The Great Door Project of 2011: Part 2

Come to think it of, this isn't part two-- it's more like part four.  First we changed the locks on the front and side doors, then a pesky piece of pea gravel shattered our sliding glass door and we replaced it with a French door, then I painted the jambs, but that wasn't good enough so now we're on to the painting of the front and side doors.  Whew!

When I last left you, I had been pondering a paint color for the doors. I decided on Fabulous Red (Valspar 1011-2), partially because it looked so good with our orangey-reddish brick, but also because Mr. Great Indoors put his vote in for that color and I couldn't help but agree.  And come on-- it's Faaaaaaabulous.

The Great Door Project of 2011: Part 1

That's right-- I knew as soon as we painted the French doors on the back of the house that our disgusting front and side doors just wouldn't cut it.  Here's a refresher of the side door grossness, taken when we changed the locks:

Natural Lawn Mowers

The place where I work has been trying to go green, constructing new buildings that meet LEED standards, using green cleaning products, and upping their recycling efforts.  In addition to these things, they also introduced a small sheep herd to take care of an invasive plant species along a potential Greenway extension.  Thirty sheep and two donkeys are unleashed every few months to eat away at the Chinese privet that has grown up in a particular spot. The donkeys especially are precious and friendly; they stand very patiently to be petted (pet?), but the sheep usually keep their distance and are hard to get good photos of.  (Yes, that sign does say "electric fence," but I still stuck my arms over to pet the donkeys.  Dare devil, I know.)

French Door: Finished!

We are looooving our French Door, especially now that we've finished it all up.

I took a few days to paint the trim inside and out, and boy did it make a difference.  First I sanded the threshold with a rough then smooth sandpaper (forgot which numbers), then put on two coats of black outdoor paint.  The white trim around the sides took three coats.

One last stop around the house: The DIY bike rack

I realized when posting the French door how-to that I forgot to show my four faithful readers one corner of our house:  the bike rack!

Mr. Great Indoors and I started biking together about a year and a half ago after he had an accident running (darn ankles).  He bought a bike off Craigslist and we started riding together shortly thereafter.  It's an awesome hobby because we can spend time together but still get exercise.  And because both of us have bad knees, it's a lot kinder to our bodies than running ever was.

Fall Garden and Garden Journaling

The summer garden was starting to look pretty bad-- we ripped out the squash a few weeks ago, then took out the corn and cukes this weekend.  It was definitely a little naked (although our tomatoes and basil are going strong!).  So  Mr. Great Indoors and I paid a visit to Lowe's to pick out our fall garden.  Last year we didn't plan ahead quite enough to make this happen, but I read a few weeks ago (in Better Homes and Gardens, maybe?) that July/August is the time to start thinking about fall crops. Let me tell you, it's hard to think about anything fall-related when we've been having 100° plus temperatures every day for weeks.

The Princess and the Pea (Gravel)

Warning:  this is an incredibly long post, but there's a ton to cover.  If you're interested, all the product links are at the very bottom of the page with the price breakdown.  No princesses were harmed in the making of this blog post.

Who can guess what these two things have in common?

The Pinterest Challenge

Two of my favorite ladies, Katie of Bower Power and Sherry of Young House Love, decided to team up to pick one project per season from their Pinterest boards and create it.  Instead of, you know, pinning a bajillion images and never doing squat with them.  Here's Katie's post about the project and here's Sherry's.

{If you haven't heard of Pinterest, check out their About page.  And request to join ASAP.  Aaaand you can follow me with that cute little red button at the top of the page}

I thought it would be fun to participate in the link love, so I combed through my pins to find a project that I already had the materials for.  I narrowed it down to four options at first:  this cork garden marker, these cork drink coasters (remember what I said about us being alcoholics entertainers?  We drink lots of vino), these zucchini chips, or these melted crayon shapes.  Tough choices!