The Guest Bedroom (After 9 1/2 Years)

 Well I've finally gotten back to this reno/rehab job. The woodwork is scraped; the cracks and holes are patched and sanded; the closet is skimcoated; everything got a good sanding; the window, shelves and doors are removed; and all is vacuumed. Friday I primed the ceiling, and most of the closet, plus some baseboard, with oil-based Kilz. It wasn't quite as miserable and messy as I thought, but the roller absorbs a lot and then you have to keep re-dipping it. The closet is a nightmare because I was breathing in too many fumes and felt nauseous. Plus there's no room to move around. But it'll all get done, and look really nice! Here are some before shots:

Closeup of horrible cracks at the top of the closet.

To the left of the closet (note cracked ceiling).

Left side of closet.

The one window and radiator facing west.

Entry door.

Right of closet (note painted floor).

Right side of closet.

I forgot to patch holes in the wood. I have to prime (or re-prime) those areas. Then I'll caulk, cut in and finish priming, use latex primer on walls, paint ceiling, paint walls (Yarmouth Blue), paint closet and paint woodwork. Then I'll prime and paint the window and shelves. The doors I will place on my bed and prime and paint one side, then hang and paint the other side. I also still have to spraypaint the nightstands. I think I've decided on Lagoon and Deep Blue.

It'll be so nice to get this done. This has been the worst room so far, especially the closet. It was creepy, like the creepiest rooms you see in old houses. Plus my furniture has been in the hallway all this time and it's getting really old, and very embarrassing. I'll make this my master due to it being quieter and cozier. My master bedroom is very large with two walk-in closets, quite full. It'll be easier to keep cool in the summer due to its size, even though it's the warmest room in the house. I'll have to hire an electrician because I want to put the television, cable connection and air conditioner on the side that has no outlets. I'd also like a light in the closet. I have a friend that hopefully can do that. I haven't decided about the light switch yet. I'm thinking possibly another schoolhouse lamp (this would be my third).

Garden Ramblings

This year we have been inundated with rain. We've also had a few heat waves. Some of my container plantings were nearly wiped out due to slugs. But since I'm retired I got a lot done. Tonight I just moved some phlox from the front side garden. It was so overgrown I could barely walk through. I'm nearly finished mulching the back which had really been overrun with weeds the last few years. Removed all the very invasive ivy and then the weeds moved in. I moved two barberries to balance out the colors. It was disappointing that the two huge hydrangeas I moved last year had barely any blooms. I threw out the ugly white lacecap that I found growing out of the stone wall. Boy was it vigorous.

I was able to work in the shrub border, digging up holly that had layered and killing bittersweet that was entangling the rhododendron. I chopped down a holly baby that was not like the parent. I also threw away a hydrangea that never bloomed. It might have been a "florist" one. It was too crowded there anyway. I transplanted pieces of a Lovely Fairy rose. I saw today that I missed a piece. I also decided to move the Red Fairy rose baby in the front to the back, next to the Red Double Knockout which hasn't done well in quite a few years. They're about the same color. I also should move the butterfly weed I discovered in back next to its mother. I'm contemplating moving the Rozanne geranium because it got so huge, maybe to the path out back. For some reason I decided to dig up a huge (50 pounds or more?) rock in the path out back but then covered it up. I won't be planting anything there anyway so what was the point? I can always add more soil if I need to.

I have to move the arborvitae to the side yard garden and move two daylilies that are shaded out by roses in that same garden. I want to buy some millenium alliums and put them out back next to the right side of the arbor.

I bought a hedge trimmer which will help speed things up with pruning shrubs. I learned that if I fertilize the Endless Summer hydrangea it will put out blooms (I only had one this year). Also the balloon flower will rebloom if I cut it back. The Dutchman's Pipe finally scrambled up the trellis. I don't like the ironweed. It's two stalks of gangly, bent blooms. I also divided my grandfather's iris. I never know what to throw away and what to keep. You'd think I'd know by now.

Dutchman's Pipe finally climbed the trellis.

Bought crocosmia; the hummingbirds and I love it.

Sumac looking good. I pruned the huge smokebush.

The huge rock is at the top of the dark mulch path.

Lovely Fairy reblooming. Ugly purple Ironweed.

Hydrangea should be blooming soon.

Overhead shot.

Front side garden; love anise hyssop.

Mucho phlox.

Vanilla Strawberry hydrangea.

Ten Years Here

(I never pubished this post and now it's been 16 years since I moved in. Unbelievable.)

I can't believe it. I was thinking about what the previous owner would say about the changes if he saw the place. He died almost three years later, at 54.

It was a Tuesday, unbearably hot and humid. My sister was off from school and my brother was unemployed so they helped me move. My mother came by later; my father was terminally ill. He died six days later. In fact I think the reason I got it in my head to look for a house was to distract myself from his suffering.

