slackers

Yes, we are...at blogging, at least. What have we done since June 10th and our last blog post? Not a whole lot, really. We spent a weekend up in north Georgia with Brandon's folks, and got to visit with our new nephew a bit. He's adorable and quite chubby, I mean, healthy ;) We've been trying to keep the plants alive with the little watering we're allowed, and trying to keep the veggies away from the squirrels and whatever else is eating them--unsuccessfully. An entire stalk of one of the tomato plants was gone yesterday, along with our largest tomato so far! So unfair! The only thing we're harvesting so far is a lot of grape tomatoes, a radish or two, and a few zucchini squash.

We did finally buy the paint for the exterior trim, and it's quite Craftsman. We ended up going with Lowe's Valspar brand (okay, so it wasn't like a huge decision...we were at Lowe's, and one of us said, hey, let's go ahead and look for some paint). They have a National Trust for Historic Preservation line of paint colors, so we ended up with "Churchill Hotel Olive" for the main trim color and a less pretentious-sounding "Rustic Earth" for the window pane trim. I tried finding links online but the colors look very washed out, so hopefully we'll have our own photos soon. Brandon spent a few hours today scraping and sanding, but we've still got a long way to go.

We also picked up a new ceiling fan for the front porch. We've been wanting this one since we bought the house, but couldn't convince ourselves to spend the money. It's made by Hunter, and it's called "Northshore, Rustic Bronze." Brandon's parents have the same fans on their porch. After our visit last weekend, we came home and just bought the fan. It will be replacing our very small, very boring, very white shiny plastic-y fan that came with the house. It's not terribly Craftsman, but it has some elements. It's kind of old-fashioned and simple, though, and we like it. We do hate the way the outdoor fans have those fake wood blades, but in our price range, that's what we're getting! See pic below.

In other front porch news, we found a can of oops paint in a light blue to paint the porch ceiling with. We've been wanting to get around to doing it for a while, but I think thirteeneleven's recent work reminded us of the project. The paint we got is actually a little brighter than we want, but they also had another can of palest blue/almost white that we plan to mix with it.

Brandon's been adding trim to the basement door and window, and repairing the roof trim on the garage. A neighbor who works as a contractor is coming by tomorrow to help him install a solar attic vent in the roof of the house, and soon we'll be getting around (finally) to figuring out what kind of gable vent we want. The solar attic vent will pull air out of the attic, but now we're not totally sure there's enough air coming into the attic for it to pull out, and we don't want it sucking our air-conditioned air out of the house. We thought we had soffit vents along the eaves, but now we are inclined to think they are just "decorative" (as in not in the slightest bit decorative, but not useful, either) and don't actually open up to anywhere inside the attic.

Hope to have photos to post soon of all the coming work.

i have to admit, i'm a little creeped out...

...by Google's newest addition to their mapping product. I was trying to verify a patron zip code today and since I was in a hurry, I just typed it quickly into Google. If you haven't used Google for maps or directions, it's very simple--you just type the address into the Google search box. Alternately, you can click on "Maps" and go there directly. Today, something new popped up along with the address and map--something called "Street View" with a thumbnail photo. Curious, I clicked on it and immediately felt like I'd invaded someone's privacy. I then typed in my own address, and lo and behold, there I was staring at a photo of my own house from the street. Freaky. You can click on the screen and rotate the view 360 degrees, as well as travel up and down the street. We think our picture is from the fall, because you can see pumpkins on our porch. If you look across the street, you can see our neighbor's trailer, and he moved away in December, so sometime between late September and early December, the Google car went down our street. Our cars are in the driveway, and our garbage can is out by the street, so we figure it must have been a Sunday afternoon. I repeat, freaky.

Read more about the how, why, and where here. You can see a picture of the Google camera car, and see what they have to say about privacy concerns. I think it would be really useful in some situations, like house-hunting (especially in distant cities), going to a new doctor's office, and stalking. :)

beg and borrow no more

We are now the proud (ahem) owners of our very own truck. No more hauling lumber in my little Civic! Hooray! It's not a new truck, but a rather old one. A 1985 Toyota SR5, extra cab, long bed with a camper cover. Brandon gets to drive it to his new job unless we get another car before then. I'm sure he's excited about this, as it's got a very 80s looking paint job--red with big green stripes all over. Turns out the previous owner died of a drug overdose, so we got a truck and an interesting story to tell.

thrift store find, need help!

Brandon found this lovely platter/bowl at the thrift store last week. We love it even if it turns out to be cheap/new/whatever, but we're not sure who made it. We've both searched online for a few hours, and can't find ANYTHING. If you've seen these marks before (or if you've got a good book on silver hallmarks), help us out!

It looks like it says: VICTORIAN, then has three shields with letters that might be F, S, and T, then a rooster or bird head of some kind, then 4204 / S.

And yes, he paid the exorbitant price of $2.02! :)

before and after - back yard lawn

before and after - veggie garden

before and after - wisteria of evil

before and after - herb garden

Everybody loves before and after pictures. When used to watch those shows on HGTV (lies, all lies!), I only cared about the before and after. It's not as if they really showed the HOW of the work they did anyway. So, for your viewing pleasure, I present BEFORE and AFTER yard photos.

fresh veggies

Okay, so technically only one of our fresh veggies is ready to eat yet, but it's looking good! So far, the bunnies have kept away. Which is good, because although we are a peace-loving people, we are starting to understand the invention of the slingshot.

Enjoy!

what happened to june?

Somehow we seem to have moved directly into July or August. Ugh. Temperatures hitting 97 everyday is not letting Brandon get started on the projects he has planned for his summer break. We had a big yard sale last weekend and his mom came down to help us. It was extremely hot and we had a lot of stuff left over, but we had a lot of fun hanging out. We went to the Farmer's Market in Forest Park and she helped me pick out some plants for the front flower bed. It gets a lot of sun, and the snapdragons that were there were finally slowing down. Brandon and I tried to move the snapdragons but the cat next door keeps digging them up! That, combined with the extreme heat, has kept them from looking too good in the new spot.

A neighbor who is also a contractor is coming over sometime this week to help Brandon install some solar attic vents (hooray!) since cutting a hole in our house makes us nervous. Other summer projects include painting all the windows and trim outside in a more Craftsman color scheme. We have more privet and other scrub trees to cut down (actually, right now I am supposed to be outside helping Brandon haul limbs to the curb) but most of the big yard jobs have been done for now, at least the ones we can afford.

The centipede grass we planted is doing well, finally filling in and getting tall! Very exciting.

Was wondering if anyone had any experience with running ads on their houseblog? I know Google will add them, as well as Houseblogs.net...do they actually make any money? Maybe enough to pay for my domain name fee each year, or more, or less? Do you find them annoying as a blog reader or do you notice them? I've seen some that are more subtle than others.

I got my first edition of the neighborhood newsletter finished and to the printers, so it will come out this weekend. Turns out now that the entire board wants to step down, so not sure what's going to happen now.

Hope to post yard photos soon, and maybe attic vents. We've been so busy working there's no time to blog, and when there is, we're too tired. Same as everyone else in the houseblog boat, I'm sure.