PRIMARY KEY issue with creating tables in Rails using mysql2 Gem

My version of rails is 4.0.0, my version of mysql is Ver 14.14 Distrib 5.7.9, for Win64 (x86_64). I am operating of an older version of rails as I was getting some clashes with the mysql as per my previous question Here. (check Kalelc's approved answer for my recourse)

upon running

rake db:migrate 

I get the following error

==  CreateUsers: migrating ====================================================
-- create_table(:users)
rake aborted!
StandardError: An error has occurred, all later migrations canceled:

Mysql2::Error: All parts of a PRIMARY KEY must be NOT NULL; if you need NULL in a key, use UNIQUE instead: CREATE TABLE `users` (`id` int(11) DEFAULT NULL auto_increment PRIMARY KEY, `first_name` varchar(25), `last_name` varchar(50), `email` varchar(255) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL, `password` varchar(40), `created_at` datetime, `updated_at` datetime) ENGINE=InnoDBC:/Users/Lizanne/Documents/Code/Sites/simple_cms/db/migrate/20151116154434_create_users.rb:3:in `up'
C:in `migrate'
ActiveRecord::StatementInvalid: Mysql2::Error: All parts of a PRIMARY KEY must be NOT NULL; if you need NULL in a key, use UNIQUE instead: CREATE TABLE `users` (`id` int(11) DEFAULT NULL auto_increment PRIMARY KEY, `first_name` varchar(25), `last_name` varchar(50), `email` varchar(255) DEFAULT '' NOT NULL, `password` varchar(40), `created_at` datetime, `updated_at` datetime) ENGINE=InnoDB
C:/Users/Lizanne/Documents/Code/Sites/simple_cms/db/migrate/20151116154434_create_users.rb:3:in `up'
C:in `migrate'
Mysql2::Error: All parts of a PRIMARY KEY must be NOT NULL; if you need NULL in a key, use UNIQUE instead
C:/Users/Lizanne/Documents/Code/Sites/simple_cms/db/migrate/20151116154434_create_users.rb:3:in `up'
C:in `migrate'
Tasks: TOP => db:migrate
(See full trace by running task with --trace)

I do not set any values to NULL in my code, here is the code

Class CreateUsers < ActiveRecord::Migration

  def up
    create_table :users do |t| 
      t.column "first_name", :string, :limit => 25 
      t.string "last_name", :limit => 50
      t.string "email", :default => "", :null => false 
      t.string "password", :limit => 40
      t.timestamps
    end
  end

  def down
    drop_table :users
  end
end

This code is exactly as shown in the tutorials I am following. I have also investigated other similar issues here on stack overflow and have followed the advice given. I have tried the monkey patch as suggested

# lib/patches/abastract_mysql_adapter.rb
class ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::AbstractMysqlAdapter
  NATIVE_DATABASE_TYPES[:primary_key] = "int(11) auto_increment PRIMARY KEY"
end

I inserted this file into a folder I have created called patches inside the lib of my simple_cms application. I have saved down the file as "abastract_mysql_adapter.rb" as suggested in the same monkey patch I have updated my environment.rb of the simple_cms application with the following

require File.expand_path('../../lib/patches/abstract_mysql_adapter', __FILE__)

if I then run a rake db:migrate command

rake aborted!
LoadError: cannot load such file -- C:/Users/Lizanne/Documents/Code/Sites/simple_cms/lib/patches/abstract_mysql_adapter.rb
C:/Users/Lizanne/Documents/Code/Sites/simple_cms/config/environment.rb:3:in `<top (required)>'
Tasks: TOP => db:migrate => environment
(See full trace by running task with --trace)

C:/Users/Lizanne/Documents/Code/Sites/simple_cms/lib/patches/abstract_mysql_adapter.rb is most definitely the path to the monkey patch, why cant it load it? Have I put the patch in the wrong place? What do am I doing wrong? Apologies if this is obvious to some but I'm returning to coding after a very long abstinence and I cant get my head around the issue. Many thanks in advance for you help :)