Oh hai

As I walked outside this Saturday, here is what was going through my mind:

"Oh hai, cute little almost flowering fall-inspired Chrysanthemum! Aren't you so gorgeous? I bet you give warm fuzzies to all the people who see you from the street!"

"Let me just step back and see what you look like from afar!"

"Hmm....giant bush in the way. I hate these bushes. Let me step back further."

"Yep. Totally obscured. And jesus, what is going on with that other bush?!  Has it really looked that bad the whole time?!? Let's get a closer look."

::shudders::

3 hours later.....

"Peace out mother fuckers." ::Satisfied sigh::

So the ultimate plan is to move the four white azalea bushes back into that spot, but closer to the house, plant annuals in front of them and then fill in the spot where the azaleas were with daylilies, bearded lily bulbs, seedlings I'm growing, etc. What it will do is provide a visually sloped line up to the house with the tallest plants closer to the house so you can see everything, instead of everything being blocked and looking closed off. Also, since the azaleas are technically evergreen, they'll still provide some winter interest and the house won't look bare.

So I dug four massive holes for the azaleas and then realized I was too tired to transplant the azaleas. So the house is going to look crappy for a while because I don't think I'm going to have time next weekend between camping and our anniversary plans. Oh well. Progress is not always pretty in the between phases. Hopefully my neighbors will forgive me. Or not even notice because there are still giant bushes in front.

Big garden update

I know it's been ages since I updated. The best excuse I can give for that is that big changes were happening and happening slowly. Let's take a look:

1. I have successfully cleared out 75% of the ivy from the garden, earning more bug bites than I think I ever have in my life. I WILL finish the rest by the end of the season. 

2. With the help of my uber-manly husband, I installed lattice to cover the nasty broken fence and to support the climbing roses I planted and morning glory I will plant in the spring. These plants will offer even more coverage of the nasty broken fence.

3. I transplanted plants from the old St. Paul apartment, some I bought from Lowe's, some I got from my mom for free, and some I bought off Craiglist. In the mix we have daylilies, bearded iris, echinacea (coneflower), black eyed susan, sedum autumn joy, shasta daisies, yellow climbing roses, and two butterfly bushes. 

4. I used the crazy amount of rocks to enclose the tree in the backyard. I'm starting the process of mulching underneath and filling it with shade-loving plants like hostas, liriope, and ferns. This doesn't look like a big deal from the pictures, but in actuality, that area is pretty rough. Grass won't grow because the area is too wet and shady, but weeds and ivy love it. So it definitely needs some mulch and shade plant love. 

So let's just revisit what it looked like when we moved in:

And what it looks like now:

And the tree before:

And after:

Wahooooo!

Big bedroom happenings!

I have lots of sexy updates today!  The big news is happening indoors this time, in our master bedroom and in the guest bedroom. And it's all thanks to Megan. She gave me a gift card to Lowe's for my birthday, which covered all the hardware supplies to make a new tufted headboard!  I've been wanting one for soooo long to make the bedroom look a bit more professional and less like we shoved a mattress in. I followed tutorials I found online, and it was super easy, albeit a bit time consuming. I got the fabric, batting, foam, buttons, and doll needles from Joann's. I brought two coupons I printed offline and saved $36, bringing my total cost for the headboard down to $97.

I started with a piece of plywood 36" tall and 2" wider than our queen bed, so 62".

I marked out where I wanted the buttons for the tufting and drilled holes slightly larger than my needle. I then used spray adhesive to adhere 2" thick foam to one side of the plywood.

I covered the foam with quilt batting and thick suede-y brown fabric I purchased from Joann's and stapled around the edges with my new staple gun, leaving the corner unstapled.

I pleated the corners to create nice edges and used copious amounts of staples to secure them. Then came the hard pard - the tufting. I drilled short screws into the wood next to the holes I'd previously drilled. I threaded a long doll needle with upholstery thread, and threaded it through the back side of the board. I then double wound through a button. I tied a knot at the back of the button and cut off the excess. Next, I pulled the thread on the back side as hard as I could to create the tuft and wrapped the thread around the screw to secure it. This seriously hurt my hands, so I wore winter gloves. Bright pink ones with the fingers cut off.  AWESOME.  This took as along as every other step combined. Even choosing the fabric. 

But the final result is glorious. It also complements my new bed skirt and actually makes the bed look like it has a real frame. 

Go me!  Similar item goes for $349 at West Elm.  Now I just need a cooler bedspread. The only sad thing is that I look at this picture and miss the coolness of our old bedroom, with the tall windows and crown molding.  One day I'll have it all...

