Backyard List Update

5/30/11

So, I'm having back spasms, but more items have been completed off the list~!

On a side note, it must have been a funny sight this afternoon in our backyard. 125lb me swingin a sledgehammer and lugging around pieces of concrete, while my muscular husband stands on a ladder doing the finicky finish gutter work.

What can I say? Our physical strengths don't match our mental strengths.

Here is the list update: (1/3 done!)

  1. Tear up patio area. (Done!)
  2. "Reclaim" stone/concrete pieces to reuse. (Done!)
  3. Relocate plants. (Done!)
  4. Install gutters (Back is 95% Done!)
  5. Bust up concrete "troughs". (Done!)
  6. "Reclaim" patio flooring flagstones from garden. (Done!)
  7. Mark fence posts.
  8. Get samples and select pea gravel. (Done!)
  9. Rent equipment.
  10. Move dirt.
  11. Dig post holes.
  12. Trench for pipe and footing at new site wall and house.
  13. Pour footing.
  14. Install metal edging.
  15. Install site wall reclaimed stone/concrete pieces.
  16. Place road bond gravel.
  17. Compact gravel.
  18. Lay reclaimed flooring flagstones.
  19. Install pea gravel.
  20. Install trench drains.
  21. Install fence posts and fence.
Phew!

Here is Item 4 completed:
Gutters!! (at about 95%)
(I'll do a more complete post later on gutters.)
These were COMPLICATED! Marc had to use these brackets that attach to the side of the rafter tails because we don't have a fascia here. If that wasn't bad enough, this roof is crazy not level/skewed. In all the wrong directions too.

Excuse the rigged up drainage. We are afraid it is going to rain before we get the correct piping properly installed!



Here is Item 5 completed:
I left the small pad by the door, but the rest is gone. 
I *may* have lost my body weight in sweat, but hey it is done! 
(And my arms and back are going to be ripped!)

Trough before:

After:
We left a bit by the house in order to not undermine our foundation.



Here is Item 6 completed:
Here are my stacks of future patio stone.

These were really scary to dig out. I've never been worried about  digging around before, but the 3 snakes and big spiders have me spooked. (One spider might have been a Brown Recluse, so Marc smooshed it)

Pretty even just like this.


I wanted to also clarify (due to a comment on the last post). The area that we tore up for the patio was not a "garden" rather really a sad wasteland for overgrown fennel and ridiculously invasive mint. Beyond some of that mounding grass and creeping jenny at the corner, there was nothing else salvageable in this area.

The other part of the yard, yes, there are tons of great plants that will definitely stay. It is sad though, because the fennel and mint look so nice in spring, but by fall the fennel is 6' tall and EVERYWHERE and the mint is 4' tall and looking awful and scraggly. And seriously, I like a good mojito as much as anyone, but who needs 300sf of mint??

Next up, marking fence post and moving dirt!

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Back Yard To Do.

5/27/11

Well, of course, because I was so excited about hiring out for the back patio... we decided to DIY it.
The architectural world is still a little slow around here, and Marc got spooked about getting laid off. The patio would have ate up a good chunk of our savings cushion, so we decided to DIY it. 

(Not only that, but I wanted the whole thing done in 3 weeks, and wouldn't you know, it has been about 6 weeks and we still didn't have a start date from the contractor. Dude. We suck at hiring out. It is totally (almost) all our fault too. We are wishy-washy. We are not firm. We are so hard on ourselves, but get all school-girl around contractors. Weird.)

Anyway, I went a little crazy and did a huge list of all the stuff we have to do. Here goes:
  1. Tear up patio area. (Done!)
  2. "Reclaim" stone/concrete pieces to reuse. (Done!)
  3. Relocate plants. (Done!)
  4. Install gutters (Marc is on it this weekend.)
  5. Bust up concrete "troughs".
  6. "Reclaim" patio flooring flagstones from garden. (3/4 way done.)
  7. Mark fence posts.
  8. Get samples and select pea gravel. (Done!)
  9. Rent equipment.
  10. Move dirt.
  11. Dig post holes.
  12. Trench for pipe and footing at new site wall and house.
  13. Pour footing.
  14. Install metal edging.
  15. Install site wall reclaimed stone/concrete pieces.
  16. Place road bond gravel.
  17. Compact gravel.
  18. Lay reclaimed flooring flagstones.
  19. Install pea gravel.
  20. Install trench drains.
  21. Install fence posts and fence.
Phew!

