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Please Fence Me In

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It’s been really quiet here on the blog… but in real life it’s been anything BUT!  I don’t know about everyone else but spring is my favorite season and I find myself full of energy, motivation and in general the happiest of happy!  Take note of the beautiful skies in these pictures.  We had days and days of this with temps in the 70′s.  It was heaven!

Thanks to daylight savings time and Richie getting a week out of school for spring break we have accomplished some pretty good stuff in the last 10 days.  Of course I’m covered in scrapes, cuts, splinters, and even have a bruised butt (can’t remember what I backed in to but I do remember thinking “OH, that’s going to look lovely!)  So yes, the Advil bottle is empty but the smile on my face makes up for every ache I feel.

New Fence Pickets

It seems like yesterday we said “we need to replace our rotten fence”.  Oh wait… that was like 4 years ago. Time really flies when you’re having fun, doesn’t it?  Apparently it does even when you’re NOT having fun.  HA HA!  So let there be more fun.  Lets build a fence!

I tried and tried to find some really good pictures of how horrible our fence was.  The fact is that I didn’t take that many simply because it was so embarrassing I realized that I purposely would “crop” the fence out of photos.  I did find a few little gems from the day we got the house and these will definitely give you an idea of what we had to deal with.

The one above is a view of the back fence standing at the fire pit.
The one below is after we cut out vegetation and trees.

You can see how much jasmine had been allowed to grow on the fence and cause it to rot and deteriorate.  The first big task was to pull all those vines off of there and actually kill the jasmine to keep it from coming back once we built a new fence.  The neighbor behind us said “do whatever you need to do”.  So for the next 2 years Richie battled all that stuff and finally killed it all.  Jasmine is EVIL!

We were then left with a rotten fence that was literally being propped up with wood scraps and tarps.  It was pretty trashy.  But it was low on the list when you have no walls in your house.  You know how that goes… “we’ll get to it”.

So with the help of his father (who is the finest man on the face of the earth!) They tore that sucker down and built “me” a new one.  They love saying that —  ”We built YOUR new fence”.  Why is everything MINE? MEN!  (later I caught them beating their chests and saying “LOOK WHAT WE HAVE CREATED!”.  It was a Tom Hanks “Castaway” moment.

Okay… back to our Island….  Check out that nasty fence.  I seriously have no idea how it was still standing.

backyardfence1

With the help of some manly tools the fence came down.  I had to giggle because I went out to help start hauling the fence off and I was literally pulling it down with my hands.  I think Richie just looks for a reason to get out the power tools. (LOL)

backyardfence2

Every once in a while we get some really lucky breaks and we were quite happy to find that most of the posts were still in excellent condition.  We decided to use what was there and only had to replace 3 posts.  That saved so much time!  Unfortunately they weren’t all plumb so we had to do some adjusting by digging around them and moving them a little.  No big deal, really.

New Fence Pickets backyardfence3

You can see below some of the posts being pushed into place and held while new concrete was poured.  This evened all the posts up.  Such smart men!

backyardfence5

Once the cement dried they began running the rot board and the stringers.  The pretty stuff was about to begin.  I’m happy his dad helped with this because Richie is a stickler about everything being level and plumb.  My patience runs thin… so thank you to my father in law!!!!!

backyardfence4 backyardfence6

After the stringers were all up Richie and I finished it up by hanging each picket and doubling up so there were no gaps after the fence begins to expand and contract …. with the help of a massive nail gun (more power!!!)  That thing scared the crap out of me.  It blows air out at you with each drive and I swear it feels like it’s going to blow you over.   It is a life and time saver, though.

After the pickets went up Richie topped it all off with some trim at the top.  I love how that looks… so finished and neat.

New Fence

LOOK WHAT HE CREATED!  Okay, it’s not fire… but it sure lights me up!

New Fence

I look forward to it aging a bit.  I’m not super fond of the new look.  I much prefer that grey weathered patina. NOT ROTTEN, just weathered.  :-)

backyardfence8

So hello you pretty new fence.  I love you and I know how good you were built.  May you live a long and happy life!    Now only two more sides to go.  More fencing this summer….

I also want to take a minute to thank all the new subscribers in the last few weeks.  There’s been a wonderful flurry of new blog followers and I’m so thankful to have you here.   I probably don’t say it enough but I truly appreciate having so many kind people watching and cheering us on.  So many of you are doing your own renovations so it’s great to have such a terrific support group. I look forward to meeting you all.  Please feel free to leave comments or drop me an email any time.  Anyway… WELCOME new followers!

