White Trash Sandbox

Today Elsie is two!

My poor daughters. It must be a horriable thing to have a mother who is always thinking in the long run. While that's help to build a pretty nice house (Rejuvination fixtures, wrought iron beds, and other items that will stand the test of time and use), it doesn't bode very well for a cool sandbox. Since mom figures how long are they going to play with the stinking thing anyway.

Last year Tim was supposed to pick Elsie up one of those cheap plastic sandboxes for her birthday. Well he never did. So this year it was pretty easy to decide what to get her. We were at a friend's daughter's birthday party and Elsie was playing with a lovely sand/water table. I mentioned to my friend that she was going to be getting a sandbox soon. The friend told me how much her kids liked the sand table and that it was pretty cheap. Her idea of pretty cheap and mine are different, and I knew this before she even opened her mouth to tell me what the price was.

So after weeks of bouncing ideas back and forth in my brain I've come up with my solution to the sand table. Assembly below:

1) Go to your local store and buy a plastic storage box with a lid (there were bigger storage boxes than this, and if I had boys I proably would have gotten one, but the girls aren't intersted in driving big trucks through sand) and two trash baskets who's openings are wider than the bottoms (for support). If I had gotten the bigger box I probably would have had to make this a four leg table, but this way I can just get away with two.

2) Dig around in your pile of house repair stuff and find an old tube of sealent/adhesive. Turn the trash cans up-side down and generously apply the sealent to the bottoms (I did all of this right were I planned on setting the sandbox so I don't have to worry about moving the thing and upsetting the seal).

3) Place the bottom of the box on the bottom of the trash cans so that the weight of the sand will be supported in the most effective manner.

4) Add sand.

5) Stick a few of the fad plastic dishes that were on extream mark-down in the sand of lots of scooping/pouring fun. Finish it all off with the lid of the plastic tote so the sand stays nice and clean.

6) Enjoy with your bossy older sister.

Halloween Decorating

Last week instead of doing laundry like I should have I dug around in the closet up-stairs and found some fall and Halloween decorations. It's not much, I really need to get all crafty on the place ala Martha. I just keep telling myself next year when one is out of diapers and the other can motate on her own.

This painted oil can and the shingle in the top picture are done by this really cool artist from Minnesota. One of the shops in Osage carries her work, she paints on reclaimed items (there are some really cool old windows). I stopped in to the shop and asked if she had a website to share with you all, but the owner got a little nasty with me. I guess she thought I was trying to cheat her out of her commission. My mother-in-law is the one who bought these things for me and she has some cool pieces herself. I'll try to remember to take a camera next time we head north and I'll also see if she remembers the artist's name.

The lighted cat in the window isn't really my style, but Tim really likes it so I put it up. There was a bat one too, but it died.

These little ghosts were a surprise. I found them in a box separate from the rest of the decorations. Neither one of us can remember where they came from. I'm thinking we bought them while we lived in the house in Waverly to sit in the four porch windows.

So for the time being if I want to sit anything on my little plant stand (plants included) it has to be Molly-proof. This little trick or treating basket gives her a chance to practice for the big day. Now we just have to get her to say trick-or-treat.

There are three little bat candle holders in the center of the piano that are hard to see. My hope is next year we will be able to put them on the dining room table. The pumpkin is on it's last legs. You can't tell from the picture, but the stem is broken and it's pretty dented up. Plus, the little blinking light inside decided to die last year.

I don't think I like these leaves here. The looked really cool over the door at the house in Waverly, but I'm just not feeling it here. I tried them on the staircase, but they weren't long enough. I originally wanted to drape them from the kitchen light fixture, but got scared that I'd burn the place down. The fixture gets really hot and the leaves are cloth.

Last, but not least is the cool luminary we got from the Pottery Barn (that's where we got the bats on the piano too) during a sale. The only way it will ever be lit is if Tim does it with out my knowledge. It's made of wax so I'm afraid even though the candles inside are small they will still melt it. And I'm way to cheap to throw it away and buy another.

