Farmers Market!

Guess what time it is???? Farmer's Market Time!!!!  The farmer's markets finally opened around where we live.  Our new town has one within walking distance every weekend. Our old town had a really good one, so we were excited to see how our new towns's compared.

 

 

Well it doesn't quite compare, but it is still pretty good.  There weren't as many produce vendors, nor did it have the big farm that has the huge stand. But there were a number of other fun vendors, some of which were the same as our old town.  And there was a one man woman band! Which was fun!  I wonder if that is every weekend?

 

 

 

 

 

We got some fancy bread, fancy ravioli's and crumb cake for my dad and pop for fathers day.

I am glad we have one in walking distance, but I am sure at some point this summer, we will head back to our old town for their market too!

Bring on the fresh produce!!!!

 

It time for some plants!!!

So I am sure you can all image how excited I was to draw up a planting plan for around the patio.

I had ideas for the front, and I had ideas for the perennial garden along the side, but to be honest, I hadn't given the plants around the patio too much thought.  There were existing over-grown plants along the side and back of the house.  As much as I wanted them GONE Colin convinced me pruning them and keeping them for the time being, to not spend too money, was the way to go. BUT as I had posted earlier, when we had a crew of men and a machine, we decided to take advantage and have then all ripped out.

So now I had a empty canvas to paint with planties!!!

I know I do this for a living so I should be able to come up with a planting plan no problem, BUT I like so many plants I had a really hard time narrowing it down! ha! And the beds were only 2-3' wide, so I couldn't go crazy.

I whipped up a couple of plans and narrowed it down. I had a plan I liked, but I realized there was no drift roses in it, so I drew up a few variations that would incorporate them. Ultimatley we went with the original 'drift rose free' plan, so I will need to find another place for them. : )

Now that the planning was done, it was time for the shopping!!!! We didn't get all the plants on the plan, just enough to get the space looking nice, and we can fill in as we have the time and money.

I dragged my two main men to the nursery with me on Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend. (I think my Dad came willingly, but I bet I did "drag" Colin, especially since we were there as soon as they opened! haha)  They mainly talked sports as I spun around like a little plant tornado chosing the right boxwood variety and picking and chosing which perennials I wanted to get with the budget Colin had laid out.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look at me with TWO carts of shrubs and perennials in front of me ready to come to my house and be my plant friends! YAY!!!

 

 

 

Ok, back to the plan....I wanted a classic plant palette with went with our classic patio. For around the lounge area, which can be seen everyday from the driveway, I decided on Boxwood, Endless Summer Hydrangea, Frances Williams Hosta and Rozanne Geranium.  A lovely combo, if I do say so mysellf! I love Boxwood and Hydrangea so that was an easy pick. I also love the 2 green tones of the Hosta AND the geranium variety I chose has purple blooms from spring to frost! Can't beat that! You should get some too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that we shopped, it is time to plant! And then to mulch!

 

 

I did pack the plants in more than I would suggest a client do, but I wanted what I wanted, and I am fine with moving around perennials as needed as things grow.
 (I packed perennials in, NOT shrubs. Don't be deceived, little shrubs get big!!!! Always pay attention to mature size when spacing plants!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the eating area I had some thoughts, but less concrete ideas. I knew I wanted something to screen the gas meter, so I went with 3 boxwood, but a different variety as on the other side, a variety that grows more tall than wide.  I don't love ornamental grasses, but I do like them, and I thought they would be a good fit for the corners of the eating patio.  They would add texture and movement to hard lines of that space.  So 3 Dwarf Hamlin Grass went on either corner.

 

 

 

 

Side Note - Landscape Architects like things in odd numbers, not even ones.  We do ones or threes or fives or sevens.  We do not do twos or fours! NO NO NO! 

There are some bare areas around the eating patio and the whole one side if empy, but plants are expensive, so we will evenually fill in those spaces with more perennials! I think everything came out great and the areas without plants, at least have a nice layer of mulch so they look tidy until we get around to getting the plants in.

YAY PLANTS!!!!

A birthday hose and some annuals

 

 

I asked Colin for a coil hose for my birthday.  I really wanted one!  We had 2 hoses left by the old owner but they were long and heavy and very cumbersome for me to be dragging around the yard to get the plants watered.  I wanted something light and easy for everyday watering.

Colin passed along my wish to his parents and when his dad came over on my birthday to help put our railing back up, there was a pretty package just for me with a coil hose inside!!!! yay!!!!  (not sure they got it from the link or if they found it at lowes/homedepot/walmart/garden center - just in case you want one.)  And you should want one! It doesn't replace a real hose but to water pots and plants in a small area, it works great.

And considering one of the old hoses exploded the night before, it was a perfectly timed gift!!! (Side note - I looked inside the hose and it was slimy and gross, so don't drink from your hoses kids!)

 

I dragged my 3 blue-ish pots out of hiding and set them up by the faucet since I figured the largest one would be perfect for holding the new hose.  (Not that I really want a hose front and center as you enter the house, but you can't have flowers without water, so this aesthetically driven girl is just trying to be practical!)  Then I clustered the 2 little pots around it to help it blend in.

 

But those pots were empty since I am not supposed to be spending money!  But an empty pots make me sad.... SO I snuck over to the garden center yesterday to fill them! (I spent around $10, so I am not feeling too guilty.)

 

 

They came out lovely.  I got 3 annuals and then stole some of the creeping jenny (bright green vine) from a pot I had done earlier in the season.

