Odds n Ends

We have run short of big huge projects (thank goodness) to post about. We've been going about doing all the little things here and there that by themselves just don't seem post worthy. So here's a little compilation of some recent goings on at the Cottage. We've finally given up trying to find more paneling to use to finish the wall in the living room. We dry walled and painted it a cream color to compliment the color of the white washed wood. Originally we did try a blue-green but, as mr eclectic put it, it felt kind of like being in a fish bowl, especially at night. It kind of hovered over you from behind with its presence. That lasted a day. When we pulled down the damaged paneling, we found they had panelled over the old exterior shingles:

I'll have to post an after pic later, I don't seem to have one yet! We've been garage saling! We recently went to a garage/rummage sale at a lakeside camp. And we came home with some neat stuff. I *HAD* to get a Ovenex muffin tin. It was .10 so even though it may never come clean enough to use, I will find something to do with. I love the Ovenex pattern. We also got a bird bath for $8 and a pressure cooker for $10 (those might come up later). But the big "haul" was two signs at $5 each. The "welcome" sign is hand painted on an antique slate roof tile (the other is probably a cheap mass produced one but it fit so well we got it anyway). Welcome sign in the laundry room (still have to finish the trim):

Live at the lake sign over the front door (kind of cabiny instead of cottagey but we like it anyway!):

And we have finally finished burning for the season it seems. What a long and ugly winter that was! We found some deficiencies in our weatherization to say the least, some we've corrected and others will be a more long term project. It's hard to say for sure, but it seems we've used about 14 FACE cords of wood (or about 4 1/2 full cords). That's a lot, but not bad considering it's almost all soft wood and included some junky stuff like willow and box elder and, of course, we're heating what was built as a summer cottage. Now we need to sweep the stack and clean the stove out so it's ready for fall. Since somewhere along the way I developed an irrational and yet paralyzing fear of climbing onto the roof, mr eclectic will pull the cap and brush the stack.