trying to cure my black thumb

porch plantings
Originally uploaded by neon.mamacita.

After spending most of last summer inside painting the kitchen, it occurred to us that we should perhaps spend more time outdoors this year. Even though I have sneezing fits after 10 minutes of looking at plants at garden nurseries, I decided to suck it up and try to grow some stuff.

We stopped by the Eastside Food Co-op's plant sale and got a few herbs, two pepper plants and a strawberry plant for a container garden in our sunny front porch.

Our neglected yard also needed some sprucing up, so we spent a day aerating and reseeding the front lawn. Our boulevard grass is the most pathetic, mostly because we live next door to a Hindu temple and a few days a week we have lots of foot traffic from the parked cars on our street.

And finally, we got some new perennials to fill in the giant empty spot left after we dug out all the overgrown day lilies. Yesterday was gorgeous so we went down to the Highland Nursery in St. Paul and looked at all kinds of fun looking plants that I would probably kill. We ended up planting some ornamental grasses and coneflowers. I need to keep it simple, because it is likely that anything green I touch will die.

I'll have some more photos if any of our plants succeed. For now, I'm keeping my expectations low.

"what next" winter

Ok. Just a moment. I need this photo of our bathroom (which is now two years old) to remind me that having my own place is a good thing.



Winter has been kind of rough on our house this year. Not really sure why, but maybe, just MAYBE, it's because we've had some incredibly cold and windy days. Last Saturday, the high was -4° F. The low was -14. And the windchill, I don't even remember what it was because my brain was frozen.

Just before one of these insane cold snaps, our furnace died. Yep, that was awesome. Three days of heating our house with electric space heaters did wonders for our electric bill. Luckily, the whole furnace didn't need replacing; we just had a busted motor. Then, a few days later during some wicked wind storm, a giant-ass chunk of fascia from the highest peak of the roof flew off. It landed in our backyard, all twisted and sharp. It's still sitting on the back porch, waiting for warmer days to be reinstalled.

And last weekend, I did dishes by hand for three hours. Not for fun, mind you. But because our two-year-old Bosch dishwasher died. (Well, it's not totally dead, the motor just doesn't work. What is it with motors crapping out?) You're probably wondering what a broken dishwasher has to do with winter. Well, the wall in our kitchen with our sink/dishwasher is on an exterior wall. A few years back when temps stayed below zero for a few days our drain pipe froze. We suspect that water inside our dishwasher (they always have some water in them when not in use) froze and broke some important part. The part that makes the damn thing WASH MY DISHES.

I can't decide which of these two things I'd rather do right now: move to a warmer place, or just be a renter.

kitchen rundown

before, after
Originally uploaded by neon.mamacita.

OK. Sorry, that took a bit longer than the time necessary to consume a single cocktail. Perhaps I had not one, but two cocktails ...

Anyhow, cooking is so much more fun now that I don't have to squint my eyes to blur out the fug. But you don't care, you just want the details. The info. The lowdown. I get it.

hardware
We changed out the brushed chrome pulls that were on all the cabinet doors and drawers (Want to buy them super cheap? Leave me a comment. Right now you can buy them at Lowe's for nearly 10 bucks a pop, or you can buy them from me for less than half that.)

The new knobs and pulls came from House of Antique Hardware and are all oil-rubbed bronze. Oh, "So Pottery Barn!" you say. I say: Whatever. Black is the accent color we're going for here. We also got a new interior door knob for the door to the basement from the site, and I was really pleased with the quality and the customer service. A little pricey, but I saved a big chunk on sales tax that I would have blown at a local hardware place with the same stuff.

The window sash locks and pulls all came from Guilded Salvage Antiques in Minneapolis. (Sweet!! It looks like they just got their online catalog started.)

wood
The last stage of the project was sanding down the butcher block counters. Our previous owners left a can of the sealant that they had used on them, called Good Stuff for Wood. It's an alcohol- and water-resistant sealer -- it's not food safe, but we don't prepare food directly on the counters anyway, so no big deal.

Replacing the hollow-core, fake-ass veneer interior door that goes from the kitchen to the basement stairs was a no-brainer. We ordered a six-panel MDF door from TruStile through our neighborhood millwork company, Aaron Carlson Architectural Woodwork. These guys are three blocks down the street, super nice, and their price for the door was $90 less than the big millwork company in town. And the door, whoa, it is solid as a freaking rock. It weighs over 50 lbs easy and just makes me happier than shit. I've honestly spent long intervals of time just staring at it.

THE MOTHERFRACKING PAINT, YO
Paint was the heart of this project, of course. Knowing the kind of abuse that kitchen cabinets are subject to (damn these things were beat up and nasty) we had to go with a really strong, durable, washable paint. My apologies go out to low-VOC peeps. We used three gallons of Benjamin Moore's Satin Impervo oil-based enamel. I feel safe knowing that Dozer can fling his longest drool tendrils all over the kitchen and I can just wipe down the cabinets with a wet cloth, no problem. This paint rocks.

For primer on the cabinets we used a whole gallon of Benjamin Moore Fresh Start Alkyd Enamel Underbody. Makes painting super easy.

