Well, as you can see, we've almost completed the front porch, just a few minor detail to clean up. But for the most part, frankly, I think it looked awesome. The concrete floor required " Concrete Stain " rather than paint, and it worked really well, considering this was poured 30+ years ago, and was never treated with anything. They don't make um like they used to, thats a fact.
This old house makes me realize that in so many ways, from James and Essie Mae's perpetual garden, to the brand new porch, where old is new again. Time to start on the back porch now, and believe me it's a mess, Bob just set a new post to jack the porch back up, as it was leaning like the tower of Piza. More after awhile...........

Jen's Ginger Garlic Shrimp w/ Zucchini

Have all ingredients prepped and ready to rock and roll, this one moves fast
1 lb. med shrimp ( cleaned, deveined, tails removed, and patted dry)
3 med zucchini (sliced once lenthwise then in 1/2 inch crosswise on angle)
1/2 red pepper ( sliced into matchsticks)
4 green onions ( sliced into 1 inch on angle)
3 cloves garlic finely grated
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 teaspoon fish sauce
Rooster sauce ( Siracha, Thai hot sauce) to taste, be careful this %&#* is hot!
1 or 2 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with 1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons canola oil
Rice of choice when serving, also excellent over noodles or cous-cous

In a large pan or wok heat oil, in a bowl mix broth, ginger, garlic, fish sauce, hot sauce, set aside.
Add zucchini and pepper to pan, stirring often for 2 minutes,add shrimp and onion stirring for about a minute. Add chicken broth mixture, cooking about 2 more minutes, add cornstarch, turn off heat, but leave on burner about 1 more min. stirring.
© Jennifer Green Alger 2009

Front Porch update

Moving right along, Bob has built the bannisters, railing,and attached them to the posts with simple brackets. The wood was treated, and as luck would have it, left over from another job

I've painted them, grey on the top board, white on the rest, the reason being I've painted the swing, the ceiling, and around the funky old windows to spruce them up with the grey. So at this point I'm tying everything together, color wise any white base will do the trick, but make sure it's semi-gloss, or you won't get the coverage. With the grey, I used the same white base, and added grey( Nantucket Mist) by Glidden.

I mentioned the funky old windows, shown here, we simply put a coat of grey around the metal framework, if we owned this house, I would have replaced the windows. But remember we did all this for under $200.

Pretty cool huh? This grey & white combo platter worked really well for this type of old farm house, anything more modern would have looked out of place.This weekend we'll be finishing this project by painting the concrete floor a darker grey, and also the front door.

Front Porch

This project was done for under $200.00, alot of scraping and prepping is crutial for these types of endeavours.
Since were using white exterior semi-gloss theres no reason to use primer.
The siding had a little rust and this paint covered beautifully after we cleaned and litely went over it with a fine sand paper. Two coats with a roller did the trick, I did however cut in with a small slanted brush twice.
For anyone who doesn't know what cutting in is, it's going around the main surface to be painted, and painting all corners and places your roller will not fit, or will touch another area.





Since the cieling is grey and the walls(siding) are white, cutting carefully is very important, take your time with this to get your desired outcome.

My First Post

As I have never blogged before, I hope this finds everyone feeling as good as I do, which by the way, is pretty darn good. I got up at six with my husband Bob, had some coffee and morning news with him and he was off to work, and I was off for my morning walk with Rosie, my Jack Russell, on my return I did my yoga( Namaste Yoga, Fit TV, Channel 261, 8:30am) it's really
easy, fun and relaxing. Bob , Rosie & I live in Suwanee, GA. in a 100+ yr. old farm house, a few yrs. ago we had fallin on some pretty rough times, Bob lost his job of 18 yrs. due to the worlds tough economic times, I was not working, and we needed to find a cheaper place to live. We looked at alot of really nasty places, as our price range had gone down considerably, then we found it, on a street that sees very little traffic even though it's in the middle of everything, The old farm house. We went next door to ask about the house, and met James & Essie Mae Grissom, a very sweet elderly couple, who were happy to show us the house, and as I walked in, well, I new this was my home, and as old as it was (which I of course found charming) It was clean, and generally just had a really good vibe. It could not have happened at a better time, when we asked about the rent, James & Essie Mae informed us reluctantly, as if it were to much to ask, that it was $350.00, and we almost fell over. Needless to say, we said we'd take it. We moved in on August 1st 2005, since then the rent has gone up to a whopping $400.00.
The week after we moved in, Bob found a job, Bob is a builder, very talented, but had to take a job which payed about half what he was making before. It wasn't going to be easy, but eventually it wouldn't be as hard, and soon you'll find out how. In the mean time I'll be documenting some projects, and sharing recipes, and giving some great tips for living on a budget, and still living well!