Painting Fool

It's been a busy couple of weeks and I so badly wanted to post tonight about our new toilet but unfortunately, there's still a hole in the wall and a pesky drip that needs a part to fix it so I'll have to keep you in suspense until next week. Just know there are lots of not fun things about replacing a toilet in an old house.

Here are a few things I can tell you about: our nightstands got a lift, the other two adirondack chairs got some color, and our building doors got a face lift. I've been a painting fool. I hoped to have another project to share that I've been working on in the basement. That too will have to appear in my next post, Home Improvement edition. We have this random shower in the middle of the room in what is now the laundry room/gym. I can't imagine how the room was arranged before that would make this a prime spot for a shower, other than it could tie into the drain and water lines from the kitchen above it. Anyway, I'm pretty sure the paint is about 76 years old and will give me lead poisoning but I've been scraping it for days. At first I was just getting the loose pieces and then my obsessive need for perfection kicked in and that is why I'm not finished with repainting it yet. I told Phil(ip) I think scraping paint in kinda fun, especially when big pieces come off, and he told me that we have two very different ideas about what fun is. So anyway, once the poison paint is all gone I will paint and post! (By the way, the paint may or may not be lead-based. In case you're worried about my well-being I want you to know that I do wear a mask while chipping and cleaning it up 😉)

Project #1: Raising our nightstands 4 inches.
We've had nightstands that match our dresser and bed frame for several years and weren't using them because they were too low for our raised bed. We were using two mismatched stands instead, which you know I didn't like. For whatever reason, I started cleaning in our room and got a wild idea to build something for them to sit on to make them higher. (I'm pretty sure that we can build anything and everything I want to now 😂). Because I was no good at mechanical drawing in 8th grade I asked Phil(ip) to draw a diagram for me of what it would look like. We figured out the measurements and used wood we already had from another project that we decided not to make. It didn't take long to cut the pieces and screw them together. The stain I bought is slightly darker than the stands but it's not very noticeable unless you're looking for it. They turned out great and make the stands the perfect height!

Before

One for each side

After

Project #2: I was really happy to get the other two adirondack chairs stained but it seriously took close to 3 hours to finish them. Making sure to get every nook and cranny is time consuming but also nerve wracking when your supervisor is watching you 😳:

She runs a tight ship. Sitting half inside and half outside allows her to be everywhere at once. Luckily I got the job done without incident. 

Before

After

In a couple of weeks I can paint the table and it will all match, which will make me happy. 

Here's the newest addition to the table we built so my succulent had a place to live. I made the cement planters from a kit I bought at Target (on clearance!). The succulents are courtesy of Holly G., the succulent mid-wife. She births baby succulents like a boss. 

Project #3: The doors on our storage building were looking pretty gross on the bottom. They're going to need replaced at some point. They're made from particle board that's 99 years old, I'm sure. But for today they just got touch up so they don't have to feel embarrassed around the other building doors in the neighborhood. 

Yuck!

Yay!

If my life was a video game that involved painting walls and other surfaces, I would be on like level 58. I've painted every wall in our house, some more than once, all the trim, the deck, and the entire building before this touch-up. I've gotten pretty good at it. I can paint along edges in a straight line but I ALWAYS end up with paint all over myself. 

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GARDEN UPDATE: 

The garden is in complete chaos. The tomatoes have teamed up together to take over the world. The watermelon is busting out of the net and plans to capture the sidewalk. The beans have taken the net hostage and refuse to surrender. I can't even talk about the zucchini, you'll just have to see for yourself: 

My battle wounds from the zucchini jungle

I haven't harvested for a couple days, because I've been a little busy with other things, and I found this monster hiding among the leaves tonight. Anyone wanna guess how much it weighs? If you said, "About as much as a small infant," you were right, 5.12 pounds. Is there a zucchini growing contest anywhere, like the giant pumpkin ones people go to? Because I think I could I enter. I'm not sure if they still taste good when they get this big so if I can't eat it, it will make a good substitute for a dumbbell. Maybe I'll do some biceps curls with it or some overhead presses....

In other news, the cucumbers are coming along very nicely. I first noted their size on Tuesday and they've doubled since then. They'll be ready to eat very soon! 

The box I was so proud of building from my repurposed pallet isn't holding up very well. I'm just waiting for the carrots to spill out into the yard. The rabbits will be very happy. 

That's all I have for now! Stay tuned for Toilet Tales and Other Fails to see what learning experience I've had so that you don't have to 😉😂