With the weather finally warming up, my mind wanders away from the kitchen to the front porch, where we’ll hopefully spend a few lazy summer nights sipping cold beverages and laughing with friends.

Yesterday, I got a great catalog in the mail from Frontgate, who call themselves the “outfitters of America’s finest homes”. Perhaps because only those living in the finest homes would pay so much for garden furniture.

However, they have some REALLY cool stuff to daydream about. My favorite is this bench, which could be yours for the low, low price of nearly $5k:

They also have kitchen gadgets and fancy pants stuff for other parts of your home, but I thought the outdoor/patio stuff was the most inspiring. We won’t be buying anything from them, but we might steal their ideas!

Mom and Dad rolled into town last week in their new RV, an upgrade from their already giant 38-footer. They’re working their way from Florida to Maine, and braved the upstate climate long enough to say hello and have a few meals with their darling children.

Of course, we HAD to see the behomoth new ride. It’s only a few feet longer than their old RV (which felt like a small studio apartment), but with three slideouts it’s considerably roomier inside. Plus, they have a washer/dryer and stainless steel appliances that put our oldies to shame. I couldn’t believe it!

If you’ve got a small house and you’re wondering how you could make better use of your space, I suggest you hit an RV show. They feature some very creative design solutions.

Here’s some more pics so you can see just how large it feels in there….

This handsome, extremely dirty guy has a proud look on his face because he’s pointing out his latest work – the framing for the back wall of the kitchen. It’s so exciting seeing where the new wall and doors will be!

Teague and Don (his father) were out there like little worker bees the other night, and their diligence paid off. They framed up the entire back wall, including the rough opening for the french doors. So now, it looks like this:

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There was an old roof (rotted and falling apart) with a new roof over the top of it – Teague cut through the old roof and brought the framing up to the new roof. We had to frame up the back wall so that we could remove other parts of the crumbling back annex without having it all collapse in on us. Here’s a view from underneath, so you can see what I mean:

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The next step is to finish removing the rest of the old stuff so we can get the dumpster out of our driveway. Not that I don’t LOVE looking out the window to gaze at our giant pile of trash….

We do alot of drywall sanding. My technique is getting better, so it requires less sanding now, but I absolutely hate the white dusty film that it leaves on everything in sight.

I thought about purchasing one of those $20 vacuum hose attachment deals, until I talked to a guy at the hardware store – he recommended a nice finishing sander with a dust bag. I wasn’t convinced that a little dust bag would collect (and keep) such fine powder, but I thought I’d give it a try. Armed with gift cards from our wedding shower, I bought a Makita finish sander with a dust bag and a handy blue case. It was pricier than some of the other models, but I chose to pay a little extra because it fit best in my hand – most of the others were way too big, making them uncomfortable to hold.

Thirty seconds into sanding, it was obvious that the bag was NOT helping. It collected about 10% of the powder, if that. Using a power sander made a much bigger mess than hand-sanding, of course, so I ended up with a living room full of white residue. Lucky me.

After hand-sanding the rest of my patch jobs, I took the Makita sander into the kitchen to wipe it down. I tugged at the dust bag’s zipper, and the dust bag ripped away from the rubber that connects it to the sander! Now it’s useless AND broken. Grrrr.

I’m hoping to return it to Home Depot tonight – just wanted to pass this story along so others won’t fall for the same trap!

When we decided on french doors for the back wall of the kitchen, we went to Home Depot to check out their stock. I looked online at all the likely places, and found a few I liked in our price range.

But none I LOVED. Nothing that would really look right staring back at me while I made coffee in the morning.

So we did what we should have done from the start; we took your advice, dear readers, and went to the salvage shop.

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Historic House Parts is located in Rochester, NY, about two hours from us. Their shop is a restoration heaven, crammed with all sorts of
fascinating salvage finds and beautiful reproduction hardware and lighting. I could spend all day here and never get bored.

