It's Hard to Know Where to Start

I mean that in all ways possible: this post, the yard....

To recap, last Fall I got started on the disaster that is my backyard. See posts here and here. I later planted the following:

• Natchez Crepe Myrtle tree
• Chocolate Mimosa tree
• Rootbeer plant (aka Hoja Santa, aka Mexican Pepperleaf, aka Piper auritum)
• Sweet Almond Verbena (aka Aloysia Virgata)
• 'Prince' Pennisetum purpureum
• Another Pennisetum (maybe Vertigo?)
• Cotinus coggygria 'Royal Purple' in tree form

AND I laid brick edging on the left side of the backyard. Then it got cold-ish, so I painted my kitchen cabinets.

Over the last three weeks I've overhauled the garden bed against the back of the house:

• Ripped out what remained of the #*@!& holly bushes
• Dug out another bed of rocks the former owners used as either mulch or decoration
• Cut down the sad and spindly crepe myrtles that never got sun due to the giant oak
• Ordered 2 cubic yards of soil, shoveled it into a wheelbarrow 1013 times, and dumped it in the bed formerly occupied by the #*@!& holly bushes

I've also learned a very important lesson about the difference between this yard and my old yard in Crestview. In my old yard, I was constantly digging up random stuff: broken electrical cords, socks, tin cans, bricks and cement clumps. I never found any skeletal remains but it wouldn't have surprised me in the least.

In this yard, things are buried that matter. Say, for example, your sprinkler system:

I bought a fabulous yucca, dug a giant hole, and busted a sprinkler pipe with my shovel. I thought it was a big stupid root from yet another poorly-sited crepe myrtle.

The following weekend I bought an amazing Loquat tree, and dug another big hole in the far back corner. Before I even started digging I noticed a cable sticking out of the ground by the fence, the end frayed and weathered. I didn't think anything of it, because of my experience at my old house. I started digging and came across a skinny dark root, so I hacked at it with my shovel. Turns out it wasn't a root,  it was another cable. I figured maybe it was the other end of the one sticking out, so I kept digging. I came across another skinny dark root, and chopped it in half too.

You know where this is going.

Turns out that in this neighborhood they bury the cables underground, instead of running them overhead like at my old house. Those "roots" were our cable and our internet. Did I mention Ryan works from home? Good times.

Two weekends ago I finally cleared everything out of what I affectionately refer to as the armpit of the backyard:

Everything went: the Hibiscus, the crepe myrtle, the rose (Belinda, I think?). It wasn't that any of it was inherently bad, but:

• That corner spot only gets filtered sun, so it was all pathetic looking
• It was all planted way too close to the (sagging) fence
• It had been pruned by the criminally insane and was unattractive

I borrowed the neighbor's pitchfork so I could till compost and garden soil into the bed, and now I wonder how I gardened without one for so long! I'd have broken my spleen trying to do that with a shovel: it was mud and clay, and made loud sucking noises whenever I pried a chunk up. I'm not 100% confident that anything I plant there this year will survive, but it's a start.

My next post will detail all the things I've planted, with bad pictures from my iPhone! Good thing you aren't paying money to read this, huh?

It's the little things

Ta-da!

And that's how you know you're a grown-up: you get excited about things like in-cabinet trash bins.

In other news....this is still a work in progress, but there's progress: it's primed and glued to the wall!

After the handyman left, I caulked the heck out of that whole area. There were gaps and areas where the wood didn't quite line up, which weren't obvious when it was varnished wood but were painfully obvious after I applied white primer.

I haven't totally ruled out some accent pieces on the tops and sides of the bracket-shaped parts [ ], but sometimes more is too much...

I hope to finish it next weekend! Woohoo!

I almost forgot to post about this: I conquered the caulk!!

I've been intimidated by caulking since I tried to recaulk the bathtub in my old house 10+ years ago. It was a disaster.

I knew I needed to caulk the gaps between the upper kitchen cabinets and the ceiling. They were there before I painted; a remnant of the popcorn ceiling removal (again, those guys were slackers).

After the cabinets were painted it was even more obvious:

Behold the beauty of my caulking!

I read a lot on Pinterest about how to do it well. The secrets:

1. Cut the hole as small as you possibly can. I didn't even cut all the way to the 1/8 mark and it was plenty big.
2. Don't use a wet finger. Wet your finger with water, blot it once on a damp paper towel, and then smooth out the caulk bead. Wipe off excess caulk, wet your finger, and repeat the process.

Yay for me!! (And my kitchen. And Pinterest.)

Kitchen win

This arrived today, and I am thrilled beyond words:

It's the custom rug I mentioned ordering in this post. It's beautiful, and I'm not just saying that because it covers the blue tile. To paraphrase The Dude "It really pulls the room together."

It slightly offsets the minor setback with the oak board I've been working on for the fireplace.

I discovered that it wasn't cut evenly, and it's approximately 1/4 inch higher on the right side. (You can kind of tell if you look closely.) And it isn't all at one end, it's a little off both at the top and bottom. So now I need to get a hand planer I guess? Argh.

I got a deal on Angie's List for 3 hours of handyman work, so having them mount this is my primary objective. If time permits, turning the door to this cabinet into a pullout is my second need:

In the meantime...the fireplace

To kill time waiting for gardening season (woohoo!) I'm knocking out other projects inside the house. I finally initiated some movement on the fireplace finishout (I don't know what to call it??)

You might recall from an earlier post that I wanted to do something like fretwork in the center area:

I screwed up the courage to get a piece of 1/4" oak, cut to size, and then use my Buck Bros miter box/Back saw to start the design. That was a fantastic purchase: inexpensive (maybe $12?) and gets the job done. It wouldn't work with thicker or denser pieces of wood, but that's not what I needed it for: hooray for the right tool for the right job!

I'm feeling pretty good so far:

Why yes, I AM sawing those pieces inside the house, right on the carpet. After 2+ weeks of working on cabinet doors in that freezing garage, I'm done being uncomfortable. I'm a grownup (mostly), and I can do what I want!

Today I'm going to glue the pieces on using wood glue, caulk it in gaps and on the edges, then prime it with the leftover Primer spray cans.

I'll try to tackle mounting it to the wall next weekend, maybe? That intimidates me because:

1. The wall is textured, which may make it harder for the Liquid Nails to adhere, and I don't want to sand in the house.
2. The wall covering a brick fireplace, and if I use nails to hold it until the Liquid Nails dries, I don't know how long a nail is too long? 1"? 3/4"? I'm envisioning nails sticking out of the wall like Pinhead from Hellraiser. *shudder*

Painting the kitchen cabinets - 99.2% done!

I submit to you the lower cabinet doors in all their painted glory:

I still need to address the cabinet we're converting into a pull-out trash bin. (Hence, the 92.8% completion estimate.) I'll post some pictures of that too.

I ordered a custom-sized rug from sisalrugs.com, to cover the blue tiles on the floor. It measures 4'1" x 8'10", and there's no standard sized rug that would fit that space without looking a little weird (a 6x9 would end up going right up to the cabinets on both sides). The awesome thing about that site is that they sell remnants in odd sizes at radically discount prices, and they'll finish them out with cotton edging for you! I got the perfect size at a fraction of the normal cost - can't wait until it gets here!! If I love it I'll get a matching one to cover the blue tile in the dining area.

Once I do something about the backsplash I'll post a full view before and after comparison shot. So close!!

Painting the kitchen cabinets - 2 things (mini post)

#1 - I love, love having drawers again:

#2 - I've decided I love my accidental gray color so much that I'm going to paint all the doors in the house that color.

But not this weekend.