Mi Jardín

I am a gardener. I LOVE it. I spend almost every hour after work until dark outside working in the dirt. Luckily - I bought a fixer upper that needed a lot of attention and change to the yard. - which I LOVE to do!!!

My little house on Park Ave (yes that is the street name - its the ghetto version) is old and worn. But that also means there are a lot of memories.

As I have been digging I have found tons of marbles, a doll head, coins, and a bunch of beer bottle lids. :)

This was the house before I bought it: (for a refresher)

This is what it looked like the day I got the keys.

This was last summer after living there for 7 months:

This was last week....(ignore the weeds on the sidewalk and driveway)

Still have lots of work to do. But I like it.

Welcom to the Hood

I was walking my dogs the other day, and realized I have a cute neighborhood. Well - semi cute. Some houses are so adorable, and some could definitely use some lovin. The neighborhood is about 70 years old, so all the houses have that cottage/bungalo charm. Some obviously more than others!

The cause of broken fingers.

Remember when I got this?:

and that is was caused by installing this?:




Well here are the before, during and after pictures of my living room.


When I found this house on the market, I knew there would be lots of work involved to getting it how I liked it. The carpet was HIDEOUS. Seriously, it stunk so bad and was stained nastily. Underneath the gross carpet was spots of mold from where water oe pee or whatever it was. It was gross.

These pictures don't show the grossness of it, or the stench. :)

Then my dad and mom came over and helped almost every night to put in the new flooring - which is when i broke my finger.

And here is my living room now. I still need to add curtains and some things on the walls.

 

Septic Tank

So.....remember this?

Basically I had serious plumbing issues, and in the process of fixing them, my dad and I unearthed the old septic tank that was used years ago ( my house is 70 yrs old). The boards that were covering the tanks were rotted and my dad almost fell through them, which is why he decided we needed to recover them with weather treated wood, etc.

Well I haven't gotten around to it yet, so I have a huge gaping whole in my back yard. I have to dig out the rest of the rotting wood and frankly, I have much funner things to do. Besides this is in my back yard....so noone sees it.

The other day I was feeling ambitious and decided to bite the bullet and uncover the poo bin. 

Then I lost my balance.

And fell in.

Head first.

Into the poo bin.

Yes, I cried.

Times like these are when I decide I want a husband. So that HE can uncover poo bins and stuff.

Here is a war wound from the fall.

My weekend of Joy.

What did I do this weekend??? (or watch people do for me)

a) built a bomb shelter

b) dig to china

c) hunt for treasure

d) fix plumbing and dig for the pipe only to find the remnants of the old septic tank with rotting boards which I almost fell through.

e) spend $825 on a plumber

f) both d and e

The Answer is F!

And I was not smiling.

Ouch

I feel like E.T.

With a big, buldging, awkward finger.

Except its my MIDDLE finger.



8 stitches and a broken fingertip.
The results of bad aim with a hammer.

Getting ready to tackle

So long story short. The house I was going to buy fell through. The inspection resulted in a really old roof, an almost broken furnace and an old swamp cooler. The sellers refused to negotiate, so I decided to go another route. And can I just say I am SOOO happy I did? I found another house for the same price, built the same year - with even cuter appeal!!! But - it needs some cosmetic love. Which I am more than excited to do. I don't close on the house for another week, but the inspection and all went well. I am chomping at the bit to get my hands on my new found treasure so I can make it mine.



Here is the kitchen. Really white. White walls, white cupboards and white-ish floor.

* the tile is new and real

* What colors would you do?

If YOU were going to re-do this kitchen, what changes would you make?

question

The house I bought has 5 - I repeat 5 fruit trees in the back yard. The back yard isn't even that big. Its only 0.15 of an acre. There are 2 apple trees, 2 cherry trees and 1 apricot tree.

Growing up, we had 2 cherry trees in the front yard that would make a giant mess. As kids, every few mornings, my mom would send us out to do the dreaded job of cleaning up.

Any other chore was better than cleaning up the cherries. They were mushy, and stinky and everywhere! It would take hours to get them all off the ground, only to have a newly fallen batch on the ground just a few days later.

My younger sister and I got smarter as the years went on and finally started using the shop vac to clean them up. The neighbors would look out their windows to see us vacuuming our lawn.

So the question I am asking is..... should i cut down the trees and replant ones that don't make a mess? I'll have a dog and I don't want her tracking in messy fruit remains all over my newly carpeted house.

Mi casa es su casa.....

So. I bought a house. Well we don't close until the 15th, but hopefully all goes well. Its super cute and just what I wanted.

• it was built in 1940 (I love old things, don't ask me why)
• Its yellow with new grid windows
• It has a nice yard
• its fully fenced
• inside is all updated (besides a few things)
• perfect and has my name written all over it

There are a few annoying things with it, that come with the oldness of the house. Such as - there are no outlets in the bathroom...haha! Good thing I never get ready anymore!! And the tub is stained and its fiberglass so i don't know if the stains will go away....any ideas?

Its under contract, so I can't get any pics of it, but as soon as its mine, I'll show it off.

O.B.S.E.S.S.E.D.

Lately my mind has been consumed with one thing. I think about it, dream about it, analyze it, talk about it....

What is it?

Well I'm looking for a house to buy. An older, unique, house that has history to it.

I'm obsessed. My realtor probably hates me.