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In and Around the House

So there’s been a few happenings in the last week…

Oh my, look how much our lavender has grown since we planted it! Juuuust kidding. When we planted the three little lavender plants they were quite pathetic looking already, but at least they were green and alive looking (See photo). Within a week all three plants shriveled up even more and turned into brown leafed and dead looking plants. Maybe we were a little fast with our decision, but we decided to tear them out and replaced them with some grown plants that we purchased at a local garden center. The one on the left is called “sweet” lavender, the one on the right is called “hidcote” lavender. Peeking in on the left is also some “red fountain grass” that we planted.

Lavendar

Atlanta has had a drought (already, and it’s not even summer yet!) with some 10 inch rainwater deficit. We haven’t had a good downpour since we started planting. We knew that there was some flooding in the area by the back steps because when the laundry extension was built they did not bother to calculate in the drain run that was going along the house. So now the water accumulates in a giant puddle (actually it looks close to a pond with the weeds in there!), including in our new flower bed. Everywhere I have read about lavender it says that the plants like very rough conditions, which includes dry soil and full on sun. With the standing water after a downpour I’m a little scared the lavender won’t be very happy in that place – I guess we’ll have to see how it grows or doesn’t.

Puddle

On the other side of the stairs we recently dug up the lost drain that is now blocked by the laundry addition. With the soil gone, or perhaps we just haven’t paid as much attention before when it poured, there seems to be quite a lake. The itty bitty green plant in the middle is a “weigela carnaval” that we planted there in hopes for it to grow large and hide our monster of an A/C unit.

Weigela

While we’re busy enough trying to keep up with our own house and garden we have also had to tackle the neighbor’s yard. A while ago it started off with one kudzu plant starting to creep up the side of their house. It was actually quite crazy to watch because I was able to literally count it going up one brick a day. Eventually the lawn mowing service came out and cut it down. But since then they haven’t come back and the lonely kudzu plant amidst the grass has turned into some grass plants amidst a kudzu field. And those little buggers just loooove to grow onto our driveway. And over our backyard fence for that matter. Since they say kudzu grows up to a foot a day (!) I have been going out there every few days to cut the plants that started coming onto our side. It’s really quite annoying.

Kudzu

So the other day we had some excitement…we kept hearing helicopters over our house. Finally we were curious enough and walked outside to see 2 news choppers hovering right above our house. In the evening news we found out there had been some car chase that ended in a street a block over from our house.

Helicopter

The gas company has come out and made a mess of our street. They’re upgrading the gas lines in our neighborhood from 5 lbs. to 57 lbs. of pressure or something crazy like that. This is where they dug up the gas line coming to our house…a couple hours later it was all covered up with dirt again.

Gas line replacement

When they changed the pipes at the street they also had to come to the gas meters at the house to upgrade the pipes and some converter there. That included a bright yellow pipe that we weren’t very happy about. After complaining to the workers they told us they would come and paint the yellow pipe. We were about to give up hope when they started working further down the street, but to our surprise we found the pipe painted two days later.

Gas line replacement

And last, but not least, we have also done some work inside the house! We finally got around to painting the window in the bathroom and a couple of days later the wainscoting. The prep work probably took longer than the actual painting itself. All that caulking and nail hole filling and sanding and refilling nail holes and re-sanding takes up a lot of time. Now we just have to finish painting the base board, which we waited on because we hadn’t caulked that part. It definitely makes a difference in how the bathroom feels.

Bathroom painting

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Bathroom & Yard Work

Yesterday I was feeling motivated to finish cutting in the edges in the bathroom. It was quite a challenge considering I couldn’t get the ladder too close in places like above the bathtub.

Bathroom door

Patrick was going to work on the second coat of paint today, but instead…

Back yard

…we ended up doing yard work, like cutting down a small tree sized vine that is devouring one of the trees, and eliminating the giant pile of branches still left over from when we cut up the giant branch. (Comparison photo of a month ago) All that’s left now are some bigger branches that we want to use for fire wood. The giant pile may not look like much in the distant photo, but I think the 2.5 hours of work spent on it speak for themselves. All I can say is I’m exhausted now!

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Slow Progress

There hasn’t been super much progress lately. Now that the weather is so incredibly nice we’ve mostly focused on the exterior work. We’ve been mowing the lawn, cleaning up the never ending leaves left over from fall (hey, in the fall we were worried about moving into the house, not the leaves in our yard). I’ve uncovered things like the flower bed by the front porch, etc.

Now that the carpet is in the laundry, and while we have all the junk out of the room, we managed to paint the majority of the room. We still have to finish the very back corner.

Paint laundry room

During our yard cleaning we decided to also clean out our shed, which included a large pile of left over insulation. Since we paid for it we figured we may as well put it to use, so I drug them up the attic where Patrick then spread them between the beams.

Attic

This evening we planted our very first plant! It’s a Yoshino Flowering Cherry tree that has absolutely gorgeous pinkish-white flowers in the spring. Wow, we not only own a house, we own our very own tree too! Haha. :-P

Plant Yoshino tree

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Bathroom Painting

Last Friday Patrick was working on removing paint off the kitchen built-in drawer.

Paint removal

…while I was putting primer in the corners that hadn’t been painted.

Paint bathroom

Today we finally put the first coat of color in the bathroom!! We almost got the entire room done. I have to finish a few more spots by the ceiling. But my husband keeps asking me every 30 seconds if I’m done and we can finish watching “Little Miss Sunshine” so I can only take the questioning for so long! (Otherwise I would have finished it tonight :-P).

Paint bathroom

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More Progress

Our new guest bed arrived!

Assembling guest bed

Gus and Jim came back to work on a few things…

…building shelves for the medicine cabinet.

Medicine cabinet shelves

…tearing out part of the bath built-in to access the plumber’s screw-up and pulling back the faucets so that they don’t stick out.

Shower faucet

…making the bathroom window even (one part was higher than the other due to the Durock).

Bathroom window molding

…building shelves for the kitchen built-in.

Butler's pantry v-groove

Meanwhile, later on that night…

…we were busy priming the kitchen built-in.

Painting butler's pantry

What do you do on a Tuesday night? Personally I like to crawl around on the kitchen floor, showing off my plumber’s crack, and getting into those deep kitchen built-in corners with some paint! :)

Painting butler's pantry

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