New grass and fresh paint!

Wow. It's been a long time since we've posted. Sorry. The house has been painted and the grass has been planted.

We've definitely slowed down a bit when it comes to projects, so we're just enjoying our progress.

We're a little worried about the new grass and the time it has to fill in. We planted mid-September, but it's very thin and spindly. Luckily the rain is pouring almost everyday. We opted for the Pacific Northwest blend, rather than the playground mix because the PNW blend actually had more of the seed that I researched was hearty and tough. So I'm thinking that it could be the best of both worlds. Who knows.

We did run into a problem last weekend. We threw the extra dirt on the "parking strip" out front and then planted new seed. It's been slow growing because we didn't really work on growing it. Anyway, everyone knows we've been planting grass, so I wasn't really too worried about roping it off. I'm sitting on the couch Saturday morning and I see the neighbor lady drive through it! She saw me spreading peat moss all over it one morning. What the....?

Painting, still

Check out this hot new chimney going from brown to white. It's going to look amazing against that Oxide blue and honey mustard front door. Hot, red hot. (and look at that enthusiasm!)

New paint on the house!

Here we are after a half day of painting. The whole east side of the house is painted blue, or Oxide is what it's called. And in stereotypical female fashion, I'm now wondering if it's too blue? More grey? Ugh. It all needs 2 coats of paint to cover over that nasty brown anyway, so I can decide after the first coat is up.

Who's this cute four-legged painter in his bandanna?

Front door = beautiful

Check out that sweet new front door! We added some shadow boxes and then repainted. It was bright red, well sort of. It need paint badly. It was chipping, etc. We'd like to paint the house navy blue, so we thought this would go well. Plus, it's different.

On a side note, according to Feng Shui, since our door faces south we should paint the door a fire color to absorb the most amount of positive Chi. Well, good thing we went with yellow then! I can feel the Chi pouring into the living room!

A new door

Okay, so it isn't a French door or a sliding glass door, but we love her all the same! That little gem was a Home Depot special order for nearly $400. You might be thinking "Holy crap, I could have picked that up for free on Craigslist," but you're wrong. This is a solid wood door with a beautifully primed fiberglass veneer. Seriously, you should have seen the old one. It didn't lock or really even open. So it was deemed unsafe after we jacked up the house and the only thing supporting it was the stupid old door. t has a sweet future at the restoration shop.

So the bad news, yes, it gets worse, the cinder block foundation crumbled around us during demo. One was so bad and relatively easy to replace, that we did exactly that. Not only that, but we filled it with cement, that and the ones on the first layer. Pretty much the only thing holding that door in at the bottom half is some construction adhesive.
The cool part is that we learned how to mortar (the outside). Wow, we had no idea. Now we know it's not so bad if we lose a brick chunk or trip over a cinder block.

Here's the bad news:

Yeah, that's a big gaping hole on the left side of the door where the all important hinges are. We would have replaced it, but that little chunk left is holding up our whole house. So instead, we're going to cram (and shim) a pressure treated 2x4 in there and then make it look pretty.

We'll just pack the hole full of insulation and hang out a welcome sign for the rats.

New patio table!

Check out our sweet new mosaic table! I made it all by myself, or I mean with a little help from Jamie. It has recently been grouted, so it looks a little better. I can't wait to drill a hole in the middle and cram an umbrella in there. It's going to be marvelous! Imagine the margaritas on that! Jamie's table is in the background....also beautiful.

Oh, things have been slow around here because of the heat. It was 103 last week and the island on Ballinger Lake was on fire. It resembled Vietnam at its worst around here. To cool off, we washed cars. Look at that amazing grass, hay, dust bowl! (We're re-seeding in the fall, so what's the point of watering now?)


We're finishing up our gates and beginning to paint the house. The front door is now embellished and beginning to turn a mustard yellow.

More new windows, fountain

Before we get to the windows, it's important for you to know that we now have electricity running down the side of the driveway into the fountain pump! We dug a huge long trench and the basically Jimmy-Rigged the pump, hose, robber stopper, etc. so that it worked. There's so much we had to think about. The red bucket is covering the electrical connection until we figure out how to block out the dirt and moisture. I think it needs a light.

Oh and also, we might start painting the house. We started scraping. It needs a ton of scraping and priming. You'll see the potential new color in the next photo.


Okay, so here are the new windows: bathroom and one of the new bedroom windows. It's amazing being able to crack a window in the summer. It's wonderful. We'll need to either buy or borrow a table saw to re-trim the windows.

Bonus shot: We planted mini-pumpkins where the spinach used to be. They're growing like crazy! We can't wait until September. I think mid-August we'll throw in some broccoli and winter lettuce so that we'll have a crop in April

Windows update

It's time to get some new windows! I am calling tomorrow to order 2 new bedroom and one bathroom window. We had the guy price everything out and it's only going to cost about $1500 for everything on the main floor, including the huge picture window! That one is only about $270, which really surprises me. The bathroom one costs about the same, but I think that's because of the privacy glass.
If you spend over $1500, you get a $500 tax credit on the Low E glass. Good ole Obama is throwing us a bone....or whatever.
We'll probably do the other bedroom (2) and dining room (4) towards the end of the summer. We just need to get our room done so we can open them in the hot weather. Right now they're stuck closed and have no screens.