The walls and ceiling are painted with my absolute favorite paint: BM Regal Matte Finish. It's a flat finish and is super scrubbable awesome.

Well, aside from the details of the agonizing, time-consuming painting and spilling primer all over the basement, that's it.

Hmmm. I think it's time for ANOTHER cocktail. That was a rather tedious post.

people, this calls for a drink

After more than 100 days of work, our kitchen is now complete.

Time for a cocktail. I will be back later with a full recap.

painting update with a story about salvaged hardware

Last night we reached a pretty important milestone in the kitchen painting project: We have finished all the oil-based painting of the door, trim, windows and cabinets. Things look pretty kick ass, but the kitchen desperately needs some color. Because a white-on-white kitchen doesn't make for the prettiest of photos, I'm not going to post any now. Rather I will update you on one of the details of the project that brings me a small bit of joy.

First off, I'll say this: Our house has new windows that were installed sometime in the late 1990s. They are double-hung wood and vinyl windows (actually they are the same kind you would get here if your house had the MAC noise-reduction improvements), and damn, they have some fugnasty hardware on them.

When we painted the "yellow room" we wanted to change out the hardware on the room's one window. Home Depot has a really limited selection of sash locks, all of which proved to be just a bit to large to fit on our windows. The piece with the lock catch was always too wide to install on the thin bottom rail of the top window, causing the lock catch to scrape the back of the bottom window as it is raised and lowered. Not good.

Hoping to avoid this problem on the three kitchen windows, I went on over to Guilded Salvage. Sadly, it is no longer just a few blocks down the street, but I did want to see how its new location was shaping up over in North Minneapolis. These guys know their hardware, which is why I made the trek. But, whoa, it was kind of sad to see the new super tiny place. It has to be less than one-fifth the size of the old store, not nearly enough room for all their awesome stuff. Scott and Christina told me that most of their inventory was in storage, and that they were trying to work out a system of cataloging it all with photos for the web.

After spending about 45 minutes combing through drawers filled with old sash locks, I finally found three that were the right size for our windows. I found two brass pairs and one cast iron pair. I was surprised that most of the sash locks in their collection were too large for our windows, so I felt really lucky to get out of there with three we could use. They work wonderfully and add a bit of character to our kitchen, which needed a boost of vintage-coolness and a less "color-frenzy from 1986" feel.

Coming up shortly, more ways we injected some happy old-school character with our rockin' new basement door.

bridge collapse

bridge collapse
Originally uploaded by neon.mamacita.

We were attempting to cross the river by motorcycle Wednesday night after the bridge collapse. Traffic was crazy, there were emergency workers and gawkers everywhere, and we couldn't get across the river into downtown from Northeast. So we turned around and headed home. I took this photo about 50 minutes after the collapse. We were in front of Stone Arch Apartments (where we had lived for a year before we bought our house). It was surreal to say the least, and everyone I know is safe. My grandparents were on their way to the cabin that night, and had driven over the I-35 bridge about ten minutes before the collapse. My grandma said it was odd when they realized that no traffic was coming up behind them after they crossed the bridge.

LEED in the 'hood

Well, well, well. That new house that I've been watching go up just down the street on 18th Av. is LEED-certified. According to the listing it's Minneapolis' first, but I haven't been able to confirm that. But, Mayor Rybak did stop by along with some folks from the neighborhood group to have a little shindig celebrating the new home.

While I don't think it has much curb appeal -- it really does stick out in a neighborhood of mostly turn-of-the-century homes -- I'm glad that some thought was put into the house's materials and efficiency.

Check out this slideshow of the home's interior and the people who attended the open house.

alternative uses for household tools

Using our IR thermometer to check the temperature of cooking oil on the stove. I don't know about you, but I just freakin' love lasers.

The three-headed painting project of Hades

"Oh dear god. It looks like someone let a three-year-old pick the colors for the kitchen." Yeah, that's what ran through our minds when we first saw a photo of our kitchen, way back when we were house hunting. Kevin thought the colors were so heinous, he wouldn't even entertain the idea of looking at the house. But, on a Saturday of walk-throughs, I made our realtor stop. I knew this place had potential.

Despite the Crayola kitchen, even Kevin instantly loved the house. We knew we could live with the colors for a while. Well, that while has come to an end. Two and a half years is a good long while to put up with those colors, methinks. What a decorating nightmare!!!

Like our bathroom of fug, we had to do something. So we have begun the process of painting all the cabinet boxes, doors and drawers. We're also painting the three windows and all the trim. After we decided to go that route, I also wanted new hardware. So we'll be changing out all that satin chrome stuff. And since we're redoing the kitchen, why not replace the crappy trailer park, hollow-core piece of shit door that goes to the basement? So yeah, I ordered an awesome one from Trustile that matches those old doors-that-shall-not-be-named from Craigslist.

