Hanging it up

Last week left 3 of the 5 of us with the stomach bug. I got to be one of the lucky ones :) After we all recovered, we made time for a simple project.  I love having a place to put my purse and it needed a designated spot. Cruz has a hard time keeping track of his backpack too so it was time for some organization. We did this same thing in our last house on a smaller scale and it was amazing. It's so nice to know where stuff is!

Before- the small hall to the right goes to our garage

 

I primed and painted a 1 x 6 earlier in the day. Cameron screwed the ends into the wall for extra support

We used a nail gun to attach the middle to the wall. Each of the boys got a turn to help. They loved it!

Finished!

Outdoor updates

We've managed to work on a few other things outside last week despite some chilly weather. While Cameron's parents were in town they helped us with the front landscaping. Cameron's mom helped me weed the beds and then after that, Cameron and his Dad tried to take out some existing railroad ties the previous owners used as edging.

Taking out the railroad ties proved to be more than we bargained for. After some hammering and prying they managed to get off one layer of ties (we knew there were 2). It was really stuck in there with some huge nail-like stakes (see picture below). When they started to take out the second layer of ties, they found a third layer underneath! I can't quite remember but I think they found four layers deep worth of railroad ties. We tried to hypothesize why in the world the previous owners would have done that and the only thing we could come up with is maybe they were trying to keep out the bermuda grass. Anyway, after they got the 2 layers out I looked at my plans and decided we could stop there because I don't plan on planting anything with deep roots in that location.  So we covered it up with the dirt we had.

Taking off the second layer of railroad ties

We have good little helpers :)

Finished...for now...

The other thing we did this week is chopped down some more trees to get ready for my garden. I watched my crazy but amazing Idaho boy out my bedroom window. Oh the things we'll do to save some money...

Again, chopping up high so it didn't hit the house. Not the smartest thing in the world but it worked for us. Just one more tree to go and then the garden is all clear from shade!

The next thing we will do is fix the retaining wall out there. We're going to try and make it more level. You can't tell from this picture but it slopes down maybe a foot or so from the grass to the dirt. I think we will add more railroad ties to the top and build it up. So far railroad ties seem to be the most cost effective retaining wall (and easy to do ourselves).

The start of the deck remodel

We finally got started on a project we've been meaning to do since the first day we moved in-- the deck. One problem with the existing back deck is that it's one story high and the railing is only 32 inches tall.  This is an issue because most residential building codes say the height should be at least 42 inches tall.

The second problem is the railing is horizontal slats, not vertical. That fact makes it a very nice latter for the boys to climb on. Just last weekend they were having fun doing a paper airplane contest off the deck and Dax would not stop climbing up to the second slat and hanging over the edge. It was pretty scary. Needless to say, the deck is getting a makeover and will be up to code and more-- we made it 46" tall--aka Porter boy resistant (I almost said Porter boy proof but honestly they can scale pretty much anything).

The deck before...

Progress

The deck railing is also nice and sturdy now. The previous deck railing was only nailed in. For our fixed up version everything is screwed in and it won't budge at all, even with only that one part done. As you can see in the pics we are also being eco (and budget) friendly and reusing what we can. This is as far as we got in a half a day off working on it. Now the weather is bad! Hopefully we get a warmer day soon to finish it up.

Bedroom progress

I finished touching up, priming, and painting the bedroom ceiling. It ended up being a lot more work than expected because we got the ceiling a little too wet and when we scraped it damaged some of the drywall. But its all good because we have lots more ceiling to practice on.

Before

Progress

You can't tell too much but we also painted the walls and Cameron replaced the yellow electrical switches for white ones. We still have lots of work to finish eventually in here--for one, I can't wait to get rid of all the orange oak that goes throughout the house!

Timber!

Our area has a lot of trees. As a result, some tree cutting was in order to make sure my vegetable garden gets enough sun. We actually had to purchase a chain saw to get the job done. We figure it will pay for itself because the wood we cut we will use for heating our house.


