Restoring the Ole Homestead

 Wow, what a whirlwind week. We took off for SW Kansas and the family farm on Wednesday, returning to OKC the following Tuesday. The plan was to help Sheryl's brother George work on the main house and get it somewhat weather tight. The old homestead was built by their Grandfather in the very early 1900s and has fallen into a sort of disrepair. The main issue being no one actually lives there to keep it up.
We parked out by the old barn and at least had 20amp power for the motorhome, however no water. We filled the water tank in town, so we were set for a few days of work.

 The white house on the far right was our project for this visit.

 George came up from Austin with building materials in tow.

 All the old siding was in pretty rough shape (though not bad for over 100 year old) but it all had to come down.

 Once it was all ripped off, we began nailing up OSB wood, to which the new siding would be attached.

 Surprisingly, the 1"x12"s under the old shingles were in pretty good shape, except for a few spots, but much better than we expected.

 By the time we had to leave, we had gotten most of the OSB wood up. not as much as we had wanted to do, but between a couple of day of rain and the always unexpected, we actually got a lot accomplished. While George and I worked on the outside, the girls Sheryl, Carol and Stephanie worked on the inside as well as painted all the new siding.

 Yours truly in working garb.

 Sheryl (left), with her sister Carol and brother George.

And of course Georges wife Stephanie, she tried to dodge the first shot but I got her in this one. We put in several good days work. We had to leave, but George and another relative stayed for a few more days. I understand they finished most all the siding on the house. We all may need to meet up there again to finish it up, but it is much better then when we started. The whole idea, is to get the homestead back to the way it was and to be able to go there and decompress from daily life when needed.
We are back in OKC now, Sheryl had a couple of doctor appointments, both turned out very well, with good news. We are taking off on Monday for a week in Eastern Oklahoma to spend time with Sheryl's son and maybe some other family members if they can make it.
That's it for now, just wanted to update everyone and show the progress we made on the farmhouse. So until next time.....................................................