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.

What's new as of 4.19

We had a busy weekend. Mowed the lawn for the first time (the benefit of letting the grass grow so long is that when you mow, it actually looks like you have a real lawn and not a bunch of patches of grass) and cleaned out the garage. I didn't take a before picture, but it was really getting out of hand. There was a three-foot-wide walkway through the rubble, and the walkway was starting to get covered. This made navigating the garage at night a peril-wrought journey, and that's not counting other dangers, like spiders.

We emptied out the contents, which we discovered was mostly trash (boxes, styrofoam, other assorted packaging materials) and put it back together, and now we have an enviably organized garage. Without doors. You can't win 'em all.

The bathroom upstairs is also looking a lot better, after a few rounds of bleach-based cleaner and the removal of those curtains. I don't know what it is about removing curtains from houses, but it really makes a difference. I remember when my parents first bought the house I grew up in, and we pulled down the Carter-era burlap-sack-resembling curtains in the living room. Dust streamed down from above our heads, illuminated by the afternoon sun. And the room was transformed without the curtains. I'm going to put a few rugs down on the floor, and I'm thinking about pulling up the carpet on the window ledge and planking over it (so it looks kind of farmhouse-y). The wallpaper isn't horrible, and there's no reason to start fooling with it because we're probably years away from redoing that bathroom.

I'm hoping to make some real headway on the guest room this week. De-clutter, maybe get a chair for the corner and get the bed made up. It'd be really awesome to walk in there and have it look like a peaceful bedroom. Having a whole house to decorate is an awful lot of fun. Unlike our tiny house in Pasadena, this isn't done in a week. I love it.

Moving outside

The past week or so, we've been chipping away at finishing the rock wall. A few more stones here, a shovel of dirt there...

I got rid of the rest of the leaves and rubble yesterday, so it was finally ready for a picture just after sundown (hence the blur). We also planted honeysuckle bushes on Sunday (rather an appropriate Easter activity). You can see those in the bed. The plan is to put dahlias in front of those, then calibrochoa (aka million bells) to hang down over the wall. Sadly, everything will be annuals (the honeysuckle is deciduous, so it'll lose its leaves for the winter) but we'll have some nice summer color. Landscaping is hard work.

I also am chipping away at the leaves that are everywhere. I cleaned out and carted a few wheelbarrow loads to the back 40 yesterday. The raspberries were almost buried in leaves, and I doubt that's really all that good for their growth. I am very excited about HAVING raspberries, though. Hopefully they will be easy to get berries from. The berries are in this picture, just left of center. And yes, the backyard does still look pretty awful, but it's improving. Slowly. And we're going to mow the lawn this weekend, which I'm sure the neighbors will appreciate.

What's new as of 4.5

Hi...sorry for the silence. We haven't really been up to much around the house, so there hasn't been as much to say. Plus we had a string of beautiful sunny days, which makes being on the computer unappealing to me. As you'll see from the video, we rebuilt a rock wall around what will be a flowerbed next to the pool.

On Saturday morning, we went and picked up some dirt from people who responded to my craigslist ad for topsoil. It took us 45 minutes to load into the trailer, and Todd another 45 to unload (my arms were shot by that point, and I couldn't really move, so I supervised. I swear every time I walk past the pile it looks smaller. We will probably need more, which neither of us is looking forward to.

We're still trying to figure out what to do with the pool, so if anyone has any brilliant pool-cleaning tips they've been withholding, please share. Our neighbor said that it had been fully drained before, and we're quickly approaching the point where we might do that, with summer around the bend and all. (Previously, we had thought it would "float" or lift out of the ground on its pipes, then crack, which would be catastrophically bad, but if it's been drained before, maybe it'd be ok.)

The yard is the overwhelming thing at this point. It seems like we keep working at it in little pieces, and it's not really changing. It was such a mess when we got it that we knew it would take a lot to bring around, but I wish things were changing faster. And in order to clean up one mess, we have to make another, which is also frustrating. Example: to rebuild the wall, I had to scatter all the rocks out so I could see them. Since I didn't use all of them, I now have a pile of scattered rocks in the yard. Lovely.

We have been formulating some plans for the rest of the yard, though. Next time, I'll update you on that. I have a diagram and EVERYTHING.

The kitchen. Ugh.

