Shady Deals

The old aluminum blinds all over the house were getting on my nerves. I appreciated that we had some sort of covering for privacy (I've experienced the difficulty of moving into a new house and having to deal with lots of bare windows all at once). But these were dusty, dirty, and dated-looking. I knew something fresh would really update the rooms quickly.

The dining room windows when we were pulling up flooring

One set of living room windows before we moved in

A JCPenney clearance search resulted in just the right thing: bamboo shades in the perfect reddish wood tone to compliment the moldings. It took me part of the morning Friday to get them all hung, and then the new view motivated me that afternoon to remove the torn storm windows and clean the exterior glass. It's like a whole new world out there now! I'm working on curtain rods and drapery, so that will be the next step in the window treatment transformation.

Current view of dining room windows

Living room windows now

I had to smile at Miss Evelyn (the single woman who lived in this farmhouse her whole life). I think I've mentioned before how meticulous she was about saving and labeling items. Well, the blinds were no exception. Each piece of hardware was labeled as to the window to which it belonged, the direction it faced, etc. The header of this blind had the inscription:

Top line reads: S.E. Den window over air conditioner
Bottom line reads: Blinds restrung and new webbing #3 11-3-'82 Wed. - by Mr. "Frank Price Shutter + Blind Co."

(The #3 must refer to the fact that this is the third in a series of three windows, because the windows to the left are labeled #1 and #2). I wonder if this particular Wednesday in November of '82 was when she got the blinds back from Mr. Frank or if he did them all in one day?

And I used to think it was funny that Jeff dated post-it notes and index cards! This is a whole new level of detail!

Newly Named

Jeff and I wanted original, imaginative, and fun names for our little trio of backyard birds. Jeff is the real "punny" one in the family, so he came up with the last one when I got stuck after just two.

Meet Peckadilly Circus:

And here is Attila the Hen:

Last but not least, Atomic Cluck:

Peckadilly has the lightest feathers of the bunch (I also think she lays the very light beige speckled eggs, but I'm not certain). She is a little shyer and more reserved than the others, not as boisterous and busy as her namesake.

Attila, on the other hand, is noisy and meddlesome. She is unremarkable in coloring, but she lets you know she's around with all her little clucking. She marched right up and pecked DaVinci in the nose the first time they met! She also likes to perch in odd places, like the AC window units. Always conquering new territory, that Attila!

Atomic is the most easy-going. She has a white ring of feathers around her neck, rather like the face of a clock; hence the name. She was the first to lay an egg and seems to enjoy being petted (or at least tolerates it better than the others ;-). But she does have a nasty habit of pecking my toes when I'm in sandals. She doesn't do it when I have sneakers, so I can only assume that my pale wiggly toes look like tasty grubs or something!

Some Egg-cellent Meals

With the abundance of eggs produced from our feathered friends, I have been finding some creative ways to use our bounty. I did eggs benedict (without the ham, but I did serve turkey sausage on the side):

The sauce sort of disappeared, but it tasted great!

I added hardboiled eggs to our salads:

And I made a chili cheese puff for dinner last night:

A tasty recipe courtesy of Kelly Havens from the Indianapolis area

I have some quiches and frittatas next on the menu!

Sunday Successes

We had a productive morning Sunday. Jeff had Spokesman's Club and was gone all afternoon and evening, so we packed as much as possible into the first few hours of the day.

It was all focused on curb appeal. While I mowed and trimmed some of our wild bushes, Jeff got to work on the lamp post. It was a rusty pole with a bare bulb dangling (literally!) from it when we moved in. The before (and this was actually after priming, so you can imagine how much worse it looked all peeled, scabby, and stained!):

Just look at it now!

See the proud beam!

Then, while I was testing out shingle siding options for our dormer, I realized I could climb out on the roof from the window. This may not sound like much, but I have been trying to find a way to get the torn storm windows down for repair. The poor house has looked like it had a black eye (or three) since I've known it. I had to cut the screen and shimmy out the opening, but Jeff found me a socket wrench and we went to work removing the offending panels.

Sarah on a hot shingle roof!

Ah! So much better. Now I can see the wavy glass and the tree's reflection!

Now if I can just decide on siding for the gable, bed design and plant selection for the walk and foundation, and some porch furniture, we'll be in business. Let me know what you think of the gray-green shingle sample and if you have any ideas on trim and accent colors!

Earning their keep

The girls are producing! Today was the first day we received three eggs from three hens. We had been getting one or two each day, but I had only seen one hen for sure laying. Now we know they are all busy. If you have some great recipes involving eggs, please pass them on!

