Garden Start 2016

We've had a really warm spring. I started a few things early indoors, like spinach and kale. These pictures are from over a week ago, I'm just slow to get it posted.

This was my first year doing a cover crop on some of my beds. It is a really pretty bit of green, especially because everything else is still dormant. The kind I used is called hairy vetch and I planted it late October I think.  It has really started to take off now. I'm following it with tomatoes which will love the extra nitrogen the vetch fixes in the soil. The real test of how good it works will come this summer!

 Here's my little holes for snap peas- I always do sugar snaps, and a few snow peas.

 And my spinach I started indoors in my soil blocker.

 The soil blocker is great for plants that don't like transplanting because there is no shock. The roots can grow freely. I have some of my indoor seed starts in cell trays too. The trade off is that cell trays don't use nearly as much soil and they also don't take up much space under lights. A mix of both is working pretty well so far.

Here is the spinach all planted (on the right).

I will update on the new garden area soon. We are behind schedule (still working on putting up a fence) but hopefully can get caught up soon!

Garden Progress

We got a bunch done in the garden area over the weekend. After hours of back breaking wet dirt hauling uphill (harder than you would think I promise), I decided renting another skid steer was worth it to get the garden ready.

     Here's a before picture. The boys are climbing on the latest tree casualty. You can't see in the after picture below but it got ripped out. Dirt mound on the left got moved up to the top of the lot.

 
Thank you machinery for making things easy. Oh and maybe I should mention Cam who was behind it for the most part.

 Here's where I hope I don't get in trouble. We gave Cruz a turn driving the skid steer with Dad standing near by of course.

 You can almost see his expression in the picture. It was pure elation.

We got a trencher attachment and Cam went to town lining out where the fence will go. We trenched it all the way around so we could bury the fence a foot deep to keep out critters. After an armadillo got in my garden last year, I'm taking all precautions necessary!

Now I just hope we can get post holes dug and fence in before rain fills in the trench with dirt.  Garden is roughly 40 x 80 feet.

 Before

Now
 

 Before

Now
 (the rows are for being made for blueberry bushes)

Parking Spot

Where we live you are not allowed to park on the street on a daily basis. The previous owners carved out an area where he parked his car. Once we cleared the trees, I decided it was to ugly to stay as-is.

 This is the best "before" I have. It was made of railroad ties and not even close to straight.

When we got the skid steer we took advantage of it and tore out all the existing railroad ties.

 Progress pictures. We put some drainage pipe in there just to be on the safe side. And the top rows were glued with adhesive.

 And the finished product.

Painted Closet Doors and New Door Trim

We finally got our closet doors painted and put back on. I would like new doors but we are going to wait until we can replace them all together to do that. Here's what they looked like before we got the floors done.

Here's what they look like now. They aren't perfect but it's much easier on the eyes. It only took 6 months to get them done :)

After Cameron put the baseboards on a few months ago, I was wishing I had thought to put trim around this opening. I finally convinced him that he didn't need to take off the baseboards to do it, just cut the corners. When we sprayed the doors, it was a good opportunity to spray paint on the trim too.

 Cutting the baseboard to make room for new trim

Trim added on.

 And another before from the other side. He just used a little hand saw to cut.

After (mostly). It still needs caulking but is much better!

Let there be light!... And our new dining table.

We've been keeping up with doing a lot of projects on my list but it's taken me awhile to get around to some "after" pictures. Today just some pictures of the results from having an electrician come, and some new fixtures.

 Right before- I put a tack in the ceiling to mark where we wanted it.

 After. The fixture is dead center (over our furniture arrangement) it looks a little off because of the angle I took the picture from. It's a CB2 drum light. It was really cheap and simple which is what I wanted because of the new dining fixture in the room. Also, I chose ceiling mount because our ceiling are only 8ft.

 Dining area before. Isn't that gold light horrible? The tack is where we had fixture moved to since it wasn't center. The electrician also beefed up the box to hold our new heavy fixture.

