A Rose in Any Other Season

It's the last day of January and the roses on the fence already started blooming.  Insane.

Coming Together

Here's a couple more photos to show off the new paint in the living room and dining room, as well as the refinished wainscoting.

We got really lucky, and the woman who did the wood refinishing for us had just finished a project at the Gamble House.  She had access to the paint formulas that were used to recreate the original interior paint scheme that Greene and Greene created and gave them to us.  That sage green we used is a totally period appropriate reproduction.

The plan is to paint the music room in the same color scheme, but it took us three full days to do these two rooms and I fell off the ladder, spilling an entire gallon of paint all over myself. It's safe to say we won't be rushing to start painting again any time soon.

Take Our Cue from Here

There is only one wall in the basement where it would be logical to have a pool cue rack.

It's a tight fit on that side of the table, so to keep the rack from interfering with your shot, it's recessed between the studs.

The framing of the rack is made from wood leftover from other projects in the house.  The back is made from aromatic cedar to keep bugs away, but it's already losing its scent.

This Is Kind of Becoming a Tradition

The mango tomato plant in the backyard produced a late crop.  

They were pretty nasty looking (see the tomato on the right), but I was able to skin them by making a shallow X on the bottom with a paring knife.  Then I dropped them into boiling water for about 30 seconds, plunged them into ice water and the skins came right off.

The result?  The nice, clean, juicy tomato on the left.  And the tomato sauce I made with it was delicious.

This isn't the first time we've gotten a late crop.  Click here to see our harvest in 2012.

Reach for the Brass Ring

The window seat has been stained and the final hardware installed.  Just need to come up with some sort of cushion so I can curl up on it with a book!