Archive: Jul 2008

A New Light for the Hall

July 25, 2008

When we were picking out light fixtures for the house we forgot to include a light for the hall, so we opted for a cheap white light that was just laying around. It had been removed from either one of the bedrooms or the living room. For the past year and a half it served it purpose, but on our trip to Europe this year we stumbled across a Moroccan light at “Garten Tag” (Garden Day) in Steffi’s grandma’s town in Germany. We were really indecisive about buying it at first because we would have to haul it with us across Europe and back to Atlanta, but in the end the light won.

Getting it back wasn’t as bad as expected since the lady at the market took a lot of care wrapping it in bubble wrap. What proved to be more of a problem was finding a canopy to hang it from. If you go to Lowe’s or Home Depot the canopies they sell are attached to the lights, so you have to buy the whole light to get one little piece! Grr!

After looking at a number of lamp stores a sales rep finally pointed us in the right direction. If you are local to Atlanta we went to Lamp Arts on Howell Mill Road by the water reservoirs. They had just what we needed, and they sell parts for lamps and chandeliers. Apparently this is not very common. Who would have guessed?

We got back home and were all set to hang the light. We started working at around five – hoping to get it done before the sun set. Since we were replacing the light we had to cut the breaker and were worried about not being able to see what we were doing.

We did all the wiring, attached the chain, and took down the old light. Everything was going smoothly, and then we realized the rod that fastened the canopy to the ceiling was too long. When we screwed it in it was hitting the back of the metal box that houses the electrical wires. Doh! Off to Lowe’s we went to buy a deeper one.

We bought one that was 1.5 inches deep (the original one was about 1 inch deep), and we got back and screwed it in. Up went the light a second time, and bam – we had the same problem. After scratching our heads for a few minutes I realized the actual hole in the ceiling needed to be deeper. Since we have drywall over our old plaster (not our doing!) I was able to knock out the plaster and put the boxer deeper in the ceiling.

Five hours after we started it finally worked! (We ate dinner in between there, so it didn’t really take the full five hours.)

The close-up detail of the light.

Hallway Moroccan light

Here’s how it looked before. Borrrring!

Hallway light

Much better. Now we just need to paint the walls.

Hallway Moroccan light

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General Updates

July 24, 2008

I thought I would post some general updates…

Westview Bungalow

Front of our house

It seems like it’s been a while since I’ve posted an exterior house shot. We installed some hooks this spring so we could hang up ferns – and I’m loving them! Otherwise our house is still pink, still has that ugly tree stump, and still has that beat up path. At least one of them will get worked on soon…but I’m not going to tell you which one! :)

I’ve talked about our kudzu musings and frustrations in the past (See photos from May 2007, June 2007, July 2007 I, July 2007 II, and September 2007), and took a photo of the neighbors yard last October (2007):

Lost in kudzu field

Lost in kudzu field

Well I’m glad to finally be able to present some change! Our new neighbor moved in back in April. He’s fought unsuccessfully with the landlord to get the back yard cleaned up so his kids could play in it. He has finally decided to take matters into his own hands and look at how far he got! I have never seen the back of that backyard cleared up since we’ve lived here, so I’m just amazed at the view – I’m not used to it!

Kudzu field removed

Kudzu field removed

So in the meanwhile back to our garden…

Vegetable bed

Vegetable bed

…I think we have a vegetable garden buried under those weeds somewhere! This year we had planted tomatoes, beans, zucchini, bell pepper, hot pepper, and cucumber. Our tomatoes caught some disease so we haven’t seen any harvest from them. The beans seem to grow at a steady pace, so we’ve collected beans here and there and are freezing them until we have enough to make something with. We’ve harvested a couple of zucchini’’s and were a bit disappointed with how hard they were on the outside (any tips?). The cucumber has yet to deliver. The hot peppers have had a few that we’ve collected and dried. And the bell pepper had one of decent size that was ready to be harvested when we found a squirrel had gotten to it before us! (Next one is growing now.) The weeds have yet to be removed…we’re still not quite caught up from having gone on vacation, and the torching heat, killer mosquitoes, and “convenient” rain only on weekends has hindered us from tackling the bed. (The ever-growing grass has kept us busy in the meanwhile too.) Oh yeah, and don’t we look classy with our pile of crap on the driveway?!

And more gardening…

Front yard landscaping

Front yard landscaping

This bed looked so cute last fall, but isn’t quite as cute this year. We haven’t planted anything new, but I was excited to see the fern overwintered since it indicated it wasn’t supposed to. The yellow annuals obviously didn’t make it, but I’m glad to see the mum’s have made a return. In the meanwhile I’ve been really disappointed with the boxwoods. I was really fixed on having them as the evergreen backdrop in that bed, but they’re not doing well at all. I think they may not be getting enough water – whenever it rains the water doesn’t go on the boxwoods due to the houses overhang. I was sooo determined to have them there! We already replaced one of the plants in the spring, but now only two of the plants have survived. Anyone know anything about Japanese Boxwoods? Is it worth replanting new ones? They only get morning sun and like I mentioned hardly get any rain water. I’m simply determined to have an evergreen that doesn’t grow above approximately 3 feet in that spot that will survive in Zone 7.

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Repointing The Brick

July 9, 2008

This is a project that finally feels really accomplishing. Not that we technically lifted much of a finger to do it. But it’s definitely a bigger house improvement project – getting the foundation’s brick repointed!

