Personal Vegetable Aisle!

I've been having a lot of fun recently growing seeds in those seed starting green houses and have finally gotten around to planting them in the beds! I've separated the plants by type (tomatoes/peppers in one bed) and vine like plants in the other.  We designated the taller bed for the vine-like items in the hopes that it will help contain them.

This past weekend was our 5 year anniversary!  My gift to Jeff was a set of golf clubs.  His gift to me...manual labor.  I was very pleased and immediately put him to work on installing a drip irrigation system for the beds.  I'm very happy with the results and so are the plants.  I can already see them smiling and growing bigger.

 

In a previous post I talked about the Topsy Turvy's we swiped when the neighbor abandoned his home.  Here's a little preview of their progress:

 

We have our first tomato growing...

 

And there are multiple peppers growing!

Can't wait for things to keep growing.  Will post more pictures as our personal vegetable aisle continues producing.

Would You Call that a Twin or a Full?

We finally did it!  We made vegetable beds. 

Two weekends ago, Jeff and I went to Home Depot and bought more lumber.  Yes...more lumber.  We did get to break in the new truck to haul it all home, but more lumber.

We planned the beds out that morning and decided on 2 - 4'x8' beds spaced 4' apart (for carts to get through).  The lumber is treated so they *should* last a few years without having to rebuild.  There is one bed that is 10" tall and the other is 20" to contain vine-like plants from spilling into the yard.

<Insert Jeff's pat on the back here>

The neighbor gave us a topsy-turvy which we hung on a shepherd's hook, however, when he left in the middle of the night without saying anything moved out, he left a topsy-turvy (strawberry variety) planted with pepper plants I gave him and another tomato one so I went over and adopted them.  They are so heavy the broken the shepherd's hooks we bought so we replace the cut 4x4 of the big bed with a 5 - 6' piece and hung them on it.  Much sturdier and we're already seeing plant growth!

I've also been busy starting summer seeds (cucumber, squash, watermelon, Lima beans, pumpkins).  The Lima beans grew so fast that they pushed the lid off of the seed starting "greenhouse" in 3 days!  I moved them so they're sitting outside in the shade growing happily.  Unfortunately, the only other thing that grew with it was the cucumbers.  I'll have to restart the squash and watermelon.  I think I'm giving up on the pumpkins.

Next step is to construct the trellis and plant!  I can't wait to see everything grow!  More pictures to come.

Porch, Planks, Paint and Pain

The last time I posted I gave you a teaser of a teal door and crystal doorknob.  Today I'm giving you a way too detailed update on the potting shed.  Since my last post of the cedar wrapped shed with the in-progress porch, we've been working very hard.  For the past three weekends, Jeff drags me out of bed each Saturday and doesn't let me stop until Sunday evening.  I'm tired.  I'm sore.  My shed looks amazing!

Our first task was finding a door for the shed.  I've always wanted a dutch door (door cut in half).  I think this idea started after my first Mr. Ed experience.  Seriously, what kid wouldn't want a door that let their horse hang out?!  So, I found this "really cool" architectural salvage place (online) in north Austin.  So, this "really cool place" turned out to be a "mecca of overpriced hippy stuff with terrible customer service" (slightly revised - direct quote from Jeff).  Hey, it's a family friendly blog and what he actually said wouldn't make sense with all the redacted words.  We did find a door I liked but at $85.00 it wasn't in the budget.

On a last minute whim we decided to go to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore downtown Austin.  We found the perfect door.

I painted it (Mint Majesty by Behr) and Jeff cut it in half.  We had our new backyard neighbor, Frank, helping us that weekend.  That's him holding the lights since this picture was taken at 9:30 Saturday night.

Once the door was finished (read: cut in half but half hung), the guys went to work on the porch.  They completed the roof and topped it off with a beautiful tongue and groove ceiling.

And that was the end of week 2.  A Glamor Shot of the shed at the end of the weekend:

That week we both went to our day jobs and returned home Friday with a plan to finish the shed. Lofty goals.  The next step was to add the Hardie plank siding, paint, add the sofits and trim, paint again, and finally to hang the door.  We got halfway through our list before it was Sunday evening.

Observations regarding Hardie siding:
It's heavy...very heavy.
It's made of concrete.
It hurts when it's dropped on your head.

