Dining Room Light!

We finally replaced the horrible off center brass dining room light today with a new burlap pendent light! When I first went looking for dining room lights, I found one that I really liked, but after getting it home and putting it together completely, I realized that I could not use it without moving the electrical connection. As much fun as that sounded, I returned the light and went on the hunt for a new dining room light with a chain so that we could use a hook to center it over the table.

When I finally found the one I wanted in June, it was back-ordered. It FINALLY arrived and Kyle put it together and helped hold it while I figured out the right height. He is a patient guy!  Then Steve came over and installed it for us - thank you! 

I love the texture of the shade and the size. Worth the wait!

We have more volunteer plants in the garden this summer! This massive sunflower came up and I have to say that I was a little worried that it was just a giant weed, but then it started blooming and now it is 9 feet tall! We also have a volunteer clematis that has found a nice spot to rest on one of the deck chairs after climbing up over 10 feet! 

Blackberry Kill Zone!

This weekend Kyle and I tackled the blackberry vines that were taking over our ivy bank. I know what you are thinking - an invasive species growing over another invasive species...oh yeah...and they are both thriving. At the end of our mostly flat yard, we have a slope that goes down about 10 feet down to the fence line. It is a steep slope that is held in place by what I would guess is 30+ year old ivy. As much as I hate ivy, it does a good job holding the earth in place. But blackberry vines tangled with the ivy and random horsetails coming through both - now that makes me crazy.

I did a bunch of research on killing blackberry vines, and besides adopting a few goats, pesticides were what everyone said produced the kill. I really really did not want to use anything toxic in the yard because of Luna our pup and I strongly dislike using toxic chemicals. After talking for about 20 minutes with a wonderful earth loving vegetarian at our local nursery, he convinced me that painting on the pesticide to the newly cut vines instead of spraying it, was the best way to target the pesticide and avoid contamination.

Armed with my gloves, goggles, paintbrush, old plastic container, jeans, and long sleeve shirt - I was ready to kill some blackberries. It was a hot weekend and with our winter attire on, we were only able to work a few hours in the morning and a few hours at night, but we finally finished around 9 tonight! 

Here are a few before and after pictures:

 Before: Horsetails taking over

 Before: weeds and blackberries everywhere!

 Before: Blackberries tangled all over

 Before: Get ready to die blackberries!

 During: This was 24 hours after painting this blackberry stalk - black stem!

 After: Only ivy...ahhhh...just one crazy invasive species

 After

 After

Stress Relief In The Garden

We have spent so much time working inside our house that it feels great to go outside and get dirty. I have had a lot of fun building our raised beds, planting veggies, and making the garden my own. When the mountain on inside projects is wearing me down - the garden tends to be my stress reliever and hey - a little sunshine never hurts!


Here are a few pictures of re-purposed broken pots and an old milk crate that I have made into fun garden art.

 Broken pot with succulents. 

Hopefully they will grow quickly and look like they are spilling out.

 River created with broken pot and green river rocks

Milk crate pot holder

It has also been fun to see what is popping up in the garden. The Shasta daisies and hostas are out and it looks like we are going to have some blueberries! The raised beds are also taking off with the peas and zucchini plants in bloom.

Shasta daisies

 Bloomin' hostas

 Blueberries...come on and ripen already!

 Sugar Snap Pea Blossoms

 "Baby" zucchini plant taking over the raised beds

A few rooms at a time...

Sometimes it feels like I work so hard on the house with nothing to really show for it. A lot of the work we have done are things you just expect to be part of a house....paint, blinds, molding, hardware, flooring, electrical outlets, ceiling lights, etc. By themselves they are not very impressive, but once a room is put together it sure feels great! 


We have made huge progress in the guest bedroom, master bedroom, and family room. We have yet to hang pictures and Kyle is threatening an NFL like draft for the wall space, but the rooms are at least functional.


We have also spruced up the front of the house and added rock around the raised bed paths. Shout out to my mom for all of her painting skills, decorating advice, garden help, and time and to Steve and Carolyn for their help with the molding, hardware, and light installation - thank you thank you!

BEFORE

Outside Color!

