Gardening

So, one of the items on my spring break to do list was to finish de-sodding the hill in front of the house and to plant the whole thing with herbs.  I can officially call this one "done done" as opposed to "done but" which is how most projects around here stand.

This is a pic to remind you what the house looked like when we bought it:

Lots of big ugly bushes and some weedy grass.  On a big hill.  Dumb.  So the first summer we had it (can you believe it's been almost two years?) we sawzall'ed (great word) the bushes to open up the yard.  Last year, I started removing the sod from the hill and planted a few herbs.  You can read about it here in this post.  The herbs did magnificently and now look like this:

Se how big those lavender got?  They are HUGE and gorgeous.

Oddly enough, the soil in the front yard is pretty decent.  The mint, thyme, and oregano took off like wildfire too.  And, I had thrown in about 50 red tulip bulbs last fall that I bought from the kids.  They were gorgeous (stupid me, I didn't take a picture).  You can see in this picture that I'd stripped the sod all off and had started to plant.  I've planted 8 thyme plants, 3 oregano, 2 mint, 8 different types of basil, 6 different types of peppers, 4 more lavender, tansy, tarragon, parsley, chives, chamomile, curry (weird plant and smells funny but pleasant), and a tomato.  It is difficult to photograph, but here's my attempt:

Curry Plant:

So here is what it looked like last year:

And what it looks like today:

Big difference, right?  Better, right?  And those lavender!

I have pretty closely stuck to the "free or food" rule in the landscaping.  I bought my plants exclusively from local sources.  Maymont's Herbs Galore plant sale, City Garden's plant sale, and LDHS's plant sale.  

In the "free" category, a friend gave me a bunch of red hot pokers (kniphofia) and they have bloomed beautifully:

Back Yard: 

Where I broke the rule was in purchasing some hydrangeas from a lady in the neighborhood.  She had lost a couple of trees in her back yard changing her shady ground to sunny and her shrubs were burning.  So, I picked up three hydrangeas from her and planted them in the back yard.  

From the LDHS plant sale, I picked up that flat of impatiens in lovely red and white.  Given that the bird bath is simply a breeding ground for West Nile, I decided it needed a new raison d'être.  I moved it to the corner and planted a bunch of the red and whites in there.  I think it looks pretty dang good.  I know I need to pinch them back, but I wanted them to establish themselves for a few days first.  No need to shock them unnecessarily to quickly.

I also picked up a Japanese maple from a vendor at the South of the James farmer's market on Saturday.  I believe it's a Hisaka Yama.  Where I want to plant is unfortunately obstructed by the "sidewalk to nowhere" which I really hate.  So, Saturday, I pulled out my trusty sledge hammer and started to whack at it, much to P's consternation.  In an hour, I had this:

I think I'm going to continue the break up job over the summer.  I'm going to use the big chunks to build the fire pit in the middle of the yard.  Reduce, reuse, and recycle!

This is a close up of the maple.  I love the variegation.

Back Door Project

Sorry for the bloggy hiatus.  We are back on track now.

Well, I got damn little of my list accomplished over spring break.  Why is it I always think I'm going to get more done than I do?  Am I that slow? ambitious? disconnected from reality?  all of the above?  Something like that.

I didn't touch the staircase and it mocks me every time I climb the stairs, which is far too frequently.  I didn't pick up the paint deck, caulk the terrace, measure for wallpaper, or price out shelving.

So, what sucked out time so much?  Stripping the paint off the back door trim.  This is what it looked like when we moved in.  Thousands and thousands of layers of ugly paint.  All the detail on the trim was obscured and that hideous nicotine-mustard yellow color.  The wall area below the window was covered in plastic tiles (who thought that was a good idea?) that bulged out so that the drawers just out of the right side of the frame wouldn't open all the way.  It was pretty damned ugly.

Last fall we stripped and painted the back door.

 As you can see in the pic above, P had started to strip the trim and the plastic tiles had started to pop off.  Lovely to look at, no?

