A New Deck

After the huge remodel we did in the fall, we only have a few small projects on tap for the summer.   The first one on the list was to get the back deck redone, since there was a hole in it and we were worried that someone would fall through!  We didn't change the size, we just rebuilt exactly what was there in nicer materials.  We chose mahogany decking and the color complements the house nicely.  It is much more solid and the rails are higher, so no one will fall off the deck.  The raspberry bushes made it through the process very nicely and the first berries should be ready in the next couple of days!

Here is a photo from the fall when the back was being resided to match the rest of the house.

Now the back is completely done.

Our Little Plot of Land

Despite some delays to the garden and yard work this year (ahem...Ryder!), we are getting things on track.  I may have to buy a few vegetables this year, but I got most everything in the ground or in the pot.  We have been cleaning up the yard like mad the past month- it's great to have 1/3 of an acre but the weeding is never ending!

Outside in the garden boxes I planted snow peas, shelling peas, 2 varieties of kale, 2 varieties of carrots, spinach, beets, 3 varieties of beans, corn and lettuce.  Inside in the window we have 6 varieties of tomato (which sadly may have been planted too late to make in into the garden this year), bell peppers, Jalapeno peppers, butternut squash, watermelon, pumpkin, zucchini, 2 varieties of cucumbers and brussell sprouts.  All in all, I'm pleased with how everything except the tomatoes are going, considering that everything was a month late (ahem...Ryder!).

The tropicals are inside- the squash type plants are doing great on the end, tomatoes not so much :(

The boxes look barren, but really all the veggies have just sprouted.

The strawberries I planted last year have spread and are doing awesome- 2 weeks til the first strawberry of the year?

The front and back yards are looking very tidy and our side lot is really coming along.  A lot of grass is growing and we have some bulbs and other flowers coming up.

A lovely orange-pink tulip in the front garden

Johnny-jump-ups are my favorite-this one is inconveniently located in the tomato box

 The alliums are just blooming

The bulbs come up in the strawberry patch that is our front garden

The strawberry patch goes the length of our yard

 The back of the house- we used gravel around the foundation

The side lot is tamed and turning very grassy

The Blizzard of '13 : Part 2

This chapter would be entitled: We're saved!  Yesterday around 10 am we finally saw what we had been waiting for, a plow.  It was no ordinary plow that took care of our street though, they sent in some sort of CAT tractor.  It had a bucket on the back and a plow on the front.  The driver was risking life and limb to free us, not to be dramatic.  Janda and I watched as this vehicle with 3 foot tall wheels spent 15 minutes trying to get up the short but relatively steep incline at the bottom of our road.  The life and limb part comes in when you consider that if he didn't make it and slid backwards down our hill there is a pretty good chance that he would be sliding into the river.

The poor guy finally made it after much maneuvering, bucking and thrashing.  He did an amazing job clearing our road, spending about an hour on a road that can't be more than 150m in length.  When he was done, we had a completely passable road (plus he called in the sander) and a snow bank outside our window that was about 12 feet tall, 20 feet long and 10 feet wide.  Of course, when you have a snow bank that big shenanigans will follow.

The tractor was stuck down on the bottom of the road for a while.

Even though the cars were shoveled, nothing else was touched yet.

The guy really "plowed" through the huge snowbanks on our street- snow was flying!

Look how much snow he was pushing up the street with each swipe!

Here is the finished pile- it is equal to our kitchen window, which is the second story!

Freedom!

The plow guy really cleared us well.

He also created a snowbank barrier so no one will end up in the river.

Here he is, hard at work.

Janda inspecting the snowbank.

"Are you pondering what I'm pondering?"  

"Sure we can make it no problem." 

"Here goes nothing!"

The Blizzard of '13

So the big blizzard plowed through New England this weekend, as forecasted.  We had yesterday off from school.  I think that we could have gone for a half day, as they had originally called, since the snow didn't get heavy til late afternoon, but Deval Patrick basically told schools to close in his press conference Thursday.  So we had a day off but no shoveling to do.  I did some cleaning and some seam ripping.

The storm was picking up in intensity starting mid-afternoon and the winds were howling by early evening.  Unfortunately those howling winds somehow knocked out power to the 7 houses on my street at 9:30 last night.  When we woke up this morning there was still no power (as we expected) and the house was chilly. Luckily we have a fireplace, so we built a fire this morning and the outage only lasted til mid-afternoon, so we're plenty warm now.

