I’ve been hearing these baby birds cheeping in their nest for weeks now. Today, they finally looked out of their nest enough for me to see them.

They look worried.

Happy 4th of July, people.

Once I painted the guest room, I began the search for a comforter or duvet for the bed in there. I quickly discovered that comforters are:

a. Expensive
b. Ugly

The ones I liked were, without exception, over $230–a good deal more than I would be willing to spend on an oversized pillowcase. On top of that, the room was yellow, which proved to be a difficult color to match accessories to. If you go yellow on the bed, your room becomes nauseatingly cheerful. If you go away from yellow, you risk clashing or fighting with the color.

Finally, I decided to make the bedspread. After a lot of shopping, I came upon this beautiful French-navy-and-white heavy cotton at Joann Fabrics. It was $30 a yard, though. Apparently my expensive taste doesn’t just extend to bedspreads. However, I happened upon it when it was 50% off, so it ended up being $15 per yard. So, I bought a large panel and framed it in this off-white cotton poly, which was going for $2 per yard.

So overall, I got a darn nice bedspread for $60-$75. It still wasn’t free, but it looks as good as most of the ones I saw in the stores–AND I have enough cotton/poly left for curtains and pillows.

I’m going to be posting over at the Compulsive Organizer blog now and then. For instance, I just posted an entry about how to look up the cheapest gas prices in your area.

Don’t worry, I’ll still be posting about my house and remodeling over here. Now there’s just more of Joy’s housekeeping thoughts to enjoy.

We are still remodeling our house over here. It’s going slowly, but it’s going. The most exciting thing that happened lately is that Kyle put in our dishwasher!! I can’t tell you how wonderful dishwashers are. They are the best invention ever. I had the dishwasher and the Roomba (robot vacuum cleaner) and my clothes washer running all at once yesterday. I felt so luxurious. Go give your dishwasher a hug.

Putting in the dishwasher was an ordeal. Kyle had to cut a hole in the cabinet, wire a new outlet to plug it in, and plumb the whole thing. It was way more involved than I realized, and he did a great job. He probably saved us hundred by installing it himself.

The dishwasher when it was first installed. I will take a final picture of it once he does the cosmetic work and gets it all spiffed up. (It is not purple–this was taken before we removed the plastic shield from the front. It is stainless steel and black.)

Kyle also put in two security cameras. We aren’t worried about being robbed, but they are cool to have.

I, on the other hand, have been concentrating on landscaping. Kyle’s Dad gave us a lawnmower for Christmas, so we gave the yard its first mow a couple of weeks ago. It made a huge difference! I also pulled up the trash and ugly ground cover from the side and front of the house, cut down all the ivy in the backyard, and put in my vegetable garden:

I was pleased with the quality of the soil in my garden. It is swimming with worms, rich and loamy, and high in nutrients. It only needed some nitrogen and organic material, and it was ready to go. (At least as far as I could tell. I’m still a novice at this.) I wanted to use bricks as a border for the garden, but didn’t have the extra cash that would take, so we used the old baseboards from the house instead. This weekend, I planted the early spring crops: peas, beans, spinach, carrots, beets, radishes, and raspberries.

We also planted three fruit trees: a grafted cherry, an apricot, and a pomegranate. They seem to be doing well so far. I plan to plant a dwarf orange tree sometime this month, and that will be the end of the fruit trees for 2008. (In the future, though, I want to put in a fig, kumquat, and possibly an olive tree.)

Blossoms on our baby apricot tree

Still to come in the immediate future: remove some unwanted stumps, plant the citrus bushes, put in an herb garden, remove all signs of ivy from my backyard, and paint the hallway. That’s just me. Kyle is going to put in an irrigation system to save us water and keep me from having to water every day. Then we will focus on tiling the half-bath.

So there’s a remodeling update for you. Eventually the house will be at a place where I can have a house-warming party, but not quite yet.

1. For some reason, the people who go to your store are rude. I have noticed it every time I have visited. Maybe you could hand out a booklet or something informing your customers of the existence of other people and encouraging them to say things like “excuse me” while in your store. Thoughts?

2. I don’t understand why the shelves I bought there in the past have doubled from $20 to $40. Is it because they sell well and have a huge profit margin? In any case, they are still black particle board that I have to put together myself.

3. Speaking of that, why does particle board, foam, and cheap fabric = $349? Please explain.

4. All of your sofas look like thrift store finds.

5. Since you are charging five cents for plastic bags now, I helped myself to a liberal amount of the free twine you have out front. I figure it’s only fair.

Thanks,
Joy Lanzendorfer

P.S. Someone…um…”used” one of your display toilets upstairs. Maybe you need to put up a sign, or include a section about that in the booklet I suggested. In any case, ew.