I'll probably write more on this later (well, maybe) but since I'm in the mood to write now, I'm going to capitalize on it. These shots are the kind of granite, called Virginia Mist, we are hoping to use for kitchen counters. I wanted soapstone really bad, since it's really a lot more appropriate to the period of our house, but the way Trevor reacted to the idea, you would have though I was suggesting that we paint the walls with a paste made of crushed bugs. So I went looking for something similar, but granite. It's more durable. We're going to hone it to get more of a soapstone look. I'd like a piece that's slightly less busy than these two slabs.

Another trend freebie: granite countertops, especially polished, are on their way out. That's why I was trying to avoid it. In addition to being totally innappropriate to most homes, they scream "conspicuous consumption" and "I re-fi'ed three times to afford this kitchen" (even though we all know your Viking range is about to be repossessed by the appliance store; you should have known better than to spend 6k on a stove!) none of which is very recession-chic.

We are thinking along the lines of white cabinets and painting the walls....drum rolllll, please....APRICOT!!! I know it's not technically citrus, but it borders on orange, so whatever. There's not all that much paintable wall space in the kitchen, and with the white cabinets, gray counters and a slate floor that will have some hints of orange and purple in it, I think it could work.

If it turns out that white cabinets are too expensive (we are meeting with Mack this weekend to get damage estimate and he totally hates painting so Trevor thinks it'll be pricy) then I'm back to square one. Or we're waiting till August or later to do our kitchen. Bleh. Any opinions on the kitchen are welcomed. If you can't leave comments, facebook me. I hear a lot of people are having trouble commenting. But seriously, I need the input.

You heard it here first

I'm going to make a prediction: citrus, and especially orange, is due for a comeback. I have no basis for this, other than the fact that I like it, but I've been right about these things before. I love how the bright pop contrasts with the icy blue and quiet white of the bathroom. And who doesn't love a little citrus? The middle of a nasty recession is just the time to decorate with some cheerful color. You can't look at an orange without feeling just the slightest glimmer of happiness or hope. It's not possible.

So when whoever calls decorating trends starts yammering about citrus, you can smile at the bowl of oranges on your coffee table and think to yourself, "I knew this was coming." Juuuuuust wait.

What's new as of 3.22

Here's what we accomplished last week.

Upstairs: The Next Frontier

I know it's been almost a week since my last post. We were gone for the weekend, and then I didn't really feel like writing. We have been covering a lot of ground, though. Here's the list.

1. Pool. 18 3/4-quart jugs of bleach last week plus 24 the other day have been dumped in. It's looking ever so slightly less green, and all kinds of good stuff, including algae-covered leaves and a dead caterpillar, has been floating up. Bimart still can't figure out why bleach sales are up 400%.

2. Yard. Yesterday we ripped out a few more dead camellia bushes, raked more leaves, and generally did more picking up. The back yard still looks like a warzone, but we can only do one thing at a time.

3. Lately, that one thing has been the upstairs. We put oil-based primer over the wallpaper of the landing a few weekends ago, and finished off the primer in the big bedroom upstairs yesterday. Today, we put the paint up. White suits this room very nicely, at least for the time being. The paint might not be the most dramatic difference for the room, though.



As you can see from the video, we ripped back some of that nasty old carpet to discover distinctly vomit-colored padding, beneath which lay beautiful red fir floors!!! (Sorry if the sound is weird on the video; I can barely hear it on my computer.)

So we went to town, ripping up that carpet and yanking staples out of the floor. Then I stuffed all the carpet and padding out the bathroom window upstairs, which was basically the icing on the cake. Please, have a look.

Somehow, our house manages to photograph exceptionally well. I can't figure it out. The floors do not actually look as nice as they seem to in the pics. But if they were refinished, they could be as drool-worthy as the floors in the office, which would be a lot more tempting except that I remember what a royal pain it was to deal with the downstairs, and I didn't even do most of the work. Plus I have no idea how you get a 400-pound sander up the stairs.

I digress. For now, we are going to get a rug to put up there, so it's a bit cozier, and a bed and some nightstands and a dresser. It will make a very nice guest room until we enter Phase II of renovation, which involves ripping out all the walls (which are fiberboard, which is composed of sawdust and glue and a lot of pressure to meld it together) and actually insulating the house. We do not have insulation currently. It's handy, if you like to freeze. Or have exorbitant heating bills. I don't really recommend either option.

Unfortunately, I didn't take a before picture. This (farther down) is from last April, when we first looked at the house. (It's not really that unfortunate, now that I look at the picture. What's unfortunate was that wallpaper. And the carpet. Ick.)

P.S. If you're wondering why Todd's home in the middle of the day, it's because lost his job. He's working from home now, which is rather convenient.