We went out mid-morning to shovel, but couldn't do too much because our road hadn't been plowed.  In fact, our road still hasn't been plowed as of 9 pm tonight.  There is a solid foot plus of snow on the entire road plus two places where there are drifts of 3 feet or higher.  I don't even know how they are going to plow the road and where they can put that snow since  we live on a dead end.  It will be interesting.

 The windows were plastered with snow in the am.

The back porch is hidden in a snowbank and the back door wouldn't open.

I got stuck in the snow bank next to the fence.

My car was in a snowbank.

The blanket of white was littered with bits of pine trees. 

The back yard was one big snowbank.   Our woodpile was mostly uncovered though- good thing since we used it to keep warm while we waited for the power to come back on.

Janda shoveling the steps; the front door was stuck shut too.

That's where the street normally is.  The snow bank at the bottom is up to the window of the first house on the street!

And we're still not plowed!

Long weekend of ... cleaning

This weekend was a long weekend for me and I spent the vast majority of my 3 days off cleaning and organizing.  I wasn't locked in the house, Janda and I went to a friend's Saturday and Sunday evenings, Emma had a little birthday party on Sunday and Janda and I did a little shopping- mostly house and baby stuff.  Come to think of it, this was a really packed weekend!

I spent 2 days cleaning and reorganzing the kitchen and mudroom.  Then today I got to work on the sunroom which now holds my sewing room, desk and some of Janda's toys.  There is a substantial amount of recycling in our bins, trash in the can and assorted items to be given away.  Not a bad cleanout.

Hopefully now that my sewing space is organized I can start attacking my stash and making baby stuff.   Here's a look at the sewing space:

The dresses hanging on the door can't be finished until I have a waist again, but they are mostly done.  Underneath them is a tote with maybe a third of my stash- mostly wools, linings and heavy fabrics.  On top of the tote is a pile of UnFinished Objects and mending to the left and a pile of knits to the right.  Hanging on the wall are 2 awesome sequin fabrics I got from fabric.com- hanging b/c the sequins get out of place when folded.  On top of the cutting table are my three maternity projects- 1 skirt and 2 pairs of pants.  The 2 three drawer cabinets holding up my sewing table are chock full of fabric- woven cottons, more knits and assorted quilting/craft fabrics.  I tried to count how many cuts of fabric I have and stopped  at halfway-ish and closing in on 50.  I NEED the stash busting sew-along!

Here is a close-up of the sequin fabric hanging on the wall.  I got aqua (big surprise) and there is a dark grey hanging behind it.  Really awesome.  I can't wait to embellish some projects with a bit of these 2 fabrics.

I am planning on using every 50% off coupon that I get from Joann's between now and the baby to get PUL fabric for diaper covers.  And all of my mom's coupons too!  How cute are these monsters and dinosaurs?  This boy is going to be fashionably diapered!

5 Month Whirlwind

In August we demolished.

In September we reconstructed.

In October we painted inside.

In November we painted outside.

In December, we decorate!

Stripped to the bone.

Fortifying and insulating. 

New drywall.

Primed and ready to go.

Oops.  That color was a misstep.

New, lighter colors in living room and kitchen.

New seating area next to fireplace.

A real dining room.

A more open concept.

New windows and shades throughout.

The Good, the Bad and the Pretty

The good news is that we are undertaking an exciting renovation chez us.  We are expanding our living room into the dining room and moving the dining room into a different area of the living room. The only reason we haven't done this already is that pesky wall you see below.  So in the midst of other, smaller renovation plans, it was decided that the wall has to go.  The bad news is that it looks like this right now:

The living room with a hole and all of our furniture.  Recently the room got a lot emptier when half of our furniture, which was broken, went into the dumpster. 

It's even better behind the tarp! 

The pile of renovation debris. 

While we were at it, we did some demo in the basement too.  If you look closely at the bottom of the picture  that's a metal retaining wall that no longer retains.

The pretty of course, is in the garden.  The flowers and veggies are doing great.  Only a few ripe tomatoes so far, but pretty soon we'll have bushels.

Emma sampling a ripe Warren's Yellow cherry tomato. 

My cosmos are going awesome this year.  The color selection I got is great. 

Wild Catch-Fly (I think) in the back yard.

Alyssum loves my backyard.  I'll have to remember that when planting next year.

The Bachelor Buttons are still going strong.  The are attracting loads of little yellow birds- American Goldfinches according to my mom.