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July, 2008 5:01 p.m. — Thursday, July 3, 2008 It's amazing how a little trim can make the whole space look so beautiful...
Here's all that's left with this project: the baseboards and trim caps need to be installed, the trim needs to be painted (it's just primed now), the dining room trim needs to be finished, the doors need to be primed and painted, and the door hardware needs to be installed. Funny how that feels like we're getting close! 3:55 p.m. — Tuesday, July 8, 2008 Remind me again...how many garden beds do we have here? It started out as three, but last time I checked, they had morphed into one:
The biggest problem is the cucumbers (middle bed, left side). They have jumped over the pathway into the next bed and are climbing up the zucchini! The pole beans are climbing the tomatoes in the back, and I'm having the hardest time picking all the squash.
Not that I'm complaining about the abundance of squash ;)
11:59 p.m. — Thursday, July 24, 2008 Well, this isn't QUITE the nursery rhyme garden (now that would be a fun project!), but last week produced my first crop of plum tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and green beans.
I had my first green pepper and crop of yellow wax beans a few weeks ago. The enormous squash (yellow and zucchini) look like they're dying off now, which is a bummer b/c I didn't get a ton pureed, cubed, and frozen for the babes, as I had hoped I would. I'm still waiting on cucumbers, snap peas, other peppers, eggplant, and regular tomatoes, but with the awful heat and my lack of watering, I'm not sure when/if all that will happen. I definitely need to get that soaker hose installed next gardening season. 10:42 a.m. — Friday, July 25, 2008 Whilst packing for our weekend at the Jersey shore, we discovered a wet spot on the bathroom ceiling downstairs. Ugh! Based on the location of the damp sheetrock, we determined that the leak was from our master bath shower drain.
Bingo.
Here's the hole we cut in the 1/2 bath ceiling beneath the master bath. Based on the size and depth of the sheetrock damage, Ryan estimates we've had a small drip for quite some time. Greeeeat.
So...add this to the list of Ryan's summer projects. 5:20 p.m. — Saturday, July 26, 2008 Our morning started out with a supply run to Home Depot. (If I had a nickel for every time I said that...) Among other things, we purchased more 2x10's to build the raised flower bed next to the left of the shed.
This way, we'll have a nice, solid surface butting up against the brick. (And I get a little shade garden!) Then, Ryan leveled the whole patio area with more QP stone.
Once it was level, he rolled out the weed barrier and started spreading the stone dust.
You can see on the left that he also added an extra 2x10 beneath the edge of this garden bed, since when the patio got dug out, the bottom of the original board was exposed and the dirt could fall out. Fortunately, the corner stakes were deep enough that he could nail right into them. Once the stone dust was level and well tamped down, it was time to add the brick!
We purchased this brick from the same stone center where we got the brick for our front steps during our renovation. We were hoping it would match and that it had nice variation in color from brick to brick. Looking at the palette and a half delivered, I wondered if we had picked right.
But after the first row went in, we could really see the color differences we had been hoping for. I even got in on the brick-laying action.
And Lily — fresh from her baby-pool frolic (an EXCELLENT way to distract her for a loooong time while sharp tools are lying around) — was eager to test it out for us.
Jacob also got in on the action:
I really love all the colors. I hope it doesn't fade too much with the sun over time, but hey if it does, we always wanted the weathered Williamsburg look anyway. ;) Ryan is still outside working, while I'm inside with little ones who are sleeping or eating. I'm sure he'll have a lot more done by the time I get back out there to help!
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