A funny aside: I remarked to Jeff how these eggs are slightly to somewhat smaller than the standard "large" eggs purchased in the store. I added that I would have to learn how to adapt them to recipes, and Jeff said "Just use more"!

I'm so excited to have brown eggs! I know all colors are equally nutritious, but
there is something so wholesome about pretty red hens laying lovely brown eggs.

A belated celebration

Since we had such a hectic summer, we didn't really get to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. Well, I thought we had celebrated it, but not in the style Jeff had secretly planned. He surprised me with a trip to western North Carolina to stay at a 1920's inn and a trip to the nearby historic Biltmore House!

We left Friday and enjoyed a very scenic trip through the mountains into South Carolina where we attended church services and stayed two nights. It was nice to catch up with old acquaintances and make new friends. We ate dinner at a Teppanyaki style Japanese steakhouse where they cook right at your table with big flames and the whole nine yards!

Our personal chef preparing the onions

Sunday morning we began our drive north and west to the Asheville area. We stopped at the famous North Carolina apple festival in Hendersonville which has been going on for over 60 years. We enjoyed fresh apples from local growers, tasty treats, street performers, and live entertainment from a nationally ranked dance troup.

Oh, how tasty the Honey Crisp were!

A living statue

A poodle-skirted tap ensemble

Since rain was in the forecast for Monday, we toured the Biltmore Estate gardens and barn area that afternoon and evening. What gorgeous grounds! Even as a lover of old houses and historical architecture, I have often wondered what the fuss over Biltmore was about. Now I know! It is absolutely breathtaking. The remaining 8,000 acres (of the original 18,000) are just amazing. And to think it was crafted from rather overworked open farm fields is even more astounding. Vanderbilt certainly knew how to hire the best men for the job!

A view of the conservatory across the walled gardens

In the Italian Garden

Monday was indeed raining, so it was perfect for spending the day in the enormous house. At 175,000 square feet, it took the better part of the morning to tour. Pictures are not allowed inside, but it rivaled the best castles and palaces we have seen in Europe.

Just a corner of the Biltmore

One of the many fine views from the house

The afternoon involved a tasting and tour of the on-site winery, converted from the very success dairy barn operation. Biltmore Estates was (and continues to be) self-sustaining, which is rather impressive in this day and age. We also saw a temporary exhibit of Tiffany Studio stained glass lamps in the exhibit hall on the grounds, which we loved. The artistry and intricacy were breathtaking, particularly the pieces that took their inspiration from nature. Jeff was particularly fond of the sculpted bronze lamp bases showcasing the fragile shades (being the metallurgist that he is)!

The Biltmore Logo on a wooden barrel

An elegant dinner at the French restaurant capped the long weekend. The rain (at a golf and spa resort) meant very few guests, so we practically had the place to ourselves. Attentive service and fine food marked the occasion.

Our accommodations and site of the restaurant

On the drive home today, we stopped by McKay's Used Books. It's a small chain of huge used bookstores. Jeff had visited the Knoxville location previously, but I had never been in. It was wonderful! I have never seen such a huge room of books (and videos, DVDs, CDs, records, etc). And it was quite busy! It was nice to see so many people still buying, browsing, and reading books. We purchased a small stack of music CDs and a few books to add to our library on landscaping and old house remodeling. What a fitting end to our Labor Day weekend!

Books, books, and more books

The chickens come home to roost

Say hello to our new additions! A trio of red hens, just about four months old. I'm glad we kept DaVinci's old puppy crate from housebreaking; it was just the thing for transporting three young chickens.

The chickens were in the car because the adorable little coop was brought home in the truck. What a great Craigslist find!

These birds are very happy to be free-range, so we turned them out for a bit. They promptly found the freshly trimmed fence row with lots of hay, and apparently lots of bugs.

Just how free-range they get to be will be based on a certain male carnivore (he's really more omnivore, but that's by our influence; left to his own devices, it would not be the case). We'll be working on training over the next few days (and praying that God will aid in an Isaiah 6:11 change). Jeff began a subliminal message technique with DaVinci a few days ago; every time he walks by him, Jeff repeats "Don't eat the chickens". He even gave him a lecture about how keeping the chickens around will result in endless eggs, sort of a "teach a man to fish" maxim. We'll let you know if the lessons stick.

Busy, busy week

It's been hectic around here the past week. Just a few updates:

We have a pet spider named Charlotte (Jeff remarked "how original" when I suggested the moniker but didn't have a better idea ;-). She's not exactly a pet, but she lives in the same place and we check up on her. Every night, she comes out and constructs a huge web on the back porch. She has "struts" that anchor from the top of the ceiling all the way down to the concrete. She's gone by dawn, leaving no evidence of her web. We've been watching her every night for a week, and I'm saving dead houseflies to throw into her web, so that kind of makes her a pet!