I also finally started hanging pictures, beginning with the guest room as I clean up in preparation for the arrival of our guest bed. These are photographs my dad took on our trip to France after my high school graduation.

Patio gardening must suffice for now

I've been making good progress on the backyard, especially this weekend. And I've learned to rub myself down with Technu when I'm so done, so I'm poison ivy free!  See before and after:

But there's so much more that I've been keeping myself satisfied with patio gardening for now. As a birthday present to myself, I got supplies for hanging baskets and a bunch of annuals to fill them and some of my empty flower pots.  It's not ideal, but it may have to do for this summer.

Annnnnd, I've got tomatoes!  These are the tomato plants I picked out of the worm compost and grew up to full size plants.  There are six so far between the two plants, but a lot more flowers. I think it's going to be a good tomato season!

So unsexy

I'm afraid I don't have anything sexy to write about today, but I have lots of updates.

1. We have a new HVAC system, and it is glorious. Just in time for the hot weather to appear (feels like 95!), they installed an electricity-guzzling, cold-air pumping beast of a system. Set us back $5628, but we're deducting that from our rent plus 3% interest, plus the credit card rewards points. Just to throw a wrench into my joy machine, Home Depot charged me twice. Awesome. Way to max out the credit card, Home Depot. Refund expected this week, but ZOMG did my eyes bug when I went to pay the credit card bill.

2. The dishwasher is fully functional...we think. After the month-long saga with Sears of getting the right part, we finally got our new front wiring board installed.  So we loaded up the dishes, and SPLASH!  Out squirts gushes of water from the relief valve.  Awesome. Jon, my big hunk of a man, replaced the air gap/relief valve and the clogged tubing by himself. So once again, we loaded up the dishes (which by now had started to grow mold...ew) and ran it again.  It sounded terrible, creaking and groaning, sounds I hope will disappear as the system comes back to life after months of idleness. But it ran for over an hour on the wash phase. Now it's been almost a decade since I used a dishwasher, but I am pretty sure it's not supposed to run for that long on normal wash. We ended up canceling the cycle and letting it air dry. We'll try light wash next time and see what happens. But the dishes were reeeeeeally clean.

3. My so-manly-chest-hair-burns-through-his-shirt husband also fixed our bathroom exhaust fan. Now this is about as unsexy as it gets, but he is so cool for figuring out how to do this. We couldn't find a fan unit from Home Depot which fit the hole in the ceiling and the duct work. So my man took some tin snips and cut the fan piece out of the new fan unit and installed it in the old fan mount. He damaged the first one because he didn't have my helpful small hands to hold the fan steady, but second time was the charm, and they were only $14, so not a huge loss.

With these updates, we have almost finished our list of broken items in the house. Still left to figure out are the front storm door which has a floppy handle and slams shut, the lame shower head which I hate, the closet doors which somehow all came off their tracks, and the light fixture/fan unit in our bedroom. Not bad if I do say so myself.

Kate:1 Garden:2

Biggest news: we are officially moved out of our St. Paul apartment (sad). We turned in our keys over the weekend. Now if we can just get that security deposit back to pay for the HVAC unit that's being installed as we speak!

I've been putting in some major time trying to tackle the backyard in preparation for the big birthday party coming up this weekend. Cutting the rampant, tick-filled grass; removing all the trash and brush; and primarily hacking back the ivy and overgrown trees in the raised terrace bed. I got the worst poison ivy of my life all over my arms (oozing for over a week!) that is now finally beginning to heal. I got scratches and scrapes and two mosquito bites on my face which made it all lumpy. It felt like a losing battle.

But today the garden was no match for the Clippers of Doom. Let's revisit what the garden looked like when I moved in:

Yikes. We've got some trees which are busting through the fence. We've got ivy which is obscuring the bed outline and actually growing into the grass.  We've got trash and brush all over the yard. Mega-yikes.

So Jon and I cut down all the trees and vines, and today I finally got it and all the brush bundled up and onto the sidewalk. It doesn't look like much from this far away, but trust me...IT IS!

And here is what the backyard looks like now:

Indeed, it still needs some work, but we're getting there!  And there's a big jug of Round-up calling my name...  En guard, evil ivy!

Major progress!

I spent about 6 hours between last night and this morning putting stuff away from the office and garage, and I'm pleased to report that it looks MUCH better!

The garage is now empty enough to park in it! This is good because Jon keeps complaining about the neighbors parking in front of our house. I'm hoping this alleviates some of the tension if one of us can park in the garage and the other in the driveway.

