a SPOOKY & COZY week renovating my ghost-town cottage 🎃👻

It is officially spooky season here at Dreamwood Cottage. The aspens are starting to turn gold, there is an undeniable chill in the air, and I have so much to catch you up on. So, last time you came over, I tore off all of the siding off of my 130 year old fixer-upper cottage. The mason has been here for the past couple of weeks. I have to wait for the mason to finish before I can tackle anything else regarding the siding of the home. So, I have decided to take on a whole new project that has a 72 hour timeline, requires another cement truck, and a few extra hands. Am I crazy? I have two very, very special visitors here at the cottage right now. We are going to be celebrating autumn and equinox all week long. So, get into your spooky season energy, okay? Come on. Look at the progress on the nooks. The nooks were the worst of the brick. As you can see, all of the windows have been re-trimmed out, and they have brand new brick windowsills right here. You can tell some of it is still a little wet, but the mason has restored all of this, which had just completely fallen out. The mason still has all the scaffolding up, but you can see that he started the arch up there. The mason has done a truly incredible job matching not only just the brick color, but the mortar. In Colorado specifically, in the 1890s, it was known for its red mortar, just because of the sediment in the earth around here. This is extremely hard to match, and usually in old western films, they get the mortar wrong. You can see that the mortar in the new spots is a little darker. What he's going to do when he's finished the job is he's going to power wash the house to really just make it all feel even more cohesive. Now that you've seen the progress on the brick, I need to introduce you to the two very special guests that are here at Dreamwood Cottage. One rig, two rig, the special guests. Oh god. Oh god. The gang is back, although I don't think we've ever had Nikki and Gordo here at the same time, have we? At the cottage? It's a real gamble. We've had a few days of cooking non-stop, playing dominoes, and coming up with crazy new ideas for the cottage before winter hits, which involves another concrete pour and a lot more digging. Oops. Are you so happy Uncle Gordo's back? So last time Gordo was here. Here we go again. So last time Gordo was here, we got up to building this, the entire solarium, and we did that in a matter of three weeks, which was practically insane. We're all back together again and the boys were discussing and they thought that the solarium needs a back patio. We've had some water issues around the base of the house. Cute and functional. And it'll look cute too, but functional. How do you feel about cute and functional Gordo? Just like me. I literally walked outside one day to this giant hole and the inspiration for a patio. You asked first. You did ask. I think I just wasn't expecting as big of a thing, you know, like another cement truck. You'll learn. No such thing as a small project here at Dreamwood Cottage. And just for when weather gets bad, we have another project on the inside, which involves a giant steel beam. This project is going to help a lot with preparing for winter because there usually is a big snow buildup right here. Really not good for the house. That's kind of the theme right now is like big upgrades for the cottage that will support us during winter because winter is rough. The vision for the back patio is to have a covered outdoor space that can be used for outdoor living, have very comfortable seating, maybe even a fireplace feature, but also double as storage for items such as our bikes, shovels, and a place to kick off your boots before going inside during the winter months. There's definitely a storm rolling in. Going full force into the autumn energy. I've put on my favorite brown sweater set. It's a sweater top and sweater bottoms, but I've leveled up the outfit a little bit by wearing my new favorite jewelry set. So look at these. These are the organic Moonstone and Sapphire Huggy Earrings and Matching Ring set from Lupin Lane. This is a locket from Lupin Lane as well. I just think it is so charming and so magical, especially Moonstone. It just feels like it's really honing in the magical energy. So now that we've got our fit check going, we gotta put some grapefruit in the oven. I'm gonna put the grapefruit and the oranges into the oven to dehydrate so that way we can make a garland out of them in a few hours. Nikki's in here helping. What are you making? I'm making a vanilla creme anglaise for the hand pies. It's like a silky like custard sauce. We are doing a full autumn spread. We are going to be doing a pumpkin wild rice soup for the main. Nikki is adding her own stuffing to be the side. And then for dessert, we're making homemade apple cinnamon hand pies. And I just got these cute, cute little cutouts. This was the inspiration. We've got like some traditional hand pie shapes and I got some cute ones that are like a pumpkin and acorn and apple. So that's what we're doing. I'm gonna go ahead and link all of the recipes that I'm using. None of these are my own. Whatever Nikki's making is her own. So if she's