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Architectural Pottery

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It’s hard for me to envision a modern space without plants. When I think of the designs of famous architects like Neutra or Eichler, or modern day architects like Austin based Lake and Flato, it’s impossible to imagine these spaces without the beauty of architectural pottery.  Their simple, modern, clean lines, unspoiled by fluff or distractions make each plant that resides in them a little more spectacular.  An ornate or colorful pot just doesn’t seem to fit in a modern home.  These fit, these work, and it’s why I am so proud to have not one but three pieces of Architectural Pottery for my own home.

Architectural Pottery
images via

The pictures above are lovely examples of Architectural Pottery, a Los Angeles company founded in 1950 by Max and Rita Lawrence. Prominent mid-century LA architects such as Richard Neutura and Pierre Koenig favored the pottery line for spare, geometrically ordered residential gardens and commercial buildings. The Museum of Modern Art in New York exhibited pieces as early as 1951 and these savvy planters appear in many of Julius Schulman’s famed photographs of Southern California architecture. Molds can weigh hundreds of pounds and a single ceramic piece can take over a week to produce from start to finish. Today, Vessel USA Inc. continues to produce Modern Planters & Containers, Ceramic Sculpture and Garden Accessories from its studio in San Diego, California.

I was lucky enough to get my hands of three large architectural pottery pots for the outside of our home.  We have two white ones on the back porch and one black in the front of the house.  After working so hard staining the outside of the house it was inevitable that I would end up “fixing up” the rest of the area as well.  You know how that goes… you get a new couch for your living room and then the chair next to it looks ratty… then you decide you need new curtains… then the paint starts to look dull and before you know it that new couch has caused you to redecorate the whole damn room.  It happens to us all, I guess.  So I decided to do the same to our outdoor space.

My Architectural Pottery

The two white pots as seen above are on the back porch and look really nice against the new stain.  The plants I had in them were “hiding” the pot… so I decided to pull them up and plant some foxtail ferns, as they grow “up” and won’t spill over the sides.  These suckers are heavy!

It was also a great chance for me to do something with the two pots Richie found for me at an estate sale that have been sitting in the shed.  I love the shape of these (below) but obviously someone had painted them a nasty yellow at some point. I scrubbed the crap out of them but the left over paint wasn’t budging… so out came the white stain.  Each pot got scrubbed, wire brushed, and then painted white.  White pots seem to be my thing, I guess.  I love them!

Painted Planters

The staining of the house has been going really well so this also seems like the perfect time to share the results. We’ve been steady at it and it is really paying off.  The back of the house is now a place I love to be. We ended up giving our old patio set (table and four chairs) to some friends and we brought out 4 of our butterfly chairs in place of the set.  The old covers look crappy but I’ve got new ones on the way from Circa 50.  They are vinyl mesh and perfect for the outdoors!  Can’t wait to get those.

Architectural Pottery

The large architectural planters look so much better and I love being able to see the whole pot.  The small white painted pots fit right in too.  But how about that paint job!  I could just pinch myself.  You may remember what it looked like when we started.  >>> SEE HERE!

House Stain

Painted Pots

So, it was definitely one of those moments where making one thing look pretty made everything else look shabby and forced me to make some changes.  With the old patio set gone, the butterfly chairs out, and the new pots and plants I feel like things are really shaping up outside.  Just in time too.  We’re expecting our first “cold” front this weekend. By Tuesday we’ll be down in the 60′s! HELL YEAH! If that happens, it will set a new record for us here in SE Texas.  Bring it on!  I’m so ready.

Back of House

Of course I had to snap a shot of my baby.  I think she approves of the upgrades.  (laughing)
Since we put the chairs out she loves jumping up in them for a little cat nap.  I’m sure she thinks we did it all for her.  The little priss!

Kitty in the yard

And one more picture of the other architectural pottery planter in the front.  This one is black. I’ll probably never find another one… but we’ve always got our eyes peeled! They truly are perfect for our modern home.

Architectural Pottery Planter

I hope to be back again this week with an update on a small project I did in the bedroom. Glad it’s a short week. I vote for a 4 day week every week!!!!

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Leftovers

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I love leftovers! Yes, not having to cook is always a good thing at our busy house… but I’m actually talking about grass! I know… that doesn’t help much and now you might be completely confused. While we are currently working on some pretty big projects there are always small things that sneak in between and sometimes I stop and realize those small things are the tiny wins that get us that much closer to the vision in our heads of how this house will “someday” be.

old house
Back yard of our old house. I couldn’t find one of the front

It was very hard for me to leave my first home (seen above) and move here 3 years ago… not because I wasn’t ready, or didn’t want this house, but because we were leaving some of the best neighbors and friends anyone could have. It broke my heart! Luckily our dear friends are really great about staying in touch with us and stopping by every couple of weeks to see how we’re doing. They have been building a house in the “country” over the last few years (doing all the work themselves) and they just sold their current pad. The buyers requested that they put down sod in a bare area of the yard before they closed and it seems they bought a few blades too many. Lucky for us… they share so good! We took the rest of the grass off their hands and out of their yard and filled in an area that desperately needed some color.   uhhhhh, GASP… yes, this area ⤵

