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Monday, November 16, 2009

The Renovation and What I Ate Part 2

We have been working on the cabin.
Well, kind of
There was so much to do, so much we have done...so much left
There's the interior work, but we also have the whole yard/garden to deal with.  It took me an entire day to sort out just a corner of it..
I pulled up the tomato plants, the pumpkin patch, and the rest of the carrots and lettuce and cut back the roses to just about the nub.  They hadn't been tended to in 4 years and had grown to over 6 feet. I am hoping that we can get them back in the great shape that would make Dodo proud.  Have I mentioned that the previous owner of the house was Dodo Denny? She played Mike TeeVee's mom on the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Could it get any better?
Dodo was a big fan of the garden and an obvious bird watcher.  There are bird houses in every corner of the garden, on the deck, attached to the house, on the roof...
This past Spring, there were lots of little birdlets chirping around here.

Today, Mike trimmed the pear tree, and is contemplating taking down another tree that just makes a mess and is poorly placed.
 I vote yes.
 Please don't tell the Audubon Society.
 To be fair there are a ton of other trees for the birds...and I let them eat all the grapes

What we didn't do was rake the leaves.
Too many of them
and it is cold out
and i am a city girl...come on!

But what we did do was finish the master bedroom.
There's a small problem...we only seem to have 1 before picture. So you will have to use your imagination.  Imagine a room, shaped like a box.  With white walls and "trim" of 1x2 floor boards. The floor was rust shag carpet, covering 1950's striped carpet, covering old crusty glue on top of sub-floor.

Our inspiration for this room is Africa.
master bedroom before
still before with a makeshift paint job i did to cover the tobacco stained walls

the awful floor after pulling 2 layers of carpet and crusty glue


and after
still after

I have loads of photos from my trip years ago, along with several Masai wedding necklaces which I think will look fetching on the walls of our newly fabulous room.

We did all the work ourselves...including the floors. Although I need to give Mike the full credit for them. I really had nothing to do with it..except I did the math.
and supported the purchase of a really cool smoker-slash-Q
which I used to make us our very first homemade dinner
...in the cabin
I also feel the need to say this...
...after a day of hard physical work
a glass of wine doesn't do it.
But a bottle of beer.
That is the trick
try it...you'll agree
and if you need a project to do
to work up the thirst
i have one or two for you...
just ask
I'll make some dessert
like this one
*for previous renovation blog post see the renovation and what I ate part 1