Transformation in progress

We picked this up at the Salvation Army on Saturday for $25 ----- its transformation into our new TV cabinet/media center is in progress...

We also got a large wooden mirror for $15 that'll go in the front room. Bonus is that it all fit in the wagon along with Rachel and Adeline and Adeline's stroller!

The carpet's here

and Olive wants more cuddle time

ordered the rug...

Rachel had finally decided on an area rug for her office, though, when we went to order it, "sold out".

I ended up finding this one on eBay actually but from the seller rugsusa.com which has a pretty good website.

It's 7.5 feet by 9.5 feet:

 

I also got the white outlets and white light switches installed this weekend too. 

WHITE floors

When I started this project 2 weeks ago, I told Rachel I'd have the room done (painted) before she picked out the rug to go in it.

I'm proud to say, I won the "race":

Still a few more things to do:

• replace the almond outlets with white ones
• paint the ceiling fan white

Office progress

I got the floors sanded and patched over the last few days. There was a glue that they laid down which ended up staining the floors ----- which means its great that we are planning on painting the floors rather than staining them:

Speaking of painting, my Dad is heading over there today to put down at least the first coat of paint! 

Kelly Moore makes a cement floor paint that should be durable, we went with straight white in the gloss. 

Rachel's Office

This is the last room that we haven't touched with the decorating stick. And it showed, here's the perfect "before" photo, this is like rock bottom, hard not to make it any worse right?

Now that life is settling down a bit, we decided to give it a go. We had always thought we'd paint the room in some kind of green:

Then, Rachel saw this room and wanted to use these colors in her office: 

We were thinking, the "spring tip" in the above photo. So we bought some paint samples, then a few more, then a few more, and they never looked right: 

Then, on a whim, Rachel had me get a sample of "Pink Granite":

Every time we've picked colors for a room, we've gone through 4-8 paint samples, and every time we almost settled on a color. Then, we put on a new sample and it's "perfect". This was the case with the pink granite also, a kind of mauve.

The photo doesn't do the color justice; it's a difficult color to photograph, sometimes looking more brown than lavender. I had originally pulled the carpet out of room, then realized it was the perfect drop cloth, thus why it's still in the photo below.

To do list:

• pull up carpet to see condition of concrete slab underneath
• tear out tack strips
• repair holes left by tack strips
• pick a color
• paint ceiling
• paint walls
• paint baseboards
• secure internet cable line to the baseboards
• sand old glue off of floors
• paint floors white

When will it be in stock?

I think this is the year we get patio furniture!

Except, when will it be in stock? http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S39898474/

Good news/Bad news

I went outside this morning and got some good news and bad news:

The good news is that the french drain is definitely working. This is the sump pit which is a garbage can buried in the ground with the french drain perforated pipe flowing into it. 

I did have some concerns that perhaps the french drain wasn't draining into the sump pit and that the reason the french has worked thus far, is just because there is now a gravel trough that runs the length of the yard and that trough was holding the rain runoff. Now, it's fairly obvious that the drain is working well. 

The bad news is that because the sump pit is fully filled, water isn't draining in the trouble areas of the yard so that this is happening: 

Rachel's Grandpa had given us a sump pump and it worked, but not great when I first tried it. It seemed that perhaps the 1/3 horsepower wasn't enough to push water through the 4 foot hose I had connected to it. This morning, I hooked the pump up to a 50 foot hose with no expectations. I need to pump the water out to the front yard so that it can drain into the gutter. 

Luckily, the sump pump worked! Perhaps it was the hose I was using before? No idea. Hopefully, now that I am pumping the water out of the sump pit, the standing water in the yard will drain into it and we'll have a dry yard again. 