It's not much, but it's a start.

Houseblogging With Children

Tim finally got Molly's birthday (May 6th) swing hung on the front porch.

A while ago I read an entry on a blog I enjoy reading that made me terribly uncomfortable and more than a little self conscious about the content of my site. It basically was a quick little comment at the end of a post about houseblogs that "devolve into garden or baby blogs." I don't think they meant to be mean, but it kind of hurt my sensitive post-baby hormonal feelings. I really wondered if there were a lot of others out there that felt the same way. I thought about creating another site, but I'm already not blogging as much as I should here what would splitting myself between two sites really accomplish?

So here is what I've decided. I will keep blogging here. There will be entries about my children and what I am working on landscaping wise. And this is why... I feel that the acreage and its look is important to the house. Our vision for this place when we bought it was so much more than just the house, and I think it is important to share all of it.

Also, our vision included living in the house with children. This house still bears marks of the girl who's parents built this house. I'm almost 99% sure that our children's bedroom was once hers. Our attic has her name and the names of friends written on a lower part of the ceiling during a play date. She is part of the house and someday my children will be too.

I like most owners of an old house am curious about the families that once lived here. Luckily I have been able to meet a few. I hope someday when another family owns this house they will be curious about me and my family, a kind of circle of life of an old house. I want to be able to show them how happy my family was here and wish them the same.

Life changes and therefore peoples blogs also evolve. It's not a bad thing. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Last Week

Last week Tim got all of the brackets up under the porches. And as I blogged about previously we took a trip to a big box store for a few landscaping stones. So here is a photo of the front porch the day after our trip.


And here's a photo of the underside of the front porch just because it looks so darn cool.

Everyone Pile Back into the Time Machine

it's off to August.

Tim spent what seemed like every free second he had priming or painting those porch brackets.

Luckily he had help from my dad who also stopped over to help paint.

Let's take a ride in the time machine...

all the way back to July.

One of the photos we received from the gentleman that grew up in the house had the front porch as the back ground. Tim used this photo to make a template for the trim work under the porch (the bracketing to keep animals and such out). He got a load of pine. Drew the template on half of the pieces. Nailed two pieces together and then cut the pattern out using a band saw.


I then sanded the rough edges.


When Tim was planning this trim work he made the -ahem- less-than-bright decision to use decidely smaller than original boards, so there are more of the fancy cut outs. Which ended up making approximately 250 boards we had to cut and sand. And now prime and paint.

Wouldn't it have been cool if we could have used the time machine to bring ourselves back in time to help ourselves with all of those boards. Of course that would have caused some sort of something or other in the time-space-continuum causing a collapse of something. Yeah. Something like that.

Kitchen Porch Light

Last week Tim got the kitchen porch light installed as part of the stair moving project.
There was quite a battle over this little light fixture (from Rejuvenation). I LOVED it. Tim HATED it. Claiming it was too "missiony" for our house and a "weird" shape. But I LOVED it.
Could this be why he put in a sneaky order for wallpaper samples with out consulting me first?

It seems like the closer we get to finishing this (and the fewer decisions there are to be made) the more we are butting heads and the less we are compromising.

Who thinks we need major counseling?

In The Soft Glow of a Work Light

I guess Tim was pretty proud of the painting he did around the front door this afternoon. It was in the "spot light" when I got home from work tonight.

We Have Lights, Kind Of

Tim got this set of posts completely painted.

5 more to go.

He also got the light fixtures in. However, since we don't have the switches wired yet we can't turn them on.

However, that should be done by Christmas along with the electrical boxes, and we can string tons of lights.

A Little Color on the Porch

Tim did a test drive of a couple of the colors last night.

She's a Priming Machine Folks

My sister just rode 5 miles on a bike to prime my porch ceilings while I, unfortunately, have to go make the money to purchase the gallons of primer she is working her way through.
Why else does she rock? She brought me the rest of my birthday present that finally arrived (the first part was dark chocolate from Germany).

