A peek at some house changes

Right off the bat I need to admit that I am absolutely terrible at before, after, or progress pictures.  Its probably because I'm not a real blogger.  I'm a journaler and an erratic one at that.  Moving on: this summer Sammit and I redid our dining room from a pale icicle blue to a jewel navy tone on top with white wainscoting on the bottom.  The wainscoting was a pain-in-the-butt to install but I love it and am incredibly proud of it.  

But that isn't what this sneak peek is about - this post is about my dining room chairs.  My yellow oak dining room set was a hand-me-down from my parents-in-law and both Sammit and I are very thankful for it.  I wanted to do something to make it ours though.  At first I was nervous about making changes so I did a really basic upholstery change.  

Using about $30 in fabric and an industrial staple gun I went from gray diamonds to navy and white awesomeness (Devin is modeling).

When I decided to redo the dining room, I wanted something less WASP-y and a little more funky.  After a few trips to Jo-Anns, a few sample swaps, and a consultation by my mother, I decided to go diamonds again.  I also decided to paint the yellow oak white.  I think it looks awesome.

Jewel Blue walls, White Wainscoting, White Funky chairs.

Sammit convinced me to keep the table its natural oak color, not white like our chairs and our old china cabinet-turned-buffet.  At first I thought it was silly but it meant less work and after a few days I fell in love with it.

Oddly Cat Camouflaging Rug

The biggest problem was finding a rug that wasn't boring but didn't clash with the chairs.  Oh yeah, and one that wasn't $1000!  I was lucky enough to find a showroom display at Ikea for 50% off the original $500.  It is plush, well made, and hides my black cat like he's the ninja he's always wanted to be.

I'm playing around with some fabric for curtains.  I'm also trying to figure out walls.  There are a few definites like my giraffe watercolor and the "my home is clean enough to be healthy but dirty enough to be happy" tile, and a shelf holding some of my wedding china, but the rest is kind of up in the air.  I'm also piecing together storage after turning our big china cabinet into a buffet.  I'll try to post some more updates soon, probably around Midterms when I'll be avoiding anything that is school related.

 FYI: I learned everything I needed to know about painting furniture from All Things Thrifty and Young House Love.

Garden Beds - Update

Today, instead of cleaning the fridge or picking up the dining room I dug and moved 2 truckloads of city compost to our yard.  Royal Oak drops its compost and mulch a few miles from our house and it is free to residents.  I have been waiting in the shadows for a drop since I finished the beds and today was the day!  It happened to be raining but that hasn't ever really stopped me.  Each bed is about a truckload of compost so I'm half-way done.

March 2012

April 2012

June 2012 with a rose photobomb 

May 2012

June 2012

Because we're hoping to move by the end of the summer I'm trying to avoid getting too attached to this garden.  We might be giving most of it away to the new neighbors (hi neighbors!).  I've decided to use this season to experiment and put my years of research experience into agricultural play.  Each bed will have the same plants (tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuces, peppers, etc.) but different conditions.  Beds 1 & 2 have a cardboard weedblocker and city compost.  Bed 3 will have a cardboard weedblocker and composted manure.  Bed 4 will have composted manure and no week blocker.  This is a last minute experiment so there will be some flaws (Bed 2 should have city compost but no weedblocker).  I'm going to play around with nutrients and watering schedules.  I did not sift the compost (lazy) but I'm curious to see if that makes a big difference.  I'm going to look into cheap sifting set-ups, maybe Bed 2 will be sifted.

My favorite things about today: 

1. The compost was warm.  It felt good on my hands.  The steam rolled up from the pile when I lifted my shovel.
2. Even though I kicked my shoes off outside I still left muddy footprints through the foyer and kitchen.
3. After pouring the last bucket of compost I took a short, dirty nap on the couch with a very snuggly cat.
4. My shower was a-maize-ing.
5. Scratch bison stew for dinner with grain-free peanut butter cookies for dessert.

Garden Update

I've been itching to get the garden beds together and get my plant starts in the ground.  Three things have been holding me back: time, illness, and fear.  I'm still interning at my field placement so I haven't had the lounge-like summer I had envisioned.  Also, the whole house has had a cold for a little over a week now, bringing everyone's energy and motivation down.  Finally, I've never really built anything before and the lumber section of the hardware store is intimidating.  It isn't rocket-science but its completely foreign to me and there is so much I don't even know I don't know.

In order to mitigate my fear I sought apprenticeship from my stepfather, Fred, who knows about this kind of stuff.  He proved to be quite difficult.  Even though he's a wonderful man, I don't think he fully understands that I'm not afraid of manual labor.  As I was explaining my plan to him and sheepishly showing him my electronic image of said plan, he just kept asking why I wanted to do this.  I'll paraphrase:

Stepdad: Why are you doing this?  You're moving soon.

Me: I already dug up the fence.  I have to do something.

Stepdad: This is a lot of work, why not just throw the plants in the ground.

Me: Well, you see, I already dug up the fence; I have to do something with it.

Stepdad, after thinking for some time: Do you have a chainsaw?...This is going to be a lot of work - I don't think you want to do this.

Me: What? No, of course I don't have a chainsaw and can we just operate under the assumption that there will be beds in there by the end of the week.  How should I do about doing this and are you always going to be such a Debbie Downer?

We compromised.  I make the plan more simple and he took me to the store and sorted through the landscaping timbers to find 24 of the straightest boards there.  He was even patient when the half of those 24 boards fell onto the cement floor, twice, before we could pay and get them in the car.

Today I bought a box of 3 inch outdoor screws and a handsaw - both of which are much better than the 2 inch drywall screws and hacksaw I tried to start the project with yesterday.  (I'm impatient).  I've been measuring and sawing away, stacking timbers and drilling holes.  Tonight when my lovely assistant gets home from work he's going to help me screw everything together.  I'll make sure to post the project when I'm done, but until then - here's a progress picture:

Before

During

I'll work on my before/after photo skills.

The New Garden Plan

I've been wanting to update our garden plot since the last season but I haven't really been able to figure out what I want to do...until now!  It's pretty ambitious.  Right now I'm in the (slow) process of digging up the black metal fence that previously surrounded our 5x20 foot garden, which involves lots of screws and 8 concrete posts buried 2 feet deep.  Once the posts and fencing are removed I'm going to construct a series of raised beds.  The front beds will be low (4-6 inches) and the back bed will be high and doubles as a bench and has trellises in the back.  Either end of the beds will be capped with trellised arches.

Here is the general idea in 3D:

and in 2D:

We'll lose a little square footage, but I think it will be worth it when we can sit in our garden and we don't have to look at that hideous black fence.  I'll make sure to post before and after pictures in these next few weeks (hoping to get everything established by May 15th in order to get plants in the ground.

Note: The website I used to create these sketches has limited plant images so it looks like a hodge-podge of flowers when it will really be herbs and vegetables.