Really. We’re on the home stretch of the Pope Residence. The trim went in on the two remaining offices. It wasn’t easy, but it was less messy, thanks to attaching the shop vac to the saw.
My office looking toward future interior window.
Since the baseboards were already cut, that went fast. And the quarter round was already painted. So much nailing went on!
I think my office is beautiful.
All that’s left is caulking and touching up. And finishing the floor. Oh hooray.
The reception room is also the work room.
Chris also finished the base for my big office mirror. That looks GOOD. We have to plug the hole behind the mirror and then it will sit straight.
Looking fancy!
And the window mirror for the main bathroom is up. It looks great in white.
Now that’s a good mirror.
Wait until you see the finishing touches! I’ve ordered some fun furnishings. And we have the novel experience of watching Chris make the stair rails to look forward to. I’m excited.
This weekend a lot of dirt was moved over at the Hermits’ Rest. We are making the little new pond bigger, since it will eventually be used for something good, I’m told. Now that the rains have slowed down, water is receding and it’s easier to dig. (About five minutes after I typed that, a rainstorm came through, but since it’s July, I doubt there will be much accumulation.)
As the dirt movement was going on, I thought it would be a good idea to re-check what’s in there.
I found two young turtles swimming around. And some dragonflies. Mostly, though, I saw members of the frog family.
The turtles are up near the top right. I think. But in this photo there are actually 14 frogs, at least. Some are in the water and some are on the shore.
Not one of the biggest ones, but you get the idea.
First I saw big ole bullfrogs sitting and floating. Then, as I looked harder, there were more and more.
At one point, I saw at least 14 of the frogs, some adults and others still young. Maybe you can see them in the photo at top, but you would really have to zoom in.
Another little one.
I guess we had a bumper crop of baby bullfrogs (I originally thought they were green frogs, but got corrected on iNaturalist).
Then, something moved. It was one of the Gulf coast toads we have lots of around the house. I know where that one came from, because Chris had just disturbed the home of a pair of them when fixing a death-trap hole near our water cutoff. They hopped on over to the pond in a huff. At least we didn’t hurt our buddies.
Hi. You messed with my house.
As I was enjoying how gigantic the toad was, my eye was drawn to what looked to be a very pretty rock, very close to the toad.
That was no rock, it was a leopard frog! So beautiful! I got all excited and tried to get some good photos, but didn’t want to scare it off. It doesn’t help that when it’s really sunny and my glasses turn dark, I can’t see the phone screen very well. Poo.
Leopard frog! Best photo I could get.
In any case, I’d never seen a leopard frog here, so that’s a new one to add to my list. That made my naturalist day!
Mr. Toad and Mr Frog.
Pretty soon, Penney dove in to take a little swim, and a great deal of splashing and “eep” noises ensued. That was the end of my fun with frogs and toads.
The fun with mirrors didn’t stop all day today, plus Chris finished the stairs, which are ready for the rails to get fabricated. The shiny wood is complemented by shiny metal trim that will be darned sturdy.
All the sides and edges are finished.
Chris was saying this staircase is his most impressive creation. I must agree. This is one hand-made object with so many parts!
The real and fake wood look good together.
Every time I climb these shiny stairs I’ll think of all the work that went into them and the horrible staircase they replaced.
Shiny!
Since we were on a mirror kick, I brought over my Ann Allen original mirrors that I’ve been carrying around for years (since 1998). They are really happy things that I knew would look great in my office bathroom.
Why have only one mirror?
I’ll smile every time I wash my hands from now on! They will go great with the other art I plan to put in the room. So glad I know so many creative people.
I really need to change out those light bulbs.
And Tubby got put to work today. He makes a good mask drying rack! It’s nice to be able to use the office a little bit.
I can tell I’m getting back on a more even keel, mentally. I did a good job, for once, dealing with one of those, “It has been reported that X has happened, and if you don’t fix it, dire consequences will befall you,” conversations pretty darned well. I just asked the information-bearer to ask the person with an issue to get in touch with me, and I’ll be happy to work with them to take care of things. And I repeated that. I just don’t need third parties telling me so-and-so said this about me or that about me. I’ll happily talk to them. That’s probably not as FUN for the person in the middle to participate in, since they don’t get to lecture me in that scenario, but it sure clears up misunderstandings. (I’m sure everyone has the best of intentions; it’s just easier to communicate directly.)
Is it a clown? No, it’s Feisty Suna. Colorful!
