Fire aftermath

We were pretty sure we'd get all this fence stuff taken care of in 1-2 days. As usual, our project-time-estimates end up being about 3 times too small.

We still do not have a fence to enclose our yard, and are currently using slightly charred panels that the firemen chopped down to prop against the openings.

The reason being, I hate taking the dogs out in the backyard on a leash. Plus, Cece won't even go to the bathroom on a leash. AND she will only go in one spot in the yard and it happens to be right by the burnt down fence.

Well, I thought we were coming to the end of the fiasco, what with our neighbors making a claim on our insurance and getting their fence and deck repaired. (We have to wait on our fence so they can get to their deck to be repaired.)

Then Sunday, neighbor Chuck comes over and says he was talking to the guy behind him (not even on our street,) and THAT guy wants to file a claim for his tree. And by the way, his tree was fine. He had one crispy branch that needed to be trimmed. But what is this? Middle school? Come over and talk to us about it yourself!

So before we even had a chance to address that situation, I guess the guy got over himself and just trimmed the branch himself, thank goodness. I literally do not even know what this guy looks like.

Yesterday, I get a call from the neighbors behind us (not even in the same neighborhood.) We did burn their fence down, but Kennedy took the next day off work to rebuild it. Then we get a call that there are some nit-picky things with the fence that he wants fixed. Plus they say there is a patio cover with fire holes in it.

However, as soon as Kennedy had finished the fence, he had the guy come look at it to "approve" it. The guy was like "yes this looks good." NOW he has a problem with it.

Well, I have a problem with people not being direct and moving on.

MY QUESTION: Why are you waiting until 1.5 weeks later to discuss the patio cover? And how did the fire get allllllll the way across your yard and ruin your patio cover but not touch anything else in it's path?

Now I feel like we're being taken advantage of.

Is this whole ordeal going to be dragged out for the rest of my summer? Am I even going to get to use my pool or will I have to feel weird because we have a big open gap in our fence for all the world to see?

The moral of the story is, it doesn't matter if you go out of your way to make a situation right or to fix a mistake, some people are just snobby and rude and nothing can change it.

I'll blog more later when I finally get an actual project done around this place. For now I have to go be a diplomat to jerks.

"We're having a fire!....sale...."

If you know what that quote is from, I will literally make a blogging award and give it to you.

Let me just start by saying that between the smoke from our fire pit, setting our fence plus 3 other neighbor's fences on fire, and grilling burgers inside, I probably have developed an advanced form of lung cancer this weekend.

"GRILLING BURGERS INSIDE?!?!" you ask? "Why would ANYONE do something so insane????"

Well, I think the more important question is, "Why would someone set their fences plus 3 neighbor's fences on fire?"

So I'll address the latter question first.

(The damage.)

We Deans have had our share of miracles this spring, and I believe we can add this to the list.

Last night we had some friends over. We ate outside, we had a fire pit going, we had this AMAZING playlist playing ("I feel like I'm in an indie movie!"), and times were great.

This afternoon, long after the fire had died and the embers had cooled, we decided to dispose of the ashes.

BIG MISTAKE

Do not take 16-18 hour old ashes from your fire pit and dump them behind your utility shed where you threw all of the leaves from the previous fall. Fire may ignite and destroy property that does not belong to you!!!

We learned a lot today. Something else I learned is that I should probably start wearing a surgical mask more often (or a gas mask) to shield my now-vulnerable lungs from smoke and fumes.

The miracle lies in the fact that this could have been WAY WAY WORSE. Our neighborhood is tree-laden. Luckily, the fire didn't have time to spread through the tree-tops. Otherwise, it could have been carried right up to several back doors. Another lucky thing is that the fire department is literally 3 blocks from our house, so they came pretty quickly. We were truly lucky in this instance!

So guess what our next project is?

No, silly! Not the office! It's rebuilding 4 fences and a deck! Yaaaaaay! 

So, yeah I had to get through all of that boring stuff to finally come to answer the big question as to why anyone would grill burgers inside????

Our gas grill was out of propane.

Cold front in April?

