Updating my home and keeping me motivated #diy #painting #bobatea

My house is old.  I've gotten tired of it looking tired.  So, I'm updating it as I can.  Things keep happening which keep house updates from occurring, but it will eventually all happen.  This past spring break, my son and his friend ripped up the carpet on the stairs.  It was in really bad shape thanks to cats.  Once it was up, I determined that the wood underneath was in acceptable condition so it didn't have to be replaced (yea!).  Instead of more carpet, I decided to paint it.  The catch, once I'd painted the stairs, the trim and walls looked very dirty.  So, updated the trim and stairwell walls.

 This made the hall upstairs and downstairs look dirty.  Today (by 8:30a)  I finished updating the paint on the walls of my hallways. 

I've got some decorating I want to do (I'll post on that later), but my next big paint project is to finish the repair of the ceiling in the den.  That will lead me to painting the ceilings in the den and the kitchen.  It will probably eventually carry over into ceilings in other rooms.  It's one never ending project.

To make sure I keep myself working on the house, I promise myself treats as I get to various points.  Mainly, my treats are boba tea.  Doesn't sound like much, but it works for me.  You could say that getting the house refreshed is a reward in and of itself, but with so many things that have to happen, I'm better off taking small steps.  Otherwise, it would all get very overwhelming very quickly.  Now that school has started again, progress will, unfortunately, slow down.

Knocking out my To Do list #DIY #Painting #Updatingmyhouse

For the past several months I've been pondering what color would look the best on my stairs. Over spring break I had my son and his friend rip up the cat-damaged carpet to see how the wood looked. We patched what needed patching and then started on colors.  I painted two colors on two stairs at a time, then lived with it a while before making a final decision.  The kids wanted me to continue picking colors and end up with rainbow stairs. 

This was the final color choice.  Unfortunately, it has made the dirt and condition of the wall paint very apparent.  So, next up, trim and wall paint.

Landscape updates #teenboys #alotofwork #garden

I got my son and his friend to give me a big hand this past weekend. There was a pile of mulch left in two places after having the trees cut and stumps ground down. I got them to relocate the mulch. Husband had them "pave" the path through the island. They did a lot of ivy pulling first, then mulch moving. I think the path looks great. Now I need new wood for the bench (or a new bench).

I actually used some of the mulch around the potted plant garden (gnome/fairy garden) first. When the boys finished their mulch move, I had them install a bird feeder pole where the trees had been. Ultimately, I want to move 3 of my roses to that area. Two of my roses are overtaking the front walk, the 3rd just isn't thriving where it is. So, come fall when they're not blooming, I'll see about moving them.

Container Gardening (easy peasy)

The best area in my yard for gardening, is unfortunately not suitable for gardening. There are a lot of tree roots and not a lot of soil. So, I work around that using mostly recycled containers for my plants.

This is actually my small "pond". It was originally a kid's toy bucket, but since they outgrew it it was sitting in the attic. I wanted to drain my small pond in the back as the dogs were having a bit too much fun with it; however, it had tadpoles in it that I couldn't just abandon. So I filled this container up with water and the plants from my "pond" and then rescued as many tadpoles as I could.

These are my plant containers. Recycled cat litter boxes, kids' paddle pools, etc.  I have peppers growing in the closest paddle pool.  Onions are in the pink, lettuce in the far paddle pool.  Smaller containers have tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, beans, lavender, lemon balm, bee balm, miniature pomegranate, and more.   Most of my plants are heritage seed or from local growers (local master gardeners had a sale as did the local college). To use the containers, I punched holes in the bottoms to make sure the water could drain before putting the soil in.  If I wanted to get fancy, I could have painted the cat litter boxes, but I didn't bother.

Fairy Garden

I turned an old bird bath into a fairy garden. I actually did this last year, but have changed it slightly this year.  Underneath the moss is a layer of pebbles with a layer of soil on top.  The garden, as it exists currently, has Tinkerbell sitting by the word "Bloom", a small globe, bird house, bird feeder, gnome tending the moss, and a basil plant.  Over head is a metal cut-out of a fairy on the moon.  I want to find some more miniature plants to put in, but haven't really located any close to me.  I'll eventually add a house as well, but I'll have to change the layout first.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your #garden grow? #pests #organic

I'm fighting bugs in my garden. I've started using a dawn soap/water/baking soda mix to try to fight them, but you can see both the bug and the damage they've done. They seemed to focus on my cucumbers and cantalope first, they're moving to my pumpkins. Not sure if it was them or squirrels, but my crop of lettuce is gone. It hadn't had the chance to mature, either. :(

I do, though, have eggplant and watermelon growing. So far they've left these alone.

