House Project #10: The Bathroom

The smallest (almost) room in the house and it's taken me the longest to decide on paint colors. I don't love the current bathroom layout, but it's functional. I have a vision of what I'd do if I came into enough money to renovate it (this being enough money to take care of alllll of the other things that are priority over simply tidying up the space!), but that vision is unlikely to become a reality any time soon, so painting is the only option.

boooorrriiing renters white with stained wood cupboards

you can see the old electric water heater in the lower right;
it was never operational, so I had the electrician remove it

House Project #9: Laundry Room, Phase 2

The laundry/pantry is a small room with big doors. The door to the back room stays open most of the time since we keep the food & water for the animals out there and access the back yard and garage. The pantry doors are regular interior doors and take up most of the space when they're open. In addition, they're stained wood, and work against the creamy orange walls to make the space feel gross. I painted the same doors that are on each of the bedrooms and the bathroom, but I've been trying to come up with a solution beyond just painting for these.

I swear the builders got these doors on special. . .
every room has one, and this room has three!!

Garden rehab & Other outdoor updates

Stick season is well underway here in the valley, and while it's been busy off and on since summer, I've still managed to get a bunch of outdoor projects done over the past five months or so. It's been quiet here on the blog, and I probably could have squeezed in a minute or two here and there to share some updates as things got done, but alas, that didn't happen.

So, please bear with me as I give a somewhat abbreviated house & yard update, in no particular order. . .

House Project #5.5: The Wood Stove!

It's 37 degrees out; a few days before Christmas (Happy Festivus!) and we're already enjoying the first thaw of winter. Lovely. But it's made better by the fact that I now have the wood stove in. I love wood heat. I grew up with a wood stove, and there are two in my mom's house now. Someday I'd like to have wood heat be my primary source, but for this house, it will be supplementary, and for this winter, it will be sporadic - on the weekends after skiing, or on damp, grey days like today. Since I hadn't planned to have it in this winter, I didn't order wood, although my mom was kind enough to let me have a bit of hers. I may try to order a cord later in the winter, but it's non-essential, so I'll probably just wait until summer.

Furniture Face-lift: Dresser and Jelly-jar shelves

A coat of paint can make a world of difference for some pieces of furniture. And, when the local hardware store sells paint returns for pretty cheap; most gallons are $5, and most quarts are $1, I'm usually not too picky about the colors I'm getting for cheap.

Luckily I've scored some decent colors (I am kind of picky!), and earlier this summer found a gallon of light gray and quart of purple. I used the gray as a primer coat on the front door I scored, mainly to cover up the red that doesn't quite go with the house color. The door still hasn't been hung, but we're getting closer.

There are two pieces that needed a little face-lift now that the two rooms have been painted: my dresser, and a shallow shelf that is going to go in the guest croffice. The gray was perfect for both pieces and against the room wall colors, and the purple was a good accent against the gray for the dresser

House Project #7: Back Bedroom

I finished painting the back bedroom just before Thanksgiving. I was house sitting through the holiday, so could leave the place in a bit of shambles (sorry sister!). From the look of the living room last week, you'd have thought I was a hoarder. There was a bit of a path here and there, and boxes and tubs and furniture all over the place. Of course, looking into the two rooms getting painted showed they were nearly empty, negating any hoarding fears.

Here's the room when I moved in. Curtains are long gone, and the cover of the
baseboard heating unit has been straightened

House Project #6: Front Bedroom and Guest Croffice

Back before my sister moved in at the beginning of September, I painted the room she's living in.

Front room, prior to moving in; the drapes are long gone - I put up a mini-blind
and added new curtains.

Front Walk Facelift

The original path; functional but underwhelming.
The flagstones were all partially overgrown with grass.

The majority of the academy students, save the youngest group and the Nordies, have all headed off to November ski camp in CO. I'll be headed there next week, but for the time being, I have some time on my hands. Granted, it should be used to wrap up first quarter grades and comments, but really, I have until Monday at noon. Plenty of time!

