Garden Update- August

 {Whoops! I wrote this post last month and realized I never posted. Better late than never!}

The kids have affectionately started calling the garden the "Garden Jungle". And rightly so, as it literally has become a sea of overgrown green plants.

 As you may remember, I was going to experiment growing pumpkin up a trellis. Truth be told, it grew too well as it took over the entire garden. Well that and pumpkins just take up a ton of space. I recently cut it all back but took these pictures prior to that.

 My sweet potatoes decided to run a muck as well but I use sweet potatoes all the time so I don't have the heart to cut them out of my aisles. I hope I get a bunch!

(They are in the back bed in this picture)
Now you can see why garden #2 is necessary. I like to grow too many things.

Here's one of the pumpkins. They stay green and have been pretty squash bug resistant.

I planted this bed of raspberries this year and they are producing now. They really need a trellis but with the million other projects we have, we haven't built one yet.

The kids eat them as fast as they come!

And it was all yellow

I've been waiting until the perfect painting weather came along to paint our front door. A few weeks ago, it was time! I normally would try 5 swatches of paint to test but I knew I wanted yellow and I not a super bright yellow. I went with more of a buttercream yellow that I saw on the "Exterior House Colors" book for Behr at Home Depot.

We took the door off and I painted over the previous blue color with four thin coats. The we flipped it over and painted the other side too. It was at this point that I started to freak out because it was way too light. Cam told me to wait till we got it reattached to the door then decide if we need to get a darker yellow (more like a gold). It actually got too cold and the paint wouldn't dry as fast as we needed to get the door back on so we could sleep. Consequently, we moved the door into the garage and I blow dried it dry, then added the last coat.

Cam put the door on and that was a whole other story. Long story short, the door is steel and when he had it propped up against the wall it tipped over and feel into the opposite wall leaving a HUGE hole in the sheet rock and chipping the light switch. We patched it up but you can still see it in the photos.

 Here's the interior door with old floors and baseboards

 Here it is new baseboards and door trim. 

And here is the after. I ended up liking the color on the interior. The color is called "Early Harvest" by Behr. We just spray painted door knob, lock, and hinges and oil rubbed bronze.

 Here's the exterior right before painting.

And here it is now. Cam was right, once we got it up the color looked darker and better with the house than I thought. Whew. I love it now!

Dining Room- baseboards and pictures

 Here's another way before picture. Dining room is in the same room as the living

Here wall paper is off and popcorn ceiling gone.

 Here it is now. We are on the hunt for a table/ thinking about making our own. I'm not sure what we will do yet. I have a new fixture in mind for the ceiling but I'm waiting for the table first. Pictures on the left are recent portraits of the kids and their baby pictures underneath. The frames were just cheap $3 front load ones from Walmart. I'm happy with how they look for that cheap! As you can see in the photo we still need to finish up the corner baseboard that goes into the kitchen. I painted the windowsill in here too.

On the opposite wall I have a print from a favorite artist, who I also got to take a workshop from, Mike Malm. It's small but I love it.

Baseboards and New Shelves- Living Room

Here are some before and afters with baseboards finally installed. I decided I can do one room at a time, so first up- the living room.

 A way before shot. I took this during our home inspection- This is a fun reminder of how far it's come!

 After painting walls

After putting up pictures

 New baseboards installed! Yay. Cameron sprayed them before installing which was a huge time saver. Also, I primed and painted the window casing and window seat. All the trim is BM Advance in white dove.

Some of the other changes I've done in the living room are a new family picture (thanks to my Dad for taking it!) up there in the frame, plant, and yellow throw. The yellow throw makes me smile every time I see it. It's so cheerful! I think I need more yellow things. I picked that up from home goods. The plant is a fiddle leaf from Home Depot. I've been wanting one forever but never saw them at Lowes where I normally go. I toyed with buying a fake one for practicality (I hear they are hard to grow) but the faux ones that look real are $250. I was walking through plants at the Home Depot one day and saw the real deal for $16 on sale!! Score! I figure I (or the kids) could kill a lot of them before it would add up to the fake for $250.

 Here is a good floor picture. This is most accurate to what they look like in real life. You can get a peak at my new shelves in the mirror.

 Here is the before for the shelves. Sorry I forgot to get a true before! Cameron started with middle shelf brackets. The unfinished board isn't attached, we just put it up there to make sure everything was level.

After. The shelves are 2x10x10's cut in half. Cameron sanded them and I stained and polyed them. I already had some Minwax dark walnut which matched the floors. Brackets went up first, then shelves. Brackets are from home depot. Oh and I had to move my imac upstairs since Cruz now has spelling homework on the computer. Crazy!

I'm also excited I finally get to do more seasonal decorating because I have shelves. Summer's not over but I was too excited and decorated for fall with a pumpkin, acorn, and pine cones.

Also Cam did a good job with baseboards here. See that intake vent? He carved the baseboard around it. I think it turned out awesome.

Next week dining room pictures... should give you a better view of baseboards since there isn't any furniture in there!!

Blue Sky

I've been wanting to get an update on here of rooms with furniture and new baseboards but I keep waiting for the day when my house is clean enough to have a photo shoot. Since we've had it done for almost two months, I think that's my wake up call that my house is hardly ever clean these days. We've been working on a few things to manage that as a family and hopefully I'll be able to show an interior update soon :)

In the meantime, we did do something major outside.
Our extra lot went from this...

To this...

Yay! I am so excited. I made a video so you can get a better idea.

More updates to come!

Chickens!

After several years of putting it off for one excuse or another, we finally got some chickens. I have a friend who offered me her grown hens that are laying eggs now (definitely a no brainer) :) So we had to figure out arrangements for them fast since she needed her coop for her new chicks. Luckily, I have a handy Cameron who could build a coop for our new chickens. He made it over 2 days which was super fast and we were crazily getting everything ready for the hens. The original plan was to have a mobile coop so they could forage but after we finished, Cameron and I could barely lift it into place so it got a permanent spot behind our garden.

 The plans for the A Frame coop were from ana-white.com but we modified it a bit. Cam used fence posts for the roof, hardward mesh (as recommended since we live in an area with lots of raccoons), and we put doors only on one side (hers had 4 doors on the top). We tried to use a bunch of scrap wood we had on hand to keep down the cost.

Here is a view of the inside. As you can see it's sitting on cinder blocks because of the slope. I had those totally covered up with dirt so the chickens wouldn't hurt themselves but after our recent 3 days of pouring rain it all washed out. I'll have to figure something out there. The floor is dirt which is nice because I just sweep their bedding from the nesting boxes on the ground. Theoretically it should all just compost down. And maybe I'll get to use some for fertilizer.  The stick across is for roosting.

Here is their nesting area. Cam cut some old buckets we had to make a designated place for them to lay. We just barely got some peel and stick tiles to put on the floor to make for easier cleaning but haven't got them in there yet.

 We lock each door with a carabiner clip. This also is suppose to help keep racoons out (I heard they can figure out lots of simple locks?!)

I still feel like I don't know as much as I should about the chickens (normally I would read every book from the library first) but diving right into it has been good for me. We have 4 chickens and have averaged about 2 eggs a day.

This weekend I convinced Cam to build a little mobile run for the hens. I wish I could let them free range but I know my neighbors wouldn't have it. We also have a neighbor behind us with a pit bull that runs loose occasionally. The mobile run hopefully will be a good alternative so they can eat some bugs and weeds at least.  It still is going to get some wheels on one side so I can roll it around the yard but it's just about done.

Green beans

I like this variety of green beans already! They grow so long!