Fall is in the air

Had to have a little fun this past weekend as I love fall!  And it's October so must mean it's time to to do a few fall craft projects.

First I planted a few fall mums as our summer flowers were dying. At just a $1 a plant from Home Depot, they add a nice fall spruce-up to our front porch

In addition, I also decided that I wanted to do a free little fall craft.  I had two hurricanes left from our wedding 5 years ago (Happy Anniversary Honey..it's later this week) and a bunch of little fall craft pumpkins and fake insects.  I simply layered them in the hurricane and viola-all fallish (that's a word, right?)!  and free!  I need to get a better dripless candle for one of them before I light it but otherwise, good to go!  One for the dining room table and one for the front porch.

Also, we sneaked in one last camping trip 2 weekends ago with our good friends in Seattle.  It was Benj's 30th birthday.  We camped just two hours east of Seattle (more precisely 30 miles west of Leavenworth, for those who are familiar with Washington).  It was a blast and inspired us to find a little off-the-beaten path camping site near Portland.  Happy to report that the weather was clear, crisp and gorgeous until Saturday night.

Megan (who I've known for 20+ years), Benj (the birthday boy) & baby Evan

Megan, Melissa (Megan's sister) & me with all our little munchkins

Ben's "smile face" which I can't get enough of

dirty man

Steve and Porter cooking some dutch oven breakfast

a dutch oven birthday cake-pineapple upside down

look mom!

Day 5-Friday

Friday marked day 5 and yes, it was a success!  Steve took the day off work as he had to travel to San Fran for the day Thursday and it ended up being a day that lasted from 4:30am Th to 1am Fri do to a super delayed flight.  Anyways, he slept in while I snuck in a couple house projects.

we still need to caulk around the tub (and yes, it's been a year since we had it reglazed), so I cleaned the grouted areas really well and hope to get that finished up this weekend

Also, fixed up a few things in the babe's room.  Took down the adorably cute handmade mobile as I realized this week that Ben could totally grab it (for some reason I guess he hasn't realized yet that he could) and then it would be a potential strangulation hazard.  you should have seen me standing on the crib rail trying to reach up to the 9' ceiling to take it down.

and re-hung the Audubon print that some how fell down (and thankfully landed in a pile of pillows, therefore not shattering) a couple weeks ago.  Yes, I realize that one of the prints fell down in the frame but I hesitate to add any adhesive to the back of the print because it is part of an antique collection and I do not know if it has value.  Any ideas on how to fix it?  I have tried putting paper behind in and some foam but it does not seem to work.  Maybe I need larger foam or some cardboard.

Also finally hung the Rejuvenation Copper No Soliciting sign that we have had sitting in our front entry way with a drill and drill bits for the last month.  I realize that this is a total splurge at $37 but I justified it being that I found no other pretty signs after searching for several years and I hate solicitors.  My friend suggested that we just try making one but first of all, do I have the time?  NO.  and I figured that by the time a got a custom cut piece of copper and all the supplies, I wouldn't save much money.  Also, we have spent drillions of hours working on the outside of our home and tons of money and dag nabbit, I want a pretty sign that tells annoying strangers to stay the bleep away and not bother us.  :)  Anyways, got a 20% coupon for one item at Rejuvenation a month or so ago and since we had nothing else we needed at the time, I decided to go for it.  AND we luv it!  Totally worth the cost.

After doing that, we took a quick trip to Winks hardware (they are only open M-F) to return the fence gate latch that did not work with our small gate between our driveway Ben pen and backyard (yes, nice gate hardware that works with our setup is apparently a bitch to find) and bought a new latch for our large Ben pen gate (and no, sadly, our the hardware we ordered for the front gate did not work either).  I luv winks, those people are so helpful and they seem to have it all.

new Ben Pen gate hardware

 While we were at it, I wanted new Black (and yes, they cost too much) stoppers for the door stopper we plan to put on our bathroom door to keep the glass doorknob from hitting our little cabinet by the sink each time we open the door.

After all that, we took off to Sauvie Island beach for the afternoon and went blueberry picking as well.  The weather could not have been better and we had a blast. If you are going to Sauvie Island beach, I highly recommend driving all the way past Collins Beach (unless u are into nude beaches and want to just stop there) to the little area a mile or so further down the road.  The beach is gorgeous and the water is shallow and warm.

