04 Wednesday Aug 2010
Posted in Gardening/ Landscaping, Home Improvement, Home Maintenance, Life
Tags
blooms, flower photography, flowers, garden, garden photography, gardening, landscaping, photography
Best Bloom Photo Contest
Remember Me?
Did you vote yet? I have 6 gorgeous blooms entered in this weeks contest, you can vote for your favorite or vote for them all!
All six blooms have previously been shown on my blog. Vote before the eighth!
03 Monday May 2010
Posted in Gardening/ Landscaping, Home Improvement
Tags
building, deck, grilling, home, home owners, house, improvement, landscaping, weekend
Hubster and I never use the back of our house… It’s the one side of our house that has a neighboring house. Four years ago we planted a dozen small blue spruces, last year we rocked, mulched and planted roses along the house. This weekend Hubster added a deck. My FIL helped him frame it on Saturday, my MIL and I pitched in also.
Deck Frame
Sunday, Hubster added the planks and started the railing (just one side left to finish). I helped him in between loads of laundry… He was so dedicated he worked in the rain and in the dark, trying to get it finished.
Deck Planks
It was a much-needed improvement, it is a very looong side of our already loooong ranch. The deck breaks up the length of our house definitely gives it more appeal. This is a prime location for grilling, I walk right out my kitchen door on my new deck. I plan to grow my herbs in planters on the deck. I can’t wait to move my grill to the deck and make dinner. Once Hubster has the last of the railing finished, I’ll be able to landscape around it.
Railing in the Rain
Hubster is a good man… sometimes. 
What was your weekend project?
27 Saturday Mar 2010
Posted in Home Improvement
Hubster and I finally replaced our old rickety windows…. well not all of them. We replaced the three large picture windows in the living room and kitchen and the 6 double-hung windows that frame them. We got a great deal through Install America. Our custom-made windows were finished and installed within a month after ordering them. We ordered white windows (they were less expensive than the brown), but had them caped off in brown.
New Windows
The new windows are so easy to clean and they look and feel so much nicer. We can look forward to lower heating bills next winter and then our larger tax refund next year.
Brown Window Capping
28 Sunday Feb 2010
Posted in Home Improvement
Tags
decor, DIY, home, home decor, kitchen, kitchen remodel, refinishing
When Hubster first purchased our house, spray painting our kitchen cabinet hardware a “brushed silver” was his quick and inexpensive way to update them. However, the paint started to chip in places and the handle styles are extremely outdated (the original 1950′s hardware). Five years later, hoping to refinance our home and throw in an appraisal, it was time for a quick update.
As we walked down the hardware isle at our nearest home improvement store, we gasped at the $8 price tag that went with each handle (remembering why we decided to paint them in the beginning). We needs 25 pulls for our kitchen cabinets and didn’t want to spend $200 for such a minor detail. So after comparison shopping we found pulls we liked that were less than $3 a pop.
So with some hardware removal, wood putty, sanding, painting, drilling and installing the hardware we were done the first step of our plan. Such a small visual change, but it helped nudge the kitchen more toward our Tuscan dream (which is hard to create since we prefer blues and green to the rusts and yellows).
In the fall we conquered several kitchen projects. However, since one project leads to another, this weekend we also decided to paint the base trim to match the chair rail (chocolate truffle), install a new overhead microwave (our last one just died), and warm up the walls from the Ultra White to a Navajo White. The kitchen looks like new again. Rory our cat even helped us paint…
Rory's Paintbrush
Still on our kitchen (short) to-do list:
Repaint ceiling
Re-grout tile with darker color (light grout is so difficult to keep looking good)
Commission a talented local artist to create a Tuscan painting for our one wall
New windows
Replace doorknob to pantry & basement door
10 Tuesday Nov 2009
Posted in Home Improvement
Kitchen
I wish I had before pictures of our kitchen… from four years ago when we got the house. There was orange brick half way up the wall, faux wood tiles, a naked lady oil lamp and stenciled birds and hearts all over! Ugly. Nightmare.
We had recessed lights sitting in the boxes in the closet since we bought our house. Hubster and I finally decided it was time to get them into the ceiling. It took him several nights to accomplish what would’ve taken him one, when he realized that our house originally had a flat roof and he have to cut through the tar. After we got all the lights installed, he swirled the kitchen ceiling and took the light fixture and switched it with the old bubble in the hallway. Way to go Hubster!!
Hubster Hard at Work
Recently I’ve decided to paint the stark white trim a chocolate brown. Above the sink there was a wooden scroll, and we cut it down the make the bottom on the cabinet flat, painted it, and added stemware racks. We also cut out the bottom shelf of the cabinet above the stove and replaced it was a hanging microwave.
Trim Cut Down & Paint Retouched
Prepping to Paint
Stemware Rack Added
10 Wednesday Jun 2009
Posted in Creating, Home Improvement
Tags
French Dreams…
I have many plans (dreams, visions…) for our house, more than I have time and money to complete as fast as I would like. The two big indoor projects that I would like to accomplish this year is to finish off our basement (realistically, start it) and redo the bathroom.
The bathroom we refinished the first year in the house; we painted over the stenciled birds and hearts, changed the lighting, flooring, fixtures and vanity top. We finished it to be livable not lovable. I started to dislike the extremely neutral room, often changing the towels, area rug, curtain and accessories in order to liven up the room.
My inspiration is my mother’s french country antique bathroom. I’ve never been a wallpaper enthusiast, but she had found a beautiful textured wall paper and bought several rolls (so she’d have extra to match up the pattern). She had eight rolls left over and gave them to hubster and me to use.
