Casa de Lovely » Jen

Yardwork continued with a side of navel gazing free of charge.

Jen — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:20:44 +0000

I sit here at work typing with a swollen hand. I feel like a wimp, while my mom and sister were here I watched my mom work tirelessly on my yard. She works harder than I can.. I had to stop last night when I started hurting. I see compulsion in the way that she works that I have alway tried to emulate to a destructive degree in the past. I don’t think it’s been entirely healthy for her either though. Anyhow, even with all the work done now I still spend my time kicking myself for the work not done, and being a homeowner the work is never be completely done, that’s the kicker.

So before I lament what’s not done, here is what is..

I still need to finish the edging on this part..

I think in a small way I have come to grips with what my limitations are with what I can accompish day to day. I had started to accept that, then when I became a mother.. and it was hammered home. You can’t parent properly and do a 76 hour remodel deathmarch, or packing or unpacking-fest, or anything where I would work from dawn till the middle of the night stopping for no one.

Acceptance is one thing, not still beating myself up for it is another.

Before and after

Jen — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:50:48 +0000

Some before and afters:

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

I think the next time Bryan and I pooh pooh the amount of work we’ve done, we just need to shut the hell up. A great big shoutout to my Mom and little sister for helping out so much this last week. We couldn’t have done it without you.

Yardwork continues

Jen — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:46:55 +0000

I was really frustrated, we put a lot of time and money into our yard. Unfortunately we didn’t lay down any barriers so even though tons of time and money had gone into things, I was in a position to have to do it all again which was horribly frustrating. Weeds and morning glory are dreadful foes. But my mom and little sister had come out to visit, are actually still here. But they got it up their butt to help me get things in order.

We have an entire half of the yard that was covered in bricks and a huge hole where the pond had been.
My mom almost by her lonesome moved all the bricks by herself.

We had all the beds in the front redone with actual plastic laid so that we hopefully don’t have to do this all over again anytime soon.

The amount of work this entailed.. It’s amazing.

Trying to ignore my back, but still feeling smug about the amount of work I got done.

Jen — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 23:37:47 +0000

During the baby’s nap I got a bunch of bark and rock down in the garden today. I can’t believe how nice it is starting to look. It’s like grownups live here.

Only two more beds to do in front.. *sob*

I also managed to get the base in for the raised bed that I am putting in. Now I just have to wait till I have a little more spare cash for additional cement blocks for the second row, and for the soil. I have lots of wants, yet very little cash.

The yard is blooming!

Jen — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 04:02:29 +0000

Not too much of an update, but I just couldn’t believe how pretty everything is. I wish we’d been about to get everything trimmed back already. Damn slow moving tax refund.

The yard work continues:

Jen — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 04:11:36 +0000

The work continues on getting the beds cleared. The upper beds were easy-ish for me to get cleaned out, but now that we are working the lower beds near the house I have started to take the ‘throw some money at it’ approach. I love this approach, sadly my wallet does not.

But it’s starting to look great, hopefully next week I get the bark and start laying it down.

There are a lot of flowers in the yard, it’s nice when the gardener does the clearing cause she actually recognizes the stuff that is already here, breaks it up, spreads it around. It makes me feel really plant-ignorant but I guess no ones starts out as an expert gardener.

Things are starting to bloom in the yard, the magnolia tree is this riot of color. It’s just beautiful.

I am still a little shocked sometimes that this is all ours.

Yard improvements:

Jen — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:13:13 +0000

So the never ending bathroom slog marches on. We are so close to done, but not. There are a couple of repairs from things going in badly, some mismatches when new parts went in. Trim we had hoped to repaint and put back up was so brittle it just wasn’t worth putting back up. And the money was gone so anything that had to be bought just had to wait.

I’ve been thinking about the yard, and just decided to start with the front yard as it was less disheartening than the back. The back just makes me want pull my hair out So I’ve discovered that at some point someone really loved this yard. There are garden strips and I am seeing a bunch of bulbs sprouting. It’s just been horribly neglected for a really long time.

