Gearing Up

While we are still mulling over which exact shade of blue to paint our little old house and whether we want the accent color to be a bit darker, a bit more brown, more grey, more anything, bits and bops of necessary gear for mission "Exterior painting" are arriving at our address:

The first thing I bought was a 26' Werner ladder. It's the big one, not only in the picture but also in comparison to the much shorter multi-function ladder I bought.

Werner, for short, is marvelous. I'm not one for heights, in fact scaling a three step step ladder has been my biggest achievement until we bought our house and I also got involved in the one or other Preservation SOS project. I have since then advanced to 12' ladders and painting rafter tails on one-story bungalows but I'm still far from feeling comfortable.
This ladder, though, makes all the difference. It is as sturdy as it gets, probably because of the flared legs, and feels as solid as a staircase. No kidding. Fully extended the middle bends and flexes a bit but even that is quite tolerable.

We also got an extra ladder stabilizer to make working in front of windows, for example, easier. Our 12' multi-functional ladder is much more of a light-weight which makes it 'my' ladder. I'm okay scaling ladders up to 12' and I can lug it around all by myself  (Werner requires an extra set of hands, being much heavier).

Since 'Multi' folds into all kinds of positions including a low scaffold, we also picked up scaffolding plates which should be much safer than just slapping a wooden board across the rungs.

And much to Binky's delight, we kept the box 'Multi' shipped in for a few days for a lot of adventurous play! She loved to channel her inner ambush predator and hid in the box until the unsuspecting dog moseyed by close enough for an attack cat to come flying out of the box.

With a bit of luck we will be able to nail down the ever elusive 'perfect' blue this weekend, give it a last test run and get started on power washing and scraping the house, after, you know, teaching a painting workshop, driving Little Man to Karate testing, having friends visit, Mother's Day, church, and all the other things we need to cram into a too short weekend!

Bee Keepin' Busy

 This little old house has been buzzing with excitement since Saturday almost two weeks ago when we returned from our trip to the Historic Homes Workshop in Tampa to find this on our porch:

  

A box of bees! Our 2lb box of Carniolan Bees had finally arrived! There is something crazy exciting about a meshed box filled to the brim with buzzing bees. I don't know about you but I never really have the opportunity to get that close to almost 10,000 fuzzy insects so needless to say we were thrilled. Following Charles' instruction (he's the guy who sold them to us) we sprayed them periodically with sugar water and fed them bits of pollen patty while we readied the hive for its new tenants. Since these bees have to start from scratch in their new home and don't have any stores, we supplied them with a feeder with sugar syrup and pollen patty inside the hive so they wouldn't starve ...or, you know, up and leave looking for greener shores.

Little Man spent a lot of time with his nose -very- close to the mesh marveling at the little creatures. We had to remind him they were mostly girls when he started naming them Bob 1, Bob 2, Bob 3, and so on. Silly monkey! He couldn't wait to don his beekeeper jacket but since we were so busy getting everything ready and the bees into the hive, we forgot to take pictures.

This picture shows Little Man proudly showing off his beekeeper jacket (and Mio photobombing). It's a size medium so he has time to grow into it and the one or other guest can wear it if they want to sneak a peek.

Here's our topbar hive in situ: 17ft in the air on a small stair case landing with free airspace across the yard. This location is beautifully out of the way, and without taking a closer look the hive looks like a harmless, oversized window box. It's been a week and half since the bees' arrival and we are amazed at how little you notice them. Occasionally we see a bee in the backyard, checking out the spiderwort and spanish needles growing wild where I haven't weeded yet but there is no increased traffic at all.

From their hive, they just go up and away to forage, just like we'd hoped they would. Unless you look up directly at the hive, you won't know they are there. I love it when a plan works out!

We also chose Carniolan Bees for that purpose since they are known as the gentlest of bee breeds hoping to increase our chances of remaining good neighbors. Again, so far they are very laid back and happy to ignore our bumbling beginner beekeeper struggles and clumsy workings.

