Chicken Scratch: She's Here, She's There

She's dang near everywhere!

Friday it rained. Actually, Thursday and Friday it rained. No outside for me. So I worked inside, instead

Could I have relaxed?

Yes.

Should I have relaxed?

Yes.

But you all know me by now. Was I going to relax?

No.

So I did a little project.

We've lived in this house nearly three years, and things are getting done slowly. We don't have a lot of money just kicking around, and that's a factor. When we do have a little money, it goes to the outside and the animals or the crops or something to help us become more self sufficient. It's very rare that we spend any money on the inside of our house because a) we don't have the money and b) the house is fairly new and technically doesn't need much. We really can't argue with an 11 year old house which hasn't needed much but a few appliances replaced and some paint on it's walls--there's not much to do. However, I do like to put my own stamp on things, so when we can I like to do something to the house that makes me happy (and hopefully everyone else that lives here, happy, too) and makes the house more like home. On Friday I tackled a little project like that.

To say off the bat: we live in a little house. A little one-story house, to be exact. No stairs, not many doorways, just a basic rectangle with walls inside (Do I love it? Yes I do, but that's not the point). The only entrance/egress in the house is the one in the two main areas of the house; that is, the big ol' doorway from the living room to the kitchen/dining room. And it's boring. And plain. And, quite frankly, beat up because the kids wham into the walls when they go from one place to another, and they chip the paint.

So for that fact alone (the chipping paint), I said to myself, "Self? Time to do something about this."

So I did.

See this? BORING!!!

So I dug up some leftover trim, bought a little additional trim, added a 1x8 and some additional pretty trim, and went to work.

I framed out the opening with the trim, and then gave it a "hat" of 1x8 and crown molding.

On the other side, I put the applique from the sink cabinet on the 1x8. Maybe you remember it from this picture?

As much as I liked that applique by the sink, I could not keep it clean. It was so dimensional that everything got caught on it and it was always dirty. So I gave up, peeled it off very carefully, and re-used it above the doorway. It looks good there.

After the trim was all up, I painted, and Voila!!

One side....

And the living room side....

Taa daaaaa!

It's beautiferous!!

I really like it, but I will admit, I am still getting used to it. It's changed the room(s) a lot.

That was my inside project. I still owe you a picture of the finished kitchen, which I will take when I actually get the counters clean. Along with that, I'll show you what I did with the extra tin from the backsplashes, which I think was kind of clever. But that's another day, as the sun is out today, and I'm headed outside.

And speaking of outside....yesterday it was a nice day, so we did outside work. One of the major problems we have here is MUD. Lots of it. Everywhere. Messy, and I fall down in it a lot. And get hurt. And that stinks. So we needed to put in paths. The cheapest way to do it is gravel, called Item 4 here, used to make driveways. We got a load yesterday and beat ourselves to death moving it. But it was worth it. See?