an intro to demolition

On my 2012 goals list was the task of tearing down the planter boxes on the front of the house. I think my biggest fear in taking on the project was that whatever was behind the boxes would be hideous. Ultimately, the eyesore that was the boxes overcame my fear.

See what I mean?

The other set didn't look quite as bad, but still pretty awful.

I'm also intimidated by demo work, so Jose offered to help me check this item off my list. Each set of boxes took 1-2 swipes from his mallet...they really wanted to be taken down and put to rest. I was a little nervous about the crude board with tons of bulky screws holding them up...

Once it came down, we saw that the decorative boards that match the other windows are there, and they don't look so bad. I need to pull out our house touch-up paint to get the bricks that were behind the boxes. But that will only come after we clean and scrub the dirt and filth.

This whole thing reminded me the next wave of house painting is our windows and trim. The color we painted the brick is a cool, sleek grey, so we can either go with white, a darker grey, or black. Decisions, decisions.

outdoor project/my friends are the BEST!

I've blogged about the disaster that IS our yard. Front and back. Disaster. My slogan is "one thing at a time" but man, that's tough! One of the hardest parts is deciding on which project is the next one up. For my birthday, I got two great gifts that make this a little easier - beautiful bulbs and a gift card to Logan Trading Company. Are my friends the best or WHAT?!



So I have my project materials in hand, I'm back to the original problem - which area gets the makeover??

a space of my own

I think the phrase is actually "a room of her own", but this is close enough for me. The dream became reality pretty quickly after the blueprints were drawn up, but this really should have happened a long time ago. I freed up SO much space in the living room and the third bedroom (which is so multi-purposed that it was bursting at the seams), so it's a win-win. Added bonus: my yarn will be locked up and out of Puggie's reach. Double bonus: I have plenty of space for more yarn now...and some fabric as well!

A big shout out to Jose for assembling the furniture and hanging the shelves. And for being supportive of the whole thing. And for not losing patience with Puggie as she walked all over the moving parts during construction. You forget that the "good" part of having a nervous dog is the fact that he never gets in the middle of projects like this. Puggie? She was all over it, every step of the way. Even the photo-taking process at the end - so appropriate.

ode to magnetic paint

Magnetic poetry is pretty popular at our house. I bought our first set about 6 years ago and we've added to it here and there. Jose frequently entertains himself by composing, tweaking, and re-composing verses. It's fun at parties as well...I always look forward to seeing what people pulled together while I was off cooking, entertaining, or being entertained.

When we moved into the new place two years ago, the words never really got unpacked. We switched to a stainless fridge, so our options were limited. We bought magnetic paint and an open frame from Michael's and I set up a small place, but it barely housed 1/3 of our magnets.

On my to-do list for quite some time, was the re-painting of the upper half of the dining room. When I finally got around to it, I decided to use the magnetic paint in one corner and dedicate it to magnetic poetry.


Since the walls are light and the words are on a white background, it is difficult to get a good photo, but I really love the space. The best part is that when I see a booster set of words that I like, I can pull the trigger...we have plenty of room to grow!

blueprints of a dream

This may not look like much to you, but it's my craft workspace brainchild, sketched by Jose. I've been craving a dedicated space for all of my knitting supplies, but in the interest of being tidy, my stuff is all tucked in bins that are not-so-strategically scattered about my house. For those of you with any sort of crafty hobby, you completely know what I'm talking about and you feel my pain. Anyway, the result of me trying to be non-intrusive, is that I'm overly-intrusive. There are projects and supplies everywhere. It drives Jose crazy, and it really gets under the skin of the uber-planner/organizer in me. And it tempts Puggie to do bad things - by the way, she doesn't really need me to enable her, she gets into enough on her own.

