Japanese Quince!

When we first moved into our house, it was the beginning of the fall season. It didn't take long to realize that a rather sizeable bush at the corner of our house was a fruit bearing bush/tree of some sort. We puzzled over what it was. To me, it looked like a cross between a pear and an apple. The bush's branches had thorns with small leaves, and the fruit was yellowish with a pit in the center.

We were pleasantly delighted to find out that in the spring this bush flowers into a beautiful display of bright pinkish red flowers that look very much like apple blossoms, only red. Here is one of the pictures I took:

My sister also took a picture of the tree while it was blooming to see if anyone could tell us what the bush was. At last, someone shed some light on this for us! It is a Japanese Quince! It's not very common in the US anymore, but I did an online search and apparently it makes wonderful jams and jellies. I even found some baked dessert recipes for quince that I'll have to try in the fall.

Busy!

I've been so busy sewing, trying to get my list of commissions worked through, that I haven't had much time to download & post the upgrades we've been doing to our house since December. Here's a new picture of the front of the house, showing the new porch lights that Jason just put in. There is one on each side of the porch now (there didn't used to be one on the right). We plan to put the screen door to the porch on the right side and make a sort of sidewalk from the city sidewalk up to the door, to make it easier for people to come to the front of the house. I hope to have updates up soon, with pictures of all we've been up to lately!

Living Room

We stopped the kitchen work for a little while because I wanted to have the living room painted before I put up the Christmas decorations. So, while Jason was off work during the Thanksgiving holiday, we primed & painted the living room.

First, we took down the clunky wooden "valances":









I washed the windows, see the black grime left on the paper towels? ICK!



Priming:






The first coat of primer:






Taping the windows and trim:






Beginning to paint:






Covering up the last bit of bare primer:




The finished room (I still need to make curtains) all decorated for Christmas:

Range Hood

We got, and installed, a [ductless] range hood since there wasn't one. I like having the fan & a light above my stove. There will be a little shelf for my spices next to the microwave cupboard, above the hood, in the little part that "sticks out". In these pictures, you can also see the microwave in its spot:

Kitchen Countertop

We had originally thought we would just re-use the counter top that was in the kitchen, piecing it where needed. However, we realized that piecing it would cut down on the amount of cupboard space under the counter because we would need more supports to hold all the ends. We decided that we would shop around and see what we could find. We found some solid black counter top at Discount Home Improvement so we bought it. It counterbalances the white of the walls and cupboards beautifully (my kitchen has a black & white cow theme). We also got a new faucet, since we didn't really like the style that was there, and it leaked.


Taking out the sink to remove the old counter top:



The sink is out, ready to remove the old counter top:


The new counter top:



The new faucet:

More Kitchen Work

The beginning of November we were finally able to make the cupboards for above the kitchen sink and get them installed. Jason even made an attached book shelf for my cookbooks.


The walls before the cupboards were installed:




Making the cupboards:



Installing the cupboards:



Making the corner unit:



Installing the corner unit:



Cupboards up:



Installing the bookshelf:



Bookshelf up:



The cupboards with trim:



Trim on the corner unit clamped and drying: