Week 58

I had some school assignments that took longer than expected, so I could only get to one thing this week -- making a screen cage for the spinach and beets:

Basically, it's a box made out of window screen. I read about this as a way to keep the leafminer flies off of the plants. They destroyed the beets, chard, and spinach last time around, so I figured it was worth a try.

Next up: not much for the next two weeks, because I'll be out of town. There might be a guest blog post if AJ gets up to some home improvement, but if not, we'll just return to projects when I'm back at the beginning of May!

Week 57

Another busy weekend!

As planned, I mixed in some brown mulch to lighten up the scorched-looking yard:

I also made trellises for the peas, which are now about eight inches tall:

I put some carrots in, too, while I was at it.

We also moved the three tatami mats downstairs into the new room (not sure where they will finally end up, but we wanted to move them out of the living room), along with Jon's couch and a coffee table he also gave us:

From another angle:

He gave us a book shelf, too, but we're not sure where that will go yet. Upstairs, maybe, because it happens to match the ones we already have in the living room. 

Thank you very much, Jon!!! 

Next week, I think we're going to do a little more planting, which will essentially finish up the yard (well, as much as we can finish before the fence on the north side of the property is replaced -- the retaining wall is crumbling, so we're not touching anything on that side of the yard until that's done, since whatever we do will just have to be dug up when they do the work anyway). May is usually a warm month here, so it will be great to have everything tidied up and ready to go by then.

Week 56

Another weekend spent hard at work here.

I spent Saturday morning sealing the floor in the new room:

And then we spent the afternoon in the yard. AJ planted lavender & mint in this nice planter that Jon gave us when we moved in:

While the dog rolled & napped in the dirt:

Then she planted succulents in one of the planters we built:

Looks good, AJ!

While she did that, I spread out some mulch over our unappealing packed dirt and gravel yard:

I got black because I thought it might look interesting. It does, but it also looks like something burned down, so I'm going to be adding some brown in next week to finish up.

Pickles contributed to mulching in her usual fashion:

After finishing the one planter, AJ turned her attention to the other:

Things are really coming together! 

On Sunday I worked out an efficient way to collect & store the water that we waste while waiting for the shower to heat up, so that we can use it to water the vegetables when the rain catchment system is empty (or, you know, hasn't been installed yet). I looked into laundry-to-landscape systems earlier this week, but just one load would generate way more water than we can actually use in the yard in a reasonable amount of time -- only the vegetables need watering, & they seem satisfied with just a couple gallons a day -- so I set my sights on a smaller scale.

Next up: Finishing the mulching, and picking up Jon's old couch -- that is destined for the DuserHaus home brewery in the basement, but will live temporarily in the new room for warm afternoon fun times.

Week 55

Mr. Bunkport did indeed come by last week, as planned! He put these copper downspouts up:

They look great now, & they're going to look even better once they start to take on a reddish-greenish patina. He is working on the catchment system separately. We'll look at scheduling that installation with him in about a month, after my work calendar opens up.

As for my to-do list, I finished touching up the walls and painting the trim in the new rooms. We are now ready to seal the concrete floor this week, just in time for another generous gift to come over from Jon: a couch!

In the garden, sprouts are already up for most of what I planted last week. And the fava seeds arrived in the mail, so those all went in on Sunday.

Next week: sealing the concrete floor, & possibly getting some mulch to cover the packed dirt & gravel & patchy grass that is our back yard. It would be nice to sit on the new couch on Sunday, & look out on a more beautiful garden space.

Week 54

Made more good progress on my to-do list on the last two days of spring break.

I stained the interior of the windows & doors downstairs the same honey color as the rest of the wood in the house. Turned out pretty well. I skipped photos because the difference is a little too subtle to see in a photo.

I also made progress on touching up the paint in the downstairs rooms. Should be able to finish that next weekend.

In other news, the vegetable garden has been planted & is ready to go:

The total area is 19 square feet -- the long side is 7 feet long, and the little angle is 2 1/2 feet long. I trimmed that angle down by a couple feet this year to open up the area in front of the panda a little more.

I decided against a garden border of broken terra cotta tiles because I realized that I don't know whether those tiles have lead in them. I am using these broken pieces of concrete instead and/or until I get around to testing the tiles for lead.

The bed has been planted with beets, arugula, lettuce, snap peas, and some seeds that Jon brought me back from a trip to Japan. Hard to tell exactly what he brought back, but judging from the packets, I think I planted lettuce, spinach, and some sort of lumpy squash. Favas go in next week, when the seeds arrive.

I've been doing some research on water conservation in vegetable gardens. I'm trying two things: sunken beds, where the level of the dirt around the plant is a little below grade, so that water is concentrated around the plants instead of running off all over the place, and these things:

These are unglazed terra cotta pots sunk into the bed and filled with water. The idea is that the water seeps out slowly into the soil through the clay, getting to the deeper roots of large plants around them. I put caps on them to keep the water from evaporating, & keep bugs & other animals from being attracted to the water. 

