A tale of two toilets

Posted on May 17, 2015 by myschoolhouserocks

i have always wanted two bathrooms here at the schoolhouse but this isn’t quite what I had in mind.

Our kind friend has provided us with a new toilet (well new to us) and installed it. As soon as the water is up and running we will be able to be a little less rustic than we have been the past few months. And for now this old beaut will remind us of what a cold winter it truly was.

Shades of the old country — Pantone 2013 colour of the year

Posted on February 28, 2013 by myschoolhouserocks

The folks at Pantone have announced their 2013 colour and for me it is a classic that harkens back to the old country. Well ancestral country anyway.

Source: destinto30a.com via Toni McCarthy on Pinterest ********************************************************** *******************************************************************************************************************************

It’s Emerald green this year. Perhaps some shades from Ireland will bring a little vibrant colour into our home.

I’ve toyed with the idea of green in our palettes. We’ve painted the upstairs bathroom in the condo an olive-green and I’ve started painting the patio furniture a lime-green. I do like this emerald though I don’t think it will work in the condo. Perhaps the schoolhouse would relish some green to match our emerald-green roof. Something to think about.

Did we resolve our resolutions?

Posted on January 2, 2013 by myschoolhouserocks

The answer to that is a resounding “meh”.

Last year I made a list of “to do’s” for 2012 for both the schoolhouse and the condo. Did we do them?

Schoolhouse

Paint front door – uh no. Haven’t done this one yet.
Put down flooring in vestibule. – see above
Paint vestibule – I am beginning to sense a pattern here…
Replace eavestrough – hey this one I can say, “sort of”. We didn’t replace but we did take them down and fix the one that moves water over the hydro meter and into a rain barrel.
Complete herb garden – not really.
Build nicer garden along the front of the house – again this is a “sort of”. I put in a new perennial garden at the front but we’ll see if the boiling summer of 2012 ravaged it completely. It also turned out to be a lot less sunnier than I thought so things may have to move.
Clear out the back bedroom – yes and no. We started cleaning it out but managed to fill it again to make space for our winter tenant.
Paint bathroom – nope.
Revive the composter – let’s hope for the spring?
Research and install if feasible some new lighting – Well sort of once again. Our tenant has fixed the overhead light which is great. He’s also installing a solar flood light (these exist? Who knew?)
While this wasn’t on the original list I’d like to point out most of our time (and money) went to two things: Removing two fallen trees on the property and replacing just about everything you can on a well system.

Our condo

Come up with a design for the living room – done! I finally have a master plan. I just have to figure out how to pay for it.
paint upstairs bathroom – done! I’ll post photos soon.
fix dining room chairs – less done. And by less I mean not at all.
Paint kitchen – totally done! Pat painted and I got bitten by a cat in the process.
Buy new living room furniture. picked out but not bought.
Hide the dreadful air conditioner cord that is in the dining room – not done and it still drives me mad.
Fix all the general irritations – not done and still totally irritating.
Make alterations to the dining room so that the overhead light isn’t going to cause any “concussion-like symptoms” to my guests – nope.
Re-organize and decorate the office and make it better accommodate my home office space (which requires space for documents, files and coffee) with our home computer (this requires space for chips, beer and other accoutrements that accompany video games and well, this blog). – mostly. This isn’t too bad.
Get more frames for art and photos – some of this is done. We’ve got a couple of new things and a couple of things ordered. But they are all still in a pile…
Oh and jazz up the ol’ patio. last year’s garden was a good start but we need more life out there – started. We’ve new planters and I have almost finished repainting the furniture.
Again while not on the original list, I’d like to point out that we also had repairs to our dishwasher (still doesn’t totally work), washer and dryer so that is where the couch money went.

So that is where we are at. I’m not going to add anything else until we get this lot done. Fingers crossed for 2013!

“Olive” the new colour in the bathroom

Posted on October 16, 2012 by myschoolhouserocks

After many years with a great distaste for olives I have done two odd things this year.

First I started eating olives. I guess I got over that part. And second, we’ve just painted the upstairs bathroom an olive sort of green. Who would have guessed?

Now you might say, “Ariel, olives come in many colours.” And then possibly mutter, “Dumbass” when you think I am not listening. obviously that is true and it’s fairly evident given the picture above. Now who is the dumbass?

We looked around and both actually agreed on Olivine by Behr.
Behr, Olivine, 420F 5 – color-swatches.com.

That’s a sort of olive-green with a bit of sage thrown in I guess. It looks good I think. It isn’t as olive as the name suggests and it looks nice with our brown tile and black-brown cabinets. Watch for impending, non-olive related photos to support my case.