This is pretty much how things stayed for a very long time.

Then, the neighbor put her house on the market (sold in 6 days!) and posted pics of her house.  Behind all that plastic tile lay the old ice box.  We knew it was there, but the neighbor had all of hers all in tact and restored and gorgeous.  I forgot to save the pic, I'm a lousy blogger.  So, we decided to start banging off all those tiles and see if the bulgy wall hid perfect doors awaiting our restoration:

 Oh, the anticipation is like waiting for Heraldo to open Al Capone's vault!

 Just like Heraldo, disappointment awaits.

So, now we had a huge hole, no doors to restore, and a mess to clean up.  What are we going to do with said hole?

A beverage fridge!  It honors the old while incorporating the new, exactly what we wanted!

Lowes

So, after some stripping and cutting out of the middle bar, the hole looked about like this:

So, in lieu of more interesting progress, I started working on the transom.  It's a three light transom and I knew I wanted some art glass in there.  We pulled out the transom and I took it to the basement and started stripping it, breaking all three panes in the process.  This makes me wonder if I'll be able to rehab the rest of the windows any more successfully.  

Anyway, P suggested a fleur de lis motif that sort of corresponds to the dining room stenciling.  So this is what I ended up with:

Installing it was quite a bugger and there was a lot of swearing involved.  Mostly cause we are both short and the ladders weren't making us tall enough.  

So, this is where we are now.  I've still got to do one more coat of paint and the door trim is FINALLY done.  Please don't ask me when the hole will be done.  That's to be determined.  We have a handyman friend coming tomorrow, so we shall see what he says.

I've also made a discovery, I'm a very good list maker but not a list follower.  I make great lists to then turn around and ignore.  Some people make lists in order to cross off items.  I just make lists and then find other things to do.  So much for organization.  

Keep checking back, I've got several more posts in the queue planned.  

Technical Difficulties

Sorry for the unscheduled blogging hiatus.  Hard drive and video card died.

The good news is that we have a screaming new fast old computer.  Updates and pictures to come this weekend.

Staircase inspiration

Work continues.  No great pics to throw up today so instead I'm going to post about inspiring staircases.

I love this bindweed patterned wallpaper on the risers:

Source:  Ferm Living

These are my favorites however:

Source: Sugar City Journal

I really want to find a wallpaper or stencil to mimic this.  I love the blue and white, the classic damask pattern, and the slightly unexpected surprise of it.  I am thinking wallpaper would be best to hide all the dings and dents in the risers.  It's also easiest to undo (if the risers are primed properly).  

Then I want to add dust corners.  Are you familiar with these little bits of Victoriana?  They are small metal triangles that nail into the corners to keep the dust out and look like this:

Source: Van Dyke's Restorers

Installed they look like this:

Source: 5monsters

What do you think?  Opinions?  

Spring Break, Day I

We started early this morning by running to the grocery store, after a long hiatus.  I've gotten to the point that I really hate going.  I am not a fan of the new Martin's.  Kroger is undergoing construction makes it a pain to get in and out of.  So, I've been avoiding it.  Running out of toothpaste and toilet paper made it a necessity this morning.  Then we braved the rain and made it to the South-er the James farmer's market to pick up dog food. Then it was off to City Garden for their plant sale.  Picked up several types of basil, some Greek oregano, borage (for Pimm's Cup), and a couple of different peppers.  Hopefully those will get put in this week.

After that, we came home and each went to work.  P tackled her backdoor/fridge hole area and I went down to the basement to clean up the mess I made last week when looking for round nose pliers to string crystals on those sconces I showed you last week.  That project is still in progress and hopefully I'll have pics and a post on that later on this week.  In any case, the search for the pliers illustrated the mess that was the boxes of art crap I had piled up down there.  So over the past week or so, I've been trying to unpack, organize, clean out and tidy up.  Finished that this afternoon.  Unfortunately, it's not very picture worthy.  Suffice it to say, I can now find all my stuff and have cleared off both work tables down there.