And look at all the storage space for camping gear and sports equipment!

Also, let's do a before and after of the office:

Jon's office area still needs some organization, but we're moving in that direction!  Feels so good!

The biggest issues we're having now are the HVAC system and dishwasher. The landlord keeps putting off getting us a new HVAC system, and Jon wants to pursue legal action (or at least threaten it). I have some sympathy for the guy because he's done a lot to the house (though you'd never know it), got screwed by whomever did the repairs, and is probably still paying it off. BUT - we need heat. It's not okay to live in a 55 degree house.  Just not. 

The dishwasher guy came last week and diagnosed the problem as the circuit board. $130 later, we had a new circuit board shipped to our house. Technician was supposed to come back yesterday, but of course he didn't. Jon took the dishwasher apart and installed the new board.  Sadly, no luck.  He thinks that there is some flexible connector between the buttons and board that is corroded. It's especially sad because I want to try to return the $130 part, and so my guess is we won't be able to if we tell them that Jon installed it, so we have to play dumb. I'm going to try to call and suggest they bring the part that we think is really broken, but you know they won't and then they'll have to order that and then install it...another two weeks of hand washing dishes.  Bummer. 

I found kitchen tiles in the garage as I was cleaning it out. As I learn more about the house, I really do feel bad for the landlord. The previous tenants trashed the place. I think he had the kitchen redone. Problem is, I think he did it on the cheap and hired someone incompetent so you'd never know. The caulking around the floor looks terrible and isn't there in some places. The cabinets are missing some handles and some weren't installed right. The stain job on the cabinets is disgraceful - big blurps and drips in some places and no stain in other places. And the counter top is falling apart. It's a shame because if he really did pay money to get it redone, he's never going to get it back in the sale price of the house. No one would believe that it was recently redone, and even if they did, they'd have to redo it anyways. 

Not our problem though, and may mean that if we want to buy the house, we can get it for cheaper. 

POISON IVY

Ugh I knew it. Whenever I work with ivy, I manage to get poison ivy. I don't know how it hides so well.  It is all over my arms.  UGHHHHH.

Vines tackled!

Jon borrowed a huge pair of pruners and a big electric pruner to tackle some of our out-of-control shrubs and vines. The shrubs in the front are now nicely trimmed and I can get out of the car without getting stuck by the holly bush or stung by the bees that like to spend time on the holly bush.  But the biggest improvement is in the back. Here's a before and after:

 

And then the busted fence area:

The most important aspect of this is that now the garden seems much more manageable. I was terrified to take it all on, but now I feel like I can rip out some ivy and remove the stumps from the trees. There are two trees that still need to come out, probably with a chain saw. And of course removing the trees made it more obvious that the fence is busted. But that should also be a simple fix.  Woot!

Update: Famous.  Last. Words.  Easy fixes, my eye.

I started to tackle the vines overgrowing the raised terrace this evening. You know when you go to a restaurant and order a bowl of pasta and no matter how much you eat, it looks like you barely dented it?  Yeahhhh...that's the ivy.  It's everywhereeeeee.

For legal purposes

I put together a list of everything that was wrong with the house when we moved in, so that we couldn't be held responsible, and emailed it to the landlord. As Jon and I thought of everything, we were really amazed that someone could leave a house in such a state of disrepair.  Shameful.  In case you're interested:

1. Sliding glass door in the kitchen lock was broken.  To address this, we have purchased a bar for the door and will install it. 

2. Two kitchen cabinets were not on their tracks; one didn't have tracks at all. To address this, we repaired both.

3. Carpet in the master bedroom was stained. We have gotten this cleaned professionally, but light stains remain.

4. The carpet in the basement was irreparably stained. 

5. Deck paint slurped onto the side of the house during deck painting. 

6. Trash was left all over the backyard, including painting supplies for the deck. We have cleaned this up.

7. Trash was left in all the closets and kitchen and bathroom cabinets. We have cleaned this up.

8. Trash was left in the garage, including a several open buckets of paint. We have cleaned this up. 

9. Front storm door mechanism to slow door closing and keep door open is broken (door slams shut); handle to this door is broken and falling off.

10. Upstairs bathroom tile cracked.

11. Paint job in bathroom left paint underneath exposed. 

12. Clothes dryer lint had not been emptied in months. It's possible that dryer lint has built up in the exhaust line. Dryer creaks as it rotates. 

