A Look Back at July

July was delightfully slow here at the cottage, which is exactly what we needed coming off an intense, busy June. We’re taking a look back today at what we’ve been up to over here!

Tending Our Garden

Surprisingly, our spring garden continues to produce such a bounty for us. I’m so impressed by our crops’ ability to deal with both the suffocating, dry weather that began the month and the incredibly damp weather we’ve met with here at the end.

Our okra began producing this month, which was exciting. We also got our first (and only) cucumber. Our banana peppers, black-eyed peas, Everglades tomatoes, and green beans continue to produce a bounty.

But the corn and Seminole pumpkins are a bit of a mystery. The corn looked really good for awhile, but when it came time to harvest, they didn’t fully fruit. I haven’t given up though and plan to try again in another season. And after taking up what sometimes feels is like half the garden, I finally have two Seminole pumpkins on the vine.

My other tomato varieties are just about done, so I plan to pull out those plants this week and solarize those beds until I’m ready to plant for fall.

In the beds attacked by the squirrels earlier in the spring, I planted four varieties of cut flowers: zinnias, cosmos, sunflowers, and globe amaranth. I’m hopeful those will start to put off some incredible blooms within the next month and a half.

I’m at the point now where I’m looking ahead to my fall garden and deciding what to plant. It also seems like the time to determine which plants to go ahead and call for the season to make room for additional crops. Stay tuned for a future blog post about the process of planning!

The Porch Build, Continued

When the One Room Challenge ended in May, we hopped right into a busy June and had absolutely no time to continue any sort of work. But Rob finally picked back up some work on that this month.

The work is a little slow going because it’s just so brutally hot right now, but Rob suspects that once he starts the roof portion, it won’t take him long to finish at all.

For now, to give us some shade while we sit and watch our boys in the pool, Rob hung some outdoor fabric above a few strategically-placed roof beams.

We spent the month going back and forth about what kind of material to use on our back porch, opaque polycarbonate and galvanized metal. And I think we’ve finally decided: We’re going to use a metal roof but place tongue-and-groove on the underside to provide a bit of insulation. It will cost a little bit more, but we’re convinced that it will give us both the aesthetics and comfort we want out of this dream space. This was our original plan, but we set it aside in favor of speed and cost. And then promptly realized the tongue-and-groove part of the equation just wasn’t a sacrifice we wanted to make.

Once the daily chance of rain falls off a bit later in September, I will paint the front and back of the house. It truthfully won’t take very long; the prep will be the hardest. Rob assures me that fixing the pieces of rotten wood will be a priority this month so that I can get the space painted before all of the fun holiday decorating opportunities kick in.

Kitchen Project Prep

I spent the month planning my big kitchen project: painting the walls, ceiling, trim, and upper cabinets.

And I even fell in love with the most unlikely wallpaper pattern!

This was a project that I really wanted to get done this summer, but it probably works out a little better that it will get started next week as my kiddos head back into their normal school time routines. I’m hoping it won’t be too long before I can tackle the backsplash … but one project at a time.

The goal is to open up that first can of paint next week and get after the upper cabinets first so that the most disruptive part of the painting job can get done first. I’ll go back in with the wallpaper after I’ve painted the entire room. Of course, I’ll be bringing you all along for the ride right here.

Here’s something I haven’t really wrapped my head around quite yet: I really, really want to strip the paint off my front door. There’s at least two layers on it, but I’m not about taking the door off the hinges to get this part done. I’ve contemplated just painting it all to match the trim for right now until the weather cooperates long enough to leave a giant hole in the front of my house.

Treasure Hunting

Of course, we had to spend a little time this month hunting treasures.

My favorite treasures included the porcelain midcentury children and the antique book stand I picked up at a moving sale. I’m working really hard to try to put together an end-of-summer vintage sale and am also hard at work behind the scenes putting together the sweetest hand-crafted fall collection of goodies for your own homes. Please stay tuned!

We’re headed into August feeling so sad to see these lazy summer days coming ever-closer to an end. I’ll miss the peels of laughter from those post-lunch swims and puttering around the house moving things around and just generally delighting in this place.

But if there’s any consolation, fall is on the horizon. And boy are we excited to share a bit of what we’re cooking up over here behind the scenes!