If you have a hankering to do more and spend more..... buy a farm.

It seems I spend money and time out there every time I go out there.

recap: we bought the 28.5 acre farm back in March. The long time occupant moved out at the end of June and we took full possession on July 1.

The place was filthy and that word doesn't begin to accurately portray how bad it was. We burned the house and cleared up the lot.

We added a 24x30 shop and started to rehab an old shed. We dug the well 100' deeper and had the old surface water sealed off. We're now getting a solid 20+gallons per minute from 150' down in bedrock. Cold clean, and tasty water from thousands of years filtered by rock. We also found the surface spring down the hill and the foundation of the old spring house.

My wife and I have signed the papers to get the process started towards putting a new 3 bedroom, open floor plan modular home on the old home site. Hopefully by the spring, we will be getting it installed and connected.

So... here's what I've been working on.

The old shed on the property was in bad shape. This is what it looked like. Rotted wood, siding falling off, wasps in it.




I asked my wife if she wanted it for a garden shed. She recommended that I fix it up and put my studio and office in it. We would be downsizing a bit on square footage in the new house so that made sense.



I pulled some siding off the old house before we burned it down and used that to repair the rotted siding. I added 2 windows on the south side facing the woods.



I installed 2 french doors that were found in the back of this shed. My wife picked the green color for the paint.



A neighbor sold me some tongue and groove pine boards, and I salvaged a bunch from inside the old house/cabin on the property. A friend helped me hang some sheetrock.... I installed wiring for power and internet.



And most recently, I rummaged through the many paint cans I had in storage under the laundry room sink. I found several colors that were close enough to the ones I wanted to make them work. In both cans, there was almost exactly enough to finish the ceiling in brick dust red and golden yellow on the walls.



Still more work to do... I'm planning to stain the wood on the window wall a darker color. (Walnut) and add a beam down the center of the ceiling, also walnut stained.

Now, I have to figure out what to do with the floor since it's very rough concrete. Ceramic or terra cotta tile is a viable option and since I know how to do tile work, it's probably what I will end up doing. Add a throw rug, some sound diffusers, and my gear, once we move to the farm of course, and it'll be ready to rock.

Anyway, that's the update on the Kill Branch recording Studio.

You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
Add nothing that adds nothing to the music.
You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.

The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.