Here’s what the first floor of their indoor shop looks like:

They have a second floor similar to this, and two outdoor warehouses full of larger salvaged goods.

They had hundreds of doors in stock, each unique and interesting; the decision was not easy, but we found a pair of 15-light gumwood french doors, about 6 feet wide, that are going to look great.

The best part of our trip was finding that the beautiful old doors we loved were no more costly than the absolute cheapest Home Depot aluminum uglies!

Our back lawn is very big and very nice, but it’s lacking something….. trees. Our neighbors on either side have lots of trees (you can see some of them in the photo, flaking our lawn) and we have very few. That’s because the previous owners cut them all down. Perhaps to avoid raking?

Since we also have soggy spots, Teague’s dad suggested a willow tree. They grow very fast and will soak up the extra water. I did some research, and apparently they should grow fine in the clay soil. I have always loved willows; they are such graceful trees. They were apparently popular during the Victorian era because of their unique shape. I’ve been warned that raking their thin little leaves is a pain, but I think the benefits (shade, beauty, and less mud pits in the lawn) are worthwhile.

We’ll need to plant far away from underground pipes, as willows are infamous for digging their roots into sewer lines. They grow to be 30′-40′ high and can spread 35′ or more.

If you’re looking to plant trees in your lawn, the National Arbor Day Foundation’s tree guide is a great place to learn about different species.

Armstrong has one of those “design a room” tools that you could literally spend ALL DAY fiddling with.

You choose a room design (I chose one that looks like the kitchen I want to have someday) and then apply wall colors and flooring choices. Good for testing out color combinations and flooring ideas, especially if you’re not a Photoshop whiz. The pattern picker lets you select all sorts of tile patterns – something I have alot of trouble picturing in my head.

Beware, it’s addicting….
http://www.armstrong.com/dmr/dmr.jsp?

Here’s my dream kitchen mockup.

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Anyone know of dark floors hide dirt decently? Or is it like cars, where every little fleck of dirt shows up? They can’t be worse than the shiny bright white linoleum we have right now, that hides ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

Our kitchen extension project is moving along well thus far. No big snags, other than a few very soggy days. April in Upstate NY is extremely rainy. Although, this past week was beautiful and yesterday I actually broke a sweat while outside in a t-shirt! (I was raking leaves, but still…)

The drainage system is just about done, the footings are poured, and two levels of concrete block have been laid and mortared. Yesterday Teague put a bunch of small stone around the drainage pipe. I can’t believe how much he has gotten accomplished in the last few weeks. This project is his baby, so while he’s hard at work I’ve been gardening, raking, and doing general spring clean-up type stuff. Our flowers are grateful. My back is not as happy.

Here’s what the new foundation wall looked like a few days ago, when Teague was laying the second level of blocks:

What’s the perfect place to hold a party for two fixer-upper designer types? An old house turned art museum!

Our wedding shower was this weekend, and we had so much fun. My awesome bridesmaids found the location, a BEAUTIFUL old house that is now a community art center. We were drooling over the slate roof, incredible (fully intact) woodwork, amazing furniture pieces, and abundant windows.

Some eye candy for you – click the thumbnails for larger images:

Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate with us – and thanks to the bridal party and our families, who worked very hard to make it a great day! You guys are incredible.

One of the hangups we have about the kitchen door/window issue is that a regular sliding glass door, while adding a tremendous amounts of light, wouldn’t look right on our house. We definitely need something a little more “historic”, so I went looking online to see what dreamy options exist (all out of our price range, certainly, but maybe we can find cheaper alternatives!)

This door is from Marvin Doors & Windows. This is what I was picturing in my head, and I think it’d “fit” just fine. I also like the idea of a shelf above it to show off our pretties.

Historic Doors has a great gallery – nothing in there I’d want for our house, but they are gorgeous and fun to browse.

Vintage Doors has some great stuff, including nice Victorian screen doors (someday, we need one of these for our front door!).

I think I need to get sketching so I can visualize what the different options would look like from the inside AND outside!