Well, we're continuing to deal with the effects of climate change here in Tejas. Unfortunately, it just won't stay hot like it's supposed to! I'm ready to swim! Cece is REALLY ready to swim! But I refuse to get in a pool that is under 85 degrees (and even that is a bit chilly for me!)

Perhaps it has prolonged a spring where I might have otherwise killed all my plants by now. So I'll be optimistic about this. (But I still resent having to wear jeans to a baseball game -- WHAT?!! The world must be approaching it's end!)

Ok, I've had some BUSTED UP projects around here lately. Mainly the one where I was going to sew my own curtains for the fireplace room but then they ended up hanging crooked. I mean, who knew sewing a piece of fabric into a rectangle would be so difficult? Nevermind the fact that it took me a week and a half to even sew the things in the first place. Bottom line is, they just didn't work for the room. So we now have curtain rods, but no curtains.

I haven't decided if I'll give that project another go, or just break down and buy some already made. Maybe I'll check Pier 1 first....

Another BUSTED UP (or we'll just say neglected) project is my plan to organize the closets in the bedroom.

I started our hall closet, but quit half-way through because there are still a lot of things in there that need to be "stored."

Then I moved to our lovely office, (which is about to undergo it's own little renovation,) and successfully organized that closet. It took like, 3 hours. Plus, the closet doors fell off (thanks, previous owners!), so you can see the "organization" and it's slow demise.

Still, I haven't found the motivation to go upstairs. Maybe it's because I hate our bedroom right now, and will continue to hate it until I can bust some walls up.

As of now, we have two clean baskets of unfolded laundry downstairs, and 3 clean baskets of folded laundry upstairs. I will say, my closet is basically empty right now and I am having to dig every time I need clean clothes.

Enough about BUSTED UP projects. Let's talk about some successes, so I don't leave this post feeling completely defeated.

Let's talk about grass.

Token "before" picture

And our current situation!

I probably shouldn't admit to this, but there are still quite a few bare spots. You just can't see them in this photo! So to you, it looks magnificent! It's definitely getting there. Now I need to get some real planters for either side of that french door.

This next thing isn't a project, but I just wanted to brag for a moment because I never win anything!

But I did win this....

A re-usable shopping bag, a green tea flavored lip balm, guitar picks, stickers...this company is rad!

Thanks to Sweet Leaf Tea! This is literally the best tea on earth. It's an organic tea, it's delicious, and it's based right out of Texas. I'd say that's a triple-threat!

(Uh-oh...looks like I let a little bit of that Texas pride slip out. I apologize if you aren't from Texas.)

I think this seems like a good place to call it quits for the day.

Spring in full swing!

One of my least favorite parts about blogging is having to come up with a title for each blog post. I walk a fine line of being informative and intriguing. A lot of the time, it just comes off corny. So there, I said it. Most of my blog titles are corny. Is there an online tutorial of how to title a blog post? Someone shoot me a link!

There's been a lack of projects around here lately...or a lack of completed ones anyway. It's been difficult to keep up with the cleaning side of the house, so I don't let myself do anything fun until stuff is clean. (Yikes! I may never get to do anything fun!)

One of the few downsides to having all hardwood floors is that there are dust bunnies everywhere. Another is that it shows other dirt much more easily. And another is that all our floors are scuffed up and worn and begging to be refinished. Another day, another dollar.

I have learned though, that some things left to themselves create wonderful results! I've had fun the past few weeks going out in our back yard and looking for newly sprouted plants and newly bloomed flowers.

Today I walked around the yard and took pictures of some of my favorite backyard surprises!

Remember the time I planted a mini herb garden? Well, here it is, almost completely maintenance free and thriving!

(Dill in front, Cilantro in the back!)

(Cilantro in front, Dill in the back!)

These aren't mature enough to use yet (I don't think, anyway,) but I'm looking forward to the day that I can use them!

I also planted some roma tomato plants...

I should probably thin these out to their own pots, but it just looks so cute all green and purple in this little pot. I don't think they want to be separated just yet.

Here's something amazing....I didn't plant anything in the next few pots pictured below. However, stuff still sprouted! I don't know if they're weeds, but I think they look kinda nice, so I'll keep them! (Am I the first person ever to keep potted weeds in her backyard?)

