Living room's done, now for the dining room

Have you ever noticed that one thing leads to another? It seems like the most innocent statements can lead to a ton of work. For instance, last week Kathy thought that it would be a good idea for us to kill the weekend painting the living room. The last time it was painted was a couple of years ago. My daughter, who watches a lot of HGTV, decided we needed a dramatic statement in our dining room. So...

We had a blue and gold dining room. Well, then we took the lace curtains off the living room window so we could look out and see the gardens. Then we thought it would be nice to be able to look out at the garden while we were eating and be able to watch TV downstairs without feeling like the neighbors were watching. So the living room became the dining room and the dining room became the living room. With me so far?

Then Kathy found the exact rug she wanted for the living room...

and we got some tables that were a very dark wood and of course the couch and chair are navy blue. Needless to say, it was a cave in there. So fine, we can paint the living room, Navajo white. But you know, as long as the furniture is out of here it is a real shame not to refinish the floor. So another two days are added (not that it was that much work, but I am old and can't spend more than three or four hours a day on my knees playing with the floor). Anyway, the walls are painted, the floors are done (we used a Minwax product, Polyshades. I highly recommend it. We used it on the extra bedroom upstairs. Minimum preparation and it really looks beautiful) and now all I have to do is load the furniture back in. Oh, and then, since we did the living room floor and the dining room is right next to it with a huge arch joining them, I might as well take all the furniture out of the dining room and redo that floor too. Plus Laura and the kids are coming in next Tuesday, so I better move my butt!

Well, as a personal aside to Susan, sorry I didn't check my email or blogger over the weekend. I would suggest either sweet potato vine or ice plant. Both are easy to care for, grow rampant, and colorful. Give me a call and I will get you some the next time I'm out.

Now, as far as my garden goes, who knows what's in bloom, I haven't been out of the living room for four days! Actually, I did run outside just about three or four million times (well, I'm lazy and paint and polyshades fumes give me a headache!). Being full summer for the third or fourth month in a row my plants are in a bit of a pet, but I do have some faithful and reliables!

Is it any wonder that I love hardy hibiscus. This is one of the smaller of our four hardys and it and the others will have about this many flowers every day until frost. They are a bit of a clean up issue because the flowers only last one day and the spent blooms litter the ground but who cares when they look like this.

And in the category of what was I thinking, a few years ago I decided to plant a few tuberose bulbs for our daughter Jill's wedding. I knew they would only last the one summer because tuberoses are tropical and I planted them in the back (north-facing) yard because that's where the wedding reception was. Well, once again the plants don't read the same gardening books I do. We have two of them coming up right next to each other in a not particularly protected location. The fragrance is fantastic! What I figure is that not only did one of them survive, it decided to reproduce too.

And the moral of the story? If you like a plant, plant it! You might find out that it has be relocated or potted. But you might also find out that it will work out beautifully.

And last but not least, the caladiums I was complaining about a couple of weeks ago because they weren't coming up have had several come up and not only that one of them decided that it needed to set seed, so it decided to have a flower...

and a very disturbing flower it is too! The poor butterflies couldn't figure out quite what to do. I watched one for several minutes just flit around and light and flit around and light someplace else. Finally, he left dejected and headed for the chaste tree. That one he could figure out.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth and spent some time thinking about what it means to live in our country. Take care of yourselves and show someone that they are loved.

Wayne