Garden Update & Question

I have cucumbers!  I have lots of growing fruit!  Yay!  My recycled container garden is working and one of my neighbors even complemented me on it.  Question, what's the best ORGANIC way to get rid of a white fungus that seems to be growing?  It's on my watermelon and my cucumber plants.

The start of a wonderful crop.

Recycled Container Garden

This is my version of a container garden (or a recycled garden). I've found new uses for the multitude of plastic cat litter bins that have been floating around the house and yard. A friend had an old paddle pool which now has lettuce in it.

This storage bin is now growing Hutterite beans.

A recycling bin is now growing eggplant.

This container has been floating around the house for several years. It now has Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and.... Lemon Balm! Ha!

Second paddle pool has cantaloupe, watermelon and cucumbers.

I have several tubs that have tomatoes, a few with cucumbers and a couple with okra.

Kitchen Organization (#Ikea Style)

I still have more kitchen reorganization to do, but I solved at least some of the clutter this past weekend. My daughter and I went to Ikea's BYOF event Saturday morning. I went primarily to cruise and get ideas, but came home with a partial solution to a couple of problems. The big one being all the random boxes of 'stuff' that I have in my eat-in kitchen area. My husband's grandmother loves to can, so I had several boxes of her canned stuff to store. Not to mention that the one cabinet I use to store canned goods was spilling out at me every time I opened the door. Thus, my need to find SOMETHING that would help. I really like what my daughter and I picked out.

This is after assembly, before having stuff added.


This is after I've pulled things that have been attacking me and putting those (plus homemade canned goods) in.


I still have plenty of space for more. The dry goods that the dog was likely to try to help herself to are behind the doors or in the drawers. Quite the neat solution if I say so myself. If I do ever decide I don't want it in my kitchen, I'm sure to find a use for it in the kids' playroom organizing their video games and such.

Designing my home

I'm tired of my house being cluttered and looking like a total disaster. I visit other homes or friends' homes and imagine what my home could actually look like. It would be nice if my family supported my efforts, but it is what it is and at this point I'll do what it takes to make me happy. In that manner, I've been wanting to put curtains or something up around my front door. The side windows are set up such that a tension rod doesn't hold well (cat pulled that one down) and putting screws/nails into the door itself isn't viable. Without mounting two rods at the top of the door frame (which I didn't care for), I was having a hard time coming up with ideas. At some point, though, I came across the concept of swing arm curtain rods. Those, though, can be expensive and not overly accessible in my area. I'm persistent, though, so I finally found these on ebay. I love the style they add to the front hall and they accomplish what I was wanting for the windows. Thanks to Big Lots, I found the curtains cheap too. All together the upgrade ran me about $50 (the cost of one set of new rods online).



I'm also working on organizing various rooms. I've reworked my utility room and dining room. I'm working on my kitchen (a big project in and of itself) as well as the den (mostly complete). A project I'm contemplating for the summer is to try installing my own hardwood floor in the den. I can't afford to do the whole house, but maybe I can start with one room and work my way around.

Halloween Decorations - conclusion (The witches)

Most everything in this section makes noises, lights up, moves, or otherwise makes you jump. I'll have a fog maker going here as well. I call my witches "the twins". They both talk. The bats are actually home made, they're simple construction paper hung on fishing line. Any little wind makes them flutter nicely.

You can never tell what the twins are up to. They've caught themselves a ghoul, have a singing cat, various potions out on their table, and a gargoyle that makes random appearances.

This one is just for fun. They sit right next to the door.

Up until Halloween I'll be tweaking, adding, changing the display. There are lights that will be on the spiders (can't see it by daylight) that also make noises. I'm thinking I'll add more eyes to the plants, have to make those first. I also like getting silly string and spraying my trees so that the webs continue out into the yard. That varies depending on weather. Silly string doesn't hold up well to rain.

Once Halloween is over, I'll start hitting the sales and picking up new things to add to next year's display.

Halloween Decorations part 2 (scene setting)

My kids always laugh at me when I set up half of our front porch just for the spiders. I love to stretch the spider web cotton all over the front and then put as many spiders as I can in the scene. This year I added an extra "victim" to the scene.. they've cocooned my small scarecrow.

