Weekend Projects

We have been busy this weekend trying to tie up lots of loose ends around the house!  It seems like there are so many different things going on at once, and I’m hoping we can get some of them done and move on.  I think the number one priority was to eliminate the dirt pile, but that seems to be impossible.  We still have quite a bit left, and I may have to resort to a “FREE dirt” sign in the yard.  There are ominous rain clouds in the sky right now so the we may not have much of a pile after tonight.

Here it is staring at us through the bedroom window.

We made some progress on the front bed, and I’m hoping to get some advice about what to plant from our neighbor who is a landscape architect.   His yard looks great, and he has a really nice mix of different plants rather than just the usual evergreens.

Here are some photos of the progression.

Here is the final bed- oh, and did you notice the last remaining shutters that were clinging to the house hoping to survive a couple more months are now gone!  and so are the spider colonies that were behind them.  Someone stopped me one day and asked me (very seriously) if we thought it would be the new trend to have just one shutter on each window.   I didn’t want to give anyone the wrong idea so they are now gone.

It’s hard to see it in the pictures, but we finally have one lone peony open!!  I’m hoping to have a bouquet in the kitchen later this week. :)

The other thing we’re working on is getting the floors prepped for the refinishing.  We’re hoping to take out the floor furnace in the living room before refinishing the rest of the wood next week.

Here is the ugly furnace I hope to not see for much longer.

We are going to have to pull out the actual furnace part that’s underneath the grate so Jimmee had to crawl under the house and disconnect the gas and the other pipes.  Here he is emerging from the crawl space.

I was really happy, in fact elated, that I was not designated to go under the house and search for these things with the roaches and spiders.  I’ve seen my share of those things lately, and frankly I’ve had enough of them for a long time.  Jimmee did a good job, and he made it out safe and sound  and had very little anxiety about the whole thing.  Now hopefully we can get the wood replaced and get on with the refinishing!!

That pretty much sums up the weekend for us…  Jimmee is off to Arkansas now, and I’m going to attempt to study for my last final.

To all the mothers, especially my mom and Jody, I want to wish you a HAPPY mother’s day!!!   I hope everyone had a nice and relaxing day!

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Garden Prep

I decided to get started on the gardening while the weather is cooperating and the days are beautiful.  We’ve been having temperatures in the 60s and 70s with sunny skies so this is the perfect time, and it won’t be this way for long in Oklahoma.  Before I started the plans, I went out around the neighborhood in search of some inspiration so the tulips above and the garden pics below are from my walk with Kitty.  I felt a little weird taking pictures of people’s yards, but hopefully they assumed it was because I liked the yard and not because I was scouting out the house for other reasons…

I really like the tulip colors of the yard above, and I haven’t seen that combination very often- so pretty!  They just had a really nice yard in general, and the next picture is from the other side of the same house.

These are my Favorite flower ever, with a capitol F!  I love Peonies, and this yard had tons of light pink ones in full bloom.  We have three of these plants in our front yard that somehow survived the destructive gardening of the past owner, and I can’t wait for ours to bloom…

Here’s the full view from the street- our grass will never be that green!

I wanted to start off with all these beauties, but now that I’m thinking about it, ours might look a little boring after all that color.  You just have to use your imagination with these pics since it’s the beginning of the process.  The first picture is how it all started… with a pile of buried rocks.  I wanted to get rid of these, and then I had an idea that would save me some work and some money.

So I dug out the edge of the garden

and proceeded to stick the dug-up pieces of concrete into the ground as an edge to the soon-to-be garden bed.   This was the finished result-

Now I just need to fill it in with some nice compost and planting dirt, and it will be set.  I drew up a plan for the backyard with lots of hydrangeas and rhodendrons, and I’m ready to make a shopping list!