Finishing up

Sometimes you buy a fixer-upper, and you think you'll live there for four years and do all the work yourself. Sometimes you end up having to move twice instead and rent the place out. And then sometimes it feels surprisingly good to pay someone to finish what you couldn't. 

This house finally got the full makeover it deserved! Now time to sell...

Meg vs. Halloween: Easy Felt Bat Garland

Halloween is the first major holiday since my birthday, so I had to start out right if I am going to meet my goal of decorating for all of them. But I wanted to do it (1) without spending much if any money, and (2) without accruing bulky items that we will have to store or move later. So when I saw this bat garland on Pinterest, I knew it would be perfect!

I ordered a whole pile of felt for a felt board project I am hoping to get started on (on sale for $3 a yard at JoAnn.com!), and I had black thread already, so all I needed was to print out this template from Country Living and grab my scissors and sewing machine! Without all of the inevitable interruptions from my three little guys, I would guess that this is about a one-hour project, depending on how crazy you go cutting out bats. I cut out twenty bats, then ran them through the sewing machine one after the other to connect them all together.

We hung it out on the porch, and with our pumpkins I think it looks every-so-slightly festive. It also reminded me how much we still need to do on the house (cracks, peeling paint, fake bricks falling off...). But hey, I kept with my goal! And just maybe I'll make something more with the kiddos in the next week. We like to be last-minute around here.

I like that this garland is reusable but takes up almost no storage space, so we will have a start on our decorating next year! But these beauties won't last that long...

 Just the right sizes for my three munchkins. Stay tuned for a couple more Halloween posts before the big day! Then perhaps I'll get a more timely start on Christmas!

Meg vs. Miscellany: Ambitious day - check!

Monday: Re-fill that green waste bin. Paint a coat on the changing table attachment. Tape the front hallway. Hang the mirror in the living room above the bench.

We managed to get it all done! I filled up the can with lots more cuttings from our giant overgrown rose bush (tree) and a branch from the yucca tree next to it. I just finished painting the first coat on the attachment (John started, but I had to intervene because I'm anal about the brush strokes), I taped the hallway this afternoon, and John helped me hang the mirror just before bedtime. Phew!

I think the mirror makes this corner look much more complete, but I still feel like it's missing something. We are both leaning toward painting the mirror, a la this look (but not this color; maybe coral):

Source here.

Whaddya think?

Meg vs. The Front Yard: Thorn control

Wednesday: Hack away at the crazy rose tree and ivy in the front side yard. Re-fill that lovely green waste bin!

I realize I am a day behind. It has been one of those weeks, and I am attempting to not beat myself up over it (and the miserable state in which the rest of my house is prone to wallow) and just go to sleep, trusting that taking care of myself will make things better in the long run.

P.S. I don't recommend letting your rose bushes go unattended for several years. They may go through a fence, climb a yucca tree, and entrap a nest of twigs, ivy, and trash within their thorny grasp. Just sayin'.

Meg vs. The Yard: Shopping and another coat on the bench

Wednesday: Pick up plant food, grout cleaner, and another can of stain. Apply second coat of stain to the rocking bench.

The boys helped me do the shopping this morning, and we even managed to pick up more soil for the garden, cat repellant (someone was digging in our garden last night and killed our healthiest pumpkin plant), and paint chips for the dresser for the boys' room (a friend is going to give us a set for free!). Then during nap time I did this:

I guessed on the stain color and it seemed to match pretty well. The bench is still not perfect, but I touched up a lot of spots I had missed in the dark and got most of the back of the bench, which I had left undone due to lack of stain. It's coming along, and I am happy that our porch is not looking so empty.

Meg vs. The Inside & Out: More rocking bench plus hallway repairs

Thursday: Pick up more stain and a protective coat. Start staining the bench.