Plants and mulch

So here's what we started with:

Then, we tore some rose bushes out and got to this: 

Most recently, we tilled up the dead and live grass and tore out some more random plants as well as the tree stump: 

This weekend it was supposed to rain like crazy, so didn't think any progress would be made. But after seeing that perhaps it wasn't going to rain, Rachel and I bundled up Adeline and made a trip to Home Depot and bought this: 

http://www.smgrowers.com/products/plants/plantdisplay.asp?plant_id=420 

http://www.monrovia.com/plant-catalog/plants/2506/golden-variegated-sweet-flag.php 

http://www.hgtv.com/landscaping/new-zealand-flax-coastal-flax/index.html 

We wanted drought tolerant/low water plants. Unfortunately, somehow we missed that the Variegated Acorus "likes damp to wet soil". So I guess we'll see how long it lasts before dying and then being replaced with something less thirsty. 

We ended up with this: 

We still need to put some sort of rock/brick border between our lot and the neighbors as well as add a path that goes to the backyard. But it's getting there!

Total investment so far: $215

it rained

Those photos are from a year ago, prior to the french drain, that now runs along the side of the backyard and empties into a buried garbage can.

After last week's rain, we had no standing water in the backyard! Good to know that my back breaking sweat equity actually worked.

More sideyard progress...

Now that the weather is starting to get nicer, we decided to tackle the sideyard, especially after seeing the quote "the best gift you can give your neighbors is a well kept yard."

I posted back in September about where we left off, here.

This weekend, I tore out the stump, the other living plant on the side (other than the tree). Then, rented a tiller from Home Depot and spent 3+ hours tearing the dirt/grass apart. The tiller made quick work of the area, but it wasn't easy at all; going to feel it tomorrow.

Then we put down some landscape cloth which will help prevent random plants and weeds from popping up in the future. The next step will be buying some drought resistant plants, and some mulch or rock.

 

Thinking of using something like this for the walkway $2.48 per stone at Home Depot:

 

we've been busy

So as you might have guessed, having a baby can take up time otherwise spent working on a home.

Rain control

We have a downspout in our backyard that pours right onto the brick patio. I've tried hooking up extender tubes to escort the water off the brick and into the yard. This has worked but only marginally, it either gets kicked or blown by the wind and detaches from the downspout.

Last weekend, in preparation for the rain, I executed a plan I had thought up a few months ago ---- buy a narrow garbage can and have the downspout pour into it instead. So I bought this "slim jim" 23 gallon can from Home Depot:

The problem is, with the heavy rain, it was filling up in about 3 hours. Dragging the can 10 feet to dump it out into the garden/lawn was difficult and a pain. This was finally realized when I went to empty it before work, dressed in work clothes and the darn thing fell over creating a small 23 gallon typhoon of water getting me wet.

So, to solve this, I drilled a hole in the lower side of the can, installed a ball valve hose bib. A standard hose bib fits a 1" hole pretty well. With some silicone, washers and a nut on the back side, the drain valve seems pretty sturdy.

Next, I took some old hose, and made a new hose out of with a replacement hose attachment:

Now, the slim jim can collect 23 gallons of water, and I can then turn the valve and pump the water anywhere within 15 feet. 

In the future, I'll build a more decorative box around the garbage can. And, when it's not rainy season, I'll disconnect the hose and store in the shed.

More house history

Exchanged some emails with a Sacramento Mid Century blogger who runs Eichlerific. And she pointed me to this website that has vintage aerial photography.

We know that some major renovations have been done to the house, and I wrote about the garage addition earlier

There, I showed the current aerial photo with the estimated additions (the fuchsia squares below):

HistorialAerials.com  has aerial shots of our house from 1957 and 1964:

1957,  Notice the sparse trees and where the driveway is located




1964, Trees have grown in the last seven years:

Garage progress

So, first post on the garage in a while...mainly due to focusing my energies on other parts of the house. I wanted to add another workbench to increase storage and general workspace.

Did this a few months ago using mostly left over scrap wood I had laying around:

Then, I added four pull out drawers (no pictures). This weekend, I got it nearly finished: 

Still needs a second coat of paint on the front doors. I'll be building more workbenches like this around two other walls of the garage. The sliding doors were really cheap and help keep things looking organized.