Days 3 & 4 & already slackin'

I'll admit that I actually started slacking night 2.  I posted on night two that I was about to put the second coat of paint on the chipping front porch areas.  Well, after gettin' cozy on the couch  and having a glass of vino, that plan went out the window really quickly.

Day 3: Last night we had our weekly (which recently has not been weekly) hoard fest.  What is hoard fest?  Well, once a week we try to have Steve's brother and his wife over and I cook dinner.  Then we retreat (sounds so pleasant doesn't it?) to the basement where we go through stuff.  Stuff?  Yes, stuff that belonged to Steve's parents.  I call it the hoard.  We sold their house in 2008 and brought about 3000sq feet of their "stuff" to our basement.  Anyways, there is lots more to the story but I would really really like to finish going through the stuff as do the boys and Greg's wife, Amber.  I feel like we can't start our major dormer addition/upstairs remodel until we go through everything.  And it is a chapter in our lives that we would like to close.  And we are SOOOO CLOSE!  Seriously not too much left, but it's the hard stuff, like photos and papers.  and collections.  Anyways, I will count hoard fest as my Day 3 project.  Got rid of several large boxes of trash/recycle and need to take a load to Goodwill.

Day 4: finished coat two for the front porch.  woo-hoo! caught up from day 2
Then I discovered (much to my delight) that Steve had attached all but one (I guess it's missing?) of the post caps to the new fence!  Yea, wanted to do that this weekend but it's done.  That tricky boy, got one past me.
So onto a couple other little projects that drive me nuts on a daily basis.

Doors: we had our wood floors refinished in Oct. 2009-yup, almost 2 years ago.  had to remove the doors to our closet bedrooms "(as well as hall closet door and bedroom doors).  At the same time I took advantage of the opportunity to strip the hinges for all the doors.  Well, we of course rehung the doors but ever since then both of the closet doors have failed to close all of the way.  Didn't used to bother me too much.  But now it does.  Daily.

luv this 6 in 1 screwdriver that was under $5 from Home Depot-keep it in our built-in desk for easy access

Why?  because we have a little munchkin who loves to open & close doors as well as hide in dark spaces (which includes closets). Yes, adorable BUT not lovely when he starts pulling out the shoes you just put away or dumps the toys you are trying to keep put.  And you can't close the door.  Well, I currently can get it to stick shut but that is just bothersome.
So, how to fix it?  I tried to tighten the screws on Ben's door just before he went to bed but that did not help.  Will maybe need engineer (translation: husband) 's ideas tomorrow on how to fix.
Bedroom door fortunately just required tightening the screws but now the strike plate does not line up correctly so I have another project for the list.

strike plate is too high-no clue what happened here

Befuddles me how these things work just fine til you take them down.  Maybe it was the hardware stripping that did it.

Mini Project 2: Toilet bolts
We put in our new toilet a year ago March now.  all in, all secure, but no bolt caps.  And it's just ugly if you ask me.  and a pet peeve.  especially since we have such a pretty toilet.  So I took care of it and it took me less than 10 minutes. and I only broke one saw blade.  Just need a little adhesive to fully attach them now.

What our bathroom looks like with those ugly bolts showing all the time.  Sans the tools.  actually that is a lie because I would not find it weird to walk into our bathroom and find tools in there.  Would probably think nothing of it.  I heart home restoration.  Note folded toilet paper-this make me laugh and I promise, just did it for the picture, we are surely not tidy like that.  Nor do we have a maid.

Enter deco hex bolt cap. Purchased from Rejuvenation. I think that they were around 6 bucks a piece, maybe 4.  A far cry from the plastic crap they sell at the big box stores.  But of course I got them on sale-I am frugal and I rarely buy things full price. However, they only appear to sell these in stores and not online.   Speaking of Rejuvenation, they are having a bath sale right now but I believe it ends in the next few days so stock up if you have a bano remodel coming up.

Cap doesn't fit, expected this

So I broke off the first little bit with pliers but then had to saw the rest off

broke the blade sawing the second side but still was able to finish-yea team Skye!

doesn't it look sooo much better?  I think so.  and that fun little vintage metal can-an estate sale find for a few bucks that I got several years ago.  Still can't decide if I should spray it a new color but how I luv it so.

