Things to Sit On

 

A couple weekends ago,

 we went to antique shops

 up in Fowlerville,

with Bob & Peg...

 

and we found this amazing cow milking stool.

 

It was heavily coated in shellac,

and white paint spatters.

 

Terry has been sanding it forever.

 

More on that later...

 

Hmm.... what's all this?

 

They are the parts to this chair...

 

There are two of them,

a rocker and a stationery chair.

 

They're called "hotel chairs" by collectors

of these heavy-duty, last-forever gems.

 

I acquired these chairs from my mom,

who acquired them from her mom and dad.

 

This is a picture of the chairs

sitting on their porch on Burt Road

in Detroit, in the fifties.

 

The chairs have been painted many times,

in many colors...

 

and Terry has taken on the loving mission of restoring them.

 

He's been out in the garage for days.

He goes out there after work and sands, and scrapes, and

I don't even want to know...

 

He tells me they are almost ready for primer.

 

Can't wait to pick out a paint color for them.

 

Meanwhile...

Back to the milking stool.

 

We picked out a stain that was close to the original,

and a couple of coats of poly...

 

 

and there it is.

 

Love it, love it, love it.

 

It sits in our upstairs 1/2 bathroom,

which is exactly where I pictured it

when I found it at the antique shop.

 

Petey came by today for some peanuts

and he let me get a couple feet away to get this pic.

 

He's sooo cute.

Petey

 

The end of March, almost April, and the weather is up & down.

 

One day it's 30 degrees and the next day it's sixty-five.

 

*

 

Over the winter we became enamored by the birds and squirrels in our backyard,

and we hung feeders for them.

 

Now we love them, and might be considered obsessed with them.

 

Filling the suet feeders and the birdseed feeders everyday.

 

We have regular customers; a woodpecker and his wife,

 finches, cardinals, and sparrows,

 and sometimes nasty crows that we shoo away...

 

but our favorite "pet" is a fox squirrel that we have named Petey.

 

He comes around when he feels like it,

 and we run outside, and throw him peanuts...

 

yes, we go to the store and buy peanuts, just for him.

 

We watch for him, we wait for him,

 and when he wanders into the backyard, we become childlike,

running to get peanuts for him.

 

Here's the funny part:

 

We thought that he started coming around just this year,

but Terry was looking through old pictures

 of when we first moved into this house (three years ago),

and he found this picture of Petey on our second story bedroom window ledge.

 

He was here the whole time.

 

 



We are Still Alive

 

Somewhere between the beginning of January

 and this day in March,

 I lost all track of time...

 

January was a blur.

I know we took a weekend trip to Soaring Eagle Casino,

which was super fun,

 and then we lost the whole month of February with the flu.

We both had a bad strain of the flu

 that led to bronchitis,

and it took the whole month to get back to feeling human again.

 

All of  sudden,

it's the middle of March and I realize that

I haven't taken a picture or written a word for two months....

 

The realization came tonight,

 while Terry and I sat on our new chaise lounge cushions... 

 

I had to order some new cushions for our patio chaise chairs.

 

They came today

 and since the chairs have been stored down in the basement

 for the winter...

we took out the cushions and the chairs

 and set them up in the basement.

 

We're still so tired from our illness

 that we sat in the chairs and didn't get up for an hour.

 

The cushions are A+

and we are now starting to talk about our spring projects...

 

Second story tuck pointing,

a new awning for the back door,

garden planning,

privacy fence staining,

maybe a pool...

 

the list is long...

 

For now, we'll just sit in the basement.

 



Happy 2016

Happy New Year.

 

It was a peaceful and quiet holiday season, and we feel blessed.

A new baby was born, (my nephew had a a son)...

and I got to see him on Christmas.

We visited with my brother and his wife, and my mom.

 

We made lots of cookies and got lots of presents.

 

We spent some time with Terry's kids;  Nick and Colleen and Luke.

 

We made popcorn, and watched movies, and puttered around the house working on little projects...

 

Terry is still working on the big ship model and I have been doing some painting.

 

The strange thing I did this holiday was to roast chestnuts.

 

I have heard about roasted chestnuts for a long time.

They always show them in movies, and talk about how people buy them from vendors in New York City around the holidays, and they are some great tradition.

 

So we were at the produce market and there was a huge crate of them, and so I bought a pound...

looked up how to roast them online...

and...

 ewwwwww.

 

They were gross.

 

Lesson learned.

 

*

 

This is Woody, our woodpecker that comes every day to our feeder.

Not the best picture, but he is camera shy.

 

So...

 Happy New Year,

 and hoping 2016 is as quiet and blessed as the holiday season that rang it in.

 

 

 



Christmastime

 

Making the yearly sugar cookies.

 

Never get tired of this tradition.

 

Sandy made the prettiest cookie, ever.

 

Presents are wrapped and ready...

 

This is my "estate sale" tree.

 

Everything came from various estate sales...

the little tree, and lights, and birds,

 and even the green bucket it sits in.

 

I love it, all for a few bucks.

 

Makin' fudge.

 

Terry has taken over work on the boat model.

 

Slow and tedious.

 

He also built himself a new workbench,

in the basement.

Nice.

 

 

Always Something Going On...

 

Terry tried to fix the twenty-five year old dryer one last time.

 

I said "enough!"

 

Three fixes ago, I said, "next time, I'm buying a new washer and dryer".

 

And here they are;

new Whirlpool washer and dryer.

 

The gas line is not long enough,

so we have to address that...

 

We need room to get at the weirdly placed washtub.

 

We are going to fix that too... eventually....

 

My brother has been crying about wanting a tall ship

 for over his fireplace for a long time now.

 

Well, I found a 40 year old model kit at an estate sale last weekend.

 

It was $65 and I bartered the lady down to Twenty bucks.

 

Now I have to build it.

 

I have sincere doubts about this adventure...

 

Terry has been working on more important endeavors.

 

Installing the new furnace humidifier has him pulling his hair out.

 

He'll do it.

 

Internet Christmas shopping...

 boxes that need to be broken down.

 

There's always something going on at Project House.

Working on the Kitchen

 

The new countertop is in, and the sink and faucet,

 now on to the backsplash...

 

We picked out a pencil thin, horizontal stone.

 

Should be a piece of cake.

 

Terry took care of all the details;

the dishwasher hookup,

 garbage disposal,

 sink clamps,

reconfigured plumbing,

new single faucet...

 

I started laying the tile...

this is gonna be easy.

 

Not so fast,

this woven (pencil thin) tile is kicking my ass.

 

Working around the outlets, and corners,

and getting to the edges turned out to be quite a challenge. 

 

It ended up taking me three days

 to finish this seemingly simple backsplash.

Ready for grout.

 

I hate grouting!

 

Now, for this dead space under the cabinets, I want a spice shelf...

 

 

ooh, break in the action...

a new grand-nephew was born...

Calvin Asti Wills

December 4, 2015

 

 

And there it is...

I ask for it, and Terry bulds it.

 

Amazing giant green bottle I got at an estate sale for a couple bucks.

 

Terry is hanging the shelf.

 

caulking, and painting...

and there it is.

 

Love it.