So then I have these things. I believe they are knockout roses. There are a couple of bushes on the side of the house. Currently they're being suffocated by some vines we cut down from the fence, but never pulled out from the ground. (That sounds horrible when I write it...I'll make Kennedy pull those vines all the way out this weekend...)

At any rate, the bush is still blooming! With no help from me. I can't wait for these little buds to finish blooming so I can quickly cut them off and bring them inside where I can see them all the time. (Like I said, side of the house....)

One day last week I pulled into the driveway and noticed this...

I was honestly planning on cutting this thing down soon. I never would have thought such sinful things if I had known it was a hydrangea bush!!! I've been wanting one of these things forever, and here I have a 4-5 ft tall one in my own backyard! I actually had 2 of them back in South Dakota, but I was young and naive, and didn't know that they needed to be in partial sun. They got fried and died.

These got on fine without me though. I like that kind of plant.

This is a pot full of "wandering jew", (I know it sounds offensive, but I didn't name them.) I planted clippings at the beginning of fall last year. Apparently they all took root and are growing back! I'm excited about these because they grow fast, with no upkeep, and produce a beautiful, deep purple plant with small pink flowers.

Not to be confused with these:

These are lining the fence in the back. They're so vibrant! The photo doesn't do it justice...

Now I'm tired of writing about every single plant, so here's some more photos of things in my backyard.

(Monkey grass)

(Banana leaves?)

(Banana leaf close-up)

An avocado seed I "planted" in December or January. FINALLY sprouted roots...

So that's it for my little backyard tour. I think I got that out of my system. Next on my list is to plant some grass seed here...

The other side of the yard still hasn't sprouted. I'm getting worried. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised soon....If so, then I can finally move on to the dirt patch pictured above.

For now, I'll just go cuddle some dogs.

Yard Waste

Well, it's finally been nice enough out lately that Kennedy and I have been able to spend a lot of time in the yard. I now understand why people hire out their yardwork. However, this is giving me a great excuse to get a tan (you know, UV rays are evil now-a-days.)

Last time we worked in the yard, we had added a small patio off the dining room.

We're loving it, and the dogs are especially loving it. For some reason, it's a novelty to have a new door. Elvis likes to go out and check things out around that side of the yard, then immediately come back in.

Annnnnyhow, last week (or maybe the weekend before?) we decided to clear out some more stuff to make room for more grass. The entire backyard is pretty long and narrow, with much of it paved, so any extra grass space we can get is good!

Just for the sake of being dramatic, here's a photo of our side yard the day we moved in. I don't even remember it looking like that! But you can see all the overgrown bushes and weeds, and the greenhouse there in the corner of the yard.

That's the stuff that has been cleared out to date! We successfully took the greenhouse down without breaking it! It took a lot of patience (and cursing), but we did it.

Here is the yard now, sans greenhouse. Plus all the bushes are trimmed up. It looks twice as big! Since this photo was taken, we also took out the little corner "garden" (which was actually a barren patch of yard filled with pea gravel.) This afternoon, Kennedy and I tilled all the bare spots in the yard and threw down some grass seed, so we'll see how that goes.

If you're wondering about that little blue bin at the bottom, well, let me talk about it!

Meet my compost bin.

Thanks to the lovely bloggers at Young House Love, I was able to learn how easy it is to compost! If you're interested in starting your own, you can read how they did it here.

That photo was taken on day 1. Here's my compost bin on like day 9 or something. I don't really remember, but it was at least a week and a half later...

So apparently it takes a couple of months to compost stuff and use it as fertilizer. I'll be patient for now. A couple of days ago, I found some earthworms in the yard. I had heard these are great in a compost bin, so I picked them up and tossed them in there. I almost threw up, even with gardening gloves on, because worms and other bugs are just disgusting. 

I will say, that our garbage has reduced about 25-50% since I started this compost bin. I just keep a bucket under the kitchen sink and throw in all of my vegetable waste. I also put in egg shells and lint.

I think I'm turning into a hippie.

