So, I missed posting on Friday. Why? Because my kitchen was getting torn up searching for the source of the leak in our kitchen that we’ve had such a hard time finding. You can see the damage up there, dripping away on our beam and messing up our ceiling … But I’m happy to say that we found the culprit!
At long, long last, I got the spool chairs we bought with the house reupholstered! My favorite parts, though, are the throw pillows. I’ve been in love with this fabric forever, and finally have the perfect room to use it in…
So, the bad news is we had a leak in our kitchen. The worse news is that once we started talking to roofers about re-doing our roof, which is cedar shingle, we learned that cedar has a 20% tariff on it right now that makes this bad timing for an already extremely expensive proposition. The even worse news than that is that after having the roofer replace only part of the cedar roof (in hopes that the politicians come to their senses and the price goes back down so we can finish the rest later at a sane cost), we still have a (reduced) leak, and the culprit looks like (drumroll) plumbing. Oh, the joys of homeownership! Come along with me on this journey …
Unfortunately we’ve been dealing with some roof leaks. Fortunately, we took the opportunity to fix a couple of those issues with beautiful copper standing seam roofing!
We got a little lucky with how unseasonably warm this winter has been – I was very late with mulching to repress weeds in our kitchen garden come spring, but now the job is done!
After one leak became two, and two leaks became two large leaks, it became clear that our guesthouse roof was in need of some serious overhaul. We patched it. We patched it again. No dice. We called in the professionals, and it was clear it was time to peel off the who-knows-how-old orange asphalt shingles, replace the woodpecker-damaged rake boards and some rotting cedar siding, and install a new roof. So the question became what kind of roof we wanted …
Remember Monday, when I whined about how my living room is where all the furniture I don’t know what to do with has ended up, and how it’s crazy I haven’t done anything with this room yet? Well, your (two days) of patience has paid off, because here are some of my ideas of how to address the many issues in this room and make the room look cozy and … good.
Right now, our living room (which we call our ‘keeping room,’ since originally that’s what it was – the combined kitchen and living area of the colonial house with its giant fireplace) is a mish-mosh of things we’ve bought, furniture that we purchased with the house, hand-me-downs and items from our old apartment. Altogether, it’s a bit of a mess! Now, I’m trying to decide on what to keep, what to get rid of, what to purchase and what colors to incorporate.
Last weekend we did a quick project after stumbling upon these beautiful blue arrow junipers. We’ve been discussing ways to add both year-round color and a little more structure to our gardens. We’d considered planting and shaping boxwoods, yew or juniper by the entry posts to the kitchen garden, but on seeing the beautiful silver-blue of these junipers, we pulled the trigger.
I know that design and lifestyle blogs are for featuring pretty things, and easy DIYs, and nice, finished images of aspirational rooms, but today, I continue my (apparent) series from Monday on vintage regrets and mistakes. I found this bed (now nicely finished and in my son’s room) for $25. Yes, the wood was damaged in places but I’ve read enough internet to know that “Painting is an easy and cheap way to refresh old furniture!” And now I’m here to tell you that anyone who tells you this is BUILDING A HOUSE OF LIES.