Repainting Kitchen

When I set out to paint the kitchen, it was a scary task.  I had painted rooms before, but nothing we were going to be living in for years to come. Sure it could always be repainted. Who has time for that though?  I love red and have loved red for years so picked a red paint color.  Green was ok, just not that shade.

Before

Before

Before

In Progress

 In Progress

The color I decided on is Glidden Rapture Red. 

There was a toss up between that one and Candy Apple red. It is a nice paint to work with.  Unfortunately it stayed tacky for about two years. I took the chance and didn't use a sample just painted the whole kitchen.  And I love it! It goes very nicely with the black appliances and the cabinets.

After

After

After

After

  

Lace Window Covering 2nd Attempt

                        Workshop Lace Window Covering

 This time I decided to be smart and use a pattern. See former blog post here Lace Bedroom Window Covering.  On the other side of this window is our bathroom. Which is why I wanted a privacy screen on the window.  Original directions for privacy lace

Before

Before


So much prettier isn't it?

After

  The log wall was originally the outside of the house. My workshop is in an enclosed porch.

After

Bird, Bee & Butterfly Garden - A Work In Progress

                         Bird, Bee and Butterfly Garden

    Spring 2019 Update

This garden did well to survive the winter.

 

This is a project I've been wanting to do for years. Unfortunately, when one is renting, landlords don't allow a lot of gardening changes to their yards. And who wants to put that kind of money into a place where you'll be moving from in a year or so?  So after we bought this place I couldn't decide what to do with this space. Bird, bee and butterfly garden works perfectly here where it's mostly blocked from the wind on the sunny side of the house.

Before

      Each square on the graph paper represents an inch. Sorry, it doesn't show up as well as I had hoped.

Planning Left Side

Planning Right Side

     The Catmint did really well under the bird feeder pole. Next year I'm going to put one or two more plants there. The catmint and the bee balm, (tall ones in the back) were from a local nursery and not from seed. The bushy plant near the birdbath is salvia from a neighbors garden. The violas under the birdbath and the snapdragon, in front of the bee balm, were both planted from seed and transplanted.  I have a dickens of a time trying to get anything to grow from seed that is directly planted into the ground here.

Early in the Year

       Here you can see the sunflower that planted itself from birdseed and it is almost as big as the ones in the back which were planted much earlier.

Early in the Year

Here the dry creek bed is in progress.

Dry Creek Bed

Violas Under the Birdbath

The Lupine supposedly was a sunshiny plant, but it did not do well at all here. Maybe it's a variety that needs just partial sun and was mislabeled.

Violas with Lupine Just Barely Showing on the Right

      The yellow snapdragons lasted into December. Kinda unusual.

Snapdragons in Midsummer

      These Sweet Williams actually did much better after this picture. I didn't get a picture after the border was up. Watch for the update this next season.

Sweet Williams in Midsummer

Late Summer

Workshop Paint Job

                           Workshop/Office Paint Job

 

   This project almost ended being, "I bit off more than I could chew," kind of project.  Decided the baseboards were not to my liking so removed them and found mold underneath the window. It was not a lot, and not bad so fairly easy to fix. To prevent this from occurring again underneath the window is now painted with a mildew-resistant primer underneath the mold resistant paint. Perhaps a bit overkill but I do not like mold. Irritates my sinuses.

Before

Before

Before

Before

Before

 These next two pictures were taken after the painting was done and I had decided to strip the paint off the trim and redo. Never again!  It took weeks, a lot of work and a result that is not that pleasing.

 

During Painting

During Painting

   

After

After

After

After

After

After

Finishing Touches

Finishing Touches

 Supposedly adding fancy bits to your light switches makes them juvenile. Well, then I'm a juvenile. Some things should be glammed up a bit as it makes them more fun.

Final Touches

Final Touches

Herb Gardening with a Black Thumb

       Herb Gardening

   Update: Spring 2019

     Still too early to tell what has survived this long cold winter.

After a hard winter

One of the chive plants survived the winter

    I actually started this project two springs ago and didn't get very far as nothing came up.  I don't know if I just started the seeds too late and they got a little too toasty or what. 

Herb Garden Before

    So this is what it looked like before any work was started on it.

After Work Was Started

    Even though it seems like I have a black thumb at times, I still wanted to persist because digging around in the dirt and around plants is just fun, (usually) and it's healing.  So hubby went and got some horse manure from a co-worker and we spread a layer of that on top of the garden last fall.  When spring came I spaded it back into the dirt. Really made the worms happy.  Note, the manure came from pasture horses and not from a barn. Taking manure from a barn is risky as there is the chance of mouse droppings being in the manure as well. Which that being in a source of edibles, just yuck! The manure did not fully decompose over the winter so we didn't harvest any herbs last season. It is possible it will sit for another full season as well, depending on what it looks like come spring. 

Spring 2018 Planting 

    After not having very good luck with seeds coming up in peat pots the previous spring I found out about Jiffy peat pellets and this is what they looked like.

2-3 Weeks Old Seedlings in Jiffy Peat Pellets

Burpee's Peat Planter 

This next spring I'm hoping we'll have a double-decker grow light.

August 2018

Side View August 2018

Another Side View August 2018

Purple Pansy

   My pansies did really well until part of our fence blew down and the deer found them. They must be quite tasty to deer.  They ate nothing else planted in that bed. So most herbs are not attractive to deer.

Purple and Yellow Pansies

 The four o' clocks took forever to get going but once they did it was wild.

Four O' Clocks

Hubby's Favorite Flower

Pink Four O' Clocks

White Four O' Clocks