Taking Little Bites

Unexpected weekend! Going into it, I had no real plans, no real to-do lists, and no expectations. (Hard to believe, yes I know.) It started out small. Saturday I weeded, cleaned, vacuumed the basement, and re-set our backyard watering timer.

Then, I got the notion to try the old soapy water plus household vinegar (5%) plus as-hot-as-my-tap-will-make water poison ivy killer. I mixed the three in a bucket - very liberal on the vinegar and soap - no other measurements - and I threw the bucket contents over the rocks. After the first bucket I realized I was in a bit over my head. One bucket only covered the smallest of areas. But I had enough vinegar to do three buckets full, figuring that this would be a good test.

Side 1 Rocks: Before

Side 1 Rocks: After

Side 2 Rocks Before

Side 2 Rocks: After

As you can see from the results - it's obvious where I threw the mixture. The leaves turned black, then to white in those areas. Conclusion - I need more vinegar and a bigger bucket. Actually, I need a 50 gallon barrel with a pressure washer attached to it. I could market that.... Anyhoo, I'm going to keep watch to see if those areas and plants actually die. Then, I'll go to BJ's for another giant vinegar and make a little one-girl bucket brigade.

If that wasn't enough for one day, I randomly decided to paint that one fan-section of the farmer's porch ceiling. So randomly in fact, I only had a half hour window in which to prep, paint, and clean up. But I somehow made it happen. I started around 2:30 and was out of the shower by 3:45 and out the door to a house warming party.

Sunday morning, Mike installed the fan for me. And it looks beautiful! More importantly, the dang box is out of the living room!! Hooray! It's only been in there since my mom's bday. (May)

Then he took care of some other little things:
Installed the front door doorbell.
Replaced the one odd GFCI outlet on the porch with a normal one.
Cut two outlet covers in half to fit the porch outlets by the french doors.
Put up my Bermuda weather sign. (Gift from some friends of ours who went there... I was not so lucky to have gone.)
Removed the yucky Yukka plant from next to the lilac in the front yard. (Looks so much better without!)
Fertilized the back yard.

For the remainder of his rainy Sunday, Mike got to pick his own project. Installing the old garage door on the new garage addition! (Previously, we had a drop cloth keeping weather out of that area and didn't store anything steal-able in there.)

But as usual, it wasn't as easy a project as he had hoped. The door opening was 6" too big for the door. So, after using all the rest of our scrap wood, Mike had to hit the DeepHo for a few more pieces to build out one side. What a pain in the butt! After finally finishing the framing and installing the door tracks, it was close to 8:30pm. He called it a night and installed the door on Monday.

Looking at this door now, I can hardly believe it used to be on the front of our garage. It's super gross and ugly. I wish I could have bought Mike a new door for this space at the same time I bought the other door. But he really wanted the super huge door instead of two small ones for the front. And I can't blame him for that. We can live with this for a while.

Paint & Playground Paradise

The weekend turned out to be much hotter then expected. And I'm not one to complain about the heat - I love it! The trouble is, you can't always be sitting by a pool drinking cool refreshing beverages when it's hot out. Sometimes you have to do hard labor and sweat yourself to death.

It started for me on Saturday. Mike didn't bring home the fuzzy rollers Friday night, but I decided that it would be smart to start cutting in. I could cut in around the largest part of the porch, paint that one section on Sunday, and have the fan installed by Sunday night. That was my original thought. It turned into two hours of pure sweat. Because of course, the porch is covered with furniture and the floor has already been stained. So to do the first section, I had to move the furniture, put down the drop cloth, clean off the bugs with a broom (which is a whole other disgusting story), and drag out and put up the ladder.

Wow, when I type it out like that I really sound like I'm complaining about the most menial of tasks. (Reminds me of someone else I know.) I'm not complaining. I'm stating. There was a lot of prep involved.

I cut in the first section with a brush fairly quickly and decided to move on. I had to move the furniture back, move more furniture out of the way, move the drop cloth and the ladder, clean more bugs, and remove outlet covers. Then I could cut in the next section. And then I just kept going. Move, move, clean, remove, move, paint... again and again until the entire porch was cut. By the last section, I was so sweaty toast. I was forcing myself to keep going, to finish. (Nevermind that I had to clean up afterwards.)

Needless to say, I accomplished much more then I set out to do. But after that hot hot Saturday afternoon experience, I just couldn't bring myself to do it again on Sunday with the roller. Not even in that first area where the ceiling fan is going to go. The mere thought! (That and the fact we were at a house party until 3am Saturday night.)

But don't think that we ended up lazing about on Sunday. The day was as jam packed as it was sweltering. Mike loaded up the playground dude's tractor parts (yeah, it ended up being unworthy of fixing), tools, and a chainsaw. A  couple hours later he was back with the playground, drenched in sweat. He and his friend Marcus discovered that it was cemented into the ground... cemented as in 4' sonotubes into the ground kind-of cemented. And you thought it weird that he was bringing a chainsaw! They broke a truck jack trying to remove the thing and ended up having to cut it off its foundation.

While the boys were wrestling with the playground, Mikey and I were home with Timmy and Richard, who came over and wrapped the last side-stair post and installed the last railing on the side stair. After that, they were both wiped and called it a day. Timmy said he might have a stair-thingie at his shop that would fit for our front steps.... So he wanted to check that out before he started out front anyway.

It wasn't but a few minutes after they left that Mike and Marcus pulled in with the playground. We spent the remainder of the afternoon putting it together.

I had originally thought of facing the set towards the garage on the left side of the backyard. That plan had me worried because of all the poison ivy in that area, but with trees on the right hand side, I saw little other option. Mike suggested turning it the other way, facing the hillside, so it could go on the right hand side of the yard. I've got to hand it to him - it was the perfect spot.

But much like previous playground owners before us, we found it to be too unstable to just stand there in the yard. We'd have to cement it in. And luckily for us, we just happened to have four extra bags of concrete! The perfect amount for the four holes we dug around the tower portion.

