Hey guys, just popping in to say there’s a mini-tour of the digs over at Design Mom as part of her Living With Kids series! Thanks so much to Gabrielle for having me! Check it out here.
Category: Our Projects
Treehouse Update (Planning)
Not exactly an update, as much as an update on plans. We had a family “meeting” in the treehouse this weekend to discuss next steps with the interior painting etc.. and some fun and interesting requests emerged.
1) Zip line access – We have a zip line in the front yard that we can move…this will be tricky to keep it safe, but we think it’s possible…
2) A chalkboard inside -Â Easy Peasy! We can paint a few of the panels in the chalkboard paint.
3) A refrigerator – Um, no…this is a treehouse, not your college dorm room….next?
4) A TV – See #3….DUH.
5) The bottom bunker built – This is actually top of their wish list. We really wanted our big outdoor project to involve a deer proof vegetable garden this year, but we’re feeling some pressure here. Our answer was: “We’ll think about it.” Still thinking.
6) A poster/collage depicting Godzilla destroying a Minecraft city – COOL!!!! We are a family who geeks out over old 50’s-60’s Godzilla movies…we love them. The boys are also completely obsessed with Minecraft, so this marries their passions on what should be a super fun art project for us…
We’ll be looking to create a combination of these two.
PLUS
= CHAOS!
While looking for images, I can across these great vintage Polish and Czech Godzilla movie posters from the 70’s, I love these and I can’t wait to show the boys and see what they think of them.
We concluded our planning session up there with snacks and a round of Life, and I’m so happy that it is only in this game that I would have 3 weddings and both a set of twins AND a set of triplets…phew!
Oh, I almost forgot! I made a mini-tour of the treehouse so far so that new readers don’t have to slog through all those treehouse posts to see the progress of the building.
To Do: Cure Table Woes
I have table woes. One of the only pieces of furniture in this whole entire house that was purchased new, has failed me.
Am I shocked? Not really.
Am I resentful? Absolutely.
Our dining room table was bought on sale at Pottery Barn, and I think I know why the clearance price was so good. The finish has the life span of a fly. It’s called Sandrift Gray and it started chipping only 6 months after we got it. Now, this is what we see all over…little nicks and chips.
I contacted Pottery Barn right away when the first nicks appeared to see if they sold a touch up kit or something that would match the finish…NO. So now I throw a canvas dropcloth over it if I have guests coming because it’s at the point now where it’s just looking…shabby.
I love the lines…I wanted a Parson’s table, and still do, plus it has a leaf, so that we can seat 10-12 for special occasions. I want to fix the table finish, but how? The “finish” is textured, as you might be able to tell in the photos. Because of that, an opaque paint color might highlight the chips in the texture. If I did some kind of overglaze, would that be enough to hide it? I don’t know that I have it in me to sand off the finish completely and start over…but it’s a last ditch option. I tried a silver paint pen on one spot that I promptly wiped off…sigh.
This will be a big project either way and I’m open to suggestions on how to hide these blemishes…I don’t want to have to live with tablecloths forever.
Sneak Peek
Things are really boring around here since all our projects are mid-stream. On the upholstery front, I haven’t started my new chairs, although I’m dying to, until I can finish these chairs to sell. This is what all that mess was from.
We forgot to take pics of the chairs before taking them down to the frames, so I tried to dig up a few snaps of them from days of yore.
They had button tufting on the back. Yikes… my dining room when we first moved in! Ew!
Terrible shots, but you get the idea…a pair of upholstered tufted klismos style chairs from the 40’s-50’s I’d guess. The only ones I found like them online are attributed to Parzinger, here.
So, the Things were a little rough with them, and the frame snapped on one, so up to the attic they went to await repair. I had planned to reupholster them anyway, but knew we’d have to fix the frame first. Once we got them stripped down, both frames actually needed some structural repair.
The CC likes the woodworking repair aspect…*yawn* and now that he’s almost done, it’s time for me to get to work and sand down the legs, paint them and start upholstering them. I’ve decided to go a little crazy, OK a LOT crazy with these chairs.
Behold what I plan to cover them with….
Scary, huh? That’s several yards of faux grey and white Mongolian fur, and if it ends up looking like a pair of ugly trolls, I can just redo it. THIS is the fun part of trying to tackle this on my own-the risks aren’t so risky. Would I do this if I were paying someone else to do it? Probably not, I’d go with something “safer”.
So that’s one of the many unfinished things happening around the house…I’m hoping for a full reveal sooner rather than later.
Spring Fever
It’s that time of year…the seed catalogs start showing up and I get spring fever bigtime. It doesn’t help that my plants are confused by the mild winter and everything is budding out. I predict the blooms will open on these Pear branches by Friday, latest.
It’s 60 degrees today, and we had snow over the weekend, with more predicted this coming weekend. Today is my window…it is time to prune the horsetail rush or Equisetum Hymale. I didn’t prune it last winter and I think it showed by blowing over so easily. Now it is laying down completely flat and it’s time to hack it to the ground. This is how it looked when I first put it in.
And this is how it looked today. So sad.
I couldn’t find the electric hedge trimmer in the garage chaos, so I had to go old school with the shears. FUN!
Hopefully it will return reinvigorated and upright, like the picture I showed you when I first decided to go for this stuff. By all accounts, it should, so fingers crossed!
Not a Bathmat
Well, I was in Target to pick up a basic boring bathmat when I saw this hot little number in the new arrivals section for the same price. Why not? It’s cotton, can be thrown in the wash…it’s just missing a non skid bottom.
I can fix this without even leaving the house. I loathe rug mats/pads. I know they are a necessary evil with fine rugs, but for a $14 Target rug…Hell NO.
I can’t take credit for this idea…I saw it somewhere years ago…maybe Martha?
Whip out some silicone caulk (you can get squeeze tubes if you don’t want to mess with a gun.) This is the waterproof stuff used in bathrooms etc…I chose clear because, well, it’s clear and less noticeable. Even though it’s on the under side, I’ll know it’s there. Call me Stevie Jobs. I digress.
I used a spreader because I buy them in 10 for a dollar packs, but a piece of cardboard or even your finger will work too.
Hit that baby with a bead of caulk that zigs and zags like Heather Locklear’s drive home and then smooth the bead with your tool of choice.
The point in spreading it is to keep it smoother underfoot and to adhere better to the fabric. Just don’t smoosh it in too deep.
I go to put it in the bathroom and it’s too damn wide. Figures. The kids and puppy have been trashing my rug at the front door, so how about there?
 
OK, so not a total waste. I still need a bathmat though.