New Laundry Room and an Update
Many of you have been asking about the lady that just had to come look at the house. We never heard back from her, so I’m guessing the house was a little out of her price range. We’re moving forward with a few other jobs, namely the laundry room, the office and the upstairs.
The laundry room was one of the first rooms that was painted back when we first bought this house over 10 years ago. The paint was starting to show it’s age, it was faded, dirty and just looked a little drab. I had painted red halfway up the wall and the door was painted red as well. We repainted all of the exterior doors black a while ago when we painted the shutters.
The flooring was also old vinyl that was really showing the age both in wear and style. Since we had leftover hardwood in the garage from doing the rest of the house, we decided to install it here as well. We didn’t put this flooring down in the laundry room originally because Mr Chiots didn’t think it would hold up to all the traffic, since this is the main door we use. We’ve been really impressed with this flooring and the way it holds up, so we went ahead and put it in.
I used extra paint leftover from the living room and leftover black paint from the shutters to paint the cabinets. Now the walls are a happy green which help balance out the black door and cabinets. A rug from the attic was thrown on the floor and the job was complete.
The results are really quite impressive. It took us one day to finish the job and was a day well spent. The best part is that it only cost us about $5 for the glue for the floor. Not a bad room makeover for a day of work and $5 spent! Unfortunately yesterday was dark and cloudy so the photos don’t really do it justice.
I’m always amazed at how a small things can make such a big difference, not just in how nice the room looks but in the size. This room looks so much bigger than it did before, I don’t know why but I like it! The room is much brighter and happier than it was before, which is really nice since this is the entrance we use 100% of the time.
Do you use you front door, side door, back door or other door for your main entrance?
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Friday Favorite: This Old Blanket
I have this old blanket that I can remember having on my bed when I was as young as 3rd grade and I’ve used ever since. A very simple quilt, made by sewing two cotton king sized sheets together with a flannel sheet sandwiched in between. It’s tufted with that multi-colored yarn that was so popular back in the day.
This quilt was made for me by a group of older ladies in the church. Every time we’d come back to the States from Colombia, they’d present us with beautiful quilts, some very intricate and pretty, other’s crocheted from yarn and some plain and simple like this one.
This blanket is one of my favorite things because it’s the perfect weight for summer. It provides that comfortable weight that helps me sleep better without being too heavy or too hot. It’s also a great layer in winter, we usually add a heavy woolen blanket on top of it.
It’s not stunning, beautiful, intricate or pretty, at least not in the usual sense. I still LOVE it and it will be on my bed until it’s fallen into threads, not likely in my lifetime since it’s already almost 30 years old and shows no signs of wear. No doubt, many of the ladies that worked on it are no longer living and that makes even more special. I wonder if they realized when they lovingly stitched this blanket that I’d still be using it as an adult?
Keeping it around reminds me that it’s not always about surrounding yourself with beautiful things. Sometimes utility trumps beauty, and yet that makes something beautiful in it’s own way! This quilt will never be in a magazine, but it’s worth it’s weight in gold to me for the comfort it provides.
Do you have any items like this that you love?
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Garden Tour: The Middle Garden
Since this is my last summer gardening here, I’ve been trying to take photos of the entire garden every week or two. I want to have a record of how the garden progresses throughout the seasons. Many of you have asked to see a tour of the gardens so I thought I’d start posting a few photos of the various garden areas I have that I’ve taken throughout the season with an explanation of where the garden is.
This garden is located between the house and the garage. It’s a narrow strip, mostly paved with small gravel and it contains a deck. The deck used to be about twice this size taking up the entire area, but we reduced the size to make it more in scale with this area. This area is HOT HOT HOT, the gravel and the deck retain the heat and radiate it throughout the day. It gets morning sun on one side and afternoon sun on the other.
Mr Chiots build me a lovely cedar trellis that covers a huge portion of the garage wall, on it I’m growing hops and a few different kinds of clematis. In the flowerbed at it’s base you will find everbearing strawberris, lemonbalm, lady’s mantle, bergamot, Egyptian walking onions, hops flowering oregano, creeping thyme, and a few other small herbs.
The flowerbed beside the back door is dominated with a HUGE oakleaf hydrangea and a few hostas. There are also a few astilbes in there that are struggling with this heat and drought.
