Category: Restoration

I know i promised you kitchen before/after, but i still can’t quite bring myself to address those pictures. Also, I’m still only at 70% done (essentially same as I was last December) which is depressing, and apparently I’ve freaked out my mother a little bit because I want to “gamble” with the system and see if I can finish the remaining 30% in time for guests to come over for Christmas

ANYWAY.

Here’s a small project from last weekend — I finally found and installed racks for hanging glassware out of the way of other stuff. YAY!!!!

First the digging up of sod and sod and more dirt. Luckily J came over and graciously helped me accomplish this in less than 1/2 the time it would have taken if I were by myself:

Then a layer of pebbles:

Then a layer of sand and the first few rocks:

Then more rocks:

Then dirt!

And this one doesn’t really need to be posted – I found some “stepables” — plants that can be walked over, but even splitting 8 containers of various tough, low ground cover type plants …. it still looks mostly like dirt around all the field stones.

AH well. At least all this rain has helped enormously in the “settling” of these rocks. I may try seeding the cracks if I can decide on what exactly I want growing there. Any suggestions?

First, you need to collect the rocks….

Little Laura’s two dogs + a ride in the trailer of a riding lawn mower = great fun!!

Some of my field stones are actually …. tree stones?

A rather weighted down car:

Here’s the beginning point of my kitchen rennovation:

There will be a step-by-step post someday….. keep in mind that to-date, the thing is only 70% done….. I need to get myself over to talk to some people about kitchen sinks and counters and islands and one more cabinet deal-i-o…. which adds up to: roughly 30 square feet still need a bunch of attention.

Here you see two projects in one…. first, the small garden path I’m going to finish before the ground freezes. Last night I was raking leaves in different patterns to lay out the shape of the path once and for all (much easier than moving all the rocks, which is what I was doing before). Turns out I need more rocks.

Second, you can see the oodles of bulbs I bought last week. Allium, fritillaria, tiny dwarf iris, anemone, camassia, crocus, narcissus, and tulips. About 265 bulbs total at the moment, and I may possibly get a few more tulips. Maybe. An alternate subject or title for this post could be “Glutton for punishment”. I do this every year to the tune of 100-300 new bulbs. And every year I complain about what a pain it is. But then every spring I am hap-hap-happy to see all the new flowers in my yard. Except for last year. Last year I didn’t plant any and this spring my yard seemed just a little less festive, a little less full than it could have been. So this year I maybe might be trying to make up for it … just a little (^_^) “Yellow Orange Passion Blend” is my most exciting bag of bulbs thus far — they are crazy designer narcissus in all sorts of double & triple formations. Can’t wait to see them — check back in ~6 months for an update!

I’m borrowing this from my parents:

Do you know what its primary purpose is?
Do you know what its secondary purpose can be?
(It requires one small, easy-to-make modification to perform as object #2.)

yes, yes. It requires some cleaning before it can be used. That is what the wire brush is for. and check out those #$@*(&!!! tomatoes still hanging out in the background. sigh.

I bought two tables this weekend. Both need some work.

Table #1 is from Saturday’s trip to visit my aunt:

It’s a folding table but it’s currently missing a leg. Which is interesting because I bought a leg for it on Sunday and the leg cost me more than the entire table did…. almost twice as much! (how does this happen?) Total cost to this point is still <$10 but still.
Table #2 is from Sunday’s trip to brunch @ D’s:

Step 1 = give it a good, long bath with lots of elbow grease:

Step 2 = decide whether to leave it as is, paint it some other color, or strip it & refinish it. Painted wood makes me a little sad sometimes, so I’m leaning towards the refinishing route…. which means chemical stripping in this case, I think. There are at least 2 layers, possibly three, to go through and they look like they’re old, possibly lead-based and will likely be a medium-pain-in-the-butt to get off…..

BEFORE:

AFTER:

INBETWEEN:

For the plant lovers who watch this blog, check out the progression of the amazingly huge rose bush by my garage…. it’s very nearly taller than the garage these days. amazing!

At the bottom of these images is my new summer project = refinishing a boat!

new boat = fun stuff coming up later this summer!
once i re-learn how to sail, anyway…..