So, with an hour or so to kill today while it has been lightly spitting snow, I figured I may as well finish up the front path. I gave you a little preview last week, and then picked up the sand and sorted out the flagstones earlier this week. You're in for a bit of a long post, but it's mostly pictures!

Let's rewind some, since the preview was missing a lot of the key work that had already been done. I have been planning to redo the walk for a while now. It isn't my favorite part of the yard, and while it functions perfectly well, I wanted to clean it up and feature the really nice flagstones more prominently.

This summer I acquired a big ol' pile of 1-inch gravel that I planned to use to surround the flagstone. Add in some free bricks from my sister-in-law's mother, and all I ended up paying for were the five 50-lb bags of sand I used to help settle the gravel. I love low cost projects! I finally got motivated last week to get started. We're well into stick season, which means it could snow any day, and the temps were cooling off. Motivation enough to get the path done.

In Progress: Front Walk Sneak Preview

It's nearly the end of October, and given that snow could fly any day now (we had snow on Halloween a few years ago!), I decided I should probably get started on redoing the front walk. Mainly the issue is that the pile of stone that will go around the slate stepping stones is dead center on where the plow will push the snow off the driveway. I don't want to move it twice, so I may as well do the walk, right? 

Rough walkway! 50 bricks in, 60ish more needed
(And what's up with the paint job on the fascia?
Someone ought to do something about that. . . )

Earlier in the week, on Monday, I pulled up the slate stepping stones, cut the edges, and pulled out the excess sod. Yesterday I got the first load of bricks that will edge the walk. I still have a bunch to do - pick up the rest of the bricks, buy sand for the base, but I am certain I'll be able to get it done in the next week or so, especially since the kids all head out for their ski camps next week!

Random Repairs: Garage Door Weather Seal Edition

This is what my view was for about 30 minutes straight last night:

I went cross-eyed several times.
And my right knee fell asleep. It was not comfortable.

ONE YEAR!

So technically the official year-iversary isn't until mid-October (when the paperwork FINALLY went through and I actually owned the place), but it's been one year of living here. It seems kind of crazy, and I still can't always believe myself when I tell someone I own my own home (who does that??), but it's exciting to know I've made it this far, and when I look at the mortgage bill every month the balance seems to be a little bit less.

then. . .

New Shelves! The Backroom/Man(less)cave edition

The backroom/man(less)cave has become a catchall for storage bins, paint storage, recycling center, pet feeding zone, yard-sale pile, and general miscellany collection area. There is some semblance of organization, but nothing substantial. Basically, just zones where things that are kind of similar in theme are generally placed. The biggest issue has been the stacks of bins and tubs against the back wall. I've been stacking them a two or three high, but they've started to inch their way forward into the rest of the room. Add a bunch of stuff my sister has begun moving in ahead of her move and it was finally time to do something about the space.

this place is a little out of control. . . good thing I don't actually want to get
anything out of those tubs right now!

Kitchen/Dinning Area Update

I have a minor obsession with vintage Pyrex and have slowly been acquiring random pieces over the years. I definitely use some of them, especially at the holidays or when going to potlucks, but quite a few have been tucked away in cupboards, unused and unseen. I love the patterns and have been debating adding a shelf to the kitchen/dinning area to display the pieces.

Earlier this summer I grabbed a board from the collection of wood left in my dad's barn. It's a 1 x 8, about 6 1/2 ft long. The brackets are 6 inches on the short side, 8 on the long side. The board was primed already, and I wanted it to match the rest of the space so I added a few coats of the cupboard and trim paint. The board was sitting in the garage for a few weeks until I finally got motivated Friday night and Saturday morning. On Friday night I initially hung the brackets too high, so Saturday morning I started over. A little measuring, leveling, and drilling, and the shelf is up!

This & That: Catching up and Making plans

still getting strawberries!

