EJ,

Oh my, your farm house almost sounds like the house in the movie "money pit". Is there any possibility of digging a well, so you don't have to hall in water? That doesn't sound very practical & very expensive & really a nuisance if you run out of water in the middle of a shower.

Sounds almost like it would be a good idea to put in a small prefab home with no stairs to have to deal with. I know that several of the farm homes I looked at here were being focused of being "historical".....more like "hysterical" & it would take more money to fix them than to just build another home. A good home was definitely a requirement for me. I was just lucky however that I found one at a price I could afford in a beautiful area.

I found out after moving in that my neighbor was the one that built my home 18 years ago. He had subdivided his farm, build the home for a family & the lady wouldn't move into it because of the cows & the smell that was across the street. Now that I have been having people coming in to do fixing on the house, I have found the problem areas, but overall, they all say that the house is solid, well build brick, two story home with a huge basement that has a beautiful brick fireplace in it just under the one in the family room.

Your 18 acres of rolling hills with trees & ponds sounds absolutely beautiful also. It is awsome to have that kind of beauty around you to be able to sit down & enjoy watching at sunrise & sunset. I hope you can get the house into a more user friendly setup. I know after having major knee surgery (reconstruction) & on crutches for 3 months, homes with stairs aren't very easy to deal with. Hope your knee problems will get better....physical therapy is definitely a must, but doesn't ever seem to get it back 100%.

Sounds like your husband has a bit of a trip to get to work & they dealing with the heat in the building too. I know that Kansas also has high humidity, so that doesn't help with the heat either . Hopefully this won't be a permanent situation for him.

I understand the problem with lack of structure. That definitely doesn't help with motivation either.....organizing tasks helps along with lists, but I know for me, when it is hot, I have even less motivation. At least I have a nice above ground pool to take a dip in when I need to cool off......but my favorite of all in a nice hot shower to loosen up my joints & muscles after a long day, or even to start the day out, since no part of my body wants to move in the morning.

Take care, & hopefully after the summer gets over, your motivation will pick up,
Debbie