The book is titled, "Historic Preservation" by Norman Tyler. It's "An introduction to its history, principle, and practice" as the book cover says. I will be taking to work with me tonight to read over break.

The books starts off with a great quote,

"Therefore, when we build, let us think that we build for ever. Let it not be for present delight, nor for present use alone; let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for, and let us think, as we lay stone on stone, that a time is to come when those stones will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them, "See! this our fathers did for us." for, indeed, the greatest glory of a building is not in its stones or in its gold. Its glory is in its Age." -John Ruskin

Kitchen Porch Primed

Action shot:
Tim caulking the kitchen porch. My sister and mom came Saturday and finished priming the porch while Tim and I were bumming around at Osage's Fall festival. Yes, I'm starting to have guilt.

Porch Painting Starts

Tim got the last of the trim up.

Unfortunately when we finished the roof we did not leave enough room to match the trim on the other porch. I know it's going to bother me, but two years after starting this project it's just good to see the end in sight.

My sister and mother-in-law were over yesterday (I of course had to work) and got some priming done.

Work on the Porches Continues

Siding is going up on the porch boxes. While it doesn't seem to be quite as sucky of a job as putting in the corner shower enclosures it's a pretty miserable job.

My dad put it best when Tim was complaining about how un-straight the boards were, "You wouldn't want them too straight, they wouldn't match the house then."
The siding is up around the front door.

Just a couple of coats of paint and a quick visit from the electrician is all that's needed here.

The ceiling is up on the kitchen porch too.

And yes, I will be painting both porch ceilings the traditional sky blue to confuse the local bumble bees.

Front Porch Ceiling Progress

The ceiling is up on the front porch.

We just used beaded plywood and large cove molding from your local big box store.
Tim is now working on putting up molding and the missing trim around the front door.

Won't be long until we'll have the warm glow of porch lights to welcome us home at night.

Something's Going to Happen!

Tim's dad and brother are showing up tonight to help him put the ceilings in the porches (I have to work of course). We've borrowed an air nailer and stapler from a friend so progress should be swift. Expect pictures soon!

Under the Porch

Driving through town today we noticed this house,

and the different trellis work they had under the porch.


Tim really likes this, but I'm not sold. I'm still hoping that we can recreate what was under there before.

Knock, Knock, Knocking on Heavens Door

That's what you'll be humming after you visit Taylor's Victorian Screen Doors.

Tim called our carpenter last night and he said not next week, but the week after that he'd be here. So Tim's on a kick to get the exterior of the house finished this summer. I'm left sitting inside with mounds of woodwork wondering why the priority shifted, but after so many years together you learn how far arguing certain points will get you. This is one of those points.

So he's got a list a mile long of stuff for this guy to do. I think he pictures himself on the porch with a tea in his hand watching this guy work. I've never understood, but for some reason the guy gets a warm fuzzy feeling watching other people do his work. I on the other had will be yelling at the poor guy, "Oh no you have the nails to far apart. They (always refer to someone else and you'll make your argument more valid) say this distance is better. Oh, just let me do it." At this point I push him off the porch and take over, perfectly happy to pay him to watch me do it the "right way." Don't worry Tim will offer him a drink. I guess it's one of those opposites attract things.

But I've lost control of my train of thought. Back to the screen doors. In further efforts to gothisize (if that wasn't a word it is now) the house Tim plans on combining two of Taylor's designs. The top would consist of the top of this door without the bottom scrolls and arches,


and with a bottom like the picture below.


I personally just like this one with out the modification. It looks more like the original screen doors that were on the house.

We already have the hardware for these some where in the piles. We bought them as part of our first Van Dykes order because we thought they were the neatest things ever. The hinges have the springs built in so they "snap" close like a proper screen door should with out those big nasty hinges stretching across the door.