It's been a busy month; I've been working most days, had a friend visit for a weekend mid-month, and just this weekend attended a wedding of a friend/coworker. It's a rain day from work (like a snow day, but for gardener's in the summer), so I'm trying to motivate to get some things done, or at least organized. I haven't been very crafty lately - it's hard with the weather being so nice, and there being plenty to do in the yard (lots of free plants from work!), and the loooong list of house things I should/want to be doing. At the very least, here's a little update of craft & house projects I have been working on (or plan to be!).

Hanging Out

This:

thank you REI dividend!

The Veggie Garden Update & Flower Beds Tour

Nearly two weeks later, and the veggie garden is coming along. Almost everything is starting to come up, although I replanted some cuke seeds, added some pea and bean seeds, and the spinach. The cukes, peas, and beans are new seeds this year whereas the spinach are a few years old. One hill of beans are coming up and about half the peas are, so it's not a big deal if the other respective halves don't make it. I can always find greens at the Farmer's Market, so I'm not so worried about that seed stock, either. The carrot seeds seem to have migrated between the rows, so I might add more of that in the next few days, too. I've added some onions, leeks, a pot of mint (absconded from an out-of-control patch at a gardening job), and as of this weekend, sweet basil and nasturtium. I also put down burlap bags over the garden cloth, they were free, which beats buying wood chips! All-in-all, everything is pretty happy so far!

Another Yard and Garden Update

Spring has finally arrived. We've had some warm days and cool nights and everything had just about exploded. The Mad River Valley is a week or so behind the Champlain Valley, where my mom lives, and every time I was over there over the past month so so, I was jealous of how green and springy it looked. With all the warm weather I've been spending a bunch of time working on the yard - it's hard to stay inside with the sun shining! Of course, I've already had to mow - twice in the back!

Here's a yard and garden tour, starting out back:

start of the new backyard border bed

New Yard Toy!

Vermont has this great web-based community board called Front Porch Forum, organized by town or region (I'm part of the Mad River Valley FPF), based on your street address. It's a pretty sweet free service - a community bulletin board for the digital age. I've scored a few things as well as sent other items to new homes, found a roommate, read about lost-then-found dogs, heard about - then attended - some cool free events, and learned tonight that someone got a kayak stolen from their yard (definitely not cool!). If you're in VT, and not on FPF, you're missing out, and frankly around here, it's more exciting than my facebook feed most days.

Why the excitement? This:

NEW WHEELBARROW!! 

A nearly-new, less than two year old wheelbarrow! For $35! From a really sweet older woman who needed to get a two-wheeled rig. I'm so dang excited. I know, I need a life, but seriously - no more dragging the big blue tarp around, or filling the blue recycling bin. Given how much needs raking from the yard and garden, I'm super excited to have scored this. Now I just need to find the time to get the yard work done. . .

House Project #5: The Living Room

It's been a while since the last major house project, in which I painted the kitchen. I didn't do much over the winter aside from assorted curtains and hanging some pictures and paintings. Well, I'm delighted to report that I've finished painting the living room! This is the other third of the main room of the house. One third is the kitchen and the other third is the reading nook. I wanted to get this main space finished since this is where I spend most of my time, be it alone or entertaining.

the "front" half of the living room. great light! terrible carpet & drapes.

Sprucing Up the Walls. . .

not really wall-related, but I did wind the
yarn blanks that mom & I dyed in May.
future mittens?

Happy March! Winter is still hanging on around here - we got a little bit of snow today (fresh powder SB & MRG!), and it's supposed to be wicked cold tomorrow. I don't mind it - I'm a huge fan of winter and am always reluctant to see it go, so hopefully we have a few more weeks left!

I'm slowly chipping away at little house projects. I've been hanging photos, maps, posters, etc. that have been collecting over the years and have been unearthed in the unpacking process, sewing curtains, agonizing over what color to paint the living room half of the main space (which actually won't happen until April, I'm sure), setting up the guest room (now that the brief foray with a roommate is over), etc. Here's a little update on what's been done the past few months.