Day to Day ... and Our Old House Renovations

We aren't doing much in the way of RVing right now, so I guess I am going to blog more often about the day to day things we are doing around here.  And of course, silly stuff about the dogs and grandtots as well.  Hope I don't lose my RVing blog readers, but our RVing has slowed down for a bit yet this spring since we got back from vacation.  We are going to focus more on the house I guess for now.  But we do have four RVing events planned for this summer, so keep in touch please!

We have been puttering with a little yard work, cleaning up some dead flowers and leaves in the flower beds, and adding new mulch.  Moved two hydrangea bushes and spruced up the yard a bit.

I had a couple rug orders to complete last week, so I didn't get around to any blog reading or posting.

Today started out cold, dark, wet and rainy... it was so dark we needed lights on in the house!   I guess a storm front went through and now it is going to finally WARM UP! Tomorrow might get into the SEVENTIES!

I spent the morning sewing on the machine, my old treadle from Paula.  I am working a quilt, but it's not coming out exactly right.  So I am going to rethink my pattern and the placements of the prints vs solids and make it more pleasing to the eye.  So I won't post any pics till it's well underway.

Last night I trekked on over to Hidden Valley Woolen Mill  near Valders, WI for our monthly spinners meeting. We all haul along our spinning wheels and sit and yack for a while.  Our hostess, Carol, also asked me to come back next week and go over a little loom she bought.  I love having such a nice community of spinners here in the country around Chilton to go to...

I have another group of crafty people ---  some weavers that meet over in Menasha each month.  We discuss weaving and techniques and share ideas and patterns and problems.  I never had this many weavers before to mingle with each month when we lived up in Oconto.

Then the gals at  Terre Verde Coffee House  right here in Chilton have an evening Crafty Night we go to and bring whatever you are working on.  Some do scrap books, some knit, some paint, some sew, and I brought a small hand loom to work on after I finished the binding around a little table runner.

Here is a shot of last month:

I am blessed with fibery folks! 

Steve and I were driving past a trailer loaded up with junk for the dump by some old buildings downtown... and on top was this lovely white bench!  It needs a little spruce up of paint to freshen it up, but it's not bad the way it is.   It's PERFECT for the front porch!  I wanted a small bench to use as a coffee table or as a spot to set my table loom.. or even extra seating for the grandtots out there.

I sewed the little runner to blend with the pillows and quilt I have out there... along with six coasters to use out there too.   We sure enjoy having coffee out there in the mornings... or evenings with a glass of wine after dinner.  It's like our second livingroom to use again for spring, summer and fall.

As for stuff around Our Old House....   I decided to do an "upgrade" on my cabinet latches.   If you recall, last year I bought these wonderful old cabinets that were rescued from a torn-out butler pantry in Fond du Lac and I restored them myself.  We put them in the kitchen here in our 100 year old house and they fit right in!   

BEFORE                                                                      AFTER 

(we had to cut apart and rearrange a few of the bottom cabinets 

so the drawers weren't under the sink and blocking the plumbing and disposal)

The original latches and drawer and bin pulls that came on the cabinets were in rough shape, so I had ordered these little reproduction cabinet latches and drawer and bin pulls....  When they arrived, the drawer and bin pulls were GREAT.. but the latches left more to be desired.

They were hard to turn, and the edge of the knob was sharp, not rounded nicely like the old ones. They were just stamped metal units with black paint. Oh well, they were only $3.95 each.  They have now become worn and chipped, and the springs are harder to turn now after one year of use.

I decided to order some nicer ones, that will match the cast iron drawer and bin pulls.  I got on line and found exactly what I wanted.  Oohhh so pretty and I like the idea of knurled knob to turn instead of that little oval sharp-edged type.

Plus.. they were on sale!  From $11.90 each down to $6.90 each.  (plus FREE shipping!)  Only problem was the photo in the actual ad was bronze, but the wording in the description said black.  So I took my chances.... 

Rut Roh...  when the box came, they were all in Bronze, and not Black! (and to top it off, I only got 9 latches and then 2 boxes of some other angle brackets I didn't order .. instead of 11 latches..argghh) 

But I wasn't going to let that get me down.  I called and straightened out the order to send me two more of the Bronze (because it was the bronze that were on sale, not the black)  and they are going to pick up the mis-shipped brackets free of charge and send me the two new latches right away today. 

Okay.. the latches were bronze, but I wasn't going to let that stop me----

Out came my handy dandy spray paint! 

I even stuck all the screws into a piece of styrofoam to hold them upright.. 

then I can spray paint the heads to match! 

Ahhhh much better!!!!

They click shut with a nice solid sound, and the knobs are very easy to turn.  

Our next project to blog about is on-going right now, but I will do a whole blog post on it when it's complete....  We are converting the faux electric fireplace to a gas log insert.  Steve is working on it right now and I have been snapping pics to document the progress.