 

After we poured the cement, we put on the slide and installed the two new swings we bought. (The third spot will be for an infant swing.) It looked good - really good. The slide is a little short... and weak from years of weather and use. We'll probably have to increase the angle and purchase a new slide. All in good time. I measured for the canopy and it looks like it will fit perfectly! Although we'll have to fashion a new ladder - the old one is not safe.

Now, in regards to the poison ivy on the other side of the lawn. Sunday night, Mike just mowed it all down. And the lawn looks AWESOME.

I know it's pretty hard to tell from this picture... but the area on the left by the septic vent? It looks awesome. Unfortunately, there's still poison ivy over there by that old Jeep thing. (The red thing by the tree in the picture.) And poison ivy is also climbing up the tree.

How do I know it's poison ivy? I looked it up on this website: http://www.poison-ivy.org/. The entire time, we just thought most of it was regular ivy, because it wasn't shiny and the leaves weren't reddish, as we had always been taught. Boy were we mistaken. The leaves don't have to be reddish or shiny. They can climb, creep, and even grow into a shrub! And the bad news is, there's no full proof way to get rid of it.

Mike is going to physically pull out the ivy by the Jeep. We have a whole bunch of it on our rock wall too, just to the right of this picture, out of frame. For areas where you don't want ANYTHING to grow, you can use a mixture of dish washing soap and vinegar. I'm going to try it on the rocks this weekend if time permits. I wouldn't mind that garbage of plants dying off. You can't even see the rocks!

And thus concludes our program. Thanks for reading.

Scrapping Sunday

You know, I was feeling blue on the entire financial::improvement situation. "We're not where I want us to be," I kept thinking, angry at myself as if I could control any of it. Then I took a look at where we were at a year ago, July 2010. The porch was still ceiling-less! We were just trying to wire it at that point. The garage addition wasn't finished either! We still had two and a half Dodges and two 4Runners in the yard! Still browsing the posts I thought, "Wow! We've actually come such a long way!" And I felt much better.

Plus, despite a lack of new materials, Timmy's coming over on Sunday to do what he can with what we have. It'll be interesting. I think we have enough to wrap the last side-stair post and install the stair rail. Mike thinks he may have a good amount of front-stair material too. Time will tell. But if there's one thing Timmy's good at, it's making use of scraps. Very little goes to waste when he's around, and he's always thinking about ways to save money on materials.

Meanwhile, I know I told you all that I would have that playground this week. I haven't forgotten it. Poor Mike has spent every night in the garage this week, working super late nights on what we have dubbed, "The Poop Car." He needs to fix the lawn tractor belonging the the playground owner before we pick it up, but that shouldn't take long. I need to push him to do in the next couple days. Drop off the tractor and pickup the playground Sunday AM?

This week, the two swings we ordered from TV came in too. We're ready. Just fix the tractor, pickup the playground, set it up, install the swings, and measure for the canopy.

I've been looking up a safe and natural poison ivy killer for the backyard. Many online recommend soap and/or a combination of soapy water and vinegar... trouble is, this mixture kills everything. So I found this product. It's a plant based defoliant that I'm going to test out. Safe for pets, kids, and other plants... so they say anyhow.

Playground Time

So here's that free playground! We haven't picked it up yet though. Mike sent me this pic from his phone when he went to go look at it on Wednesday. I think it's a pretty sweet find for $0. All we need now are three swings and a canopy for the fort. Later on we can add more stuff - another slide, a climbing wall, a fire pole, a captains wheel... the options are endless on these wooden playsets. That's why I like them so much more then the plastic. Plus, the wood blends in with the yard so much better then brightly colored plastics.

Ever since Wednesday, I've had playground fever. I want this thing so badly. I even offered to help Mike pick it up myself. (Literally, as the tower needs to be picked up and put on the truck in one piece.) I may petition him to try it this evening if Mikey isn't totally wiped out from day care...

If not, maybe Mike will have remembered my fuzzy rollers and I can get out on the porch and paint tonight. Yeah, it's the hottest day of the year. That might not be the most practical of ideas, even in lower evening temps. Plus there's the threat of mosquitoes. I already have some poison ivy on my foot from all that backyard work I did. (Yes, yes. Don't where flip flops. I know. But I'd rather have the poison ivy then subject my feet to socks and shoes right now.)

This weekend's going to be jam-packed with exciting activities too, leaving little room for work around the house. Cruel summer! But I will have the playground within the next week, with you all as my witnesses.

I showed the pic to Mikey and he kept repeating, "Mikey slide! Mikey slide!" Turns out to have been a bad idea. I told him Daddy wasn't bringing home the playground yet and he cried and kept repeating, "Daddy, playground! Daddy, playground!"

Lots Mow To Do 'Round Here

I'm not the lawn mowing type. I just don't like it and I have a recently discovered severe grass allergy. But this past Friday night, I made an exception. One section of our yard, the steepest hill where lawn tractors fear to tread, was seriously out of control. Grass like long hair flowing downhill... Locusts popping up everywhere. Weeds! Prickers! It was absolutely untamed.

Mike taught me how to run the push mower... yelled at me for wearing flip flops.... and I was off and mowing. Turns out it's pretty difficult to mow such a steep grade. Mike ended up having to help me because I was in serious danger of falling down the hill with the dang mower. I just couldn't cut it. (Ha ha, lawnmower humor.) But with the two of us, we mowed the most of it.

Then, I pulled out all the weeds and locust sprouts. Mike was inspired to teach me how to run the small chainsaw, since I'd done so well with the lawn mower. I successfully cut down one small locust that was choking out a maple. Although as soon as it came down, huge spiders started jumping out of the tree like rats off a sinking ship. It was terrible. I hate spiders. So I guess I won't be quitting my day job for a landscaping life anytime soon.

After the weeding, we still have a little more mowing to do, but by this time, the sun had set. No use trying to mow in the dark. At the last moment, Mike got out the weed whacker and cut the grass on the very edge of the hill, finishing at least that half of it. And we need a retaining wall there pretty badly, I thought. But these things must wait.

