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.

Vehicular landscaping

Today was a stunningly beautiful 70-degree blue-sky spring day, and we had outside work to do. Around noon, Trevor showed up with a one-ton dump truck, and we moved the trash heaps (the old bathroom, discarded doors, etc.) into the truck and sent it to the dump. Finally, we are starting to look less like the Bumpuses. Or have I spoken too soon....

In light of this image, I believe I have. In case you can't tell, that is the Q, with our trusty 420-pound rope tied to the hitch, and the other end tied around the trunk of that there magnolia tree. It was looped over a branch that was most expediently removed using four wheel drive. You can't really tell from the picture, but the limb I took out was about eight inches in diameter, and it made a reeeeal nice SNAP when it gave. YEEHAW!

In other backwoods news, we have concluded that instead of spending large chunks of money at the pool store to buy glorified bleach, we would just buy regular bleach, 18 gallons of it, and dump that in the pool. I don't know if it was technically "working" but it sure did kick up a LOT of goopy old leaves and algae (see accompanying closeup) so I guess we'll see what it looks like tomorrow.

What's new as of 3.8

Wow, we had a busy weekend. Here's the recap of what was accomplished last week...



Saturday was a beautiful spring day, and so Todd and his dad started on the gargantuan task of cleaning the pool. I spent the morning zipping around cleaning and picking stuff up. There always is stuff that needs to be put away. Scattered tools, boxes, just stuff. The great part is that it always has a home. There's a drawer, a cabinet, a closet...everything fits somewhere.

In the afternoon, we went to Bimart for plants. While the yard isn't ready (and probably won't be this season) for beds, I am something of an expert in potted gardening, after having about six square feet of garden space and a million potted plants in Pasadena. Pansies are great for this time of year, because they aren't bothered by a little frost overnight.

I also moved the rest of the greenhouse downstairs to my office, which I think Todd was relieved about. Now that he'll be using his office more, I think he'll want the desk space that was being used by four geraniums and a bougainvillea.

Sunday, it snowed. We took a tumble from a springy 65 to a windy 35, and unfortunately, the pool required another round of cleaning. Summer dreams don't come so easily when it is hailing. The contents of the neighboring oak tree had settled at the bottom of the pool, and every way we tried to get the leaves out kind of didn't work. The deep end is at least 12 feet deep, so not much reaches down there. We finally ended up saran-wrapping the pool vacuum hose to the shop vac, and trying to vacuum the leaves off the bottom of the pool. It was very hick, and I wish I had a video, but unfortunately we don't have one that shows the whole process. I left halfway through because I got so cold, and I'm not sure how it turned out.

Yesterday we also started the rather large project of priming and painting the whole upstairs. If you've watched the videos, you know it's covered in old, weird wallpaper, on top of fiberboard, which is like sawdust mixed with glue and pressed into wallboard. It wouldn't do well with the amount of moisture required to remove wallpaper (as in, it would probably crumble, leaving us with whatever lies in our cobwebby, semi-insulated attic) so we decided the least work-intensive way of remedying the issue was to paint.

Here's before:

And partway done:

Though it does look better already, we had to use an oil-based primer to avoid exposing the walls to said moisture, and it smells TERRIBLE. It took 20 minutes of being outside to get rid of the taste of permanent markers in my mouth. In general, I am a big fan of certain toxic smells: I could sniff boat exhaust all day, and nail salons give me the warm-and-fuzzies. This stuff is in a league all its own.

Busy work

I give you Exhibit A. I warped no fewer than five screws, trying to install the bamboo shade in the living room. They included the cheapest screws EVER and I ended up using some small ones I had left over from door knob installations. (I'm not sure what that says about my door-knob-installing skills, that I had leftover pieces...) Anyway, the shade is up! And the sheet, while quite a statement, has been retired.

The shade didn't go up without a fight, though. It is 71.5 inches, as is the space it went into. That's great, except the brackets on either side stuck out about a quarter inch each, so I had to use a variety of tools, including a saw, a box cutter, and something Trevor referred to as "tin snips" to hack the blind down so it fit. I prayed the whole time I wouldn't slice a finger off and have to drive myself to the emergency room. This whole process of measuring, drilling, hanging and hacking took a few hours, which was a few hours more than my time estimate of 20 minutes. If only I could get paid to underestimate things...

We'll also be putting curtains up. Print is yet to be decided, though I am thinking along the lines of either chintz or a formalish vine-y flowery print, the classification of which I am not familiar with.

In other news, our front door is now working. The knob had a rather unexpected design that the instructions failed to explain (once again, Kwikset gets a 0 out of 10 on instructions) but we got it worked out.

Other little things accomplished (none of which were exciting) were putting pads on the dining room table and chair legs so they don't scratch the floor to bits, and on the baskets in the bathroom, so they don't scratch the vanity to bits. I also made a pot of soup and cleaned the bathroom. Impressively domestic, huh?