Monthly Archives: July 2010
Bedroom Redo
After a year in the house, we are finally painting our bedroom. It seems a little silly to wait that long to make our sleeping quarters pretty, but we had so many social events planned that required us to make the common spaces more of a priority.
Needless to say, I am ecstatic to beautify this neglected space.
Its sad to say that I have lived this last year in a linoleum floored storage shed. We didn’t make any adjustment to the room after we first moved in. Nate and I didn’t even remove the old rusty nails from the walls. Guess, we just moved in and moved on. I can only imagine what it will be like to wake up in a freshly painted space.
Backyard Patio
This is the current state of one side of our backyard. Basically, its a big mud pit.
This is a general idea of what we want it to become. A concrete patio bordered with river rocks. The seams in between the concrete pavers will be planted with low creeping Thyme ground cover or something similar.
Originally, we were going to build a concrete or stone wall between the pool and the patio, but because of cost and permanence of the structure we have decided to use river rocks instead. I think this will be a better solution in the long run because it will allow the space to be flexible depending on what we are using it for.
The hut will house our pool equipment. Eventually the plan is to move the equipment along the side of the house, but the hut will have to do for now.
Inspiration
I really like the look of ground cover between the pavers. It really works in both a modern space and more rustic settings. Here are a few samples of how cool it can look.
Feeling guilty?
I opened the front door and a delivery man handed me a bouquet of flowers in smiley faced plastic wrap. The card was signed by our window vendors apologizing for the order delay.
Perhaps I was a little too vocal on the phone with the sales rep. They must of realized how upset I was with their news.
Its a lovely gesture and very much appreciated, but I wish it didn’t make me feel like the windows and doors are going to be delayed even more though.
Hummmm.
Hog meet Lawn
Poor Nate has been trying to fix two broken gas lawn mowers for weeks. We inherited them and hoped we could save some money by fixing one up. Unfortunately it wasn’t that easy and at some point you have to realize the cost of a new mower out ways the time and energy fixing up an old, used one.
Luckily with a few clicks of the mouse, I was able to order a Black & Decker MM875 Lawn Hog 19-Inch 12 amp Electric Mulching Mower with Rear Bag
on Friday afternoon and have it delivered Saturday morning. Cost was about 200 bucks and I only paid an additional $3.99 to ship it next day. I kid you not. Three dollars and ninety nine cents. You got to love Amazon some times!
Let me backtrack a little and explain that I had been researching electric mowers for a while before we inherited the two broken gas mowers.
Although dealing with a power cord is a little cumbersome, an electric mower made sense for our small yard for a variety of reasons.
1) It takes up very little space.
2) Its super easy for someone like me to operate with a flick of a switch.
3) We don’t have to keep a can of gasoline in our shed anymore.
4) It had awesome reviews from a few friends who have one and also on the internet.
5) It was about 100 bucks less than a battery powered model which in my mind didn’t justify the convenience of a battery.
All in all I am really proud of this purchase. I hope this little mower lives a long and healthy life at our place. All it has to do to pay its keep is work about a half an hour every other week. Not a bad deal at all.
