I did finally finish all the projects I wanted to get done this summer. I think I finished the last one about a month ago. You have no idea what a huge relief it was to be finished! I don't think I will ever make such a long list for an entire summer. I think one or two medium sized projects will do!
First on my list of accomplishments is painting the front door. If you remember about a year ago, I replaced the front door but never got around to painting it. I finally got out the Hawaiian Cinder paint and after a couple coats and scraping the windows, it was done! It looks much better than bright white and completes the front of the house!
The next project I finished involved building a fence. The west side of our house was the only part that still had a section of chain link fence up. We never really had any need to replace it, but since I started storing the snowmobiles over there in the summer time, I wanted the ability to put them behind a fence a shield them visually from the road. So, to suit these needs, we built a small section of wood fence that matches the exiting wood fence. We were originally going to put a 10 foot gate up, but due to the terrain of the area around where we were building it, it wasn't possible. So, as an alternative, we build a removal fence section. Since I would only be moving the snowmobiles in and out of the back yard a couple times a year, this removable section should work just fine.
The actual construction and assembly was pretty easy. We have two posts set in concrete and the rest of the framing is cedar and matches the style of the existing fence almost perfectly. The removable section is held in with bolt latches and is very secure. It is a two person job however, I think that section weighs about 200 pounds! I still have to do a little landscape edging along the house, but that can wait until next year!
The next project finished was a combination inside/outside project and involved windows. Last year when we painted the house, we didn't get a chance to finish trimming out the lower level windows (see the picture on the left). The lower level windows are original to the house and still have wood sashes that need to be painted. So I took a nice weekend day and took all the windows out and painted the trim, tracks, and windows with two coats of paint. They were dry in a couple hours and reinstalled. The front of the house finally looks done!
Then, to finish off the windows, on the inside of the house we bought and installed new blinds and dumped the ghetto looking drapes. I used the same company I used on the upstairs blinds and matched the style exactly. The installation went very smooth and the quality of the product is great. Just like last time, I would recommend them highly!
The last of my summer projects involved freshening up some things in the kitchen. We repainted it from a red-orange color to a deep red. Then, we replaced the dated brass door hardware with new ones. This was pretty easy to do and made a huge difference. Now the knobs match the rest of the "metal" in the house.
We also added a blind on the window over the sink. I can't believe it has taken us this long to buy blinds for this window. The sun is VERY bright on this side of the house in the summer and is blinding when you are cooking dinner. The used the same company again as all the other blinds in the house and they delivered again!
The last thing we did in the kitchen was refinish the light fixture. When we bought the light fixture for the kitchen, we got it on clearance and bought it because we liked the style and the tinting of the glass on the globe. The color of the metal part of the fixture was brass and we didn't like it very much and it also didn't match. To fix this, I took the light fixture down, spray painted three coats of bronze on all the metal parts. I then waited until it was dry and sprayed a light coat of flat black over the bronze. When the black was dry, I took some steel wool and distressed the raised edges so the bronze would show on the edges, but the flat black would be the primary color. This was about the extreme end of my "arts and crafts" patience, but I think it turned out nice!
With that, my summer projects are done! So far for next spring/summer the only major plans we have are rebuilding the next, installing a swing set, restoring the Kitty Cat, and working on the Trans Am!
