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!!!!

2nd house Updates! Basement & outdoor projects

Basement, turned from gross to not so bad at all.

As fun as it sounds to berm soil up against the house, it really helped to keep some cracks from furthering in our basement.  This picture was taken just after we moved in last July:

The cracking on the left wall can be somewhat seen from this distance

Then Gabe power washed the walls:

He then removed the shelves that must have been there for decades...Although they are nice to have, we really need to treat the wall behind them to make sure we get rid of any mold.  We plan to put back up some configuration of the shelves again, but that is another project for another time.

Gabe worked to fill the cracks in with grout before we could paint with the sealer.

Here is the wall painted with Drylock, a paint that seals the wall from water seepage:

Looks worlds better!!!

before paint

after paint

We bought the house with this old wood stove downstairs in the basement too, but don't envision us taking the time to restore it with tlc at this point, so Gabe listed it on craigslist and we got $120 for it.

Bye bye stove!

I am glad to have the space freed up for our future plans to add living space down there!

You can see that I was in the process of painting the basement door at the time as well:

Ok, so here is the before:

And now the after:

It's a dark pewter green/gray color and probably too green/not enough gray for what I was looking for, but I'm not changing it now!  Gabe was happy--it's nearly his MSU green color (by accident on my part!) :D

In the same way that the doors were that maroon color, so were the shutters.  I didn't like how the color went with the brick, so I decided black was a better choice.  Here are a few shots of the difference:

you can barely see the maroon

better detail shot, with Gabe patching the roofing around the vent piping

New black shutters:

detail shot

Gabe found a basketball hoop on craigslist for $140 and installed it before wintertime.  Still has yet to use it!  Here's hoping for a chance to in the spring :)

Another small project Gabe undertook recently when his folks were in town: to remove the already falling over tree before everything greens up and it gets harder because of the undergrowth.  The ground was frozen so tire tracks didn't affect the yard too much but didn't hinder the ease of removal (the roots were mostly exposed anyways!):

I think Gabe liked this project :D

Yesterday, Gabe finished his pallet shelves project.  I'm pretty proud of this one!  He got some pallets from a local hardware store (free) and went to town fabricating them.  He cut them down to size, using our large gray bins as the template for height.  He used the main supports for the slats to make the legs for the shelves.  We will be able to store 18 large bins with this arrangement!  Go Gabe and your amazing skill!

Presenting:

Now, here is a glimpse of our next "big" project in the basement, here is how the stairs are currently oriented coming down into the space:

Well, we plan on putting a landing three treads up and making a 90 degree angle towards the door to create something of a vestibule.  As you can see the pole is rather close to the stairs headed towards the door, so having the stairs facing the entry would be more ideal.  This way, we can wall off a space lining up with the HVAC duct pictured and have more space doing so.  Here's our latest idea of the space plan:

2nd house Updates! Bathroom projects

Moving on to the bathroom.  our only bathroom.

Check out the upstairs floor plan from the last blog on the house here to find your way around.

This is how the bathroom looked when we bought it:

A sight for sore eyes!!!!  HA!

I would like to think I have improved it at least some!  :)

So the elephant in the room is the peach tile.  We are leaving it there.  Too much work for cosmetic updates!!  It is still functional and I can make do.  I like a challenge!!

One of the first things we did was take out the medicine cabinet.  It was old and rusty, yuck!

After taking out the medicine cabinet, Gabe removed the theatre lighting above.  He patched the hole to fit the new one we bought.  Here's the patch job and the new, fresh white paint.  Ahhhhhhh.

Here's the link to the new medicine cabinet.  In order to minimize the amount of work done patching the wall, we installed one that was pretty close to the size of the original one.  I must say, it is an unpopular shape to come by, and not very conducive to tall husbands!!! :D  The patching was done in tandem with painting the room white-same white as all the trim in the house--same sheen too: semi-gloss for ease of cleaning and moisture wicking.

There was a spot on the ceiling up in the left corner where there looked like there had been a small leak and paint chipping, so Gabe tested it for lead, found it was, and so he took precautions to patch up the area, sand and repaint, sealing it up.

Took care of it!  Yay!

Here's the medicine cabinet and light fixture all installed:

The next part of the bathroom "reno" happened really fast: installing the black/white vinyl flooring (same as the kitchen), new toilet, and new vanity.  We did the work (ok, Gabe did it, I watched Judah) on a long Saturday.  I seem to remember needing to make a quick trip to Home Depot to get the right plumbing part in a rush.  Here's a few pics of the process:

Flooring going in (we had to do this in tandem of the installation of the toilet and vanity so that it would go under--this was tricky):

Toilet being removed:

old toilet, GROSS!!!!!

Let me not forget one of the things we did to prep over the summer: removing the caulk from around the baseboard tile and the linoleum floor.  This was not easy work, scraping at awkward angles, and trying not to peel up too much of the linoleum so the vinyl would have an even substrate.  Here is Gabe scraping it up behind the toilet:

Here is the NEW toilet!

After Gabe removed the old vanity:

Eewe!!!

And new vanity:

Yay!!!

I chose bright white for the vanity and the toilet because there is so much color in the bathroom already (peach tile and my bright color scheme with accessories).

Cleaning the yucky plumb lines:

Gabe, configuring plumbing, combining new with old:

A new plumbed sink!  (and toilet!!):

Ahh so fresh :)

A closer look at the newly laid flooring:

Aaaannnnndddd some additional shots with it decorated a little bit zany (I'm a little bit zany!):

The shower curtain:

Looking towards the door:

Looking towards the window:

I still had some work to do on the curtain, shown above, but shown below you can see the work that I did on it (yes, I made my curtains!  And yes, I love teal!!):

This color palette is not for everyone--I like color!!  I figure, I better surround myself with the colors that I love before I grow up :D

To recap, my design inspiration for this bathroom (taking the challenge to incorporate the crazy old peach tile):

http://www.hgtvremodels.com/interiors/pink-bedrooms-8-fresh-ideas/pictures/index.html

It combines the peach color with different shades of green (lime green and teal green predominantly), and it has black and white in it, which are being weaved throughout the house.

And to recap my design/decor sources:

Armstrong Banbury Self Stick vinyl tile 12" X 12" flooring: at Menards-link here

White Aquasource Tristan White toilet (elongated, comfort height): Lowes-link here

Abstract shower curtain: on Etsy-link here

White vanity: at Home Depot-link here

Chrome medicine cabinet: at Lowes-link here

Vanity lighting: Lowes-link here

Teal mirror: at Hobby Lobby-link here

Floor mats: on Amazon-link here