Side of House - Before

While we were getting this wonderful new grass from our friends it made me realize how much this tiny little crappy space on the side of the house has changed. It’s a forgotten area of the yard.. you know the kind… out of sight out of mind. Looking back it made me appreciate how far we’ve come which really was the whole purpose of starting this blog. So here’s a look back for me (and you) at what happens over time when you really aren’t even paying attention.  The picture above shows the west side of our house (thank you iPhone compass) 2 weeks after getting it… we were having the roof torn off and everything was really a mess.  This side had serious drainage issues and every time it rained the entire area turned into a swimming pool.  It was awful!

After the roof went on and debris was cleared, Richie pulled down that little section of fence to open everything up, as he was planning a stone walkway down the side and through the backyard.  All of this came AFTER he fixed the draining issues with new french drains and guttering, as seen below. The roof is inverted so everything drains to the middle, down the gutters, into the drains and out to the street.  It works like a dream now.  There were piles and piles of rock at this house and the more we moved things around the more rocks we found… we had to use them.

You can see here he’s working out the walkway and putting down the stone.  It’s staring to look a little better but still all those rocks on the side… AHHHHHH.  I’m a girl who likes to ROCK, but this brought on head banging of a whole different kind.

Laying rock path

It’s getting closer and we’ve filled in with some crushed granite.

We called a few friends, who called a few friends and within 30 minutes almost all those rocks were gone.  We saved a few big ones at the end for a project we still have to do but apparently FREE ROCKS go fast.  I’m grateful to say the least.  So then we finally laid out the grass left overs so kindly donated to us by our wonderful friends.  They have no idea probably how happy this really made me!  THANK YOU, Nick and Wanda.

It looked rough at first but a couple of days of good watering and it has really perked up.
Kind of amazing, now that I’m comparing it.  HA HA!  Blog Success!  You can also see at the end of the walkway is a new sliding gate and fence that Richie has already replaced.

donated grass Now we have some nice green grass getting started, a walkway that is for the most part finished and it’s looking better and better.  The side fence (left) will be replaced and all the siding (right) is getting prepped for stain.  So without really noticing, it nice to SEE that even if it takes FOR-EV-ER… the little changes will someday make a BIG difference.

YAY for leftovers!  Just don’t send me your rocks.

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“Who’ll Stop the Rain”

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Credence Clearwater pondered it, Prince colored it purple, Adele set fire to it, Gene Kelly sang in it, Led Zepplin were fools in it, The Cure prayed for it, Husker Du stood in it, Willie Nelson saw blue eyes crying in it, The Jesus and Mary Chain were only happy when it happened, the Eurythmics let it fall on their heads, and Bob Dylan knew a hard rain’s gonna fall…….  but I’m just SICK OF IT!

Cloudy Skies
My drive to work most days looks like this.

Every day for the last 12 days it has RAINED!  I know, I know, most of the country is in a horrible drought and I feel so bad for them.  If I could I blow it all their way I would.  Home renovation and non-stop rain just don’t mix!  Especially when one of your main projects is painting the outside of the house.  I left the house this morning and felt like I had stepped into a scene from Alice in Wonderland…..

What else is a girl who’s been inside for 12 days suppose to do when she sees mushrooms. Have a freakin’ play time, of course!!!  You know you would have done it too.


Okay, I think I’m losing it… I’m having way too much fun!  I only wish I had more figurines… the dolls and the army men just weren’t seeing eye to eye and I was afraid someone might get shot!

Okay, the mushrooms are too cool, but back to reality…
The yard is soaked, the fire ants are out, there’s mushrooms everywhere, the trees are weighed down and heavy (we’ve had to tie some of them up) …and it’s just a mess.

Heavy Trees

That means that many of our projects have come to a halt and I’m not sure when we’ll be able to get back to them.  It’s only rained twice today and the sky is currently blue but there’s a chance for more rain every day this week. SAY WHAT!
So I guess I’ll just find something else to do… but for now I”ll give an update on what little we did accomplish before the rainy days came.  Besides it might be my last chance to do a post …. we may have to start building an Ark.

The outside of our home was not something we were in a rush to do.  Yes, it was YUCKY, and faded, and rough in all kinds of places but with very little rotten wood we decided to concentrate on the inside and have only done bits and pieces when it was necessary.  So we set up some scaffolding at the back of the house to “get to work” and finally make the outside pretty!!

Scaffolding to Paint

As you look down the back of the house and up to the roof you can see that the wood everywhere is in serious need of a make over… lipstick, blush, and mascara please!
So we got to work on scraping, removing old caulk, and sanding each 8 foot section of the house.  Richie does the “prep” and I move in to caulk and stain.  I’m “the Closer”.  (ha!)

