We were hoping the Pocket Hose wasn’t too good to be true. If we could get just one summer out of the “hose that grows” we’d be happy. Sadly, just two months into use, our Pocket Hose, that suggestively named garden hose, sprang a leak.
On the left: a chair that has been re-painted to cover its 1980’s speckled faux wood finish. On the right: the same chair just before it left This American House with a freshly upholstered seat and cushion. Three cheers for DIY upholstery jobs!
When The Mister came home and saw the wheelbarrow stocked with all the limbs and sticks that I had gathered from a recent storm, he quoted William Carlos Williams’ poem The Red Wheelbarrow:
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrowglazed with rain
waterbeside the white
chickens.
And that is your cultural moment for the day. Go forth and make poetry, people!
Image: This American House
Back in the old days a couple would return from vacation and invite all of their friends over to their house for a slideshow of the amazing shots of far flung destinations that they the snapped. Drinks would be served and merriment would ensue as the guests would live vicariously through their traveling friends. And then digital photography came along and instead of getting together to see each other’s photos, we simply swipe through Instagram and Facebook feeds. Sure, it’s a little easier, but I miss the social aspect of slide shows.
The topic of the house’s woodwork and whether it should be stripped or painted has been hotly debated for months now. The Mister and I have gone back and forth on the issue at least a dozen times. He has a been a proponent of stripping the woodwork from the very beginning. I initially wanted to keep everything painted, but after some cajoling I, too, thought the trim and window frames should be stripped.
