Backyard Part 2

The new deck was built a step lower, so we opted not to put a railing.

 The new deck is a little bit narrower, so that the basement window is now exposed.

 Part of the old raised raspberry beds.  Like most things here, it was poorly built.  At the other end, next to the compost, we discovered a wasp nest, in between the ties.  Not just any old wasps, but mean, nasty ones that stung you for just standing in the backyard.  It took several attempts to get rid of them, and in doing so, the ties all came out.

 The old deck had some cheap trellis sheets to "block" the view.  Rob built a solid wall with these cedar adjustable panels.  That's our baker's rack, which we bought when we bought our first house.   There's not really anywhere inside that it fits, but it's turned out to be really handy though.

 We got new patio furniture, and found it got too sunny, so we bought curtains to hang, however, they were so lightweight that they mainly blew around.  For the winter, we brought the furniture inside and it made a nice setting in our "living" room.  We bought that tree in memory of my aunt, and we put in a couple other trees too.

 Here's the raspberry bed after the ties were taken out.  Unfortunately, Skippy found them delicious.

This is the first replacement box.  A little higher, and with a wide edge to sit on.  Hopefully the next box gets built soon.  I saved as many baby raspberries as I could, there might not be many berries this summer, but hopefully they revive.
I don't have a picture of the hot tub, but it's on an angle, on the flagstone patio in front of the left side of the deck.  I'm not keen on it being on an angle, LOL, but it works for the lid, shade, access, etc.
There's still some more things to do in the yarn, we'd like some seating at the back, the kids want a trampoline or pool, LOL, but we love the yard!

Backyard

When we looked at this house, one thing we liked was the big, flat backyard.  Our last house had a good sized backyard that was very private, however, since we had seen it on a dark February night, we hadn't seen the slope in the back corner, or the amount of trees, bushes, garden, that took up the rest of the yard.  There was barely any play area, no where to put a pool, etc.  We had a hard time deciding between a new house with small, bare yard, or an older house with a big, mature, lot.  We would have liked more privacy, but that can come later.

One of the first things we needed to take care of was the roof.  While doing some work, Rob thought he'd re-shingle the shed.  Well.  He discovered that the shed was pretty much rotten and needed to be re-built.  Of course, the finished shed is way better than what was there.

Fall was then upon us, and then winter.  Spring came early, with a beautiful week in early March.  Perfect for ripping apart the incredibly badly built deck!

 The deck is a great size, although a little awkward.  It was just so poorly built that we couldn't live with it.  It was even bouncy!

The deck was built level with the doors, and in the covered section, Rob could almost touch his head on the roof, LOL.

In the picture below, you can see the new shed on the left, and the original raised gardens on the right, full of raspberries!

 This picture above, and the one below, show how poorly the deck was built, and why it felt springy.  The joists are just too far apart!

 This picture below, shows how a deck SHOULD be built (okay, it might be a little over built, but better safe than sorry!)



This picture below shows the view from the kitchen door and how the steps went down from the center of the long portion, so that if we put the table there, it'd be hard to get around it to the yard.  And the railing was unsafe and was blocking the view.

I'm finding it hard to move around pictures, and having the text be how I want it.  I'm writing this while Meg snoozes on the couch; she was up 1/2 the night sick.  I'll get to the finished deck pictures later; it's too hard to do it all at once.

Sorry

This blog has been delayed due to technical difficulties!
I decided after starting the 2009 year in review, that I would upload the photos in reverse order so that when Blogger puts them in the working window, they would be in the right order. However, at about the same time, I started a massive re-arrangements of my photos. When we first started using digital photography, I wasn't sure how I wanted them organized. I made separate folders for each of the kids, one for the family, and then added folders for particular events...but then I'd be faced with the question...does this go in Meg's folder, or the family folder? Etc. I decided a couple months ago to just keep my knitting/sewing etc pictures separate and start just using the monthly folders. Then I had to go back through the other folders, and make many new ones, to put the old pictures into the correct month. To add to the difficulty, when we transferred the pictures from our old computer to this one in Nov. 07, most of those pictures did not keep their 'taken on' date info. Some pictures I had dated as their file name, some were of particular events and I could easily remember the month, but there were some that were too general---Huey in the sprinkler at Grandma's.
And then...Rob decided to 'optimize' the computer's viewing system and now all the pictures show up as photo icons instead of the actual photo thumbnail. And since I stopped naming most pictures, I have to open each picture to find out what it is.

So, until we get that sorted out, just keep up with me on Facebook, LOL.

Argh!

For the past 7 months, in particular, I have been trying to get into some mangeable household routines. I've done pretty good in some areas---I make my bed most mornings---and some areas are still a bit of an issue. One place where I've made improvements (progress; not perfection) is laundry. She's not called Messy Meg for no reason!

Two summers ago Rob re-vamped the laundry 'room' while I wasn't home. I put in my input, but he said it wasn't do-able. I think if I had had the chance to study the area before he started anything it could have been improved. A much bigger project involving plumbing, LOL, but the result would have been 'why wasn't it like that in the beginning?'

Here's my set-up. Washer on the right, dryer on the left. It used to be a closet, but when it was converted, they didn't think through the clearances needed for the shut-off taps (on the floor, behind the washer), the drain (not high enough to clear the washer, where it goes through the wall), and the exhaust. So, the machines stick out from the back and sides quite a bit. Big black holes where things drop, missing for months....above the washing machine is a rod. I wanted it lower but Rob said it'd be too close to the controls. I can barely reach it. On the left is a cupboard. I wanted it lower, but then there'd be nothing to attach the rod to. I used the top of the washer/dryer to fold the laundry. It's a top loader, so laundry has to get put away to do more. Except.....Rob won't put his away. His dresser is a mess and it can't fit more clothes in (his sock/underwear drawer looks more like a workbench drawer). He leaves his pile on the dryer, and there is always clothes hanging on the rod (I can't reach his rod in the closet either).

So...today, I'm doing a load of whites, including some towels and dishcloths. I thought perhaps it's time to brighten them up a little with a splush of bleach.

A brand new dishcloth and an old one in the SAME yarn!!!

I rarely use bleach. I had put a few things in the machine, and the water was filling in, so I carefully aimed the bleach for where the water fills in as there were no items there. The bleach hit the stream of water and splashed. Uh huh, onto Rob's pile of clothes, onto the cuffs and hems of items hanging from the rod....Of course, it wasn't a light coloured load that had just been folded. It was navy (I say black) shorts and dark moss green shorts, his two best pairs;

a nice brown t-shirt with red trim we bought for Father's Day, moss green pants, his best, most expensive light blue plaid dress shirt, even a few specks on a brown shirt of mine.

The black shorts I will just re-die black; I do that every so often with his black jeans. The green pants and blue shirt....it's on the sleeve cuff where it buttons and the leg cuff and not too noticeable. The mossy green shorts....I got them into some cold water quickly, so instead of distinct spots, there is a slightly discoloured area on the front thigh. It might re-dye. The brown t-shirt (my brown shirt is barely noticeable)....it looks like he got splattered with bleach. Not a lot, but on the front. I can re-dye it...but the trim is all red. And, given my past experience with trying to dye brown....

I haven't taken the load out yet....but it better be BRIGHT WHITE!!!

Confession

Jennifer's comment has prompted me to confess the real reason I like a longer drop on my duvet. We always had queen size duvets on our double bed (we each have our own duvet), and while our old mattress had a 'plush' top, thick by 10 year old standards, it wasn't all that thick so the queen duvet would hang nicely over the side. Why do I need it to hang low? I don't like my sheets tucked in! Partly because I like to roll up all cozy, and partly because I'm just plain lazy. I'm the only one who uses the sheet, why tuck it in when I'm just going to pull it out? I'm not a big bed making freak, but if I did center the duvet, you'd see the sheets, even if I did tuck them in. And you'd see the sheet covering the box spring. I think it just looks nicer having the duvet come down to the boxspring. And it's easier and to me, that's the important thing, LOL. Lazy lazy lazy. I know. But hey, acknowledging it is the first step to recovery, eh?

Back to Bed....

....room makeover!

The duvet cover and shams came in early, but of course, I'm still majorly late in posting the 'finished' results!

When I went shopping for sheets, back in early April, I took the curtain valance with me. I found some sheets on sale, that I thought matched really well--the valance seemed a lot more taupe (greyish) than the beige (pinkish) I was expecting. It also made it hard to find a lightshade because the ivory ones looked bad next to the valance.

