Moving and Improving - Part 23 - Mud for the mudroom

We think we're clever.

Actually, on a trip to Ecohaus while looking for milk based paint, we discovered American Clay. We thought it was a great medium for a room that would possibly see a lot of wear and tear, and it was fantastic to run your hands over the gritty wall in the showroom.

Because of the grouting of the tile, we had most of the tools needed to work with the clay, so, after we deemed the inner mudroom complete we mixed up the clay and primed the walls. The primer required for the clay was primer + sand. I spent some quality time stirring the two or three inches of sand into solution and ruined a paint roller adding it to the walls.

The clay was mixed, by us, per the instructions to "pudding like consistency." We were supposed to trowel it on to the walls. The first attempt went splat on the floor. Not encouraging. The second attempt made it onto the wall, but just barely.

I tossed the trowel to the sink and grabbed a giant sponge....deviation from the instructions. But it worked. Joe also adopted the sponge approach and the walls now have a bit of an eclectic feel. Now dried, you can see where my large sponge applied the clay evenly and in squares, at the top of the walls, Joe's smaller sponge has given the room a "starry night" look.


The first pictures I took made the wall look like crap.

But after everything had dried and there was better natural lighting in the room I was able to capture a more lifelike photo of the 'mudded' mudroom.

Moving and Improving - Part 22 - Press button if assistance is required...

We did everything we could (read: actually had ability to do) in the week leading up to Mary and Robert's visit. We patiently waited to attack them with our remaining questions regarding electricity, painting and plumbing. We are so lucky to have such a valuable natural resource in our parents.

While they were in town we crossed most of the remaining projects off our list and got things done that we didn't even know needed doing.

We had talked about removing this cabinet ...and with tremendous effort, this roadblock was removed and the kitchen was opened up to more light.
We cut yet another hole in the house...for the dryer. I got to take the crowbar to some of the siding and replace it.









Our grout mess was removed by Mary and the tile left sparkling.The plumbing was completed. And our tricky light switch was mastered.
Over the weekend we also replaced the siding and purchased new paint to match the outside of the house. The previous owners left every color of paint imaginable, except for the outside. The paint I had mixed matches pretty well, it just needs to have some sun exposure...

Moving and Improving - Part 21 - Doggie Door

The mudroom is also going to be home to the cats food and litter so we needed to have a way for them to get from the house into the mudroom, so we purchased the appropriate sized pet door for the size of the cats. In this case, it was a dog door. Erm...a medium sized dog door.We also killed the TV which was rather fun and involved a couple of phone calls to Direct to figure out what to do with the dish. The answer is nothing. All the same, from my perspective, it had to come down.

Moving and Improving - Part 20 - Reduce, Re-use, Recycle

First, we grouted, then we locked ourselves out of the mudroom again and ticked more items off the "while drying" list.

At the top of the list was putting together the compost bins we've been thinking about for some time. We wanted to do a dual bin system so that we could add to one and then stop and let it decompose properly for (hopefully) next year some time, fingers twisted for spring, but more likely fall or even next spring. Since we're a two person household and we won't be adding the normal household green matter (grass clippings) it will be a stretch to have a fully mature compost quickly.What I like best about it, is that it enables us to reduce our garbage pick-up. I signed us up for once a month. We get once a month garbage and bi-weekly recycling and it thrills me (almost as much as toilets).
What Joe likes best about it is that all the materials we've poured into this project were re-used (with the exception of some of the hardware-screws, and the base of the bins, which falls in the kinda sorta category of having been leftover from the picnic table). The majority of the wood was broken down from hop pallets that Joe saved from the landfill and fencing material.

We have two more pallets yet to break down to create lids (which we're going to put hinges on for ease of use) and the front will go up as slats as we fill the bins and stir them. YEAH!While Joe assembled the bins, I made progress on clearing the mess in the compost area.

Before:
After:

It's a nice little gated area that can be closed if we wanted. We relocated the wood pile there for now. The window resting next to the pallets is another acquisition from the re-building center and will become the top lid for a cloche for early spring seedlings. Still have to build it, but I think it will do well in this sunny spot and right next to the compost.

Moving and Improving - Part 19 - The many faces of the pantry.

It was a laundry closet.
Then it was a closet with an ugly cabinet.

After that, it was just an ugly closet (with a bald spot).
Since the whole closet was not adorned with the beautiful wallpaper, we decided it all had to go.
So the closet remained a closet for a little while longer while we peeled it...So it was dried glue walls for a bit.
And then, I discovered that liberal amounts of soap and hot water applied with a sponge removed the glue and if the excess goo was washed intermittently with a clean rag, it became a white room.
Not white enough though. I gave it some spackle and a coat of white paint that I found in the garage while we decided how to proceed.

Excess paint in the garage, but not enough to do much with except paint a small room...
Shelves!!
And then it was a pantry.