The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

Gray paint

Paint brush

We're taking full advantage of this dose of midwinter sun and warmth. Monday, we managed to get the creek pump going despite icy ground, filling the wash-water tank before it drained completely dry. Tuesday, I caught up on a bit of laundry while the sun was shining, Painting a cabinetthen pulled out the paint can and brush to coat some of our kitchen remodeling projects.

Mark chose this dark blue/gray based on the reality of our housekeeping skills. We'd originally considered just staining the boards since we both love the warm tones of plain wood. But our cats have free rein of the kitchen and like to leave dirty footprints everywhere. We wipe up after them now and then, but figured it might be smarter to just start with a darker color to begin with so those paw stains aren't so obvious.



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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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if it bothers you, tape some bubble wrap, or double sided tape to the area the cat jumps up on, something unappealing for paws to land on that the cat can't move out of the way. within a couple days that habit will be broken and you can remove it. it's worked so far for my MIL's 4 stubborn cats.
Comment by mizztanya Wed Feb 3 10:44:55 2016
Ugh! It makes me nuts when the cats get on the kitchen counters in particular. Ours are indoor cats, which means they walk in their litter box (and what happens to be in it, potentially). I can't get beyond the idea of toilet-paws in the kitchen. Clean it up or cover it up! Sounds good to me!
Comment by jennifer Wed Feb 3 13:12:18 2016
Use a polyurethane or epoxy clearcoat on the top surfaces. A couple of layers of polyurethane or one layer of epoxy resin will result in a clear coating that is very easy to clean.
Comment by Roland_Smith Wed Feb 3 17:17:44 2016
WE have five cats in the house and trying to keep them off of anything and everything in the house is impossible. If the cats walk in their litter box and then on the counter top so be it. I figure if it doesn't kill us, it will just make a stronger.
Comment by Zimmy Wed Feb 3 19:27:52 2016

I love the combination of reactions --- "horrors" to "but what if our feline overlords want to stand there?" You can guess where I lie on the continuum....

Good idea, Roland! We may do that with our next surface. Now that you mention it, I can visualize surfaces I've seen exactly like that, just didn't know which chemical to use to get there.

Comment by anna Fri Feb 5 17:02:06 2016





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