Fear This Gardener

Lovely but overgrown

When we first found this house on 49th street, back in April of 2011, it had a bleak looking overgrown tangle of muddy weeds in front. As we visited the house and the previous owner, I watched as the flowers and plants grew and grew, flowering here and there. There were peonies in the late spring, lavender in June and a huge bright pink Easter Lilly in late June. I imagined myself keeping all of these flowering plants, rearranging them and keeping tabs on them.. Learning as much as I could about when things were in bloom and what to trim. 

Vivid Lilies

Fast forward one year and we have a mess of weeds, ground cover that is competing for attention, trees that are falling over with the weight of ill-proportioned branches. It's a nightmare for anyone who wants a simple, organized garden that doesn't require a ton of watering. (I personally feel watering is as bad as taking a too-long shower. Wasteful and decadent, only to be done on hideously hot days in July.)

One single solitary bloom

As I mentally moved all these plants in my planning last week while on vacation (aka working, but at home), I sketched tall plants (waaayyy to many of them) to the back, ground cover to the front and a nice organic flow to the patches of things that I massaged around the yard. After 4 days of digging rooted, overgrown hostas and awful naught ivy, I gave in.

 

 

I am going to remove it and start over. I feel awful.

 

It's a mess

I have grown to love the little blips of blooms that come and go, but they are killing each other! There isn't enough of anything to make sense design-wise and I'm sure the neighbors think I'm crazy for trying to tame the crazy "Victorian" mess.   Were the Victorians insane?

The Charlie Bucket Kitchen

Our basement kitchen has acquired a name and I'm not entirely sure it's a good one. 

While working on the kitchen shelves a few weeks ago, Trent's friend (who will remain nameless for his safety) came over and swiftly determined our temporary kitchen was a little sad.  He called it our Charlie Bucket Kitchen in reference to Willy Wonka's main character Charlie who lives in squalor only to find glorious fortune in the Wonka Chocolate Factory. 

The name stuck.

I'm finding that the more we embrace the Charlie Bucket-ness, the more fun we can have.  It no longer has to be a work of art; this space where we will cook for the period of time while we work on the real kitchen.  The shelves can be a little Wonky and the floor will probably always be dirty and that's OK. 

Basement kitchens were even featured in this month's This Old House Magazine with a story about a couple who are renovating their kitchen with no help from the outside world. They have spent the year cooking out of their basement.  They included a recipe for Toaster Over Beef Wellington, which is right up our alley!

So.  Here it is.  The Charlie Bucket Kitchen. 

Feeling the political energy today

THE toaster oven

It looks better in color, not quite so basement-y

Special spice rack

Fancy dried goods shelves

Blogging is hard

This little foray into the blogosphere was fun when we weren't in the middle of a rehab and a move...now it's just hard. 

Trent and I spend most weeknights planning what we will do on the weekends to complete a project.  Currently, there are several:

Most important is the second floor bathroom.
This is the highly coveted shower pan.  It's really heavy and pretty fancy.  It's big too, takes up most of the room!

What's going on around that pan is the plumbing (new lines for all pipes, made of a completely BPA free material), and new mold resistant wall boards over the blow-in foam insulation.  There's also a built in shower shelf there on the left.   I have zero technical terms right now, but if anyone is interested, I will check and get back to you.

Nice window, huh?  It will be a transom eventually.

When we're not working, we are trying to eek out a little neighborhood fun.  This weekend was the annual WHNA All Neighborhood Rummage Sale.  We set up a lemonade stand with made from scratch lemonade in our Charlie Bucket Basement Kitchen.  (see Willy Wonka for reference)  Nice, rustic fun!

Sophia's new friend Payton selling her heart out

Happy as a Clam with no teeth

7 years of Stuff

It's now May and we have lived at 1732 for almost 3 weeks.  For the last 6 months we have been doing nothing but construction, little moves and preparation yet we are still living in a sea of boxes and repeatedly ask "where is the...?"

But it really pays off when Sophia wakes up happy

in her bright & cheery purple bedroom.

Or can walk herself down to her friend's house to

hang out with them for a solid 5 hours.

Or when it's so quiet that we can hear things

scurrying in the yard.

We're still under construction, and will be for at least 6-8 more months. 

• The final walls and fixtures going up in the second floor bathroom.
• Building a fine looking temporary/canning kitchen.
• Tricking out awesome closets for all of our junk.
• Fixing up the first floor bathroom.
• Ripping out the walls and reconstructing the kitchen.
• Rearranging the "natural" landscaping.
• Painting the first floor.
• Buffing the floors on the first floor (no real sanding, thankfully).
• and about 104 other things.
• whew, that's a lot of things



finishing the canning kitchen cabinets

fabulous use of a weird closet

getting settled



do you see the halo?

 Next up - What's going on with that garden, is something living in there?







We're Leaving Home

1st Grade!

As I write this, my brother, who has recently moved into our old house on Layton Blvd, is posting photos of our old (his new) backyard. 

The backyard where the first days of school were photographed.

Building the Big Girl Bed

The house where things were

built for the first time.

Amazing cakes for my 40th

Big (40th) birthday
parties were had,

as well as countless
 holiday parties,

Thanksgivings, and
celebrations of all kinds.

So, as we say goodbye to Layton Blvd and hello to 49th Street, it is bittersweet.  We will miss our friends, but we hope they come visit us!  Our new block is full of kids, more girls than you can possibly imagine!  People BBQ all summer, drink beer in the front yard on nice days and cut your grass for you when you don't yet have a mower (soon!).  We are looking forward to making new memories!  Come visit us, we have room to spare.

Sophia and Mara Gramling looking like sad American Indians

Swirls, dips and gouges

It's March 11th and we've just completed week three of floor refinishing.  For some reason, this floor feels like more work than any other floor I've ever done, and I have done about 4 years of floors.  Perhaps 7 years and an office job later have something to do with it? 


On the Floor, Edging-Self Portrait

Big Machining

We both feel like we've just accomplished a major hurdle.  With two more coats to go, we're nearing completion on the 2nd floor. 

1st Coat Done!

What happens after the 1st coat...BACON BLOODY MARYS!

Looking Ahead to Summer

1st Floor Painting

As I look back over my posts and photos, the second floor is looking alternately Girlie Extreme and Masculine Bungalow.  Today, I think I feel Modern Clean meets Moody Prairie.

Inspirational Palette

Fabric

Moody Colors