What's growing now in the garden

OK. This is it. When I grumble in the spring about black spot, I need to remember right now. This is the worst it will get.... It's right before I chop all of the rose bushes down with hedgers and start over. The bushes are starting to put out new growth again, so I'll have a pretty good rose crop in September if I summer prune them this weekend. Here's the David Austin bed...almost completely destroyed.

Remember when it used to look like this just a few months ago? Sigh...

The front garden is just a mass of green now. I really need to add summer perennials to this bed to last between Spring and Fall. The Rudbeckia on the side is interesting. I didn't plant this...I actually planted really pretty Cherry Brandy Rudbeckias in the past but it looks like they have been overrun.

The side rose bed has the same black spot affliction. Really interesting that the best rose still intact is Mr. Lincoln. He only gave me one bloom in the spring and instead spent all of his energy growing VERY tall. There's one bud on this bush now. He's the one growing up to the window. A few roses here and there.

The best looking bed of all is my new perennial bed and it's not even the perennials that are doing so well in this bed. It's the annuals! The zinnia seeds that I threw in the bed have taken off and are gorgeous. I think I'll plant these next year in the front bed. This is before the dahlias come up. Can't wait until both are really going.

The colors of these are fantastic and fun to photograph. They will look really cute cut in the new bathroom too.

In Honor of the Olympics

 Go Team USA!

Bathroom Reno Complete!

We're done, we're done! Well...a few last touch-ups needed. But, we're 99.9% done. Took a bit longer than expected, 7 days plus 2 additional weekends. But still, if you consider that David did all of the work himself (except for the plumbing) and we had to do a complete demo, it's still pretty amazing. So, here's the before.....terrible p-lam vanity with doors that wouldn't shut. Weird soffit thing over the sink. Peeling painted wallpaper. Stuff everywhere. Selection of cleaners on the floor because I just couldn't get the hard water stains off of anything...

Awful ceramic tile, the color of concrete.

Completely covered in plastic, even on the ceiling. Dark icky shower...

No door! (We had ripped this off when installing the hardwood floors about a year ago).

And here is the after....

When you open the door (a door!!) you see the new shower wall instead of an ugly shower curtain.This is a print from Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, before they move and are sharing one bathroom. Besides for being a favorite movie, thought this was pretty perfect for David and I.



 

David hung prints from my garden over the toilet. A lot of these were posted on this blog at some point or another...The large photo is Abraham Darby. He looks great in photos.

I mean, if you have to find a holder for your cotton pads, why not something Tiffany?

We love our simple new sink and put all of the junk that was on the sink into the medicine cabinet. That's a blown glass soap holder with a plastic top. With our hard water situation, metal tops and soap dispensers get absolutely gross. We decided against the shelf above the faucet. Basket from my mom holds our towels now.

One of the very best things...David added a light in the shower. Heaven!

And, we got rid of that old 3 faucet shower system. How did we ever live with that? What a pain. Every time someone would flush, the shower would get cold. Not anymore!

It's bright and clean but very functional. The Silver Fox paint by Ben Moore mixed with the Deep In Thought cream is great and not as stark as grey and white would be. We added in the Pottery Barn storage unit and I like my little no-sew drape on the window. It lets in a little light at the top while still staying private.

So very worth it in the end. David made it look just the way I had it in my head!

Thanks for following along during our reno! Now we have to go clean up all of David's tools...and I have to check on my poor garden. So neglected...

Almost done?....

We got as much done as possible this weekend and are just about done with the bathroom renovation. We got it painted, thank goodness. No more staring at drywall. The color is Silver Fox from Benjamin Moore with all of the yellow taken out of it so it doesn't have any green. This is on top of 2 coats of Kilz2. It's a pretty light grey with a bluish tint. The molding and the ceiling is Deep In Thought by Benjamin Moore. Deep In Thought is my very favorite cream. We used this in the kitchen and will be painting the hall with it. The window trim isn't quite done and we kept the shutters on for now until the very end. The light fixture is from Restoration Hardware that I've had in storage since 2006 and is sorta in. Needs shades and to be straightened out a bit.

Those bath towel hooks are low because a picture will hang above them. I'm hoping it looks nice when you open the door to the bathroom.

