How to Pick Paint Colors

We’ve been flipping through paint chips and charts at 963 in our bid to start changing some of the color around here. Last week I walked into The Other One’s home office. He was sitting back in his chair and looking around at the walls. Then he said, here, this is the kind of color we need, and reached for his computer. I leaned in expecting to see another photo, another chip chart. But this is what happened:

Yes, we’re going to pick paint colors by music. Because when we listened to easygoing Jack Johnson and the words to the song Better Together, we saw warm oranges and yellows, no muzak beige or pinky taupes. We saw the colors of desert warmth and summer evenings on the deck, the sun setting on the hill across the way.

Read Full Post »

What’s That Called? Kitchen Cabinet Door Styles

One of the things I’m learning about the world is that everything has a name. Yes, everything. The name is also very exact. Take the world of cabinet doors, for example. If you know what you’re talking about, you can walk into a kitchen store and instead of saying, “I’m looking for a cabinet door with vertical lines up and down it,” you can say, “I’m looking for a bead-board panel front.”

I came across a handy listing of common kitchen cabinet door styles in a big kitchen design book. From left to right, that’s reveal-overlay panel; frame and panel; flat panel; beaded frame and panel; square raised panel; curved raised panel; bead-board panel; and cathedral panel.

The book is called The Smart Approach to Kitchen Design, and it’s a full-color glossy ode to what I’m pretty sure are $100,000 kitchens, complete with walls of windows that look out on nothing but nature as far as the eye can see. Which is how we build everything today, of course.

I browsed through a library copy, but if you’re desperate for some very high-end ideas or just like to run your eyes over pretty pictures, you can purchase the book at
an independent bookstore near you,
at Amazon.ca
or at Amazon.com.

Read Full Post »

Bettering a Cupboard

Last week The Other One decided to fix our recycling space, which was the bottom of a closet in the kitchen where we stored a bin of old cans and bottles along with a blue recycling bag that kept falling over every time we opened the door.

Out came the new handy jigsaw, which will be making guest appearances all over in 2010 (more on that later):

and out came a piece of the cupboard so we could fit in three stackable blue bins that magically stay upright when the light of day hits them.

Eventually, when we have run out of things to do around here, we will fix up the inside of this closet and take down the pinky wallpaper that is only here. But until then.

Read Full Post »

Getting Ready for Gardening Season

The first week of February has come and gone. Monday morning it rained steadily (no, not snow, RAIN), and this is what the forecast looks like:

Yes, that's a little bit of sun, a little bit of cloud. We're barely dipping below zero at night now, so I'm guessing that by early March (less than 3 weeks!) I'm going to be able to get into the garden. At which point, this photo from This Old House seems to sum things up, except the person holding the pruning tool at the edge of the forest and wondering exactly how to face down that tree will be me:

Read Full Post »

Fixing a Leaky Tub Faucet

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we had a fast and furious drip going downstairs from the tub faucet. Last Sunday I spent the afternoon trying to solve some basic plumbing problems. Everything is a learning curve when you're first figuring things out, but once you've taken something apart once and know what you're doing, easy peasy!

First things first, I turned off the water, which turned out to be a
bit of an adventure because I didn't know where the main shut-off was.
(That's always one of the first things to find out when you move into a
house, because if you need to turn it off suddenly, it helps to not
have gallons of water flooding in for 10 minutes while you sort
things out under duress.)

I found a website ("better living through handy-man-li-ness") that gave step-by-step photo instructions for how to fix a leaky tub faucet. We have an old faucet and two-handle system in the downstairs bathroom, like so (at this point I had already taken the left handle off):

That means the leak is in the taps, depending on whether the drip is hot or cold. It was cold, and for whatever reason the cold faucet is on the left instead of the right, so that was the handle I removed first.

The little silver flat edge on the left, behind the gold and bronze bit meant I could use a wrench on the silver part to loosen the whole piece and screw it right out. I soaked it in vinegar for an hour or two to loosen all the deposits (the white and green bits).

Then I flipped it upside down:

Underneath you can see a screw holding in a  black rubber washer. If you look closely, you can see the grooves in the rubber, which means the washer is worn and the seal doesn't
tighten enough to keep a drip from getting through.

But here's a tip! After you take out the screw, see if the washer looks smooth on the other side. If it does, you can try flipping it over and putting everything back together again. I didn't have any replacement washers in the house that day, so that's what I did, and it has slowed the drip down considerably, which gives me some time to get to the hardware store.

Now, when I'm ready to replace those washers in both taps, it shouldn't take longer than 10-15 minutes to do, start to finish.