I plan to wallpaper the upper wall, the bottom portion will have tan wainscoting and they will meet at a chair rail. The vanity base, hanging cabinet and mirror trim will be an antique walnut, in order to add a masculine touch and balance the femininity of the wallpaper. The fixtures will be bronze and some will be porcelain with chrome touches. I want to replace the sink top, tub and toilet white white ones
(the current tan ones blend in too much). I would like to retile the floor with small white ceramic tiles with a darker grout. The towels we have now will continue to work, although I would like to embroider a monogram on them or add a fleur de lis or such. Idealistically a bronze tin ceiling would complete the look, but whether or not that’s a go is up to hubster.
The only step I’ve taken to my french elegance (my own spin on my mom’s bathroom) bathroom is a small reminder of what is to come. My Chambord soap dispenser. I saved an empty Chambord bottle, removed the gold trim and the label and fit it with a silver pump (once it’s in my french bathroom it’ll have a bronze pump which I already purchased), it is filled with a creamy milk & honey soap (which I alternate with an creamy almond hand-soap).
I found a shower curtain that goes with the wall-paper on clearance.
Shower Curtain Close-Up
Drip, Drip, Drip… Drain, Dry
Our basement doesn’t have too many design plans yet, just how we plan to use the layout for different rooms. Our basement was wet and leaky and we thought we’d never be able to finish it. We dry-locked the leaky walls with dry lock extreme, then the water came up from the floors. Hubster’s cousin’s father-in-law owns a water-proofing company and they came and did our basement. 
Before, it was a disaster. Now it’s dry!
They trenched around the outside of the basement down past the footer and added a drainage pipe and some gravel. The existing walls had drainage holes drilled into the bottom, were covered with a vapor barrier and had vents added to the top. A corrugated drainage matt was placed on top of the gravel and up the wall a bit. Two submersible pumps were added in opposite corners with two back up batteries. A speed drain was added to the bottom of the stairs (where water often collected) beneath the bilco doors. Last, a layer of cements was applied atop the corrugated mat, around the pumps & speed drain. They also set up pipes to take the excess water outside our house.
26 Tuesday May 2009
Posted in Gardening/ Landscaping, Home Improvement, Preloved
Tags
I love Memorial day weekend. Amidst the barbecues, baseball games, yard sales and parties, it’s a weekend that I always seem to be productive. Maybe it’s that almost summer feeling, the perfect air and sun or the start of something new. This year’s four day weekend really got the ball rolling.
Early Friday morning Hubster, who was running errands, came home to get me. He saw a four piece wicker set at a yard sale and asked them to hold it until he got the trailer. Last month, I had seen a four piece wicker set at a yard sale for $30 and wanted to get it despite the damage to the settee and the ugly cushions. Hubster ensured me it would be there after we had stopped at a few other yard sales, but it wasn’t. This time he had done well. We picked up the slightly worn out white wicker set and brought it home. (Other yard-sale finds include a trailer for Hubster’s lawn mower for $40, a brand-new dual receiver baby monitor for $5, a lightly used pack and play for $15, a plastic safety fence for mce_marker.25, and a snow-blower for $60) I wiped it down and spray painted it brown. Spray painting wicker is almost impossible, you have to spray it from every single angle to get every nook and cranny covered. After going through 12 cans, I ran out of spray paint. The settee and one chair is complete, the other chair is almost done and I have to completely re-haul the table. The top is worn out and I have a plan. I want to paint the table the same brown, the middle of the table top needs to be cut out and replaced. I would like to find a nice antique map to decoupage for the middle and then cover with it plexi-glass. The set may not be finished for a while due to several hold ups… 1) I’m looking for the right colors on an antique map, 2) The store all seem to be out of the right color of spray paint, and 3) I cannot find the right color (all granny floral, yuck!) and shape (either for settee or for chair, none for both) seat cushions and may need to make my own. 
I have 10 matching planters
, 8 urns and 2 large pots, which needed to be filled for my patio and porch. I also have three hanging baskets on my porch. Last year I filed them with annuals but this year I wanted something more permanent. I planted 6 of the planters with small Mountain Gem Boxwood and Ivy trailing down the sides and the remaining 4 were filled with May Night Salvia. My hanging baskets, I lined the coco fiber planter liners with plastic grocery bags to retain some of the moisture and replanted them with some cascading annuals. Next year I plan to filled them with perennials, maybe periwinkle…
I then decided to add some color to my shade garden (which I just planted a few months ago from roots) while waiting for it to fill out. I added 6 Plum Pudding Coral Bells between the oaks. I had planted 3 Tatting ferns, 12 Lady Ferns, 24 Hostas, 20 Foxgloves, 12 Red Coral Bells from Spring Hill Nursery, a Bleeding Heart from my friend’s garden and 5 more Hostas from another friends garden.
I had planted three new lilacs I had got on arbor, but Hubster said some strange weed-eating creature ate 2 of the 3. I guess next time, I’ll have to block them off from Hubster and his power tools.
Other recent plantings included 8 Hedge Roses on one side of our property, 24 
(alternating red, pink and yellow), splitting my Purple Coral Bells (last year I split the three I had into 12 total plants and this year, I just pulled one more aside to fill a bald spot), a plethora of re-blooming Daylilies, and 24 new Hardy Gladiola Bulbs, and I replaced 4 Azaleas the died over the winter. I do have a few new potted plants that in excited to work into my gardens. I found a purple Iris growing amidst my 
, one I had never planted and have seen grow before this year. I also found a small Iris plant sprouting from the rock border of my shade garden, which I transplanted to my from garden, hoping next year it’ll bloom. I’m enjoying the mystery until then.
I also pulled aside some plants for my parents to take back to their garden; 
two different types of Sedum, some Winter-creeper, and some other small plant with purple flowers that I grow just outside the rock border of my front garden. Remember: A gardener’s best friend is another gardener.