Stupid Spring, or "How our backyard is a metaphor for the Island on LOST"

NEVER, in my entire life living here in Texas, has it snowed in March. Oh, except for yesterday. I'm so sick of the cold. This is one of the reasons I could not handle South Dakota. Cold weather = increased mortality rate. Go look it up. I'm worried that the end of the world is upon us. Like, hell hath frozen over end of the world type stuff.

Anyway, that's my rant for the time being. Allow me to share a recent project that Kennedy and I worked on last weekend. I'm only NOW getting around to posting it because after we finished this project, I was tired. For like a whole week.

A couple of weeks ago, we had the window in our dining room replaced with a french door.

Since this is not the project I'm posting on, I'll hold off on before and afters of the dining room.

Long story short, right outside that window was just a big patch of mud and weeds. After we had the french door installed, there was nowhere to step out and admire the even bigger patch of mud and weeds we call our "yard". (If it ever stops snowing here, maybe we'll be able to plant some new grass. Stupid spring.)

So we decided to pave a mini-patio to step out on. It has also become a landing spot for all my herb pots. Except yesterday, I had to pull in ALL of my potted plants due to the snow and freezing weather. And yes, I'm going to keep complaining about this snow throughout the post.

And now to the part where my backyard is essentially the inspiration for The Island on LOST. Last fall, while doing a big overhaul in the yard, (which included pulling things out and cutting things down so it didn't look like a jungle,) we found a huge pile of flagstone.

This little treasure literally came out of nowhere. I'm serious when I say that the pile of flagstone you see in the photo above was found when I pulled some WEEDS from around the foundation of the house. Now you tell me, how does that much stone just appear from under a pile of weeds? I mean, Kennedy had probably mowed the yard 5 times at this point. Just a little weird, in my opinion.

We didn't know what to do with the pavers, so I threw them down behind our little wall. They looked ok there.

When it came time to pave a patio, the Backyard told us through a series of hallucinations that this was what we were to use. (What? Don't you believe me?)

Let's take a look-see at our before shot of the mud & weeds, shall we?

Here we are...our big, beautiful muddy weed patch. We almost hate to cover it up with a patio. But alas, we must! The Backyard told us to.

So straight away we got to digging out a small semi-circle area for the flagstone. We hoped we would have enough to do the job.

Here is the semi-circle shape, dug out and tilled of weeds. I promise I did the work as well! Kennedy just does a better job modeling than I do.

This project was rather easy, but it wasn't without its trials. For one, we were visited by a mysterious polar bear.

He left almost as quickly as he came, never to be explained!

Then, this crazy smoke monster came out of nowhere and whooshed all around. Luckily, we got out of that one unscathed. 

 (I hope I'm not taking this whole LOST analogy too far.)

It was like a big game of Tetris, but a couple of hours later we had laid out the stones the way we wanted them. We hoped we were done, but unfortunately, stepping down onto unlevel stones is not the most stable thing. So I made Kennedy get down there and dig out individual holes for each stone. This took him forever. I tried to help, but too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the pot, you know?

Here's my boy genius' handy-work. Half-way through, that is. Notice his mud-stained knee on the far right. Such a trooper!

While Kennedy worked on that, I decided to go pull more weeds. They were growing rather large, so it needed to be done. Well, the Backyard giveth when you give to it! On my little weed tirade, I found something I'd been searching for in stores for MONTHS. 

I had looked every time I went to Wal-mart, or Target, or any other discount store, for a plant stand. For some reason, I couldn't find one that I wanted that was reasonably priced. But I needed it for a plant Millie gave me. 

But lo-and-behold, here is this plant stand, sitting in our little un-used greenhouse. In perfect condition, no less

Now answer me this, how could this plant stand have been sitting in this green house for 9 months without us seeing it? The green house walls are CLEAR. I'm convinced that the backyard had been hiding it until I pulled those weeds. Thank you, Backyard.

What's that?? You don't care about my comparison of the backyard to LOST? You just want to see this patio all finished? Fine.

BAM! There you have it. Patio, done. Painted around the new french doors, done. Next on our list is to overseed the yard so the grass will be nice and lush to walk on!

And also, I'm not finished with this LOST analogy. I have several more theories to share, but it's getting late and I'm developing carpal tunnel syndrome from this post alone.