Friday, July 30, 2010

Rain, Rain, Go away.... come back another ......

Yep since the day I started painted the new porch railing, I've had either RAIN or heavy dew! Its made it impossible to paint the second rail. So I simply have to wait until we have enough dry weather that the wood is dry enough to be painted.

In the meantime, I've been working on the kitchen. At least the indoor remodeling process can continue.

I've painted the kitchen upper cabinets a soft buttery yellow. Also the walls on the west side of the kitchen, nearest to the upper cabinets.



The lower cabinets, drawers and the south & east walls of the kitchen have been painted a bright canary yellow. This has worked well as these areas have far less light reflecting off them & the brighter color seems to help brighten the whole room as a result.



I've found a linoleum that I think will work nicely in the kitchen, giving it a needed face lift. The current flooring it the original wood flooring which is over 100 year old soft wood. Its quite worn & patched in places and still having the original trap door that went to the original root cellar, which is now accessed from a staircase in the back porch area.




In addition to the Kitchen, I've spent a bit of "rain time" on setting the rest of the steel posts and installing the lattice work walls to the Secret Garden sculpture space. I gathered the lattice this past spring when the local town of Brookings had its "Spring clean-up" where by residents put out onto the curb items they are willing to give away or, if no one takes it, have the city haul away. This allowed me the means to reclaim numerous lattice work panels which for a few months have been piled in the intended area, waiting for me to install them.







Now that they are installed, I can begin clearing the construction debris from the installation of the french doors & focus on the paved patio area, walk paths, and sculpture pedestals.



I've begun collecting reclaimed paving bricks to be used for the patio area and hope to find reclaimed rocks for paths and border areas to add to the sculpture garden space. My goal is to have a designated space within the garden that a bistro table and the two small pink & black chairs can be placed, giving people an opportunity to sit and have coffee or a cool beverage in the quiet garden space.





I've been reading about various cobble stone techniques as well as paving techniques. Though the space is narrow, I'm still going to be challenged at finding enough reclaimed bricks of the same style to complete the process. So I've decided to utilize some design techniques that will allow me to mix paving mediums and hopefully provide some visual inspirations. We shall see as time goes on, if I'm able to accomplish the goal.

Already I am beginning to place sculptures into the Secret Garden that Eric currently has stored, so as to begin the process of determining where within the garden spaces should be created.



The first to be placed was the newly painted sculpture "nocturnal". It was one I got as a gift from Eric. Its steel & field stone, with a very "earthy" feel to its form. I love the piece! I'm very happy to have it placed in my garden. The main challenge now is figuring out what sort of plantings I want to put at its base. I suspect hosta would be a good choice, but perhaps fern would be even better.

I'm also looking at changing the spacial use of the "Wall" which is the exterior wall of my "white room" studio. The large blank wall initially seemed to me to be a problem space. But as I consider wall relief space, I realize that large SOLID wall is one of the few places I can hang wall reliefs securely!



The current "framed vase" which I created will be moved to a lattice work wall, as it has little weight involved & could easily be installed on a lattice panel unit. The outdoor "hutch" also will move and be placed near the bistro table & chairs, after their space is determined.

So the remodeling continues and in so doing -- the changing of my decisions, from one moment to another as problems & solutions arise during the process. However, where things are changing, I'm also seeing progress which is the key to keeping inspired during this process. I've finally got a designated space for the Secret Garden and my kitchen is beginning to take shape. The "red gallery" is also beginning to take on its role as well. Things are therefore moving forward, despite the rain.

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