OUCH!  When we were hanging a piece of siding, it slipped and fell on top of my head.  I cried a little.  I held my hand over my head to apply pressure (in case of extreme bleeding; none BTW) and tried to walk it off by going around the house.  As I walked to the garage a SNAKE slithered in front of me and INTO the garage.  I cried harder.

After this experience, I went inside to take a break.  Don't judge me.  I was in  pain and had just run into a snake.  A SNAKE!  After 45 minutes I went back outside ready to kick some butt.  Only to have a metal tool fall and hit me on the head 15 minutes later.  I went and sat in the hammock for a few minutes after that.

Despite all the bumps and bruises and SNAKES, we made great progress.  Here's the latest picture of the shed. 

What a keen eye you have.  Yes, that's a paint swatch on top of the already painted shed.  I ended up hating the purple/grey color (Dolphin Fin - Behr).  Looks like I'll be repainting the shed this weekend (Paving Stones - Behr).  More pictures to come, I'm sure.

A Tease



Just a little preview of my next blog post. 

That's a Welcome Sign

Man, sometimes I'm super punny! 

Check out the welcome sign I found at everyone's favorite gas station/gift shop in Brenham, Texas.  For Christmas my mom and dad gave me the arrow hanger and a Christmas candy-cane hanging decoration.  It sat in my hall closet for months. 

On one of my many trips from Austin to Houston, I stopped at the gift shop and found the welcome sign for 50% off!  Score.  I paid $10.00 for it total.

It almost cost me much more than that when I lost my wedding ring at the gas station side of things, but found it after driving 1 mile on down the road, freaking out and turning around.  But that's another story.

So, if you're ever in the neighborhood, you're "Welcome" to stop on by.

Them There are Walls

Last Friday night I looked at my husband and thought, "there sits a man who really needs a weeekend project!"  I looked him in the eyes and said, "my darling husband.  I love you very much.  My potting shed needs walls and I think this is the weekend for it."

He looked back lovingly into my eyes and said, "okay."  What a great husband.  I'm sure I'm glossing over a bunch of his internal dialog and eye rolling, but that's how I remember the story going.

So, bright and early on Saturday morning, we went to the Depot (Home Depot) and bought a few sticks of wood.  A few means a lot.  Like $650.00 dollars worth of wood.  I saved the receipt to show my grandchildren.  One time your grandmother went to the Depot (Home Depot) and spend a small fortune on wood...ah, memories.

Most of this wood purchasing was my fault.  My husband wanted to put plywood up on top of the studs and then Hardie siding on top of that.  My idea was much prettier.  I wanted cedar slats.  Yes, one of the most expensive types of woods. 

I think you'll all agree with me that my idea was much better than my husbands.  AGREE WITH ME. 

That leads us to the porch.  What potting shed would be complete without a little porch to sit on and put stuff on and basically cause one's husband to loose his mind over.  Why did he lose his mind?  Because not only did I want a porch, the porch had to be covered.  DUH!  What if it rained.  Wouldn't the door get wet?  And what about when it wasn't raining.  Wouldn't it be too hot to enjoy the porch.  Needless to say, I won and now I have a 3ft porch which will eventually have a covered roof.

Big shout out to the new neighbor for coming over and helping frame the porch and drink beer with the husband.  It was an enjoyable Saturday.  Jeff and I worked together on Sunday to lay the deck and finish the cedar slats.  Our hard work payed off as the shed is really coming along.

Our next steps are to finish the cedar slats and complete the roof extension.

There are big future plans.  I won't write them all here as I want it to unfold over more blog posts (and as we have time), but they involve siding, a southern tradition, and a door.

Stay tuned!

You can never have enough flower beds

I know!  I know...iknow.  It's been forever since I've last posted.  Don't worry...it wasn't because I didn't have anything to write about.  Quite the opposite in face.  We've been busy.

The first project that you should know about is that we've created three more flower beds!  Mostly, I did.  While my darling husband was away working, I decided it was the ideal time to create more flower beds.  We needed more flower beds.  This of course was a very intelligent decision to make...while my husband was away working.  My back is still sore thinking about the rocks, dirt, and mulch, irrigation, and plants. 