Day 2

this day has been a success!  The kiddos were easy going this morning and I was actually able to vacuum and mop before their naps as well as fold a load of laundry!  I laid out painting supplies just before their naps and then I was off!  speedy like the horse races.   This included the primer, black (actually not pure black but close enough) paint, green porch paint, teeny tiny brush, paint stick and paint can opener). I was able to do all of my black painting (front and back door thresholds as well as the black risers by our front stairs.  I also primed all the spots I sanded last night on the front porch and staircases.  Nap 2 allowed me to put on the first coat of paint but not without first burning my feet a bit due to the heat today-close to 85 right now and I am luvin it! sans that whole feet burning of course.  I plan to put on the second coat after Laurel (the little lady I watch two days per week) goes home tonight and Ben is off to ni-ni land.  Might even have the energy to fit in another project-or at least get started.  This self challenge has really got me motivated!

needs a little paint touch up-when our contractor fixed the stairs last year to allow for better water run-off, the paint was rubbed off and it was something that we just haven't gotten to

the white is actually a sticker that I just haven't been able to remove as well as other spots where the paint has worn off-not so welcoming

back door threshold with old ugly brown paint; check out that sexy kitchen vinyl while you're at it-complete with paint sploches

nice and cleaned up and black-that 5 min project makes me feel soooo good!

front door threshold good as new

yes, just a few spots that needed priming and painting

first coat on-bad pix-sorry!

paint we used-would have liked to use oil based because it is more durable but we could not because there was already water based paint on the porch; supposedly high gloss is the most durable

Get 'Er Done!

So I have been a major slacker on house projects as of late. Why?  It's summer and in summer you have fun and Steve and I have talked about never really taking the time to enjoy Pacific Northwest summers.  Our first summer in OR we were getting ready for our wedding and house hunting, summer 2 consisted of taking off our siding and replacing it all by hand, summer 3 was (hmmm, what was it?) just working on random outside projects including landscaping and the front pathway, and oh yea, we got preggo, summer 4 was the year of little man and we even fit in a brick patio and a couple little things and this brings us to summer 5-We're toast!  however, we really wanted to finish a bunch of outdoor projects.  We have the big one done (the is the fence, aka Ben Pen) all done with the exception of attaching the copper post caps and fence hardware-locks.

The last few weekends have kept us busy with Sunday Parkways (biking all over NW Portland when the City closes down the roads and has entertainment in the local park), a trip to the coast and camping.

enjoying the beach, Gearhart, OR

Ben discovering the art of hiding in empty cabinets in the rental beach house

getting ready for "boating" while camping at Frog Lake

hiking around Frog Lake

Mt. Hood in the background

Frog Lake camping summer 2010

Anyways, on to Get 'Er Done.  I have decided to challenge myself a bit and get myself out of the whole don't do any house projects trend.  how?  my challenge to myself is quite do-able.  Just complete one project a day.  Ok, well 5/7 days as I know all too well that things come up and weekends should have some sort of fun involved.  These projects can range from something that takes 5 minutes and has been on my to-do list for months to something that takes hours from my day. I hope to do this for at least a week, maybe 2.  Oh yea and can't cheat by counting two projects that I did in one day as one for another day.

So day one, get butt in gear.  Rev your engines.  I decided that I would take on the front porch.  The first place that people see when they come to our home.  Our dirty front porch, our dirty front porch that has chipped paint all over the place.  Our front porch that needs a good scrub-a-dub-dub, a little sanding action and some good old primer and paint.  Well, can't say I got it all done today.  BUT I did get the sanding and scrub-a-dub-dub part done tonight.
I sanded the peeling parts of the porch with 120 grit paper and scrubbed it done by first sweeping, then spraying with a hose, then scrubbing with an old soft brush and then spraying off one more time.  Now it's drying for tonight.  Forgot to mention that I first removed all the furniture and do-dads that had piled up.

exhibit one, one part of peeling paint on front porch, this is a yearly fix-it project-happens with an old lady porch-she is almost 100 years old

wet porch

a where's waldo of sorts, can you find the cleaning brush?

a clean, wet, clutter free porch

Also started cooking up the multitudes of produce tonight coming from our little garden.  Hope to have some pictures soon.  Used home grown zuchs and basil to make zucchini patties (recipe from www.allrecipes.com) and then some more zuchs to make some oh so delicious chocolate chip zucchini bread with orange zest-also from all recipes.