Before & After Project from the Dump

I've finished one of my small projects this evening. I mentioned before that I got a wine rack from the swap shop at the dump. Here it is in all of its dirty, moldy glory.

Salvaged Wine Rack

It was really grungy dirty. I washed and rinsed with a damp rag. I let it dry and gave it a pretty decent sanding.

Getting off the subject a little...this cement table under the wine rack is the one we just painted gray. It was mentioned in a recent blog post. Nasty, wasn't it?!

Here is the wine rack after a priming, light sanding, 2 coats of interior white latex, more sanding to distress, 2 coats of latex polyurethane and a final coat of paste wax.

New Loo Rack

'Loo rack' sounds kinda better than a magazine holder for the toilet, doesn't it? You know, sometimes you just have to have a morning cuppa joe and a magazine while you're in the midst of relaxing. I wanted a small table for in the bathroom. I couldn't find a small table. So when I saw this at the swap shop, it jumped into my Big Girl Truck and came home with me. It looked like a puppy had a bit of fun chewing on a leg and shelf, but who's going to see it in my water closet? What do you think? I think it's the perfect size for a small space. It does the trick for right now.

Next project in the works. Stay tuned!

Take care.

Cleaning Up

I did a little cleaning up this past weekend. At first, I didn't think I did anything fun or homestead-y. Well, I did. I cleaned the chicken coop and yard. That takes about an hour or so. I have one hen that likes to take a walk outside to pick the lawn when I do this. She's my last yard chicken. By that, I mean that she knows what to do when let out into the yard. And she herds back when I say 'chickens go nite-nite'. Sometimes she gives me a fit, but usually she heads straight for the coop. I deposited all of the pinestraw from the coop and chicken manure into the compost heap. Then I turned the heap.

Then, I decided to do a bit of painting to freshen up the yard. I mentioned this in a previous post, so this isn't much of anything new. First, I needed to wash the mold off of the doors to the pump house and repaint them. Then I painted a post that holds a length of water hose. Then I painted all of the pickets around the compost heap. Then I painted the step going into the chicken coop / potting shed. All of this was painted white with exterior latex. Now all of that part of the yard looks nice and fresh.

The only major thing left to do is finish pulling weeds in my flower gardens. I must do that this weekend. My daylilies are starting to come up and I need to give them light and room. I found a mystery plant yesterday. I think it is a Jewel of Opar plant. They are so pretty and delicate looking. However, they take a beating from the sun every year and come back the next year.

I hope you had a great day today.

Take care.