two shots above give you an excellent side-by-side comparison of the view from the driveway!

 

Now, we soldier on into the new year with its new adventures, new makeovers, new projects, and, with any luck, that new garage will be park-inside-worth any minute now!! Happy belated new year, dear friends!