Karla Nathan – Page 69 – Karla's Cottage

Bye bye babies!

By Karla Nathan / October 24, 2019

We had one puppy longer than the others, until his family could get him after a trip. The others left at 8 weeks. Here they are on the last night that we had most of them. It was a sad night for me.

Keeping this little cuddler for an extra two weeks, sure made him dig even deeper into my heart.

Ryan watched him while we went to Florida, and his new people picked him up while we were away.

His family is happy to be getting him, and have been very thoughtful and appreciative about him staying longer. They brought us biscotti!

A few times.

And it was delicious.

Another new owner, my pal, Shan, brought scones and coffee.

And the spotted girl’s mama sent flowers!

Keeping Wally longer was a mixed blessing. It eased Sugar and me into the separation.

But, having just one puppy is a lot more work than having a bunch of them. He got lonely. So, I spent extra time with him, and I fell even more in love.

They were a wonderful batch of babies.

I have raised a lot of dogs over the last thirty years and have never had a litter like this. Some of it was the pure doodle-ness of the breed and the calm, sweet nature of both parents.

The rest was the fact that I started training them really early. If we ever have pups again, I will be working on training from the very beginning. It sure pays off.

Recently, we have had some major life changes, some good, some bad. We also went through some pretty rough times.

Trying to restore the other house and not lose too much money on it was grueling. Knowing that these snugglers were waiting at home for me made the whole job easier.

No, that isn’t right. That job was not easy in any way. I think what I mean is these fellas gave me something to smile about when everything seemed hopeless.

I feel really good about the families they went to live with and I know those people realize they got very special dogs to love.

We visited our table again

cottage

By Karla Nathan / October 21, 2019

Matt has the resin poured on our table around the rocks I laid out.

There will be no white under it, that is the frame he needed for pouring the resin.

I thought it was a little more crystal clear than I expected. He said it would be simple to add a little cream swirl coat to the bottom.

He was able to make the legs from lumber left over from the slab. That was good news, we weren’t sure if there would be enough or not.

We are in Florida right now with the grand fairies when we get back, the table will be delivered!

More pictures of that house

family, redos

By Karla Nathan / October 18, 2019

This is my favorite room at the house we had bought for our son's family. Think of the possibilities for this space!!! Oh my, I loved sitting there and enjoying the view.

It is a giant room. With French doors that open into the kitchen and bedrooms.

Personally, I would have painted the panelling, but everyone stopped me and said that some people like panelling and that I should leave that up to the new owners. So, all we really had to do was clean the windows, mop, and repaint the ceiling which was dingy.

Two of the bedrooms opened onto the sunroom.

And the kitchen.

My husband scrubbed those windows until they gleamed!

The area under the sun porch was inviting too.

It also ran the whole length of the house. What a great spot for entertaining! The family had used it for musical evenings, with the stage on the patio and seating in the yard. This house was meant for gatherings.

Honey's favorite part of the property was the pond. She ate her weight in frogs each time she went out there.

It was a sweet, little pond. Even with half of the frogs gone.

The Grandfather Tree is Almost a Table

cottage, family, redos

By Karla Nathan / October 15, 2019

Over a year ago, my husband's favorite tree fell down. He called it the Grandfather Tree because he took the grandfairies for walks in the woods and stopped to tell stories under it.

We found a guy to slice it up, then stored the stack of pieces that weighed hundreds of pounds in our garage where they were very much in the way. When they were starting to dry out a bit, we found a craftsman to haul them off to a kiln and plane them down.

This is Matt, the artist who is creating a table and mantel for us. Here are the final pieces he has to work with. We have a few more, but these were the best.

His shop is full of pieces he is already working on.

And beautiful piles of lumber waiting to be transformed.

I decided to go with the live edges turned inwards, so if I wanted the table to be more traditional looking for a dinner party, I could cover it with a cloth. Matt built a water tight frame, and layed out the wood for me to come by and do a river rock scene down the center. I had lots of semi precious stones, crystals, and polished river stones in neutral tones.

He will pour resin over it all. It will be translucent with a shimmer of pearl. Of course, the black and white material on the back will be gone, so this will be mostly transparent.

