Our New Farmhouse Gets a New Frock

So what can I say? The summer is gone! And Fall is definitely in the air. I've been so out of touch and have plenty to catch up on....so where do we start?? We came back from an event filled trip to our home state of Texas to immediately get started with the fixing up of our new lakeside farmhouse and 20 acre property, getting our horses moved over, keeping up with the mowing and maintenance of two properties (three, if you include our gracious new neighbor across the road from us who granted us unlimited lake front access from his place in return for keeping the back quarter acre mowed for him)....and of course attempting to enjoy the gorgeous summer weather that Maine always has to offer.

We've also been painting every spare moment available over the past several weeks...months....and as of this weekend, we have just about completed the multiphase process of pressure washing, scraping, and then painting the exterior of the main house with its first super-thick coat of primer. The kiddos have pitched in as well....and we've promised ourselves a ski get-away to the slopes of Sugarloaf for all the hot, tiring, sweaty work that went into getting this old farmhouse freshened up and into her new frock of white paint. This 'old gal' is finally beginning to look much brighter and spiffier than she has looked in quite some time...

Hmmmm...the romantic mom's looking quite enthused these days, isn't she......

Asheley's especially all smiles at the moment because we decided to let her paint all that totally annoying gingerbread work on the front porch all by herself. Yay! Yippee!! This is so much fun!! 

Actually she's all smiles because she's the only one who gets to paint in the shade....

Now they're ALL happy that they get to paint the annoying gingerbread in the shade!  

What can I say about this lovely front porch and all its sweet gingerbread? Really. It's soooo pretty....
it's wonderful, it's gorgeous, I seriously can't get enough of it....

but scraping and painting it??...it's sooooo tedious....

Now, just for now, please try to keep these 'before' photos in mind, got it? I'm determined to have those 'after' photos up soon......after we get the last of it done....hopefully this is the last of it!!....done by the end of our sunny afternoon today. Then it's kick-our-feet-up time and I should say that the adults in the crowd will be enjoying a glass of wine on the porch....not that we still don't have that infamous to-do list 100 miles long. But at least this Fall, our old farmhouse will be wearing her new white frock! : D