The Great Outdoors

This update will consist mostly of pictures.


1. While not technically house-related, these are sprouts from my wintered-over dahlia tubers. I am so excited about them. All but one sprouted, and they look good so far!


2. This is my hibiscus, purchased from Trader Joe's two years ago. First bloom of the season! Summer's here...


3. Though you may not be able to tell, the pool is looking steadily less swampy. We are pretty sure we can see the bottom of the shallow end, which is on the left in this picture. The second step is visible, and so is the outline of the third step. Definite progress.


4. I am really furious with our magnolia trees. As I type, I can see leaves falling in my peripheral vision. This is a picture of what it looks like. Please note I mowed the lawn yesterday, pulverizing all leaves. Everything that's on the ground is from yesterday and today. Leaves fall in the fall, you stupid tree. That's why they call it "fall."


5. This is our vegetable garden. There are two tomato plants, one zucchini, and one pepper. Also, basil seeds are planted in the right front corner. We'll see what happens...


6. I also planted little marigold and petunia starts in the front bed. Those are coming along nicely. So are the seeds for the "yellow mix," which are the little green spots. I am looking forward to seeing if plants actually develop. I water the little seedlings religiously.


7. Lastly, this is our raspberry. It came with the house. It is doing phenomenally, and I am way excited for raspberries. That's all!

Wallpapering: a combination of art, science, and evil

Here's how the office project was supposed to go:
10:00 am Wipe down old wallpaper to rid of dust and cobwebs
10:30 am Lay down dropcloths, set out equipment and materials
10:45 am M & M break
11:00 am Put up wallpaper
6:00 pm Finished! Have dinner.

This is how it actually went:
10:00 am Wipe down old wallpaper.
10:02 am Mom decides old wallpaper needs to be removed.
10:02:30 am Stew about how people at wallpaper store were wrong.
10:03 am Start removing wallpaper (I'm very thankful for my little Wagner Power Steamer. Made things move much more quickly).
2:00 pm Realize that since we'll be wallpapering to bare plaster, we need different stuff to apply the wallpaper.
4:30 pm Zoom over to wallpaper store before they close to get new stuff. Cost: $30. Grr.
7:00 pm Finish removing wallpaper. Floor covered with gobs of dried old wallpaper and paste.
9:00 pm Roll on Shieldz wall prep. Also, paint toe by accident and drip on floor (don't tell Todd) because you are too tired and irritated to put down a dropcloth.

Day II (which wasn't supposed to happen!)
10:00 am Start papering.
6:30 pm Stop papering to go have dinner with in-laws.
9:00 pm Finish hanging last three pieces.
10:30 pm Glare at wallpaper and mess in living room on the way to bed. Finally finished.

Before, you may remember that the wallpaper in my office was a rather nondescript tan and gold pattern. Following our wallpapering job, it turned out like this:

This is a closeup of the paper. It's a white background with blue maps and charts. Also, my crafty mom suggested wrapping the lightswitch plate so I didn't have to get a new one.


For those interested (and I have had a number of questions) the location of the map wallpaper is here:
View Larger Map

and also here:

View Larger Map

In the next couple of weeks, I will get the paneling cut to size and painted, then put that on the bottom part of the wall. I think I'm also going to panel the south wall, which I'd been planning on building bookcases into. That might happen sometime in the future, but I think I need to learn to make things that don't wobble when someone sneezes before undertaking that project.

Lastly, a big thanks to this:

The past month

I've been procrastinating on catching up, because I have a feeling it's going to take a long time. In the past month since I last posted, I spent several days in LA with Cat, then my mom came to visit and we worked on a project (pix to follow). It's just been a hectic few weeks.

In order to get ready for my mom (and the impending string of guests this summer...if you want in, you better get your name on the list soon!!), I dealt with the rest of the upstairs. Got the bathroom as cute and clean as possible, stashed and trashed the rest of the clutter in the upstairs bedroom, added a few chairs that are serving as nightstands for the time being, vacuumed everything....sorry this is out of order.



There was plenty to be attacked outside too. We spent the better part of the Saturday after I got back from California and before Mom flew in cleaning up the circular drive. Here's the outside video, pool patio included at the request of Cat and Michelle.



Circular drive cleaning included bagging boatloads of leaves, digging up a flowerbed to rid it of the ubiquitous grape hyacinths that infest our yard, sweeping, then hosing down everything. I should have taken a before shot to show you how disastrous it was, but I didn't. Upon finishing, this is what it looked like. I continue to be amazed at how much work things are. This stupid little flowerbed (not pictured) that's maybe 4 feet deep and 10 feet wide (it's right below the window all the way to the right) took 4 hours to dig through, break up, de-bulb, and smooth out. It's nuts! No wonder people only play the let's-buy-a-fixer-upper game once. After that, you learn your lesson!

The pool is coming along slowly, if at all. The water is still cloudy, but a much more swimmable-looking aqua color rather than underwater forest green. But that was the last major improvement, and it happened a few weeks ago. There hasn't been much notable progress since then. I confess, I am getting rather impatient. We've had a lot of gorgeous hot days, and that pools seems to taunt me about it.

For a number of reasons, but mostly because of a very busy upcoming summer between traveling and guests, Todd and I are feeling very satisfied waiting until fall to start the kitchen remodel.