 

 

I would love love love to fill the whole patio with fabulous annual planters, but that just isn't in the budget this year, so these little pots will have to do! : )

 

 

 

 

I am keeping things watered and keeping things classy!

 

A New Door Mat

The state of my stoops are bad...and the states of my door mats are also bad...The stoops are not an easy fix, but the door mats are!

In the front, we still have the door mat that was here when we moved in.  If someone told me I would have a door mat like this in the front of my home for almost 6 months, I would have laughed in their face or fallen over in disbelief, but kids, it is the truth, this is what my front door mat has been and STILL IS! Yikes!!! There is just so much to do when you get a house.....

(The fact that the awful mat isn't centered is diving me a little crazy while looking at this picture, but I must stay true to the title of my blog! haha)

In the back yard there was no door mat, but that I decided to do something about.  I often look through Ballard Designs and picture all the lovely things in my house.  BUT I had never actually bought anything, until now. I treated myself to a chevron door mat for the back door! I dig chevron but I hesitate to go crazy with it in case it goes out of style quickly, but I figured no harm done on a door mat! Yay! I love it!

I'll get around the replacing the front one at some point.  Perhaps this weekend I will just throw that awful rubber thing away whether I have a replacement or not.  Not like anyone ever uses the front door anyway!!!!

Patio Reveal

The patio is done and we had our first bbq on Memorial Day!!

 It is my pleasure to share with you the offical after pictures of the patio! Woo Hoo!!! It might not be as exciting since I bored you with all the details along the way, but it is still exciting!

Remember the plan?

Well here is the reality!!! 

Scrub a Dub Dub

SO scrubbing mold off your sliding wasn't the part of the 'dream of homeownership' I have longed for! haha BUT it had to be done, along with a few other cleaning and scrubbing tasks. 

We worked out butts off memorial day weekend! Seriously worked our butts off!!!!  They finished the patio the weekend before memorial day so we set our sights on getting the yard in shape over the 3 days weekend!

On the agenda:

-Scrub mold off sliding

-Wash front and back door

-Prep and paint the foundation

-Power wash (or at least hard hose) house to remove all the construction dirt

-Landscape around the patio- Even if we don't get all the plants, get some

-MULCH!!! The dirt around the patio was driving me crazy since it was getting everywhere and I was longing for mulch to keep the yard tidy.

-I also wanted to tend to the perennial border in front of the arborvitaes, even thought I am not sure that was on Colin's radar! ha!

I guys who did the patio had power washed some of the house, so the mold was much better but still not gone.  So saturday I put on my rubber gloves and my mask and got scrubbing!  Per my father's recommendation, I did half bleach (thank you to the old owners for leaving bleach under the sink!) and half water.  I felt like Nicole Curtis scrubbing way, that girl has patience! 

IT worked like a charm and half hour later, the house was mold free! yay!

Next step was dumping out my bleach solution and making a dish soap solution for washing the doors.  They were already dirty and got really dirty during patio construction.  I didn't scrub every nook and cranny, but the looks SO much better! I also bought some goop off/goop gone to get those stickers off the back door, but left the actual task of getting the stickers off the back door for another weekend!

Next up was the foundation.  Previous owners had painted it gray, but it was all chippy and peely.  I hadn't really noticed it until we got the new patio and then I did notice it and it looked BAD!  We didn't go crazy prepping it, but we did a decent job of ready-ing it for painting.  Colin borrowed a metal sander (aka an electric wire brush) to get the worst of it cleaned up, then we used a regular wire brush to clean it up a little more.  Colin got waterproof indoor/outdoor paint in 'basement gray' which is what we used to give everything a nice clean coat.  He did a good job of matching the exiting color, which worked out well, since we only painted half the foundation.  The front and one side we didn't tackle this time around, we just tackled the back and side you see from that patio and yard.  The house looks so much nicer and so much cleaner with a fresh coat of paints.

 

 

I'll leave the landscaping aspects of our list for another post.....(yay landscaping)

step 4

I kind of want to skip right ahead to the after pictures since I finally took them, BUT I have posted the whole process so I am going to go ahead with the previously scheduled step 4 : )

 

Step 4

We last left off with them doing most of the brick work, and we had a delivery of bluestone.

 (my bonus for spring overtime)    : )

So that weekend they finished up all the brick and had most of the bluestone done! woo hoo! 

That bluestone is HEAVY! I don't know how those strong men lift and place those stones!

 

 

 

 

All they had left was a little bit more bluestone by the curve, then put an edge on the brick, and sweep stone dust in the joints.  Instead of a metal or plastic edge they poured a small concrete wedge around the edge of the brick, then the grass or mulch just goes right over it like it isn't even there! yay!

 

 

 

 

The patio pattern and material is Random Rectangular Bluestone, more specifically, Full Range, Natural Cleft.  Full Range means the colors vary and are not all a uniform gray (uniform gray is available if you desire it) and Natural Cleft means the surface is a little rough and varied (a smooth surface is available if you desire it).  If you want to know more (Like anyone really wants to know more! ha! ) This website explains the difference well. : )   (link to be posted soon)

The patio was close to getting done, but the house and yard were still in rough shape, so that was on our to do list for memorial day weekend!

 

 

 

Next patio post will be official after pictures! Are you as excited as I am????? Do you want to come over for wine and dinner??????? YAY!