I am officially caught up for the week! I used every drop of stain in my tiny little can, and I think I got all of the visible parts. Though I won't be sure until morning (I have to do all these things at night, you know. The day was spent mowing the lawn, gardening, cleaning, and distracting little boys). Here it is!

It isn't the picture of beauty, but it is coming along nicely. I may go pick up another little can to do a second coat, or just call it good and top it off with some weatherproofing finish. (Probably the latter.) And if I get really fancy I'll make cute cushion for it, but that may be pushing our luck a little far, particularly because we still haven't picked exterior paint colors.

Saturday: Pull down peeling joint tape in the hallway and assess how to repair it. Start re-taping if it looks okay. 

This job took all of about five minutes. Here is the problem:

All the joint tape was coming up and the plaster coming down. So I grabbed some of this...

 ...pulled down the old tape, scraped off the rough plaster edges a bit, and slapped some tape up there. Since it is clear fiberglass mesh, you really can't see it in the picture. But it is there, just waiting to be slathered in joint compound. Alas, that will have to wait until next week.

Meg vs. The Mailbox: 5 minute paint job

Wednesday: Spray paint the ugly mailbox.

The hardest part about this project was finding the can of paint I purchased for it months ago. I never did, so I had to wait until the car was available and go buy another one. (Thus the "after" picture was taken at night). Good thing it was only 99 cents! I topped it off with a coat of spray lacquer that I already had for another project; I think it helped make it look more finished, but we'll see the real result in the light of the morning. Regardless, it is much less noticeably hideous than it was before, and saves us from paying twenty times more for a new one.

Meg vs. The Rocking Bench: Sanding, take 1

Monday: Sand the bench.

I did not start the week off with a bang. I had a stomachache, and started sanding the bench with a piece of sandpaper, then realized I desperately needed to make myself a sanding block because it was impossible to keep the paper from crumpling instantly every time I used it. I may even go at it with the orbital sander because I'm lazy like that and it is an old, beat-up, free bench after all. Maybe when I re-attempt it I won't keep having to take 7-up breaks!

Meg vs. the Porch: Trial run for a rocking bench makeover

Saturday: Take a look at the rocking bench out back. Tighten up bolts if possible, and start sanding if it looks salvageable.

Here is the old rocking bench in question. I originally thought it was too wobbly to keep around, but I saw a new one at the hardware store, and it was of a comparable wobbliness. So I thought perhaps I should give this fellow a second shot.

I tightened up the bolts, added a missing nut, and sanded the tops of the arm rests and a few of the back slats, then I got impatient to see how it might look once stained (typical me). A while back I picked up this bad-boy from the mistint section at the Home Depot for 50 cents, and I figured this is as good a time as any to try it out, because I thought this bench would look good stained dark on our front porch.

I originally did a tiny section on the back of the arm rest, but then I liked what I saw so I got even more impatient and did a whole slat and the top of the arm.

I like that it is really dark but you still see the grain really well. Yay! So excited to keep on this project. I'll probably have to go get more stain, but I actually think my 50 cents will go pretty far here.

Meg vs. The Front Yard: Weeding (of course)

Monday: Weed front planters, clear more in the back if there's room in the bin/time in the day.

I have lots of excuses for today. Mostly I got sick when I was part-way through weeding the main planter, and that is as far as I got. We spent the afternoon with me curled up on the couch while the boys played and watched Cars, and I recovered enough to pick up John and make a pre-birthday dinner (I am trying to be a good cook during birthday week at least!).

I promise I will try to post something slightly more exciting here soon; I feel like the blog is getting a little pathetic!

Meg vs. The Yard: Massive branch clean-up

Monday: Re-fill up the green waste bin.  (Read Mockingjay. Heehee.)

Even though I spent the entire morning reading my very addictive book (fun to read, glad it's over), I managed to meet my goal, and even exceed my expectations! When our can was nearly stuffed, our neighbor came over to introduce herself, then offered her green waste bin, which was even bigger than ours! The boys and I spent the entire afternoon in the front yard, and I managed to clean up the ENTIRE giant pile of debris in our driveway. I did leave the bigger branches in the side yard for John to tackle later with the chainsaw, but I was definitely not expecting to get that far.