We also got the Kohler pedastal sink installed. I love how small it is and it's easy now to reach in and turn on the shower. The cute faucet is a Danze called the "Prince" collection. We worked on the tile which will serve as the base molding. We weren't able to finish the grout. Will have to do this next weekend. We'll install a glass shelf under the medicine cabinet as well.

The shower doors are in and the tile around the surround is installed. We also put in a Culligan rain showerhead made for hard water. It has a filter inside of it. I can already tell a difference with my hair. Hurray!

So, so far so good. We're crossing our fingers that we are almost done. Just have to finish up the details next weekend and put in all of the storage and accessories.

Waiting for the paint to dry

We're just about done with the bathroom renovation. Didn't finish it as planned last Sunday and then a crazy week at work preoccupied our time. But this weekend we should be able to finish up and share the final results. The paint is drying on the walls right now and then we'll install the trim and add in the finishing touches. In the meantime, thought I would share how the new perennial garden on the side of the house is doing. Everything else is a bit crispy from the hot weather and no rain.

The best looking plants within the whole bed are the zinnias that I just threw in as seeds. They are just starting to bloom.

The bed is filling in nicely. Compared to how it looked when it was first planted, I think it's doing well. A few of the plants didn't make it through the drought so there are a few holes.

I pinched all of the dahlias so they are hiding in the bed and growing wide versus tall which is much preferred. Don't have to stake that way.

I really like these Sonora Rudbeckias. They look like little sunflowers.

Back to the reno!....

My no-sew curtain panel

These panels are probably really easy to make with a sewing machine but alas, I have discovered that I cannot sew a straight line and a panel like the one I wanted for the bathroom would absolutely require straight lines, so instead turned to stitch wichery tape. I also needed to line this panel since the window faces the porch. It will be held on the window by 2 tension rods. One on the top and one on the bottom. Since we never open the current shutters on this window, I just wanted a pretty piece of fabric that wouldn't move.

Here's the window....

And here's the line-up of all the stuff required to make the panel. Starting with really cute fabric from Serena and Lily that is a taupe and grey pattern on ivory and some black-out lining I ordered from Amazon.

I cut the S&L fabric to fit the window and left 2 inches on either side. Pinned the sides and ironed this so I would have some stiff creases to guide me.

I then cut the lining to match this size. Unpinned the edges and placed the lining on the back of the pretty fabric. I started with the long sides first. Using the stitch wichery, twice for each side, I folded the edges once, ironed and then again, so the raw edge wouldn't be visible. The lining got nicely glued onto the fabric on the last fold over.

One side all done....and straight. Yippee!

Once the sides were done, started on the top and bottom which had to accommodate the tension rods.

The tension rods fit nicely within the pocket. Again, ordered these from Amazon (the ones at Home Depot are terrible).

Ta-da! Here's the back of the completed curtain panel....

And here's the front. Will install it on the tension rods once the bathroom is done. I think it turned out pretty well considering that it didn't require a stitch. If I had to do it over again I would have centered the pattern a bit better, but c'est la vie. I'll remember for next time.

This project took about 40 minutes and it's the perfect colors for the bathroom. Very happy!

Halfway there!

We're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Yesterday was the longest day yet. We really needed to get the bathtub up and running so had to get the tiling done in the shower stall. It was a lot of cuts and took longer than we thought but at the end of the day, I think it turned out great. Just the way I wanted it to look. At midnight David got up to wipe the haze off of the tile while Winnie and I were out like a light. We woke up to this nice surprise! He also installed the frame of the shower doors that will go in later.

The mini tiles are little carrera marble subway tiles that you can buy on sheets at Home Depot. I think they look cute and break up the white and grey walls. 

The shower wall also got drywalled. I was worried that it might close in the already very small space but it doesn't. It's actually nice to have the separation from the toilet.

  

And speaking of toilets...yesterday was also a big day because the plumber came back and installed our new toilet! Probably isn't very exciting to most, but again...when you live in a one bathroom house, things like this are big excitement! Here's a closeup in all its' Kohler beauty.

We'll either finish the floors late tonight after fire works or tomorrow. Then will start again this weekend to install the sink and work on all of the walls. Should be all done by Sunday....seven days for the renovation was the goal.

Happy 4th of July!

(Update!) In case we forget why we love our house, especially while renovating...here's another reason...you can see the town fire work show from our yard.