Ah Summer! 2021

 

Hello Friends!

I am still here, happy and healthy.  This summer has been a whirlwind of activity! But it has been filled with all the good things in life!! Family (lots of family visiting!), diy projects, sewing, gardening, crafting, going to the beach, porch sitting, small house projects, berry picking...... 

Last year I had a really hard time finding words..... which is one of the reasons I haven't been posting much. What was there to say about last year, except we survived? 

Last year also had me reevaluating a lot of things in life, just rethinking what direction life was going and what direction I wanted it to go. I am sure a lot of us did that!  I have been a bit on the fence with this blog. Should I let it go? I am on Instagram and really love the inspiration and creativeness of it. 

But, I have good news! 

Do you remember the Sister House I purchased last year? (aka the house next door) The renters are moving out in a few days and boy do I have plans!! I am so excited to start restoring her! So, for the time being, I will keep this blog as a way to share the renovations. So stayed tuned!

Can you believe it is already apple picking time? The little apple tree has produced a bumper crop this year! I had to buy myself an apple picker on a pole to reach them all. I haven't picked all the apples yet, I need a little time to make some pies and apple sauce first!

We haven't spent a lot of time on the front porch this year because of the construction dust! They decided this was the year to replace the road, crosswalks, driveway aprons and sidewalks. Boy, is it a mess! We will be thankful when it is done.

I finished my new quilt this spring. It has been so nice! I love how colorful it is. It was a nice comforting project to work on last year.

I was super excited to finally go blueberry picking! We found a farm that isn't too far away and Mandy and I had a lovely time. It was a beautiful, rather warm, day. Fruit trees and bushes are so beautiful.

This Spring I finished up patching over the old heat vents and rearranging trim, but I will save that for another blog post. I also did a few small projects including hanging hooks in the bathroom and floating shelves in my bedroom. Oh and I also repainted my bedroom walls a slightly darker pink!

So Friends, that has been the summer in a nutshell! 

I can't wait to share the journey of Sister House with you! 

Do you  have any big exciting projects coming up?

Paint Projects Around the House

This was the first year this peony bloomed! I think I need more of the variety! 

 I thought you might like to see a couple of pictures of the freshly painted bathroom! Ah! Fresh paint always feels so nice!

I ordered a bent "Radiator Brush" from Wooster Paintbrushes. The minute I saw it on amazon, I knew I needed one! So far, I have only used it for painting the front of a radiator, so not sure it if really helps reaching behind and getting all the nooks and crannies. But it sure is cool!

Besides painting the radiator in the above picture, I have also been working on two more radiator that will be installed this fall. So far, I have them scraped and primed. 

It is amazing what details they put on these old beauties!

I think I mentioned before that I painted the back entry/stairs the same time I painted the bathroom. This space gets a lot of traffic, so I decided the steps also needed a paint re-fresh. It is hard to find a time when I know the ins and outs will be at a minimum! So far I have only been able to paint the blue. Since the squares are all ready there, I just used a craft brush to re-paint the squares and border. I still love this feature!

 Also getting a coat of paint is this little table I picked up at a garage sale! It was covered in silver spray paint when I got it. This is just after I finished washing it down with hose. All the old paint just came right off!

That is when I discovered the "wicker" wrapped around the legs wasn't actually wicker! The wooden legs were turned on a lathe to look like ridges of wicker. Isn't that cool? I am thinking it must be 1900-1920s, with possibly a replaced table top.

Isn't it sweet? I am so excited to have discovered this little gem. I was going to buy another small table from Ikea for the porch, but this one is much better! 

 I had to sneak in a few summer flower pictures too! The baskets on the fence are so lovely this year with geraniums.

 And Kerri enjoying a little porch time with us!

 It is almost hydrangea season!

Last week marked the one year anniversary of the Brick House! Gosh! I can't believe it has already been a year!

Summer Flowers, Painting and Porch updates

Ah! Summer is here in full swing! The porch is almost tree house like with all the leafy green trees surrounding it. I have been doing a little fluffing and sprucing to the porch. We changed the pillow covers to our usual summer covers and have added one or two other things.

I suddenly remembered I had a basic wooden stool in the basement and decided it would make a great plant stand behind the settee. Then Mandy found a (slightly squashed) fern on sale to perch on top. Perfect!

We have had pansies on the porch this spring. This one is lovely! 

 I forgot I wanted a new doormat to spruce up the porch, until I saw this one at Hobby Lobby! Mandy managed to get Kerri to "pose" for us. I love all the colors!

 Summer also means gardening around here. This year we have larger hanging baskets on our fence hooks. The tin buckets, while very cute, looked a little lost on the fence. We are loving the bright geraniums!

We also got our patio pots planted! (Say that seven times fast!) Can't wait to see what they will look like all filled out!

Summer is all about projects too, right? So last Friday I decided it was time to get re-painting the bathroom checked off the list!

 One of the perks of having a small bathroom is it is quick to paint! I managed to paint the bathroom and back hall (they were both the same color) in a little under three hours. Made a nice start to the weekend! (I don't often get a bird's-eye-view of the bathroom. The ladder was half in the bathtub for cutting in around the ceiling!)

I didn't get any spiffy "after" pictures. And it doesn't really look any different as I used the same color paint. It just feels a lot fresher and clean with a new coat of paint. Six years of wear and tear in a bathroom was starting to show on the walls! 

Saturday was filled with a bunch of projects outdoors! All of which I will share more details later. Mandy built a potting bench, which is super cute! I cleaned out the garage, which inspired Mandy as I found a bunch of lumber. The Great Radiator Project has also started. In the left corner of the picture above you can see a radiator I am scraping. There are two I need to scrap and re-paint. The others just need a touch up coat of paint. I am also working on patching the cold air returns in the cottage, which is why there are old floor boards there! I was cleaning and stripping the finish on the boards.

It took a bit for me to adjust to not having the Brick House to work on! Still in process, but I am getting into re-focusing on projects around the cottage. The biggest one this year is to get the whole house fitted with radiators. There are a lot of steps that project and hopefully we can get most of them done this summer!

I dug this embroidered cottage out of my closet and finally got it finished!