Adventures in Faux-Finishing

And so the saga of 211 Fellows continues! Our next manual laborer/guest was Miss Nally Steeves, aka The Littlest Sis of the Steeves Clan, aka Faux-Finish Frannie (ok, I made that last one up). Even with her bad back, she was a chipper go-getter and painter extraordinaire! Our mission: the dining room. Her task, help us tackle a "Tuscan" faux-finish. We thought the dining room would be a fun place to experiment with some warm colors and some texture. Jess and I had spent the better part of the past two days doing our now-familiar sand-and-spackle, sand-and-spackle, sand-and-prime routine - so we were ready for Nals!

The faux-finish was pretty neat - we applied a base coat, let that dry, and then Nally and I painted on the 2nd paint in large swathes of "X's" over sections of wall, smoothing them a bit to blend. Then, after letting that section dry for about 10 min (to the point where it was more 'tacky' then wet) we used a "smoother" (basically an expensive piece of hard plastic attached to a wooden handle - we will make our own next time!) to break open the small blobs of white paint that had been blobbing about in the paint - it made the white bits streak a teeny bit and created a kind of marble-like effect on the walls. Subtle - maybe too subtle to be seen in these pictures - but we loved the look! A coat of our 'soft cream' on the trimwork - with Nally's steady brush for the tricky corners - and we were done! It felt so good to have that space turn out well - and to see the results so soon! It was not long, however, before we loaded up the newly painted dining room with ALL THE FURNITURE from the living room - TO BE CONTINUED . . .

We were so glad to have Miss Nally up in the 'Cuse - in addition to putting her to work on the dining room walls, we did take a walk around Barry Park in the rain, introduce her to Dinosaur BBQ (we all managed to stuff ourselves AND bring home loads of leftovers), and enjoy plenty of movie and snuggle time. Nally does come from a long line of champion snugglers, as some of you may know.

Oooh ooh! Also, while Nally was here, our neighbor brought us over a cake - a cherry whipcream cake! I think it was kind of a thank-you for the thank-you muffins I had sent over a month or so ago after they had mowed our lawn several times! Anyway, the cake was delicious. In fact, we've been hauling it out every few hours ever since to steal forkfuls on our way in and out of the kitchen . . .I dont' think I've ever had a pan cake like that that was so moist and good - it is a mystery . . .

Well, that is our post for this go-round - we hope to see some of you the week after next when we come down to Jersey for Nally's Graduation/Bday party!

Love to all
Caitlin and Jesse

A Brooklynite Visits the Salt City

Yes folks, that IS a big beautiful jar of freshly homemade garlic scape pesto!!! We've been saving our scapes (baby garlic shoots) from the last 2 drop-offs from the CSA in order to get down and grind up this glorious concoction blending the sturdy green shoots with pistachios, basil, cilantro, parsley, salt, pepper, olive oil, and LOTS of parmesan cheese :) We received the original inspiration for it a couple years ago from Renee - and we've been perfecting different versions ever since! (By the way, this stuff is also good for clearing out the sinuses - it is PUNGENT)

We were super happy to host our long-lost Brooklynite roomie (Mr. Johnny-Love) this past weekend. I was still in the midst of my 2-week intensive 'Spine' course at Upstate (my final practical is tomorrow!!) so I was able to give the boys plenty of alone bonding time while I poured over my books and protocols for 'low back pain' (Nals, I promise I'll be able to help you soon!!). Still, I was able to fit in a couple of rounds of Catan (we love that game!!), a few mojitos, and plenty of giggles with Johnny. Tho I left most of the work on the 'Tenant Room' to the boys (they got it sanded, spackled, and primed! More on the Tenant Room later . . . ), I even got to help with the construction project of the weekend, the . . . . . SHELVES!

Jess had been scouring the home and garden magazines and woodworking books that The Aunties brought up, in search of some fun, quick bookshelves we could make ourselves. He found the directions for a system of interlocking pine boxes - ones that could be easily assembled and rearranged at the drop of a hat - NEATO! After gathering a few more tools necessary for the job (oh you know, just some finishing nails . . .materials for some rough saw horses . . .a 12'' compound miter chop saw . . .you know - just stuff you have lying around), Jesse and John set to cutting the wood, sanding it, gluing and nailing it - and I helped! The boys felt very manly and productive and I mostly had fun posing with the shelves after they were made :) We were so happy with the finished product - and it's not even finished yet - we've still got a coat of stain/finish to put on.

Previous to John's arrival, Jess and I had fashioned an impromptu Bean Bag Game (more like a bean-rice-Jesse's socks game) for a hastily thrown-together BBQ with some of my classmates from the DPT program at Upstate. Mostly we had the BBQ to eat the leftover burgers and hotdogs from an earlier picnic/kickball match with the new First Years (yes, I AM a 'Second Year' at this point!) - those first years barely touched all the food we had brought!! Tho now that I think about it, that was probably why they won - we were all too busy stuffing our faces to bust out any decent kickball skills . . .

