Well we lost a tree in our back yard. To be fair, this tree was half dead anyway, but now it’s totally dead and is destined for our fire pit. Last week we had some pretty strong winds roll thru these parts and it took down the tree just outside our kitchen window. Thank God it fell the way it did or we would have been havin’ tree branches for dinner.
{The 3rd picture shows where the kitchen windows are located.}
So we did what every southerner would do, Griff got out the chain saw and went to town.
We’re sad to see our tree go but glad we have firewood for the winter!
Black is back! The back door I mean. If you’ve been looking around blog-land lately, as I have, you might have noticed a lot of people painting their back doors black. Sense we all know I am the President of PEBA, {Painting Everything Black Anonymous}, I thought I’d give it a try. It’s only paint after all. If I hated it, (haha!), I could paint it back. I must admit, I had a bit of an “oh shit” moment when Griff walked in and goes “you’re painting the door black?!”, and I said “trust me babe, I got this.” But I really didn’t know if I would like it when I was done. Still I forged ahead and I am so glad I did because I stinkin’ LOVE IT!
Let’s take a look at the back door before her mini makeover shall we?
{Sorry the light is so bad, I swear one day I’ll figure out my camera… or maybe not.}
AND AFTER!!!
I also changed out the discusting brass door knobs. Ugh, brass. May you die a fiery death.
{I took these pictures when the first coat of black was drying which is why it looks streaky.}
I had a bit of trouble with that dang top lock. For some reason the 2 sides DID NOT want to line up with the screws. I wanted to scream. SKAH-REAM! Griff gave it a go as well and we were both were SO frustrated. Our friend Jake was coming over a couple days after our fight with the brass began to replace and paint some outside trim for us, so we slipped him an extra $20 to make our problem his problem. Thank you Jake!
Seriously, this project was so dang easy, {minus the fight with top lock}, and it’s one of my favorites we’ve done to the house so far. Such a small change with big results.
I’m sure the band The Doors were not thinking about my fireplace when they made their 1967 hit Come On Baby Light My Fire. Which according to Wikipedia is ranked #35 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Er, but I digress. Since we moved into our home in April ‘10 we’ve had the view of our lovely brass fireplace surround to great us when we walk into the front door. She gave me the stank eye everyday. I mean, wha’d tha hell did I do to her anyway? Bitch.
So while I might have bought what I needed to fix the brass beauty around, oh I don’t know, 9-ish months ago… I finally got the bug to actually do it. First I removed the fireplace surround. I was able to just pop off 1 side but the other side took some Griff muscle to pry her from her brass death grip.
Then I took her to the garage where she met her fate with this stuff, Rust-Oleum Flat Black Specialty High Heath Spray Paint. This stuff runs about $5 a can and I used 1 whole can.
I covered and taped the glass and brushed off any rust with some steal wool. Then I lightly, lightly, exfoliated her with 15 grit sandpaper. My first coat is shown on the right. I don’t remember how many coats I did, but I would cover it well then let it dry for an hour or so then apply another coat. When I was finished applying the entire can I let her dry overnight.
I have to say after her make-over she looks just gorg! Such a simple project with GIANT results. Why did I wait so long to do this?
