DH put up a porch swing for me today! There's never been one on this porch, which is really odd for an old house like this one. Regardless, we have one now and I am so happy. :)
He also bought some paint for the porch floor, but I think it's too windy for painting today. Darn it! Well, at least he can prep it to be painted...I just knew I was going to get stuck doing that!
Yesterday, (having never tried roses before) I planted 2 climbing roses by the back fence. They're Elizabeth roses (pink) and after I bought them, found a lot of negatives about them online. Guess that explains why they were so cheap, huh? Well, for $3 I'll give them a try. If they die, no big loss of expense.
I'm so ready to get some Impatiens in the front beds. I'll probably get to that on my days off next week. The boxwoods I planted last July have finally shown a hint of growing. I had no idea they were such slow growers or I would've definetly bought the bigger sizes. Oh well, live and learn.
I found the perfect front door a few weeks ago on craigslist, but we didn't have a truck to go pick it up and the seller couldn't deliver. Can you believe here in Mississippi, I don't know a single person with a truck?? Unbelievable! My oldest son recently bought one though, so hopefully I'll be able to find another door soon. I'm very anxious to replace the current door!
I'll be posting pics of the porch after the floor is painted, it looks a mess right now. :)
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Friday, March 28, 2008
Ok 3 in 1 day...
3 posts in one day...guess you could say I've gone post-al. Hardy-har-har :)
Well, there are two more pics I wanted to post and who knows when I'll get time to do it again, so here they are.
It's an update on the mess we had before with all of those wild trees, this was the worst part of it on the side yard. (There is an even thicker mess in the back of the property!)
This is after 2 weekends of work....
We're not nearly finished yet, but it is looking so much better! Even the neighbors who wanted us to leave that crap love it. Yay! :)
Well, there are two more pics I wanted to post and who knows when I'll get time to do it again, so here they are.
It's an update on the mess we had before with all of those wild trees, this was the worst part of it on the side yard. (There is an even thicker mess in the back of the property!)
This is after 2 weekends of work....
We're not nearly finished yet, but it is looking so much better! Even the neighbors who wanted us to leave that crap love it. Yay! :)
2 Posts in 1 Day??
Yes I know, not like me at all...lol. Well, I've been planting today and just wanted to put up some pics of Project Side Yard and what I've done so far.
The first pic is the front side yard by the street, taken last summer. Weedville, for real.
We cleared all that mess down the property line and I planted a Snowball Viburnum in between two Formosa Azaleas.
That big tree in the first pic is just to the left of these new shrubs. Viburnums get very wide, I hope I gave it enough space to grow between the azaleas. There are still a few stuborn stumps to remove from the old weeds and I still need to mulch. I was going to put some hostas under the tree, but have decided on a ground cover instead, called Japanese Spurge. Here's a pic of that.
No time to enlarge it, but you get the idea. I think it'll look great, much better than dirt and leaves. lol
Also, I saw these cute little Coral Bell Azaleas at the nursery for $4.75 and I couldn't resist getting a couple. I know they are tiny, but they should be looking good in a few years.
I put those in the backyard to hopefully block that chain link fence view one day. I really hate chain link fences!
So, it is coming along. It is far from manicured and finished, there is still a ton of work to do, but I'll get there eventually...surely...hopefully...maybe! :)
The first pic is the front side yard by the street, taken last summer. Weedville, for real.
We cleared all that mess down the property line and I planted a Snowball Viburnum in between two Formosa Azaleas.
That big tree in the first pic is just to the left of these new shrubs. Viburnums get very wide, I hope I gave it enough space to grow between the azaleas. There are still a few stuborn stumps to remove from the old weeds and I still need to mulch. I was going to put some hostas under the tree, but have decided on a ground cover instead, called Japanese Spurge. Here's a pic of that.
Also, I saw these cute little Coral Bell Azaleas at the nursery for $4.75 and I couldn't resist getting a couple. I know they are tiny, but they should be looking good in a few years.
I put those in the backyard to hopefully block that chain link fence view one day. I really hate chain link fences!
So, it is coming along. It is far from manicured and finished, there is still a ton of work to do, but I'll get there eventually...surely...hopefully...maybe! :)
The Development Doom
The plans for the duplex/townhome/whateverthehell they're about to build next door came in the mail the other day. It's worse than I thought and I was being pessimistic about it.
