House Project #8: Finished!

Finally! After almost a year and a half I have pretty much finished my closet! Huzzah! All I need now are 2 deep drawers to store sweatshirts in (I got a lot of sweatshirts, what can I say?), but there is currently no rush to spend more money on this closet at the moment. Though I have to say, reusing the old shelving and rods certainly made this a cheaper project than just starting from scratch.

It's my own personal snowflake of a closet!

I love that when I walk into my closet I have the feeling that I'm walking into my own personal store. I didn't have that feeling in mind when I first started this project but I do love that it came out this way. Of course now that my closet is super awesome I feel like I need to start upgrading my shoes and clothes to match. But that will be an eventual, gradual process over time, though I don't think I could ever live without fleece and sweatshirt, I can't forget the sweatshirts.

House Project #8: Things are hanging!

So I finally got the last of the shelving up as well as two rows for hanging clothes! Now 95% of my clothes are in my closet. I'm curious to see if I accidentally walk into the other closet to get dressed tomorrow morning...

Somehow my clothes still look messy hanging up...

Only one more wall space left. I may have this space finished by the end of the month! Yahoo!

Finally a good excuse for the wierd dungeon area...

Moonshine! Bootlegging!
(Dear ATA: Just kidding. Any homegrown alcoholic beverages mentioned on this blog are not for sale and are only for personal consumption. :) )

Now that the disclaimer has been made we are trying our hand at creating a couple of, hopefully, delicious libations.
It all began because we were running out of ideas of what do do with all of the lemons in the neighbors tree. Granted it's the neighbor's tree but even if there weren't plenty of lemons on our side of the fence, no one ever picks the lemons! We are really just doing everyone a favor by not having rotting lemons on the ground. After spending last winter making copious amounts of lemon jam, lemon curd, candied lemon peel, lemon syrup and just plain ole lemon juice we felt we wanted to add something else to the mix of lemon related edible products. In walked the idea of making lemoncello. The recipe we are using calls for the mix of Everclear and lemon zest to sit in a cool, dark room for at least 45 days. (And some additional steps after that...) What better place than our storage room we affectionately call The Dungeon!

Rt: Beginning stage of Lemoncello. Lt: Aging Whiskey Sours

Part of me feels like we may be going back to the nefarious roots a bit of this odd room, as we are pretty sure it was a grow room in a past life. If these concoctions turn out well I think instead of The Dungeon we may need to be calling this room The Still in the future...

Project #9: Garden update

So I thought I would post an update to how our garden is doing so far this year. So far everything that we've planted is still alive and either has leaves or fruit, so that's always good.


In May my mom rocked the basil seedlings and I came home from Mother's Day with enough to run out of pots to replant them all in.

So much pesto waiting to happen...

That weekend I also came home with two different types of tomatoes as an experiment to see if we had the chops to actually grow some veggies. Surprising to say both plants are still alive and have tomatoes growing! Plus it was a good excuse to buy to large pots that will be repurposed for mint and something else after the tomatoes are finished.

Beafsteak tomatoes!

The petunias have done extremely well and I wish they were more of a year long, never need to replant them again but they sure love the front of the house and have really exploded in size and color!

Petunia explosion! They have almost overgrown our poor mandarin tree!

House Project #9: The Front Yard

Last weekend I finally decided that something, anything, needed to be done to the small front yard. When we moved in almost a year ago the yard looked neat, though I didn't necessarily like the plant choices it wasn't overgrown with grasses and weeds. Now after the spring rains and the warmer weather our front yard, while delightfully green is rapidly becoming "That Yard" of the block. It was time to do something about it. After a couple hours of weeding a small patch was ready to be transformed. Behold the power of petunias!



Everything just looks neater with the cedar shavings. And the orange tree finally has blossoms so we might get some fruit from it this years after all!



Kiwi basking in her helper glory

Photo test

Best photo test subject!

House Project #8: One can't have too many shoes

One can, however, have not enough shoe shelf space! A couple weeks ago I finally finished painting and installing another set of shoe shelves in my closet. The shelving makes the closet a little darker but I'm hoping at some point to redo the lighting so it comes more evenly from the center of the ceiling rather than from above the door. But that's a different project for a different day...

Now all my shoes have a home!

Now onto figuring out the opposite wall...

House Project #9: Gardening cont

I have full faith that this project will never be completed. At least not to my satisfaction. I'm realistic enough to know that some plantings will work great and other will die. Needs will change as well as time to spend gardening. That being said, here are a few of the highlights of gardening that have been accomplished in the last few months:

Made a stone pad for the BBQ. Next we'd like to build some shelving onto the deck so while Ben is BBQing the plates of food will have a place to be and Kiwi can't get to them!

I added stepping stones both sides of the deck and planting a ground cover that will hopefully grow in and won't get out competed by the weeds & grasses that are loving all the spring air!

We figured that the things that will take the longest get grow in our yard should be planted as soon as possible. Therefore trees were the first thing on the list as it will take at least a couple of years for them to get established and provide some fruit!

Yes, it looks exactly like a stick planted in the ground, but really it's an Asian Pear tree.

This lime tree is flowering well and has already provided delicious, delicious limes which have been made into delicious, delicious cocktails.

Unfortunately this nectarine will have a couple years more growth and then will get dramatically pruned and then after a couple more years of growth will maybe give fruit. It's a complete experiment as it was given to us by a friend who grew it from seed.

Hopefully this mandarin orange tree will flower at some point and give us tasty mandarins, though at this point I'm just hoping it doesn't die.

The two citrus trees have been safe from Kiwi however she's taken an increased liking to the pear and nectarine as she has easy access to them. She's twice tried to dig them up and now they will need to be surrounded by chicken wire until they are strong and large enough to support her digging habit. Hopefully by then she will realize that they will provide her ample shade in the summer and more opportunities to catch squirrels leaping through the air between them.

This concludes all of the garden projects that I had hoped to complete in 2011. Now on to the projects for 2012 which may include that piece of grass and some prettying up the front garden to keep up with the neighbors...

House Project #8: A girl's dream closet

So the day we moved in I decided that I wanted to completely redo my closet design. There is still a lot left to do but at least I'm now at the point where I am using it for stuff and actually going into the closet to get clothes are an everyday basis!

Original closet set up



Shelving removed and ready for patching




Ceiling painted!



Walls painted!

Shoe shelves, dresser and long hanging space up!

Soon there will be even more shoe shelves (because really who doesn't like shoes???) and I still need to figure out exactly how I'm going to work the other wall for more hanging space. Oh, and a space for hats & scarves. And handbags... I may need a bigger closet...

Catching up from 2011...

Wow, so I can't believe that it's been since July that I've posted. It's not like we've been slacking off in the house projects, but I guess I've just been slacking off in the blogging about it...

Briefly, in the last 6 months:
We had a very successful house warming party in July. Many of our new neighbors stopped by to introduce themselves.
More work has been done to the garden (longer post later).
Kiwi has her own dog house courtesy of Ben and my mom (hopefully Ben will post on that).
Many trick or treaters loved my all out Halloween decs in the front windows.
Thanksgiving found us hosting it for the first time in our new place. The kitchen performed wonderfully and I got to break out my grandmother's china for the 9 person dinner party.
All in all our lives appear to be slowing down enough to be able to accomplish/finish some projects that have been on the list for awhile.