Happy 4th, everyone!
Well, working on the house continues. The sprayer we bought is well worth the money spent in terms of time saved and sanity retained. Here's the status update, for any of you interested...
The driveway side of the house is primed and has been painted twice. The upper trim and window frame have also been primed and painted x2. Bill's going up on a ladder this morning to remove the tape from that area. Over the last couple days I stripped old caulk and paint from around the two first floor windows, removed the rotted molding from the door frame and sanded that down...reapplied caulk to the windows and the door frame, and then primed them all. Today Bill's going to put up the new molding - which is already primed, yay - and then all that's required will be two layers of paint for the 2 windows and the door frame.
We've also primed and applied one layer of paint to the back of the house - the largest part of the house. One more layer of paint, and then all the window frames and trim and that side will be finished.
One third of another side of the house is DONE. The chimney divides that side into a one third section and a two thirds section. Well, maybe it's more like around a quarter sized section and a hefty two thirds. Whatever the measurement, we've still got the bigger area to finish scraping before we paint.
High humidity is supposed to set in today (although according to my sister this morning, today is not going to be as humid as we'd expected, but it doesn't matter anyway, we're taking the day off), and for most of the upcoming week it will be too humid to paint. Won't be all that comfy for any other work, either (90's - ugh) but we're still going to do as much scraping of old paint and replacing of shingles and rotted framing as we can so that when the humidity subsides we can paint like maniacs. (Tidy maniacs.)
Having the back of the house 2/3 done (not counting trim) is a great thing.
And it looks so pretty.
In part, I think it's because the old paint job just looked so awful that any new paint looks good in comparison.
But it's not just that.
I told Bill this morning that the new color, and the way it looks, say, against the white trim (where we have some at this point), or against the unpainted wood of our deck, is transportive. I'm not even sure if that's a word. But what it does for me, and this is the reason I chose the color scheme, is place our house near a beach. Any beach would work, but for me, the beach would be one along the southeastern part of RI, near where I grew up.
When we were outside, cups of coffee in hand, checking out the vegetables and (Bill) frowning at all the grass in the pool from the kids playing in it yesterday, I could look at the house and the deck, and squint my eyes a bit to block out the surroundings, and imagine it near sand and waves and gulls and outgoing lobster boats.
If I can't live on the beach, I'll bring the beach - or at least the illusion of it - to me.
~~~
In other news...earlier this morning I was just checking my email when Bill came hurrying down the stairs, putting on a shirt and saying "I saw a bunny in the back yard! It was heading for the squash!" I grabbed my camera and followed.
"Was it the little bunny?" I asked, in an almost girly, squealy, delighted voice.
"It was wittle, that wascally wabbit!" he muttered, reaching for his rifle. Okay, I'm just kidding. We don't have a rifle. And he doesn't talk like that. But I couldn't resist.
We tiptoed out the door and crept toward the squash jungle. Bill headed to where he'd seen the bunny (it's very little - we saw it in our forsythia the other day), and I stood by, ready to shoot - with my camera. Suddenly a tiny brown bundle of fur with a fluffy white tail shot out from the other side of the garden and bolted across the driveway and into our neighbor's yard. It was so fast this is the only picture I was able to get:
Yeah, I can hear National Geographic Magazine calling to hire me RIGHT AWAY.
Anyway, while the little bunny fled in terror, Bill was examining the squash plants for vandalism.
He brought me a mangled leaf.
"Think those look like bite marks?" he asked, pointing to missing parts of the leaf. I said not really, it just looked like it had been stepped on a few times.
"That's bunny drool!" he insisted, pointing to a microscopic damp area along one edge.
I looked at him for a minute. "I think it's just mangled, dear."
We looked at the gardens, which are a crazy happy tangle of productivity at the moment. We've got hot cherry peppers coming in now - here's a picture. I'm too lazy to post it on the gardening site.
We've also got (in addition to a zillion butternut squashes) a couple of good looking Black Futsu squash coming along nicely. Here's the bigger of the two:
I'm very excited about these - never had them before but they sounded like a good variety to try out. And yes, our garden needs weeding. We're making the kids do it while we scrape and paint this coming week. That's why people have kids, isn't it?
Anyway, as we were heading out of the back yard to go to the front yard, I looked up and saw - yes - the bunny!
"Bill!" I hissed. "Come here!" He tiptoed closer but I think the bunny, sensing her nemesis nearby, scurried away.
Actually, Bill is not the bunny's nemesis. At the risk of exposing his softer side, he was the one who first saw the bunny under the forsythia, and the look of glee and delight on his face mirrored my own.
He just doesn't want it eating our vittles, and I don't really want that either. So we'll see how this plays out this summer.
~~~
What else...the other day Bill told me Julia, frustrated about something, said a word that began with the "sh" sound. Bill asked her what she said, and she told him "Don't worry, Daddy, I didn't say "sh*t," I said "shoot." Good girl, Julia.
~~~
I need to make cheese again but who knows when I'll get time to do it. I made chevre a couple weeks ago and have rationed that successfully, but I used the last of it on a pizza last night, so...sniff...sob...I am without goat cheese for a while. I really want to make feta. Maybe I'll do that next. I have (again) 4 gallons of goats' milk, 3 are in the freezer, the other one I picked up on Friday and am hoping I can do something with it today or tomorrow. We'll see.
~~~
I guess that's it for now. I'm hungry, haven't had breakfast yet.
Maybe I'll have whatever's left of that pizza.
Hope you have a relaxing day, wherever you are!
What's the name of your paint color? I'm thinking about beach colors for my kitchen. I know it's indoor vs outdoor paint, but the name and brand of the paint color might help me get started. thanks!
Posted by: Susanna | July 04, 2010 at 11:23 AM
Susanna - its Sherwin Williams Duration exterior latex, and the color is Dockside Blue. Were using white for trim and Indigo Batik for the doors and shutters. Happy painting! I think were doing the main floor of our house next year (we re-did our whole second floor last summer), and Ive been trying to figure out colors for the rooms. Id love to hear what you end up choosing for your kitchen.
Posted by: Jayne | July 05, 2010 at 08:07 AM
LOL... I like using "Shhhhhhistle Pods!" and my precious little girl would say things like "she's such a BIIIIIIG headed woman!" But that wasn't until she was well into her teens and actually knew what a Big Headed Woman was.
Posted by: judith | July 06, 2010 at 07:57 AM