Dirty Days-Part 2

I love working outside...From my last post, you know this. My neighbors probably think I'm crazy. I mow, edge, weed, plant, dig, trim, and prune. Last week I asked Jesse if he could show me how to hold the weed-wack. He looked at me and said "You're weird."

Funny story- The other week, I went to a place a few miles down the road to a place I've never been to look at buying some topsoil. I step out of my car and start talking to the man there. Half-way through our conversation, he stops and asks "You look really familiar. I know you from somewhere." I told him I live in town and the light floods his eyes. "Oh you bought the auction house! I see you working outside all the time. You moved from..." and on and on he went. I guess you know you live in a super small town when people you've never met know all about you. Anyways, the point of the story is that I'm outside a lot.
You've seen the amount of work the front of the house needed-mind you, this doesn't happen over-night. It took a solid year before progress was seen. (I always like to point that out so nobody thinks we're superstars or anything. Things take work!-whew!)

Now for the back. I loved our back yard. It has mature trees-one of which is an amazing fushia crabapple tree.






But...it was also overgrown with every vine imaginable.

And here's a close up of under the deck in case you didn't believe me :) It even had a full-size tree growing out from under it!

My dad and I got right to work pulling out all of those vines and wonder of wonders-we discoved a hidden treasure. Cut sand-stone right underneath.

We then took the ivy section from this:

to this- (We trimmed it back and my dad placed a little stone walk-way from the door.) Cute isn't it?

So....we had a sign made for him. Hey!-I like to show people appreciation!

After some mulch, it started looking really nice.








Except.....


Do you see it? I started noticing the bright green algae on our deck once the black mulch was down. Maybe the contrast or something.

It wouldn't be that bad but well, after I noticed it, I really started noticing it and it started to look like this in my mind.
Ever have that happen to you? When you don't take notice of something and it's fine. And then all of a  sudden-bam! You can't not see it now! I guess that's why they say "ignorance is bliss..."


Well, anyways for my last 3 days of summer, I tackled this project.

I took some amazing pictures too of the entire process, but I think I accidentically deleted most of them. :(

First, I bought some deck cleaner. I went with Olympic and it worked wonders! You just spray it on and you can literally see the algae dripping off. No scrubbing or anything. The far side of this picture had the deck cleaner sprayed, the blackish-greenish, did not.
If you are attempting this though, please wear old clothes and take frequent breaks. I think I'm now missing some valuable brain cells that would've come in handy this first week of school from breathing in straight bleach for a few hours.


Next, I stained it. I went with a solid stain because our deck definitely has some wear and tear and solid not only covers imperfections, it also protects it the best from future damage.

The final result: I love it!


Our back-yard is really coming. Of course....we just took out a tree last weekend and there is now a 300 square foot pile of dirt in the back. But I won't show you those yet!

Dirty Days-Part 1

The countdown has begun....Since I work in a school setting, my days of summer are limited. Some summers I do speech therapy work in a nursing home. This summer, my husband and I looked at our finances and figured that I could stay home. So, I spent this summer spending every. spare. minute. working on the house.
Oh, and I don't think I've mentioned this before but I do all the outside work. This makes sense since Jesse can better handle the inside work. Air compressors, plumbing, electrical...they're not really my thing. So....I do what I can on the inside, mainly, pulling out nails, painting, and trying not to hurt anyone and then stick to the outside work. And...I'm proud to say, after a few wavy lines and bald patches, I have become quite the lawn "mower", "gardener" and "dumpster lady" (fancy for person who takes all the demolition materials to the dumpster). Naturally, I'm the one my neighbors recognize and see out in the yard every day. I tease Jesse that they probably think I'm the only one doing work on the house since all they see of him is pulling up in the driveway, getting the mail, and walking into the house. One of my neighbors even asked about this once. His comment took me back when he asked "Does your husband ever do any work out here?" I laughed but had to stand up for the poor guy as I heard the faint pounding away of nails inside as we spoke.
Throughout this past year, my dad has also helped my with the outside. It is still a work in progress and nowhere near completion, but I thought it would be helpful for you to get a good idea of our house, and you can't really do that without seeing the outside.

The Front
Here is what it looked like the day we moved in. It's actually a lot bigger then this, as it's had about 5 additions built on during its 125 year-old life.

Here is another view... This picture shows the breezeway going to our three car garage, which also contains a room above it.

This is Jesse's favorite part of the house....and has also come in handy for storing not only stuff that came out of the house but also things we are going to put in (drywall, insulation, etc.) It's so good at this job, in fact, that our cars currently don't fit. There is something wrong when two cars can't fit into a three car garage.
Now for progress....

At the beginning of summer, we painted the shutters a dark green, tore the bushes out, planted flowers, installed hanging baskets, swapped out the old light fixture, installed a new door (and painted it red), hung a flag, and (my favorite) bought some adorable little rocking chairs. Many cups of coffee are enjoyed here!

Okay, I'm going to show the previous picture again. Do you see the large, no gigantic bushes taking over this area? I kept thinking...."This bush looks really familiar." Then I got it! This bush looked eerily similar to Oscar the Grouch.






Can you see the resemblance?





Anyways, I, my dad, took it out. Sorry Oscar! We took out everything. The only bad part about trying to pull up vines is that they always come back. I sprayed, pulled, hoed, and I still have a few little stubborn ones that come up to say "hi." Oh well, the never-ending battle. But....weed cloth does do amazing things :). Then, I mulched and planted what I wanted: a picking garden, or garden with a lot of different kinds of flowers to fill a nice vase with in the summer.

The other side of the garage contained, yep, you guessed it: another Oscar! The previous owners sure did like those yellow, thorny, grouchy bushes! We found out later that some of our neighbors placed bets that tearing this bush out would be the first thing the new owners (us) would do to the house. Were they right? Yep.

Here is what it looks like now: mulched and replanted with some smaller bushes and my favorite: a hydrangea.





All in all, it's been a pretty good summer-load of work (and that's just the front!) Hopefully, in a few days, I'll have a post on the backyard. Talk about vines!

Ireland

Vacationing at home is not really an option when you're in the middle of a house renovation. Even a night of watching TV rarely happens because all it takes is a quick look around to see how much there is to do. Needless to say, after working on the house for a straight year, we were in desperate need of a vacation. So....we saved and saved and planned and planned. We decided on Ireland and it finally came and was amazing!

Our first day there. Ah....

 Was I thinking about our house during this moment? Nope.

St. Patrick's cathedral.

 Ireland did give me ideas for doors. They had the most elaborate, gorgeous, huge doors. I wish we could put one of these in our house.

 My waistline did not lie....I thoroughly enjoyed the bakeries that were on just about every corner.

 Does it get any better than this? I don't think so...

We had an amazing time seeing and experiencing some of God's beautiful creation. It makes me truly wonder how some people doubt if there is anything greater than ourselves. I only had to look around me for the answer. Thanks for taking a break from your life for a few moments and coming with us on ours!