Day 15 of renovation

You really realize just how many pieces there are to a kitchen when you have to take it apart and paint each side. I painted 21 pieces today. (shelving, drawers, doors) that had not quite been finished. That is not counting all the pieces that have been reassembled. It is a lot of pieces to say the least.

I was listening to some of the blogtalk radio podcasts I follow while working today. I was listening to Magickal Harvest, though I won’t lie, I could barely hear it over the spray gun. I will have to search up an interesting one for urban homesteading at some point I am sure.

I think when we go to finish the shop we might get some of the cabinets, fixtures, lighting, etc from the Habitat for Humanity store I recently found. They take all the stuff from old jobs, bits from here and there, and sell it in the store. Such a great idea really.

I have no idea when exactly we will be finishing the shop. It just kind of depends on a lot of things and might be a few years unless things fall into place sooner.

Right now we are just focusing on finishing as much of the renovations as we can before we move in and getting packing finished. We are mostly packed up. We just have to pack up the kitchen and the rest of the craft room basically.

Doing lots of laundry now because we will not have a washer and dryer put in immediately, though it will be soon.

Today is just one of those days where everything is seeming a bit like a blur. I will finish up as much packing with my brother and husband today as possible, finish and pack up laundry, and see how many of the cabinets I need to spray the other side of or use the antiquing glaze on.

The idea is to get at least the base finished on all of them so I do not need two rooms to lay them out in. I can do the rest of the antiquing in the craft room if needed. We are moving in almost no time at all and the cabinets will most likely not be finished till much after that.

I keep joking that by the end of this I am going to be hulked out, but really I think it is more a contest of how many bruises will my legs end up with before I become a blueberry lol. I feel as if I am a kid again. So many bruises I don’t know where all but the major ones came from. Thankfully the one from the ladder crashing on me, and the cabinet corner biting my toe are quickly healing.
Sunburn is also now turned into a tan. I have been sure to use sunscreen when possible.

Well my break from work is over. Back to the grindstone with me.

Kitchen crime scene

Oh man what a day it has been. I have pretty much decided I will forever be peeling paint off my skin and my razor blade when I shave lol. Thankfully paint flecks don’t quite look like dandruff in my hair that I might have missed in the shower.
 
Today we had planned on putting the cabinets back up but instead turned our kitchen into a crime scene from Dexter. As we were looking at things, I absolutely needed to paint the cabinet with the range that we could not get down so easily before the others go back up. We sort of just decided to prime and paint them all at once, since it did not take really any more time. The whole kitchen would need to be taped, and drop cloths laid down and taped down anyways.
Honestly the hardest part of it was laying the tarp, taping it down, using the plastic roller with the tape pre-attached on one end, and not letting it stick to itself. It took longer to tape it all than it did to actually paint it.

Taped up and primed.

I used the spray paint gun in the house, hence the plastic also being on the ceiling.

I let it dry for a few hours and then sprayed on the base coat. Below photos are still just of the primer.

I finished glazing, and clear coating the one larger cabinet I didn’t finish yesterday due to spilling a bunch of glaze on the tarp, and being done with it. I also primed and final coated the pantry. Primed a couple more doors. Basically making progress.

Of course I ran into an emergency gardening situation today early on. The past two days my tomatoes have been wilting. They got so bad today I panicked. My brother and husband agreed to help me till another area to move them to. I think even though they are full sun, our full sun is a bit too strong for some full sun plants. I noticed this with other potted plants I had before that were full sun, but could not handle direct sunlight for as long as they said they should. Because of this I will be moving them to a more shaded area and cross my fingers.
I do very much find humor in the fact that in tilling said area, we found a piece of concrete that looks like a tombstone. We decided to prop it up and make it look even more as such. I find it amusing that I will be planting my wilting tomato rows in front of it. I really do hope they make it.

Photos were taking as it was getting dark out. It was also windy, so the tree is blurry due to movement.

