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June, 2008 3:16 p.m. — Monday, June 23, 2008 One of my stipulations for accepting the vinyl shed was that it accommodate window boxes.
Voila:
3:43 p.m. — Tuesday, June 24, 2008 It's official: Our deck plans are with the township Building Department awaiting approval! The Zoning Department approved our plans almost two months ago...we weren't expecting we'd take this long to get things moving along, but I guess we got sidetracked with side yard projects. And with, you know, expanding the family. I asked the lady behind the desk how long she thought an approval/denial would take, and she said their department was actually doing really well now, so we may be hearing from them in less than the 20 business days allotted by the state (or as she put it, the 20 day timeframe ESTIMATE given by the state..."It's not so much a CODE as it is guidelines..."). We'll keep you posted! 11:59 p.m. — Wednesday, June 25, 2008 The beds are doing great. I didn't get around to putting in the soaker hose after amending the soil and before planting the veggies, but maybe I'll get to that in the fall after everything dies back. I definitely planted everything too close together, which I suspected, but what can you do... Here's what I have:
Tomatoes (back)
Peppers Zucchini Eggplant Rosemary (right front) Sedum (center front)
Beans and Peas (back)
Beats Cucumber (left) Mesclun & Spinach (right) Hens and Chicks (front)
Tomatoes (back)
Peppers Summer Squash Eggplant Um, cardboard box... Pansies (right) Egyptian Onion (front left) Assorted Herbs (front middle) Chives (front right) (Click on any photo above for an enlarged version.) These pictures were taken last week. This week, everything seems twice as big.
You may have noticed our little rock collector in some of the photos above. She would be happy picking up rocks and carrying rocks and rearranging rocks and tasting rocks and throwing rocks in puddles and bringing rocks inside all day. Good thing we have plenty. My squash plants won the first fruit award. I've picked three or four large zucchini so far, and a few summer squash are not far behind. Here's what I made with the largest of the zucchini:
Mmm. The rest will be pureed, cubed and frozen for Lily. Nothing like veggies snuck in with oatmeal for breakfast ;) P.S. This morning, we got a call from the Building Department. They said our cost estimates were incorrect because we only included materials and not labor. They said even though we're doing the deck ourselves, we don't get a labor "discount". I asked, "Discount on what?" — "The amount you're taxed." So let me see if I get this straight: we do the work ourselves to SAVE MONEY and then have to add a $5,000 labor cost estimate to our plans just so they can tax us higher. Super. 12:38 p.m. — Thursday, June 26, 2008 The walls surrounding the new pocket doors have been primed and painted.
(Like how I didn't even bother to clean up before taking the pictures?) The trim for the sides, top, and bottom is in the basement awaiting paint (thankfully, it came primed). It's exciting to see this area closed in and getting finished. Now all we need is the swinging door put up between the kitchen and dining room, and our baby-sleeping haven — I mean, enclosed dining room — will be complete.
12:38 p.m. — Friday, June 27, 2008 We recently found this groovy door knocker for our front door.
Matches our front door hardware and the portico light.
P.S. I apologize for the recent comment glitch. They are now back up and working. 12:59 p.m. — Monday, June 30, 2008 An official from the building department called this morning to let us know that we can't attach a deck to a cantilever. It took all my patience to let him finish before telling him our cantilever is on the second floor, and our deck will be on the first, so it will OVERHANG the deck by two feet, not be attached to it. "Oh," he said, "that's OK then." He then told me to make sure we remove the siding where the ledger board will go. I think he felt happy to have instructed us on SOMEthing. Later in the day, when they called again, I figured they had another question or comment, but to my surprise, the secretary told me our plans were ready for approval and I just needed to bring a $90 check with me when I came to pick them up. Yeehaw. I wonder how much the check would have been with our labor "discount"...
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