Hello world!

Welcome to Within these Walls, my blog about family life, homeschooling and starting over in a new country (again).

Project 12: I’m gonna wash that cement right outta my sink

Laundry sink, before-and-after

The laundry sink in our house is horrible. Nasty. Icky. Although AnoneeDad said that it looked like cement had been poured down it, I always assumed it had done the rusting equivalent of stainless steel. On a whim one day I took a pot scourer to the sink, and found that the “rust” did indeed peel away. I am really struggling to maintain enthusiasm for pretty much anything right now – it’s my end-of-year energy slump, I think – so this was an obvious quick-and-easy morale boosting project. Hmmm. Not so quick-and-easy. I tried my old stand-by, paint-stripper, with no results. Scrubbing with a pot scourer was only effective when working from the edges and chipping the layer of cement off the stainless surface. Rough sandpaper and my electric sander helped, but I eventually brought out the big guns - my drill (I got custody of the power tools as part of my birthday gift) and a grinding attachment. In retrospect this wasn’t the brightest idea, as it left some marks on the sink, but the end result is a sink that looks clean and useable – a huge improvement.  

Once I’d started, it seemed silly to put up with the ugly black paint that had been slapped over the splash tiles behind the sink, so some paint-stripper and scraping later I had the tiles back to their original gray. It took another 10 days before I got around the repainting the wall that had been damaged by the masking tape I’d used, but here it is: Project 12, completed.

Project 11: What was I thinking?

I have somehow ended up on two committees for next year – one for Chick’s homeschool class, and one for Bugsie’s playgroup.

What was I thinking?

I think this counts as a Project, don’t you?

Project 10: Pallet display shelf

It’s been a lousy week. Like any great idea that works, keeping up with the Project-a-Week plan has hit a wall, and seemed to be going to same way as Early-Bedtimes, Monday-is-for-Housecleaning and Freezer-Meal-Planning. I finished the wicking beds at the beginning of last week, and it is now the end of this week, so I have had two weeks where it’s been back to aimless web surfing and TV watching…

But I’m not ready to give up yet! On Thursday I went and bought a pallet from $5 from The Dump, and on Friday I found another that had been put out for the bulk garbage collection. Friday afternoon and this morning were spent demolishing the pallets and by midday I was looking at my version of Ana White’s Pallet Shelf. As a bonus, I cut pieces for three smaller shelves which I will finish less “rustically” and fill with plants for Bugsie’s three playgroup teachers as year-end gifts.

It goes without saying that I’m smiling from ear-to-ear, and all ready for Project 11!

Project 9: Raised worm wicking bed

Yes-I-know-there’s-no-info-or-pictures-but-I-want-to-post-pictures-from-Project-10-now.

Projects 7-8: Quick and easy

After the weeks and weeks it took to finish the storage bench, I was keen for something that delivered quicker results!

Project 7: Chickpea’s Arabian birthday tent

Yes, you can make an Arabian style tent for your daughter’s 10th birthday party with a cheap gazebo frame from Bunnings, 60 metres of white muslin, two elastic bands and a couple of packets of safety pins.

Delay the tree lobber who was due to remove the palm trees on the day of the party. Throw down some carpets and cushions on the grass. String up some fairy lights inside the tent. Make houmous, felafel and an Arabic honey cake. Hire someone to do henna designs. Happy 10th Birthday Chickpea!

 

Project 8: A wheelbarrow garden bed

Bugsie investigates...

 As the next post will show, we have been busy building a wicking bed. I wanted to transplant some butternut seedlings that had grown in the compost AnoneeDad used to plant a couple of grape vine cuttings in. Butternuts take up lots of space though, so after some investigation (and a very brief look at the finances), I decided to make a cheap raised garden bed for the two seedlings.  

I picked up a wheelbarrow for $5 from the Balcatta Recycling Centre (more descriptively known as “The Dump”).  At home I drilled half a dozen large holes in the base of the wheelbarrow, and threaded lengths of muslin through the holes. (You will recall the 60 metres of white muslin from the previous project!) The bottom half of each “wick” is left soaking in a bucket of water, the theory being that the water will wick up to the bed as needed – butternut are thirsty, and I am a lackadaisical gardener. The top halves of the wicks where spread inside the barrow, buried in the soil. I filled the barrow with a mix of compost and manure, and sent AnoneeDad off on a mission to find the old clothes drying rack I had noticed outside someone’s house in advance of an upcoming bulk waste collection day. That was added as a trellis for the vines to grow along.

Frugal wicking wheelbarrow bed

I am very interested to see how this experimental bed works. Some issues to consider:

• Will it actually wick?
• Does “likes manure rich soil” mean “use 50% manure 50% compost”?
• Will the plants survive transplanting (umm, no – one has died already)
• Will the extra butternut seed I planted germinate?
• Is one wheelbarrow enough room for two butternut plants?
• Will the rusty barrow lead to iron poising?