Summer Porch Food Round-up

I went a little overboard on plants this summer. Home Depot's plentiful garden department, and the excitement of having my own porch overcame me. The result is about 20 pots with anywhere from 1 to 6 plants per pot. I've kept almost everything alive, but its all a little much.

just 8 of the ~13 plant containers on the back porch

As I talked about in an earlier post, I had a goal to plant something I could eat. The herbs have done gangbusters. Even though the pepper, squash, and cucumber plants haven't produced any veggies, they've put out a lot of pretty flowers and thus have earned their keep.

The tomatoes have been quite a different story. I planted early, used several varieties, fertilized, de-bugged, watered, watched and waited. No tomatoes. I plant sat a friend's tomato which quickly grew several good sized fruits. I even put my plants near the damn friend-mato thinking perhaps there was an optimal sun situation there. Mine just flowered, got huge, and laughed. grumble grumble grumble...

4ft tall tomato plants

Finally one of the 6 towering plants mustered an actual tomato.

Why hellooo dere.

It was a teeny tiny little thing, and this morning was it's time of reckoning.

side note: Beans LOVES his perch.

It was delicious! 

That little tomato definitely inspired me to eat more tomatoes next summer.....from the farm stand. 

I'll stick with petunias, they love me back.

-Lindsay

Indecisive Antique Door Lover - Seeking Creative Direction

Loves wood grain, disintegrating paint, and long walks through yard sales. Tired of the barn scene and looking for a sturdy companion. Turn offs: dry rot, reproductions, high prices.

It's no wonder I found my Bf in the real world and not through personals. But anyway.....

I got 99 problems; and an over abundance of affection for old weathered doors is one. Say that ten times fast. Or not. Whatevs.

I am prone to stalk Craigslist for old doors and run out during lunch when someone 'curb alerts' a beautifully distressed old door. Picture a wacky wavy inflatable arm flailing tube man. That is me.

Recently I'd grabbed an old door from the ReStore, with a sliding door project in mind.

Picture taken at ReStore and sent to my Momma for consultation.

Soon there after I picked up one of the aforementioned curb alert doors during a lunch break (there was a lot of arm waving).

There were several available,
but I had just enough self control and trunk space to grab only the prettiest one.

Both of the doors had lots of dirt, cobwebbs, and peeling paint.
I loved them.

This pic made the photog Bf proud:
oooh diagonals
oooh texture
oooh moooody

They each got a good scrubbing and thorough sanding.

The front porch is sanding central.
In an attempt to mitigate their certain dislike of me all my noise,
I always make sure to go downstairs and sweep up the layer of
sawdust from my long-suffering neighbor's porch floor.

As the sanding progressed, the texture and age of the doors only got more drool worthy. All the flakes and rough spots were gone, but the chipping pattern remained and the beauty of the wood grain came through.

One of the doors has more pronounced chipping.

The other one has beautiful dark wood grain worn at the high points and on each corner.
The pictures don't convey how pretty and charming it is.

I used 80 then 120 sanding pads on the sander, along with a sanding block around the edges.
When the doors stopped molting paint chips and everything was smooth, I applied several thin layers of poly-acrylic.

We work all night here at The Cabindo.

But now, other than taking pictures, I'm at a loss of what to do with them.

Artsy McFartsy

Sliding barn door at the end of the hallway to contain cats? (Original plan when I had just one)

pin

Wall hanging? (clearly not this many!)

pin

Headboard? (Though I like my existing bed frame. But I do have a spare chandelier like that.....)

pin

Bench? (I can't bring myself to cut them up. We'll see how I feel the longer they sit around.)

pin

Who knows. They are just too pretty to not share, even with an unknown destiny.
:)



-Lindsay

Wainscotting Makes Me Feel Fancy

The image in this pin really got my motor going:

pinterest. duh.

And this this one sealed the deal:

A plate shelf on top? SOLD.

I would be wainscotting/board n batten'ing/panelling. Whatever you want to call it.
It had to happen.
My ugly bathroom depended on it.
I had already put in a new floor, so was ready to tackle the walls.

My dad was excited to help me execute the wainscotting/board n batten/panel walls after I'd showed him a million pictures and gushed like a rabid school girl with a Beiber crush. He might have been simply excited for me to shut up. If that was the case: worked like a charm!
He already had a bunch of lumber lying around that we could use. It was new and matching, but thicker than the MDF most tutorials floating around the blogosphere are recommending. This installation had to content with moisture, so it was just as well to go a non-MDF direction. And 'free' always sways my decision to: "ummm.. yeah we're gonna go with that."