Saturday afternoon, I spread some of our leftover gravel in the "machine parking area" at the back of on the yard. There wasn't enough gravel left to even cover half of the area properly, but at least my little bit of shoveling and raking took down the few small piles hanging out in the far corner. One of Mike's clients is giving him a free wooden playset on Wednesday, so I knew I had to at least attempt to tidy up back there. And yes, I just said a free wood playset. A big one with a slide, swings, and a fort on top. I'm so psyched about that. Hopefully Mike will be able to actually move his trailer and pick it up on Wednesday. That would make my week right there.

I should have been painting the porch ceiling Saturday afternoon, but I discovered that we're out of fuzzy rollers. Ok, they're probably like $1. But it was also about 85 freakin degrees out and I didn't really feel like taking off all the patio furniture, lugging out the ladder, and so on and so forth with the drop cloth and yadda yah. Maybe the thing to do is to paint in the evenings when it's cooler. I'll just have to get myself a fuzzy roller and half a glass of motivation later on this week.

Back to Normal!

Ok, so the weekend is back. Time to ask myself what's happening? Are we too sick to move? Are we rushing from one event to another? Is there some sort of holiday? Some vacation to go on? A birthday party to attend? A Minute Clinic to waste the day at?

This past weekend, the answers were surprisingly - No, we're feelin good. No events. No holidays. No vacay. No party. Nowhere to go, errands to run, nothing, naught, nada, zip, zilch, zoop. All quiet on the home front.... Weird!

So, Mike and I held our breath, fearing the next event and/or disaster, and scheduled Timmy to come over Sunday to work on the porch. Sunday morning, Mike mowed the lawn. Everything was still surprisingly normal. Timmy came over and got right to work.

He added another post to our side staircase. Then, he built a wooden form for our last step, which would be made of cement. Mike went to HomeDeep, got the concrete, mixed it, and poured it into the form. Last step - done.

Then, Timmy got to our last two railings, which had been sitting on the side of the house in their boxes since May. One full rail went up on the main part of the porch. The last of the porch rails! Half of the second rail circled the side stairway. The last of the straight rails!

The only thing that remains to be done on the side stairway is the actual angled stair railing - which we have in stock, still in the box of course. The guys ran out of time on Sunday and will have to install this one another day. Timmy also gave us a short list for the front stairway. (Sweet! I love short lists!) The next couple weeks are back to events and occasions, but since I can't afford any new materials anyway, I don't much mind.

Maybe in that time, we can find a moment or two to tackle our back hill, where mini locust trees are sprouting all over the place. We need to weed whack in a desperate way. Also, the back yard grass, though still growing well, needs fertilizer.

Upcoming in August! The porch gets done! Once it's over with, we'll strip the siding off the left side of the house, install the octagonal window, and finally use up the rest of our in-stock siding. Do or die time. Summer's hourglass is quickly filling into fall....

A Lot of Trouble for Little Things

Time to gripe. First off - I'm so sick of Couptessa ads on Pandora. Every time one comes on, I want to throw up. Secondly, I hate having to "sign up" for your stoopid website before you let me see any of the "awesome" deals... which always turn out to be more like mediocre deals on poop I don't need or want anyway.

Now that that's out of the way...

I've been trying for months, years in fact, to get the right dang end caps for my baseboard heat radiators. The problem originated years ago. Mike bought a buncha radiators without buying the end caps. He bought them from a pro-plumbing store open Mon-Fri 9-5. So obviously, since we work longer hours then that, it's been hard to go there to pick them up. Plus I never wanted to go on my own... not being a pro-plumber.

I finally mustered up the courage after a doctor's appointment put me in that neighborhood. I walked in there and received no assistance from staff. In fact, they directed me to the wrong place. A helpful pro-plumber actually helped me find the end caps, which I purchased four of.

Get home and they didn't fit. I told Mike I wouldn't go back there. So there they sat. $55 worth of end caps that didn't fit. Sitting around for months on end. But, as luck would have it, Mike had an opportunity to try and exchange them just yesterday. He came home with four different style caps at only a $10 increase in price. I was ecstatic!

But they didn't fit either. So now we have $65 worth of end caps that don't fit. I'm just ready to stab someone. I know the original mistake was not to purchase at the same time as the radiators... because over the years, lo and behold, stuff changes. Tis nature's way. But we have no way of knowing even the make and model of the radiators to order old-style ones... they have no brand names or markings on them and it's been too long to remember or have any of the boxes.

One of our pro-plumber friends is going to have to come over and try and identify the durn things... and then try and see if he can order or find the right caps. Two left. Two right.

I am so frustrated.

Then, last weekend, we put together Mikey's big boy bed. It was a gift, used, from some friends. And I assumed it would be a twin.... we get it home, it's a full. Good god the thing is huge, but we managed to fit it in Mikey's room and kind or sort of get things organized around it. Then, I fell in love with this bedding set from Target. Notice that the amazon link says "Twin." Just three days after I fell in love with the set - Target discontinued the Full size! I went to two local Targets to try and catch one left in stock. Nope. I went to Amazon and Ebay and a lot of other online bedding stores. Nope.

I started looking at other bed sets. Target, Walmart, Kohls, Home Goods, Bed Bath and Beyond, Overstock.com, smaller bedding websites, Macy's, Sears, Kmart... you name it, I looked there. And I hated everything.

Why did they discontinue the perfect bedding set three days after I fell in love with it??? That's almost reason enough to send some hate email.

Through some more mad searching, I finally got a wicked deal on ebay on a Tonka truck comforter. (Bought sheets and pillows at Target) See the Tonka tough comforter there on Amazon priced at $60? I got it on ebay for $30 plus $15 shipping. $45 comforter plus $25 sheet set equals $70. Original price of the Target bed-in-a-bag set? $69.99. At least I didn't lose money on this deal, but I'd still rather much have the build-it bedding set. The Tonka comforter by all accounts is thin and cheapy. I'm glad I didn't pay full price.

Mikey doesn't even like to sleep under the sheets and blankets. I'm probably driving myself crazy for no reason.