 After. Light is from Ballard Designs.  The table top was custom ordered from Advantage Lumber online. It's white oak and we did the sand/stain/poly ourselves. I used a Minwax stain called weathered oak. Side note: I think I will change out my kids pictures on the wall for some art soon. I love seeing their pictures but all the black in this area now is too much.

Legs were welded out of metal by a friend. Then we painted and sealed them. I was going after a Restoration Hardware look table. We considered buying one but I dislike their table tops right now, they are all reclaimed lumber and unfinished. It wouldn't have been practical at all.

The lumber company pressed and glued wood planks together at varying widths so they won't ever warp, then they planed it all. We love it because it's all one flat sheet, instead of planks that get food stuck in the cracks. More updates coming up soon!

Project list and some progress (or lack of) pictures

There is so many projects going on here! And there are lots of upcoming to do's.  I am making a list for my mental sanity. We are really good at starting projects. Finishing a project is definitely a slower process :)

Outside:

1. We are still moving dirt around to finish the bike track. We decided to switch it up a bit and add some different jumps at the end. Moving dirt without the skid steer is slow going to say the least! However, I will say I have been getting an awesome workout everyday. My arms will be so buff by the time we are done :)

2. We started on a flagstone pathway down the side of the house where there is a lot of foot traffic. We got a craigslist score on flagstone for super cheap. The only problem is the stone is all different heights which made it a bit more frustrating since some are 4 inches high and others only 1 inch (no wonder is was a deal?!). I gave up on making it level from one rock to the next. As a result, it is a lot more "natural" looking than I imagined. Oh well. It's functional. Still need to finish this one.

3. This is a need to do soon: Build a block retaining wall so Cameron can park his truck again. We tore out the existing falling apart railroad tie parking pad that was there previously.

 Here it is before we tore it up. This is a bad before picture since the brush is in the way but you get the idea.

Here's where it is at now. And now you know why it needs a retaining wall up really soon.

4. Once we finish up the flagstone walkway we need to get sod asap. The area next to our house becomes a constant mud pit when kids turn on the hose to wash anything. It also washes out with rain. I can't wait to get this one done.


Inside:

1. Hang doors.-- Cameron finished painting them over the weekend. Yay! I will have doors on my closets again. I'm so sick of staring at clutter everyday.

They have been without doors for 6 months. 6 MONTHS.

2. Our electrician is coming this week to fix the fixture location in the dining room, add a new ceiling fixture in living room (we have nothing now), and add some can lights in the basement.

3. After the electrician comes we will have to patch everything up- especially the basement. We had a dishwasher dilemma (the dishwasher got filled with dish soap instead of dishwasher soap) and some leaking happened. As a result we tore out a bunch of sheet rock to dry things up fast and keep mold at bay. The basement needs a LOT of patching.

The basement as is. This is obviously a "real life" picture.

4. Hang new fixtures (living and dining), and install can lights in basement.

5. Our dining table is getting made! We ordered the table top online and the legs are being done by a friend. I'm excited! We need to do the finish work for the top of the table once it arrives. I'm thinking a natural or grey stain for it.

6. Patchwork on walls/ceilings needs to be textured, primed, and painted.

7. The basement is screaming for some new paint on the walls. It is bad down there- really bad.

8. We are hiring out (hallelujah!) the rest of the popcorn ceiling scraping (entry hall, upstairs hall, master bedroom, and my art room). We aren't bothering with the kitchen since someday soon (I really, really, really, really, hope) to be ripping down that drop ceiling.


I could go on forever... and ever...  But these are the things I hope to get done by the new year.

Kids Pump Track

Our entire last few weeks consisted of working on the bike track and smoothing out the rest of the lawn. Progress shots:

The top part started to get some shaping and packing after a good rain and a lot of tamping.

 Here's a view from the top. It's kind of hard to see but you get the idea.