A lot has happened since I last wrote on this blog. Like enough to fill up an entire novel. Which, maybe one day it will (one can only hope). But for now I just want to tell you about some of the changes going on here at the house in Burlington.

For those of you who are confused about why I’m back in Burlington – What happened to the farm in Virginia? – I direct you to a totally vague, not-helpful-at-explaining-anything-blog-post about leaving the farm. Funny, it has a parallel blog title to this one. Shows how creative I get with blog titles, eh?

But back to what I was saying. There have been some changes. And our house is all the better for it, at least in my opinion.

Let’s turn to the evidence. Project #1:

Which now looks like this:

Okay, sure, it’s not a big deal. The back door to the porch is now red when it used to be green. But it is a big deal when I realize it’s once again a way of making the house “ours” instead of “the last guy’s”. We have always disliked the green on all the doors and love the Barn Red color from our local solid waste management agency – made from local recycled paint! If you recall, we made the same change to the front door not long before leaving the house this winter. It’s amazing what a change a little paint can do to transform a space – or a doorway!

I got to learn that lesson – about the transformational qualities of paint – more than once as I did quite a few little painting projects while in Burlington over the past few weeks. Here’s another:

To this:

Don’t the stairs just look cleaner and newer? It’s basically the same color (blue or grey, depending on who you ask) but now it’s harder to notice all the imperfections, all the warped, worn, and aged edges. It’s nothing that will stop and “wow” you, but maybe that’s a good thing when it comes to stairs from your garage into your living room?

And then there’s the mailbox, which also got a new makeover. From this tired old fella:

To this younger, cleaner mailbox. Doesn’t it make you want to send us some mail?

By the way, see the shockingly gold (and ugly!) color of the door handle in the photo above? File that under the “one day I’ll be painted black too” category.

There have been other changes, bigger, more dramatic changes (in life as well as at the house), but those will have to wait until another blog post, when I have faster internet connection and more photos at my fingertips. For now I hope you forgive me for the quick updates as I jump back into the diy/renovation blogging world. Thanks for joining me on the journey!