I figured out how the spacing of each vertical board would work in the room by guesstimating how much space one hanging towel would take to look nicely framed (ala the top picture), then measured out as many of those panels as would fit on the large wall.  Turns out the answer was 4 panels, so there would be 5 'batten' pieces for the large wall across from the toilet and vanity with about 14.75 inches between each. The other two walls would follow the same batten spacing.
The elements of the wall are as follows:

shelf board needs to straighten up and fly right

The height of the top shelf is just above my shoulder height while wearing heels, so I wont ever smack into it. Cuz I'm a thinker. And a consummate klutz.

Action time:
We cut all the wood Dad had available, ran to Home Depot for a little more, cut that too, and ended up after dark with a big pile in the driveway. All the boards were given a good edge sanding to smooth out any sharp corners and prevent clothing or towel snags.

I do my wooood cutting at night, so I can, so I can.....
watch the sawdust swirl past my eyes

It made me a bit nervous that this mass of wood was going to be put into my smallish bathroom. As it made its way onto the wall though, the pile (& anxiety level) quickly shrunk as the wainscotting began to take shape.

framed out large wall

All of the boards were held up in place first and given several small pilot holes. A big thanks to my Dad and the Bf for holding up the big horizontal header boards as I leveled and drilled! Each corresponding hole in the wall got an anchor, and the holes in the wood got countersinks.
I put up a frame of the header, footer, and outside vertical boards first, then repeated the process with the remaining vertical battens. These got attached to the wall in about a million points so that even with moisture in the picture, they would not warp.
The top moulding was screwed into the header board, and the 3.25" plate shelf (same width as the vertical boards) screwed into the wide supportive surface created by the tops of the moulding and header board.

Wood filler x a $#!+ ton of holes = a crazy long time

As you see above, all those holes got patched with wood filler. Every place where wood met the wall also got wood filler (ex. sides of the battens), as well as every place a piece of wood met another piece of wood (ex. batten to header board).
Sanding all of the wood filler spots, refilling, waiting, and re-sanding was by far the most tedious part of this project and dragged on for about a month because I was not a fan and kept avoiding it.
I learned afterwards that you can do the edges and joins with caulk.... :|
If I ever do wainscotting again: I will definately be doing that to minimize the sanding portion of the project.
Once I put my big girl pants on and finally finished the sanding, it was time to paint. Everything got a coat of white primer, followed by a slightly off-white semi-gloss to match the color of the tiles. This helped to unify the room and avoided making the tiles look dingy.

For the towel hooks: Ikea's BLECKA hooks had the modern look and inexpensive price I was going for. But what a terrible name!! Poor towel hooks, they are going to get a complex.

$5 for 2 - 2.75" hooks
$5 for 4 - 1..5" hooks

I used 4 of the large ones on the long wall for bath towels, 2 of the smaller ones on the toilet/vanity wall for hand towels, and 2 more of the smaller ones on the back of the door to replace the existing rusted hook.

Fancy, fancy!!

This project gave me a huge boost of confidence that I could see something I liked, and translate it to my space in a high quality and inexpensive way.

Price breakdown:

Wood - Free! (probably would have been about $80)

Hooks - $15

Paint - $20

   Hardware - $15  

Total - $50

(if not for Daddy-o's lumber: $130)

-Lindsay

Storage, in a Time of Limited Space (master bathroom edition)

Let me paint you a picture of my 'master' bathroom.

yeah this is a picture, 'painterly' words below

It's on the hall rather than connected to a bedroom, which I consider awesome because:
   1. I live here alone, so theres no need for the additional privacy of an en suite.
   2. In a 1.5 bathroom/2 bedroom unit, the off-the-hallway factor makes it guest/host friendly: cuz I am just fine with people NOT walking through my bedroom to get to the shower when staying over.
   3. For the future: it's very rental friendly. Two housemates would not go for a unit with a single shower that is an en suite. Having it in the hallway gives equal access. While I'm not going to be renting the place out for a couple years, I definitely kept that potential in mind when looking at places, and the hallway bath was one of the reasons that made this particular property stand out from the field. I have a good friend with a 1 bath (en suite) condo who loves to entertain, and it works for her because she is super neat and tidy; but I know my shortcomings, among them that my bedroom is almost never presentable enough to be a public thoroughfare.
So, long story long: I knew what in a bathroom would work for me, and luckily found it.