P's project does have some photo evidence.  Here's one of the earliest before pics:

This was from our earliest walkthroughs.  The doorway on the right led into the sunroom.  The one on the left is the backdoor to the back yard.  Dig the plastic pearly brown tiles, floral curtain, and yellow/brown plaid wallpaper.  YUCK!

A middling pic before we moved in. I'd primed the plastic tiles:

Once we had stripped and repainted the back door:

Last week, P got excited and did this:

And pretty soon it looked like this:

And tonight it looks like this:

The box is the old built in ice box.  Sometime in the distant past, they removed the doors and drywalled over the hole.  We knew it was still there behind the drywall because the box is still outside on the back porch.  So, P went ahead and opened it up.  We need to wire an outlet there and then slide in a beverage fridge.  Thereby honoring the original architecture, but with a modern twist.  If we still had the original doors, we would have restored it, but they were long gone.  

I'm going to try and post at least once a day this week with updates on our progress, so keep checking back.

Spring Break To-Do List

1. Finish stripping banister, sand spindles, caulk everything, prime and paint risers, baseboards, and spindles, stain banister and decide top coat (wax?).
2. Insulate old door to patio from new bathroom and install bead board in old screen door. (pics to come). 
3. Caulk joints on the balusters on terrace and paint. 
4. Address giant hole in the wall in the kitchen. 
5. Pick up paint deck from Ben Moore and start deciding colors for guest room, foyer, vestibule, and master bedroom. 
6. Measure powder room for wall paper. 
7. Price out planned shelving unit for sunroom (inspiration here). 
8. Kill weeds and remove debris from hillside in front. Plant hill with herbs and strawberries. 
9. Drink lots of cold beer. 

More Miscellany

The long slog on the banister continues.  It's not fun and exciting and it's even more boring to photograph.  So, no pics of the staircase right now.  I will confess, I only work on it sometimes.  I'm not there scrubbing and stripping and sanding every weekend.  I have to gird my loins, wrists, and fingers and force myself to work on it every few weeks.  BUT, that will change when spring break rolls around.  I am planning to dedicate my week to finishing up the staircase.  I want that puppy stripped, cleaned, sanded, stained, caulked, and painted by week's end.

But, I have been out thrifting and doing some other fun projects.  I suck at taking pictures and the iPhone isn't any better at it, but I'm not a professional getting paid the big bucks...so, we have crappy pictures.

I found two of these candle sconces at Goodwill for $3.  Primed and painted, they will look great somewhere.  The bobeches have holes in them so I'm going to need to find some crystals.  Black ones perhaps?

I helped my neighbors with some planting issues they were having and in return they gifted me a vintage globe that they had a double of.  I've been wanting one for a while and took it with glee!  And painted that sucker with some chalkboard paint.  Now look at it!

I have also been picking up lots of frames.  I have a project in the works that I'll show you later once it's finished.  But since I had the chalk board paint out...(dangerous words)

I've already confessed to you my thing for chairs.  I have an equally rabid thing for lamps.  I love them.  I love to pick up a cool lamp at a thrift store and rewire and paint it and make it totally cool and unique.  Cool lamps are also prohibitively expensive.  I bought this brass lamp at the thrift store because of it's cool shape.  I rewired it and picked up a shade (it's a bit too big for it) and painted it with some spray paint I had on hand.  I like it!  I have a few more to show you but I haven't taken any pics of those yet.

And I've been framing and hanging art around.  Yes, I'm ignoring the fact that most of the walls haven't yet been painted, only primed.  I was sick of looking at blank walls:

I'm hoping to pick up a CraigsList couch soon so that I finally have some where to sit in my living room other than my half a dozen mismatched chairs.    

I really should start an etsy store to sell some of this stuff cause I don't have enough room for it all.

AND, I finally hung up this awesome, wonderful quilt a dear friend of mine made for me.  I just love it!