Jeff took me to dinner and a minor league baseball game on Thursday. We had a lot of fun eating popcorn, drinking lemonade, chatting with seatmates, and cheering on the home team.

We went to a church picnic this past Sunday and enjoyed fellowship, food, and volleyball. I wish I had brought my swimsuit, as the pavilion site was on a beautiful lake with some man-made beaches.( I have the fondest memories of swimming and playing in the lake with my family as a child). I won a bean bag toss against a very worthy opponent. For a supposed kids' game, it was surprisingly fun. Who knew there were real rules (it's quite similar to horseshoes)!

The laundry room is coming along, but things in the living and dining rooms are "looking up" also. That was my subtle attempt at a joke given that I finished painting both ceilings this week. I wish I had a before picture, but imagine 85 years of yellowing paint and nicotine stains and you'll be pretty close.

Please ignore the odd ceiling fan effect from too much bright light and too much motion.

We are preparing for chickens, so I've been working on the little coop/run already constructed behind the shop. Like so many parts of our mini farm, it has the promise of beauty and function, but it needs a lot of help. This one is covered in wild vines, has a few rotted boards, is missing a section of fencing, and the door is wedged closed from years of dirt, debris, and grass. Nothing a little time and material can't fix!

Can you see the coop under there? At least the hens will
be able to enjoy Dish TV while they labor to produce eggs!

I finally got the door open!

The End of the Space Age

Food, fun, and fireworks for five dollars capped off the NASA shuttle era. It was a bitter sweet celebration held at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville this past Saturday evening.

Jeff and I enjoyed our time in the museum chronicling the development of the rockets that would get us to the moon and back. The huge Saturn V displayed horizontally inside is the biggest eye-catcher. Lots of families with young children were out, and I watched a little boy in an umbrella stroller roll under the Saturn V, clutching his tiny rocket model in his hand as his eyes took in the huge life size version overhead; a breathless "wowww" was the only thing he said. I think I know exactly how he felt!

Picking My Battles

Remodeling is often about prioritizing. What projects, to what extent, in what order. Sometimes (rather, oftentimes) what I thought was going to be simple becomes involved. Or a straightforward objective blossoms into an ever-growing endeavor. But I try to limit those things.

So it was with surprisingly little regret that I reeled in a moment of excitement. I came home last week to find that the workmen had finished up their first day of deconstruction on the laundry room. As I inspected the empty room, now with a few holes here and there, I spied something that made my heart quicken just a bit. Could it be!? I peered closer, and, yes in deed, there is beadboard under my paneled ceiling!

I immediately was filled with visions of a darling sun/laundry/mud/entry room with painted brick and charming beadboard. I already have plans for a beadboard ceiling in the adjoining kitchen, so what a perfect transition. But as Jeff and I reasoned together and investigated, we discovered several issues. All the trim would have to come down, all the paneling and batten boards, three sheets cut away, hundreds of tiny brads pulled, original tongue and grove beadboard patched, scraped, and painted, and the trim reinstalled. All to get me back to a functional ceiling like I have now (and this is assuming that there isn't a perfectly good reason why the beadboard is covered, like big rotten areas or something).

While Jeff was at Spokesman Club on Sunday, I had permission to experiment with a small panel. It took me about half an hour to remove an approximately one foot by three foot section due to the tiny-headed two inch brads, only to discover glue on the backside of the panel, and on my beadboard! This was a no-go. Some finish work is expected, but sanding off glue stuck to lead-based paint over my head in a 13 x 20 room is just a bit much, even for a preservationist like me.

So now you're in on our little secret. The beadboard actually looks better in these pictures than in real life, but it will always be there for us (or some future occupant) to uncover and restore down the road if desired. But I have a whole war to wage here, so this battle will not be fought today by me!

Dewy Daylight

The mornings are getting a little cooler, the dew a little thicker, the breeze a little heavier. What a lovely way to start the day!

Hoedown!

I have to give Jeff all the credit for the witty title. This morning I was chopping down the fireant hill and the clump of weeds at the base of the lamp post welcoming one to the front walk. Well, I was chopping until the wooden handle of my hoe broke! I left it in the front yard while I went to retrieve a replacement. Jeff happened upon my carnage and snapped a photo; he shared with me the first thought that popped into his mind when he saw it: hoedown!