This is my skeletree. Hidden in the ivy (that you can't see until dark) are eyes that light up and blink on/off. Makes for a great spooky feel.

This year I put my grave stones together in their own area. I took some left over garden "fencing" and created my own grave yard. The two hanging skeletons are getting "married".

Either someone is crawling out of the grave, or something was left behind.. Two of my "stones" make noises and/or have lights.

Halloween Decorations part 1 (home made)

These are my totally home made Halloween decorations. The first is something I got from pinterest. I don't know if I'll add more of these little guys to my decorations or not.. their area seems somewhat bare. I may add ghost milk jugs with lights, if I do I'll show a picture of that later.

This was an old cat litter tub. I painted the main part of it green and the top black. It does have two bolts screwed into the 'neck' and the eyes will light up with led lights. This is just the 'head' and frame (a tomato cage).

This is after I added a black recycle/laundry bag on the top of the cage. I may add arms reaching out of the shrubs.. we'll see how the week goes if I get a chance to do it.

More changes around the house

My kids want a total redo of their bedrooms this summer. As we figure out what they want, we're doing the easy stuff in small phases. Phase one was to eliminate the queen bed from my son's bedroom. We replaced it with the 'spare' twin bed from my daughter's bedroom. During this, we found that the frame of one of the beds needs to be fixed. I don't have the time to really do as much as should be done to them, so we cheated and bought my daughter an inexpensive replacement frame.

Phase 2 we changed the curtains in the kids' rooms. My daughter is expressing her definitive style. Striped silky curtains with peace symbol sheers.

My son, on the other hand, went for simple. The difference is that he's hung his curtains from the ceiling instead of the wall.

Today's project

Other than work and getting my kids to do school work, this was today's main project. I moved the turtles from a 20 gallon tank to a 55 gallon tank.

Frustration abounds

Blame it on the pollen, but I've found myself overly frustrated with just about everything lately. My family (various reasons), the pets (typical pet stuff), me (for being frustrated), work (no surprise there), etc etc. I know the causes of just about everything, but it hasn't helped my reactions. I was looking forward to spring break to at least get away from the school stuff, but the only part I'm getting away from is the work side of it. My kids will have to do some school work over the break. We'll also have 2 cars to get fixed during the week (oi).

I'd slow down, but I'm not sure how much slower we can go. School has requirements, work has requirements. Home is about the only thing I can slack off on, but even that hits a bad point. (Especially when I have a child that's not mine telling me my house is a disaster.)

Of course there's always the money issues. We've had those for a while and most days I can see the progress. I think that just looks bad because everything else looks bad. Then again, when I'm given the cost for my son and I to test for our new belts in June, I have to shudder. Everyone wants my money (including me).

So, of course it comes down to how to handle the frustration. I have no clue. I took off from my family for a little while last Saturday and went out to the Home Show. It was interesting, but not overly helpful. Sunday I got outside and worked on the yard (therapeutic in it's own way). I guess I'll just handle it as it goes and wait for my new plants to come in. Then spend a week outside with a headache (due to pollen) and get everything planted. Maybe when I'm done it'll all have gone away.

Updates from the Garden

It's that time of year again. Time to try to clean up the yard, fix the garden and make everything beautiful. Unfortunately for me, I've been more sensitive to the pollen this year than usual. I can generally breathe ok (though my nose runs and I have the sneezes), but I end up with a headache. Not sure why this year is any different, but it is. So, I'm off to a slower start than usual. I finally butchered trimmed my azaleas. At the end of last year, several started dying back (drought maybe), so I had to cut back more than usual. I managed to trim back the boxwood at the mailbox too. It won't be taking over the box or attacking the mailman soon.

The overgrown/undergrown garden is ready to be worked with. The bulbs are coming up, hopefully they'll bloom for me. The water garden needs new plants. Weeds have taken over a lot of the rest.

I haven't done much in the way of planting, yet. I've got some plans for where we had the veggies last year. It's too shaded for them to properly grow, so it's turning into a shade garden. Gotta figure that one out. Maybe some ferns and some nice flowering plants. I like perennials, makes it easier next year. I figure on trying to do the planting during spring break, that'll give me time to come up with a plan and ideas.

I did manage to fertilize the front yard. I debated seeding it and decided to see how well fertilizing would work first. It may be that all I've done is give the weeds ammunition to grow, but at least it's something green.