another year, another new door color

Rachel convinced me that our red door wasn't working for us. She picked some bright blue from the Martha Stewart Home Depot paint lineup and I repainted it. Gave it a light sanding to remove some of the old paint drips, and some bondo to patch some dings and dents in the wood. Found it easiest to use a weenie roller on the flat front sections and a 2" brush for all of the edges. Let it dry all day with the door open (letting in all of the Sacramento summer).

Then replaced the old tired and worn hardware with a new handle and deadbolt from Emigh hardware. The Ace brand was much cheaper than the equivalent Schlage or Kwikset.

Our new trailer: 1987 Coleman Columbia

Well we sold Patchy the project trailer a couple months ago. Decided we'd get a pop up tent trailer instead because its compact and can be towed by our Passat wagon. We almost bought a few different trailers over the last two months, but didnt. Then a couple weeks ago, we were driving through a nearby neighborhood and saw this guy with a for sale sign on it.

The owner was asking a lot less than comparable popups on Craigslist, the condition was pretty good (a lot of the 80's trailers I'd seen on Craigslist were major projects, of which I wanted no part).

So we bought it!

Adeline likes it

Outdoor living room

Surprisingly, I guess our "winter" is over here in Northern California. Rachel and I are planning on spending more time in our yard this spring and summer. We've talked about converting this circular section of our backyard to a sitting area complete with fire pit and low slung seating. 

A few weeks ago we made it happen.

Dug up all of the slate pavers, removed the roots from underneath, smoothed and graded the area and set them back down. 

Then filled in the gaps with pea gravel. It took around 18 bags of the stuff from Home Depot. We stole the furniture from our front porch, and already had the firepit from a few Christmas' ago. 

I also got some cafe lights from Target on sale that we're going to hang over the area to add some cool lighting, but first I want to upgrade the roof on our old rusty shed.