Once we finish painting all 34 doors and drawers, the new door, trim and windows and walls, I'll post photos. That will leave plenty of time for the image of the "first grade art class lesson in primary colors" kitchen to burn your retinas. Now we'll all want this to be over soon.

watch out, i just put on the project pants

Something big is about to go down ...

what NOT to find while gardening

My personal campaign to rid our flower beds of the ever-multiplying perennial flowers moved forward last week, as we battled a chunk of densely packed day lilies. (This spring I have plans to plant some shrubs and ornamental grasses that will not only look better, but also be low-maintenance.) As I have previously stated -- I do not like gardening. I do not like bugs, or dirt, or the feeling that Mother Nature is slowly encroaching on my personal space.

Thus, it should be obvious that I was not at all pleased when we discovered a large quantity of unidentifiable BONES buried under the day lilies. Holy !@#$&*, I was not expecting that. Kevin was quite thrilled, however, and felt the need to display the artifacts on the front step, attempting to recreate the full skeletal design. I think that was the point at which I threw my shovel on the ground and absolved myself from further gardening duties.

If someone with any biological or zoological knowledge could identify these as something OTHER than human, it would definitely ease my mind a bit. In all likelihood, the bones probably were once a beloved family pet or an old stray animal that was looking for a warm place to curl up and die......right?

Anyhow, I won't have to do any more gardening chores for a while considering a snow advisory has just been announced for tonight. That should buy me some time before my next horrifying experience.

thinking and planning

In lieu of an update with anything interesting to report, you are now viewing a photo of some decorating I have done. I have this bad habit, well it's not bad ... just expensive. I like to buy art off the Internet; whether it be Etsy, Tiny Showcase, or what have you, I seem to have a small problem. I have lots of prints I've purchased, and haven't had them framed.

I'm just starting to go through my stuff now and get frames through American Frame. This week, I got two in the mail for some prints I purchased from Pushmepullyou Design to put in my dining room. They look totally bad ass. This is my second time ordering from American Frame, and I have to say they rock. Pretty good prices and great service.

In other news, the blue house down the block (which was just taken off the market to have some work done) is getting a pretty significant overhaul. There have been people there doing work nonstop for the last two weeks. I think it actually motivated my nextdoor neighbors, who are now painting their kitchen cabinets ... something I've wanted to do for a while but haven't found the motivation.

When I realized last night that they had begun this project, I shook my fists in the air -- "Damnit, I was gonna do that!" I know I still can, but I'm mad they got to it before me. I've just been busy lately.

i solemnly swear to never choose the 'extra rinse' option again

Last night, as we were just about to have some dinner, Kevin went to bring a few things down into the basement. I'm standing in front of the oven when I hear "OH SHIT!" I rush toward the stairs to see what was going on, but before I even took the first few steps down I could see it:

About an inch and a half of standing water at the bottom of the stairs.

Sheeeeit. I flew out of my slippers and jumped into the water. I looked at Kevin who was fidgeting with the drain hose from our washing machine, which was still spewing water onto the floor. I turned off the washing machine and told him to go get the shop vac out of the garage.

So, apparently, our washing machine's drain hose, which empties into a utility sink a few feet away, jostled itself out of the sink. It dumped about two rinses worth of water onto our basement floor. Luckily, the house is old and the concrete floor is fairly uneven, so only about half our basement was wet. But it was the half where our extra fridge, water heater, furnace, washing machine, dryer and second stove all sit. The water was in the dog kennels, under the stairs and had already completely saturated an entire wool rug.

For some reason, I didn't panic. I just kind of danced around in the cold water trying to move stuff to the dry part of the basement while Kevin used the shop vac to suck up the water.

Our basement isn't finished, but we did have a lot of areas with flooring: carpet with padding over a third of the floor, those rubber interlocking gym floor mats on another third (with some seriously heavy equipment on top of them), and the wool rug with carpet padding underneath that was right in front of the washing machine.

We took the completely saturated rug and padding out of the basement right away and left them on our outdoor back porch. But we had to decide what to do about the big section of carpet which was rapidly sucking up more water. We quickly cut off about one third of the overall carpet to save the rest from getting too wet. It was like a split-second decision to amputate a gangrenous limb in order to save the rest of the body from being infected.

The shop vac worked wonders and we had the standing water up after about an hour. We spent another hour drying the floor with towels, moving furniture and things around to let the floor dry out, setting up fans and our ginormous dehumidifier and dismantling the interlocking floor and standing the sections up against the wall to dry.

It was a pretty big pain in the ass, but it could have been much worse. The washing machine had one more rinse cycle to go through before I turned it off, and that would have been an insane amount of water. We caught it right away and got things pretty well dried out fairly quick.

So, yeah. Water is bad. I won't feel safe doing laundry for a while. And I'm damn glad we picked up the shop vac as an impulse buy that one day at Home Depot. We would have been so screwed without it.

get your salvage on

Hurry on over to Guilded Salvage Antiques in Northeast Minneapolis. I just got a postcard in the mail announcing that now through Nov. 22 is a storewide 15% off sale. Apparently, the store is moving to a new location in the Camden area of North Minneapolis (4430 Lyndale Av. N.). That is so sad!! I love having them as neighbors, it will be a huge loss for the Nordeast neighborhood.

At least the postcard said the store will also be launching a new website in January (www.guildedsalvage.com). That way I can check out all their goods without having to drive across town after they move.

So, I guess it's a little good and bad news.