This & that at Plum Cottage

 

Hello Folks ~ Here it is a new week, hope you had a great weekend. Saturday my BIL Todd and I spent the dreary, rainy day working on fixing a leak under the house, putting in a new faucet, and putting up a medicine chest. We laughed, talked, and worked well together. We remembered my DH with love and great memories.

Todd did the hard work, I was his helper, just like I was with his older brother for 43 years. We were both pooped by the end of the day.  8-5, in and out of the rain too. But, we were happy with what we did.  A productive Saturday.  Thank you dear brother Todd. I appreciate all of your help in my life.

Here’s a view of the ‘scullery’, definition of scullery is “a small kitchen or room at the back of a house used for washing dishes”. When my DH was first in the US Navy, he had to work in the Navy’s scullery washing dishes and it wasn’t pleasant at all. When we opened up our kitchen, which ended at the edge of the fridge on the bottom left of pic below, I wanted to call this part of our opened kitchen, the scullery. Mine is pretty, and it is a dream come true to have a window over the sink. This long view space is about 10 ft. long by 6 ft. wide.

This old picture is from 1999. The hutch is in a 3 ft. alcove.  The spice rack next to it is hanging on the utility room door. Opening up the space really made a huge difference in our little cottage. The fridge is now in it’s own little alcove, as seen in pic above, bottom left, so does not stick out into the room.

I love the new faucet. We didn’t install the sprayer, as it is not something I would use.  I had one once and wasn’t crazy about it. The little faucet next to the new one is our reverse osmosis faucet.  The tank and filters are behind the curtains under the sink/counter.  A lot of love and hard work went into making this space from a falling down utility room.  Lots of memories in the making of this room. I feel love surrounding me all of the time.

The bathroom in this cottage is tiny. To take the picture I’m standing in the doorway. We had a 24x36 inch beveled edge mirror on the wall, which replaced a tiny medicine chest that was on the wall when we moved in. Todd and I took the mirror down to put up a medicine chest I had gotten earlier this year at a yard sale on my way to work. I paid $5 for it.  I saw it in HD when I bought the scullery faucet and the price is $69.  It doesn’t look like it was ever used, still smelled new. I would have put it somewhere else if I had the wall space, but this was the only space for it. I liked the large mirror, but needed some place for my essential oils, make up, etc. I just need to repaint the walls as the wall is a different color under where the larger mirror had been.

Found out about a week or so before this plumbing business that I have a hole in my van roof. That is the one poor area of construction in a Ford van, the roof.

Anyway, I turned the van around and parked with the front of van up under the awning that you can see in the picture below.  Well, that didn’t help at all as I found out Sunday morning when I got ready to go to church. The water had run from the back to the front right into the hole and into the van. It smelled wet, and I couldn’t believe what I saw, the cups in the console were filled with water, and water was on the floor.  More rain was expected, so I decided to just stay home. I emptied the water, and put this ratty old tarp over the van, and it never did rain again that day. 

Todd would have worked on this Saturday except we had that emergency fix needed for the water leak under the house. (Having water to the house was oh so nice and my first hot shower in over a week felt fantastic.)

I got out a tall extension ladder and leaned it onto the van with a tarp to pad it. I had my cell phone in my pocket, and I prayed as I went up the ladder.

Van is in great shape otherwise, with low mileage. The ‘hole’ is in the lower part of pic. Another one is about to happen to the back and to the right is a rusting out area above the windshield.  When Todd can, in January we hope, he will grind out the areas, do bondo work and paint.

I knew we had this super-duper really stick down tight metallic tape, so I decided to do a ‘FlowerLady temp repair’.   I climbed the ladder and brushed off loose dirt, didn’t wash it down because I couldn’t really reach that far where I was on the ladder and I wasn’t going any higher. This should last, I hope. It is several layers going both ways and burnished down.

I stopped at the Salvation Army Family Store on my way home from P.O. today.

Found this bed skirt, which lays under mattress. I got it home and it’s either a queen or king size. Not sure what I will do with it, but all of that crocheted edging is what nabbed me.  I paid $3.99. It would take me hours and hours to crochet all of that.

A nice cookbook, wonderful photos.

Next are my latest two creations, both are gifts.

This is for an ornament swap which is happening tomorrow with a potluck lunch.

A lovely handmade surprise was in my mailbox this afternoon.  It was from an online friend who I’ve known since around 2000. We were in a forum called Country Life. Over several years we had ornie swaps at Christmas and they were always fun and putting them on the tree/s each year brings back memories of these friends.

I had already hung Pam’s two snow people that she made one year.  I always hang them together like this. Her surprise ornament is the heart below. It made me smile and also made me cry.

Tomorrow makes 3 years since my DH went to his heavenly home. He’s in a much better place, but I miss him every single day.

As we think of love, peace and joy at this time of year, love your family and friends and let them know. Life can change in an instant and you might never have the opportunity again.

This turned out to be a rambling post of daily happenings.

Love, hugs & prayers ~ FlowerLady

P.S. Unexpected expense, transferring title of van to my name, so I can get a new tag. I didn’t get a renewal notice this year, called up the  tax collector and told them and the nice lady told me what I needed to do. I have an appt. with someone to help me fill out the paper work, next Tues. I have to take a copy of the death certificate, our marriage certificate, title, registration and proof of insurance to take to the DMV office after that. Probably a week from tomorrow.