Though I still haven’t heard from the person who needs to talk to me, I am doing my best to remedy the problem, anyway, because it’s a good thing to do. Treat others as you’d like to be treated. I mostly manage it! If you don’t let people bully you and put you down, they can’t make you feel bad, so that’s why I feel feisty. I’m just going to do my best to be strong, confident AND kind.
Before picture.
As for my office, today it’s getting a beauty makeover! We decided to put the really pretty wall hanging that looks like a quilt square made of tin, brown wood, and white wood under my mantel piece, to make it look like a unit.
It looks like it was made to go together.
After realizing there was no way to actually hang it, Chris screwed it into the mantel, and now it looks like one big, beautiful unit.
Then we went mirror shopping.
WHAT, you went out in public and SHOPPED?
No, no, we went upstairs where there are four or five different mirrors that came with the Pope Residence. We tried two of them, and one really was a winner.
On its way to goodness.
When installed, it will block the hole where the woodstove pipe used to be, so we don’t have to run a fake pipe in front of the mirror. The faux woodstove will be fine without it, since it’s electric.
I have cleaned the mirror and frame, but we are leaving it brown. There’s enough white in here now.
The other mirror we brought down is made from an old window. We are going to paint it white for Kathleen and then put it in the other bathroom instead of the tiny mirror that’s there now.
Here’s the window mirror, cleaned but not yet painted.
Oh yes, the counter top edges got dry enough to trim. That’s a manual job with a big metal file, when you don’t have a cabinet shop. But, they look good now.
I also ordered paper towel holders and a toilet paper holder, so all the bathrooms will have appropriate cleaning accessories. However, I’ll patiently wait until my office is finished to put art up. I’m so patient. Who are you kidding? I’m not, but things can only go as fast as they can go in these times.
But wait, there’s more! Here’s the stained plywood to finish the stair area. The wood looks like zebra print or something. I actually like it.
So, how did that chicken coop project we started yesterday come out?
Well, while I was crackling the doors, Chris finished the roof and ventilation area.
Little coop.
Of course, it needed steps up to the roosting and nesting area.
We need stairs!
I got busy using up the extra white paint to cover most of the wood surfaces. I left a little paint free to look rustic. I may paint it later. Maybe red!
The nest box is painted well, since water will drip on it.
While I painted, the ramp got built, so I painted that last. It’s just got to dry then we can set it up.
Happy hen house.
Next thing I knew, Chris was working with PVC pipe. I looked up and, boom, he’d made chicken feeders he’d seen on Pinterest.
Quick and easy project!
We took them over and set them up on one of the few walls that aren’t moving soon. I put food in them (and the dispenser worked!).
This is interesting! Clarence is more interested in the bug-filled dirt where the old feeder was.
Next, we herded all the chickens into the feeding area. They found the water holder then noticed the food dish had moved. It only took a minute or two for Steen to figure out the feeder. Others joined in!
There’s food in there!
Good news at last: Fancy Pants MAY be getting les broody. We are seeing her out more and more. Sigh. Just in time for fertilized eggs. Ha!
Suna used white glue to crackle paint her desk made of old doors.
For my new desk, I wanted a rustic look to go with the rest of the office. Yesterday I showed you how I painted the doors that will be part of the desk a very bright red. To remind you, it’s this color:
I used leftover paint to revitalize this concrete cardinal.
Today the fun began. I made crackle paint and did the doors. How? First, you splatter white craft glue all over and then brush it on, leaving thick and thin parts.
Doesn’t that look festive?
You let the glue just start to dry, then slop your top color on. In this case, it’s the trim color at the Ross house. You have to go fast and resist the urge to go back over it, or you get this.
Just painted. Looks like a crappy paint job!
Then you wait. As the glue dries, cracks show up. There are little cracks where the glue is thin, and bigger ones where it is thick.
Drying. Cracks have appeared.
The really thick parts take a long time to dry. I may have over-done it on the first door, which still has wet spots as I write this. I’m sure I’ll be able to sand this evening, though.
My desk top, all crackled.
And since I had a little red left over, I painted some trim on the old chicken house. That may protect its paint a little. And it looks more rustic now!
Red matches the ranch theme!
Now I’m painting other things. That’s for the next blog!
Chris and Suna create desktops and chicken coops from scraps and leftovers.
One thing’s for sure, the hermits of Hermits’ Rest sure know how to celebrate without leaving the property. I’m proud of us.
Most of the day, Chris and I worked on two projects, a second hen house and nest box, and my new desk.
My project was the desk. First I spent a couple of hours sanding the doors, one of which is the desk top and one the “modesty panel.” I’m so modest, you see. I just wanted to rough them up a bit.
The modesty panel door.