This area is also filled with many potted plants, the lemon, lime and fig trees I bought on my trip to Monticello along with some rosemary, boxwood, hydrangea, lemon verbena, ferns and an elephant ear plant that’s an offspring of my mom’s plant.
There’s another flowerbed at the the far end that has a beautiful hydrangea, oregano, the sage I was talking about yesterday and a few other plants.
This garden space is quite lovely this summer. All of the plants are pretty much their mature size now. This is one of the areas of the garden that I worked on first. This part of the garden is one of the ones that looks best all year long. I have my gardens divided up into sections based on light, sun, water, soil and location. All in all I have 7 distinct areas in my garden.
How many different garden areas do you have?
Chiot’s Run Garden Tour
The Middle Garden
The Side Garden
The Front Hillside Garden
Mr Chiot’s Mailbox Garden
Garden Tour: The Front Garden
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Saving Sage Seeds
I have a beautiful culinary sage plant that grows right outside the back door. It thrives in this location, with full sun and elevated dry soil. Since this is it’s second year in the garden, it bloomed beautifully and is HUGE. This plant was started from seed from Renee’s Garden. I decided to save seed from it because it’s such a hardy plant, definitely has genes I’d like to keep going. The hummingbirds and other pollinators LOVE it too!
Since sage is edible, I figured I could use the seeds for sprouting purposes. I’ve never had sage sprouts before, but I’m guessing they’d be wonderful on a turkey sandwich, sprinkled on top of butternut squash soup or a salad. Maybe they’ll be really terrible, but you never know until you try. I’m assuming the sprouts will taste like sage, the seeds certainly smell like it. Maybe they’ll even be great browned in some butter just like sage leaves are.
After the plant bloomed, I waited until the seed pods were brown and dry, then we cut off the flowering stems (you can cut the plant back by about a third or half if you want at this time). The seeds pop right out of the little dried buds.
Mr Chiots and I sat on the back deck one evening enjoying the cool evening while harvesting a good number of seeds. Of course Dexter was at hand to inspect our work and make sure we were doing it right.
I grow tons of herbs in the garden and enjoy them all year long both fresh and dried along with lots of spices purchased from Mt Rose Herbs. Lately, I’ve been reading a lot about how spices and herbs and super healthy, many of them containing more vitamins, minerals and antioxidants than fruits and vegetables. I’ve always loved spicy food so this makes me very happy. Even though we eat lots of herbs & spices already I’ve been trying to find other ways to add them to our diets. These sage sprouts should add a little healthy goodness!
I also saved tons of ‘Red Russian’ kale seed for the same purpose. When I have more garden space I hope to be able to grow more plants for just for seed. There’s nothing better mid-winter than fresh sprouts, they not only feed our bodies but it’s a great way to get in some gardening in during the long winter!
Do you eat sprouts? Do you grow them yourself?
If you’re interested in reading more about the health benefits of herbs & spices I have purchased a few books and really like them, the first one is my favorite and I’d highly recommend it for health information and because it’s full of fabulous recipes for using spices.
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Traveling with Cats – Suggestions?
Our biggest worry about our move to Maine is getting all the cats up there. We have 2 outdoor cats, one is indoor/outdoor and quite tame (Dexter), the other is still kind of feral. She’s only been in a car twice, both times to go to the vet. Dexter gets carsick, though we’ve found a homeopathic treatment that works for him. Samson & Soafie, the indoor cats, aren’t much for car travel either. All the cats spend the entire time in the car yowling, panting, and generally causing a ruckus.
I’ve been wondering how we’re going to handle taking them all up to Maine. It’s a LONG drive, usually taking 12-13 hours in a car, with a moving truck it will take even longer. The plan is to drive the car behind the moving truck with just the animals in the car. The Chiots may ride with Mr Chiots in the moving truck, she is quite fine with long trips. In fact she gets all excited when it’s time to go somewhere in the car, especially “to grandma’s”.
As much as I’m against pharmaceuticals and drugs, I’m actually considering a sedative for all 4 cats to make the trip a little less stressful, both for them and me. The thought of spending 14 hours in a car with four yowling cats isn’t a pleasant one for sure. I also don’t want to have to worry about any of them escaping during a rest stop.
I figured that a couple of you must have had experience with this and might have some suggestions for me on traveling with cats.
Have you ever traveled/moved long distances with pets (cats, dogs or other)? Any suggestions for making the trip less stressful for them?
