Defrosting the Norge

So, one of the trade offs to having a super cool vintage fridge is needing to defrost the freezer.  I've never done this before, so I put it off a little longer than I should have.  Now that I've done it, I won't be putting it off to this extent again.  It took MAYBE an hour and wasn't really messy or difficult.

This is what I started with.  We need new seals.

This is the bad corner, where the seal leaks the most:

I know, I know.  I promise it won't get this bad again!

First, I unplugged the fridge.

I started by filling my "custom ice maker" with hot tap water.  I really don't understand why it's called an "ice maker", but it came with it and it's pretty cool looking.  I put a few towels on the top of the fridge door to soak up any water that ran out.

I put it in the freezer to use to radiate heat into the freezer area.  I've heard people suggest boiling water but that seems a little extreme to me.

Next I used a wooden spoon to lightly scrape the loose ice into the "ice maker".  DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT use ANY sharp or metal objects for this.  DO NOT scrape hard.  You don't want to a damage the inside of your freezer.

I also used a sponge to wipe up water, and dipped it in the hot water to wipe off thin ice on the sides and bottom.

I gathered the loose ice and just dumped it into the sink.

After about 15 minutes, this is what was left

Next, I refilled the "ice maker" with more hot tap water and put it in the freezer.  This time I simply closed the door and waited.  About 10 minutes later, I opened the door and removed loose ice, then repeated.  After 10 more minutes, I did the same.  That took care of the ice.  I used a towel to "mop up" the remaining water, and I was done.

During this period of time, all our frozen food was chilling out in our equally vintage cooler.  It was still frozen solid when I was done.

Reloaded the freezer, plugged it back in, tossed the towels in the wash and cleaned the little bit of water out of the cooler.  Done.  Easy-Peasy Lemon Squeezy.

So, about the floor...

I mused more on the idea of a pallet floor yesterday.  The main problems being: collecting enough pallets to actually generate the needed amount of planks, the taking apart of all of those pallets, and most importantly the fact that most won't be an equal thinkness requiring planing and sanding as well as getting them all to stay put (since they won't be tongue and groove).  I'm not sure face nailing will keep the planks from cupping up in areas where the dog (or the people) might bring in more water on their feet.

So I got to thinking about inexpensive white pine floors.  The problem is, they would look rather...new.  I know they wouldn't stay "perfect" looking long, since pine is so soft, but they would have that light pine color that just wouldn't match the Cottage and might look weird with the ceiling in the living room.

And then I researched old fashioned stains.  I alread figured on using linseed or tung (or a mix of them) oil as a sealer.  So I wanted a similarly toxin free option to make my new floors look old (er).  After looking about, I found this blog about coffee staining and distressing: http://pumpkinpiepainter.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-coffee-stained-chain-beaten-wooden.html with this final photo as the result (ok, so it's not a floor, but same idea)

Not bad, huh?  I also know that iron can leave darker stains (think of old nails in wood) so I am thinking of doing a base coffee stain with bits of iron left on it to darken some areas-or just put some steel wool in vinegar and brush it on after letting it sit.

The flooring might not be settled, but one thing is for sure, when it is, it will be unique and it won't look new or perfect!  Exactly how we like it here at the Eclectic Cottage.

BLACK?! Really?

Our front door was painted black.  On the inside and outside.  I really don't know why, except for some reason the sink base in the kitchen is also painted black.

This is the sink base, we couldn't fathom why this was painted black (like it needed to be any darker in that room with all the darker wood):

And here's the offending door (I realized AFTER I painted it I had only the immediate "before" photo of it, with the painters tape and all):

My apologies for the paint can and step stool in the pic.  The white "tape" on the door isn't actual adhesive residue.  I have NO idea what WAS taped there in that haphazard manner, but it's actually where the tape peeled off the black paint.  That fun piece of furniture to the right is a treadle base from an old sewing machine.  The machine is long gone, but the drawers are awful handy!

I used a painting technique that I've used before for some book shelves we use in our booth at an antique mall.  It's pretty easy and has a neat effect.  It uses whatever paint type you have handy-we had some "vintage green" around from a previous project so I didn't get a chance to use our milkpaint yet (I use milk paint for some crafts however, it's AWESOME). 

I didn't photograph a step by step, but you really don't need one.

Step 1) If you have raw (unfinished) wood, paint it with a solid base of your choice, preferably a dark color (in this case the door was already black).

Step 2) Tape off anything you don't want painted (such as the knob, lock and windows on my door).  Blue painters tape works best, but you could probably use masking tape.  Lay paper on the floor or work surface.

Step 3) Make sure your paint is stirred well. 

Step 4) Brush on the paint nearly dry.  This is the hardest part if you are used to painting-you just dab the very end of the brush into the paint.  The point isn't to fully cover the project, it's to let the base show though in streaks.  It's best to paint all in the same direction so your streaks aren't all catywhompus.  If you end up wiht a bit too much paint, clean off the brush and dry brush the area to remove a bit.

That's it!  Here's the finished product:

We do have a sweeper on the bottom and it stands out a lot more with the door painted.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with that yet.  We're also going to need to introduce more green tones into the dining room and kitchen to tye it together, but it's SO much better than black.  I've been considering painting the sink base the same color, and also putting up some beadboard in the diningroom (wall to the right) and repainting in there.  Time will tell, but I'm happy to get rid of the black hole in my doorway for now!