Garden updates

I've made a few edits to the front garden bed, but they were significant.

I dug up the Valentine roses and put them in pots in the back. I did this for 2 reasons:

1. I decided I really wanted an orange bloom instead of red
2. The deer were decimating them

I'll keep them there until it's cool enough to put them back in the ground, and then I'll plant them in the back. They're flourishing without deer snacking on them nightly, which doesn't bode well for the roses I plan to replace them with. This gardening-with-deer thing is more challenging than I anticipated.

I'm using 'Lafter' instead, which you might have seen in pictures from my old garden.

Image from Countryside Roses

I'm only planting 3, and if I can't keep them from getting stripped clean by the stinkin' deer then I'll have to find an alternative entirely to roses in the front. That prospect makes me sad.

I also bought some Canna 'Wyoming' from Karchesky Canna. I had some of those in my old garden as well. (I pulled up the 'Blueberry Sparkler' canna I planted in the Spring, and it's now in a temporary pot too.)

And now my favorite recent purchase: Yucca Rostrata 'Sapphire Skies':

I'd had the smaller one in a pot for a few years, and got the larger one for a really good price. (It's approximately 25 years old - they're slow growers.)

It's exactly what I'd originally pictured against that wall, but seemed too expensive at the time. You know how sometimes you think about making a big purchase for a long while, and then when you do it's not what you hoped? This wasn't one of those times. I'd spent all summer being dissatisfied with that bed's composition, and I finally feel like it's moving in the right direction.

You can't tell from the picture, but I have smaller yucca rostrata in the pots throughout the garden, so there's symmetry and all that.

I just received some iris I ordered from Schreiner's Iris, and I'm anxious to get those in the ground but I'm keeping them in pots until September. I can't afford to lose any of them to this heat!

I installed some drip irrigation today, so we'll see if that keeps things alive. It finally started getting stupid hot here. We were lucky to have had as mild a Spring as we did, for as long as we did.

In other news (Updated 8/24 with new 'before' pictures)

I realized I never posted about a few other happenings inside the house! After his rousing success with the bathroom fixtures, Ryan was successfully badgered into replacing the fixtures in the hall and foyer.

Old dated and mismatched lighting

New light in foyer

New light in hallway

They're simple and hopefully timeless. Regardless, they were inexpensive!

I finally bit the bullet and repainted the entire house. I think I'd written about hating the color (Sherwin Williams 'Modern Gray') but hoping I'd get over it. I didn't, so I agonized over gray paint swatches for weeks, and finally went with Benjamin Moore 'Classic Gray'.

BM Classic Gray on top, SW Modern Gray on bottom. 

I like it, but strangely it doesn't really look gray at all? It almost looks white, at least until you compare it to something really white (like the ceiling). I'm happy with it, though!

I never posted pictures of the dining area wall, either! It was one of my first projects and it's what gave me the false confidence about wallpaper removal.

I took it down in less than 2 hours:

I originally painted it the same red I had on the dining room wall of my old house. It's a beautiful red, but it kind of dominated the entire living area...

Easter 2014

So I painted it 'Mega Greige' by Sherwin Williams. It's a really nice darker gray. I may get tired of it someday, but for now it's very relaxing and I like it.

I've been remarkably less successful in the sunroom. I painted it Benjamin Moore's 'Palladian Blue' before we even moved in, and immediately hated it because it looked like a baby blue.

Then I painted over it with Benjamin Moore's 'Lehigh Green', which was better but but looked a little seafoam-eqsue at certain times of day.

My latest failure is Benjamin Moore 'Sweet Pear'. I thought it would surely be a winner, since I'd painted the living room in my old house that color and loved it. It was a pale, cool yellow-green.

Again, no. It looks like Big Bird's lair.

Soooo...I got another gallon of Mega Greige, and we'll see if I can live with it for longer than 10 minutes.

Bathroom update

It was brought to my attention that I've neglected this blog, and specifically never posted about the bathroom makeover results! That was partly due to a hectic work schedule and then vacation, but largely because I still hate it.

I'm not even sure I hate it less, because now it has stolen an entire weekend from my life that I'll never get back. But it's arguably less hideous. And our relationship survived the project, so: bonus!

Here are some pictures after all the wallpaper was removed:

Why yes, that is drywall paper you see over the sink areas. I learned that when they put the wallpaper up, they pasted it right onto the drywall - no primer or nuthin'. Apparently when one does that, it fuses with the drywall and then there's no getting it off without taking chunks of drywall along with it. (So full of loathing for them....)

After the walls dried, I primed them with a product that's supposed to be good for painting over paper surfaces, then did a coat of regular ol' Kilz primer, and then painted. This is the final(ish) result:

Ryan did a rockstar job of putting up new lighting - it's the Martha Stewart line, and there's a 2-light fixture over his sink. He'd never replaced light fixtures before, so yay him!!