The heart is a gemstone and it will be at the head of the table where my husband sits. Under the table, the grandfairies will be woodburning special messages and we will have a list of all the grandfathers who came before us.

Matt is making tapered, square legs from the leftovers of the wood, and I will paint them a distressed white.

This has been over a year in the making, but at this stage, things are moving fast. The resin is poured and the table is ready for the sanding and polishing. I will have it delivered in time for A Snowbird's Song. This will seat about 12, so I will put my existing dining table (that seats 12 also) in to the hearthroom for the party, and will add another table in the living room so everyone will have a place to sit and enjoy their meals.

A Custom Loft Bed Clubhouse for Sugarwings

family, redos

By Karla Nathan / October 12, 2019

This was Sugarwings’ room at her daddy’s house. Last winter, we found the rug at World Market, my son cut it to fit and installed it like carpeting. He also built this loft bed/ club house for her.

Both grandfairies hung out under there with a stack of pillows, sleeping bags, games and books.

He is quite the carpenter, this is the closet he built for her. The trim work over the two doors is beautiful.

One of the reasons working to get this house on the market was so heart wrenching, was seeing things like this.

We thought this would be the home they raised those fairies in and the custom work their dad was installing was going to turn the place into a masterpiece.

The loss of the potential for this home and of the happy plans for the future really stabbed at me.

Perfect patients

dogs, puppies!, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / October 9, 2019

Our vet seemed very surprised by how calm the litter of puppies were during his exams last week.

They all sat quietly or napped while waiting their turns.

He mentioned more than once how quickly it was all going. There wasn’t a wriggler in the whole bunch. When he needed to look into their eyes, they looked right up at him. They stood still for listening to their hearts and palpitating their tummies, or whatever that was.

The only issue I had was in hauling the seven pups in and out while they were poured into two crates. Luckily, I had a helper who is probably stronger than I am.

In the last year, there have been many times that I have said, “I could not have done that without her help.” Sugarwings has grown up to be someone I rely upon.

And how cute is this? She didn’t know I was picking her up at school to go to the vet with me, yet she was wearing a shirt that said, “Trust me, I’m a Dogter.”

As a reward for being such good patients, and to stretch their legs after being stuffed into boxes, I took them out on the trails in the field.

A Quick and Attractive Fix for a Soot Stained Mantel

how-to projects, redos

By Karla Nathan / October 6, 2019

This is the downstairs den in the house we have been working on.

Here is how it looked in the Zillow listing when we bought it. It didn’t need a lot to get it market ready, fresh paint, two matching light fixtures, and a mantel tweaking.

While living there, my son had done some customizing to the fireplace to fit a piece of art work he had built in. After taking that out, it needed some trim and paint to restore it.

Also, there was a dark, sooty blob above the doors. I used black concrete stain to blend the rest of the bricks to match. This is a “during” picture.

The bricks and mortar to the left are done, the right are not in this photo. Doesn’t the black wash (Is that a term? Like white wash?) update the hearth? I think this treatment drug the fireplace right out of 1972!

The rough hewn and live edge shelves in the corner were installed by my son.

We repainted the ceiling, which the previous owners needed to do ages ago. And all of the trim was freshly painted.

Behind that door is a giant, walk in storage area. I cut notches in a rug to make it fit over padding glued to old linoleum, repainted the ceiling and the shelves. This was the last thing I did, and I used up all of the odds and ends of light colored paint that I had left.

It seemed okay for a closet, and at least that made it clean.

You know one thing that brightens a room that most people don’t even notice? Repainting the air vent covers. Over time, with gas heat, they can discolor. So can the area around them. Cleaning and repainting is a small thing to do, and I will bet you no one even notices that I did it. But I will also bet you that they can feel that it was done, even if they don’t see it.

The house feels much fresher and cleaner with the vents tidied up.

One thing I did not do that bugs me, is that I left the shelf under the windows the same as the walls. Not that it looks bad, I think the unbroken color is a good choice. But as a painter, I know that eggshell finish wall paint isn’t as durable for shelves as a satin or semi gloss. I could do a quick, clear coat over it to ease my mind.