Read Full Post »

Friday’s Food

Veggies have to become more central here at 963, and I finally found a homemade dressing that
makes me want to eat buckets of raw vegetables. It's from the Rebar
Modern Food Cookbook by Audrey Alsterberg and Wanda Urbanowicz.

Rebar is a quirky fresh food, mostly vegetarian restaurant in
Victoria, British Columbia. Every time we're on the island, we stop in
for a bite to eat. The Other One gave me the book as a birthday present, and one
of the first things I tried was the warm vegetable salad with
sesame-maple dressing. Yum.

It's the dressing that keeps me coming back for more, and now I love
to coat my raw veggies in it. I'm all for anything that makes me pull broccoli out of the fridge on purpose.

Rebar's sesame-maple dressing: yields 1 cup

• 2 tsp Dijon mustard

• 2 garlic cloves, minced

• 2 tbsp pure maple syrup

• 2 tbsp sesame oil

• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar

• 1/4 tsp red chile flakes

• 1/4 tsp salt

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

Place all of the ingredients, except oil, in a bowl or food
processor. Whisk or blend to combine. Slowly drizzle in the oil in a
thin, steady stream while whisking or blending. Season to taste.

(Note: The last time I made this I forgot to add the oil in last,
just threw everything in together. But I whisked like mad and it turned
out fine. Enjoy!)

(Purchase from an independent bookstore near you,
Amazon.ca, or Amazon.com. Or pick up a copy at Rebar next time you're there.)

Read Full Post »

Thursday

A day to respectfully pause and recover from dental surgery. Who can think about anything other than ice cream and jello?

Read Full Post »

The Brush Comb

Following on from yesterday's post, today I'd like to introduce The Brush Comb. This, so they say, is a handy little tool for cleaning paint brushes. When I first read about it, I thought maybe you took an old plastic comb and ran it through your paint brush at the end of your paint shift. For all I know that could still be true, the way old gardeners know that no, you don't need to spend $65 on that fancy seed-warmer blanket to get your plants started – you just put them on top of the fridge.

But in case an old plastic comb is really not the way to go, here is what The Brush Comb looks like. Hands not included.

 

   

Read Full Post »

Natural China Bristle Brushes

For a smooth-as-glass paint finish (well, maybe I exaggerate here just a tad), apparently there's nothing better than a natural China Bristle Brush. I had never heard of those and don't know anything about paint brushes in general. I think that's mostly because the Fab 4 never allowed me to paint when painting was required in the house. I was good at many things, but painting was not one of my strengths. (Yes, we are talking about painting walls, not oil painting. What can you do.)

Since it is never too late to learn anything in life, I have taken it upon myself to brave the paint world. Sometimes I feel I might have started with a smaller world,  because the paint section at all four local hardware stores takes up at least an aisle or two, or four, plus stains and varnishes. If you have ever had options paralysis in your life, this is not the place for you.

But I digress. Today we are talking about China Bristle Brushes. They're 'natural' because the brush hair (is it called brush hair?) is taken from long-haired hogs, or sometimes oxen. So when you run that brush over the back of your hand (before you dip it in the paint), you can think of the big piggies who gave their hairs for your renovation project. Long may they live.

Never clean China Bristle Brushes with water, because they will absorb it and lose their shape. They're really for oil-based paint, not latex, which means you have to clean them in mineral spirits and then comb the brush out. With what you might ask? A brush comb. Really, that's what it's called.

But that is a story for another day. A day like Wednesday.

Read Full Post »

What Is That Thing Called Anyway?

One of the adventures of home renovations is trying to figure out what something is called so you can google it and figure out what to do about it. This last weekend I finally figured out that the ceiling downstairs is called a suspended ceiling system. It has white tiles sort of like this:

That's not a picture of the room downstairs, but the ceiling is similar, right down to the brown metal lines that support the ceiling tiles. Those lines are what I'm trying to get rid of somehow. I know they come in white, but instead of replacing everything, I wondered if you could just paint them so everything up there blends a little more.

First though, I had to figure out what those lines are called. Any guesses? Ceiling lines? Lines that hold up ceiling tiles? Drop-down ceiling panel holders? 

After much googling and some wide misses, I finally found that those brown lines make up a suspended ceiling grid system. And yes, you can paint it. To make a long story story short, you need to:

1. Pop out the tiles.
2. Wash down the grid system.
3. Scrub the grid with steel wool to scuff up the brown paint.
4. Wonder why you wanted to change that brown color anyway.
5. Prime the grid. (Really? I'm going to see if this is necessary.)
6. Paint with an interior latex paint or a metal paint, using a natural China bristle brush or a small roller.

At this point you might be wondering what a natural China bristle brush is and where you can find one. Good question. Let's rest up and talk about it tomorrow.

Read Full Post »