Wyebrook Farm

One of my favorite outings this summer was a gorgeous discovery only a few minutes from our home in Honey Brook, PA. I have a soft spot in my heart for gravel roads, stone houses and barns, barnwood beams, scuffed boots, and curly piggy tails. I was in heaven at Wyebrook Farm. 

The farm describes itself as "an alternative to the industrial food supply through its "diverse polyculture" which produces "the healthiest animals and best food without the use of artificial fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, hormones, or antibiotics." 
I describe Wyebrook Farm as a relaxing getaway with beautiful views and delicious food!
Visitors can dine at the cafe and purchase food to take home at the market. The dining experience was amazing. I honestly felt like I was in a movie scene. The gravel under my boots, the matching white umbrellas overhead at each wooden picnic table, the sweet tea in my mason jar...and the farmland spread out before me as the breezes blew. It was perfection. 

After brunch we explored the farm.
How breathtaking is the farmhouse? Y'all, if I ever win the lottery you won't find me moving into a mansion full of all of the latest and most modern amenities. No my friends, you will find me in the middle of nowhere in an old farmhouse much like this beauty.  

And y'all, I might even take up pig farming. I mean, how cute are those curly tails? But if I raised and cared for piggies, I'd probably never be able to eat bacon again. And honestly, can I really live without bacon? Um, no.

I probably should have warned you in the beginning that this post was going to be photo heavy. Hope you don't mind! No? Fabulous. Here's a bunch more!

The Market is located in the farm's 18th century stone barn and offers hand butchered beef, pork, and chicken (all raised on the farm) as well as various vegetables, cheeses, etc.  

Mr. Yankee and I will be returning to Wyebrook soon to celebrate our anniversary! We're looking forward to dinner at dusk at this gorgeous setting. And can  you imagine this quiet, serene place after sundown, lit by candles? Yep, another movie scene. 

You can virtually visit Wyebrook Farm here. Enjoy, and plan your trip soon!  

Master Bath Reveal

Til I get a big 'ol soakin' tub, this is our master bathroom.
It's a huge room, which is the only reason I gave in on my bathtub in the master requirement when we were house shopping. There is plenty of room to add one later...but until the HUGE remodel happens, I'm ready to reveal our master bathroom.

Since the fun of reveals are the before and after shots, here's the before, in all of it's olive green glory:

The first thing we did was paint the walls Benjamin Moore's Palladian Blue and the ceiling and trim in a bright white.

No bathtub in here, but there is a large two seater walk-in shower...you know, for those of us who lounge in the shower often. ;)

Mr. Yankee added beadboard, trim and hooks to the large wall, which isn't just dang pretty but quite useful as well. I like hanging towels on hooks rather than dealing with towel bars.

After that project, I tackled the shower doors. You can read about that here. Eventually, we plan to rip out the plastic shower insert and tile the shower. At that point, we will probably add a new shower door that opens out rather than slides. But since we aren't at that point yet, I chose to go with a more traditional route, but a bit more dramatic.

Rather than a standard 72" shower curtain, I used two 84" curtain panels. (These moved with us from our first house. I had no idea where I was going to hang them, but I'm glad I packed them rather than tossing them in the big pre-move clean-out!) I was able to find an XL 84" shower curtain liner at Bed Bath & Beyond. The curtains and the liner are all clipped to curtain rings. (I used two boxes of rings.) This has worked very well without any water leakage. 

The room is incredibly bright thanks to the double window that takes up the whole wall to the right. (Unfortunately, it also makes it very warm in the summer and cold in the winter.) All that sun makes it impossible to photograph the room well. So the coloring looks a bit different from photo to photo.

I'm on the hunt for the perfect bench, hopefully made of reclaimed barn wood, that is the length of the beadboard wall. Until then, I moved in this little iron chair as a stand in. I'm also trying to figure out what sort of artwork I'd like above the beadboard and whether or not I want to hang my handmade sign. Until I decide, it's temporarily hanging out on a hook. (See how I made the sign here.)

I loved this rug when I found it at Home Goods right as we moved into the house. I bought it for our "formal" living room, but it was a bit small for the room. I moved it into here and love having a large rug in the bathroom! It makes the room feel cozy.

Because this isn't the final remodel of this room, I decided to put very little money into this rehab. Therefore we are keeping the vanity, counters, and mirror. I'd like to paint the vanity, but am having a hard time deciding on a color. Any suggestions? I considered white to go with the beadboard, but the toilet, counters, showers, etc, are all almond and I don't want to make that color stand out anymore. Once that's decided, we will frame out the large mirror.

As for lighting, I stumbled upon these white covers that I can only describe as shades for builder grade lights. They were a Lowe's clearance find--$7 each!

Lights On:

Here's the builder grade lights that are under those shades:

Notice the medicine cabinet to the right of the humongous mirror. Because that hunk of reflective power simply isn't enough, right? Take a look again and let me know what you think we should do about the recessed cabinet. We do use it (despite the abundance of storage space in the vanity.) What can we use rather than the mirror front? (And yeah, the black rubber will be going when I paint the vanity.)

