Else's Bedroom

*WARNING: this post is very picture heavy!* 

Over a year ago (I know I know.. SLACK SLACK SLACK) I posted here about doing a post on my little girl's room. Then I went and got knocked up again and didn't find the time. Until now!
Oh you are all so lucky :)

Here is the before picture, taken hastily before the new bed was brought up:

couch: hand me down from an old roomate it is actually red velvet corduroy underneath. Crib: Ikea. Love it, was under $100 after my christmas tree coupon. Wallpaper: roosters in a country toile design.

some of the art I just put up. Owl totally made of feathers, and two margaret tarrant prints from an estate sale

freecycled dresser has been most handy.

 I suppose I should show you what this room looked like before we painted it! I didn't really take any pictures of it straight out, but I have a few tucked away that you can get the feel of it from.

uuugly. i broke the light with my head. 

Delia kindly modelled some clothes for my etsy shop. you can see the peachy hue of the paint. this room was ghastly in the afternoon sun. Delia on the other hand is beautiful. even in a green pantsuit.

Ok so we painted this room before we got pregnant with Else. We did it with a guest room and nursery in mind. We had a hard time finding wallpaper we really liked until we found the chickens. The chickens are amazing. They cost us a fortune too, thanks Benjamin Moore.

So now, Else is over two years old. She needs a big girl bed so that her little brother has a place to stay as he is wearing out his welcome in mommy's bed. That is when I found this beauty on kijiji for $25, in my neighbourhood and everything:

Greg stripped it down with this metal sander thing he got for doing bodywork on his Lada. He did need to use some paint stripper for the bed rails but it was way easy to just sand that crappy paint off. It was not original paint, in fact it was only about 30 yearsd old, and while it did have a certain shabby chic look to it, it was too chippy for a little girls bed plus there were some areas that were too paint-less for me. So, we painted it stark white. It looks awesome.

before

Else measures

Else tries out her new bed

someone is excited for their new big girl bed..... bet you cant guess who???

detail on head and foot boards

detail on rails

painting on the hottest day of the summer thus far

bedknobs!

AND NOW THE MOMENT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR:

no boxspring

the finished project. quilt is vintage 30's or 40's

happy!

comfy!

this was only a pretend nap. dang.

 We moved the shelf that was standing upright (the tall way) over to were the crib used to be, and that was the end of Else's room. I really really like it I think it turned out wonderfully.

no more crib! for now.... eddie might come in here one day to sleep too. more on that later (and no, no more babies dont even think such a ridiculous thought)

bed

Just a quick check in to show off my newest purchase: a cast iron bed!!!

$25 on Kijiji yo

My fence, my fence, my uuugly fence!

I hate red painted fences and decks. I don't know why but that particular colour, as well as dark brown, makes my skin crawl. Hey wouldn't you know it? That's what colour all the wood in my outdoor space is painted! Yes!!!
Here you can see my back fence in all its rotting glory:

the local coopers hawk eating a local pigeon

As you can see here, I have a red deck, and a red fence. The fence is made from plywood I kid you not. Not even plywood but a particle board kind of thing. The top is a plank of wood but it was so rotten even the squirrels walked lightly on it (we called this the squirrel highway for obvious reasons).
As you can also see from the picture, the boards are totally rotted out. I am not sure the exact age of the fence, but our backdoor neighbour Maureen was telling us a story about when they were kids. I guess our house had a skating rink in the back, and the parents wouldn't let any other kids come skate on it (more on their neighbourliness later). So one night the backdoor kids came over for a midnight skate and got busted. Then this fence was erected. Maureen is at least 45. So I am estimating this fence to be 35-40 years old. Made of particle board.

Then we got a really big wind storm. Reports of tornadoes. Rare for the Ottawa Valley. What a shame that this happened:

ruh roh

I get a text from my hubby. Fence is down. I do a happy dance.