The  running joke today was that we had turned the kitchen into the murder room, then we were digging the grave in the back yard for the body. Guess my urban homestead garden may end up being a bit like one of the books I am writing. The book is based off an idea, that sprung my painting “Funeral Home for the Strange and Deranged” though the book has a different name.

It got too dark to get the tomatoes moved. The holes for them have been dug though. I will be moving them into their new home carefully tomorrow. I am thinking I might also bring some of my dried used tea leaves I have been saving for the garden, as well as my dried used coffee grounds. I think they might like a bit of those in the soil.
Thankfully the center stalk is still healthy looking on all of them, it is just the leaves and off branches that are weeping. As long as I can get to it in time, I am sure they will survive. Staying positive! I refuse to admit failure with them.

On the bright side though, my grape vines are doing wonderfully. They are quite happy in their new large temporary pots. 

I was sad it got too dark to continue in the garden, even though at midnight I was exhausted, with the way I am I would have kept going until the job was done.

The ride home was nice. The wind brought scents of damp earth, straw bails, corn fields, cows, and the threat of rain that has yet to come. It is Spring, not quite yet summer, and it feels like both Spring and Autumn to me. I like being closer to corn fields, horses, and dairies.

Dreaming of arbors and trellises

I got to have my fun in my garden yesterday. It is such an amazing feeling to be able to call it my own. To not have to worry about whether I can actually plant directly in the ground due to land lords. To only be limited by the space my house is on, both the land area itself, as well as vertically.

I have all of these wonderful ideas bouncing around in my head. My garden is ever evolving into something magickal.

Last night I decided I would not buy trellises and arbors (Aside from the $12 metal one I already got for the front yard) Instead, I will be building my own.
We need to prune the maple tree out back this Autumn, and I am hoping the branches I get end up making about 2 sturdy arbors. One for the three grape vines and one for my pumpkin and squash patch.

I want to make trellises for my beans, peas, cucumbers, small squash, etc, that have yet to be planted.

I have never constructed anything quite like this before. I had planned to purchase lumber at some point to build the arbors, but once I saw the ones made from branches, I fell in love. I have no idea what I am getting myself into but I can’t wait to give it a try.

Here are some of the inspirational photos I found on pinterest.












It is wonderful seeing our dreams become a reality. That being said, today will be focused on cabinets and wall outlets today. Cabinets are going back up tomorrow, so the base of the top ones need to be glazed and clear coated by then. I can finish doors, drawers, and the other lower half later.. Thankfully I think I only have 2 uppers to glaze, then I need to clear coat them all. If I have time, I will get to priming the pantry, which isn’t easily moved due to size… or get to painting other cabinet drawers and doors. As much as I am loving the cabinets, and love that I can do this to them, I am so ready to be done with them.

I just want to play in the garden all day, though this time with better protection from the sun. I got my first sunburn in years yesterday. Thankfully it is already turning into a tan. There is not really much more that can be done in the garden right now though. I planted everything I could.

I will say I love the reaction I get when I tell people how many tomato plants I planted, and that each are completely different varieties. My comment to it is “Well yea, it may seem like a lot, but the guy I got it from had like 56 varieties growing, and many of each type… So it is not really that many” I swear I am not a crazy tomato lady haha.

In any case, it will provide a good crop and I can actually get to some canning this year. I will create a masterfully delicious spaghetti sauce one of these days from scratch to go with my teriyaki garlic meatballs. Sounds weird I know, but they hold so much more flavor than traditional meat balls. I would share the recipe, though I don’t have exact measurements. I just know what goes into making them, and eyeball the amount of ingredients I need. Unless you cook like I do, or unless I could give an estimation, you would most likely not create quite the same thing. I cook with teriyaki and soy sauce all the time, but it is very easy to over do it with those if you do not know what you like.

Anyways, off to get coffee, get dressed, and get a jump on house things. Hope everyone is enjoying my posts.

