Markers as a Home Improvement Tool

One sign of the fact that we are now far from new homeowners is that things we replaced are already starting to look old or damaged. One example - the hinge of a toddler step stool managed to scrape away stain (and some wood) from our relatively new bathroom cabinets.

Fancy markers to the rescue! This kit, found by my mom who always finds clever gadgets and gizmos, claimed to fix chips and scrapes in wood with wood-colored markers. I don't think the ink is anything special but it is basically a nice set of markers in various shades of brown.

 Here it is, with one or two rounds of the darkest brown:

And here it is again, with another round of brown and black the following, wiped and blended a bit together:

Is it invisible? Not at all. The wood itself got scraped away so without some really dramatic fix with wood filler, the slash will still be there. And the markers can't quite replicate the same level of glossiness. But from standing (or sitting - it is a bathroom after all) eye level, it's barely there unless you look for it, so at least I'm not haunted by that step stool each and every time I use the bathroom.

New Amsterdam

It's that time of year again, when I take random pictures of flowers in our yard to show you how much progress we've made on our quest to continue to find variety and color all season long. This year, a new addition - tulips from the Netherlands. And while we are no Holland (I think we planted about 15 bulbs), I'm pleased to report they all appear to be coming up beautifully. Because we bought some fancy assortments, these are no ordinary tulips. They are variegated, and frilly and giving us some lovely early spring color - they even beat the azaleas to bloom this year. So far we've had snowdrops, cherry blossom, and camellias, and now tulips and phlox:

 These two pictures were taken just 12 hours apart - the purple one really opened up quickly!

We should have a few more varieties blooming soon - I think in all we have 3 or 4 varieties, all with slightly different peak seasons.

Also this year we ordered a giant pile of dirt to start filling in low areas. You can see we are making progress with it already:

We used a lot to fill in some low and bare patches in the backyard and also help build up the new front garden. I never got around to posting an update about this area last year (in fact, I even lost the pictures I took at that time). This is the garden we created when we built the new room and converted the front door there into a wall. We connected some black plastic garden boarder, put in some of the new tulip bulbs, and split and moved some irises. We moved a butterfly bush and are hoping it will grow high and blossom to provide a little privacy and cover up that oh-so-white wall. At any rate, it is not dead and has lots of green leaves on it. This spring I still have to add a few black-eyed Susans and then I think it will all fill in and be completely unnoticeable as "new."

Another random project from last fall was making a pretty and much less muddy area for water to drain near our driveway. Visiting family took an interest and gathered up scattered bricks to build a lovely drainage area near our sewer grate (the weed cloth didn't end up getting used).

 Isn't it great? A small touch that really reduces soil runoff.

A lot more work to be done outside, and all before it gets too hot and buggy. Fingers crossed we have a mild (and wet) spring to get everything planted and watered.