We destroyed our yard this weekend. Pictures of the carnage soon!
In the meantime, here’s something pretty to look at.
Deer fern, columbine, lady fern, swoon!
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Shut up, it worked.
I waited too long to order peony cages and then they took forever to get here, so my plants were HUGE. After denuding the smallest plant of a lot of its foliage trying to get the cage on, I decided to try wrapping the peony stems in tinfoil.
Whatever, it worked.
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Weeds
Five dollars to whoever can identify this weed. It’s new to my yard this year and it’s EVERYWHERE.
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Adventures in closet building
The closet before The boy has a man cold (poor little bunny) but we soldiered on and installed our Martha Stewart closet organizers this weekend. Part of that soldiering on might have been Greg drinking tea in bed while I sanded and painted but I’ll never tell since I made him use the table saw while I cowered on the kitchen steps.
The system is actually pretty easy, though we had a few extra prep steps. Follow along!
For starters you’ll want to get rid of this old timey shoe rack. I am totally down to keep stuff that is original to the house, but this is right smack in the middle of where the main closet unit will go.
Hey, that’s the dishwasher! Wave to the kitchen–the kitchen that you can now see from the bedroom!
Take off the trim that used to hold up the shelf and scream your freaking head off because there’s all kinds of ancient dessicated spiders back there. Make Greg get rid of them and then roll your eyes when he leaves LEGS behind.
Marvel at the system you’ve jury-rigged in the living room.
Add 2x4s and drywall to the space where the shoe rack had been.
Make sure to measure a few things wrong so you have to hack down the drywall with a kitchen knife. Measure a few more things wrong so you have to shim your 2x4s to get the drywall to sit flush with the wall. Then tape and mud your seams with some old joint compound you found in the basement. It’s a little dry, but what’s the worst that could happen?
Attach the metal rod thing to the wall studs. This is all that lies between your shelving system and disaster, so do it right. Accidentally knock the drill onto your big toe and throw a temper tantrum, declaring that you’re hungry and you need to take a break. Go eat pizza, you big baby.
Spend a good hour or so trying to make sense of the various boxes that are in your office. Ponder why on earth you would have ordered four sets of 12-inch shelves. Once you’ve made sense of where things are going, hang the shelves on the metal rod thing. But first make sure to sand your new drywall ahead of schedule, ripping the tape. You know what? More dried out joint compound should fix that.
The smart way to do this would be to stop, let the compound dry, let the paint on the area where the trim was dry, paint the drywalled area and let THAT dry, but meh, screw that. Let’s build it now! You can paint that area the next time Greg goes away on business. You wouldn’t rather be eating a big salad and watching Vampire Diaries and sleeping with all the pillows; you’re gonna want to paint some spot in the closet you never look at.
Assemble your system. Make the most beautiful pilot holes the world has ever seen and brag to Greg that if people got Academy Awards for drilling holes, there would be a little gold man on your mantle right now.
Stage your closet like they do on websites, as if people have the room to place one pair of shoes on a shelf. Once the pictures are taken CRAM, BABY CRAM.
Pour yourself a glass of wine and eat the spaghetti sauce from a jar because you’re so freaking tired. High-five each other incessantly. You did it! You didn’t kill each other!Seriously though, we’re really happy with our system. Of course, these shelving units are being held to the wall solely by a notch that attaches to a metal rod. And the notched units are made out of pressboard. These aren’t going to last forever but they’re pretty good considering we spent $350 for the whole system.
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I finally hung my backyard habitat sign
The lady from the Audubon Society asked me not to put it in the front yard (with which I haven’t done anything) lest it “confuse people.”
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Would you like a stylish home?
Rule 1: If you want to have a stylish home, you’re going to need some sort of purebred dog to sit on your furniture.
Domino Magazine 
Design*Sponge 
House Beautiful via Pure Style Home 
Amber Interior Design 
Amber Interior Design 
Martha Stewart via Little Green Notebook 
Design*Sponge 
Apartment Therapy 
Apartment Therapy 
Apartment Therapy 
Apartment Therapy Something in the terrier family, maybe. -
We finally got sun!