The rest is in the details, which so far are all from my decor stash. I'll be adding soaps to the apothecary jar and am hoping Santa will replace the towels with new ones this Christmas. (I started to put away the hand soap and toothbrushes for photos...but then I said heck no! What's a bathroom without toothbrushes and hand soap? I mean, at least now you know we DO brush out teeth and wash our hands!)

Of all the things in the bathroom, the little perfume bottle holding my small makeup brushes is my favorite item and it only cost me $1. It's the little things in life y'all!

What's your favorite part of the master-bathroom-makeover-that-will-do-until-I-get-my must-have-big-ol'-soakin'-tub?

I'm linked up with the Tutorials & Tips Party over at Beth's Home Stories from A to Z.

Come on y'all...join us! 

*I think some of you may still be having issues leaving comments. I am SO sorry. This is more frustrating for me than you know. This blog is very impportant to me, as are your opnions and ideas. If you attempt to leave a comment and can't, it would mean a TON to me if you'd let me know via email at missyankeebelle@gmail.com so I can keep working to correct the problem. Thanks s0 much!

Rehabbing the Master (Bathroom)

Our master bathroom is currently undergoing what I like to call it's first stint of rehab. It's not completely clean, and won't be for quite some time, but it recognized it's problem and is slowly making some changes. Mr. Yankee and I consider ourselves its hardworking sponsors.

This was how we found the bathroom when we acquired it. Olive green on the walls AND ceiling.

So the first step in this multi-step program was paint. Lots and lots of paint. I'm not gonna lie, painting is labor intensive. It takes lots of prep time and patience. By the time I make it to clean up, I'm so tired that I chuck a lot of reusable stuff 'cause I'm over it. But in the midst of all of that work, I tend to find my happy zone--usually that point after the trimming and first coat of paint are behind me and I'm about to put on the second coat and my vision is taking hold. Pure bliss. And truth be told, I enjoy the prolonged amounts of quiet alone time painting affords me. Mr. Yankee takes the littles out and I make miracles happen in complete, golden silence.

Wanna know my must haves for painting?
1. An angled brush with a short handle. This one is my favorite. (I cut the angled part of the brush out of the picture...bad blogger!) These brushes allow me to avoid taping for trimming, which saves a lot of time.

2. When I can't avoid taping, I use 3M scotch blue painter's tape. Pretty straight forward. It comes in different widths and goes on/comes off easily. I've never had issues with paint bleeding under it. I'd advise that you remove the tape before the paint completely dries to avoid taking fresh paint off with the tape.

3. Lastly, my painting pants. That's out house color pallete on there! Do YOU have go-to painting clothes?

I painted this room in reverse--walls then ceiling. Bad idea. I knew better, so don't ask why I did it. I don't have a reasonable explanation. Once the olive green walls were covered in Benjamin Moore's Palladian Blue, it was time to tackle the ceiling with a pure white. And yep, because of my reverse order, the ol' blue tape was a must. (Oh, you noticed the beadboard? Mr. Yankee handled that step of rehab and I totally flaked and didn't take photos of the process. Many apologies. We'll chat about it later.)

Once any and every trace of olive green was gone, we reached a much more serene level of the rehab process. And then the shower door started rearing it's ugly face. Funny how once you start to tackle a room, more and more parts of that room begin to beg for attention as well. The door was always off track, leaking, and just plain cumbersome. 

I do things when the mood strikes me, so one afternoon while the littlest napped and the oldest ran around with the neighbor boys, I grabbed my supplies and ripped those doors clean off! It really was that easy. I unscrewed a few screws, ran a straight blade knife along the silicone caulked edges, and before nap time was over the doors were off.

Evidence of how happy I was to take down those doors...cause once I knew what was under the tracking, there was NO turning back. GROSS!

I got a bit carried away with the knife and broke off the tip of the blade, but it still worked as it was...cause y'all know I wasn't about to stop progress to go buy another blade!

Once the doors and tracking were history, I used waterproof silicone to fill in the tiny holes left behind. The patching went well and is basically unnoticeable. A guy at Lowe's recommended the Goo Gone Caulk Remover for this project, but the silicone caulk came off so easily that I ended up not needing it and returned the product.

So, where are we now in this multi-step rehab program for our dear Master Bath? Here's sneak peek snapped with my iPhone for Instagram.

I'll share more with you soon...the littles are demanding my attention. Mom first, everything else second! ;) In the meantime, let me know what you think--is the shower makeover an improvement?

*I think some of you may still be having issues leaving comments. I am SO sorry. This is more frustrating for me than you know. This blog is very impportant to me, as are your opnions and ideas. If you attempt to leave a comment and can't, it would mean a TON to me if you'd let me know via email at missyankeebelle@gmail.com so I can keep working to correct the problem. Thanks so much!