Later we put a medicine cabinet over my sink. Still need to put a mirror over his but since he's not whining about it I'm taking my time.

The color is Behr 'Flagstaff Green', which is a greenish-blue.

I still haven't painted the cabinets and I'm ignoring the toilet area entirely, but its tolerable and Ryan said he was 100% happier after we "finished", so that's good enough for me! Perhaps someday if I'm profoundly bored I'll do more, but nobody hold their breath for that.

What you don't see, and don't need to see to appreciate, is that we had to replace the toilet about a month ago. It wasn't a planned expense, but THAT has made me happier than anything else we've done to that bath: gone is the squatty troll toilet, replaced with a standard white toilet for humans of normal height. And it flushes with authority, unlike the old one where you'd stand with the plunger in hand, in case it upchucked because you used an extra square of paper. It's the little things....

Master Bath 1.1 (or "Why anyone who puts up wallpaper should be euthanized")

I'm calling this weekend's master bath makeover project "Master Bath 1.1", because it won't be worthy of even calling it half a redo. This is lipstick on a pig, at best. This is a finger in a leaking dike. This is rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

I hate the master bath.

I had planned to completely ignore it until we could afford a 20k remodel (sometime in the year 3010). I was making exciting plans to build banquette seating and shelving for the kitchen dining area, or maybe some built-ins for the office. (We have lots of books in boxes that we can't unpack until we get some kind of shelving solution in place, and it's making me agitated.) I borrowed tools and learned how to use them! I had stalked the lumber sections at Home Depot and McCoy's, and I was thisclose to buying the wood needed to start a project!

Then I made the mistake of asking Ryan what HIS biggest source of frustration was with the house in its current state. Rookie mistake.

He was never a fan of the master bath any more than I was, but after the popcorn ceiling guys tore up the wallpaper in there and just left it hanging in tatters (long story, hate those guys), he became openly hostile towards it.

Moral of the story: don't ask a question if you might not like the answer.

I took today off work, and thought I'd be done stripping the wallpaper within 2 hours, 3 tops. Nooooo. NO NO NO NO. It's nothing like the dining room, where I was smugly self-congratulatory that, after I merely followed the instructions on the DIF Wallpaper Removal container, it came off cleanly in big sheets.

In the master bath it's coming off in little tiny fragments. I'm scraping and scoring and scraping and scoring and scraping and scoring. And then scraping and scoring some more. And this is what I have to show for it:

Here's what's left to remove:

What's that blue stuff with black splotches, you ask? Oh, that's just the wallpaper behind the giant ugly mirrors we removed. It's bizarre: that wallpaper appeared to stop at the margin of the mirrors, and then the newer wallpaper was put up over those edges and THEN the mirrors were installed. Yeah. That happened.

That's just a small sampler from the smorgasbord of poor choices in this "master" bath. I hate, hate everything about this bath. Sigh.

So here's the plan:

1. Ryan will join me in the wallpaper removal tomorrow, because we have to wash the walls to get the DIF and dust/debris off there before I can prime/paint, and it needs time to dry completely before I can prime/paint, so that means 4 hands instead of two.
2. While the walls are drying, I might try to get a sense for how those ugly brass light fixtures are installed so we know what to buy to replace them.
3. We need to buy light fixtures and some kind of mirror solutions over each sink/counter area. Each ugly, yellowed cultured marble sink/counter area.
4. Replace ugly brass-ish door knobs with brushed nickel door knobs.
5. Prime and paint. (I might paint the ugly faux-wood cabinets as well, not sure yet.)
6. Then we'll replace the light fixtures and hang new mirrors.
7. If time permits, we'll disassemble that shower door monstrosity and I'll just put up a shower curtain.

Sound like too much to accomplish in one weekend, especially for the inexperienced? Yeah. Is that going to stop us? NOOOOOO.

Fingers crossed we don't electrocute ourselves or kill each other!

So far, so...busy

So much has happened since the last post! Here's a brief list (posts and pics on each still to come):

• Popcorn ceilings removed
• New baseboards painted (I learned to use a professional paint sprayer!)
• Hardwood floors and baseboards installed
• Wallpaper removed in breakfast area
• Boys' playroom (fka formal dining area) ready for occupation
• Fireplace painted*
• Tankless Water Heater installed
• Painted all rooms except office, master bedroom, and breakfast area**
• Front garden overhaul complete***
• Patio overhang repair underway

For the sake of brevity (and my own sanity) I won't list all the things I HAVEN'T done yet, or haven't even started.  Just know that there's a future post dedicated solely to my passionate and all-consuming hatred of the master bath.

