Catchup Post

With a death in the family, an out of town birthday party, work craziness, and hurricane Sandy, blogging hasn't exactly been high on my priority list. We have been making slow progress on the house, so I wanted to post a few images to get back into the swing of things.

Slugs have been eating the greens I planted behind the retaining wall any morning it's warm enough for them to be out. But no more! We bought a 50 lb bag of diatomaceous earth at the pet store. It's great for de-lousing the chickens, but also works as a barrier to slugs. Score!

The fire bush in the back is loosing its leaves very quickly, but it's so wonderful to look at.

We've been experimenting with booze infusions! It's cold now, so I crave bourbon. This is the first attempt, an apple vanilla cinnamon bourbon. We tested it last night, and it was glorious. It was even too good to add mixers. I just put a bit of water with it, and sipped happily. We also made a great batch of green tomato chutney from the leftover tomatoes in the garden that wouldn't ripen quickly enough to escape first frost (which is expected tonight!)

I realize this is a dark, virtually useless photo, but the dining room is coming together nicely! The walls are painted, there are curtains, and plants. Things are looking up!

Slowly but surely, these wall tiles are also going up on the accent wall in the dining room. Pretty interesting, right? The last little bit is taking a while to work through because we have to move an outlet, and there isn't anything to attach the outlet to in its new position. A dozen different techniques have failed miserably. But things are going forward!

For the winter, our indoor project will be the kitchen. I plan to:

1. Paint the cabinets a glossy white
2. Add red knobs and silver drawer pulls
3. Redo the countertop with a cheap, Rust-oleum kit for now
4. Paint three walls white and one wall the slight lime green
5. Paint the paneling near the side door bright red to match the hardware
6. Retile the floors