So, here's an updated picture of the house.  You can see how the existing flower beds are looking.  Darn fine if you ask me.

Now for the two new beds in the front yard.  Since we added the first one around Christmas time, the other two sets of trees looked lonely.  We added a small bed around the big tree and a larger bed around the two Crape Myrtles. 

If you don't already know this about me, I'm a daisy fanatic!  I have a tendency to buy as many varieties of daisies as I can find.  I wanted to create a daisy flower bed where the primary flowers were all daisies.  Of course you have to add some other types just to add variety, so I also planted a hydrangea, two transplanted shrimp plants, and some white salvia.  There was still a big empty spot after two weeks until I found a daisy gardenia.  I can't wait for it to bloom!

The Crape Myrtle bed is all about shade.  My grandmother, Juanita, loved ferns and that's one of my biggest memories of being at her house in Louisiana.  She had these massive ferns and they were so beautiful.  I decided that I should add some ferns to honor her memory and the shade bed was the perfect home.  So, I added two Autumn Ferns.  I also added some ivy, oxalis, lambs ears, and salvias.  The front of the bed tends to get more sunlight that the rest so I moved the plumbago from the front bed and added it to the sunny area.  I also attempted to move the lantana, but it didn't make it so I bought a replacement one.  There are also several different ground covers that I'm excited to see grow into each other. 

The last bed we added was in the back of the house.  There's a massive, beautiful oak tree next to the house that needed definition.  The sun is often blocked by the house and therefore was destined to be another shade bed.  I added caladiums and black sweet potato vines. 

The other addition, perhaps my favorite, is an evergreen wisteria vine that I want to train to the tree. It will bloom maroon in the summer and into the fall. So. Excited.

And finally, the bird house bed is doing wonderfully.  Maybe my favorite plant in the bed is the Agapathus which is blooming!  I fell in love with this flower during my trip to Argentina for my brother's wedding last November.  They were everywhere and I couldn't get over how beautiful.  They were on my must plant list and I ended up buying two varieties.  The first one has been in bloom for a month and the other is just now shooting up a bloom steam.  Everytime I see it I am reminded of my trip and my family in Argentina. 

Many thanks to the people who helped with these beds...Mom, Josh and Husband.

Birds are People Too

For Christmas my mom bought be an adorable birdbath!  We put the bird bath under the tree in the front yard. 

It looked so sad and lonely under the tree.  We decided to add a flower bed.

We LOVE it! 

Blades of Glory

Do you see this fan?  Do you?!  I mean...have you looked close enough to appreciate the awesomeness that is this fan?  I have lived with this monstrosity for over a year now and have planned it's demise since we moved in.

I hate this fan.  I mean...I REALLY hate this fan.  If there was a redeeming quality about this fan, it was lost in the 1970s when brass and cane was in "style."  Did I mention that the house was build in the early 1990s?  So, tell me how did THIS fan end up in my house?  Time machine?  Family vault?  I'm not sure exactly, but it is time this fan died.

Obviously this view is shared by many, especially my mother who gifted us with a new fan for Christmas.  Jeff and I were so happy!  Replacing this fan has been on our to-do list, but with this gift it promptly was escalated to the top of the list.  Yes, above the siding for the garden shed (pout).

There is a challenge with replacing this fan.  It's in the living room which has a vaulted ceiling of over 24 feet.  The pole that the fan hangs from is also brass which means it has to be replaced.  In order to do that, we have to rent scaffolding.  NICE! 

Also, the wiring of the fan is a fun story.  I thought it would be wonderful to control the settings of the fan.  As you can see this fan has chains but you can't reach them so it's remained on high since we moved in.  We don't use it.  I hate chains that hang into the room so that left either a wall switch or a remote control.  I bought a cool wall switch that dimmed the lights and changed the fan speed.  Jeff was none too pleased as the existing wiring had a light switch by the front door and a different switch for fan on/off and light on/off on the living room wall.  My cool switch proved useless.

We bought the remote control.  Easy right?  Wrong, since a piece of the control has to be included in the base of the fan...attached to the ceiling...24 feet above us.

Today, I have this picture and an assembled ceiling fan in the garage.  I'm starting to like the old priority of this fan on the to-do list.  Oh, well.  To be continued next weekend I'm sure.