Project 6: Redo the Orange Bedroom Closet

This is our surprise project! We decided to add something fun to the bedroom upstairs and continue our exploration of color.

The shelf in this closet was pulling away from the wall - the nail holding the rod and shelf in place had been more than half-way yanked from the wall. My guess would be that someone placed too much weight on the shelf/rod for many years.

So we pulled out the shelving unit, which went fairly smoothly. I used a crowbar on one side, and accidentally poked a hole in the wall. So we used our new patching drywall skills to fix my mess!



N was much more methodical on the other side of the wall, where he first exposed the nails, dug around them, and then carefully removed them leaving no damage except nail holes.

Then we moved on to texturing the newly exposed areas.





After the texture was done, we painted the ceiling white, and the majority of the walls yellow. We marked out how the stripes would be placed in the closet, and where the yellow would be exposed we painted a second coat of yellow paint.







Then it was time to tape the walls. This part of the process was very time consuming. The pattern we decided on was to have tweleve inch stripes of yellow and red (the yellow from the bathroom downstairs, the red a new color). N and I were concerned that it might look a little too much like a circus tent, so we decided to include a two-inch orange stripe in the center of the yellow stripes.

The taped closet:







Close up detail of the tape:



Although we taped the closet, we weren't sure if the paint would bleed through the tape or how neat our lines would turn out. We decided to paint the small orange stripes first:





With the tape off:





We were actually really happy with the orange! The lines were fairly straight, and where the lines isn't straight, it's a natural bleed out onto texture. The stripes aren't too fussy. Now it was time for the red:

I had bought a quart of this red paint (COLOR NAME) at Lowe's, and when N opened it up the paint was much thinner than we were used to with the Valspar paint. This was both good and bad; the good: the paint was thin enough that one quart could completely cover the red sections of the closet (but only just). The bad: the paint was very thin and spotty.

Red paint with tape up:







Even after a second coat (with a new full gallon of paint that was the usual consistency), the tops and corners of the red were uneven. Also, the thin red paint had leaked under the tape quite a bit in some areas, so I went back with a small brush and covered some of the red spots with yellow, and with another brush went over the weak spots in the red:





The last of the can of red paint:

Project 7: Vegetable Garden

In previous years I've had a tomato plant during the spring and summer. It's fun when a batch of tomatoes are ready for picking, and they usually are sweet, juicy, perfect little treats.

And then last year we had a very bad tomato plant experience. We decided to plant it upside-down instead of worrying about staking it. The upside-down hanging tomato plant looked cool, and it did work (water didn't have to fight gravity as much, although the plant kept trying to grow vertically); but, it was a beast to manage when we needed to bring it in during hurricanes, and the tomatoes that the plant produced were horrible. Green, shriveled little things that I refused to eat after tasting briefly.

So, I think I avoided getting that type of tomato plant again this year, but we can also plant any tomato in the ground now, rather than a pot, and that should improve the quality of the fruit.

The first thing to do was to clear a spot in the backyard for the garden. The corner closest to the house made sense, because the fence is completed on either side, and the space is in a southern-ly section of the backyard, but wouldn't be too in the way or out of the way for visiting.

Ripping out the old McVicker plants was easy, and Nate and I quickly decided that a roughly six foot by six foot square would make sense, since it wouldn't be too big, but we could always expand it if needed.

Ripping out all of the other weeds and little grasses that had grown up took some time, but leveling the whole was very taxing.







I picked up three bags of soil (2 cubic feet each), and then we went about spreading it around.



Then Nate and I used the old stepping stones to create a little path through the garden, and also divide it into sections.





Basil and pineapple sage:



Tomato plant:



Jalapeno peppers:



Tools and remnants of the project:



I want to edge the area with rocks like the tree in the front yard when I get the chance. This is a project without end, much like the herb spiral. We left space to plant some okra and arugula later on, and we intend to expand it further down the fence (onto the side of the house) as time goes by. I can see us growing more than just herbs - but it will take time. I sometimes regret not making the herb spiral twice as big, since it's almost 80% full now. Anyway, we have lots of space to do whatever we want in.

Project 5: Fix the upstairs bath, Part III

Another project begun during my family's recent visit was removing the old vanity bar of lights from the upstairs bathroom and installing two new lights in its place. The old lights was removed, and a larger hole was cut so that we could better access the original electrical box, and then two smaller holes were made at equal points away from the original hole, and two "old work" boxes were installed.

My grandparents, mom, and N worked on connecting the old wiring to the new, and later that week N and I installed the light fixtures and I began to patch the drywall. N actually cut the piece, and then I glued it in place and began to mud it. It's funny, because since then I've patched two other holes (one in the blue bedroom, the other in the closet of the orange bedroom), so it's been wonderful to know how to fix the wall when it's damaged.









We still have a lot of work to do in the upstairs bathroom, but we're putting it on hold for a while to consider what we'd like for the cabinets/sinks/etc.

Project 2: The front walkway, Part III

The walkway project has been unhappily neglected the last couple of months. Between finsihing the 1/2 bath (which we begun around the same time), and wrapping up other projects, and the generally cold/wet weather, we haven't made lots of progress. The bed is still being cleaned up, and we haven't really come up with tons of ideas for the space.

However, in order to make it look like we are planning on doing something at some point with the front yard, I decided that the mulch beds around the trees could be redone (the landscaping fabric was showing in places). Then, I was thinking of all the rocks that my mom has been trying to throw away the last, I don't know, several years. I asked her to select some for me, and last week I brought them home.

Friday afternoon I did this:



I love it! I know now that I want to do this for the other two trees, and may end up outlining whatever we do with the front bed, or the vegetable garden out back.

Below are pictures of a balloon that got caught in our tree a few weeks ago. It appeared after Valentine's Day, and disappeared between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning:

Et cetera: Fence, Part II

So, the Fencing Company did our fence a month ago, and we're really pretty happy with the results!



















With the fence fixed the backyard seems a foot or two deeper. Our yard is still shallow - but now the fence looks sturdy and we have an extra foot or so of privacy. Thanks for finding these guys Rob!

Project 1: Redo the Half-bath BEFORE & AFTER

Note: the yellow looks different in this picture, because I took this photo with my camera phone, while the other AFTER pictures were taken by Nate using his camera phone. The yellow in my picture is closer to the real-life look.