School House Rehab
Trying to leave our little slice of America better than we found it!A Second Attempt At Curb Appeal
July 12, 2013
If you’ve been following this blog since the fall, you may remember an enthusiastic post about curb appeal. You can read about it here, but I’ll give you the Cliffs Notes if you’re in a time crunch. Back in October, I planted over 150 (Yes, you read that right - I’m crazy.) bulbs around the yard in anticipation for beautiful spring flowers. Many came up, but many did not. Specifically, I planted a bunch of bulbs around the mailbox to give the curb some color.
New Kitchen Tile: Complete!
July 9, 2013
Put a fork in it. The kitchen tile job is done. For a recap, here’s where the kitchen stood at the end of night one. With that part under our belt, it was time to grout. Before we mixed it up, we needed to check each space between the tiles for any thin-set that may have sneaked out while pressing the tile down. Each space needed to be clear to absorb the grout we’d scrape on.
Kicking Off Our First Tile Project
July 8, 2013
The tile is up, y’all. It’s up on the wall. Technically, it’s been on the wall for a while now, but I’m just getting this post up now. Sorry ‘bout it. I picked the tile out a few weeks ago at Home Depot, and with everything else thrown in, our cart looked quite full. We grabbed everything we needed for this job all in one shot. Or so we thought.
Shakespeare's Garden
July 1, 2013
In between gardening and putting finishing touches on the kitchen tile, I found some time this weekend to take a drive to a local nursery I’d yet to visit. Shakespeare’s Garden is nestled in a very quaint area of Brookfield, CT, just a few miles from home. While out at a firework gathering Saturday night, my friend Stacey (the same Stacey who organized the wine tour) mentioned she was heading to a cute nursery in Brookfield, CT.
Good-Bye Grease, Hello Sleek
June 28, 2013
I know the title doesn’t rhyme exactly, but humor me. Here we are, with part two of two in the microwave saga: the install. Did you read the Microwave Story? It was long, I know, but funny. At least, I hope it was a little funny. Wish you could have met CSG, he was a real riot. I realized I didn’t include a picture of the microwave we ended up buying at Home Depot.
A Microwave Story
June 27, 2013
It seems we’re a little over halfway done with our mini kitchen renovation. I can’t believe it. We’ve made giant strides since our counters were installed 20 days ago. As soon as the counters were in, it was go time. We attached our new faucet, removed the nasty, grease-covered range hood, and went microwave shopping. (We also put all of our tile backsplash up this week, but you’ll have to wait a few more days for that post.
State of the Garden (Late June 2013)
June 25, 2013
Nearly three weeks ago, I posted a series of (very amateur) photographic shots of some plants around the yard. We had so much rain in May that I titled the post, “May Showers Bring June Flowers,” because “April Showers Bring May Flowers” didn’t really fit. That was three weeks ago, so here we are now, with some new blooms that have popped up around the ol’ school house. Three weeks ago, I had one calla lily bloom.
Choosing Our New Kitchen Faucet
June 21, 2013
Our new faucet is installed and fully functional, and I’m a happy girl. I wish I had more of the “install” pictures for you, but Matt does things quickly and huffs and puffs at me while I try to take pictures. So, here are the after pictures of our new Moen “Anabelle” faucet. Side note: Those orange dahlias on the ledge are from my garden. Kind of. Matt bought them for me in a patio planter to celebrate our new counters.
Green Mountain Wedding
June 19, 2013
You might not believe this, but this past weekend, Matt and I did nothing around the house. I swear. No house projects, no laundry, no cleaning. You name it. We didn’t do it. Crazy, right? We had an excuse for being a bit lackadaisical. We were away in Vermont for much of the weekend and then had a chance to celebrate Father’s Day with my dad late in the day on Sunday.
Take Off The Hoody
June 19, 2013
Before we can start the backsplash to complement our new counters, we needed to figure out our range hood situation. Why not tackle it on a weeknight? That’s how we’ve been rolling this Spring. Our current range is old, ugly, and loaded with old grease. You can decide what’s grosser: the old grease or the fact that I lived with the old grease for 3 1/2 years. We are going with an over-the-range microwave to replace this bad boy.