Painted Shut

Here is a warning to you. If you dare to paint the upper sash of your windows closed, each and every owner of the house that follows you will curse your name. Probably multiple times. And the owner that finally decides to get that sash open again, will curse you double.

I was that double cursing owner.  I long ago stripped and refinished the bottom sash in my bathroom window.  The upper sash was firmly painted closed, so I put off dealing with it for years.  Well, this was the weekend where I decided that that sash would open. My bathroom does not have a fan, so air flow is pretty important.

I ask you.....who doesn't want their top sash to open?  This baffles me.

It took me a couple of hours of work to finally get the sash to pull down (a pox on the owner that painted it shut). Sadly, this is a common situation and they even make a special tool for it.

I was a tiny but surprised to see that the top edge is bare wood.  I've had a vague suspicion that some of the sashes in my house are replacements.  Either that or this sash has been painted shut longer than I suspected.

Anywho. It's open now.

In The Ground

Gardening has been my focus for the past few weekends.

For my birthday my parents bought me a rhododendron to replace an ornamental tree (I'm drawing a blank on the name as I type)  that was planted on the side of my front door when I moved in. To be honest it was never my favorite and no tears were shed when it did not survive the winter.  Tears were, however, just about shed digging up the damn roots of said tree.

The dead plant's roots. Ugh.

Long story short, I now have a new, pretty flowering rhododendron just outside my front door.

I also picked up a mock orange bush. I am a sucker for anything that flowers with a pretty scent. This plant has it in spades.  The plan was to plant the new bush outside some of my piano windows, so when I opened them in the Spring, the smell of orange blossoms will waft in my house.

The spot where I initially thought the mock orange would go.

Where it ended up going.

Next, there is my vegetable garden. In past years my garden has been all about tomatoes. But, for the past two years my tomatoes have struggled. So, I decided a change was in order. This year my garden will be all about beans, radishes, basil, dill and cilantro.

Yes, my lawn needs to be mowed.

Then there is the little plant stand on the side of my house where I plant some of my herbs. This year it will be filled with basil.

And finally, there is the front window box. Every year I try out a different flower combination. This year I decided to go old school with a mix of colored geraniums. I also planted some parsley in between the flowers. It make a nice filler and is convenient to snip for use in the kitchen.

 
Props to my pink Zoya nail polish that lasted through all the plants unscathed.

You may note that the index finger is the one I just about chopped off a few years ago with my hedge trimmer.

 Whew!

Notes

I found this little chalkboard in a junk shop. I love how the wood stain matches that of the doors in my house. I hung it at the bottom of my stairwell so I can make notes to myself that I will see each morning.

The pictures above it are little Hummel prints from my Grandmother.  I've hung family photos on the landing above this wall and will continue to work my way in both directions to fill the wall with pictures eventually....

Weather

The weather is warming up and I'm itching to get out and start stripping some window trim paint.