Meanwhile, nothing else has gotten done lately. We over seeded the back yard, which is actually growing quite nicely. My tree still looks sickly, but I just make sure it gets watered twice a week and hope for the best. Mike was terribly sick last weekend and I had bad allergy symptoms. We were both grounded.

I managed to pick out a paint color for the porch ceiling... but Mike hasn't been able to pick it up from work yet. Our neighbor Richard has been recovering from some minor surgery and hasn't been feeling up to drywall work. Timmy has been MIA, probably fishing. Not that it matters because we haven't been available either.

As you can tell I'm feeling pretty down about everything. Summer flies post 4th of July. This is not where I wanted to be right now.

Inspiring (Though Temporary) Fix

We were at Bike Week last week... Great time, terrible weather, by the way. And while we were gone, Mike's mom (Kathy) was at our house watching out for both Mikey and our two cats. Cool, right?

Well, I returned on Wednesday evening to a few surprises. First, Kathy had totally organized the toys in the living room, with two new shelves, a canvas bin, and a new little table. Now, Mikey can clean up and put away his toys and they'll actually have a place to go.... Then Kathy says to me, "Now look in the bathroom."

Woe. The second I opened the door I was blown away. She'd accomplished something that I'd been thinking of doing time and time again for the better part of six years. She bought a roll of that cheapo linoleum and laid it down on the bathroom floor. It looked AWESOME. I mean like, exceeding any of my cheapo-linoleum expectations awesome. Plus, she got an actually toilet paper roller to go in our built-in holder and a new shade, which she had trimmed with some pink fabric trim to match the rest of the room.

Now, before I post pics, let me tell you just how inspiring this was. I decided just yesterday that this new and clean/fresh bathroom needed to be re-organized. So I started re-arranging all the crud. The four yaffa blocks I had serving as a vanity cabinet (leftovers from college), I moved to next to the bathtub. Nah - that just wasn't going to work. I moved them back. "I just wish these things were thinner," I thought.

Then, I had an epiphany.

Down in the basement, I had two thin plastic rolling drawer cabinets (also leftover from college) that I knew were practically empty. I measured them. I measured the space. This just might work. So I emptied and cleaned them and brought them in to the bathroom. This was going to be good - as long as my towels from the yaffa blocks would all fit in these smaller cabinets. I cleaned out the yaffa blocks and folded the towels.

They fit.

In fact, I had extra room and cleaned out my other bathroom/medicine cabinet, putting some of the bulk purchase items and annoyingly inconveniently sized items (hairdryer and curling iron) in the new cabinets as well!

I only wish I had a proper "before" picture for you. In fact, the only wide shot of the bano I could find on this blog was from 2005. And believe me, it looked much worse now in 2011 then it did then. Let me paint you a picture - the floor was dark green very old linoleum. (or something like that) It was cracked, warped, water damaged, rippled, and breaking all over the place. You'd leave the bathroom with gross pieces of flooring stuck to your feet. Of course dark green gross linoleum matches the light pink tile and teal green bathroom fixtures...not. The shade we previously had was a "temporary" shade made out of paper. Yes, paper. Costs like $2.00 at your local home improvement warehouse. The vanity cabinet, as I said, was made out of two stacks of two yaffa blocks, which didn't exactly fit well under the sink due to the plumbing. The yaffa blocks were made to look as one cohesive unit with a decorative towel draped on top and two cheap kitchen curtains hung across the front on a curtain rod. We kept the TP on top of the yaffa blocks and not in the TP holder because we didn't own a roller. (Hard to believe my husband works at a hardware store.... but I just couldn't spend money on this sh*t hole.)

Now, with all that in mind.... check this out:

In the pictures, the cheapo stuff looks nearly real. The real life view isn't quite as real - but it's 250% better then what it was before. The entire room is so much lighter now... easier to clean.... better on your bare feet.... It's still terribly ugly - but at least we can live with this now until we can manage to redo it for real.

Later on yesterday afternoon I cleaned up and organized the storage in the basement using the yaffa blocks. So that's looking more organized as well. All at NO additional cost. (Love that part!)

I can't wait until we can re-do that basement and get our other bathroom going on down there. But for now, of course, it's summer. And outdoor projects need tending to. Mike will be home today, and rumor has it, our neighbor will be over next week to finish the kitchen drywall so we can paint and trim out the new (now sorta old) window. Next Sunday, Timmy is raring to go on railing installation... After that, steps. After that, siding the other side of the house. After that, (pending funds) new gravel in the side driveway and a fence for the backyard.

That should get us through the remainder of summer.

Tree Woes and Grass Grows

Saturday I was out in the yard with Mikey near our new Japanese maple and nearly died. The leaves on the maple were crinkly and dry. Petrified that tree-death was imminent, I had Mike water it well. Then, I hopped on the internet and read this article from someone in my exact situation.

Ok, phew. After reading all the comments, I came to the conclusion that this was normal - probably transplant shock - maples are hardy, we were watering enough, and not to freak out.

But I still can't help but worry. It's only gotten worse since Saturday. Now, most of the leaves have fallen off. It's been pretty warm, but we had rain this morning and a little last night. Rain is due again over the weekend... other then that, there's not much else I can do but pray it'll bounce back like the article advises it will.

I love this tree and it was so beautiful and full when I brought it home. Now it's a wreck and if it dies I'm going to be absolutely heartbroken. The two cherry trees out in front of our house are absolutely flourishing - despite being eaten again this year by bugs. So I feel like if those can succeed, this maple will too. I'm trying to keep the faith.

Out in the back yard, grass is coming up nicely! We've watered with the sprinklers every morning and evening with great results. It's nearly ready to walk upon!

Unfortunately, all other projects are on hold due to a couple of busy weekends in a row. Hopefully we'll have the rest of the porch railings up by July 4th. I still need to paint. The kitchen needs drywall. The siding is just hanging out on the side yard. The octagonal window is in the basement.

Plenty of materials - I'm not spending anything else until we exhaust our current stock.

