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. Tree Removal: Some Friendly Advice

If you are getting a tree removed that is right in front of your gas meter, you should probably check to make sure they didn't hit your gas meter a couple of times, leaving a gas leak outside your house all weekend.

Or maybe that just happens to me. Did you know that if you tell PG&E there is has been gas leaking at you house all weekend, they will send someone out within an hour? Their response was very quick and thorough, and they made sure there was no more gas in the house before they left. Thank goodness I decided on a whim to go do some work on that side of the house. What a blessing!

Meg vs. The Backyard: Cleaned up!

A friend of mine does some landscaping/yard cleaning on the side. I knew that with the baby, exams, and the bathroom still out of commission, we weren't going to get to it any time soon, so we contracted it to my friend. We basically told them to clear everything to the ground so we can rototill. Here is the result:

Clearly we need to make a trip to the dump before we can get to tilling.

The yard looks SO much bigger! We have a lot of work to do, but I am excited. I can envision letting my kids play here without wondering what animals are in the bushes (there really was a raccoon one evening, and we have tons of squirrels). Hurrah!

Meg vs. The Back Yard: More of the same, to infinity!

Tuesday: Weed, cut branches, and re-fill the yard waste bin. Get another planter ready for planting.

I did this as far as I could; I realized I was out of soil for the last above-ground planter, and all I had was Amend for the in-ground planters that aren't really close to ready yet. So I cleared a spot and set up the planter, and it's ready for dumping and planting. I'll add the mix to my shopping list for tomorrow.

The rest of my time was spent battling a gnarly rose tree at the end of the side yard. I think it is a normal rose bush that was left to itself for 30 years; it is crazy! Lots of dead growth and ivy, both living and dead, wrapped up with it. But the side yard is almost clear! Now to decide what to fill it back up with...

Meg vs. The Back Yard: The never ending task.

Friday: Re-fill the green waste bin! Clear as much in the side yard as possible.
 
Someday I will get the side yard cleared out completely. And then I will have about ten times more than than to do around the rest of the yard. The work itself is good for me, right?

Saturday: Plant more seeds with the boys. Work on decorations for the living room.

We didn't get to planting seeds. It is 9pm and still 80 degrees in our house, so we only were outside for an hour or so after dinner, and that's when I worked on weeding. However, if I can count "Think of ideas for the living room" as "Work on decorations for the living room," then that goal was done.

Meg vs. The Yard: More weeding!

Thursday: Finish clearing out the side yard. Re-fill the green waste bin.

This is the project that never ends, since we need to clear about 1/2 of our entire yard. It was a crazy morning and we all fell asleep for the afternoon, so we got a late start, but we definitely re-filled the bin and made good progress on the side yard. John meticulously removed the ivy intertwined in most of the chain-link fence, so now I just have a small section at the end of the side yard to finish so that we can get to cleaning and planting. I also worked on clearing a spot for a second raised bed, since our boys were being whiny and wouldn't tolerate both John and I being secluded on the side of the yard.

We are having guests for lunch tomorrow, so tonight's post-bedtime schedule includes cleaning the whole house and starting to get our room ready for painting. Yikes!

Meg vs. The Back Yard: Weeding and more weeding

Tuesday: Clear a place to plant sunflowers and put a planter in the side yard. Re-fill the green waste bin!

Clear part of the side-yard. Check!

Fill up the bin. Check plus!

Un-cover an existing planter that sits exactly in the sunny area. Check Check! There are actually pavers and rocks surrounding the planter, but you wouldn't know it by looking.

Verify that someone actually grew something here aside from weeds once. Checkity-check!  (It was rosemary - only a step above a weed, but I'll take it.)

Clean up the milk spills, dish pile, and crushed animal cookies under the furniture because my awesome mother-in-law will be here in 2 days, followed by my wonderful father-in-law 2 days after that: I suppose I had better get to that.

Meg vs. The Backyard: Name that plant!

Okay everyone, time for a game. It's called Name That Plant, a.k.a. Keep It, Transplant It, Trim It, or Kill It?

Mom, I'm counting on you for this one.

 This one is spreading across the ground.

This one is an overgrown tree.

Meg vs. The Backyard: Clearing and planting

Monday:  Clear a place and plant the boysenberries.

Well, I technically did this one, but not exactly how I originally intended. After an hour in the backyard, the "place" we had decided on for the boysenberries looked like this:

After an hour or so more, it looked like this:

And the waste bin looked like this:

So much for my other goal this week to get rid of more of the tree!

I decided that with all the roots and trash in ground, I should probably do more to clean it out before planting anything. And then I second-guessed our decision to plant the berries next to the house (I am nothing if not indecisive). So finally I just did this:

I both cleared a place and planted the boysenberries. I love buying time for more indecisiveness =).

Aren't you jealous of how splendid our back yard looks already?

Overgrown side yard, complete with decomposing cardboard

The trees my hubby wants me to leave alone (yeah right)

 Ivy everywhere! I am thisclose to convincing John that it is a noxious weed and shouldn't be his favorite landscaping feature.

 One of two dead trees.

 Dirty deck, shaky trellis.

 Junk.

p.s. That bit about our splendid yard was a joke.

Meg vs. The Yard: Potting Trees

Thursday:  Re-pot fruit trees left by the previous owners.

We noticed three baby citrus trees--a meyer lemon, a naval orange, and a mexican lime--in our yard when we were doing our walk-through of this house, and assumed the owners would take them. But apparently they came with the house! We have always wanted fruit trees, but weren't sure if we were going to bother with this house since there are so many other things needing our attention. But since we had them, we decided to pot them for now to give us time and flexibility to move them around as we do the rest of the yard. I bought the pots and soil months ago but haven't taken the 30 minutes to go out and put them in. The guy at Home Depot said that a pot twice the size of the original container should be sufficient for a couple of years' growth. And these trees are barely twigs, so I think they have plenty of room for now.

Before:  Can you tell a little one was playing with my camera?

After:

Definitely worth 1/2 an hour during nap time. Who knows if they'll get big enough to fruit before we leave this place, but at least they have room to try!

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!