They're putting in an actual city street to access these buildings, one in the front and three in the back lot. In order to have enough room for this wonderful street, they will have to build the front unit 17' from my property line. 17' is about the width of my bedroom. They will be practically right on top of us!
Then there, by my kitchen window, instead of my current view of crepe myrtles, spirea and camellias, I will now have a a 5 car parking pad and a huge circle of asphalt to gaze upon while I sip my morning coffee. In the back of the property, the line of privacy bamboo trees will be removed and there will be a 12 car parking pad there.
I will be living next door to a fucking parking lot.
How will I ever sell this house, no matter how pretty we make it, sitting next to a parking lot?? I won't; we are doomed. Doomed. This house was such a good investment before and now I don't think it can ever be anything but a rental property. I did not see this coming at all when we bought it last summer and I feel totally blind-sided.
Since they are making changes on the placement of the new building, moving it closer to us and the street, we had to give our permission for them to do this. That's why they sent us a copy of the plan. It came with a letter we were to sign and return stating we had no objections. Umm, I object, your Honor, I object.
Now, I could just not sign the thing, but that would only lead to them taking it to court or possibly it would only invlove the city voting on it. I'm really not sure exactly what would happen or how it would work, but I do know money talks and we are silenced in that area. Plus our city council is the most duplex happy bunch of fools I have ever seen in my life. They are constantly approving rezoning in single family residential areas around here to accommodate investors and the (already ridiculous) growing number of duplexes and multi family units.
Were we to challenge this man and his proposed development, we would not win. Plain and simple. I am not naive enough to think we would even have a single iota of a chance against the powers that be; capitalism, commercialism...money money money.
I feel so helpless, defeated and disgusted. The only thing I knew to do was include a contingency clause with the approval signature that stated the builder would have to provide a privacy fence down the property line of at least 6' in height to block unwanted views of this multi family nightmare. It won't block the two story units, but it will at least block the view of the 17 car parking lot. 17 cars...omg this is just awful.
They're putting in an actual city street to access these buildings, one in the front and three in the back lot. In order to have enough room for this wonderful street, they will have to build the front unit 17' from my property line. 17' is about the width of my bedroom. They will be practically right on top of us!
Then there, by my kitchen window, instead of my current view of crepe myrtles, spirea and camellias, I will now have a a 5 car parking pad and a huge circle of asphalt to gaze upon while I sip my morning coffee. In the back of the property, the line of privacy bamboo trees will be removed and there will be a 12 car parking pad there.
I will be living next door to a fucking parking lot.
How will I ever sell this house, no matter how pretty we make it, sitting next to a parking lot?? I won't; we are doomed. Doomed. This house was such a good investment before and now I don't think it can ever be anything but a rental property. I did not see this coming at all when we bought it last summer and I feel totally blind-sided.
Since they are making changes on the placement of the new building, moving it closer to us and the street, we had to give our permission for them to do this. That's why they sent us a copy of the plan. It came with a letter we were to sign and return stating we had no objections. Umm, I object, your Honor, I object.
Now, I could just not sign the thing, but that would only lead to them taking it to court or possibly it would only invlove the city voting on it. I'm really not sure exactly what would happen or how it would work, but I do know money talks and we are silenced in that area. Plus our city council is the most duplex happy bunch of fools I have ever seen in my life. They are constantly approving rezoning in single family residential areas around here to accommodate investors and the (already ridiculous) growing number of duplexes and multi family units.
Were we to challenge this man and his proposed development, we would not win. Plain and simple. I am not naive enough to think we would even have a single iota of a chance against the powers that be; capitalism, commercialism...money money money.
I feel so helpless, defeated and disgusted. The only thing I knew to do was include a contingency clause with the approval signature that stated the builder would have to provide a privacy fence down the property line of at least 6' in height to block unwanted views of this multi family nightmare. It won't block the two story units, but it will at least block the view of the 17 car parking lot. 17 cars...omg this is just awful.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Raising the Dead
Well, we are making a good bit of progress on clearing the property line. My husband and oldest son were a big help. The brush is all cleared except for the part in front of the neighbor's deck. That part is going to be a big thorn in my side, because if we leave them, it will be impossible to put up the privacy fence that I want. It's really frustrating me, but surely I will come up with something to make us all happy.
