Busy as Bees and a nasty Stinger!

It was a really hot weekend and Mr. HB and I spent most of it in our Humble Bungalow Garden.
We have some projects on the go and Mr. HB finished installing the railings on the front stairs...a project that he started while I was away in Paris. Besides weeding and deadheading the roses I have been wielding a paintbrush!

He will be painting the porch and treads one day this coming week as it was far too hot to do it today.

He has done a fine job and I am so grateful to be married to such a clever and handy man.

Thank you sweetheart!

I painted the planter on the porch black and bought some flowers to fill it.

They are bright and cheerful.

I made this fresh tomato and mint salad with balsamic cream...

Summertime and salads ~ so tasty and WW Friendly!

I know I have shown you Jude the Obscure  in our Humble Bungalow Garden many many times 

but for me this rose never gets old...

The Calla Lilies are amazing this year.

We have three big Callas in the front garden and one in the back.

Dusty Miller is in flower and I only grow it because I like to put it into flower arrangements.

The grey/silver foliage is a fabulous filler and looks wonderful with roses!

The Romneya Coulteri

aka the fried egg plant is looking so pretty.

The petals are very paper like and dainty.

It's a stunner.

and it thrives in poor soil...even gravel and sand.

Once you get it established it will be a star performer.

It's been a real scorcher of a weekend and we are all tried to stay cool...

some of us have fur coats which makes it much harder 

Mr. HB has been guzzling Gatorade while working outside and I have sipped several bottles of Perrier.

I phoned and checked on Mother 

just to make sure that she was keeping hydrated 

seniors are at high risk for heat issues

and she walks most afternoons

fortunately she was home with the fans on, sipping a cool beverage and reading a book

she postponed her walk due to the high heat.

I did not go for my walk either as I was in the garden all day.

Lots of weeding and dead heading was done...

and I painted the French vintage metal table and chair black!

Here's a sneak peek of our patio extension with the freshly painted table and chair.

I'm going to get some black pots and fill them with pretty annuals and place them at the edge of the space...

I can see myself sitting here with my book and a cup of tea or a glass of Perrier.

I got stung twice by a  hornet...

I don't remember having such a nasty bite and I had an allergic reaction.

My wrist got really red and swollen in no time flat

Mr. HB zipped off to our local pharmacy to buy some antihistamine.

It made me very drowsy...

Our Birthday dinner went ahead as normal...

On the menu:

maple syrup ~ ginger ~ soy glazed salmon

tabbouleh salad

spinach strawberry salad

roasted veggies

garlic bread

chocolate cake

I over cooked the roasted veggies and spilled half the salad dressing...

I blame it on the effects of the drugs!

We had a lovely evening and the grandchildren were a delight.

It's my favourite thing...getting together as a family.

Hope your week is off to a great start.

Lime Time...

Love love love the colour green!
I adore the taste of limes...
have a "green thumb" and am often "green with envy."

I gravitate toward greens of all shades...

I love to use limes in a gin and tonic cocktail...
(My WW friendly G and T's are made using mostly Perrier with just a splash of tonic)
the wedge of lime is squeezed into the cocktail and then popped into the glass.

Avocado's are a WW high point but healthy splurge...avocado on toast or eaten straight from the skin with a splash of worchestershire sauce and a sprinkling of Sea salt...yum.

Green salads, green beans, green apples, green peas, green smoothie drinks...
so many healthy foods are green.

Our Humble Bungalow front porch is where we often sit after a hard day of working.

I found most of our vintage wicker porch furniture free on the boulevards...

after dragging the chairs and tables home I painted them black.

It's a cozy place to sit and chat.

It's located close to the street so it gives us an opportunity to greet the neighbours 

as they stroll by on the sidewalk.

We have a few dull planters that are going to be transformed by a coat of black paint...

I am not sure why I like black pots in the garden, but I do.

I'm not sure why I love green either but I do...

Does anyone know why we have colour favourites?

Ah but I digress...

 I need to get myself off to the paint store...

and I'm sitting here writing a blog post when I could be painting!

(my excuse is that it's really hot outside ~ I am keeping cool inside)

Do you "feel the heat?"

I do.

 I hydrate with sparkling water all day long so it is rather frustrating...

I garden in the mornings or later in the afternoon when the sun is not so intense.

I cannot remember if I mentioned that Mr. HB has been busy redoing our front porch and stairs.

They were in dire need of restoration.

When I went off to France my darling husband ripped them out and began a long and tedious project.

He improved the look as well as the stability and function of the stairs.

He rebuilt the area in front of the door by ripping out and replacing all the wood. 

Then he extended the treads of the stairs so they were deeper and reconfigured the detail of the sides by using the beveled siding as seen on the original house.