Seeding Brings Sun

I predicted this. We had half the neighborhood over on Sunday with rakes and shovels to spread the loam, lime, and seed over the backyard... and now the forecast is nothing but sunsusnsunsunsunsunsunsun- possible 30% chance of rain- sunsunsunsunsun. (Previously, when the loam sat idle, we had nothing but rain-showers-morerain in the forecast.) This always happens and probably has contributed to our lawn issues over the past 4 or 5 years.

But, yet again, we've strategically placed our sprinklers across the back yard and started a strict twice a day, 20mins a whack watering regiment. And we're really hoping the good quality loam will give us a nice fluffy, fertile blanket of grass.

All the neighbors made quick work of the job too. Mike managed to squeeze some life out of our skid steere and placed mounds of loam here there and everywhere in the back yard. Then, the neighbors would shovel it out and rake it smooth. When the whole thing was shoveled and raked, (and by the by, the 18 yards of loam did in fact cover the entire back yard - for those who saw and disbelieved) the lime and seed was spread. We left the side driveway barren, to be covered soon by that asphalty stuff... which can be covered by gravel. (I say, "what'ev's" at this point.) Within just a couple hours it was done.

And that's it.

Mike spent the rest of the Mem Day weekend working on the boat. Draining the boat. Cleaning the boat. Fixing the boat. But not going out on the boat. No time. But I suppose it's good to have all that other malarkey out of the way.

Looming....

The loam has arrived! Mike ordered it early thinking that there may be a run on loam deliveries for Memorial Day Weekend. Smart. Now stay tuned for some spreading....

Now I'm Luvin It

My painting from last weekend...

Mike sometimes just knows how to make it happen. And boy did great things happen between last Thursday and last Sunday.

Wednesday night, as you recall, Mike picked up all the lattice.
Thursday night, we had a small cocktail party for a friend's birthday - going out on a weeknight, I know! Livin on the edge over here.
Friday was our first big lattice day.

Mike first dug a trench in front of the porch, then stapled up the screening. The lattice came next. And so on and so forth for each section of lattice, each section of porch. He finished the entire front side that evening.

You may recall that I was going to purchase a tree on Friday. But I didn't. Turns out, Morrison's prices and selection were so good, I could afford a bigger and better tree then I ever imagined! (Plus I had my 25% off coupon.) Unfortunately, such a nice tree would not fit in my driver's seat. So I borrowed Mike's truck on Saturday to pick up the tree - a beautiful Japanese maple around 8' tall.

I must say I was also very satisfied with my tree-buying experience. A helpful dude got the tree for me, loaded it into the truck, suggested the type and amount of planting soil, rented me a free tarp to protect the tree from the perils of driving, gave me a How-To-Plant sheet, and he was kind and courteous about it. The tree was $189 - add in my coupon and a couple bags of soil - total of approx $169. I think that was a fabulous deal. I will shop there again, for sure!

Saturday night, Mike planted the tree for me - on the left side of the house (if looking from the street.) It's awesome! I can look at it from my chairs on the porch and I just love it. When it grows up a bit, the shade will really help the grass on that side. (It needs all the help it can get.)

Sunday Morning! It's the big day - the day of Mikey's 2nd Birthday Party, and boy do we have a lot to do. (I'll save you from all my food-prep and cleaning/decorating tasks and stick to the house blogg'dness of it all.) Mike begins the morning by latticing (is that a word?) Fail, try again. Mike begins the morning by applying the lattice to the right hand side of the porch - at least up to the soon-to-be-finished steps.

Then, off to the dump. He trashed all the old wood and gutters that we had previously been storing under the porch. (Yeah, they all got wrecked when we stained... should'a thought'a that.) He also trashed all our coon-munched trash and he even trashed our huge, impossible-to-dump-cause-it's-too-heavy-when-full trash can.

Upon the return home, Mike grabbed a chair from our mudroom to return to a friend of ours. (Yes, we had a chair on loan... best not to ask questions. Long story.) But we needed to return it ASAP to make room for the coming piano... I've been taking lessons. Another long story.

So he dropped the chair off, picked up all our party rentals, returned home just in time to get it all set up, and the party went off with very few hitches.

And now that the madness is over, we have a beautiful new tree... beautiful new lattice... no chair.... Things are good! This Sunday, weather permitting, we'll be picking up the piano. Oh, and I may have neglected to mention that our two porch railings that have been on back order? They were delivered on Wednesday.

Wouldn't it be great if Timmy could come by for a bit on Sunday to install?

Next on the List: (because Memorial Day Weekend is right around the corner)
Finish the railings and the steps.
Trim over the lattice.
Loam and seed the back yard.
Finish the kitchen drywall and paint.
Paint out all porch trim and the porch ceiling.
Purchase and install a porch ceiling fan.
Rip all the siding off the left hand side of the house.
Install the octagonal window.
Install new siding.

Not in that order. I'm not sure about Timmy's schedule, but we plan to at least do the loam over Mem Day Weekend. The small things like paint and fixtures, I will keep pushing for myself to take care of. Beyond that - I can't forecast.

But I think we've caught up with ourselves from being sick, at least.

Not Lovin My Lattice Yet

Hyannis HD just sux. I don't know why I even told Mike to go there to get the lattice. Of course they were out of stock! He returned home with only the screening... and a couple of circle dirt things that go at the base of the trees. (Freebies from work.)

Luckily, HD spring hours are long enough to accommodate toddler bedtimes. 10pm EST. After I returned home from piano at 8:30, Mike went to our local HD and picked up everything we needed. We'll be ready to rock and roll on Friday, as long as Mike can cut the stuff. (His saw and some other tools are at the present time, conveniently located at his sister's house.)

Also on Friday, I'm going to purchase a tree. (Good thing Mike got a random 3 of those circle dirt things.) We'll be installing that as well Friday evening.

As for this weekend - rain. Next week - rain. Would have been lovely to have that loam down with some grass seed... we'd have a full fledged lawn by June. You just watch. As soon as we get da stuff... heat wave. Drought. All summer long.