Several other neighbors came over to say how much better it looked or to thank us, as now they could actually see the traffic coming before they pulled out of their driveway. LOL The older man across the street said those 'shrubs' had been there since he was a kid and that they once bordered the entire property. Whatever shrubs he was talking about have long been dead, as those wild trees we removed were just that, wild overgrowth, no one planted them there. We didn't disagree with him tho, we just politely said, Oh, really? Huh. I'm sure the overgrowth had choked the original shrubs out long ago.
I didn't mention it on this blog, but a couple weeks ago, I awoke to my husband calling 911 as the old house on the other side of us was on fire. It was arson and my husband saw the 2 guys who started the fire. This pic was taken from my kitchen window.
An investor bought it last fall and is supposed to tear it down and build some townhomes. He came by the other day, as he had just found out about the fire, and told my husband that the reason he hasn't started yet is because he's waiting on the State to ok demolition......
Because there is a sarcophagus buried under the house!!!
He's going to be running new water and gas lines and they had to run a check on the property to see if there was anything underground and yes, there is....a family of dead people....
That was a shocker to me.
This land was purchased in 1919 from the same man and the 3 houses were built by the same family. Why would they build over a burial ground? That doesn't make sense to me. If they know now there is a sarcophagus there, then they knew it then, right??
And if people are buried 50 feet away from me, then they could be buried right under me as well! I do not want to live on top of a burial ground!!!
This was really weird news. I'm going to have to run a check on my property now...
He said they'll be removing the family's tomb and relocating it, but they don't know where yet. It may sound morbid, but I hope that I'm here when they remove it. I'll have to see it to believe it.
Several other neighbors came over to say how much better it looked or to thank us, as now they could actually see the traffic coming before they pulled out of their driveway. LOL The older man across the street said those 'shrubs' had been there since he was a kid and that they once bordered the entire property. Whatever shrubs he was talking about have long been dead, as those wild trees we removed were just that, wild overgrowth, no one planted them there. We didn't disagree with him tho, we just politely said, Oh, really? Huh. I'm sure the overgrowth had choked the original shrubs out long ago.
I didn't mention it on this blog, but a couple weeks ago, I awoke to my husband calling 911 as the old house on the other side of us was on fire. It was arson and my husband saw the 2 guys who started the fire. This pic was taken from my kitchen window.
An investor bought it last fall and is supposed to tear it down and build some townhomes. He came by the other day, as he had just found out about the fire, and told my husband that the reason he hasn't started yet is because he's waiting on the State to ok demolition......
Because there is a sarcophagus buried under the house!!!
He's going to be running new water and gas lines and they had to run a check on the property to see if there was anything underground and yes, there is....a family of dead people....
That was a shocker to me.
This land was purchased in 1919 from the same man and the 3 houses were built by the same family. Why would they build over a burial ground? That doesn't make sense to me. If they know now there is a sarcophagus there, then they knew it then, right??
And if people are buried 50 feet away from me, then they could be buried right under me as well! I do not want to live on top of a burial ground!!!
This was really weird news. I'm going to have to run a check on my property now...
He said they'll be removing the family's tomb and relocating it, but they don't know where yet. It may sound morbid, but I hope that I'm here when they remove it. I'll have to see it to believe it.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Back at it
It's almost spring! Time to get back to posting on this blog. :)
Back in November I took what I thought would be an easy little part time job in a local restaurant to pick up extra money for little things, like light fixtures, paint and what-not. Well, that little job has consumed the majority of my time since; part time and easy, it's not. It's left me little time and even less energy, but I have a new project under way, so I will have to find the time somewhere!
Project Side Yard is what I'm working on at the moment. My plan is to remove the overgrown, out of control wild trees/weeds growing along the eastern side of the property and replace them with a privacy fence, ornamental shrubs and a shade garden. I had a rare 2 days off back to back this week and have been out there working away at it.
The house has been a rental for several years and the yard has been so neglected. I've written before that they used it as a garbage dump, I've never seen the amount of crap hidden underneath the overgrowth. Beer bottles, beer tops, broken glass, snack bags, a fan to motor of somekind and blue walmart bags...walmart switched to white bags about 4 years ago...that's how long they've been there. Those are just some of the things I found yesterday. I really feel like I'm trying to landscape the local dump! Of course, all of this was under about a foot of fallen leaves.
