Projects Galore

We're back! And, no, this post won't be about our travels abroad (that one's coming once I go through all of the pictures and cull the best ones). This post is about a few projects that we've tackled immediately upon our return -- I guess it was just the (extra) long weekend that inspired us. Or maybe it was being away from our home for two weeks that gave us fresh eyes and a sudden determination to knock out 14 projects at once. 

We got back late Thursday evening and spent most of Friday just relaxing and resettling -- lots of unpacking, laundry, and general house things to get us back to normal. Oh, and Chick-fil-a. Twice. 

On Saturday, I decided to finally repaint the horrible, bright green bookshelf backs in our living room. We painted the bookshelves ages ago, not long after we first moved in. I had this brilliant idea that a bright, kelly green back against a dark gray for the rest of the shelves would just be so... striking. Well, it was horrendous. Truly awful. Halfway through painting the dark gray portion, I saw the error of my ways -- at least halfway anyway. I decided to repaint the dark gray back to white and spent many tedious hours doing so. 

For some reason, we left the bright green to see if we "could live with it" or if "it might grow on us." Nope. Just terrible. At first, I wanted to take some time and pick the exact right color or pattern or whatever to replace the heinous green. Then, on Saturday, I said, "I don't actually care. That green just has to go." 

So I took one of the test pots from the billiard room (Martha Stewart Plumage) and just started painting. Well, first I took everything off of the shelves and wiped them down with warm, soapy water to make sure they were clean (they weren't) before painting. 

A study in contrasts

Instantly better. Like a breath of navy blue fresh air. 

Seriously -- SO much better!

Another project that we (well, Richard, really) tackled this weekend was adding flower boxes to the brick entryway (fancy, huh?) of our driveway. I didn't know this was a project that we had in mind, but Richard informed me of it on Saturday. 

Also, for chronology's sake: on Sunday we enjoyed the Memorial Day weekend and spent the day at the Rappahannock River with my aunt and family friends. And, via Skype since he's serving in Japan, we thanked a current member of the US Navy for his service. 

And now it's Monday. We had no real plans for today since I didn't know that I was off of work until yesterday evening. Over breakfast we talked about maybe knocking out a few projects. And have we. 

Painted and cut to size -- the boards for the hallway!

Richard purchased all of the materials needed for the flower boxes and decided to also get the material for the board and batten hallway that we've been planning. While he was gone, I painted the hallway and all of the door areas in the nook close to the garage. We had been planning to extend the use of Stonington Gray (Benjamin Moore) all the way through since we used it in the living room and the kitchen, so I used the paint that we already had. 

I had some trouble cutting in close to the ceiling and was frustrated, and then I looked outside to see Lola chewing on the seat of Richard's kayak. She had shredded a good part of it. That dog. I had some harsh words for her and dragged her cowering butt inside where she promptly stepped on the paint can lid and tracked paint ALL over the downstairs as she ran from me while I got progressively angrier. 

I cleaned all of that up, and we do still own a dog. 

When Richard got back, he took over the cutting in and I tackled the roller. Much quicker. We got the first coat done and both went on to other projects -- Richard to the flower boxes and me to some memory boxes for our trip. 

While he was finishing the flower boxes, I painted the second coat of gray on most of the walls of the hallway and nook as well as the lower 3/4 of the hallway wall white for the board and batten. And Richard has just now finished the second coat of white and the actual placement and nailing of the boards. 

Isn't he the most, to say the least?

The finished product! 

And here are the photos of Richard's outside handy work on the flower boxes. 

The sloped flower boxes that Richard built to fit the top of the brick entryway pieces. 

The wood texture of the plastic

During the spray painting process -- we have a very sophisticated way of elevating the piece to be painted.

Our (Now) Lovely Yard

I really wish I had a good "before" picture of our backyard. It had three years' worth of dead leaves stacked about two feet deep over a layer of hard-packed but dusty dirt. 

When we first moved in, Richard started tackling the depths of the leaves, one section at a time. He hauled away three FULL loads of leaves and general debris in the first few months. He also had eleven trees taken down in order to allow more sunlight to reach the ground and improve grass-growing conditions. 

Over the course of the summer and into late fall, he worked on clearing away the leaves and prepping the yard. He tilled and fertilized and seeded and weeded and loved the yard. And now we have lush, green grass to show for all of his hard work. It's a little patchy in areas, but Richard says that's because this is only the first pass at seeding that area. It will get better and better each year. 

Our front-yard tree, which also happens to be my favorite of our trees. 

We also now have a dog who loves LOVES the backyard. She likes to dig up a nice spot to lie down in. She likes to chomp on the grass and pinecones and sticks and any yard supplies left lying around. She likes to dig up potted plants. And she likes to run hard and make sharp turns in the soft ground. 

And for Lola, our sweet Lola, we recently had an invisible fence installed. It took a little getting used to on her part, but she knows her boundaries now. So we can now leave her outside unattended -- for short intervals, at least. 

How inviting, right?
Side note: that scraggly, sad azalea bush in the foreground? It's gone now.

Eno weather is the best weather.

Since the weather has been so nice the past few weeks, Richard has been able to make even more improvements. He just planted some vegetables along the back fence line (just on the other side of Lola's invisible line, so the most she can do is some insistent sniffing). He planted broccoli, cherry tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, bush beans, celery, bell peppers, sweet peppers, early girl tomatoes, and one jalapeño plant -- that one's mine :). 

We have small space between the last step from the deck and the edge of the driveway. We threw out a few ideas of what to fill it with (one clean line of bricks set in flush with the ground, mulch, stones, etc) and landed on getting a nice ground-cover plant to fill in that space. Richard found these little cuties and decided that they would be perfect since you can step on them, and the plant won't take over the yard (fingers crossed). 

We also have an awkward space where some of the asphalt chipped away and leaves us with a crooked missing chunk instead of a nice, clean line. We hope that the ground-cover will help disguise that area since repaving the driveway isn't currently in the budget (or even necessary anywhere else). 

Notice the cute, little helper off to the right of the photo.

Notice that adorable planter that says, "Erin." (That was going to be a question, but I changed it to a command to avoid the question-mark-inside-the-quotation-mark thing that tends to be confusing.) Richard made that for my birthday gift when we were first dating. I love it. :) And him. 

Well, that planter used to hold my basil and rosemary every year -- and some garlic that just stays unharvested. But now that the herbs have a new home (mentioned later), we decided to plant some of the leftover programs from our wedding. They were printed on biodegradable paper full of wildflower seeds. 

When he salvaged the wood to use for the farmhouse table, he also snagged a few intact items -- an old door, a "rustic" bench, an old trough/bathtub, and some other pieces. He put the old trough in our one, defined mulch bed under a tree close to the deck and used it as a planter for herbs! Yay! We've got basil, chives, rosemary, parsley, oregano, and garlic in that great big trough. 

And we have some mint, but it's in its own planter lest it take over the whole yard.