Oliver’s Bungalow Blog

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Decisions, Decisions…

Christine

Today, I’m thinking about the choices we are faced with when we take on an old house project. The possibilities are endless, and it can be a lot of fun. So long as you don’t make a job of it.

Some decisions are easier to reverse than others. For instance, if you don’t like a color of paint, you can always go back to the store, and get another color. But if you don’t like where the P.O.s moved that dining room wall, and you want to move it back to its original location, well, that’s a decision you want to be sure of before you jump right in.

Some of us are more decisive than others. Take me for instance. Sometimes I can’t even make a decision about what to wear, so I can get out the door in the morning. Brown socks, or blue socks? The pink tee shirt, or the blue tee shirt? Or bigger decisions. To paint, or to stain? Latex, or oil-based? What shade, out of the millions on the Sherwin-Williams charts? Do I stick to the tried-and-true Arts and Crafts palate, or branch out and try something different? (I opted for different, and it is okay, but if I had to do it again, I’d use the A&C colors.) Carpet, or hardwood? Cork, tile, or linoleum? Vintage, or reproduction? Too many choices sometimes.

On the other hand, some of us know just what we want, and we go straight for it.

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Sawhorses, Oliver and the Figure Eight

Christine

I got the final coat of color stain on this basement screen door yesterday. I’m ready to be done with this project, but we have to put a finish coat of some sort on it yet. Guess I’d better see what we have on the paint shelf in the basement.
Oliver wasn’t paying much attention to me and my project, so I got started. Don’t you know, as soon as I had stain slathered over half the door, here comes Oli, sniffing, wagging, shedding, and weaving his rope between the legs of the sawhorses. There was a tense couple of minutes where I had to tell him to sit and stay, because he had made a figure eight around the legs. He really couldn’t go anywhere, and he refuses to unwrap himself by going back the way he came. After I finished the final wipe down and got my gloves off, I was able to lift the sawhorses and free his rope. Then I asked him to please sit on the glider while the door dried, so we don’t get golden retriever hair in the wet stain (we did anyway) or get get white stain in his hair (he did anyway).

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Granny Hobbies

Christine

Did I tell you? I’ve taken up embroidery. Now I can add this to my other granny hobbies: reading, gardening, genealogy… It’s no wonder my friend Marc calls me Tupperware-Party-fun.

How can you resist all those fabulous colors of thread?

I’m pretty pleased with my first project, a towel for Lewis’ guest bathroom. I matched the thread to the towels exactly. Unfortunately, when I finished I tossed it in with a delicate load of wash. With something red. Oops. So I’ve just kept washing it, in nearly every load since, and now the pink has almost completely faded.

This was my next project. It is a baby bunny, from the book Doodle Stitching by Aimee Ray. I’m not overly impressed with my stitches, but I’ve got to keep in mind that I’m still learning the basic stitches. It might help if I would iron these things.

Then I picked up this little cross stitch project, which is meant to be framed. I’ll get around to framing it someday. It is also for Lewis. I have to tell you, I’m really good at the cross and half-cross stitch now, but I don’t think I’ll be doing another one of these for a long time. I just don’t have the patience. I wanted it to be finished before I was even halfway through. I’m gonna blame some of that on the label on the package claiming this was a weekend project. They just didn’t say how many weekends!

Now, I’m working on a set of pillowcases. I think I’m going to keep these for myself, because I’m learning the lazy-daisy and stem stitch here. It isn’t looking too bad so far. The pillowcases are actually white, I just couldn’t get a better shot with my camera. I think it needs fresh batteries. The finished project should look something like this, only I’ve used variegated color thread.

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Basement Screen Door

Christine

We hauled the sawhorses out to the front porch again last week.
Mom and I got busy staining the new screen door for the basement. This one is pretty basic. Bill built it because the basement’s back door is pretty low, under six feet I believe.

The door frame is painted, but we chose to do a white stain on the door, for two reasons. One, I already had the can of stain, and two, because I don’t want to have to repaint it every couple of years.

So we started out by giving it a wipe down with tackcloth, since it has been sitting around for about a month. We got two coats on each side before it was time to call it a day. I think it needs one more, then we can put some kind of clear coat on the door, call Bill and tell him it is ready. Bill is going to put the screens in and he also bought a metal mesh grill for the bottom section, because he knows what doggie noses can do to a screen.

As an added bonus, the modern screen door tension bar thingy and the modern hinges that came with the new front door’s screen door/storm door will be just fine for the basement.

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Rainbow plates

Christine

These beauties arrived on my front porch earlier this week. They are salad plates in the Iridescent Moonglow pattern by Federal Glass. I’ve never seen the salad plates before, I didn’t even think they existed because I have never seen a guide that referred to them. So, boy was I excited when I spotted these on eBay. The seller stated that they were 7 1/2″ plates. I almost doubted her, but I bid on them anyway, figuring even if she was wrong, I still need a couple more dinner plates. When I saw the box, I knew it wasn’t big enough to hold dinner plates.

I have a special love of these; there is a story. When I was little, my grandparents had a cabin in the woods. It was about a half hour’s drive from where they lived (and now about a half hour for me, too, the other direction). This was not meant to be a residence, but a little getaway for them, and friends and family. My grandfather was the ultimate scavenger, and built this cabin with mostly found objects, and with the skills he and friends had. Unfortunately, it wasn’t really built to stand the test of time, and is now in a serious state of disrepair. It makes my mom sad. She loved it there when she was growing up.

The property belongs to my mom now, since my grandmother died, and it is just more than we know how to deal with. Many people over the years have suggested selling it, but we have no intentions of doing that. At one point when I was house shopping, I even considered building there.

But back to the plates. The kitchen had a hodgepodge of plates, cups, utensils, etc. that had been left by different people over the years, and there were a small handfull of pieces of this pattern; two or three dinner plates, six vegetable bowls, three or four cereal bowls, and several saucers, but no teacups. Well, I just loved these when I was little (and still do). I named them rainbow plates because of the way the iridescent colors shifted when you tilt the plates. I always insisted on eating from a my rainbow plates.I’ve since added to the cabin’s odd pieces, and now have quite a collection. I’d ultimately like to have service for twelve. Minus the teacups and saucers. I don’t need those. I only have the ones I do because they came with a set I got at the local antiques barn. Now I just need to make room in the cupboard.