When we bought our house we did so knowing it needed some work. Nothing major, just aesthetic repairs and one yeah-this-actually-needs-to-be-updated electrical thing. One of the first things we tackled, and by we I mean Mr. Wordsremember and his friends, was the front porch. Turns out it’s good we started there, because the whole thing was rotten underneath (we knew it needed to go from the inspection but we didn’t know how far the rot had spread). So we got a new one built. And then it sat there, unstained, because every weekend was busy and/or raining.
But this past weekend we finally got to it. And by we I mean me, with some help from Mr. Wordsremember and the kids, because staining is painting and painting is in my territory seeing as how I’m an artist (I pointed out that I do tiny detailed drawings, not great big landscapes, but that argument did not have any effect whatsoever;). I actually had fun, and I don’t mind being the resident painter.
As you can see, the siding is yellow. And white. The other porch, when it had paint, was painted red. I do appreciate that yellow and red are cheerful colors, but they make my artistic sensibilities roil, so that is the next major project: scraping down and painting the siding. I will be getting some help on this one because it’s just too big of a job for one person.
After finishing the porch we decided to tackle our backyard. The lady who had owned the place before the previous owners was an amazing gardener: we have stuff blooming year round and you can tell everything was planned out. Neither of us really have green thumbs but we’re trying to clean up/maintain what’s there AND I decided we needed to try gardening. We have deer that occasionally use our backyard as a sunning spot so we also had to construct some sort of fence that will hopefully deter them from munching on my wee planties.
All of these efforts are related to my last post about intersecting life with art-we want Mr. Wordsremember to retire early and we’ve both got skills that translate from the art world to the mundane (or real world, but that seemed insulting to artists)-so we’re doing many things ourselves rather than hiring someone. I can’t say that my garden is artistic, however;) but it’s functional and we used what we had on hand rather than spend money on fencing. And the following picture is what happens to artists who don’t stay inside their nice shaded studio:
So happy Monday, my friends. I did not want to get up today, but my neglected etsy shop and studio need some love, so that’s what I’ll be doing.
And Art On, no matter the circumstances:)
Wordsremember 