I marked X's on all the trees I wanted chopped down. And Cameron dutifully began chopping away.

Small easy ones first then on to the harder ones. I wish I had taken a before picture to explain this better but I'll do my best here.

On one of the bigger trees, Cameron made his notch cut (in the right place to fall away from the house) then his back cut. But the tree (lets call it tree 1 so you can keep track) just wasn't budging and the chainsaw kept getting stuck in the tree so he notched the back cut to get in deeper (big mistake). As a result the tree started to fall towards the house but luckily landed on the two adjacent trees branches and held there. We decided we needed to cut one of the adjacent trees (tree 2) to get the other to fall. At this point it was too late to get it to fall the way it was suppose to. So we tried to figure out the best place for it to land. Tree 2 needed to land between the shed and house and tree 1 on the shaded garden next to the house. We measured with our thumb how high we thought the trees were- 50 ft was the guess. So to keep the trees from missing the house Cam sawed as high as he could reach. I went to the front yard with the kids and watched as Cameron cut the trees (all the while praying they would not hit the house). By a miracle, the trees landed exactly where we planned. Tree 1 was literally less than a foot from the house.  I made a little diagram of where they landed because I didn't take a good picture. 

Feeling macho now (not so much a few minutes prior) haha

 The kids were awesome helpers. We told them they could earn 10 cents a log if they loaded them into the wagon, hauled them to the pile, then unloaded them. Between them, they earned over $10 on the first day and $7 the second. Not too bad for a 6 and 3 year old! And by the second day little D was even trying to help!

 

After day one of wood cutting. We ended up with about double that.

Landscaping Plans

It's winter but I know there is lots of work to do to get our garden prepped for summer. First of I needed a plan. I had a book on landscaping which by no means makes me a pro-- it's just something I find really fun! So I spend lots of hours measuring and finding out what plants I want to grow in both the garden and landscaping. For our new house, I'm trying to do a mix of edible landscaping and traditional landscaping. The lot we are on is only .3 acres so I want to make the most of every foot. We are hoping down the road to be able to purchase the lot next door bringing us closer to-- but not quite an acre. But I drew up this plan for this year because even if we buy the lot soon, it will cost a substantial amount to clear trees and put up a big privacy fence around the yard.

Our veggie garden will be fenced because deer are around everyday. So for the preliminary plan we are thinking we will do a stiff cattle metal fence framed with wood. I am hoping they don't eat the other fruits I have throughout the rest of the yard. Here are the plans thus far, which are definitely subject to change :) ...

The graph on the left is the existing landscape. On the right is the future landscape. Each tiny square on the graph equals one foot.

Here are current pictures of the front so you can see where I'm coming from a little bit. I will post pictures of backyard soon.

We like our popcorn in a bowl.

Our house has 2300 square ft of popcorn ceiling. In case you're wondering, that's our ENTIRE house. Closets, the ceiling portion and the inside of the window seat, and even the garage (and I didn't count the garage in the 2300 either!) We are not fans and we are excited to see it go. First up, one of the kids bedrooms. Right now all the boys share a room and don't want to be split up so the other one is empty. So it was an easy one to tackle. Surprisingly we got it done in less than an hour. We just sprayed with a pump water sprayer a section at a time, let it soak in a few minutes, and then scraped. And since we are dealing with so much popcorn we got one of those nifty popcorn scrapers that allows you to catch the popcorn in a trash bag when it falls. It kept the bulk of the mess off the floor which was nice.

The results were magical. In my art classes we talked about how texture in a painting brings something forward as a focal point, or to the foreground. Well the same goes for a textured ceiling- it makes the ceiling feel lower and closer. And without the popcorn... Seriously the ceiling looked like it grew a foot. (The photo doesn't do it justice)

Next up, mudding and sanding for a smooth ceiling finish and then priming!

By the time we finish with the whole house we are going to be popcorn removal masters!