quote:

Originally posted by big al:
"It takes a heap o' living money and time to make a house a home"


Big Al

FIFY

Kept meaning to add a few of our recent projects to this thread.

We replaced our driveway at the end of June. The old one was here when we moved to the house in 1980. Forty-two years was a good run.

The new, smooth, correctly pitched replacement:



We had to have the bricks in our walkway re-laid before we had the new driveway installed in order to correct some grade issues. We had them bury the downspouts while everything was torn up. We'd been tripping over those damn downspouts for four decades.

Now:



Repainted the garage walls. Also cleared out a ton of stuff, including our old Toyota Sienna minivan. I told you we were downsizing stuff...



I'm downsizing my indoor plant collection, too. The plants on the table off to the right are amaryllis that I'm giving to my hairdresser.

And those plastic storage toters are blissfully empty except for the big clear one in the front that has dog toys collected over the years. Raffi isn't a toy dog and we don't think we'll have another dog when he's gone, so we thought we'd pass along the toys. We washed them and have them in the toter. Whenever someone in the neighborhood walks by with a dog, we invite them over to the garage so the dog can pick out a toy (or toys). Dogs learn pretty fast. More than one owner has had their dog start pulling them up the driveway to the garage on subsequent walks.

We also hung a motion activated LED shop light from the rafters. It's great because the wraparound lens on the light diffuses the light in all directions, and it reflects nicely off the white walls. Goes off automatically in 10 minutes.

And thought we'd give a little touch of Paris to the decor:







Also reorganized the hanging racks. With one car gone, it's easy to get the garbage and recycling toters in and out, so they're in the garage now instead of outside.



Am in the process of putting the veggie garden to bed for the winter. Tomatoes came out over the weekend, cukes and peppers today, probably the green beans tomorrow. Our weather has turned decidedly autumnal, and though we're not quite at frost/freeze, the veggies like really warm weather and won't really produce any more. We harvested our last bucket of potatoes last week. We know we'll be getting some in our CSA box soon, so figured we'd enjoy ours a little early. We ate a few of them already; the rest are drying off in a bag in the basement.

Kennebecs:

So tidy! Looks great.

Steve, did you use the Emerald Urethane trim paint on your cabinets?

No, and I wish I had. Instead the painter made a big deal out a Sherwin Williams water based lacquer and I went with his suggestion.

No bueno - way too soft. The slightest thing scratches it and I have to touch it up constantly.

So far the front door with the urethane on it is holding up well.

WTG, everything looks great!

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:
No, and I wish I had. Instead the painter made a big deal out a Sherwin Williams water based lacquer and I went with his suggestion.

No bueno - way too soft. The slightest thing scratches it and I have to touch it up constantly.

So far the front door with the urethane on it is holding up well.

Did it level out nicely? Since they already have a waterborne white on them and at least the top cabinets will still be white, I'd like to paint them without taking the doors and fronts off this time.

The Emerald? Yes it did, although if you want cabinet doors to be really nice you spray them. The door has tiny brush marks.

I like the blue door! Very nice.