gracious enough to share those recipes, I'll put those down in the description as well. If you haven't bought it already, oh my gosh, this is just such a handy plug. Nikki has her own cookbook. This thing lives right front and center in my kitchen. Tiny kitchen feast. You can get it Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, and some local bookstores, depending on where you look. Truly, it's the best food I've ever had. What Nikki makes. She's been my main inspiration to be in the kitchen. You guys don't know how I've been on this journey. And Nikki has really helped me along in that. Literally, when we first met, I was afraid to cook. You were. I was terrified. I'm very proud of you. All right, I got to mix up these apples. Okay, I just finished the apple pie filling. It got the green light from Nikki. I was very pleased. Oh my God, it's so good. Toasted some bread cubes. And now I'm going to saute my mise en place. What's mise en place? That's all the chopped veggies beforehand. Dang, there it goes. Thank you very much. Oh, did you want to say hello? It looks so good. Wow. It's about time for me to take the dough out of the fridge. And I'm nervous. I'm very nervous because I'm still trying my hand at baking. And I sit at almost 10,000 feet of elevation. So it's high elevation baking. So I'm not making it easy on myself. Okay, here's the dough. Flip it around. Yeah. Cute. Oh my God. Look at this. Oh my goodness. Is it good? You're a chef. I believe it. Face strong, man. Don't shake a carbonated thing. Amazing. Look at these. They're not as pretty as I would have hoped, but I still think they're adorable. British baking show. Watch out. Oh, and we have the glaze for the pies. Oh, you can like drink that. It's so good. Cheers. Thanks for being here with you guys. Apple cinnamon filling with a vanilla creme sauce. Creme anglaise. Okay. Is it okay? Who done it? We did it. The first fire of the season. Carving pumpkins. What is that? The littlest lick. Hello. And look who's joining. Ben, Gordo. Do we have plans yet of what we're carving? I got maybe a few ideas. Oh boy. I'm going to carve this pumpkin. Oh, well, that's good. Watch out. Pumpkin carving aesthetic. Oh boy. Oh, it's good. Say it, Ben. Oh, it's so good. Hey, how you doing? Look at Gordo's. Oh, it's so cute. Hold it up. It's like a mom, but it's like, hold up your artwork, sweetie. Oh, it's so sweet. I love it. Gordo and I both haven't seen Hocus Pocus. You excited, Ben? I need to give you a two month update regarding the solarium. So when we built this addition, I made sure to include a backup power panel so that when I lose power, I have an option to switch to a backup power source just to keep myself safe. And with all the crazy storms going on right now, I thought it was just a really good time to give an update on my Jackery 2000 Plus, which is the backup power system that I've been using. So the Jackery 2000 Plus kit is an entry level home backup power system. In other words, if you go through a power outage, you can switch your home's power over to Jackery's solar generator and power your entire home off of this. Now I have been using this for the past couple of months. I haven't gone through a major power outage, but I have gotten really familiar with the unit and I have come down to five different reasons why I really like the Jackery 2000. It has no fumes and practically no noise compared to a traditional gas generator. So much more enjoyable. Reason two, it is buildable, which means you don't have to make a massive financial investment right away. This is a medium size entry level unit, which means it's more affordable. However, it is buildable. Just buy another battery pack when you need it, plug it in and that's it. The Jackery 2000 Plus can go from two to 24 kilowatt hours of battery storage. Reason number three, that can be charged directly from solar panels with its rapid solar recharge. The entire unit can be recharged in just two hours. Even though this is a home backup power system, it is still portable. You can use it on camping trips, an off-grid property, or you could even bring it to a loved one who is going through a power outage. The fifth reason is that it is capable. Not only can you go up to 24 kilowatt hours of battery storage, it also puts out 3000 watts at 120 volts and can surge up to 6000 watts. The best news is that this exact unit is on crazy sale right now for Amazon Prime big deal days. This deal only lasts until October 9th. So go ahead and click that link down below in my description and be sure to use my discount code which is also down in the description to get some extra savings during this mega deal. Even if you don't want to make a purchase, go ahead and click that link down below anyway because it tells the sponsor that you trust what I have to say and keeps these sponsorships coming, which is how I am able to financially afford to keep making these videos. So thank you so much for clicking that link down below and thank you Jackery for sponsoring today's video. Watch out. We're getting more done. Good morning. We had a beautiful autumn day yesterday. The sun is shining once again and the gentlemen are going at it because in 24 hours we have a pour happening. That's right. Classic. But we also have another project going on in here in Okay, so I was expressing that like what my vision was for the layout of this room. We want a nice big leather sofa right here. Part of the mason's project is to fill this all. This would be a nice beautiful brick all the way up to the bottom sill of this kitchen window and then the couch would be able to sit nice against the wall if it weren't for these two posts that are required for this beam that holds the rafters up. We got to talking about some steel reinforcement we could do and through a combination of anchoring to the brick and putting some structural steel up there to stiffen that ledger those rafters are on. We're going to get rid of these posts. Here it is. You're doing great. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, we got tricks. Gorgeous. You and this steel Gordo. Oh my goodness. That's a man cutting some wood right there. Oh, is he gonna do it again? This is why you keep the scraps. That's pretty good. Is that some shim action? Yeah, I got a shim action. I think we're just gonna get this steel beam in now. Oh boy. You good about it? Yeah. All right, I'm in. Okay. That went really smooth, honestly. Scoot back down to my end. Nice. Oh my gosh. I'm like tight on my end. No, you got it. That could have been, that could have been such a pain and it was only a little bit of a pain. That's what you get by thinking about it first. I think it's gonna be pretty cool. Yeah. I didn't see anything happen. That's a good thing. That's a good thing. Having these posts out makes the whole room feel so much bigger. Yeah. And imagine a picture with brick up to here and that beautiful cedar trim like it's going around the side of the house. It's gonna look so good. And we're gonna paint this wall. All right. So I think that's gonna be a wrap for today. Maybe we can go set up our pumpkins. Maybe watch another movie. Yeah. And have an amazing dinner from Nicky. It's been smelling really nice. It smells so good. Yeah, can y'all smell that? Nicky? Yes? What the hell did you make? Oh, just something I whipped up real quick. Oh, just a homemade. Oh, this whole thing. This is amazing. Oh, thank you, Nicky. Look at this family meal again. It's the only one there. Pumpkin is fine for deer. Oh my god. Oh, buddy. He's like, what you looking at? Tell me what you're doing, Nicky. Yes. Diss our dance. Oh, it's so good, Gordo. Oh, Ben. Such a classic. Yeah, I feel like Ben's the champion here. Ben. Oh, I love your moss. The lunar moss looks great. They're so good. Are you in a circle? I don't think I've done this before. Good morning. We have exactly one hour and 15 minutes until a cement truck arrives again, so we got to get to it. Think we're going to get done? Oh, we're getting kind of close. Truck's coming and we're burning daylight. Here we go. Let's get it done. Here we go. Let's get it done. We're burning daylight, Ben. How many minutes late are they? Uh, four. Four whole minutes late. Why can't you trust an atom? I don't know. Why? Does it make little more work than the last one. Just because of how narrow it is, you have to move a lot. I think we did okay. Yeah. Where is it leaking? I'm stepping it up. Oops. A little leakage at the bottom. If that's the one thing that goes a little wrong, I think we're doing great. Splitting open just a little bit. Gordo, uh, tell me what's happening. Well, we don't come out of whack. Just a little bit. So we're just going to squeeze it, squeeze you back into. Just a little squeeze back. Get her back into whack here. Oh yeah. Oh boy. We did it. Another successful pour here at Dreamwood Cottage. Two for two. I was telling Gordo I'm going to be nervous every time he rolls in now because I'm associating his arrival with some sort of concrete truck. So anyway, I am so pleased with how this turned out. A little extra work, but I think it turned out great. Oh yeah. Tomorrow we're going to take the form boards off and that'll be the real, the real test, I guess. Good morning. We have less than two hours until Ben and I both leave to go to the airport for a very, very special trip to see someone that is very special to me. So maybe they'll get a little bit of a sneak peek. Ben, are you nervous? No, I'm not nervous. I'm just excited. He's excited he's going to meet someone special. Anyway, we're going to take these boards off to see if we were successful or not. Oh boy. Yeah. Nice. I'm nervous. Oh my gosh. Woo. There she is. Whoa. Nicely done Gordo. I stopped digging because I had to get ready for the airport. It's my airport fit. Get a check. Gordo's still been going at it. I don't know how to do the airport. I'll tell you when Gordo shows up, stuff gets done. Stuff gets done. We have to leave now and sweet Rio is going to be spending the week with Auntie Nikki. Nikki's going to be here taking care of the cottage and Rio while Ben and I go on a very, very special trip. We can't tell them yet. Do not tell them what's happening when we're coming back. Bye-bye family. We love you. It dries up and now there's just one road to take. So we decided to do a solid while they're gone and get some gravel to start. Yeah, this is Nikki and Gordo's makeover. I just, you know, there's still work to be done.