Arbor, Yay

So this past weekend I finally got around to building the arbor I've been thinking about for the past year. Here's a quick shot of how it came out. I'll paint it once the wood has dried out a bit as well as a full instructable to come.

Garden work and more

So I reformed last years garden into a new tiered style garden. I included a picture below, but the complete details of the process are available over at Instructables.

I also added the details of my kitchen renovation to another Instrucable. Make sure you go vote for me in the contest they're running.

Some pictures I never posted

Here's a few pictures of what things were looking like a month ago. In the I added a few trees, built some planters (the unpainted one has since been painted), dug a second garden bed for planting next year, got a solid lawn going, stained the patio tiles, touched up some exterior paint, planted flowers, and replaced the front door/door trim.

I'm also planning the next project to be finishing the kitchen renovations. I finally came up with a layout in my head that will work without moving around too many fixtures around. Along with that I plan on replacing the current counter top with a marble tiled countertop, tiled back splash, tile the floor, and a breakfast bar style table. I should be able to finish it all up for under $500, but that will probably wait until Christmas break. Kitchen, upstairs bathroom, and a garage are the last three big items on my list--then I can sell and start all over again.

Got a little sidetracked

So I haven't posted an update in a while. Sorry. I got side tracked with finals, Tara's graduation, and what have you. Regardless work hasn't really stopped (or even slowed down much). I finished off the entrance way (in the process of saving for a new door), trimmed out the new attic window, painted an accent wall in the living room (spice up the blah), and completely landscaped the entire backyard the day after I did the bushes. When I say completely landscaped I'm talking 3 yards of topsoil, a couple trees, grass seed, peat moss, got rid of all the scrap I'd been hoarding... the works. I need a better picture of the yard but here's some pictures of the other stuff and 1 of Laser since he didn't manage to sneak into the regular photos.

$25 never looked so good

With Tara's graduation coming up I decided it was time to get things at least presentable for company. Last night I caught a post on freecycle where someone listed 15 bushes they had dug up and bagged were on the curb and ready to go. Mapquest showed it was 2 miles away and 20 minutes later they were sitting in my back yard. I got home from my final today and planted the bushes. I was thinking about getting one of those black plastic boarders but then remembered the pile of pressure treated wood I still had. I dug a little trench and pounded in 2x6's all the way across. Then I laid down some landscaping felt and topped it off with mulch. All-in-in the whole project only cost $14 for the felt and $11 for the mulch. Still no grass but I'm getting there. Here's a reference picture of what it looked like before I did anything. w00t.

Step on up

6/27 Wednesday -- Today Tara's dad spent the day building wooden steps for the front porch. It took most of the day but they came out pretty great. Not to mention he got to go at a pitbull attacking another dog with a hammer. After two hits with the hammer the pitbull hadn't even flinched, but I digress. I just need to get some trim molding to run along the side and then give them a coat of paint, hopefully at some point tomorrow. While he was working on that I took care of a few miscellaneous jobs: spackled the screw holes in the drywall, took down the deck in the back yard, removed all the cabinet doors and cleaned them up. I tried stripping a cabinet door to see how they'd hold up but even just a little sanding with an orbital was going through the veneer. I'm going to have to wind up painting them. It wasn't what I originally wanted but I guess you have to do what you can with 50 year old cabinets. I also got some epoxy floor covering for at least the workbench/laundry area and some spray on epoxy kit for redoing the worn upstairs bathtub. Oh and I meant the guy who owns the house next to me on the corner (the people living there rent) and apparently he's not only a plumbing contractor, but the guy who installed the lower bath in my house to begin with some ten years ago. He's supposed to drop off his card and I'm going to have him take a look at what'd be needed to get the shower installed downstairs.

A coat of paint and we'll be in business

The yard gets bigger every day

You can't make an omlette...

6/19 Tuesday -- So the theme of the past two days has been deconstruction. I came home on Tuesday during a rain storm and frantically ran around trying to cover things and get others out of the rain. The cabinet was still out drying when the rain started. With the rain as it was I went to the basement to try cleaning up the root cellar. There was just so much dirt even with a hose and the wet vac I gave up on it for the time being. I started tearing down the ceiling in the kitchen so I can get some dry wall up. I got about half way before taking a break and immediately falling asleep. That was that.

6/20 Wednesday -- I finished putting the chest back together and while it wasn't amazing, it certainly wasn't a failure. At any rate I don't think the turtle mind. I finished tearing down the ceiling in the kitchen and well, it's not pretty. However, without the panel that runs around above the cabinets it really does open up some space. Interestingly enough when I disconnected the one wall socket in the paneling I couldn't believe how it was hooked up. Whoever installed it could have used less wire and had ground fault protection on all of the socket just by hooking it up properly. I've only been doing electric for a week and even I know that. After the ceiling was down it was still fairly early and I decided to tackle the pool. I figure why have someone take the metal to a scrap yard and get money for it when I can just do it myself. It only took about an hour and a half to get it done. It really opens up a lot of space in the backyard. That's when Tara came to deliver me some food and I called it a day. Hospital work tomorrow at 8:30, ugh.

They're just so dumb.

It could be worse, somehow

So much for that

All Pics Up To 6/18

Early basement progress



What the basement walls USED to look like

Good thing for roof racks

Not bad for $40

A resuscitated sink

Who needs a doctor when you can do it yourself

Some potential maybe?

$12 well spent on the garden bed

Will look pretty killer in the dining room

I'm awesome