New flower beds!

Our house was in dire need of some attractive landscaping!  It was in rough shape.  I think the last owners hadn't lived on the property for a while.  So I took it upon myself to do a bit of beautifying.

I wrote this at the beginning of April and didn't get around to posting until now:


Spring is coming and I can feel it.  We just had a burst of warm weather over the weekend and boy, was it great!!

From our last house project, we acquired some bricks that were at least 120 years old--consisting of a fireplace stack we needed to remove because it wasn't well supported in its foundation.  So here they sit:

First thing I did was remove those 3 loose concrete blocks blocking the concrete tub.

Also, I would like to replace the bush in the concrete tub.  With a lilac.  or a rose bush.  or something.  anything else!

I've already used a good many of the bricks to line the flower garden beds I have in mind that I started last fall, but didn't really spend too much time with that just yet.  I will be fixing it up with more finesse later--it was basically a placeholder I put in last fall.

Like here:

I planted 30 tulip bulbs last fall in this bed and I have seen about half of them sprout so far.  I still need to go through and till the soil, removing the weeds.  Here is what I have started so far:

It's been a week or so and I have been able to do a few things around the flower garden beds:

I weeded in the garden bed, fixed some of the bricks, (Gabe) took the bush out of the concrete tub, leveled it out, and I fixed the brickwork to the left of the tub.

Another job I started over the weekend--I wanted to create a lovely flower garden bed where there wasn't one before.  There were patches of daffodils growing up, but no defined space, so I took it upon myself to do just that.

I don't really have a "before" picture.  Except the pics from MRIS when we bought our house.  Eek!!  Well, here is a broad visual of the space being worked on:

The space I'm talking about is on the right of the house in this picture, at the edge of the driveway.

This air condenser has been moved it to another location:

What I did is till the soil, remove all the grass roots, displace the soil and lay down weed block.  I did so cutting around the daffodil patches, leaving them undisturbed.  I used the bricks to define the spaces and create somewhat of a tiered situation.  I covered the cinder block with the brick too, at least from the driveway entry point of view.

So, here is what it looked like after I did some work on it:

for now.

a close up

I still need to get more soil and berm it up to the house better, so it drains water and slopes away from the house.

I also need to add flowers :-)  A trellis for some climbing plants seems like a good idea to prop up against the house on the one side/corner.

These big bushes need to be trimmed back before spring gets underway:

And now:

Another pic from the side--I tilled the soil here too, adding weed block, mulch and a brick edging that can be seen better in this shot:

Gabe and I also cleaned up this large bush in the back yard--there was a ton of poison ivy all around...so now the piles are just laying there.

Gabe got poison ivy from this--a lot!!!  i feel so bad for him.  I didn't get any.


I'll post more pics as more gets done.

Cheers!

and happy happy spring!!!!

Carpet, Granite & Appliance Installations

Continued on Friday, April 26th, from the previous post--we also got to check out the carpet installation!!

Can you tell I'm excited??

Master bedroom:

2nd Bedroom:

Hallway:

Gabe worked the rest of that day getting started on installing the upstairs bathroom vanity and toilet.  Apparently it was a little difficult to level them on the slightly uneven slate tile.  The next day, he was able to make more progress:

51" double vanity

Yay, progress on the toilet installation!

Dad and I took a trip to the nursery to pick out some large plants/trees while we had Gabe's truck.  We got some shrubs, a "false cypress" tree, arbor vitae trees, a dogwood, and some juniper trees to create privacy between the next door neighbors.

Arbor Vitae & "False Cypress"

 I had selected an antiqued (honed) granite in a dark gray color from Marble Systems in Fairfax:

Shown with a sample of the backsplash

Our granite fabricator stopped by that afternoon to measure the space.  He mentioned that the connections for the refrigerator and the dishwasher needed to be set before he could install the granite next weekend.  So Gabe and Dad worked at the end of the day to prepare the drains, etc.

Next weekend on Friday, was the 3rd of May, and once again, we had a full driveway full of cars.  First, when we got there, Gabe scurried to get the connections finalized for the kitchen appliances before the granite fabricators got there.  Then, Gabe's cousin Andrew arrived; he would stay overnight and leave in the morning on his way home to SC.  Rene, one of our subcontractors was there working on some of the landscaping.  He planted the trees on the road side of the house:

And then, drum roll please.....

Granite arrived!!!!!!

New farmhouse sink (from Ikea!):

Upstairs double vanity:

The next day, Andrew stayed long enough to set in place the refrigerator, stove and dishwasher.

Here you have it-- the most narrow french door refrigerator on the market:

Here is a fun video of the frig installation:

And then the range/oven:

After Andrew left, Mom & I left to go pick-up some more landscaping materials.  Gabe stayed behind and helped Dad replace the old water tank that was leaking so that he could finalize the installation of the toilet.  By the time we came back, we had a fully-flushable toilet!!  I'd call that progress after a couple weeks of no porta-potty...

Amazing, Dad on a ladder, at will:

Mom and I picked up some plants to line the front of the house, in front of the lattice.

They will be planted after we get the weed barrier laid.

Next Friday, Gabe was the installing the water shut-offs for the vanity sinks.  He also started working to prepare the shower for tile installation.  He realized one of the shower valves, that were installed early on during rough-in, was broken.  That will have to be found and replaced, sheesh.

In the morning, Gabe continued working to prep the shower upstairs.  He secured the cement board with more screws, mixed up Thinset, patched seams and screw holes.  I brought them lunch, and saw that Mom had been working to clean up the downstairs in preparation for the painters that would be coming next week to paint the downstairs, yippee!  Dad had sealed the stair treads that he bought last week in our beautiful heart pine:

Looks gorgeous, no??  They need a few more clear coats before they are installed, but are almost there!

Here are the slats for the platform:

They removed the old construction treads made out of particle board, and reinforced each step with blocking, that took quite a while, but will reduce (if not completely eliminate) the possibility of squeaking--

All done!

Meanwhile, I was back in saddle!!

Mom and I tackled the fireplace stack-stone, making sure it was all clean before we put the sealer on.

You can see just a little baby bump too!

We finished with the table saw and it's just taking up space so, they packed it up in Gabe's truck:

This is probably the only time I will see the truck driving in the back yard:

look how tall the grass is!

Gabe spent some time waterproofing the shower stall so that we could begin tile installation asap.

HOT PINK!!  :D

On our way out to the house yesterday, we picked up some more lattice to finish under the porch:

More landscaping materials:

And last week, Dad had someone come out, gravel the driveway and used the bob-cat to tear out poison ivy from the side yard.

And that's a wrap!!  Now we are current. :)