Two houses over from us a house had sat empty ever since we bought our house. It was a cute enough bungalow…granite foundation, several built-ins (kitchen, dining room, and living room), a number of fire places, and even some original light fixtures! Though Patrick and I have been able to see past the neglect we realized it was still a house in need of some TLC. Especially the granite foundation was looking a bit sad where blocks looked very loose. Finally after all this time of sitting there a “For Sale” sign appeared. It sat on the market for months, and just before we went out of town someone bought it. When we returned from vacation we were thrilled to see they had worked on the granite mortar – and it looked great! The workers also continued with the brick foundation on the back of the house, so one day I decided to walk over there and inquire who had done it. We have long realized that our brick foundation was in need of some new mortar as well, so we went ahead and got a quote.

We had previously researched about repointing bricks. Unfortunately the results weren’t so fun. Basically from what I’ve read it comes down to this: These older houses were built with a softer mortar. Shortly after the bungalow timeframe harder mortar mixes were introduced. All this eventually means that using the harder mortar can damage the old bricks. So what does this mean? “We need to get our mortar analyzed for some $500?! And that doesn’t even include the labor or figuring out how to get the materials for the analyzed results?!” I’m all for trying to do things the right way and respecting historic aspects, but we had to draw the line somewhere. Some of the bricks already had new mortar slapped on, so was this such a bad decision anyway? I’m trying to make myself feel better here – I hope the old-brick-and-mortar gods forgive me one day.

So over the last few days we’ve had Victor and his crew work on repointing our bricks. Since the old crumbling mortar (can you even consider it crumbling anymore when it’s really just turned into sand?) was a reddish color we opted to die our mortar with the “Terra Cotta” liquid cement color. On most of the house they simply scraped out the loose mortar and replaced it with the new one. However in two locations the condition was so bad (they were able to pick out the bricks by hand!!!) that they rebuilt the entire section. We think they did a great job and are so excited how much better our foundation looks!! (Now we just need to get rid of that god-awful pink color!)

Re-pointing brick before

Before

Re-pointing brick after

After

Re-pointing brick before

Before

Re-pointing brick after

After

Re-pointing brick before

Before

Re-pointing brick after

After

This was one of the walls they entirely rebuilt. Imagine how scared we were when they just picked out bricks near the supporting corner by hand!

Re-pointing brick before

Before

Re-pointing brick

Patrick going “”Can you believe that”?!”

Re-pointing brick

In the process

Re-pointing brick after

After

Yay for another completed project! :)

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Vacation Homes

July 2, 2008

During our travels to Europe we came across some lovely houses that would make great vacation homes. Of course they were all historic! In fact, most of them probably make our 90 year-old home look like a young vixen. It’s funny how the definition of “old” is quite different in Europe. We talk about old in the 1800’s or early 1900’s. They talk about old in terms of centuries. For example, a lot of the pubs we visited were from the 16th or 17th century, and they are still proudly pouring beer to this day!

French castle

Vacation Home #1 – A Spanish Castle in the South of France. This place even had hot water during its heyday! With a little renovation I’m sure it would be lovely.

English Tudor

Vacation Home #2 – Old Tudor House Along the Thames. This would be a great place to go when you feel like boating.

English cottage

Vacation Home #3 – Small English Village. We might as well own the whole village. It was right out of a storybook! Everything was so picture perfect!

English cottage

Vacation Home #4 – English Country Cottage. Old and cute – does it get any better? Check out the detail on that chimney and the old tile roof.

London house

Vacation Home #5 – London Flat. Why not? Everybody needs a place to stay when visiting the city. We might as well have one with a little style.

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What Slackers

July 2, 2008

Wow, what slackers. I know we said that in the last post, but I think we can say it again. Last time my parents had been in town so we didn’t get too much accomplished. This time we were on vacation, followed by being so busy with work that we found ourselves slaving away until 11pm every night to catch up, followed by Patrick coming down with an unpleasant fever. Now we finally feel like we’re starting to catch up with life…work is getting back to normal, Patrick is feeling fine, and we’re starting to get our yard under control again (you know how those weeds grow when you’re gone for a little while!).

So even though we’ve been doing a little house work here and a little yard work there I’ll post about that later. In the meanwhile I’ll share some more non-house related things, like happenings in the neighborhood.

As spring/summer was coming, the trees were filling in with leaves, and the birds were busy making nests. While checking the mail one morning I was upset to see one bird’s hard work hadn’t paid off. The nest had fallen on our path and the blue eggs were lying smashed next to it. :(

Bird nest

Bird nest

In the meanwhile at a neighborhood association meeting someone asked “What’s going on with all the dead chickens in the road?” – Patrick and I, like much of the remainder of the room, burst out in a puzzled laughter. What on earth were they talking about?? Someone else chimed in and said they’d seen them at various intersections as well.

A couple of days later we drove down one of the nearby streets and saw something laying in the middle of the road. What do you know, it was a dead chicken!! Of course there has been much speculation as to the reasoning of this, the main one being that it’s some sort of voodoo related thing. I believe someone mentioned that it may be a type of initiation ceremony, or someone doing a protective “spell” on the neighborhood or something. If anyone knows about these types of things, please let us know what else it may mean!

Voodoo Chicken

Voodoo Chicken

Otherwise we’ve been very busy with neighborhood related work. One of the recent projects was a neighborhood BBQ…an “excuse” for neighbors to come out, meet new neighbors, chat with acquainted neighbors, and an opportunity to get to know their local police officers and firefighters. The firefighters brought out the truck for kids to play with, the police brought out barricades to block off the street, and generous neighbors donated food, money, and time to make the BBQ happen.

2008 Ontario Park BBQ

Patrick and neighbor Leslie enjoying some food in the shade during the Ontario Park BBQ.

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