This horrid fence is on the east side of our property as well, and that side's neighbours were itching to replace it. We'd actually already talked about what we would be doing that summer when we got this extra little kick to hurry up. So Greg ripped out that rotten fence with a vigour and joy seldom seen in this household. The posts were barely driven in, the nails were all wonky, how this thing lasted a decade I do not know. Anyways here are some pictures to show you how lovely it all was :)

boards all tied up ready for the garbage. they wont take renovation material so you have to put it out little by little. a year later and we still have some pieces.

rotten posts

particle board FTW

a summer haven for crickets and spiders

the top boards

 So once it was all gone it looked like this:

the side bit that has since been cleared out of ferns and other assorted vines

the back neighbours dont take much care with their lawn its a bit of a jungle but I actually really like it

Greg and the side neighbour Rob rented an auger at Home Depot and drilled a bunch of holes for the new posts. There was a bunch of old concrete fill in some of them, and they hit some pretty big granite rocks in others. It was a ton of work and it took a few weekends of cleaning out and pickaxing but eventually it got done satisfactorily.

post holes drilled

posts are in, brush is cleared

picking up rocks and concrete chunks. one year olds can help too!

especially when they are in really cute bikinis!

So the fence went in pretty easily. We decided to a short fence again in the back, 4 feet tall. The side is 6 feet, as per the neighbours request (they are putting in a hot tub and want some privacy *cue romantic music here*

I really like our new fence. I like the height. I hate fences that are high, privacy fences if you will. It makes me feel boxed in. I like being able to see around past my little tract of land.  The next street over was built in the 60s and all the yards have regular old metal mesh fencing and it makes everyone's yard feel connected and bigger.

One thing we need to figure out is whether we are going to stain the fence or what. The other side neighbour Pierre put up his own fence because our lovely old owners wouldn't pay for any of it, and didn't treat this side of it at all. I get the feeling that they were a bit of a jerk! Even the kids apparently grew up to be asses, according to Rob and Brenda who had a run in with one of the sons while they were cleaning out the house after we bought it. So I think we could pretty much do whatever we wanted and our neighbours would still like us :) Anyways , Greg was toying with the idea of whitewashing the fence, or just painting it white. Pierre said no way (he is a big critic on all things construction related let me tell you) I think we should either stain it a very light brown to match the parts of Pierre's fence that we can see (the boards are staggered and his stain is orangey which is yet another colour on wood that I can't stand). Then it would still look woody and would blend in good and we wouldn't have to watch it age badly. In any case here are some pictures of the finished project:

the back and the side were a little weird because the land slopes strangely at the junction of the three yards

there's no way Greg would have been fishing this bag out of the tree on the old fence

this fence is Else approved.

Last but not least, Greg removed the stupid little shed at the back of the garage. He cleaned out the compost pile and evened out the ground, planting some grass seed too. He plans on making an area for a rain barrel, a potting area, and maybe even space for some chickens.....

way more space

The daylilies I planted last year are growing nicely against the fence and I'm going to plant some morning glories there too. I am so much happier looking out my kitchen window now :)

I dare you to out vintage this....

Our house is built in Ottawa, on shale.
This shale may have been here for forever, or it may be fill from when the house was built. In any case, shale is about 4 inches down all over the place.
Greg was out digging post holes for the new fence last summer when he came across something he'd been keeping an eye out for, on account of the shale.

Check it out.

trilobite!!!

Triarthrus eatoni??

for more trilobites check out this link

I DARE YOU TO TRY TO OUT-VINTAGE THIS!!!]\
:)

what to do with a giant monstera

Monstera deliciosa

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Monstera deliciosa

Monstera deliciosa is a creeping vine native to tropical rainforests of southern Mexico south to Colombia.^[1]
Common names include Ceriman, Swiss Cheese Plant (or just Cheese Plant), Fruit Salad Plant, Monster fruit, Monsterio Delicio, Monstereo, Mexican Breadfruit, Monstera, split-leaf philodendron, Locust and Wild Honey, Windowleaf, Delicious Monster, Balazo and Penglai Banana^[2].
This member of the Arum family is an epiphyte with aerial roots, able to grow up to 20 m (65 feet) high with large, leathery, glossy, heart-shaped leaves 25–90 cm (9 to 35 inches) long by 25–75 cm broad. Young plants have leaves that are smaller and entire with no lobes or holes, but soon produce lobed and holed leaves.^[3]
Wild seedlings grow towards the darkest area they can find until they find a tree trunk, then start to grow up towards the light, creeping up the tree.[

I have adopted the biggest indoor Monstera I have ever seen. It used to sit in the front window of a physiotherapy practise down on Bank St. It is now in my house. How the hell did that happen???