Well, I opened the duvet cover, and the sheets are totally wrong. I don't' know how. The duvet is sateen on the top, and the cotton underside matches the sheets pretty well, but the valance is the sateen too. This pictures really doesn't show the two sides of the duvet cover very well, but they are different tones.

If I can steam a hat while it's on my head, I have no issues with ironing a dressed bed! Before:

And after?:Or is that another before shot? How about this, is it nicer?:

Ever wonder why decorators throw afghans artistically over a bed?It's to hide the poor workmanship of foreign child labour (now, to be honest, I have NO CLUE if Sear's uses child labour! but crap, that is sewn badly, even by my standards).

I'm a little disappointed at the size of the duvet cover. The option was a Double/Queen. Even if our mattress wasn't so thick, it still wouldn't come down very far, maybe far enough to just cover the mattress. With the way the room is set up, I pull it over almost all the way to the side you see when you walk in.

We need about 10 more pillows (there's 4 right now), but I don't have enough pillowcases to make them look nice, and there was only a decorator pillow available in this set---not even sheets were available. Maybe I could buy the drapery panels and cut them down to fit the window and use the leftover to make pillows? I think the sale might be over now!

This little fella is the cutest thing! His name is Spoka (two dots over the o) and he's from IKEA. He also comes in red and green, but different shapes. We got one of each colour, then the kids started fighting over who got which one, then Huey read that kids under 3 can't have it and he freaked that Meg would get hurt....so we took the blue one :) However, he has gone back to the girls' room :( They come with a cord and plug and you can use it plugged in, or unplug it to move it around or put closer to the bed, and it lasts pretty much the whole night before gradually dimming. They'll also be great for camping, and even in the truck. They are made of a soft plastic, like those charity/believe rubber bracelets.

They give off a really nice glow (the red one doesn't give off much actual light, but the blue and green ones do). The green one went missing after a recent evening thunderstorm--the kids had the great idea to bring them downstairs in case the power went off! But the worse thing....shortly after we got them, about 5 weeks after doing the bedroom, we were going to meet Nina (the developmental social worker that sees Meg) to go to see the occupational therapist. I suggested we take the blue one to show Nina, because it was brought up in a workshop that blue light is the best for kids that have sleep problems and want a light on. Meg was excited to go get Spoka off the top shelf on Rob's lamp/shelf thing. When she did, she knocked the votive in a glass holder off....which hit the bottom shelf and broke it :( I'm going to replace it; we went to the stain glass shop to see what they could do and they said about $28, and I still have to check the glass/mirror store but I'm just not keen on taking 3 kids to a glass store!!!!

And just cause I still had one spot left on the import pictures page, here's the view of my back yard (pre-pool). This was one or two years ago, I'm not sure (I think it must be two years old because the birdhouse is still there). We have a disagreance on this garden. The tree on the right is a crabapple. Rob is still upset that the new people took out 'his' crapapple at our OLD house. In the middle is a columnar cedar, in front is two box shaped cedars, and towards the back left is a peashrub thingy that I finally hacked down this weekend.

My issue is that the sandbox is directly behind this garden. Can you see it? No, neither can I. And, the garden, and directly around it, is the only flat area. And now, the tall cedar is growing into the crabapple. I love the crabapple. I thought Rob did too. Since we moved in (May 2006) I have been after him to take down the tall cedar and the stupid hedge cedar to open up the view (they don't do much to give privacy when in the hot tub). He keeps refusing and even suggested we take down the crabapple instead because it makes a mess! Argh. I'm the one who spends a lot of time out there, I want to make improvements so we enjoy the yarn more, instead of crouching to walk around and slipping down the slopes. I also want to take out the crooked pine you can see. It's SO crooked, and now is getting in the way of the Maple behind it. And now we have a little pool right there and we'd like a bigger one next year but there is NO more room. Anywhere. It took 5 attempts to get a flat area. Rob says I want to cut down ALL the trees. Not so, at all! I want to remove the poor specimens, improve sight lines, and make better use of the prime 'realty'. I half wish we still had no trees at all, LOL. But I do miss having a cut flower garden!

What They Doo....

Ever wonder what the stuffed animals and toys do when you're not home? I swear, this photo was NOT set up; it's exactly as I found them when we came home from strawberry picking!