This weekend I was sick with the stomach flu. I have never had one before. It’s horrible! I spent two days lying on the couch watching movies and fighting a 102 degree fever. I was so bored. Stupid!

Anyway, before getting sick, we got some things done on the house. For one thing, we installed a stackable washer and dryer.

I love this thing. It is so fast. And after having to carry laundry out to a garage, it’s a luxury to have a washer/dryer in the house.

Also, Kyle and my Dad fixed the trim in the doorway between the living room and the kitchen. This was a difficult task because only half of the doorway was an actual framed doorway. The other half was a wall. (I don’t think you can see it in this picture, but it’s a nice “before” shot.)

To fix this problem, we had to build fake framework on the doorway, a complicated process that took a lot of time. The end result is pretty nice though:

(Notice how much wood floors darken in the first two months?)

Finally, I painted the guest room yellow and white. I know a lot of people hate yellow, but I like it. This is a nice buttery yellow that looks clean and fresh. It’s certainly better than the blue bunny wallpaper that was there before.

Are you guys done now, you may ask? Oh no. Not by a long shot. In 2008 comes: remodeling the bathroom. Painting the bedroom and hallway. Painting the outside of the house. Landscaping. Starting on the kitchen remodel. Buying and installing a dishwasher. Yep. There will be house updates for a long time to come. Hope you like them.

News! My dining room is lined with this 1970s wallpaper complete with fluorescent-orange flowers.

It’s a Christmas miracle!

Last week, we had two big projects around here. One was putting in the tankless water heater, thanks to my wonderful father who came down and taught Kyle how to plumb in three days time.

We went from this:

To this:

Why? Well, first of all, we have a tiny laundry room and needed more space. The tankless takes up maybe a quarter of the space that the old water heater took up.

Beyond that, the tankless is extremely efficient. With most water heaters, 40 gallons of water sit in the tank and are heated up again and again when someone uses hot water. With the tankless, the water that is being used is drawn directly through a coil of copper pipes and heated up as needed. So it uses less water and less energy, and therefore, is more environmentally friendly and less expensive to run.

On top of that, if you put one of these suckers in during 2007, you get a $300 tax rebate. That, coupled with the savings we will make on our utility bills, made it a smart move economically. (But oh, what a taxing weekend it was, putting it in. That thing is complicated!)

Then, there is my office, which I painted. It tried taking a picture of my desk to show you what it looks like now. The picture doesn’t exactly get the tone of the green, but you get the idea:

The thing on my screen desktop, by the way, is Keri Smith’s How To Feel Miserable As An Artist list, which I am really feeling this week.

Next projects! Finish the closets, fix the fireplace, and start painting the guest room. Remodeling can feel endless sometimes.

Our move-in date is this Saturday. I just keep telling myself that we are almost at the finish line. It will be nice to have ONE home again next week. And a home I own, too.

The kind of thing I have been doing: Removing wood paneling from the wall.

See, the living room started out looking like this:

Wood paneling and blue carpet. It looks like the 1970s threw up in the room and it dried. So you do the following:

1. Remove the paneling.

2. Put in the mysteriously missing insulation.

3. Sheetrock, patch, texture, and paint the wall a nice off-white.

And voila! You get:

I am starting to feel like I can live in this house now.

I am an artsy-fartsy type person. Sometimes I try to paint pictures. I make jewelry and take photographs and other crafty/arsty things. So explain to me, then, why I hate picking paint samples so much. On the list of things I don’t like to do, it’s up there with running for no reason and doing math problems. I hate those little paint sample cards. I get unreasonably upset when I get a paint sample home and it doesn’t look good on the walls. It makes me feel betrayed by the paint chip. And also, choosing a color seems like such a big decision, such a commitment. I know it’s supposed to be fun. For some reason, I don’t find it fun at all.

Anyway, at this point I have picked out the trim color (wainscot white) and the office color (anjou pear, or green). I still have to do the bedroom (light brown?), living room (off-white), and guest room (a buttery yellow). So I’m not even half done.

Oh I hear people want to see a picture of the house. Here is a before picture:

Changes that will be made: The cypress trees and the basketball net on the garage will be taken down. The house will be painted off-white with forest green trim. The yard will eventually have a fence around it.

For landscaping, I will be putting several fruit trees in, including (maybe?) two cherry trees, a fuji apple, a pomegranate, a honey tangerine, and a peach. I am also putting in some flowers along the front of the house, a veggie garden to the left of the garage, and a decent lawn. I am putting in an irrigation system so I can keep up with all the planting I plan to do, too. I should have a big water bill when I’m done, but the food bill will be next to nothing!