Family Room BEFORE

Family Room with new carpet and paint

Guest Bedroom BEFORE

Current Guest Bedroom  

Master Bedroom BEFORE

Current Master Bedroom

New White Wood Molding

Horrible Brown Plastic Molding

Raised Beds with Path

My Shower Nemesis

I know that my shower problems are but a minor hiccup in our new house adventure, but this week I swear the shower has done everything in it's power to frustrate me. 

Monday morning after we had moved, I turned on the shower and a tiny dribble came out of the shower head. Being the nerd that I am, I know that this house has high water pressure in the 80-90 psi range, so it was not a water pressure issue. Since I was headed to work, I decided not to deal with it until I got home, and went downstairs to take my shower.

That night I took down the shower head and sure enough, it was clogged. I ran to the store and picked out a shiny new environmentally conscious low-flow shower head. 

The next morning I am ready to take a nice shower with my new shower head. About two minutes after getting in...ya know...when my hair is super soapy....the water turns ice-cold. As soap is running into my eyes I turn the handle as far as it will go to HOT and wait....finally hot water....then 2 minutes later...cold water...and the cycle continues.

Since I knew that our tankless hot water heater was working just fine, I figured that it must have something to do with the new shower head. I did some googling and sure enough, my eco-friendly shower head was not going to work with the tankless hot water heater. Apparently they need a certain flow to trigger the unit to deliver hot water. 

Back to the store to find an not-so-eco-friendly head. So I figured - problem solved - time for a wonderful shower experience! I hop in, everything is going well....until about 3 minutes pass and the shower starts slowly filling with water. By the end of my shower I was standing in about 3" of dirty water - GROSS! 

As we speak I have a concoction of baking soda and vinegar hopefully working their magic on my drain...

Tomorrow morning will be the test...fingers crossed!

Moving Day and Settling in....

I was so ready to get moved into our new house! We have been putting time, money, and energy into this beast - let's enjoy it! We will truly miss St. John's and our amazing neighbors, but we were ready to enjoy some of our hard work. Of course - we picked the best weekend possible for moving - Mother's day weekend! Thanks moms! 


Friday night we picked up the U-haul and drove it to Lowe's to buy molding for our house - it is crazy the discount you get when you buy it in 12' or 16' long bundle packs. Kyle did a great job driving the 17' long U-haul truck.


Our family and Melissa worked so hard to get everything loaded up into the U-haul, pick-up, Subaru, SUV, and my car in less than 3 hours. I hate to admit this but we needed an entire pick-up to handle my garden art and flower pots...everyone needs a decorative bike in their yard - right?


Since we do not have carpet in our downstairs yet, everything needed to stay in the upstairs or live temporarily in the garage. So my immediate focus was getting the kitchen all unpacked. Our washer and dryer are now in the garage so we have a pantry! We were going to buy new shelving for the pantry, but since our budget is tight we used some existing bookshelves and re-purposed a DVD stand to work as temporary shelving.


I also got most of my garden art and pots to new locations in our backyard with Luna's help of course. Speaking of Luna - she is loving all of the new smells and places to explore and is adjusting well. Here are some pictures of our progress...

Steve was a HUGE help as our "master U-haul packer"

 Buff Melissa workin' hard

 Carolyn in action

Make-shift pantry shelving

 Garden art finds a new home

 Veggies are starting to pop up and tomatoes and basil are planted

Luna lounging in the grass

Cinco De Mayo

Saturday was a productive house work day! We discovered that back in the 50's they could not run to Home Depot to pick up backer-board, so they created their own. This was the third and final layer that we needed to remove from the entryway to get down to the sub floor. Armed with the pry bar and sledge we started prying up this final layer. What we found was layers of metal mesh nailed to the floor with mortar. We figured out a method of pulling on the metal mesh while prying up the nails to slowly get the last layer out! We are ready for a new tile floor!


I also created a small brick area next to the raised beds using the mossy bricks that my mom and I moved over from our old house. The paths around the beds are still a work in progress but I did get the pea and bean trellises in with Luna's help! Luna had a great first day exploring the backyard and garage. She was exhausted from smelling and checking out EVERYTHING! Oh and we grabbed some taco bell for dinner...we went all out for authentic Mexican food for Cinco de Mayo!

Third layer coming off!

 Kyle using the brute force approach

 YIPPEE for sub floor!

 New home for my mossy bricks and succulents

 The start of a slate pathway

Luna checking out the new digs!