My husband had to go to Chicago for work, so we made a long weekend of it. We stayed out by O’Hare because that worked best for most of what we ended up doing. Our flight on Friday was delayed because of torrential rain in Chicago, so we didn’t get to the hotel until aboutContinue reading “Quick Trip to Chicago/Oak Park, IL”
Author Archives: cathyboettner
The Ancient Basement–More Progress on the Built In Bookshelf
In my last post about the bookshelf, I left you with the shelves mostly stripped. I had my husband help me move the shelf, so that we could put down a new drop cloth because the one I was using was completely trashed. I put another coat of stripper and plastic on it and scrapedContinue reading “The Ancient Basement–More Progress on the Built In Bookshelf”
Summer Gardening
As I mentioned in my last gardening post, our garden has been super productive this year. I’m sure that I have harvested well over 100 lbs of produce–tons of kale; 60+ heads of romaine lettuce; bunches of arugula; about 10 lbs of potatoes; 20+ lbs of cucumber; and the tomatoes are going to outpace everything.Continue reading “Summer Gardening”
Greenery from the Grocery Elevates Garden Flowers
This year I planted a couple new varieties of Zinnias–Agave and Ballerina from Johnny’s Selected Seeds (I love their stuff–great quality.) They are really stunning and have some ENORMOUS Blooms. I wanted to do a statement arrangement for our peninsula when we had friends come in for the weekend. I wanted to use a largeContinue reading “Greenery from the Grocery Elevates Garden Flowers”
Blue and Yellow/Gold Table
This is a FUN table. I started with a navy blue and white tablecloth. I used my really neat yellow, blue, white, porcelain server; blue pitchers with sunflowers, lemon leaf, zinnias, and dill; and yellow bowls of lemons and limes. The place settings are my Wedgwood Maxa Dura service plates; Williams Sonoma napkins; white buffetContinue reading “Blue and Yellow/Gold Table”
The Ancient Basement–A Compendium of Progress Made
I’m going to copy a bunch of the posts about this project in this single post, so if you’re new, or have missed some posts, you’ll be able to catch up on it all. And, it’ll be a walk down memory lane for me. August, 2022: We are starting the process of finishing out ourContinue reading “The Ancient Basement–A Compendium of Progress Made”
The Ancient Basement–A Peek into the Future
After we finished the ceiling, I thought it was silly to have all the furniture and rugs piled up with all our various cabinets, sinks, quarter sawn oak, etc., so I went ahead and cleaned the “den” well and moved everything back in. I put the dropcloths back up because it helps with the illusion.Continue reading “The Ancient Basement–A Peek into the Future”
The Ancient Basement–An Upper Cabinet from a Butler’s Pantry is Being Converted to a Built-In Bookcase
My husband and I drove to Rye, NY over Mother’s Day weekend to pick up a bunch of cabinets that we’re going to use in the basement. Here they are when they were installed in that house: The upper cabinets are about 40″ tall, and we’re going to make a base for them to sitContinue reading “The Ancient Basement–An Upper Cabinet from a Butler’s Pantry is Being Converted to a Built-In Bookcase”
Potting Shed is Complete
My organization stuff finally came in, and I chose the Gladiator system. It is fully customizable and it is really easy to put up. We used the laser level to get it all level and we screwed it through the face of the gear track and we countersunk the screw heads. The best option IContinue reading “Potting Shed is Complete”
The Ancient Basement–the Ceiling is Finished!
We used Hardie Board Plank sheets for our ceiling because they are waterproof, mold proof, and fire proof. While all of those are really good things, those attributes make the sheets EXTREMELY heavy. This project took so much longer than I would have ever guessed it would. Here is a link on our progress: So,Continue reading “The Ancient Basement–the Ceiling is Finished!”
Cathy At Home on the River 