Aaaaand of course I neglected to take a picture. You win some, you lose some.

Meg vs. The Yard: Pruning, planting, catching up.

Tuesday: Re-fill yard waste bin! Prune roses in the front and plant Dahlias.

As I mentioned yesterday, the first goal wasn't too tough because our green waste bin was not emptied yesterday as it should have been. Ah, life.

With no place to put my spiny rose cuttings, I thought the better of trying to prune my bushes with the boys around. Instead I pulled a whole bunch more sourgrass that was matting my planters, uncovered some new plants that sprung up during the rain (get ready for a new game of name that plant!), tried to un-ensnare the rose bushes in our side yard from the ivy that was attacking it, and did, in fact, plant the Dahlias.

With the rest of the day I decided to play a little bit of catch-up; cleaning, laundry, etc. etc. I even managed a shower during daylight hours =).

And the best part of all is that John's hardest exam of the semester is over and now he has three days off, so we went out to eat and I didn't even have to make dinner! Some days are just awesome, even if I can't prune my roses.

Meg vs. The Yard: trimming the hedge

Thursday:  Trim hedge along driveway, cut up more of the tree branch.

It was nice to have a more manageable goal that I could actually complete during nap-time. It was a little bit arduous since all I have is a pair of loppers, but not awful. The quality of my trimming will have to suffice until we get a real hedge trimmer. And I cut up as much of the giant branch as would fit in the green waste bin, but you really can't tell that I did anything there.

Before:

 After (sorry, I forgot to take a picture until dinner time):

Meg vs. The Yard: Bush Trimming

Wednesday:  Trim bushes in the front yard. Start cutting up the giant branch I hacked down on a whim.


These fellows were getting a bit too big for their britches, er, planters.

 So I went to work with my trusty new loppers. I have no clue as to how I am supposed to trim a hedge, but if they survive my gardening, we'll know they were meant to stay. Mostly I wanted to get them at least 6 inches away from the house and low enough that our house number was visible again.

Ta-da!

 I did a little weeding around the bottom as well, but didn't have the time or energy to deal with those rowdy rose bushes just yet.

On to the tree! I can't stand this tree by the garage. I dubbed it the poo-berry tree. It drops pollen and little berries all over the roof and driveway, and it is pulling up the fence. I would like to get the whole thing removed, but I'll have to talk to the neighbor first, since it sits right on the line between our properties. John was kind of protective of the tree (he is oddly fond of all the plants in the yard--takes after his dad, the lover of all living things), until the tree dropped its poo-berries on the car and damaged the paint. Then John announced that I could cut down whatever branches I like. The next day I went out with a pole saw and went at the giant branch hanging over our driveway until it was vanquished. Then I realized it would take me approximately 17 years to cut that branch up with a handsaw, and it has sat in the driveway like this for a few weeks.

By the time I finished the bushes, our green waste bin looked like this:

But I wanted to keep with my goal, so I started hacking off the smaller branches on top, and did as much as I could reasonably do. My mom bought us a chainsaw while she was here recently, so I'll recruit the Mr. to help me cut it up the rest of the way so we can dispose of it/burn it later.

And there was a bonus for finishing today's goal! I had let all but one of my beautiful Valentine's Day tulips go the way of all the earth.

Now I have something to grace my dining room table!

I ended up taking the afternoon off because of a freak accident involving my foot and a surprisingly sharp Matchbox car. We watched Curious George and ate cheesy puffs, then had hot dogs and corn for dinner. In the evening I had a stomachache and dozed off on the couch, and my wonderful hubby cleaned the whole kitchen for me (it was pretty bad, given my afternoon vacation added to the general neglect). Even with a foot injury, a pretty good day!