By the way, the doors came from the Pope Residence, and were a bathroom and closet door, so smaller than standard.
Here it is with a coat of red paint.
The desk top was painted white. It’s paint was peeling and hard to sand, so it took a while. I forgot to take a “before” picture. I’ll blame the heat. I did really well not overheating today!
The desk top looks much brighter, since it’s base was white.
No doubt you notice the doors don’t match. It’s okay. This interesting shade of coral red (made by mixing my bathroom tomato red with the red from our Christmas float) will be an undercoat.
Two coats on. Red enough.
Both doors look nice and “rustic” so I’m happy. Tomorrow the MAGIC will happen, so come back for Day 2 of the door desk paint project!
Meanwhile, Chris was finishing the nest boxes he started, which are nicely hinged now.
Hinged box.
Then he got to work turning a shipping crate that held the tile for our house 5 years ago into a chicken coop. He added a roosting shelf, and attached the nest boxes.
Roosting shelf.
The outside he covered in more of the tin we used in the Pope Residence.
He just improvises. But measures carefully.
By the time we called it quits, he’d measured the roof and got the supports up. The hardware cloth (wire mesh) is ready for the ventilation openings. This should also get done tomorrow!
Roof supports are up. The triangles will be air vents. Hens need them.
We also hope to get more shade cover for the birds and to enlarge the pens, like I mentioned earlier. That will keep us busy at home for another day!
Did I mention that these projects only cost us labor? All materials are scraps or leftover stuff from other projects. Fun doesn’t have to be expensive! It does help to have a creative and talented team lead, though. Go team!
I hope all of you who celebrate Independence Day in The US have a safe and fun holiday. And now for the news update.
Guinea Drama Part 2
I went out to feed the birds yesterday, and lo and behold, there were only five guinea keats. I fed them and was confused. So when Chris got home, I asked if we weren’t supposed to have seven. He said yep. Crap.
I then looked more carefully at their cage. Since it got put in the chicken pen, it’s been on grass. That made what WERE small holes into bigger holes. Two of the little dickenses had escaped.
The five remaining ones, nicely arranged.
About that time, Alfred skipped by looking very happy. Well, there was one keat. We still haven’t found the other.
Henhouse Happiness
As we were standing around lamenting the loss of the guinea fowl, Lee asked when we could combine the two chicken groups. I said now, I guess. So everyone is together now.
We’re taking over!
The older ones definitely are the bosses, but they aren’t attacking or anything, other than Clarence, showing what a manly rooster he is. He and Bruce are okay.
Gracie wanted to help Bertie and Ginger eat grass.
This means we can add our new nesting boxes and expand the run some more. We’re working on that, and more shade, today.
The new hens clustered for a while but it’s better now.
How’s Apache, You Ask?
I’ve been walking him a little bit every day. Today Chris came over to observe his gait, and we are pleased to report he’s walking pretty normally.
Grass! Yay!
So we let him and Fiona enjoy some green grass and loving for a while. They’re so good, just relaxing with us.
Happy to be out of that pen.
And you can sure tell Apache has lost weight. That’s one fine butt with no belly showing through!
His best side?
And of course we need to end with the cutest thing ever.
The good news about a that we have hot and cold running water at the Pope Residence!
What’s wrong here?
Did you know there’s a convention about which faucet should be for hot water and which is for cold?
This one is right!
I was admiring the new faucet handles in the bathrooms and reveling in hot water coming out of the top faucet, when it dawned on me that hot was on the right. Chris asked if it wasn’t right. So I began doubting my memory. I looked it up!
In olden days, most sinks had a single pump for cold water on the right—to accommodate the right-handed majority. When dual-temperature faucets appeared, the cold water stayed on the right while hot water occupied the left. The Uniform Plumbing Code now requires that faucets “shall be connected to the water distribution system so that hot water corresponds to the left side of the fittings.”
So, how about that? Tubby was already set up right. Good ole Tubby (who already needs another coat of paint).
That gold faucet’s gonna bug me. But it can’t be helped.
The break area sink doesn’t have labels. At this point I don’t care, because I’m so excited to be able to wash dishes with hot water!
Future home of clean dishes and masks.
Also in the break area, I finally remembered to get Chris my iron so he could attach edges to the counter tops.
Once they are bonded completely, the edges will get finished.
I am pretty thrilled that my bathroom is done. We are going to add shelves to the right of the vanity, since it ended up off center. More storage for me!
See what I mean?
But with all the creativity we have around here, we can fix anything! By the way, here are some finished bathroom pictures!
The leftover countertop stuff will top the shelves.
The Hermits' Rest 