The beveled wood wraps around as you can see and it all needed to be level...

it was a big job but he is finished all the hard work and is ready to prime and paint.

I like the improved functionality and think it looks much better.

We need to decide on the style of the wood railings before the job is complete.

Railings would not have been part of the original design.

 With Mother popping by, 

(and we are aging ourselves!) 

we need to have something sturdy to hang onto.

Hermes scarf

Which I wear with this lime cardigan that I bought last summer from Target.

Cheap and cheerful.

  (I am still lamenting the loss of Target stores in Canada.)

I'm excited to report the wee lizard that we saw awhile ago in our Humble Bungalow Garden has been sighted several more times!

The Limelight hydrangeas are getting ready to flower so there will be lime bouquets in abundance.

That's all to report for now...

what's new with you?

Anything exciting happening in your neck of the woods?

The Ugly Truth ~ The metamorphosis of the back deck of The Humble Bungalow

Third in the series "The Ugly Truth"
Our Back Deck...

Our fixer upper in 1982...

Not much curb appeal I know but we knew that it had wood siding underneath those shingles and the dining room was in it's original condition with dark fir waiscotting and beamed ceiling...

plus it had the granite faced fireplace that I wanted and several fruit trees in the yard.

The reason that we purchased this fixer upper was it's wonderful location;

2 blocks to the water

 good schools nearby

walking distance to Mr. HB's office

 and close to the Cook Street Village shops.

The bungalow had been rented out for about 10 years and as you can plainly see had been sadly neglected.

We were young energetic and thought sweat equity was a great way of getting into the real estate market!

We had a golden retriever and two small children so we had to act fast to get the yard cleaned up after we moved in.

 A dump truck was hired so we could remove all the junk...

Mr. HB worked with the truck driver all day and they made two trips to the dump!

The deck was rebuilt again in 2013-2014 and I love the look.

I think that Mr. HB has really outdone himself with this design.

We still have a few projects on the back burner...

the house needs painting and we have to redo our master bedroom and closet.

All in good time...

The Ugly Truth ~ The Humble Bungalow Living room before and after

Renovation and restoration of our Humble Bungalow have kept Mr. HB and I busy for the better part of our "spare time" over the past 30 years...
The living room was a disaster when we moved in...
there was a big black stain on the carpet and the neighbours told us that a renter had changed the oil of his Harley Davidson in the living room....
maybe that's why renters often have a bad reputation!

We had wall to wall carpet installed in place of the stained carpet and knew this would be a temporary measure.

The front porch previously had been opened up and made a part of the living room.

Bungalows typically have porches so this was an unfortunate "muddle."

We made the best use of the space and then one year when we were on the train coming back from Palm Springs  visiting Mr. HB's parents' on their snowbird expedition we decided that we wanted to put the porch back 

despite the fact that it would make our living room tiny.

Before...

Fir wainscoting

Here you can see just how much space we are losing in order to restore the front porch

approximately 6 X 12 feet.

This wood window was made by Vintage Wood works 

you'll have to trust me when I say that it was an "investment" piece.

(Several thousand dollars and we got a deal!)

The wall backing onto the newly restored front porch....looking good!

These photos are old and we have had the Morris chairs reupholstered.

The wall to wall carpet is gone and has been replaced by area rugs.

We have a few more bits and bobs in the room now and you'll see when I post the next few images.

We are so comfortable sitting in our Humble Bungalow living room...

it is a great place to entertain.

Mr. HB did most of the work...

 I did do some of the painting, even though Mr. HB says that I am not "a very good painter!"

Good help is hard to find but the price was right!

(scary 80's hair)

More Ugly Truths to come...stay tuned.

The Ugly Truth ~ before and after our kitchen restoration...

Several readers commented on our kitchen and Mr. HB suggested that I show you what our kitchen was like before we did the renovations...it was UGLY!
See for yourselves what we lived in before we did the restoration.
It took many years, lots of money, and hard work AND it required IMMENSE patience on my part...

I cannot believe we once lived in this kitchen...and what was with all the baskets?

Believe it or not I was able to serve meals to our growing family

host Christmas dinner

and we continued to entertain hosting many dinner parties!

The kitchen changes one wall at a time over a period of several years.

Starts to take shape...

Can you guess what I got for Christmas in 1998?

The Humble Bungalow Kitchen today.

The mission arts and crafts table is where I sit and write my blog.

I see that Chester snuck into the picture.

Mr. HB did these renovations on weekends and evenings over several years.

He could not take time off from his busy practice so he worked weekends and evenings.

He's a very talented fellow and has a keen eye for design and detail...

perhaps that is why his chosen profession is architecture.

Restoring our bungalow has been a labour of love...

Our Humble Bungalow is a designated home on the Victoria Heritage List which protects it from demolition.

I hope you've enjoyed this post.

Hostess