Refurbishing Old Radiators

We love our radiators. They produce great heat in the winter, but beyond that, we love the vintage look. Instead of hiding them or trying to blend them in with a neutral paint color, we want to highlight them as accent pieces throughout the house.

First, my mother stripped the existing paint.
Ben & I decided on a burnt orange and I began spray painting:

About half way through I realized I needed a primer. So yesterday I primed:

Now it needs to dry. In the meantime, I will  research how to remove spray paint from my feet:

Spray paint = Love

Spray painting is my new favorite thing. I spray painted the old yellowish/ivory metal kitchen cabinet to match our other white cabinets.

First I sprayed the Rust-Oleum white primer, then the actual white gloss paint. The hardest - and perhaps more important part - has been using the right drop cloth. I didn't realize paint would settle all. over. the. house. So that was my subsequent project, cleaning paint off of everything.

Mike & Kath come to visit

Ben and I have been maxed out and burned out of working on the house. We haven't had the time, and when we do, things never go the way we think they should. We've needed a break.

Mike & Kath came to the rescue. Is there anything that they cannot do?

Strip paint off the radiators, tame the yard/jungle, build a wooden wall to close off the garage, lay adhesive in our rusty kitchen drawers, and cook dinners? All in a few days work. 

We had a great visit & celebration for Mothers Day and my birthday.

Yard Work: Beware of Poison Ivy

Who would have thought to look out for poison ivy? Our yard is infested with it. All of that weed wacking and lawn mowing led to a me having pretty major outbreak of poison ivy. It was horrific, and now I never want to work outside again.

Yard Work Begins

This weekend I raked leave for the first time in my adult life. 

Then I went to Home Depot and bought and assembled a weed wacker and lawn mower. Ben has been working on his final project all weekend, so I battled out the weeds & mowed our front yard. 

Yet another neighbor came over to introduce himself and invite us to his BBQ on Sunday night. When we weren't able to make it, he showed up at our door afterward with 2 giant plates of food. I don't understand it, but I love it. We're really winning on the neighbor front.

Grilling Season Begins

Ben's birthday grill came today! 

We were so excited that we cooked out in a thunderstorm & ate in the rain.

There is a Tree Growing into our House

It is a property line tree, so we're going to invite our neighbors over for dinner and slip it into conversation. This project is pretty urgent since the branches are about to come through the upstairs screened in porch.

This whole time we've been wondering what plants will pop up in the spring. Well, now we know! 

The next project is raking all the leaves and sticks out of the yard, then we'll buy a rickety old mower from Craigslist. The tallest weeds are up to my waste, so we should probably get moving on that.