So first I discovered a cement edging under the moss, grass and debris. It took a good long while just to get it uncovered.

Then in the beds I’ve started pulling out all the weeds and garbage that has just been left in them over the last couple years. It’s a long slow process..

Of course the undone portion just sits and mocks me..

I ended up with quite the rubbish pile, even after filling the entire yard waste bin.

All and all I would have to admit it’s not lookin’ half bad.

Chimneys aren’t just good times for Santa, they’re fun for EVERYONE!

Jen — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:22:52 +0000

We wanted to get the chimney and the fireplace checked so that we could have a fire while we had guests over this Thanksgiving. Plus with last years snowpocolypse I wanted us to be able to have an additional means to heat the house. So we hire professional to check things out and it appears everything is a little off. Story of our life right..? I chat with the chimney guy after he’s done his preliminary inspection. It involved a lot of.. “Wow I haven’t seen that before” “I’m not quite sure what they placed that vent there for..” “One of your chimney’s is fairly standard but the other one…”

I mention our blog and the fact that we have a ‘what the fuck’ category and they first thing he said was “you must use it a lot.”

Gee thanks buddy. Why not just rub it in?

The assistant just popped his head in and asked, “So there’s this wire tied around the chimney with a screw driver and a shoe tied to it, you want those taken down?” “Yes… yes please take it down..” I feel like I should hang my head in shame but hell?!? it wasn’t me who decided to create a my own ahht piece involving a chimney, some wire, a shoe and a screw driver? I mean who does that?

How about a little pressure with your holiday?

Jen — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:40:06 +0000

We agreed when we got the house that we would host the annual orphans and friends Thanksgiving, with the addendum ‘if we have a working bathroom’ ha ha ha. Well the ha ha ha became a little less ‘ha ha’ and a little more ‘oh shit.. really?? seriously?? It’s not done yet??’ Well I ‘broke in’ our working upstairs wonderful beautiful brand new toilet this morning and hopefully tonight the sink will go in. One way or another Thanksgiving is happening, though there may be some unfinished bits.

This weekend my friend watched the baby while I cleaned the house in preparation for the descending hungry hordes. I am amazed out house actually looks really great, it looks like a responsible grown up person lives here.

Of course if anyone went into the basement, they could potentially be crushed under the toppling of badly stacked boxes of crap.

Today I work from home because we are having the chimney cleaned and some repairs done to it and the fireplaces themselves. Time to get back to work since lunch is about over. Though I am being distracted by A Chorus Line. I’ve had the songs stuck in my head since watching the documentary about it, Every Little Step, which was absolutely fantastic. I had to pull out my old VHS tape, I blew off the dust and stuck it VCR. I’m surprised the darn thing still plays and I didn’t wear it out in my teens. I get to relive my teenage crush on Terrence Mann and listen for my favorite line of ‘Why is it only my ass that ever gets invited places?’

Creating a yard out of overgrowth, weeds, and neglect:

Jen — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:20:00 +0000

I have pretty much had to come to the conclusion that next year the yard is going to be a little ugly. Things are having to be ripped back to bare bones so that some order can be brought to the chaos. It’s really frustrating, I want to have a groomed, attractive yard and garden, but the ‘planning’ portion is terrifying. I haven’t ever done any landscaping or planning to this extent. I worry that it’s going to end up being really amateur and clunky.

So far we have clipped back the rhododendron and the lilacs that were horribly overgrown. Underneath we discovered dahlias and a bunch of other flowering plants that I don’t remember the names of right now. And a brick edging is going to take me a while to fully uncover. I’ve ripped out some ‘squirrel trees’ and trimmed back the roses.

I still keep going back and forth on whether I want raised beds or not for my garden next year.

So some of the work so far..

From

I’ve been putting in bark, it’s going to be a long process. But i just have to keep reminding myself it’s a long term project.