Dirty, dirty girls

One of the teenage daughters from the family to our right, Amanda, and I decided that we would rip out our (verysmall) shared garden. The garden is between our front walks and has had gigantic hostas growing in them since.... Forever. Or, about that long, anyway.

So, up to Suelke's we went. (Yay! I heart Suelke's!)

Amanda and I decided on a color theme of white, yellow and blue. It actually turned out to be more white, yellow and purple because there aren't a lot of blue flowers out there. We grabbed about one of everything (seriously) within our color requirements and a few bags of topsoil. One of my favorite flowers is a columbine, but I had never seen a two-colored one (see photo at right) - it's beautiful! We bought one to take place center stage in the garden, and two white ones to sit on each side.

Jason was very supportive throughout the entire shopping trip, and so I bought him one of the most beautiful hanging plants on earth. [Photo coming soon!]

Once home, we ripped out the hostas and put them aside for Amanda's family to take up to their camper at Boulder Woods in Green Lane. Then we tediously picked out as many of the weeds as we could, turned the soil (with a pick ax and shovels), mixed in top soil and laid out the plants. Turns out, Amanda has a really great eye for gardening! She did a fantastic job arranging all the different flowers. Finally, we planted, mulched and watered.

So pretty! [Photo coming soon!]

Through these windows, we can see your soul

More window installation!

The completion of the yard inspired Jason to takle a couple windows. He's an animal. See, look:




























That's the bathroom window. (Don't you love the tan and white color scheme. Ugh.) And, here is the spare bedroom window:















The trim has to be painted and re-installed, and we need to find a way to make the bathroom window not-so-see-through. It'll be nice to do some final touches and get these big projects out of the way.

Speaking of big projects...


Capping these windows is definately a priority. The outer frames are epecially bad on the wall of the bathroom (pictured) and the spare room. I think that this is one project that we will sub-out. Unless we find someone with an aluminum break, of course :o)

So-my-god

Reason number 5,926 for Why it is Good to Have a Small Home:

Sod.

Sod rocks our world, my friends. I hope that one day, you too will have the divine opportunity to turn your dirt yard into a soft, lush, green, green, green slice of heaven on earth.

Amen.


As you can see, Nicholas ond Avery Cain are thrilled to be able to do their Jedi Training in the new yard - very important business for nine-year-old boys. And, the real reason why we took on this project :o)

It runs downhill

The back yard saga continues, but the end is in sight!

Part three, diversion drain
There is a natural grade in the yard that runs right into our house. By installing a drain at the first low point of the grade (about the center of the yard), we hope to divert the water through a pipe and onto the street. Currently, the water goes into the basement. Of course, Bob already has one of these, so all we had to do was tap into his line.

We purchased enough perforated flexible pipe, drain caps, weedblock and gravel (thanks, Phil!) to build the drain from our yard, through the neighbors and into Bob and Sue's exisiting line. Then, we dug. 12 inches down, 12 inches across. This was not fun.

Once everything was installed, we covered it up with dirt and pondered: We spent two weekends working on a project, that, when all is said and done, we will never see and therefore will never be impressing to our family and friends. Hm.

Pound puppy

Part two, new back fence
We had to keep the super pooch in the yard, so the new fence had to be installed ASAP. Jase picked up a couple pieces of fencing from Home Depot. After consulting with Bob (he knows *everything*), he installed the new fence pieces and a gate. It looks lovely - and Cinder is contained :o)

Also, in the photograph you can see where we started laying out the vegetable garden - yummm! The little barrier wall is built out of reclaimed materials; bricks from our chimney and wood from my parents old garden.

Disclaimer: Any fencing and decking we do from here on out will be with more environmentally-sound materials. We've used that grey recycled plastic composite lumber from Home Depot before, but Laura recently turned us onto Trex, which I think is our preferred material moving forward.

I like dirt

I like dirt
I like dirt
I like dirt
I like dirt

The earth is made of dirt and wood
And I’d be water if I could
I live in a dream
In your stream
I live in a dream

(rhcp)

We began tearing up our backyard at the beginning of the month. This is a project that has been on The List since we bought the house 18 months ago - it feels great to have it crossed off!

In our old house (circa 1928), we simply cannot expect to have a dry basement. We would however, really love a not-soaking-wet basement and the completion of this project will hopefully give us that :o) So far though, it has also only given us a dirty - no, make that a very, very, very dirty house. If you fell the desire to identify every surface, corner and orrafice of your home, I recommend filling your back yard with dirt and waiting a few weeks while two adults, one child, two cats and a dog go in and out, tracking that shit *everywhere*.

Anyway, here's what we did:

Part one, re-grade the yard
Ugh. We knew it had to be done, but really, when are you ever *really* ready to completely rip out what little grassy yard and fence you have and invite a machine to come in and dig it up and turn it into no more than a dirt desert? Our motivation came from two places.

One: Our neighbor and friend, Arland, had a couple free days, a bob cat, a load of topsoil and a willingness to work for beer.

Two: we had spring fever.

The end result was not only a re-graded yard, but also a re-graded alley, four new fenceposts set in concrete, a load of topsoil spread and a retaining wall and a compost area built from reclaimed wood. And 25% of the keg gone ;o)

The retaining wall pieces were salvaged from Mike's old pre-addition walkway, and the materials used to build the compost area is made from our old fence.

Mission compete! Next is building the fence, installing a diversion drain and laying sod.


Oh, and in case you haven't heard, Azrielle (aka, Tubby) loves dirt. If it were up to him, we'd stop right here. Whenever we're digging, he comes waddling up to the freshly tilled earth and with no grace what-so-ever, plops down and starts rolling. Pictures speak a thousand words, my friends. (Want to see more stuff on our cat? Go here!

That is because you crazy!... The new one is much better.

in early february, boyfriend and monster installed the replacement window in the dressing room. monster excelled at the demo portion of the job while boyfriend excelled at the home repair patience with an eight-year-old portion.

replacement windows were one of our first big purchases for 132 noble. they've lived here with us, in their shrink-wrapped factory glory, in various rooms since november of 2004. slowly and surely, they've been placed in their permanent rooms and this one marks the first one to be installed on the second floor. woo-hoo, boys!

hm...

a quick on the side: this talking of the windows as inanimate objects being in shrinkwrapped glory and finding permanent homes - of having *feelings* reminds me of this ikea comercial (via prestonandsteve).