50 Ways to Love Your Lattice

No screen last night. Mike had to measure first - which he did last night. Good news, he's going to get the screen and the lattice and do it all at once, tonight. (Can you tell I'm being just a little pushy?)

Meanwhile, I gave a call to Morse Lumber yesterday, since those last two railings have been on back order for more then a month now. The answer? They'd be delivered on Thursday. Awesome. Will they be up in time for the weekend? No. But at least they'll be here. I asked too for a price on 6" solar lit post end caps and did not receive a callback. That makes me wonder if they just slapped them on the order without giving me the price first... Mmmm, nerve racking.

Also, I received in the mail a coupon for 25% off any tree or shrub at Morrison's Home and Garden. (As if I needed any excuse to purchase a tree or shrub, right?) So I'm thinkin Friday I'll purchase a tree. A tree for the side of the house, since the back isn't ready yet. Not sure what type of tree yet, but I'm flexible. I'll see what they have in stock. I'd really love to have one those purple-leaf'd trees...

*As I said to some co-workers, "I'm not very botanical!"

So if all that wasn't enough, I got myself a good scare last night while taking out the trash. And if you didn't know, we have a cruddy little trash hut made out of plywood out in back of the house. This past winter, with all the rough weather, the hinges on the door of the thing finally gave way. And with all the other goings on, fixing it hasn't been even ON the list.

So there I am, fist fulla boxes in the dark of night. I pull off the plywood door, which is just leaning against the hut, and I stare. "When did I throw away a sweatshirt," I'm asking myself. Suddenly, the sweatshirt looked up. And I'm staring into the fuzzy face of one of the biggest raccoons I've ever seen. He's just chillin in the trash can, chowin down.

I screamed and ran. He was not phased. Perhaps a little surprised that I so rudely interrupted his dinner, that's all. He was big - I mean come on, I thought he was a sweatshirt laying on top of the trash can. Fat as a coon who's been munching on our trash since the door broke over the winter, undoubtedly.

I went right inside. "Did you hear me scream?"
"No."
Well, that was comforting. Good to know I could have been mauled by a fat coon without anyone to hear me and come to my aid. I related the story to Mike, who immediately went out to the garage looking for his pellet gun.

But by then our furry new friend was no longer in the hut. But he hadn't gone far. He was brazen enough to stick around close, hanging out under an adjacent tree. Mike got one good shot off, hitting him in the face before he scurried into the darkness. By the time Mike got a proper flashlight, he'd gone. Or maybe found a better hiding place.

Another great reason to love your lattice.

And another great reason to get a new freakin trash hut. A real live small shed would be fabulous. Something not made out of scraps... I shouldn't complain. It's lasted thus far.

Rock'N Out

My back is kinda sore, but the rock wall is done! And we actually had a good time, Mike and I. Yes we did. We grabbed a couple beers, set up the work light, and chucked rocks at dirt for the better part of 2 hours. It was great. Just like old times.

And I must admit, I'm pretty happy with the results. We used up all the rocks we gathered on Sunday, plus some huge ones we managed to roll into place.

Can't Stop the Rock

So as you can see, the rock wall now turns neatly to the right.... or left, depending on where you're standing. We went as far as the amount of rocks could take us. What we're going to do with the hillside to the left of the rocks in this pic... unknown. Maybe that area will just be grass.

And speaking of which, Mike is going to attempt to just change the oil in his skid steere and make it go - at least enough to spread loam. Plus, while we were standing around admiring our work last night...he noticed a high area that he'd like to grade down. Urgh. In my opinion, that man could find fault in the yard for an eternity just so he could keep digging with the big machine.

Then, he also dropped the bomb that he doesn't want to re-gravel the side driveway. He wants to put down something... I forget the word. But it's the poop they scrape off highways when they repave. Old asphalt. I don't like that idea at all. He's slowly trying to pave the entire yard is what he's doing. I much prefer the natural gravel look - it goes with the rock wall, and it provides better drainage. HE wants to eventually put a car lift in the side driveway.

Nuh-uh. No ways.

We'll see who wins out on this one. We did not come to any kind of agreement at that time.

But seeing as how we made so much great progress last night - I want to keep the train going and have Mike bring home that meshy stuff that goes under the lattice for the bottom part of the porch. If we can maybe get that stuff on tonight and the lattice tomorrow or Thursday?! Keep up the pace! THIS is the spring I'm talkin about.

If At First You Don't Succeed.... Get a Bigger Machine

AKA The Big Machine Fiasco of 2011.

Mike brought home the big machine on Thursday - a Case skid steere on tires. As you recall from last post, he spent all of Thursday night cleaning the yard in preparation. Friday he planned to dig up the side gravel driveway so that we'd be able to have the loam delivered and dropped there on Saturday.

It was all so smooth and easy and going according to plan. So of course, something had to go terribly wrong.

Friday night's disaster started with the Case. It couldn't even dig itself out of its own way! Seriously - no power. Mike struggled for a couple hours and finally gave in when the stoopid thing couldn't even get over a small dirt hump. He switched to our own John Deere skid steere... which we hadn't planned to use because we always considered it an inferior machine. Turns out, it kicks the stuffing out of the Case. It was actually doing a credible job... that is, until the motor blew up.

Yes, that little machine kicked the bucket at the absolute wrong time. Mike spent the rest of the night trying in desperation to fix it - but gave in upon the realization that the motor should really be re-built.

Saturday. Obviously, we weren't going to order loam without the means to move it and without a place to put it. Sad days.

Then Mike called me on his way home from work Saturday night. He was on his way to a job site where he would pick up a bigger big machine from another friend of his. The same bigger big machine, it turns out, that dug our basement years prior. (Ah, memories.)

Saturday night we had three machines - three trailers - and one boat in the neighbor's yard. OMG just doesn't cover what the neighbors must have thought... although they've got to be used to it by now. (We are good friends with most of them, one family hates us, and we have one newbie on one side that I think likes us...)