It was nearly the height of the last housing bubble, a definite seller's market. I didn't want to buy a house at the top of my price range, so eligible houses were few and far between. As soon as a house became available, it was gone. This was the era of flipping houses, and I was looking for a pre-1960, preferably 18th or 19th century, fixer upper. There was the 1700's house on a busy street where I, a petite person, could touch the ceiling on the first floor with my index finger, and on the second floor with my palm. My favorite niece would not fit in there! 

And the cute Carpenter Gothic house in a former mill town on a quiet street, kitty-corner from a church. It needed a new furnace and was snatched up before it even hit the MLS. Then a roomy Victorian farmhouse with a good-sized yard and garage, plus a kitchen even more dysfunctional than my current one. That one also went quickly. There also was a bungalow on a quiet street next to a farm. It was nice but I didn't know how I would get my furniture up the stairs. Then there was a house made of concrete blocks, pretty much gutted inside. It was a beautiful area with a stream out back, amidst cottages near a big lake, but it had a very long driveway and was at least 45 minutes away from my work.

Then I got discouraged and gave up. Somehow I heard about isoldmyhouse.com and saw this house. It was rather plain, and on a street with a BIG hill. But as soon as I looked around inside I just knew, you know? It felt like home. I really liked the kitchen, which turned out to be very difficult to cook in. It seemed big (1568 square feet) compared to the 625 square foot condo I had lived in for 16 1/2 years. The yard was manageable. It came with a shed, washer, gas dryer, dishwasher, gas cooktop, gas oven, and a fairly new roof.

I love furniture and it's telling that I could almost furnish the whole house with what I had. Yes, my condo was jammed with stuff! I had a plan for my vernacular Gothic Revival workingman's cottage. It would be cottage style.

The first year I just cleaned the whole place, except closets and the ceilings. It smelled of smoke so bad I couldn't stand it anymore. My sister had cleaned the carpets before I had settled in, but I finally ripped them up (the living room, dining room and two bedrooms). The smell improved. I remember trying to get the nicotine stains off of the double arch in the parlor. I used so many different cleaning products; I would see streaks of yellowish brown until the end of summer. The other problem was the windows. The previous owner had put a block of wood in the frame of one of the living room windows so it could only be raised a couple of inches or so. In the kitchen one of the windows had been caulked shut and the other one I couldn't open very high. It took all summer for me to work on the kitchen windows so they would open. Opening all the windows all summer long helped remove the stink. Thankfully that summer I think we only got a couple days of rain.

The first year I entertained a lot. It was fun to have a separate dining room and plenty of room. The PO told me he had removed many doors. Apparently there was a door to the living room, to the dining room, from the dining room to the kitchen, and from the dining room to the office. I found one of these doors in the shed. It's like all the other interior doors. I'm planning on using it for the second floor bathroom (if I ever get the funds to do that). A doorway had been cut into the parlor from the office. So my little nephew said he liked my house because you could walk all around in a circle downstairs, through all these openings.

That September we got storm after storm, causing my basement to become wet. Not a lot of puddles, but it got wet after every storm and during the winter during thaws. It came in mainly through the coal bin, and I could never figure out what to do because above it is the front porch. My contractor immediately figured out that I needed fill. He put down several inches and it hasn't been wet there since.

That first winter, after a January thaw, raw sewage started backing up into my basement utility sink. I didn't know what to do, other than bail and throw it out the back (the basement is a walk-out). My brother-in-law suggested I call the Town. Someone came out and told me there was blockage on my end,  not theirs. I asked him what am I supposed to do, just keep bailing all night? He took pity on me being alone, and flushed out the street valve, which helped enough for me to stop bailing. That March I had a company remove the old-fashioned elbow connector for a straight one, which has helped somewhat. I believe it cost over $2000, but they told me I have to have the street torn up due to tree roots around the y-connector. That'll be several more thousand so I keep stalling it off. I still get a little backup but it's manageable, while still being disgusting. With the previous overflow I dragged the rug that was done there and cleaned it on the deck.

So after ten years I have removed the asbestos siding and painted the clapboards and obtained a new kitchen. I continue to work on each room as I change all the paint colors that are reminiscent of a cottage in New Orleans or Florida but totally inappropriate for a Victorian workingman's cottage in a mill town in northeast Connecticut. As I do I paint the ceilings, closets and trim.

Videos From Last Summer - Front Yard Gardens Plus a Little Info on the House

 

Hydrangeas On View

That is my second video.

It was a good year for one of my favorite shrubs.

Early Summer

Technology has been frustrating the heck out of me.  That and the fact that I never remember to take pictures at the right time and day.  I can't access my old photos to show the growth I wanted to show of some of the plants.  So here's my first video.  My brother (who's 15 years younger than I) "OK, Boomer"'d me when he saw this because I held the phone the wrong way.  I'd forgotten many names of things.  Too much pressure!  And of course, Boomer can't figure out how to edit or insert captions.

Spring Is Coming!

It's been a relatively mild winter with little snow, some cold days and no frozen pipes!  Daffodil shoots have already poked up as well as at least one crocus's blades that I saw.