Lightening and brightening

redos

By Karla Nathan / October 3, 2019

Almost the entire interior of this house got painted. I left 2 bedrooms that had been recently repainted by my son for the kids. The rest of the house, excluding one closet (there is a ton of storage space!) has neutral, lighter colors.

The entryway was originally dark green walls with dark blue steps. Here it is after a coat of bright white on the trim, that already helped.

Next, I painted the risers white too, they had also been dark blue, which made it hard to even see the steps when walking down them.

I wanted the steps lighter, but knew (or am hoping, at least) that there will be a lot of traffic through the house and didn’t want footprints to show. So, I layered grays and whites to create a barnwood look, and gave it a few clear coats for durability.

The stairs going up from the entrance are hardwood and we couldn’t afford to match that, we had to make do with what was there. We did replace the light fixture and got daylight LED bulbs for it. Much brighter!

I don’t particularly like that rug there, but one was needed for open houses. I am going to find one more appropriate. That ivory one will be messy too fast.

The door and frame didn’t need painted , since it was nice wood in good shape with just some oiling and elbow grease. Every other door in the house was painted the bright white they were many different colors and styles, so the fresh color was unifying.

But I did put a fresh coat of an espresso color on the exterior.

Through Struggles to Appreciation and Acceptance (I hope)

family

By Karla Nathan / September 30, 2019

(Reposted from FB)

Won’t this house show nicely with the autumn leaves turning? Wish us luck, it is ready to go on the market! These last 6 weeks have been grueling. But I have learned a lot about myself and others. Who I can count on, who I can trust. That I can work through pure exhaustion, an aching body, and sadness to get something accomplished no matter how my heart has been torn, how much pain I feel, or how bitter I am. That some people are users, and some friends are always there for you, no matter what, for emotional support and kind gestures. Others, can act like they don’t even notice what is happening to you. That family doesn’t always step up like we thought they would.
This was hard, due to the betrayals involved with the mess left behind and by the split up of the family we bought it for.

Also, my husband retired the week we started restoring it and my emotions were already running high due to a cut in half of my hormones… adding a mortgage payment and thousands of dollars to renovate didn’t help ease me into a retirement budget. Doing most of the work ourselves helped the budget, but made me feel trapped, the huge job ahead seemed hopeless. I cried. A lot.

But I also learned that anything can be done “one task at a time”

That my son also can survive and grow from this, he will heal and move on.

That my husband can wash windows! And that we make a solid team.

That no matter what you are going through, kids will always need to be picked up at school. And have a million stories to chatter away about the second the car door opens.

That the garden still grows and tomatoes need picked every day. That puppies need snuggles and lots of care, whether you are busy or not. That there are plenty of happy things that outweigh the bad. That life goes on through bitterness and heartache. That things change, enjoy what you can, when you can. That I am full of cliches.

That tucking in and kissing a grandfairy goodnight when you are too tired to haul your old lady ass up the stairs is worth the effort.

That teaching puppies to sit and looking into their loving eyes, or smelling homemade tomato sauce bubbling away on the stove are worth the extra effort, even though all I really wanted to do was crawl into bed after hard, physical labor.

That turning an uncared for mess into something pretty can be rewarding, and creativity exists in me even when I am not in the studio.

That even when I fall apart, I am still strong enough to go on, and work through the tears of exhaustion.

That while this was hard to complete, and we are losing money on it, it will not break us. We are lucky that we can pay for the restoration. That we won’t go without a meal because of it. Paying for the mortgage might not be an ideal situation, but we can do it, that we are blessed to be able to handle it til the house sells.

That no matter how tired or bitter I was, I was lucky to go home at night to my own home, to my furry flock greeting me at the door, to grandfairies who gave me endless hugs, to friends who dropped by with flowers, or texted to see if I needed anything, to a handsome husband who is the world’s most generous man and who worked even harder than I did, but did it with good humor (not like me).

That lessons can be learned at any age. And this job sure has aged me, but I survived and have plenty to be thankful for.