Here is Item 1 completed:
Before

After


Before

 After

Before
It was pretty damn overgrown with invasive plants. (Mint, fennel, etc.) 
In the right of the photo is the concrete "trough" I still have to bust up.

Here are Items 2 & 3 completed:
On the palettes are the reclaimed stones & concrete and in the old sinks I temporarily transplanted two of the large shrubs. Most of the other plants were transplanted to the front yard.


Here is Item 8 completed:
We are going with the gravel on the top. 
I like the color of the one on the right, but the pieces are sharp, not rounded.
These samples are sitting on the large flagstone pavers that I reclaimed from the yard.
They are terrific! and FREE!

I showed a plan for the backyard here. That is still the general idea, but because we are DIY'ing, we are going to make lots of decision on the fly. Also, we aren't going to buy the 12"x12" concrete pavers (huge $ savings!), instead we are going to do a pea gravel patio and use the flagstones that we are reclaiming from other parts of the yard.

 Items 4-7 to be done this weekend and week and then 9-13 the next weekend??
Wish us luck!

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Front Yard Expanding Landscaping

5/20/11

Generally, I don't like landscape posts because the never seem like they look that fabulous or different, but I guess I'll share the minor stuff on the front yard first, then in the next post, the demo in the backyard.

But first, here is the minor work in the front yard. I transplanted a bunch of liriope (or is this mounting grass?) and creeping jenny from the back to the front and expanded our landscaped area. We hope to just keep expanding this area until it takes up much of the front yard.

Before    After

Before    After

See? Totally underwhelming.


So just for fun, here is Franca helping me put together her new highchair.

She insisted on having the Allen wrench and I was surprised that she knew exactly what to do. She actually turned the bolt a couple of times before I had to distract her by letting her bang the feet rungs together like "thunderstix" so I could use the wrench myself. Give her 6 months and she'll be using power tools.

(She also insisted on wearing those bows in her hair. This girl knows what she wants!)

We got a "restaurant style" highchair from the local restaurant supply place. (FRS Asheville) $30 for solid wood!  Plus it is really sturdy, not a huge plastic thing and very easy to clean. I highly recommend them. Ours is the Winco brand in walnut finish.

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Living Room = Playroom

5/18/11

Sad that the only room I was happy with (the living room), got completely turned upside down into the daycare/playroom. The furniture looked nice. Good symmetry. Easy to keep clean.
Le Sigh.

Before:
(Best pic I could find even though I'm SURE I have a better one somewhere.)


After:

We sold the couch, gave away the (free to us) coffee table, moved the chair and rearranged everything else. While it felt good to purge, it makes me sad still.

Good thing I'm happy with the parlor now. Furniture looks great. Easy to keep clean.

<--- ahhhh.

It's off limits to non-Franca kids, so I'm dubbing it my new "happy room".

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Wow. Maybe I should have taken a few days off??

5/15/11

OMG.
So busy.

I mean, I like to be busy, but this is a little insane. Since my last day at work on Wednesday I have:

Wednesday night:

  1. Celebrated with friends.
Thursday:
  1. Walked Franca to her last day at daycare. Jogged home.
  2. Sanded, patched and cleaned kitchen windows.
  3. Trimmed out kitchen windows with new wood. [FINALLY!]
  4. Caulked under window.
  5. Painted kitchen windows and installed new hardware.
Friday (while Franca napped):
  1. Dug up all the plants I want to salvage from the soon to be leveled backyard area.
  2. Saw one snake INSIDE the basket I was carrying. Screeching and running around in circles ensued.
  3. Dug up areas in the front yard to plants these plants. Then the rain hit.
  4. Made Franca run around with me doing a little shopping.
  5. Bought bras in the kid's section at Old Navy. [I wish I was kidding.]
  6. Installed panels under the kitchen island on the dining room side to eliminate the hazard of the open back of the dishwasher and the open spaces behind our cabinets that kids should *not* have access too.
  7. Painted these new panels will the oldest, nastiest, thickest black paint. It was all we had. Could not run to store because FC was sleeping.
  8. Cleaned house because Marc's parents are coming.
Saturday:
  1. Worked a little on an architectural project.
  2. Ran a million errands.
  3. Ate at Jason's Deli. [Yum!]
  4. Replanted the salvaged plants in a new area in the front yard with new mulch, some other new plants, and rocks salvaged from the backyard.
  5. Went to dinner with Marc's parents. [Vinnie's - delicious.]
Sunday:
  1. Up at crack of dawn with Franca.
  2. Put Marc and his dad to work in the backyard. [I kid you not, I said "Mush"!]
  3. Tore up all the railroad ties.
  4. Discovered 3 MORE snakes. Only screeching this time. No running.
  5. Marc bought a wheelbarrow.
  6. Dislodged and carted to the back of the yard all the stones.
  7. Dislodged and carted to the back of the yard all the concrete pieces.
  8. Salvaged a couple more plants.
  9. Moved those huge, heavy old sinks to the back of the yard.
  10. Worked on an architectural project.
  11. Worked on a rendering for Touch Graphics...... which I am still doing right now. I'm writing these between test renderings. UGHHH. I want to go to BED!
But because I have more tests to run, here are the photos from Thursday's Items 2-5:

Kitchen Window Trim-out

Note: This is a long-term temporary solution to these open, gross, trim-less windows. They will probably get fancier trim work if we ever finish the kitchen. I just couldn't stand to have Franca (and any other kids) sitting below this mess, so I went to work trimming:
Before
Yea, nice right? Disgusting old yellow sponge paint. Exposed weight boxes. Spray foam insulation. Spider webs. Klassy. A good friend of mine spent a whole night last month thinking that those weight boxes were just open to the back yard and the elements. (They are not, the windows are trimmed out on the outside.)

Step-by-step
 [click on any image to enlarge.]
First, I had to "furr" the windows out to make the trim overlap the drywall. This was pretty tricky, and complicated because I insisted on only using scrap wood and of course, nothing is level or plumb in this house.

We are thinking we will be eventually replacing these two windows, so I didn't want to deal with the hassle of removing the sashes and the million other steps required to make the weights function, so I just cleaned the weights, put them back at the bottom of the weight boxes and stuff the cavity with nice, clean, white insulation!
[Um, yea, that is all one sentence. It's 11:36pm. Deal with it.] 

Then, I trimmed out with nice, clean wood we already had in the basement (yea, thrifty!). Save for the middle piece, for that I had to run to Home Depot mid-project (boo). Click on that first image to see a ridiculously huge caulk joint. 1/4 inch at the top, 1-1/4 inch at the bottom. Stupid old houses.

After
Franca can now eat and play without being grossed out! Yippee!

Now that I'm "done", it is really bugging me that I didn't put up an 'apron' under the sill. Marc is telling me not to bother with it, but what do you think?

I'll post the stuff from Friday-Sunday. But I'm tired now. ;)

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I might have, sorta, kinda, quit my job.

5/10/11

And I might just have replaced it with 3 jobs....

Sorry for the lack of posts. Things around here have been absolutely bonkers.

I quit my job. Tomorrow is my last day. Long story, but all very good. I'll be taking Franca out of daycare, watching 1.25 other girls in the morning, consulting for Touch Graphics during her afternoon nap, and very very slowly building a modern architecture practice.

It is going to be hectic. 
It is going to be crazy. 
It is going to be SO worth it.

I just got back from NYC (where Touch Graphics is located) Sunday night at 11:45pm. I missed all but 15 minutes of Mother's day. :(

You'd think we could do a repeat this coming Sunday, but I'll be busy transplanting plants and busting up concrete in preparations for our NEW PATIO that we (hold on to your hats) are HIRING SOMEONE ELSE to do. Insane right?

Marc will be busy installing gutters.

I'm not sure what this means for the blog. I will surely have the motivation to do some house projects, but will I have the time? Will I want to blog about it, knowing that I do this for free, and every second I spend on the internet, I could be making $ consulting? Who knows.

I guess the important thing is I'm happy. I'm really happy with my decision. Elated actually. Not only because I will get to spend oodles of time with Franc n Beans, but because it is the best career decision for me too. We always said if we could make it work, we would. I'm not one miss an opportunity, so I jumped.

Now, who has a sledgehammer I can borrow. I broke ours.
Mother's Day present maybe??
.
.

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