Anyway, when Mike rolled off the trailer with that third machine - a big Cat on tracks - he drove right over to the gravel driveway, scooped a scoop, and dumped it over the hill. Power! At long last! Sunday was going to be good... except now we didn't have the loam. Only one day with the machine and no loam...

8am Mike started up the machine. And it went so fast, I was convinced he was going to be finished with the whole job at noon! Sure enough, the driveway was done before 10.

Before noon, Mike had brought down the grade of the entire back yard to the correct level. Before 1, he cut a bit out of the hill on the other side of the garage - where we hadn't even planned to cut! Before 2, the entire back yard was smoothed over. Mike took the machine down back into the hole, where we picked up rocks to create a rock wall where our current rock wall now makes a sharp right. Before three, Mike decided to dig a hole out in the way back and bury two huge stumps.

Before 4, the machine was washed and back on its trailer and on its way back to the job site where it came from. Before 5, the cruddy tire Case was back on its trailer and on its way back to where it came from.

And we were all home about 8, having stopped for dinner on the way home.

The Old Gravel Driveway, now Dirt

The Opposite Side of the Garage soon to be Tie Wall

The New, Flat Back Yard

Now the only problem is the loam. How are we going to spread it once it's delivered? We may not be able to get the machine again... and ours is kaputkz.

For now, those thoughts are going to have to wait. This week, I hope to complete the rock wall on the new right hand turn of the back yard. I also hope to get some PT ties for the side yard on the other side of the garage. We can't have either side washing out... but I have no clue what's involved for the ties. Rocks are easy. You just throw 'em on. Looks rustic. I might even do that tonight if I can muster my strength enough.

Stain, Dig, Repeat

Allergies. I have severe allergies. And boy did I suffer last weekend... right after I cursed myself by saying, "F this sickness, I'm going to keep on doing whatever I wanna do." Yup. Never ever say that. Because the sick came back with a vengeance and bit me in the butt so hard I could barely get off the couch to make myself some Sleepytime tea.

I was going through a box o tissues a day. But after going to the Dr's on Wednesday, I'm Clariten clear! Now I understand that ad campaign - because I was in a serious fog o allergies. And that Netipot that I swore I'd never do? I'm doing it daily. And I'm going to be seeing a specialist.... Loverly.

But despite the pain... progress cannot be stopped. (Just slowed a little bit, which is super frustrating when you're on a tight spring chore/project schedule!)

Mike did in fact get the porch stainer and stain last weekend. The stainer thing looks a bit like a Swiffer, except with a brush in the middle to get the insides of the boards. Unfortunately, due to sickness, the porch was not cleaned off or prepared before Sunday as was planned. Mike had to do it all... and the job took all day.

Additionally, we realized last Sunday, "Hey it's May 1st and it's the last day we can burn!" And boy did we have a pile from all that yard work and trimming of trees we did a few weeks-a month back. So Mike set up a burn while he worked out front. It was a little hectic for a while...

But the brush got burnt and the stuff got stained.

The porch looks AMAZING! Not only because of the beautiful dark cherry stain, but also because all the poop is gone. (And by poop, I mean siding, wood, tools, etc.) I put back our porch furniture just a few days ago, plus a couple potted plants from BJ's.... OMG it looks like a real live nice person's house. I'm in love all over again.

I Actually Had a Nice Cup of Coffee Out Here While Mikey Played on the Bus

The Plants Make a Difference - So Nice!

The only unfortunate news - it's going to need another coat. And, with this week just made for diggin', I just don't think we're going to get to it in time for Mikey's 2nd bday party on the 15th.

But speaking of diggin', Mike picked up the machine on Thursday and began the lovely process of cleaning up the yard. (Did I mention he took the camper back to our friends' house on Tuesday night?) So the camper was already gone. Next, Mike cleared around the garage (again) and put some scrap metal in his truck for the dump. The boat he moved to our vacant neighbor's house. Mikey's little bus - on the porch.

And that's about all we had time for on Thursday....

Can You Dig It?

Just call me A Mess. After a near- recovery, I've slipped into relapse town. I don't know if this is allergies, viruses, infections, or just generalized internal chaos (great band name by the way) but I'm sick and tired of it. So sick and tired that I've resumed all normal activity - whether I feel like poo or feel like sunshine, I do whatever I normally do. I just have to. That's the bottom line. I can't stay stagnant for weeks on end.

Since the garage doors are in and working and since the remainder of my railings are still on back order, Mike and I have moved forward on other projects. Just last Friday I came home early and painted a lot of the farmer's porch trim and puttied some more nail holes. I still have the front facing, exterior farmer's porch trim to putty and paint - but that will have to wait until Mike sets up the ladder for me. Because I'm petrified of heights. (As my good friend Ryan put it, "I'm not afraid of heights - it's just that 'Woe!' feeling you get when you're on top of the ladder.")

Mike, meanwhile, continues to clean up his mechanical hoarding. Last weekend he gave away a set of rims and a giant tire.

And just this week, we're gearing up for warm sunny weekend weather with a couple projects in mind. Just last night, for example, I tidied the camper in preparation for its departure on Friday. Tonight, Mike will install his brake controller so he can safely tow the thing to our friends' house. (Yes, we share the camper.)

This move will free up the gravel driveway so that Mike can use his skid steere to remove all the rocks and fix the grade. (Out and away from the garage this time!) Once this has been accomplished, we'll order a dump load of loam and have it dumped right in the once-gravel driveway area. And this is because....

Next Sunday the 8th, Mike is borrowing a bigger machine from some friends of his to grade the backyard and spread the loam. (Nothing says Happy Mom's Day more then big machinery....) And I know we previously decided NOT to re-grade... but Mike has the opportunity to borrow the machine for free and we're eager to dig below and cover up any broken glass and debris leftover from last year's vehicle headaches and trash burying of years past. SO, there ya go.

Additionally, Friday or Saturday night, Mike is going to pick up stain and the porch staining machine. (Three non-rainy days in a row? Yup, I'll stain for that.) Tonight and/or tomorrow night, my task will be to clean off the porch in preparation. And hopefully with the machine, it won't take too much time once we get started either.