(I find him very, very funny, just in case anyone was wondering. It's often in the inflection or deadpan delivery, so don't think it's just you if some if it doesn't translate in blogged text.)

Snakes and Mice and Spiders, Oh My!

Well, we're definitely in the country now. Earlier this week we found a baby rattlesnake just outside the back door curled up on the porch. Then we found mice droppings in the kitchen. And just now we rehomed a large garden spider from a storage box in the house to outside where he belongs.

In all honesty, I have no idea if the snake really was a rattlesnake. He was quite small, maybe a bit over a foot long. But he sure thought he was a rattlesnake. He shook his little tail at me and tried to strike a few times. So Jeff did what he was raised to do: get a hoe and take care of the problem. The little guy was so small and tried to act so tough that I felt rather sorry for him, but he was too minuscule to make out his markings clearly (eye shape, pits, rattles, etc). All the telling signs I had studied for in the National Aududon Society Field Guild to Reptiles and Amphibians were obscured by his aggressive behavior. So, better safe than sorry, given that he was literally inches from the door. So much for the Field Guide!

The mouse scat was rather unpleasant, but I suppose expected since we live in the middle of a 40 acre field in a rather large, drafty house with far more entrances than just the welcoming front and back doors. We'll have to address that issue, but I don't think Jeff will go for my suggestion of a fun furry kitten.

Lastly, the lovely garden spider. We have already relocated one large fellow, so either he found his way back in or he has friends and relations. These are big black guys with yellow markings and they make the most fabulous webs overnight. Fabulous in the garden, that is. The spider was hiding out in a small plastic shoebox storage container in which I keep all kinds of tape. So Jeff snapped the lid on and took it out to the porch. But when he removed the lid, we couldn't find the spider. We suspected that he had slipped out of the box and was preparing to shut and lock the door behind us. Given that these creatures had the house to themselves for over a year, I'm not sure who the actual intruders are in this scenario!
But since we pay the mortgage, any suggestions for non-chemical techniques to keep the uninvited house-guest population down would be appreciated. We have already seen two of the largest brown recluse spiders ever hiding out in our shop, so that may require heavy handed intervention. But I actually don't mind most spiders in the house. Snakes and mice are a different story, though, so if you have ideas I'd love to hear them.

Slave Labor

I absolutely promise you I didn't make the girls do this! Jeff and I do feel it is important for children to have jobs and duties around the house, simply by reason of the fact that they live there and are members of the family. So we had my nieces do some light cleaning, daily dish duties, etc.

But I certainly didn't force them to paint outside for hours in the sun and humidity; they volunteered for it! Both girls are very artistic, and I guess the novelty of getting to choose and apply the paints of their choice was a real thrill (at least for the first hour).

I had mentioned that one (of our many three) porch swings needed a coat of paint because it was weathered and a bit rusty. The girls immediately asked if they could do it. So I got out my paint deck and we selected coordinating colors for the frame and swing. After spray coats of primer and paint to the chains, they were ready to let loose on the rest of the swing. You can't tell from a distance, but the wooden bench is a soft cream (SW Antique White) and the frame is a subtle sage green (BM Nantucket Gray); we think it will really look beautiful in the spring when the nearby tulip magnolia tree is in full bloom with showy lavender blossoms! Jeff positioned the swing to look out over the pasture so we can enjoy the view in the meantime.

The birds enjoy it, too. You can just make out a dove sitting
near the top of the swing frame taking in the morning!

Easier flooring

I posted about the linoleum removal last time. That is slow going! But a more rewarding flooring choice fell in my lap last week.

I absolutely love Craigslist. I don't know how people furnished their homes before it existed! But it is often hard to find good things since we are in a relatively small metro area. So whenever we travel, I try to find time to peak at the CL postings in my destination city to broaden my choices. Since we were hitting so many states last week, it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

And wouldn't you know it, but I purchased a large handmade wool Indian dhurrie for just $30! The lady agreed to meet me at an easy-to-find location, since I wasn't very familiar with the city, and she was driving a silver BMW (I guess wealthy people like to buy and sell on CL, too). We had a nice chat and she disclosed the thousands of dollars she has spent on rugs, only to decide she doesn't like them after all. So I was the beneficiary of her fluctuating taste!

When I was later telling Jeff about this type of rug and its value, he wanted to know why we were standing on it! It's really a great piece and it has just the right colors for my kitchen (once it's remodeled ;-). And it also has the added benefit of disguising the current floor until I have time to pull up those vinyl tiles and refinish the wood beneath. I think that's a fantastic multipurpose deal for just thirty bucks!