My massage therapist and I were out for lunch one day. She has the same landlord as the plant guy (who funnily enough was my real estate agent!) and he was closing up shop. I mentioned that I would love to have that giant monstera (the dinosaur plant as she called it)  and that should the chance present itself, she should grab it for me! I should also mention that Greg had said at some point in time what a nice plant is was and wouldnt it be cool to have it. He apparently does not remember this!


Anyways I get an email one day from Anna; she got the plant for me! I'm like, wow that is super awesome but holy smokes that is one giant plant!! She sent me this picture:

How the hello am I supposed to get this thing home?? The volvo wagon ain't gonna do it. So Anna brings it to me in her van. She carried that thing down Bank st, down her stairs, then up her stairs, down Bank St again to her car, then up my laneway. She is all of 5'6" and this thing weighs a tonne.


Thanks Anna!!!


So now I have this plant in my house.

I got bored so I made some curtains

I was sick of looking at my ugly mud room and its ugly windows so I decided to sew up some cafe curtains for it. I'd had my fabric bag out a few weeks before for some random reason and I found some sheets I'd bought a year or two ago (who can remember these things?) and one sheet in particular I've always really liked and now it has a purpose!

It didn't take too long to do the curtains. There were three windows the same and then the side windows, both of which were different. I cut them, sewed them, and then hung them using fishing line and thumbtacks.
For a simple pick me up I think they turned out pretty good! I may yet take hem down and line the back with white or something because the sun shines through them pretty heavily but also the back side of the sheet is what faces out to the deck and it looks kind of ghetto.
Whatev.

it was kind of dark in the room

but u get the idea

My Couch

I used to have a big orange corduroy sectional that was given to us from some friends. It was mammoth, and quite comfy, but at the end of its life.
Here it is in all it's orange glory:

See in the middle how the back cushion is all ripped? There have been three spring repairs and it smelled kind of funky. So we were on the lookout for a new sectional. We knew we'd find one when it was meant to happen. You can't force these things :)

THAT my dear readers, is how I came to possess my awesome royal blue couch with filigree designs!!!! LOVE.

So this sucker even has a lazy susan in the center. Mirrors on the arms, mirror inside the lazy susan, this thing is asking to be in a drug den. But it is in my basement den instead. Hope it doesn't mind cats.

the light of heaven shines down upon my awesome sofa

It is not as comfy as the orange couch but i am not too worried cause we don't spend all that much time downstyairs anyways. we watch the news at night an that's about it.

Funny thing is, Once I bought this couch, my friend Andrea sent me a link to the London Kijiji cause someone was selling this:

not a big fan of the reversable look

And THEN i found another one on Ottawa kijiji that I thought I saved the picture of but I did not! Anyways it was really awesome and a brownish tweed though the arms were flat to the couch and also tweedy. In any case.. three awesome sectionals in one month!

The ad for the blue one above shows that the cushions were reversible and said it was a model from 1962 or 3 (I think......could have been '69 too!) Both of the ones i saw later were $500. Mine? $120. WHO SCORED A GREAT DEAL??
I did :)

Solly has his own disco party inside the lazy susan

Greg does some Lada research while Solly and LaDynasty look on

Which brings me to our new friend LaDynasty!! She was a $20 Kijiji find. A beautiful boudoir velvet painting! Her name is at once Trashy and Dirty; La Dynasty spelled out is also lady nasty :)
I think she is Lady Gorgeous!

non of our older family members seem to like LaDynasty as much as we do :(