Stay tuned - this renovation freight train is coming through....

The Doors

It's been awhile. And I apologize... but I've been pretty much on my death bed for the entire month of April. First, as you know, it was the strep. Then I came down with conjunctivitis. Then I came down with some sort of bronchitis, from which I am still recovering by the way.

Mike got none of it - of course.

But despite my online absence, we've still been working. (And when I say we, I mean Mike because I've been totally out of commission.) 

Let me start first with our door drama.

As you know, the fam and I bought Mike a giant garage door for xmas. A giant garage door for our two-car one-door not-one-large-door-one-small-door garage. But due to inclement weather and misc sickness, it's been sitting around since January in boxes. The door itself, the hardware, the tracks, and all the accessories we purchased... just hanging out in the boxes.

A few Sundays ago, we were finally ready to install. And I mean, this was do or die. The previous Saturday night, Mike and a few of his friends cleaned out the garage, cut a gigantic hole, removed the old door, and pushed out the project cars. A door had to go in by end of day Sunday. Otherwise let me just put up a red flag and a sign out front: FREE STUFF! GARAGE NOW OPEN FOR LOOTING!

Sunday morning Mike went out to the HD and purchased the garage door opener. (Eeee! So exciting!) As soon as he arrived back home, the door dude arrived. The weather was beautiful, the pre-construction was accurate, and everything was perfect.... But we were missing pieces. Big deal pieces. The low headroom kit that would allow the door to open properly was missing.

I could've sworn we paid for that.

But we had no invoice, receipt, order confirmation, package inventory, or other manner of documentation could be found anywhere. I had an email, which I received after ordering the door on Home Depot's online garage door custom ordering website. You know what it said? "Thanks for ordering blah blah blah." Nothing about - here's what you ordered and here's the cost breakdown...

Lovely.

The guys went back to the DeepHo, purchased the low headroom kit in stock, and returned after all that to find out that it wasn't going to work. So the door was installed.... but it couldn't go up. (At least our stuff was safe though.... So safe, not even we could get to it!)

Now, at this point, I'd like to take a break in the narrative to talk about WHAT a difference the new door (working or not) has made to the garage. First, the outside. It looks like a real live two car garage now. A nice one at that... save for a little trim around the edges. And when you open the door... (not that it could be opened at this point in the story) the whole garage world is your oyster!

Inside, the white of the door makes the entire garage look bigger when the door is closed. Mike is thrilled beyond belief.

And now we fast forward to just last weekend. Mike called the door company and they confirmed that in fact we did not order a low headroom kit. (Uh-huh, is my response. I need to call them back to get an actual receipt.) So, back to the DeepHo. But the salesperson told Mike the kit he'd bought previously would work. So, back home.

Mike and the door dude make some modifications and at long last, the door went up and down! Mike installed the opener too - so just imagine, we hit the button and it opens! No more of this fumbling for the padlock key and trying to get the durn thing to open when it's frozen in the middle of winter. The garage door opener even came with a wireless keypad for the side of the garage. (Yet to be installed.) All these creature comforts! I'm loving it and I haven't even pressed my button yet.

Sick Like Winter

This is an April fool's joke, isn't it? First the snow, then strep throat. WTF?! Yes, sick again. The snow came first, tuned me into a minor cold which turned into major pain. And by last Friday, I was completely incapacitated. Saturday I went to the Minute Clinic - strep.

But I wasn't alone! The door dude called Mike. He was sick as well... sounded worse then I did, Mike said. (How that was possible, I didn't know.) The garage door installation was again postponed.

My good gal pal Heidi and her 4-kid crew were also supposed to come by for family hair day. (She does the hair, if you hadn't guessed.) Strep unfortunately canceled that date too. No need to expose two older kids, a toddler, and a newborn to ANYTHING like that.

Timmy, on the other hand, was healthy and well and arrived on Sunday around noon for more railing installation. (I was quarantined to the house as soon as folks arrived.) He and Mike (and Richard, who joined the party a couple hours later) wrapped the last full height pole and installed our last in-stock railing. (Two more on backorder, yet to arrive.) Then, they wrapped the three half poles of the side stairway. Ready to rock.

At the end of the day, the guys figured out how the front porch steps were going to go. Mike and Richard dug and prepared the stairway landing area for concrete. Pending a break in the rain, Mike will bring home the cement mixer and pour the front stair landing and the remainder of the side stair landing. (Which we previously - and accidentally - poured only halfway.)

*UPDATE
So here I am on Thursday.... still having not posted the post that I started writing on Monday. Blame the sickness! (That's what I do.)

While I was busy not-blogging, Mike and Richard picked up the cement last night. Mike had brought home the cement mixer, but there just wasn't enough daylight and energy to make it happen. Plus, we had a little bit of rain. Tonight perhaps?

Meanwhile, I've been trying to research solar post end caps. And if you click on that nifty link, you'll see that Amazon has a wide price range of products. Some of these dang solar lit post caps are big bucks. Like this one for $49.99... IT'S ONLY ONE CAP, PEOPLE!
Home Depot has a 4" x 4" one for $3.99. Yes it's crap, but it's only $3.99! Compared with $50??? What's wrong with the world? If I had a 4" x 4" post, I'd buy a few for $3.99 and if they turned out to be poo, I wouldn't give a poo.

The thing of it is, the reviews for the expensive ones aren't that great. They stopped working... they came broken... they're not bright at all... etc etc.

Unfortunately for us, we have the harder-to-find 6" x 6" post. So I can't just pick up a $3.99 cap and call it done. In fact, I'm having a difficult time finding a 6" for a decent price. I found this one here, but I'm not really in love with the design. I more like the design of the $50 one. Not that it comes in my size anyway.

And other websites - deckdepot and decklighting and otherstoopiddecksites.com? Yeah, I've found that their pricing is NOT at all competitive, their sites have poor design and navigation, the information is lacking, the selection is limited, and overall - I've come to the conclusion that I probably won't be able to find these online.