Salt of the Earth

We thought we had mold in the basement, but it's efflorescence -- salt crystals accumulating from water evaporating.

While that's probably better than mold, we still need to figure out what's causing it.

All those delays last summer with the plumber and engineer have paid off...if not for that, this problem would be buried in a wall somewhere only to be found when much damage had been done.

Under It All

We finally got all the plywood off the floor of the front porch. The wood isn't in as good condition as we had hoped, so we're going to replace it to match the new ceiling.

Pretty soon, the front of the house will actually be done. Hurray!

Love!

We decided to stain our window sills to match the windows and not paint them to match the trim. It's not a conventional choice, but I think it looks great!

Looking Up!

We've covered the porch rafters with tongue and groove douglas fir. It's flooring, actually, although I don't think anyone would guess if we didn't point it out.

We plan to get vintage fans for either side of the porch. The ceiling used to be flat, but our contractor suggested tipping it to follow the lines of the rafters, which should get us enough room to accommodate the fans.

Just Dandy

My father used to get mad at me for making wishes on dandylions that had gone to seed.

Now that I've been battling them in the front yard, I understand why.

I went into the backyard for the first time in forever and discovered this gigantic sucker growing. Yep. That's a dandylion.

Can't wait to dig out the tap root on this guy. Woo-hoo!

Winter Crops

Well, the tomatoes ripened.

Going to throw them on a pizza to see how they are.

LAJen was the only one who took me up on betting when they would ripen, so I guess she is the winner! (And she was only a week off.)

Halfway Ghetto

We plan to expand into the attic in a few years, and we aren't sure exactly what will happen with this pop out. No point in paying outrageously for a new window if we're only going to have to take it out.

So the rotting wood, and the fact we ran out of shingles before the pop out was completely covered (not visible in this pic) means we're going to be ghetto even longer than hoped.

Family Heirloom

This spice cabinet/paper towel rack used to hang in the kitchen of Rob's grandparents farm in Tennessee.

I put a fresh coat of tung oil on it and now it ties with our stove as the nicest thing in our kitchen.

I didn't expect the oil to make such a difference or I would have taken a before photo.