though it looked like this at first

While I do like my bathroom, it is standard 5'x10', which does the job nicely, but is not what anyone would call spacious. The vanity is small and mainly used for cleaning materials/toilet paper/curling irons/other big stuff. I have lots of soaps n lotions n hair products that needed a home though too. I'm a girl, goes with the territory, right?
I wanted to store all my bottled items within arms reach, in an organized and non-hoarder-ish way. The vanity counter top is small and looks cluttered with more than a few items. There is no room for a storage tower all occupiable floor space already has inhabitants (small grey trash can between tub n toilet, basket with rolled towels between toilet and vanity).

I'm excessively fond of this basket.
$10 at T.J. Maxx

As the saying goes: to the windooooow, to the wall..... or something like that. I have no window in there, so wall it was. I wanted to keep the space as open as possible, so though glass shelves would do nicely. As usual: enter Ikea, with the GRUNDTAL glass shelf.

$20 for 31"

I hung them on the same wall as the vanity, because the toilet sticks out underneath, so I wouldn't be running in to them there. Cuz if they were on the opposite wall, I'd have lost an eye in no time, and 'Pirate' is not a good look.
I really like how the paint color on the wall goes with the color of the glass.

Once the shelves were up, I needed bins of some sort to group small items, because I knew things were never going to be as sparsely populated as the picture above. I cut up an old t-shirt and crocheted it into a little basket with side handles.

lots of items, all in their place

It's adorable and I'm a big fan, but cutting up the t-shirt and crocheting gave me a blister big enough to stop after one basket.
I had 4 small grey felt bins lying around that I'd picked up on clearance from Michaels at some point in the unrememberable past.

I knew all that craft item hording would pay off at some point!! Most small items live in those bins.

Frequently used things live in the corner of the vanity and can be easily moved up to a shelf when people come over.
Face wash, sunscreen, chap stick, etc, live in the crocheted basket.
Jewelry gets deposited at the end of the day in a teacup I made in college and a saucer my mom gave me.
Toothbrush and toothpaste lives in a blown glass cup from an art studio in St.Louis I visited with my grandmother.
I really enjoy to interacting with special things on a daily basis to fulfill a need, rather than say going out and buying a matching bathroom set from Target. Not that I have anything against Target, it's just nice to use meaningful items rather than have them sit in a box or on a dusty shelf.

Ahhhhhh......organization I can keep up with, for $55.

-Lindsay

Landmark Post & an Overdue Introduction

This marks my 25th post on The Cabindo, which boggles my brain bits. I put off starting a blog for a long time because I thought I'd struggle to find enough to write. Now at 25 posts in, I feel like I've just started to scratch the surface.

The blog has also, unexpectedly, already received more pageviews than I thought it would get in a year.
When I ask friends and family if they've seen it, most have said 'no, haven't looked yet', which is of course fine, but it makes me wonder: who is reading this??
So, thanks. Whoever you are.
I've come to really enjoy blogging about what I've done to/in my home, and am glad it's marginally interesting.

It seems like now would be an appropriate time for a little background blurb on myself and The Cabindo.

The Cabindo
ie.
Land of Shelves (I just noticed this)

The Gist of it
The Cabindo is a 1,200 sqft, 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath condo; right on a lake in a woodsy little park-like corner of the DC suburban sprawl.
It is my first home purchase, and I snatched the keys from the closing agent about 9 months ago (think Kevin Costner in Prince of Thieves with that melon [6:50]).
Really, Wells Fargo bought it and the cats and I get to crash here in exchange for regular checks over the next 30 years.
Though I don't plan on actually living here that long; I'd like to own the place for an extended period of time, perhaps as a rental property one day. We'll see.
For the time being, I've been investing a tremendous amount of elbow work, and a couple dolla dolla bills, to make it an updated and comfortable home.