We started here (below)… and you can see how it looked before. Very raw, faded, and definitely showing it’s age.  The squirrels have been sharpening their teeth on the house for so long the beams are nubby and discolored.  I’m hoping getting a nice coat of stain will stop those little fu#@ers! … otherwise I have a tube of Wasabi on hand to see if their taste buds prefer some SPICE!   (I’m evil, I know)

Back of house before

We used an outdoor solid stain from Cabot on the house.  White under and gray for the rest.  I think it’s amazing what a difference it all makes.

Back of house painted

White Eave of House

We finished one section and the eave of the next when the rain started.  Fingers crossed that we can get back to it during the little breaks that we’re getting here and there.  We were really on a roll and making great progress so it’s been a bummer to say the least.

Exterior Stain

So that’s where we are with the outside… always at the mercy of Mother Nature!
This weekend I went to work on the bed and it was a total and complete disappointment.
We thought we could squeak by using plywood instead of hard wood because it would save time.  Well, it looks like we’re going to have to make them all over again.  It looks like shit!  You know I have a potty mouth but it really does.  So Richie drove over to a hardwood specialty business about 20 miles from us to look over the selection of hardwoods, preferably Maple.  It will require much more work but in the long run it will be worth it.  So no progress on the bed because I refuse to go any further on something I’m not happy with.   Ahhhh… ain’t home improvement grand!

Speaking of home improvement….
Just a little shout out to Jocelyn and Rob over at The Home Tome.  Her new humor book, The Homeowner’s Guide to Greatness officially hits Amazon and Barnes and Nobles this week and it’s definitely something you should check out.  If you own a home, you’ll appreciate the humor… cause laughter is much more fun than the crying that could go down at any moment. (especially after 12 days of rain!) Check it out!

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Sunshine on my shoulders….

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… makes me happy!  Yes, that’s a John Denver song.  Sorry, my mom loved John Denver and those records and songs are embedded in my brain. But it does make me happy.  (not necessarily the song, but definitely the sunshine) So I decided to skip out on the master bedroom reno for a while and take some time to work in the yard.  The temp got up to 88 degrees this weekend so I figured I better do some work before those 108 days get here.  It seems WAY TO EARLY for an 88 day.

That’s not to say that I didn’t work on those damn windows… cuz I did!  And yes, the outsides are finished.  Here’s a few shots.  Richie is going to be working on the the rest of the outside during the months ahead but I had to get those windows done so I could finish the insides of those 8 windows in the bedroom.  Success!  And I think they look pretty darn good. (sigh of relief!)

Windows Stained

It’s hard to tell but the picture above has 21 windows.  8 down….

Bedroom WIndows

It makes me so excited for the rest of the house to get all prettied up!  We have been so focused on the “living space” but are committing to finishing the outside before the fall.

Excuse the paper and scrap fabric in the windows… obviously that’s NOT my window treatments. HA!   Oh crap, window treatments!  Now I’ve got another thing to fret about.

Anyway, I decided to work in the flower beds, pull weeds, dig up plants that didn’t make it and plant a couple of new things.  My poor little 40-something year old body had forgotten how tiring yard work can be.  I collapsed and don’t remember a thing after my head hit the pillow.  Don’t you just LOVE days like that.   It does a body good.

I had flowers in this bed last year and I must have a green thumb because everything I plant grows too well and gets too big.  I like things small and tidy in a space like this so I decided to just plant a few Desert Rose Kalanchoes in the courtyard.  They’ll stay fairly small but they’ll spread and multiply.  I’ve always had good luck with these so we’ll see how it goes.

Desert Rose Kalanchoe

My pink guara in the front yard was the talk of the neighborhood last summer but two of them didn’t make it.  Only one was flowering so I pulled them up and planted a tried and true favorite…. society garlic.

(here’s the pink guara from last year…)

These never die (never say never, I guess) and they flower from now until the first frost.  I moved a couple of our hand made concrete balls from the back yard to the front.  I love those.  They were so fun to make.  Now I just need to throw out a nice layer of mulch.

Society Garlic

We also planted tomatoes in our garden but didn’t take a picture.  I’ll take one when they get bigger.   But I did get a small succulent for my new halo pot that arrived last week.  I am a plant FREAK.  There’s at least 2 (or more) plants in every room of my house.

Crate and Barrel Halo Pot

So I’m sitting here thinking… “I don’t want to go back to work”…. could tomorrow really be Monday?  NOOOOOOOO!   It can’t be true.  How time flies when you’re having fun.  It was fun and I’m happy to get back in the bedroom and get back on track.  It’s like ping-pong around here.  I’m bouncing back and forth on projects and sometimes it makes me crazy.

Hope you’re weekend was good and you got to enjoy some sunshine on your shoulders too!