So the Bean Bag Game was a total success and we've been dragging it out of the garage whenever there is a break in the interminable rain. I at first preferred the 'sling-shot' method but finally had to admit I should probably switch to a more controlled 'lob' as I was often in danger of flinging my sock/beanbag into the neighbors' yards.

A special shout-out to Conrad and Susan - congratulations on your wedding!! Jesse and I were sad we couldn't make it out to Denver, but we heard it was a blast, the ranch was beautiful, Susan's boys were lovely, and the food was overflowing! We can't wait to see you guys again as Mr. and Mrs. :) I hadn't heard about whether or not you were going a-honeymoonin' but I hope you at least have some time off to decompress. Love love love to you both!

Well, I have to wrap this up because as we speak, we actually have a NEW guest with us right now - Miss Nallykins! So, in order to properly record our time spent with her I have to pull this (belated) post to a close . . .

Happy July!

The Master Bedroom Continues . . .

Ok - so now that we've figured out how to put video on this thing, you're going to get the whole multi-step process we went through . . . next up: the walls are finished! At the time this video was made, I believe we had been sleeping on the couches downstairs for 2 nights in a row - now remember, these were not the comfy lovely couch we have now! These were the couches that we THOUGHT would be comfy enough to make do with while we were still moving things in . . . .yeah, that lasted for (the aforementioned) 2 nights - then we came up with a new solution, as you will see . . .

luv!
caitlin

A Mish-Mash

Hi all - we've got a couple of (we think) fun new pictures to share :)

Our new big-kid couch came in - yay!! FINALLY . . .1-2 weeks normal time = 5 weeks (plus several phone calls and the need for Jesse to use his stern 'teacher voice') in Dunk&Bright time - we may think twice before using this furniture store again . . . but we have to admit, we DO love the big, fluffy couch - plenty of room for the both of us to fall asleep in front of the tv like the wild and crazy pair that we are . . .(jesse has just informed me that sometimes we fall asleep in front of the fireplace as well)


While we're not prepared yet to deal with the weeds around the house OR do any formal landscaping (we can't wait!) we did want to get a LITTLE bit of greenness and yummyness around the house - container herbs are the solution! And yes, those ARE South Park pj shorts with Cartmen on them ;)


We had our first delivery as POD leaders for the CSA! Produce from Grindstone Farm in Pulaski, NY is delivered to several sites in the greater Syracuse area - Fellows is 1 of 3 University-area Point of Delivery sites where members who have bought a share in the farm can pick up their share of produce once a week from our garage! So on Tuesday we met most of the members belonging to our POD, including a very nice, friendly veteran of the CSA named Dianna - she met the truck at the house for us (since we were both scooting home around 3:30ish from work and school) and got us newbies settled in. The first delivery had asparagus, broccoli, collard greens, radishes, red lettuce, shallot greens, arugala, bordeaux spinach, mint, sage, mizuna, baby lettuce greens - all delish!! The asparagus we grilled up with a little salt, a little pepper, and some olive oil - holy crappers! They barely made it out of the pan they were so good!





And here is a black squirrel spread-eagle on our garage roof.






Lotsa love
Caitlin and Jesse

Master Bedroom: Appendix A: Clown Collar Colors

HaHA! We have finally figured out how to post videos to this blog!!! So, here is the infamous footage documenting our brief but very real doubts in regards to our color choices in the master bedroom. Without further ado (?), a peak into our process . . .

(***WARNING*** We do drop the "F-bomb" a few times, tho in our defense, we ARE directly quoting Big Lebowski, so don't blame us, blame "The Dude" . . .and "Walter" . . .we hope you can forgive us!)

Master Bedroom transformation...

It's still not finished, of course, but the master bedroom is at least livable. Of course, it was livable from the beginning, it was just really really ugly. There are these 11 panels on the walls with somewhat attractive trim around them. However, the paint used in the middle of the panels was a thickly textured popcorn paint. Really ugly. There is thick molding around all the doors, windows, and along the base of the walls. It took us some time to come up with the colors of the room; Cait was really the mastermind behind it.

When we started the wall preparation, we knew that we had to tackle the plaster cracks and the popcorn paint. Thank goodness we had Lukey Dukey around that week to guide us through our learning process. We originally planned on making a plaster of paris mix every hour. On one of the trips to Lowe's Luke brought back a 5 gallon container of joint compound that saved us hours of needless mixing.