So my latest kick is that I want a sewing machine. I've sewn a lot of things by hand over the years, and I have a half-finished quilt tucked away in a closet...PLUS, my friends Christy and Tina talked about (and flaunted) their sewn goods until I caved. Well, that was really the straw that broke the craft supply camel's back...I carved out a corner of our guest room, and after much measuring and online browsing, I came up with this configuration. I used painters tape to mark it up and see if it would work and Jose was nice enough to sketch it all out. It works, and I love it. Now comes the hard part: material retrieval and construction. Stay tuned.

the house: a work in progress...

I love our house. I really, really do. But sometimes the projects overwhelm me. The part that most stresses me is the front yard. Well, also the backyard, but honestly, the backyard is SO bad that I don't even consider it a project. I consider it a lost cause.

We've been handling projects one at a time, and I've been taking photos the whole way, but I think I've been waiting to do an "all done" post before sharing them. Well, if I'm honest with myself - really honest - then I know the "all done" post won't happen for quite some time. Maybe a decade or so (if ever).

So here's an angle of the house from the right - Winter of 2009, just after we bought the place:


And here's that same angle in the Spring of 2011. Notice that the shutters are gone and the entire house has been painted. Jose and I did all of the painting ourselves.


Here's a front view of the house, Winter 2009, pre-paint:


And the view in Spring 2011:


From these shots you probably get the idea that the previous homeowner LOVED to plant things. The problem is that they never really maintained it, and now it's a little out of control. Also, these angles don't do justice to the height and amount of vinca and ivy that are growing a little out of control. I keep reminding myself that it's just one day at a time, one season at a time, one project at a time, but I just want to do it all. Now. In the meantime, I'm open to any and all suggestions, tips, and tricks from all of my creative and green-thumbed pals!

only happy when it rains

I try to be green in every sense of the word, but I'm probably most passionate about reducing waste or water conservation. I've been pretty serious about water since I was a kid. I'm pretty sure I was shown a video as part of Earth Day at some point that scared me silly and that's what caused it.

In any case, we had a rain barrel at our old place and man, I loved that thing! I was sad to leave it and up until this point, we really haven't had anything that needed constant watering at the new place. Sure, we have a million, zillion plants in our yard, but they are all very well established and apparently they thrive in droughts because everything has doubled in size since we moved in.

But now we have a veggie garden. So the rain barrel got moved up the priority list (yes!) and it went in last weekend. It's rained enough this week that it's finally full!

introducing...our (real) garden!

I've been plotting a vegetable garden since before I graduated from college. But last fall we decided that we'd have a garden plan done by the end of this spring with an outline of where the garden would be, how/if it would be built, etc., and that we would build it this fall and plant it next spring (2012). At the beginning of this weekend, that was still the plan...until Friday night, when Jose had some beverages and conversation with our friend Scott. There, the idea of the new planters was conceived.

By sunset on Saturday, they were built and set. By midday Sunday, they were lined, filled, and full of plants!

(notice Berger frolicking in the distance)

In the new, wooden planters, we have:

6 tomatoes
2 crimson melons
1 cubanelle pepper
3 sweet red peppers
3 green bell peppers
1 culantro
2 straight neck squash
6 zucchini squash
2 strawberries
and basil, basil, BASIL

And in the stainless planters, we have even more basil.

...and we may plant some green beans in the Topsy Turvies. (Because they failed at growing tomatoes and we have green beans with no place to go). Yes, I know I could give them away, and we are giving some away, but I do love green beans and it sure would be neat to be able to grow and put up my own.

The morals of the story: hard work is rewarding, plans need to be flexible when your very handy friend has a free day, and lemon rosemary mojitos are the birthplace of great ideas! Three cheers for Scott, three cheers for Jose and THREE CHEERS FOR VEGETABLES!!

living room makeover (ode to my friends)

IKEA finally had all the pieces and covers for our Kivik sofa in stock and they were delivered on Saturday. We had our IKEA expert friends over for a furniture assembly party and that was definitely the right decision. The assembly of each piece was no big deal, but the connecting of the pieces took some thought and definitely required additional sets of hands. I took this opportunity to put up our new curtains - the room looks 150% better!

out with the old...

and in with the new...



thank you thank you thank you to our friends for all the help!