Comfort level: quite acceptable

The Real Estate Part

My bf and I had been hunting for a house to buy together, and even though we were under contract for a place that amazingly checked all the boxes for both of us; in the end the plan changed and we didn't go to closing. I was about as far from 'happy camper' at that point as possible, but it was truly the right time to buy, and I was going to do so: accomplice or not.
I had been casually keeping an eye on the condo market as well though, and just knew something special would come along.
Lo and behold, at the same time as the house fiasco, my wonderful, but not-showing-well unit, had been languishing on the market for several weeks. The ancient appliances and out of date bathroom seemed to be scaring people away. Their loss. Since I was familiar with the local offerings, I knew this place was exactly what and where I wanted to be, so I didn't need to 'wait and see what else was out there' (hate that phrase), or come to any sort of agreeance with a 2nd mortgage signitory: this was the one. This was MY place.

thanks again for the pictures, MRIS

The seller was really friendly and actually a real estate agent in my agent's office. What luck! It made negotiations easy, and we scheduled closing asap; which turned out to be the same day that I'd initially been slated to close on the house-that-wasn't. Oh irony, thank you for being you.
A 30 day timeline, as well as a super shisty appraiser who insanely undervalued the place; resulted in me parting ways with the vast majority of my bank accounts' contents. My 401k was shaking at the knees, but remained unscathed in the fray. Ugghh..... oh well.
Because of that and my thrifty nature in general (excepting shoes); all my projects have a miniscule budget, and are done myself. The only paid professional I've used was a plummer to install the dishwasher. Unless feeding my ever-helpful father counts as payment, but I don't think so.

Though this is not how I thought the picture of my first time home ownership would look a year ago: I couldn't be more pleased with how everything worked out.

happy moments of this work in progress:
friends in inconvenient places
a deep seeded home depot addiction
working with my hands
a roof over my head & a comfy bed under it
tasty treats

Genetic Predisposition

My grandfather was a carpenter. My other grandfather was an engineer. My aforementioned Dad is a man of tools, knowledge, and a spark for building and doing. Happily, I seem to have inhered some of the traits that made these men who and what they are, and I take pride in continuing their legacies of precision (most days), and craftsmanship.
I love to renovate, craft, build, bake, sew, and generally DIY my home and the things in it a little better, piece by piece.

projects, projects, projects!
a ton down, a whole bunch to go

-Lindsay

Pretty Petite Pallet Plant ..... Thing

Sleeping out on the porch last night was glorious! The temps were in the high 60's/low 70's, and I did not get attacked by any manner of wildlife; bugs, overly affectionate cats, or otherwise.
When I woke up I let the monsters out with me, and noticed that Mr. Beans the curious did not have a spot on the plant stand upon which to sit and survey his kingdom.
My options were to move the plants onto the floor, ignore it and inevitably have him knock them over, or make alternate arrangements.  A couple of the pots had holes for hanging, but I did not want to put them straight on the wall because it is block, and a PAIN to drill into. I had one existing pre-drilled hole to work with, and a pile of (suprise suprise) pallet wood.

pile o stuff

I used some paint stirrers to bracket the pallet boards together, and added a sawtooth hanger on the back, since I had extra from the mirrors.

rawr

Taking into account the size of the plants in the pots, I awkwardly held up and guesstimated precisely measured where they would best hang, and added two sets of two screws to the front.

Using a hole in the wall that was already hard fought for made this little Saturday morning project niiiiice and easy. Thank goodness for previously expended efforts; all I had to do today was drive a screw in there.
Mounting hung on screw. Pots hung on mounting. Bing-Bang-Plants-on-the-Wall.

purdy petunias

Mr.Beans had lost interest in being on the porch by this time and cared not for his newly created spot on the plant bench. Oh well, it was a good little free n fast project anyway.

giant tomato plants. one little tomato.

-Lindsay

Hanging a Difficult Item

While hanging my tile wall piece, I had trouble getting that little guy on the bottom right to stay on the wall.

hey there little fella

He is actually slightly bigger than the other tiles and would not make sense (to me) to include in the big hanging. I liked the idea of displaying it nearby, but was having trouble doing so.
The edges of the tile slope in slightly, as the tile is ~3 inches deep and hollow. That, combined with the slick glazed back, meant it wouldn't sit securely on a nail. It was also going to be hung pretty close to the sofa, so could be easily knocked off by spirited guests (I would never do such a thing).

had failed to bring sexy back

I thought that it simply needed something to help it grip or hook onto the nail.
I had some weatherstripping sitting around, so used the adhesive side to attach a piece on the back of the tile.

there it is

It now hooks securely onto the nail in the wall.
I'm not sure if the end of the nail bites into the squooshy weatherstripping, or if the nail head is past the strip and thus prevented from sliding. Either way: its secure as a rock and friends-with-drinks proof.

I will definitely be using this technique wherever I need to sure up the hanging of an item.




-Lindsay