ode to turquoise (via an old door)

This is how I left you at the end of my arbor post, with the new white arbor, and primed door trim . . . and the antique door of the studio looking shabby in some reject paint from the hardware store from several years ago. 

Our Adirondack chairs, on the other hand, are painted in this friendly shade of turquoise, or pool blue. It looks happy and intentional, wheras that old door looked pretty sad and unwelcoming. Worse, I'd say, than when my brother brought me the old door in the first place, with peeling white paint.

We can mark the door off of our never-ending to-do list; I took advantage of the nice weather to prime and spray it, and now it's just as happy and friendly as our chairs. It gives the whole building a different character. (The color is Rustoleum's Aqua.)

Of course, it helps that the sun was shining that day, which always makes things look brighter and happier than on a cloudy day, but I'm giving the new paint an equal share of the credit.

Okay, just that quick update for now, but I've been weeding and planting and working on the yard a bit more since painting the door. You can bet I'll be posting about those adventures very soon.

In the meantime, thanks for reading!

kitchen, bit-by-bit

Our kitchen project pre-dates this blog. Somewhere around here, I have photos of the "Before" kitchen, with dark wood cabinets, orange laminate countertops, copper hardware, and OMG, the most amazing silver foil wallpaper, with mustard yellow and orange daisies printed on it in stripes. It was really something. Where the sun had hit some portions of it through the window for decades, the flowers were faded. Where it hadn't, they were hurt-your-eyes vibrant. 

Anyway, photos somewhere, not here, not now, except that this old photo (from 2008, when we started re-doing the countertops at the same time I was closing down the bookstore) shows a snippet of the old burnt orange countertop.

We took out the orange laminate backsplash, covered everything with 1/4-inch cement backer board, and started laying down slate tiles. We also took out the beaten and chipped up 1960s sink. 

The tile looks better cleaned and polished. This photo is more recent, from a month or so ago when I was trying to finish up the slate backsplash installation (five years after starting the project). I had cleaned everything off the counters and decided it was a good time for resealing the stone.

The mister took the opportunity to install these little undercabinet lights from Ikea.

The kitchen is small, so the three pack was enough to light up the area. A really nice touch. It makes the whole place look brighter and more modern.

We don't renovate our kitchen; we evolve it. And I guess that all evolution takes time. But making progress feels good. I'm really looking forward to getting a little further along soon. 

Anyhow, take heart, you fellow slow renovators! I sometimes get this feeling like every other blogger in the universe is able to diy amazing renovations in a relatively short time. When I was a kid, though, this was more how things got done: a little change here, a little change there, a new walkway and paint.  We were in it for the long haul. Money and time constraints, other projects to pursue, weekend bike rides, and a passel of little kids running around; our house was in a seemingly constant state of flux. As is my current home. And while somedays it would be kinda awesome to just have something finished already, I kinda like our weekend adventures, and playing in the backyard, and working on side projects. So the backsplash will get finished eventually. And so will the plaster and paint in the bedroom. And the siding on the studio. You know. Someday. 

Thanks for reading.