Sling Fabrics

I'm posting pictures of the sling fabric I have here, instead of in the Freecycle group's photo album, because here, I can write more details! Top Row: Bright pink corduroy (I think, can't remember)--pouch; Leopard print knit, stretchy, backed with something else or reversible--pouch; strange green--see next photo
Bottom Row: Bright green with paisley's, some stretch--pouch or ring sling; lightweight muted paisleys--ringsling or reversible/two sided non-stretch pouch; lilac paisley--see next photo

Green fabric has a bit of gold printed on it. It's actually a long length of one print, then it changes to the other print, so it would make a good non-stretch reversible pouch, or maybe a ring sling depending on where the pattern change falls.

Pink paisley fabric is lightweight, some stretch, great for a ring sling or backed with something for a pouch.

Top Row--Red brocade, heavier, not reversible (would need to be backed with something to make it reversible, or the wrong side will show), suitable for pouch only, or a Mei Tai. Green Fur--thought this would look good with the bright green paisley in the top photo for a pouch, or backed with something like a quilter's cotton for a pouch.

Bottom Row--black faux fur, backed with something for a pouch, or the inside of a Mei Tai; Beige/blue plaid--this is a fine, soft, slightly stretchy corduroy that is smooth on one side. Would make a great pouch, single layer.

Also available, but photo shy---dark brown fleece--one layer pouch or backed with something for a reversible pouch; dark brown corduroy---one layer pouch or backed with something; chocolate brown with dusty pink on back side--reversible pouch only; bright pink with retro flowers (what I made the SSC in last summer; on my other blog), canvas; for a Mei Tai body only; very retro purple/pink print canvas, for Mei Tai body only, two different denims, one light colours, one dark, for Mei Tai body only. For all these Mei Tai's I also have plush fake fur for the insides (or use one of the ones in the pictures).

If you want to supply material, a slightly stretchy (3% lycra) works well for a pouch or ring sling; if it's lightweight and you want a pouch it'd need a backing fabric (a plain quilter's cotton or light twill, or another layer of the same material to keep the stretchiness). Fleece works great as one layer. Athletic mesh works great for a water sling, but I need to order small rings; you can also have a pouch made. I have made one reversible pouch with a funky print knit fabric, great for smaller summer babies.

Just let me know if you have any questions about slings!

More Bedroom Photos

Some more pictures of the transformation. Here you can see just how high the new bed is! The two bedside lights are new, from Wal-Mart. There is an uplight, and then also a down light (in the upside down cone under the up light). We couldn't get the recommended lightbulb size to fit in the downlight though, so we got some other ones later. You can have just the up light, just the downlight, or both on. There are three shelves on each too, the bottom one is just big enough for magazines. That's the CD/clock radio on the middle shelf. Here's the 'finished' view! It's not nearly as dark as it looks; I should have lightened it up before posting. The chair in the corner was there before, but I threw a piece of brown corduroy over it. Rob thought I had made a slipcover, LOL. I don't know what I'll do if someone finally asks for a brown corduroy pouch sling! The turquoise pillow on it was a very last minute addition. It's actually just a pillow form wrapped in some fleece I had bought from the marked down bin at Wal-Mart but it ended up being too narrow to make anything. I am planning to properly finish the pillow! The white wicker basket was an almost-last-minute addition, it's filled with all my turquoise/teal yarn, LOL. When I ordered the bedding on sears.ca I was really ticked off to be told after confirming my order that the duvet cover and shams were backordered.....to July 15 and May 15. The curtain topper came in April, but I was left with a big issue. I could choose sheets (and the ceiling light) based on the curtain, but the stripes on the curtain are chocolate and dark, greyish turquoise. How was I going to choose the wall colour from that?! At first I thought I wanted a more intense turquoise. To finally decide, I got a colour shade card from Home Depot, and matched the dark ribbon to one of the colours. Then I picked the second lightest colour on the card, called "Seafoam Breeze". I almost went with the next darker colour, which would have been a much more noticeable change, but I'm glad I didn't, even though it's not all that much darker, sometimes you just can't tell from the card.
I was concerned about the dark furniture (especially since we can't have the headboard/footboard anymore). I thought it was the furntiure that was out of place in the room before, and figured we'd go get some white furniture from IKEA. But once the room was finished, the furniture fit in nicely. My tall unit in the corner is a faux green marble, and it looks okay too.
On my dresser is a scrap piece of brown brocade from Rob's brother, who gave me a big box of fabric left over from a movie/tv show. On the bed, you can see I didn't tuck in the top sheet, and I used a fitted sheet to cover the boxspring. I didn't realize that you usually use a bedskirt to do that, I thought the bedskirt just hung below the boxspring, LOL. Mom thought I was ingenious, but this is just how we've done it since getting a 'real' bed (not a futon). Partly cause I don't think a bedskirt would have worked well with the old bedframe. On the bed, is some dark brown fleece that I bought to make pouch slings.