If I sit on my nightstand and peek out the window I can watch the entrance to the hive. Over the past week and a half we have learned that

• Our bees 'sleep in' - before 8:30am you are hard-pressed to see a bee anywhere outside the hive, and I have checked on the feeder and moved some bars around without any protection at all since the girls were still happily snoozing in their cozy, warm cluster.
•  Watching bees is hypnotic and relaxing - It's hard to explain but we can all sit for hours by the window watching the bees go in and out, sometimes carrying a bright load of yellow or orange pollen in their pollen baskets. Really! I have spent 45 minutes doing nothing but observing their fuzzy butts going about their business. This is also my excuse for the lack of cool projects, no kidding.
• Bees are toasty warm! We noticed that for the first time when they were still in their box. Holding your flat hand against the mesh you could feel the heat the little insect bodies radiate. It was almost hot. Even now that they are in their hive, I can locate the cluster easily by just sliding a hand along the hive body. The spot where they are is warm to the touch compared to the rest of the hive.

This weekend we will try to do a first thorough inspection. Last week the weather was simply too rotten to do so but so far the weather outlook looks promising. Just by tentatively lifting the bars a fraction of an inch (more like millimeters) I know the last  four bars are heavy so I'm pretty sure they've been busy drawing comb. And hopefully we won't forget to snap a few pictures to share with you!

Wordless Wednesday

[At Schiller's Salvage, Tampa, FL]

It's In The Closet!

After priming everything the night before and allowing it to cure overnight, it was finally time for a fresh coat of paint!

There is very little a fresh coat of paint cannot fix. Seriously, it's addictive once you see how much of a difference just a fresh coat of color can make. It's one of the most inexpensive and rewarding little projects you can throw into your DIY project schedule.

The closet was no different!

After several coats of Benjamin Moore's Ultra Pure White and Valspar's 'Homestead Resort Sunwashed' for the walls, our dusty, musty, dingy, catch-all dump turned into a beautiful clean light and airy hall closet.

I'm also a real sucker for the contrast between shiny dark heart pine floors and bright white trim. It's straight out lick-able!

The shelves need some cute baskets, of course, but so far they have proven to be a very clever addition to the closet that was clearly needed. Much needed, of course, was also the decluttering, and the husband came and seeing the nice new inside of the closet, decided to straighten out how brewing equipment on the top shelf. LOVE!
Of course we finished this project at the end of jacket season here in North East Florida but come winter, we are actually going to have a closet for our guests to hang their coats without shame burning our cheeks. Ha!

Shelf Life

In order to facilitate more organized cramming, I decided the closet needed shelves. One third of the closet extends to the left side of its door forming a nook that would be just perfect for some quick shelves.

Luckily, we also have plenty of pieces of wood kicking around the house and finding two pieces to fit the space was a piece of cake.

I decided to take my new toy - a Kregg jig Jr. -for a spin and use pocket holes to secure the shelves to the walls. What can I say - I LOVE that thing!

Pocket holes are no longer a fantasy. You know, like unicorns and garden gnomes!

I used drywall anchors for my screws and then screwed the shelf boards into the nook on the left side of the closet.

Then it was time for primer on door, shelves and trim. I love how even the splotchy coat of primer gives you an idea of beautiful crisp, clean things to come!

Coming Out Of The Closet

One of the not original to the house features we deliberately kept was the big hulk of a closet in the bedroom turned downstair's entrance hall/vestibule. Storage space in an old house is limited - people back then just didn't keep that much stuff as we do today - and I was loathe to loose it.

Instead I painted the door and trim white, labeled it so nobody would accidentally try this door in their search for the bathroom and called it a day.

Well, we didn't really call it a day. We stuffed it every day. Our beautiful big hallway closet became a catch-all including the last unpacked box from our move two years ago. Now I'm coming clean and out of the closet (well, there's really no way you could go -into- the closet, it's just that stuffed!).

Sorry, Mom! Camping gear, coats, costumes, sports gear, mail, boxes, bags over bags (empty), helmets, shoes, the husband's brewing equipment - everything was just crammed into it.

So, the first order of business was pulling EVERY.THING. out of the closet and sorting it into the three famous categories "For Keeps", "Donate", and "Trash." For a while the entry hall looked mighty exploded but ... it always looks worse, before it gets better.

Wordless Wednesday