Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Country Garden Progress

A few days ago Tylor and Corban worked the garden over again with the tractor. I thought the boys' cousin might enjoy seeing the tractor, so here is a video of Corban doing that; it was really windy so you might want to turn the speakers down.



... and a video of Tylor too :)



They also worked on another garden spot for a new family moving in at the beginning of december, Lord willing. Here is a video of that and also a picture :) They did more work later on that day, but this was the start of it.




Thursday, November 8, 2012

Frugal flooring: PAINT!

When we moved into this house a few years ago, the kitchen and laundry room were carpeted! Yuck. A few months later we tore all that out and scrapped off the two layers of flooring underneath. What was left was a black, sticky mess. After time, the stickiness when away but it was still quite ugly and things did stick to it. Also, it was very hard to keep clean. We recently had some brethren stay with us for a few weeks and they said, "Why don't you paint it?" Dah! Several years ago my sister-in-law painted her not-so-desirable-floor, but I had forgotten all about it. I'm so thankful for the reminder.

We spent less than $30 and still have a half gallon of paint left over. I did not take 'before' pictures but you might catch glimpses of it in other pictures on this blog. Here are a few pictures - you might be able to see the paint sample on the kitchen floor? We are pleased with the results, and very thankful too. Now we have to fill in the gap where a wall used to be and also paint the kitchen cabinets and walls. Ok, there is more to do as well but who cares? I'm just thankful to have a floor I can keep clean now. I'm sure all the visitors with crawling babies will be thankful too.

UPDATE - I found a decent picture of how the floor looked before ... I'm even more thankful now for the cheap, easy 'fix.'

ANOTHER UPDATE (1/5/13) - After walking on this floor and abusing it in various ways for a few months, I see it is a good idea to have two coats and a clear coat. It still looks very good, however the extra protection will be good I'm sure. We'll do the second coat and a clear coat as soon as it's nice enough to leave the doors and windows open ... and also when I'm out of town a few days!! The smell really bothers me :)