My New 'Old Home' Adventures

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 - a...

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 p...

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 landsca...

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 ...

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 ove...

Wasn't planning on writing anything today but as usual, things didn't go as planned!!!  Was having a cup of coffee this am while reading Houzz - this great home design website. Happened to see an article on laundry room makeovers and decided to paint my laundry room ie laundry closet.   My laundry facilities are in a hallway at the back of my house between the backdoor and the door from my garage.  I've always hated laundry areas in hallways but when looking for a house, this was the least of my concerns. The closet had bi-fold doors on it but after replacing them once and continually having to fix them, I decided to remove the doors completely.  It's been this way for a year or so but I had never painted this closet and it was looking pretty shabby.  I happened to have a full gallon of paint left from my hallway painting project and proceeded to paint away.  I didn't have any roller covers with my painting supplies but since I was doing two coats and it wa...

Going back to a previous project - remodeling my master bathroom for this post.  For a home from the 70's, I am fortunate that although small, I do have a bathroom off my master bedroom and a walk-in-closet.  Although neither are up to today's standards, they are nice features of the home and work wonderfully for me. New Master Cabinet/Sink The dilemma I had with this project was with regards to the vanity that I ordered on-line.  It was exactly what I wanted as far as the look but the marble sink top came pre-installed to the base.  I had to man-handle the unit (over 300 lbs) up the stairs to the second floor and then came to realize that it wouldn't fit through the narrow 23" doorway into the bathroom.  I took off the door, but still no luck.  Finally removed the door frame and managed to get the beast into the bathroom.  I ended up not replacing the door after the remodel.  The bathroom space is so small that having the door was just a nu...