Wood Shed

In the winter we heat our house entirely by the fireplace. Cameron is a fire starting pro and I on the other hand am the worst fire starter! A lot of the frustration for me came from the fact that our wood was always wet. Even though we had a tarp over it, or would store it in the garage for a few days to get it dry it always sizzled in the fire because of the moisture.

I read an article that said that even though wood is cut and "drying out" for a time, having it get rained on at all reverses the seasoning process. So to make fire starting easier for me we needed a more permanent covering for our wood.

We opted to move the wood pile behind the shed so it's not as much of an eyesore. Then Cameron added a roof over the top to keep it dry.  We went back and forth between a tin type roof and shingles. But it wasn't that much more to just do the shingles so we went for that. The structure is more about function than looking good though.

All done!

Pantry Refresh and Other Project Starts

Sorry for the last month of blog silence over here. This last month of pregnancy left me wanting to do nothing but sit and rest. We tackled most of these projects before Noelle got here but I didn't get a chance to update.

Our pantry always felt dirty and I could never get it clean because it had some of those laminate sticky papers on it. Even though we plan on renovating the entire kitchen some day, having Noelle almost here left me wanting a feeling of cleanliness now.

We just decided to gut the whole thing.

And now...

It got all new shelves, baseboards, every seem is caulked, and Cameron painted it.

Nice and clean!

The other project that got started was a sandbox made by Cameron. He found some old deck wood at the dump and recycled it for the frame of the box. We are still working on getting it finished.

The last project is the ceiling got scraped in the den and kitchen dining area. This is what I've been working on since Noelle has been born. Cameron patched the hole next to the fan and a few days ago I taped and mudded everything. I'm so ready for the ceiling to be done because then I can paint the walls too. They are desperate for it. I'm also on the hunt for a new fan.

A Furniture Makeover with Oil Based Paint

We've had this dresser sitting in our storage room for a while because I didn't have a place for it. It was given to us and in our old house it was in my painting room. So you can imagine it was pretty beat up. I already started to patch things but here is roughly what it looked like before...

I painted one other piece of furniture in our house with oil based paint and even though it was a little more work to clean up, its worth it because the finish is super durable. Oil based paint has another perk, it is self leveling. You don't see a ton of brush strokes or roller marks. After it dries it is smooth and glossy.

 I put Cameron to work on the painting portion since the stuff is super stinky and considering I'm expecting it wouldn't be very healthy for the baby. Since I painted with oil based paint before I knew some tips which I learned the hard way and suggested them to Cam. He did great. In case you ever feel like trying it here's what we've learned...

 Once you go over an area resist the urge to go back in the same painting session and touch up a spot. It will leave the brush strokes.

It's better go thick with the paint (not so much that it drips though). And believe it or not a brush actually works better than a roller.

 We used oil based primer plus two coats paint. Here is its now. I got the new pulls from home depot.

Garden- September Update

 Cucumbers have finally come in. I guess I just planted them late so they came late. And apparently I planted too many again. Do you see the wall of cucumbers on the back? Whoops. But I suppose I'd rather have to many than too little! Tomatoes have been good too. We've made a bunch of tomato sauce, salsa, and have had them in and on everything. Squash are still producing. I need more recipes...

I've also been clearing out the beans and ground cherries to make room for fall plantings.

I started red romaine, bok choy, a couple types of kale, and collards inside a month ago. I got one of those soil blockers, which is suppose to help prevent transplant shock. They are definitely big and ready to go in the soil but its still way too hot outside.

I take them out a few hours each day to try and acclimate them but the butter type lettuce especially doesn't like it (as you can see in the picture). Hopefully things will cool off soon. I'll be directly planting some more carrots, spinach, and a type of broccoli that is suppose to overwinter then grow in spring when it gets cool.

New mailbox topper

Our old mailbox had some personality. Unfortunately it wasn't quite our style and as you can see was falling apart.

 

When Mom and Jimmy came to visit a month ago the Saturday project for the guys was to work on the mailbox.

They got it to this point but it was my job to pick out a paint color. It only took me a month :) It was a hard choice because we have intentions of painting the house some day and it will be a slightly different color. So I didn't want to match the mailbox to the house exactly. I finally decided on a color to paint the house, which in turn helped me pick the mailbox color. Okay, too much typing,  here it is...

As you can see it's a warmer darker gray- it has more green undertones than red. It's one shade darker than we plan to paint the house but the color is really growing on me so we'll see!

Baby Nursery- White trim and a shade

We are expecting a baby girl in November which means our guest room will turn into the baby's room. Even though I have zero energy this pregnancy, I've managed to get a few projects for her room done (definitely some nesting kicking in). I painted the trim in the room from oak to white. The difference is amazing.

Before

Current. Sorry it's super hard to get a decent picture of this room because it's tiny!

I also made the shade. It's a relaxed roman shade. Right now it's just faux because we have a room darkening roller shade under it. I have intentions of making it a real movable roman shade eventually once she is big enough to know not to play with the cords. So it's just for looks now but I'm happy with the fun pattern it brings in the room. Fabric is from Tonic Living, I love that store! And in case anyone is interested I followed this tutorial mostly but instead of using glue I sewed it so I could covert it later.

Hopefully, I'll be able to finish all my other plans for this room before she makes an appearance :) Here's whats on the list:

• Set up new crib (LONG story,  but my old crib got recalled in 2010 and amazingly after 2 hours on the phone and an hour in the store I was able to return it for a full refund! Time well spent!) 
• Paint old dresser. The new crib is white so I want to paint the dresser we have white to match. 
• The carpet in the this room is so worn and yucky. Replacing the carpet is not in the budget so I'm going to cover it with an area rug for now. 
• DIY a starburst mirror.
• Have the boys paint a picture for hanging above the dresser. We'll see how that goes :) 

Garden- August Update

I can't believe it's August already. We're harvesting lots of veggies each day which means getting creative with dinners. Most of what we've picked we have eaten right away but I've managed to make tomato sauce and blanched/frozen green beans for later.

 Cucumber vines are in the back. They are huge! But for some reason haven't really been too prolific with yields yet. I'm still trying to figure that one out.

Lemon squash is a keeper. If you live in an area with squash bugs grow this plant! It's still going strong and I'm getting at least 1-2 squash per day.

I've also had a ton of success with Beurre De Rocquencourt Bush Wax Bean- great producer and I've been harvesting for at least 4 weeks. My other "kitchen king" and purple beans pale in comparison.