the gardens

Before and after:
















Well, okay, so it's really more like "the flower bed," but whatever. Here are some photos of the front and sides of the house. Brandon has been home for the last few weeks and has gotten a lot accomplished. He and his mom cleaned out the garage (remember, the one that apparently supplied rats to all the neighborhood cats at one time?) and it took two days just to clean it. They ripped out all the paneling inside and stripped it down to the studs and exterior siding, took out some of the shelving, moved one of the cabinets, and cut a window between the two interior rooms to let some light and air through. They also pressure washed it and then Brandon took another day to put everything back inside all neat and organized. Yay! Of course, I don't have any photos of that yet, but I'll try to remember to take some this weekend (and of the organized basement, too).


Patrice and Brandon also cut down some young pecan trees that were growing in a bad spot--right next to the house where the electrical wiring comes in. This photo was from our inspection before we bought the house, but the trees they cut down are the ones right under the back of the arrow, on the corner of the house.

I've been busy planting and mulching in the front yard and done some planting in the side by the driveway, as well. I hauled all the huge pine bark mulch out of the front flower beds, including lots of wood, shingles, and nails (messy contractors!) with our shiny new wheelbarrow and filled the beds back in with cypress mulch. On our first trip to Home Depot for this project we bought four bags of mulch. Then later we bought four more, I think. And then yesterday, I bought four more. We'll get the hang of this eventually, I guess ;)

kitchenaid rocks!

We got a Kitchenaid blender as a wedding gift in September, but B noticed that it's not, well, blending, anymore. The motor runs but the blade doesn't turn. We checked our wedding registry and discovered it came from Bed, Bath, and Bewilderment...who have a really great return policy, but we'd already thrown away the box, and we've moved, so we aren't even really sure where the closest one is anymore. So I went online and researched Kitchenaid, and found some reviews where people said they had a painless return policy for problem items. I called today, gave them the model and serial numbers, and a shiny new blender is on its way to our door, along with prepaid UPS return label! Woo hoo! (Of course, had it not quit working, I guess that would have been a better product endorsement...)

i heart freecycle

Got these for free on Freecycle.

hgtv = the devil

Before:


After:


Not a great "after" photo, but you can at least see some of the work we've done. The grass is a little worse for wear, not to mention watering restrictions, but it's perked up a bit since we've had some rain.

Flowers. They look like we did zero work and just threw them in there. WRONG! That was hours of work, baby. HGTV gets everything done in a half hour including commercials. I can't watch it anymore because I know they're lying to me. Digging out the CLAY, adding in the potting mix stuff, digging the holes in the CLAY...notice said pile of clay to the left of the flowers. It's still there, actually. Anybody got a wheelbarrow they want to get rid of?? We hauled all the weeding and extra dirt to the back yard in our recycling bin! 200' is a looooong way when you're carrying a big bin full of dirt...



Kitchen light fixture, in progress (the garbage bag taped to ceiling was Brandon's idea...definitely helped with cleanup when he had to install the mounting bracket in the attic:



Closeup. Oooh. Aaah.



I'm lame, though. I don't have a picture of the actual light fixture after we installed it. I know you're dying to see it. (ahem)

we own a sideboard

side·board (sīd'bôrd', -bōrd')
n.
1. A piece of dining room furniture having drawers and shelves for linens and tableware.
2. A board that forms a side or part of a side: the sideboards of a skating rink.
3. sideboards Chiefly British. Sideburns.

We arrived bright and early (okay, so we got there at noon, whatever) at the estate sale in Sharpsburg to discover that "our" sideboard was still there and unsold. The asking price was indeed $395 and we were indecisive. Upon closer inspection, we discovered that the piece had a lot of veneer and a lot of it was missing. The veneer was made of tiger oak and was really very pretty. The entire top of the sideboard was missing the veneer, though, and while the rest of the sideboard seemed to be in good condition, we still weren't sure if we were ready to hand over $400 of our savings for it. We checked the back in vain hopes of seeing an indication that it was a hideously valuable Stickley or something, but no such luck. After an hour of poking around through the rest of the sale and finding various odds and ends to buy (including a mission style coat rack for $25, missing one hook, of course...), we ended up back at the sideboard. The lady told us it was very old--late 1800s (highly unlikely) to early 1900s--and that was about all she knew. She told us that a couple of dealers had expressed interest in the piece and she was reluctant to bargain on the first day of the sale, and finally said she would take $345. An hour later we were in the P'tree City Home Depot renting a truck for two hours. Half an hour from P'tree City to Sharpsburg, half an hour to load it in securely, half an hour back to the house, half an hour back to P'tree City...easy, huh? Not quite. We also had to stop and fill the truck back up with gas, get the thing unloaded and in the house, and navigate traffic. Two hours and 13 minutes later, we were back at Home Depot. Still, it only cost $34 for the rental, so we still came out under the original asking price of $395 in the end, I guess.

After much cleaning and oiling and waxing, the sideboard is gorgeous. The top is pretty rustic looking, the mirror has been replaced, and it looks like it might have originally been a dark brown, more mission typical, stain. Appears as if someone took some steel wool to it in places, but luckily they are all hidden (inside doors, under the shelf, etc.) from view. The color is now a reddish brown, but it's very pretty. Looks like all the "repair" that was done to it happened a long time ago, though. We think it's not a great specimen of Craftsman work, but more of the mass market variety. Not sure who made it, but it's got numbers stencilled in white on the back of the mirror/shelf and the sideboard itself.