My New 'Old Home' Adventures

I've done a few refinishing projects with Milk Paint and decided I wanted to give Chalk Paint a try.I purchased a sideboard last year with the intentions of refinishing it and with Thanksgiving behind me, spent the day on my latest project. Chalk Paint requires very little prep other than removing hardware and taping off any areas like inside the drawers or door area or for this piece the tile top.  On my piece the drawers are not removable so I had to paint them in place.  I chose to use a small 2" natural bristle brush but you can use foam brushes or even lint-free cloth to apply the paint.For this project I chose Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint in Graphite.I went with a thin first coat just to see how the product went on.You want to put the product on in a haphazard manor and you don't need to follow the grain but since I was planning on a second coat, I went with the grain for my initial coat. After my first coat, my project looked very streaky and you could still

Kitchen/Family Room colors have been a struggle since I moved into this house.  I painted the kitchen cabinets BM Nantucket Gray which I have enjoyed but the mistake I made was to have Home Depot match another BM color Dunmore Cream and it came out much more yellow than beige.  I ended up adding some white to lighten it but I've not been happy since I painted it 5 years ago.  I've been trying to find another wall color but have struggled to find something I liked that went with the cabinet color.  Recently I decided that the cabinet color although gray, had more green than beige and before I repainted the walls, I wanted to repaint the cabinets. Current cabinets and wall color I have been contemplating this for a few weeks and wavering between off-white and grey. I like the look of off-white but felt that it was too unforgiving. While browsing Pinterest this week, I came upon a color that I thought might just work - Valspar Montpelier Ashlar Gray - about the sa

With all the landscaping I've been doing, I've also been spending a lot of time struggling with the hoses at the front and back of the house..  Finally decided this weekend to solve that issue by building two hose mounts near both exterior faucets.  One I made using an extra fence post and a plastic hose hanger I had out in my barn.  I simply dug a hole, sunk the fence post and then mounted the hanger with screws.  Took about 15 minutes to finish the whole project.  Since the post sits behind my grill and is tucked away, it doesn't bother me that is kind of rustic looking. For the mount at the front of the house, I wanted something that looked a little nicer since it would be right by my front entrance to the house.  I went to my local Home Depot and found two choices for my post.  First was a decking post with a decorative top for about $15 but I went with my second choice, a 4x4 6' pressure treated post for about $6.  I figured for the price savings, I could a

I just have to say that I absolutely love landscaping.  I'm not really a gardener but I love nothing more than planning, researching, buying and installing shrubs and trees.  Having lived in several homes, I've been lucky to have done quite a bit of this in my life and I love the process.   Although I've been in my current home for five years now, other than a small bed around the patio that I installed, I've not done any work on the landscaping.  Having a small farm with horses, improving the fields was more of a priority than the yard or landscaping.  Now that my fields are lush and growing and my herds has dwindled to two small donkeys, I felt the landscaping calling out for attention. Patio after install The previous owners had done a nice job around the front foundation but several azaleas are dying out and needed replaced. Since I love knowing the species and varieties, I was thrilled to find a diagram done by a local company who designed the landscape plan

My barn on the property is falling apart.  It isn't built correctly, has many structural issues and I'm just trying to make it last.   If I hadn't already put a metal roof on as part of the original upgrades, it might make sense to tear it down and start over.  I kid that someday I'm going to go out and the second story and roof will be sitting on the ground! At the end of last year I decided that several of the barn doors needed replaced and over the winter I've been rebuilding 3 of the worst of the doors.  The original doors were made from 3/4" plywood and 1x4's but when I went to purchase my supplies I decided to try using exterior siding and a new composite material called Miratec.  The siding was thinner than the plywood but since it was intended to be used as an exterior product, I thought it might hold up better.  Also keep in mind that the siding is sandwiched between the trim boards so I figured it would be plenty strong.  The Miratec produ

I know, this has nothing to do with home repair or maintenance but the weather was so cold and windy this weekend that instead of painting my barn, I ended up in the kitchen.  I was trying to replicate a Spinach White Pizza that I recently had at a restaurant and here is what I came up with: 10-12 whole cloves of garlic, unpeeled 1 tbsp olive oil 1/4 cup chopped onion 8 oz frozen spinach 2 cloves of minced garlic 1/4 tsp salt  1 cup grated mozz cheese (more if you want very cheesy or aren't watching your cheese intake) 1/4 cup grated parm cheese or other italian style cheese 1 ball pizza dough Optional: pinch of crushed red pepper      Place 10-12 cloves of the garlic on a sheet of foil; drizzle with 1 teaspoon olive oil and 1 tablespoon water. Seal and bake until soft, about 30 minutes; let cool slightly. Squeeze the garlic cloves from their skins into a small bowl; add 2 teaspoons olive oil and mash into a paste.  Turn the oven up to 450 once the garl