The yard

Now that the kitchen is 99% done, we've moved outside. Thank goodness. We've had 23 days of no rain in the area, which means a great garden and a lot of watering. Those are three different varieties of tomatoes, of which I can't remember right now.

The poppies could actually use some water.

This is a rose that came with the house. Apparently it drove the old lady nuts. I'm not really sure why. I think it's a climbing rose, but it doesn't really look like it. It gets about 20 feet tall before the end of the summer. This is the first time I've seen a bud on it! I think it might bloom if I keep taking care of it. I'm pretty excited.
Here's our ugly sideyard. This is important because I just finished staining the fence...both sides. Our neighbors are lazy. They wonder why they have to pay for an exterminator to handle their rat problem. And that's why we have a fence.
The flower box is full of annuals. I ripped all the mums out to make room for geraniums, etc. Of course, this means it'll look ugly and bare this fall.
There's the garden! Look at all that lettuce and spinach. We can barely eat all that. It looked a little fuller before I ripped out the disappointing radishes. They grew up and not fat.
And here's one of my blueberry bushes, a little blurry. I can't believe we're getting fruit the first year! I spent a lot of time preparing the soil and now I water them like crazy. So hopefully the hard work is paying off.

That's it for now. We still have a lot of work to do. Right now, we're working on ordering a few new windows for the bedroom and bathroom. It's warm.

Cabinet jigs

We finally got the hardware knobs on all the doors. We had to drill two holes because one cabinet was the wrong size (so we got a new one) and Buddy broke one of the doors while we were installing the sink (so we got a new one).

This jig design is my genius idea. I'm so proud. It totally worked. Now we have ALL of the drawers to drill. We're going to the store to pick one up for a sample.

We still need the 2 pendant lights above the sink and we need to frame out the door. The trim pieces are going to be hard because they don't make them anywhere. We went to one place in Ballard, but they didn't have it. Next stop is Blackstock on Lower Queen Anne. They close at noon on Saturdays. So stupid.

Spring is here...finally

Spring is here and we've begun the transition from inside work to outside. Of course, we're still tinkering around with the kitchen. We still have to install the hardware, 2 pendant lights over the sink and re-frame out the door. All that stuff needs to be ordered, measured, just plain given some thought...which I don't have right now.

So here are some of the yard's highlights. There's still A LOT to do, like pour the back patio and so much weeding. The list is endless.

Hydrangeas

Tulip- late bloomer

Mess of a rose garden + a couple poppies

Rose, Bologna variety

The new climbing hydrangea + newly planted sweet peas

The herb pot (probably too soon)

New wind chimes above our window!

Lettuce barely breaks ground

Radishes, trying to survive the slugs, ants, squirrels

Spring invades the veggie garden

Blueberry bushes! Sweet peas in the background.

One of many clematises. (trying to hide the shed)

Another clematis, climbing home made trellis!

Cherry blossoms.

Cherry blossoms.

Geranium starts...amongst the hardy mums

Blueberries and a climber!

I don't have a picture yet (rolled my ankle on a rock and limped inside), but I planted two blueberry bushes and a climbing hydrangea this afternoon!

The picture to the left is a hydrangea, but mine will look a little different. Mostly because it's climbing a crappy old chain link fence. But you get the idea. My parents brought it as a gift on Easter. Good gift. They said there's practically took over the whole fence. I do remember, as a kid, that huge vine thing almost blocking the gate. Dad finally had to cut it down or risk losing the 4x4 posts. Anyway, I'm excited for that!

The blueberries might be okay for a few years, but I'm worried about what will happen when they reach the hard WA clay. I hope they survive. I dug huge holes and backfilled with peat moss and compost. I don't even care that much if I get berries. I just what a couple huge shrubs in the back yard.

Also, something is eating my radish leaves. Any ideas? I bought insect spray because I know we get ants back there. I thought I saw some whitefly buzzing around though.

My ankle hurts.

Backsplash is done

Check out the rest of the photos. There are some random ones thrown in there. Enjoy.



I painted a fake window with chalkboard paint. Now I need some chalk.



Now I have to seal all that tile. Ugh. Question is flat (so it stays the same as you see it now) or high gloss (really showing off the marble).

Getting closer...

This post won't have any pictures, because we finished up this weekend too late for the good light. But just imagine Fir floors under the new light. The grout is all crammed into the tile backsplash! Finally, there is a backsplash. So now we're looking at new hardware, pendants for above the sink, and filling nail holes. Oh, and we have to fix the door trim. That'll be a big, expensive job that starts at Dunn Lumber. We'll probably wait until after the trip to Espana.

Side note: I'm done with this crap. I've moved on to the yard. Of course, this is a fleeting afair with the sun that won't end well. Like all spring flings, I will be left in the dark and cold. Luckily, I got a lot done. 1/2 yard of compost spread in the terrace, rat traps placed behind the bricks, herbs planted, radishes are coming up, fushias and geraniums in the dirt, and dahlias in the ground. I'd say that's a lot for one weekend!

Backsplash!

The molding is up and we're moving on to the backsplash. Check out the amazing grey marble. Apparently it's not as easy to install as we thought, but the good news is marble is easy to cut...very soft material.