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!

Receiving the Best

This week has been super hot and dry-and as a plant lover-it’s been time-consuming for me to go out each and every night to water my garden. I was reading an article this week about how watering from a hose just isn’t as good for plants as rain water because it doesn’t contain as much nitrogen and hose water contains certain chemicals-yuck! I've even seen it work-my plants thrive on rain water. As a result, when I see it raining, I rush out there with as many pots and pans and try to collect this precious water. 
It got me thinking about God. Isn’t that just like Him? Even the droplets that come from His hand and fall from heaven are better than we humans can ever manufacture. We know this to be true about food as well. Humanly manufactured food is just not as good as God-grown food. He knows and creates the best. 
  Then I got to thinking then about my own life. So many times I think I know best, desperately trying to “manufacture” something out of my own strength. As humans, we settle for second-best or even for things that harm us (like some manufactured food) instead of taking what God offers. In my own life, there are many areas that I settle for "manufactured" goods:

•  A friend confides to me and I give advice or try to help with my own ideas,
• I wish to be comfortable, with no pain or hurt when perhaps that's not the best environment for growth...
• I spend time with how I see fit, without taking into consideration how I should be serving Him.

 If I consistently started receiving what God was offering-how would my life bloom? 

I put a picture of this clover only has beautiful droplets, but also because it reminds me of our upcoming trip to Ireland. Yay! We leave Friday so I will be taking a break from blogging for one week....I'll bring back pictures though and you can journey along with us. See you next week!

Painting Stripes-the super easy way

Jesse (my husband) has done most of the renovation (because he is amazing). However, there are some rare spaces that I look on with pride because of my own sweat equity. One of those areas is my painted walls that the mom-in-law of all mom-in-laws helped me with :).
In our laundry room, we painted stripes on all four walls. Let me tell you, this was hard....especially trying to mathematically figure out how to measure the room and stripes so that the stripes ended on opposite colors. My easy tip is to just start measuring for your stripes and if they end up on the same color, remeasure one wall. Trust me, taking a quarter inch off of each stripe on one wall isn't going to be the slight bit noticeable.

When we painted the living room, there was a lot of yellow. I absolutely love yellow-mmmm...the rich buttery kind of yellow- but it was a lot of one color. So...while Jesse was away one day, I went about the task of painting stripes on the two opposite ends of the living room. It took me a total of about 5 hours to paint both walls. There I was-caught red-handed with my paintbrush and on my second coat when he arrived home. I loved the result (and he's admitted he does too) and have received a lot of compliments in the meantime. So...I thought I'd share what I did.

Materials needed: 

• ribbon or string
• pen/pencil
• measuring tape
• level
• painters tape (I went with ScotchBlue Painter's Tape Delicate Surface with Edge-Lock)
• credit card
• small roller and paint

Step 1: Cut a ribbon or string the length of the longest wall you will be painting. Measure off and mark on the ribbon how wide you want your stripes to be. Mine were 5 inches. I didn't want them all to be the same width so I didn't take into consideration the tape. My tape was 1 inch wide. If I did want them to be the same width, I would mark them like this: 5", 4", 5", 4" and so on to account for the 1in. tape.



Step 2: Run the ribbon or string along the bottom section of the wall and tape it in place. I recommend it being about a foot off of the floor.

Step 3: Make sure the ribbon is level and adjust it so it is.




Step 4: Make a mark on the wall for each mark on the ribbon.






Step 5: Do the same for the middle and top of the walls, again, making sure the ribbon is level. You should now have 3 marks (bottom, middle, and top) for each stripe.

Step 6: Start taping. It's easiest to go from top to bottom, making sure to line up the tape with your three marks on the wall.






Step 7: Keep it going-the hard part's almost done!







 Step 8: Very important! Run an old card (like a credit card) and score each tape-line. Trust me, you'll be glad you did. Your paint lines will be as crisp as potato chips :)




Step 9: Start painting! Remember, only every other stripe and apply two coats.







Step 10: Wait a couple of hours (this was the hardest step) and gently pull off the tape. Voilà! Just look at all that beautiful "stripedness"! And yes, Toto once again thinks he's the center of this photo. :)





Tips to making it easier
1. Use what you have. I didn't want to go out and buy more paint so I just mixed some of the yellow with the white I had on me. However, if you're mixing colors, make sure to make more than enough. Otherwise, you will never be able to mix that same color again. I have plenty left over that I labeled for future touch-ups.
2. Use colors on the same spectrum. I had a friend who painted beautiful stripes using slightly different colors but then alternating shiny with a more flat sheen. The look was beautiful!
3. Again, don't worry if you have to adjust a few of the stripes. Having 125 year-old walls makes them as curvy as a sinusoidal function (sorry-my mom's a math teacher)! Nobody will notice a quarter inch difference. And, if they do, you need to throw a more entertaining party. Guests should not be examining your walls for hours on end. 






Do you have a painting story? I'd love to hear about it. Leave a comment or email me!

Easy Dry-Erase Calendar

You know when you have something in mind that you want, but just can't seem to find it or are not willing to dish out the cash for it? Make it! I wanted a calendar that would be dry-erase and let the color of my striped walls show through. This is a super easy dry erase calendar.
1. Purchase a floating frame-the kind with two pieces of glass that you can stick photos, paper, anything in-between. I purchased mine from Jo-Ann Fabrics for $12 with a coupon.
2. Cut out 42 circles or squares. I made mine from a punch.
3. Take 7 punch-outs and place the letters "S,M,T,W,T,F,S" on them.
4. On one piece of glass, arrange your calendar. *See photo
5. Place the other piece of glass over top and place in frame.
6. Voilà! You have a beautiful dry-erase calendar that you can write on with dry-erase makers!

The Laundry Room-after

Surprisingly (and you're going to laugh) the laundry room was relatively easy (that is-compared to the kitchen). Yes, we....
removed walls,
flooring,
ceiling,
put in new electric and drywall,
leveled the floor with cement,
tiled the floor,
painted walls with stripes and then
painted trim...whew!
But....all in all, it was a pretty basic reno.



It's coming....We did replace the windows and that made a huge difference! Not only do we not feel cold air blowing in, but the new windows look huge!

 I absolutely love stripes! After many failed attempts to mathematically calculate it, we went ahead and painted and I love the effect! To see more on painting stripes, click here.

Remember that old paneled closet in the previous picture? Well, it's gone and in it's place is more space and a "do it yourself" dry-erase calendar. to see more pictures of the calendar, click here.






Ahhh....so fresh and bright. It almost makes doing laundry enjoyable. Almost.