Here are a few pics of the mess that I'm trying to remove.
You can see they off a sort of semi privacy buffer to neighbor's house. They thought I should keep them! They are weeds, for cryin out loud. LOL I think they'll be happier with the privacy fence, I know I will.
This is the small section I got through this week, with only a shovel and a rake. The ground was nice and soft, so most of the small trees could be pulled out by hand with a little digging. I uncovered two plants along the fence line, not sure what they are, but it was a nice surprise to find something other than a weed growing there. LOL The landscape timber I found is the actual property line divide. When they put up the chainlink fence, those large trees were in the way, so they moved it back a couple of feet.
I am so sore today let me tell ya, of course that's a good thing! My husband is picking up a chainsaw from his mom tomorrow and maybe that will speed things along on the thickest part of that tangled mess. We should be ready to put up the fence in a couple more weeks. Yay. :)
Back in November I took what I thought would be an easy little part time job in a local restaurant to pick up extra money for little things, like light fixtures, paint and what-not. Well, that little job has consumed the majority of my time since; part time and easy, it's not. It's left me little time and even less energy, but I have a new project under way, so I will have to find the time somewhere!
Project Side Yard is what I'm working on at the moment. My plan is to remove the overgrown, out of control wild trees/weeds growing along the eastern side of the property and replace them with a privacy fence, ornamental shrubs and a shade garden. I had a rare 2 days off back to back this week and have been out there working away at it.
The house has been a rental for several years and the yard has been so neglected. I've written before that they used it as a garbage dump, I've never seen the amount of crap hidden underneath the overgrowth. Beer bottles, beer tops, broken glass, snack bags, a fan to motor of somekind and blue walmart bags...walmart switched to white bags about 4 years ago...that's how long they've been there. Those are just some of the things I found yesterday. I really feel like I'm trying to landscape the local dump! Of course, all of this was under about a foot of fallen leaves.
Here are a few pics of the mess that I'm trying to remove.
You can see they off a sort of semi privacy buffer to neighbor's house. They thought I should keep them! They are weeds, for cryin out loud. LOL I think they'll be happier with the privacy fence, I know I will.This is the small section I got through this week, with only a shovel and a rake. The ground was nice and soft, so most of the small trees could be pulled out by hand with a little digging. I uncovered two plants along the fence line, not sure what they are, but it was a nice surprise to find something other than a weed growing there. LOL The landscape timber I found is the actual property line divide. When they put up the chainlink fence, those large trees were in the way, so they moved it back a couple of feet.
I am so sore today let me tell ya, of course that's a good thing! My husband is picking up a chainsaw from his mom tomorrow and maybe that will speed things along on the thickest part of that tangled mess. We should be ready to put up the fence in a couple more weeks. Yay. :)
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Carpet Pics Yuk!!
Here are a few pics of the old carpeting that my husband said I shouldn't remove. It was horrible, though. I was really embarrassed by it, so it had to go. (Actually, I'm embarrassed just posting these before pics! This is how it looked when we moved in, tho.) After pulling it up, I found the wood floors had been painted and while I much prefer stained wood floors, I think I'll repaint them and see how it looks. I'm going to do a medium brown base with a black glaze rubbed in spots to create an antique finish, then top with poly. It's an experiment, but if it turns out to be hidious, we can always refinish or reinstall carpet.
I filled the gaps, cracks and chips with wood filler...very time consuming!
This is an antique folding rocking chair I found on craigslist for $20, I just love it! You can see the cleaned floor here. When my husband came home and saw it, he said that he liked the carpet better! I really don't know what's wrong with him....Please overlook the missing wall socket covering and missing drapes!
So hopefully, I can finish this project before Christmas....We'll see. :)
See the deep stains? It was so bad...like I said, terribly embarrassing....
This is right after I pulled it up, there was a lot of dirt to clean up and padding stuck to the wood that had to be scraped. How my husband could say leave the carpet, it's fine is beyond me.I filled the gaps, cracks and chips with wood filler...very time consuming!This is an antique folding rocking chair I found on craigslist for $20, I just love it! You can see the cleaned floor here. When my husband came home and saw it, he said that he liked the carpet better! I really don't know what's wrong with him....Please overlook the missing wall socket covering and missing drapes!
So hopefully, I can finish this project before Christmas....We'll see. :)
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