13. Several closet doors (basement, upstairs second bedroom) off their tracks and missing tracks. We will fix these.

14. HVAC unit broken. We are currently working on getting quotes to replace this.

15. Dishwasher broken. A Sears repairman came on 4/29/2011 and indicated that a new circuit board is needed. We have this repair scheduled for 5/6/2011. 

16. No keys to garage door deadbolt or handle. 

17. No mail key provided for box. We purchased replacements from the post office. 

18. Exhaust fan in upstairs bathroom is broken. 

19. Light fixture in master bedroom (fan attachment) broken - chain switch is broken. We are currently investigating fixes or replacements.

20. Refrigerator door bottom shelf broken. We plan to order a replacement if it can be found. 

21. Upstairs bathroom shower doors installed incorrectly and thus they could not slide. We have moved the doors to the basement and hung a shower curtain.

22. Garbage disposal was filled with plastic trash. We have since cleaned this out and fixed it. 

23. Garage door had no opener. We have purchased two garage door openers for cars/key chains and one keypad for the garage.

24. Many windows are without screens.

25. Many light bulbs were broken/missing/burnt out. We have replaced these.

26. Downstairs sink is missing the stopper. We have replaced this. 

27. The kitchen countertops have cuts all over from knives (previous tenants probably never used cutting boards when chopping). 

Small steps forward!

Jon and I made a fair bit of progress tonight after work. One major improvement: garage door openers!  They had one, but no remotes or anything. So Jon programmed remotes for each of our cars and one keypad for the outside so we don't have to keep going in the house to get to the garage.

I also wanted to show you the front yard.  Forgive the lighting...I took these at 8:00 at night.  Nice azaleas...except that the red one looks so small and random!!  Maybe it will be moved to make it fit better, if I can find another white one to put in the front. The fourth bare looking one will also be white, it's just taking longer to bloom than the others.

I made progress tonight on the small bit of space next to the azaleas. I wish I'd taken a before picture.  But look back at the pictures I posted earlier of the backyard.  That's what it was like.  You couldn't even see the wood outline because the weeds blended into the grass.  And it had horrible red mulch WITH THE BAGS BELOW IT!!!  Who does that?  I think they intend it to keep out the weeds, except when the mulch degrades into soil, it grows weeds extra well.  The new and improved small bit o' garden, hostas and begonias courtesy of Jon's mom.  They look a little wilted because Jon hid them in the garage (since Sunday!!) and forgot to tell me they were there.

Also, I mentioned we got a second car.  Here it is!  This is Bruce the beige Prius.  My blue one is Roxanne.  Yes they are identical. Same mileage. Same year.  Bruce has leather seats and a navigation system. Niiiiiice.

Not quite losing my mind so much

Okay, soooo I freaked out to Jon who declared that I have problems and then agreed to help me tidy up enough to be able to work. We organized things a bit, put some stuff away, and then made a huge long to do list.  It felt so good to get it down on paper and see that each task was manageable. We also found the camera cord, so here are some pics.  It's cleaner than this now, but still not great.

The kitchen: Currently plain hideous white that makes the slightly off-white floor and counter tops look dingy. The floor tile has a bit of pink design in it, so I'm thinking a warm terracotta color eventually. Also I'd love to get rid of that hunter green fan and hang our pot rack. Side note: whoever stained the cabinets must have been under the age of 5 because they could not stay in the lines or hold the brush straight or learn to wipe the extra globs off.

The deck out back: weird color orange, but doesn't look bad in this picture.  Those are my potted plants which are adjusting well to the outside life. Goodbye white fly!! Still needed: nice patio set for outdoor lounging and dinners.

Crazy overgrown backyard: I have huge plans for this.  Chop down all those overgrown suckers from trees, rip out the ivy, lots of flowering plants.  This will be the fun part.

Living room: It feels smaller than our last one, but it is open to the top landing of the stairs, so it feels very open. And it has a fireplace, which you can't see in this top picture. I would love to knock down the coat closet wall in the back of the picture to make it feel more open to the entry way and dining room. One day...

Diningroom: Not much to complain about here except a weird chandelier and a very 80's mirrored wall. We got lots of compliments from Jon's parents about our Craigslisted dining room table which really pleased me.  If you remember they had been pushing for us to get some $10000 table.  This one was $300.  Huzzah!

 Office/craft room: No words for the disaster that is this room right now. Mega yikes. You can't even see the worst of it.

So there is a lot going on.  We're slowly going to cross stuff off our list and hopefully I won't go crazy while doing it. Jon got the garage door openers hooked up this morning. Now we just need to clean out the garage enough to park in it.  Soon, soon.