Amazing!

Today my aunt, uncle, mum, dad, and Kylie came over to help with the front garden.  Aunt Candy had a bunch of flowers she wanted to give me, which turned into finishing the front garden.  Some plants were moved, mulch was put down, some pavers from the back yard were brought out front to use as makeshift stepping stones, and some flowers were planted along side of the house.  Oh, and I got a new rocker for the porch as well.  I honestly can't even believe this is my house.  It looks so homey - it's exactly what I was hoping it would be!

A Tale of Two Weekends

Hello all!  Over the course of the last two weekends, I successfully dug up the front yard!  All by myself (well, mostly)!  With nothing but shovels and my hands!  Amazing!  Here is what my front yard looked like before:

The porch side of my front yard.

The flagpole side of my front yard.

It looks like a pretty small front yard, and it is. But it sure didn't feel that way when I was tearing out all of that grass...

So I dug up the flagpole side on the 21st, and I dug up the porch side on the 28th.  And then I planted all the plants yesterday on the 30th before and after my family's Memorial Day picnic.

Doesn't look like much, does it?  I am assured that they will fill out as the summer goes on, but I remain skeptical.  The next course of action is to move those straggler plants from the middle of the yard into more acceptable positions.  After that, I want to get some stepping stones so I can make a path down the center.  Our mailman usually cuts through the yard and I want to make it as easy as possible for him.  Aren't I thoughtful?  Then mulch I guess, even though I've always hated mulch.  I just feel like it will look unfinished without it, you know?  I'd like to get a birdbath and maybe a few wrought iron garden accessories.  I'm going for a scraggly English garden sort of look combined with the sort of garden you'd expect to see surrounding a witch's hut.  Does that make any sense?  I can see it perfectly in my mind...  I'll try and post some inspiration photos.

Gardening Update

I went to the greenhouse again on Saturday to buy flowers for the front yard.  I bought a bunch of stuff that, including columbine and snap dragons, to name a few.  Most of them are plants I don't really know anything about, I just liked the way they looked.

Unfortunately the weather channel tells me that it is supposed to rain basically forever (or at least until next weekend) so it will probably be a while until I actually plant them.  Especially since I have to pull out all the grass first....

Speaking of which, Chris and I finally dug out some space for the raspberry bushes.  It didn't take nearly as long as I expected, mostly because we only dug out circles around them rather than digging out the entire section of the yard.  I think this is a bad idea, since it will make mowing even more difficult for Chris.  He says he will just use the weed whacker around them, but I remain skeptical.

I also planted a bunch of marigolds around the perimeter of the vegetable garden in hopes of keeping the rabbits out.  About half of my baby corns have been nibbled, but that's not even the biggest problem.  Those pesky bunnies have been rolling around on my veggies!  Most of my broccoli, radishes, and and beets have been flattened into the dirt!  Those rabbits are jerks.  But I had a lot of luck last year using marigolds as a form of natural rabbit repellent, so hopefully that will keep them out.

Back Yard

Hello all!  It's been a while, I know, but there haven't been any renovations going on lately.  Because of this decorating drought, I thought it might be fun to feature some of the work we've been doing outside.

As you may or may not know, we've had two Bagsters full of bathroom debris sitting in the yard since last October.  Yeesh.  I'm sure the neighbors are thrilled.  But there is a reason they have been sitting for so long.  You see, when they were originally used, we didn't bother to look at the included instructions which stated that the Bagsters have to be within 16 feet of the road.  One of our Bagsters was much further than that.  Also, they are not allowed to have anything sticking up over the top, which both of ours did.  We didn't have organization in mind when filling them all those months ago.

So my mum, sister, aunt, and uncle came over to help with the Bagster situation and also to help me expand my vegetable garden.  I say that they helped me, but really they did all the work while I took pictures.  What can I say? I'm just not built for physical labor.  Here, check out our progress:

So now the Bagsters are down at the alley, ready for pick-up, and the vegetable garden is expanded and ready for vegetables. More pictures to come.

Moss Bathmat

 
This moss bathmat is just about the coolest thing I've ever seen.  I wonder if there's actually a place where I can buy one...

Floor Plan

I just realized that I've never put up any sort of floor plan or walk through of our house.  Here, let me remedy that oversight:

Pretty cool, huh?  I made it at floorplanner.com - for free!  Can you believe that?  It's a free program, go check it out.  There's a 3D option too, which is really amazing.  You can walk through a 3D version of your house.

Surprise Hardwood Floor

So the other day, while Chris and I were at work, Aunt Candy and Uncle Don came over and took up the carpet in the playroom.  It was pretty much ruined with stains from the bathroom project and also from my cat (she, for some reason, took offense to the carpet in that room and used it as her litter box).  So I was pretty excited when they called me at work to let me know it was gone.  I was even more excited to hear that there was, in fact, a hardwood floor underneath.  I was not so excited to hear that it was in pretty bad shape.


When I got home, this is the sight that awaited me:

You may be thinking "oh, that's not so bad," which is exactly the first thing I thought.  But then I gave it a closer look and found:

This 1960s era newspaper clipping painted to the floor (there are a few of these).

This rickety middle section of the floor (so that's why there was a dip in the carpet).

 

This metal place covering a hole for an old heat vent.

This huge gouge.

This metal plate covering the hole for (what I assume was) the old chimney.

All in all, it is a bit of a disaster.  The plan is to put down a new floor with vinyl or flooring, but I am not so sure.  Part of me, an unrealistically ambitious part of me, wants to try and refinish this floor.  I don't even know how to refinish a floor, but it can't be that hard.  Ha ha.  What do you think?

But I already love the difference not having carpet in there has made.  It is taking every ounce of my restraint to not remove it from the rest of the rooms upstairs.  I mean, if there are hardwood floors under the carpet in one room, it's probably like that in all the rooms, right?

Also, if you are bored, go ahead and play Spot The Intrusive Cats with the pictures in this post.  I'll give you a hint:  there are cat parts in 50% of these photos.