Speaking of animals, you might be wondering how I plan on keeping Pickles out of the garden, these small pieces of concrete not being much of a physical barrier. She is pretty good about stopping when you tell her to stop, but just in case she decides to chase a squirrel or something, I put these branches down on the bed:

These are from the rosemary tree that I cut down last February. I knew they would come in handy for something in the garden! 

Next up: we will be hooking up our new washing machine this week. When we mentioned the demise of the old washing machine to Jon last week, he said that his company had a couple they had decided to get rid of, so we cancelled the order at the store. Thank you, Jon! So, now all we have to do is hook it up and get rid of the old one (which the garbage company will haul away for free). 

Mr. Bunkport is also tentatively scheduled for Tuesday! Cross your fingers that all goes well!

Week 53

I didn't get a chance to call Mr. Bunkport to schedule the final gutter and catchment system work this week, and he will be in New Orleans helping our friend Brian with his new house next week, so still in a holding pattern on the final work. Which is actually fine, since it's not raining and since we're waiting on interminable paperwork before we can really call this done anyway. What's the rush at this point, really? The important stuff -- the structural stuff -- is done and the house is safe, and their construction stuff is gone, so we have our house back again. All is well.

Except for the washing machine. This weird yellow-orange goo has been dripping into the drum & getting on the clothes:

I called a couple of repair places, and they both said that machines this old typically can't be repaired because the company doesn't manufacture the parts anymore. And even if you get lucky and find the parts, the machine usually won't hold the repair. So off we went to the big box hardware-and-appliance store on Saturday morning. A fancy modern machine is due to arrive next Saturday. Stay tuned here for riveting photographs of the new appliance.

While we were there, we got a new rug for the dining room:

The old one wasn't that old, but Pickles insists on eating all her food toys and marrow bones and other assorted messy things on that rug, so it was getting gross. This new one is actually an indoor/outdoor rug -- we should be able to take it outside and hose it down when our spot treatments aren't enough.

Also while we were there -- because isn't that how these things go -- we got a bunch of stuff for the yard. Like new baby succulents for the planters (which I also rearranged a little this weekend):

We invited some people over for a cook out on Saturday, so I spent the rest of the afternoon getting things ready in the yard and downstairs. 

A small bench under the panda:

A towel rack in the new bathroom:

A toilet paper holder:

Amanda came over a little early to enjoy the sunshine with us as the others were en route. She and AJ moved this nice folding table that Amanda and Matt graciously gave us into the new room:

Meanwhile, Pickles also enjoyed the sunshine:

Her normal routine is to lie in the sun until she gets too hot, and then go into the room and lie on the cement floor until she cools down:

Then once she's cooled down enough, she goes back out into the sun. And repeats the cycle for the whole afternoon.

Unless there is food. Here is the spread that AJ brought down for the grill:

And here is Pickles, pretending not to notice the hot dogs on the cutting board:

Smelling the hot dogs on the grill:

"Please, can I have a hot dog?"

"How close can I get to the grill before they notice?"

"If I act really, really good and lie here patiently on this pillow, maybe you'll give me one?

"Sigh. I guess not."

Poor Pickles. Life is hard.

On Sunday, I spent the day moving things around in the yard, pulling out another bush, and getting the vegetable bed ready for planting:

This year, I'm going to do an assortment similar to what I did in 2013: snap peas, arugula, butter lettuce, fava beans, spinach, carrots, and beets. Seeds go in early next week. I am also going to finish putting in a border at the front of the bed made out of terra cotta tiles originally intended for the kitchen, but that had arrived broken. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can see what I have in mind, at the right-hand side of the bed (not the cement slabs at the back of the bed, which are also reused materials from something else, but the thin orange line at the front).

I smashed my finger and hit my head and banged my knee and my back is going to scream later, but it's worth it to have the yard totally open and cleaned up, and ready for summer gardening fun.

Week 52

Well, here it is. The final week of a full year of construction project (not including the various meetings we had with the engineer for four months before anyone even picked up a hammer). There is still one remaining item: gutters and catchment system. Mr. Bunkport couldn't come over this past week because I was out of town. I am hoping we will be able to connect next week.

I'm in the final week of one of my classes, as well, so I had to prioritize a couple writing assignments over progressing on projects this week. I did take advantage of the beautiful low-70's weather on Sunday to move some piles of garden materials around in the yard to make way for the vegetable bed, and to scrub down the downstairs floor with an eco-friendly soap that penetrates the concrete. After my tiring afternoon of doing that, and after AJ's furious weekend of taiko drumming (including a 2-hour march in the Chinese New Year parade), we descended on Jon's house to do this:

We also made a nice summer (well, it felt like summer...sorry New Englanders) dinner of sliders & tater tots & salad.

Next week: I'll be on Spring Break after Thursday, & it's prime vegetable garden planting season here (sorry New Englanders), so first order of business on Saturday morning will be digging in the dirt!