Most of my family lives in California and I quietly weep when I read their Facebook updates IN MARCH that say things like, “First barbecue of the season!” Jerks.
It’s been cold and raining like crazy but we finally got some sun this weekend. I had picked up all these plants last week that I ordered in March. Advance plant sales are awesome because your order arrives and you’re like, “I ordered five meadow Sidalcea why? Where was I going to put all this now?”
The pink tulips have been up for a while and I’ve been waiting on the black ones.
The black bulbs are my favorite.
Heuchera 
Chive blossoms 
Goatsbeard 
Western trilliums and lady fern 
Wild ginger Asarum caudatum The boy spent the whole day weeding and we barbecued and ate outside. Maybe I had to wear a sweatshirt toward the end but, whatever, I’ll take it.
Shooting star Dodecatheon hendersonii And 7 out of 9 of all y’all liked the birdbath so now we’ll just wait and see if the birds will use the thing. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for hummingbirds.
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Bird bath, part deux
Last fall, right after I got back from Hawaii, I discovered that the patio umbrella had fallen over, taking the table with it and smashing the top of the birdbath.
And this tree was chopped down at some point by the previous owner, only to have it sucker back to life.
While I admire its tenacity, I think I want that stump to be the base of a new birdbath. So I gave it a little haircut.
And I took out a crummy day at work on the stump with my handsaw (which would have been so much easier with a chainsaw–YOU’RE WELCOME, ENVIRONMENT).
I was left with these funny guys. Hands in the air! Then I grabbed this tray at Ikea. I like the size and the shape. It’s swoopy. But I’m not sure about the pattern.
Now if the Nootka roses I have on either side would hurry the hell up and GROW the birds would have a semi-private area in which to bathe. And the thorns from the roses would deter any would-be predators. Modesty and security, just what every bird wants!But seriously, does this look super lame? Should I stain or paint the tray (in bird-friendly ways, of course)?
Vote, yo. -
Closets! Now with more fighting!
These are boxes of Martha Stewart closet organizers. We’re going to try and build them together next weekend.
Pray for us.
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I have the coolest boyfriend
My friend T came over a couple of weeks ago to help me figure out what to do with the front yard. I was filling Greg in on her ideas and we got to talking about the backyard. He asked me if I’d want to hear what he’d do back there. He then proceeded to spew a bunch of awesomeness.
Despite the fact that he hates gardening and has zero interest in landscaping, and the fact that I’ve never really articulated what I want in a yard, he came up with a plan that nailed everything I want. It’s a good thing he’s so cute because that’s frankly kind of annoying. I think about my yard constantly! Why am I not coming up with this stuff?
Basically his plan involves building a rather large (and low–think Japanese) deck off the second bedroom, which would eventually get French doors. BEHOLD, my superior MS Paint skills:
It would be big enough for a table that can seat 8-10 so I could have dinner parties back here. He’d shorten the existing rotten wood deck off of my bedroom so it was really just stairs, then put down large stone pavers. He’d build up the plantings between the two decks so I’d have a little seating area just outside our bedroom sliders. Think Adirondack chairs and martinis. The big bone planter would get dismantled and moved to the other side of the yard where the cement slab is (and it would have a new shape). The cement slab would get broken up and removed so we could expand the plantings in that weird back corner.
My one addition to this plan was to add a tree in the center of the yard for height and to provide a tiny bit of shade to one side of the deck. And I added a rain garden. And of course I mocked up these awesome plans in Paint.
Of course, he had to outdo that too. While I was out drinking wine with Bill, Greg measured the yard and built me a layout TO SCALE.
So instead of doing everything back there haphazardly, I can PLAN. And give the shrubs the right amount of space and whatnot. Mock-ups will be coming shortly–if we can pull off what we’re thinking, we will have the coolest yard in the city. Of course, this could all be an elaborate plan to eliminate the lawn so he doesn’t have to mow it. I conned him into doing it every week if he doesn’t have to do dishes. Sucker.(Have I mentioned I love living with him? He’s a fabulous roommate and I couldn’t be happier.)