What I AM posting pictures of today is the front yard! I wish we'd had a sunny day for photos, but it's been threatening rain all weekend.

My bluetheme worked out pretty well, I think. I had to modify the rose selection - I just couldn't find enough positive information about the bloom consistency of the Reine des Violettes, so I went the tried and true Valentine rose.

Hopefully the red won't look too red, and will look more red-blue. I surrounded them with blue grasses and purple flowers to pull the color in that direction.

I filled upwards of 40 lawn bags with plant debris from the removal, and had to call upon my dear lawn guy of old to take a chainsaw to the stumps that remained.

The neighbors keep commenting on how much tearing out those giant ugly shrubs down has opened up the front of the house! I agree and I'm thrilled, but it has also exposed the garage wall which literally hasn't seen daylight in at least 10 years. It was completely covered by those gawd-awful stabby holly bushes and was actually growing moss.

 

 It looks even worse in pictures.

I'm completely at a loss for what to do in that little bed by the garage, so it has a little of everything.

The plant list:

• Bismark Palm
• Altas Mountain Palm
• Agave Stricta 'Live Wires'
• Euphorbia Lathyris (aka Gopher Spurge)
• Santa Barbara Dwarf Mexican Sage
• Azure Bush Germander
• Valentine Rose
• Silver Peso Texas Mountain Laurel
• Canna 'Blueberry Sparkler'
• Apostle Iris
• Louisiana Iris 'Black Gamecock'
• Aloe Striata (from my old garden)
• Agave Weberi 'Purple Heart'
• Agave Parryi
• Elymus 'Canyon Prince'

Now I just wait and see what the summer kills....

*Full-disclosure: I've only primed the fireplace, but it already looks 100% better than it did.

**I have actually completely painted the sunroom but I hate the color. Let's just say that Palladium Blue isn't all it's cracked up to be.

***By and large the front planting is done, save some edging replacement and mulching. 

I heart Pinterest

So much has happened since my last post! Over the weekend we tried various paint swatches on the walls while removing wall plates, window treatments, and giant home office systems.

Don't ask me what color is what. I wrote it on the wall in pencil. All you need to know is that Revere Pewter ain't worth all the hype. I'm liking Benjamin Moore's Edgecomb Gray and Sherwin-Williams Modern Gray a lot; we'll see what Ryan thinks.

The popcorn ceiling removal guys started Monday, and WOW what a mess that is! But it's already a vast improvement!

We own a house!

We just closed, and I'm so excited I can hardly stand it! We should be able to go over there by later this afternoon (former owner is finishing her move-out), and then the fun really starts! We have popcorn ceiling removal guys starting on Monday, and hardwood flooring going in on the 25th, and then we officially move in on March 2nd. In between all that I have to get the whole house painted, rip out the front shrubs and plan a new front garden, and evaluate what other immediate work needs to be done. (No idea what state the kitchen cabinets are really in on the inside.)

I've been trying to pick paint colors and make other decorating/renovating plans as much as I can without having access to the house. I suddenly understand why Pinterest is so popular! As for sharing my plans/ideas, I figure I'll just start from the outside front and work my way in.

Here's the current front exterior:

Photos: MLS listing

The giant looming shrubs are all going. [Mini rant: why do you plant something and then spend money (or time) to cut it into a shape in which it doesn't naturally grow? Don't cut square hedges. Don't make goofy balls out of your shrubs. If you don't like its natural shape, don't plant it.]

I also hate how dark the front porch is. Obviously better lighting would help, but in the short-term I plan to paint the ceiling area a white color to match the siding and brighten it up. I also plan to repaint the front door:

Which brings me to the front plantings. I love the idea of a blue garden, which would include succulents, agave, and other plants with glaucous foliage. [This blog is fun AND educational!] And of course, I WILL have roses. Here's a collage of plant ideas:

Please forgive the ghetto collage using MSPaint: I just don't have the patience for Picasa today. Or most days, really. All of these photos and their original locations can be found on my Pinterest page here.

I think the occasional orange aloe bloom will coordinate with the orange-ish brick nicely, and since blue and orange are opposites on the color spectrum I'm feeling pretty designer-ish.

Photo: author's own

I'm also considering California poppies for both their blue feathery foliage AND their orange blooms, but when they die they look so ratty. I don't want ratty in the front of the house if it can be avoided.

The tricky part will be the watering requirements. Some of these plants will rot if they get too much, and others (like the roses and palms) will need it fairly consistently (especially in the hot summer). Our new house has a sprinkler system which is SUPER exciting for keeping the lawn alive, but I don't yet know where the sprinkler head placement is. Obviously that will be key to optimal plant survival.

I might bring my old blue pot collection to the front porch as well:

Photo: author's own

Exciting things happening, at least in my head!!