Even though the bed is wider, we have a touch more room because the light towers are narrower than the old night tables. THe wall colour is nothing like what it's showing on my monitor!! On this light tower is a plant that was already in a turquoise pot (and I had to move it the next morning because it freaked me out all night long), and a cold beer in an ice bucket that Rob had gotten for his birthday a few years ago from his parents and had only used to house receipts and change on his dresser, and three little tea lights in glass holders, turquoise and black.

On his dresser is a crystal candy dish from our wedding crystal, filled with turquoise candies/jelly beans, etc. Good thing we had just had Easter, and not Christmas or Valentine's Day! LOL.

This is our old bedroom--from the old house. It was hideous shades of pink when we bought the house, and poorly painted. So we had painted before we actually moved in. There was wall paper on the bottom, and the chair rail was sprayed gold, that patina'd over time. The walls were painted "Stuffing" which reminded me of a good, Canadian "Double-Double". I loved the colour! It was a very .....elegant? room (on the rare occasion that it got cleaned and dolled up), and we toyed with the idea of painting the room in our new house the same colour, we loved it that much. But it was time to move on---we've been here two years now!

The new duvet cover and shams finally came in, so the room is 'complete' and I'll post pictures later; I just have to make it all up, tidy up, LOL, and wait for some sunlight!

Hey Debbi

If you look in those pictures (esp of Meg climbing on me), to the left you will see....not only INDOOR plumbing, but an ENSUITE bath! :) That was a must have for the new house. Now, it's certainly not luxerious and spa like, but really, when you get only 10 minutes at a time--on a good day--who cares if the floor tiles match the shower......

Sorry I haven't posted the final results; today is story time day so I won't be home in the afternoon today again, so maybe tonight.....riot going on in the other room....

Transform!

For Rob's 40th birthday, I decided to surprise him with a new bed, and bedroom reno. Bed shopping with two little girls was SO much fun (NOT), and somehow Lucy was actually able to keep it a surprise.


First thing to do once Rob left for work on the Friday was to patch a strange spot in the wall. It appears that the old owners took out the cold air return near the floor and put it up higher. They never repaired it, just nailed (using finishing nails) a piece of drywall in.

I thought I had done a pretty good repair, until the paint went on, then of course, you could see that it needed a bit more work. Oh well, we tried, and the girls helped :)

This is the 'old' colour, a flat light blue, very poorly painted. It grew on us during the time we've lived here, but I was also really drawn to all intensities of turquoise, mixed with beige and dark brown. The combo reminds me of the beach in St. Marten. This picture is of before we started painting. Even though we liked the blue walls, something wasn't right about the room. I think it was because we had no bedding that looked good; most of it was burgandy because of our last bedroom.
I don't remember, but I think this is before we starting painting too.
I wasn't able to send the kids anywhere, or get a babysitter to come in, so it was hard for me to do a lot. I wanted to do the baseboard painting though cause, well, I'm younger than my parents (who had come to help!).

You can see the new wall colour---very similiar to the old colour, but with a bit more turquoise feel, and a MUCH better finish.

Someone loves her Momma :)

The new bed arrived Saturday afternoon, and it seems a little higher than the one in the store! That new hanging light is probably one of my most favourite parts of the new room. We didn't realize that there were no ceiling lights upstairs when we bought the house. Rob said, at first, that he could wire some in. As time as gone on, that turned into "I don't know, it depends on a lot of things...." and then "I don't think I want to do that". So I bought a pretty lightshade (SO hard to find in this town!!!) and my dad wired it up so it plugs into the outlet that is run off the wall switch beside the door. So, with a flick of a switch, now the room is lit up :)

Stay tuned for the finished results tomorrow!