Cabinet glazing and tomato plants

Today has been quite an eventful day. I ended up finding someone who was selling over 50, probably closer to 60 tomato varieties. He had plants that were about 1-2+ feet tall. I had about 2 hours before I would go to pick up some new tomato plants, and with a list that long, I had no idea what I would get. Most of the types he had I had never tried before. I did a lot of research on all 60 or whatever plants to see what ones would be sweet, and good for eating or making sauces from.

I went there with a list of 4 musts, then my “I really want” and then “If I can get these I will” with a total of 16 on the list for all three categories combined.
The guy was selling the plants for $1 apiece. I happened to have $8 in cash on me and decided I did not want 16 tomato plants, as that would be too many, but I did want a variety to try, so I decided 11 would be my goal.
I got to the mans house and told him I had $8 in cash, but that I had a list, and hoped he might work with me on the price a bit. The guy agreed to work with me, and in the end I ended up with 11 new plants without saying that was my target goal. So basically I got each plant for just under $0.75 cents instead of $1 each, which was very nice of him.

The 11 different varieties I got were:
Green Zebra
Brandy Wine
Speckled Roma
Sweet 100
Gardeners Delight
Gold Nugget
Mint Julep
Orange Strawberry
Sun Sugar
Wapsipinicon
Yellow Brandy

I have a few regular roma tomato starts at home that may end up making it to the new house as well. I plan to do a lot of canning, sauce making, salsa, munching on fresh tomatoes of course… So I am excited for my first harvest.

I will be planting them and supporting the vines very shortly. This was a spur of the moment purchase so I did not have time to gather all tools and supplies needed to plant them immediately. I put them on the chair to help keep them from falling over. They are already fruiting and will be a lovely addition to my urban homestead. Most of these are heirloom varieties that I will be saving seeds from in the future. I have to double check to make sure what ones are heirloom and what ones may not be.  Some of my choices were changed when I got to the guys house.

Did I mention I love the smell of tomatoes?

For those who do not know, NIghtshade is also in the tomato family, as is eggplant. Just a fun little fact there. People used to think tomatoes were toxic due to the relation.

So once upon a time….
Just kidding. So once I got my new plants, I went straight to the new house. I unloaded and watered the tomatoes for good measure. Today was a cabinet only day. Yes, lots of posts about the cabinets. It really is a multi step process.

I sprayed the bottoms of some that needed it, flipped and sprayed the other sides of a few, then coated some others that were only primed.

Then moved the finished ones to the corner of the living room

It is from this set that the doors started to evolve. I took my first shot at glazing with one of the smaller cabinet doors. I figured if I horridly fucked it up, it would be a smaller one, and easy to cover up with paint again.
To my great delight, my cabinet door came out amazing! I developed a technique of my own, and got all 3 doors finished that were ready to be glazed. I will still need to clear coat over the glazing, but this is the end result ^_^

Keep in mind, it was about 10pm when I finished, so the interior lighting put off a bit of a pinkish hue on the photos. They look great, though more amazing in person.

I had so much fun glazing these. My massive ball of nerves I had about the cabinets is slowly unraveling into confidence. I am really no longer freaked out about how they will turn out now that I am confident in my technique and actually can see the outcome.

Funny thing about it is I hated the old door knobs… They looked dated to me. While they are not in the photo, they actually ironically matched the new cabinets from what I was seeing tonight. They didn’t look so dated on these compared to the straight wood grain they were before. I may not spray paint the knobs after all…

Still have a ton more glazing to do, but I am happy to have gotten to this point now. This is the moment I was waiting for. To actually be able to envision the end result.

And as with every day I use the spray painter, my feet make me look like I am an African Tribesman. *blinks* or so my hubby joked. Sadly, I did not wear a band aid on my wound between my pinky toe since it had dried enough to not need one… Which means I have a thick layer of paint on that foot as well. Soaking feet will be a must tonight. Hopefully it will wash off without any pain from the bruising.