And so began 4 days of wall preparation. We tried scraping the popcorn paint off the wall panels, but didn't want to further damage the plaster underneath, and realized it would probably take decades to finish. So we purchased a belt sander to flatten out the textured paint. I went around the room, one panel at a time, sanding the most thickly textured panels while Cait and Luke followed behind spackling each panel with the joint compound. We had to sand and spackle a second time to get each panel really flat. We also did this on all the other cracks around the room and the holes in the window molding. This was our first experience with wall preparation and I think its why we haven't tried tackling another room just yet...

Finally, we could get down to the fun stuff - actually painting! Before Luke went to join Ellie on their camping trip, he and Cait were able to prime the room with a grey primer - suggested to us by the Lowe's paint guy because we were going with a dark red for the main walls. We still had to do 3 coats to not be able to see through the red, but I'm sure it still made a difference. As Cait and I were doing the actually painting, we were having a hard time seeing the final product and kept questioning ourselves. "It's so dark!" we kept saying.

The day before Luke left, Friday, we tried figuring out how much time it would take to finish the room off. It was a relatively fast drying paint, so, we figured, that we could go back and forth with the kitchen and the bedroom every two hours, and be done with both rooms by the end of the day. We were so naive... Just the taping around the molding also took so much time. After the third coat of red, we were ready for the "spice". Cait told me it took her an hour and a half just to take the tape down! And then we had to put tape back up on the walls when we began the second color. At this point, it was already Monday or Tuesday, and we had been working through the weekend. As you all know, we are complete beginners at all of this, and advice and tips are always welcome.

We started the spice color with the panels; anything that could be rolled, we attacked. We bought smaller rollers for the smaller panels and the flat parts of the molding. Again, we were struck with doubt: with the blue tape, we were skeptical about the colors chosen. Cait compared it to a clown's collar. At least it was moving along fairly quickly. Until we had to do all the detailed sections of the molding with brushes. Working together it still took Cait and I 5 hours to finish the molding. I think when Luke and I were figuring out how long it would take we forgot the part about applying the paint. We were talking as if the paint would just apply itself, or as if it'd be up in 10 minutes like the ceiling paint. Not so much...

All this work was in the week leading up to our move, which happened on Saturday. So, we left the 3rd color, "Old Rose #6" (not pink...), which was going to be for the window seat, for another time. We really wanted to move into our room, because we had been sleeping on our couches in the living room for a few days, and Cait was done with that. So, we threw our mattress on the floor and called it a success!

We still have light sconces to put up, the doors have to be refinished (there is no handle on our main door), one of the windows has to be fixed, and the outlets need to changed, but its certainly better than when we started. All the experience accrued fixing the cracks, and applying the joint compound will serve us well when we start on the other rooms in the house. Next up is the tenant room in about 2 weeks. Lots of love, and can't wait to see you all soon!


Disregard (or make fun of) Cait's expression in that last picture - she had woken up about 2 minutes prior...

Calling all Plant and Weed Enthusiasts!

Ok, so the sudden gift of a couple of pots of herbs/useful weeds from a neighbor a few doors down has inspired me to wander around our own property to try and identify what green growth we've already got going on here at Fellows. Most seem to be common weeds but some are definitely useful ones (ie dandelion, plantain) and I think we may even have a couple leftover pretty perenials from a previous gardener. So I am calling upon the knowledge of the aunties, the mommies, and anyone else who might be able to help me identify these plants. Here goes!

I'm pretty sure these are two kinds of plantain - the first, more round-leaved one I believe is common plaintain, the second one with more narrow leaves a buckthorn plaintain???

This guy (from my brief internet searchings) looks like some sort of Dwarf Columbine?













I'm having trouble figuring out what this next one is - at first I thought it was some kind of 'dock', either curly dock or a broadleaf dock. But none of the pictures I've seen so far online look like they are big enough to match up to these big boys - they are huge! A little hairy on the top of the leaf, just a bit tho. I don't think they are hairy on the underside. No flowers yet, just these big broad sprawling leaves. And it's not like there are a bunch of them - they seem to be plopped invidiually throughout the yard :)












We had lots of pretty pretty violets in early spring - you can't see the flowers here but you can see the heart-shaped leaves. We've got them pretty much spread throughout the entire yard - they were one of the first bits of color after a long winter!







So, the last one I can kind of identify looks like a yellow woodsorrel. I thought it was clover at first, but after looking it up (plus it does have some yellow flowers!) I think it's woodsorrel instead.











These last couple I have no idea! There's a spikey weed that comes up all over the yard, a mint-looking (but not smelling!) leafy plant that grows everywhere, a a viny, round-leafed thing that looks like it has some small purple flowers, and a semi-daisy look-alike. Tho the white petals are very thin, almost aster-looking. Any ideas?

Thanks all! Will post more weed pics if there are requests!

luv luv
caitlin

PS - If you haven't figured it out already, you can click on the individual pictures to make them larger for your viewing pleasure!