I'm anxiously anticipating this spring and remembering the massive amount of changes I made last year, mostly involving moving things.  I'm remembering that I moved the big Stella d'Oro daylily and the peach one from the back garden to beside the front walkway, giving that area some definition since the Livin' Easy rose died.  I also cut the catmint way back in that area since it had taken over.

Near the driveway I moved most of the beautiful purple and white irises and transplanted two veronica from the back, where they were not doing well amidst the ivy groundcover.  I also bought an agastache and transplanted a large sedum from back to join the one I planted when I made this garden.  I moved the hosta to the shade garden because it would get crispy.  If I had any phlox left I got rid of that and maybe the daisies as well?  Oops, can't remember.  I transplanted a couple (?) daylilies from my mom's old garden to the strip between my neighbor and me. I also took some iris from my mom and put it in the Heritage Garden and in front of the small Blue Billow hydrangea.  I'm not sure if this is the year that the knockout rose died but it is most sincerely dead now.  I transplanted a piece of the big hydrangea in front to the smaller one on the side.  I think I transplanted the daisies in front where the rose was.

The pretty iris.

Veronica.

I bought a white catmint to put near the Blue Billow hydrangea in the front yard.

In the stone wall garden I moved the large hosta to under the Japanese maple and bought a caryopteris.  I also bough a Japanese maple, ironweed and a Purple Dome aster to go here.  I can't remember if I removed any foxglove.

I moved two boxwood from the back to the porch garden. And moved the helleborus from between the arborvitae to the other side of the sidewalk.

In other categories, I finally put stone dust in between the cracks in the walkway.  Now hopefully I won't have to weed there.  During my manic, sleepless, prednisone-fueled spell I actually finally made a stone staircase into the alley garden out back.  Hopefully it hasn't moved much.

I think that's all but I'll find out soon!

Thanksgiving Countdown

OK, so I'm exhausted.  Per usual I've procrastinated and added way too much to my to-do list.

First I stepped on (idiot) the storm window insert for my old, ugly aluminium storm doors.  I cannot justify fixing it so I decided to order two new Pella storm doors.  I also lost all my keys (idiot) so I can't lock the house.  Now I have to buy storm doors that lock.

But first I have to paint the door frame . . . just when the weather starts turning cold (it snowed Sunday). It has to be 40 degrees.  Very tricky.  Plus the screws are impossible to remove so I have to wait for my brother-in-law to bring his special tool.

I never hung pictures in the dining room.  I finally got everything framed but am indecisive concerning placement.

Due to my impending retirement I am hoarding vacation days so I can't take time to clean and cook.  Oh well, I guess the most important thing is to make sure the food tastes good.

This is the lovely curtain fabric.  And no, of course, I haven't sewn them yet.  My mother's and sister's sewing machines are broken and I'm too cheap to buy one.  Guess who's wasting her time sewing by hand?

The design for this room is bright colors, with a sort of country modern/garden theme.  The paint color is Ben Moore's Mill Springs blue.  And I have cushions on order from CHINA.  (Love the way Trump says China.)  Must have caught a fast ship because they're in town, and originally the date was sometime in December.  So I got hot pink, orange and lime green.  Hopefully the colors will be OK.  Couldn't find turquoise anywhere so I'll keep looking.

This innocuous picture of my front door represents over three hours of my time trying to figure out how to put all the door hardware back on, after SIX YEARS.  Yes, I procrastinated that long.  I completely forgot how it went together.  This Old House has a diagram but putting the lock back on was tricky.  After I was done the door WOULDN'T CLOSE.  I started chanting "I hate my house!"  Couldn't figure it out.  I remembered my brother-in-law had a trick of putting something on the edge that rubbed off so he could tell where he needed to sand the door down.  This was after I took the door off its hinges in order to paint it, and when I reinstalled it, of course it didn't close.

So I kept fooling with it, removing the strikes.  Finally got it to work, better than it ever had. I was so proud and told my co-worker, who then said, too bad you lost the key to it.  Yes indeed. But at least my house doesn't look so freakish, with a hole where the doorknob should be.

There have been coincidences lately.  I was watching old Martha Stewart videos online (looking for gravy recipes) and her daughter was saying they didn't have doorknobs in their house during its renovation phase. I can relate.  I still have to put a lock on the bathroom door.

 As I'm looking at this right now I think I like the first one the best (it's upside down).  I texted a good friend who is so good at these kinds of things (well, she's good at almost everything to be truthful) but didn't hear from her.  It's the busy season at her work.

I wanted pictures of bright roses from the garden.  I think this (below) will work out. I would have preferred an odd number but the span is 74 inches and this would allow about 3.2 inches in between.

This is the space above the pass-through.

So right now I'm waiting for my timer to go off so I can put a second coat of paint on the doorframe. It's still 45 so I'm good.  It got into the 60's today.

I'll try to remember to take pictures of the food Thursday.

Another Bobcat in My Yard (originally posted December 2016)

Yes, once again, the beast showed up, the Monday before Christmas.  The first time was during the porch rebuild in 2015: I was so nervous I forgot to take pictures.  This time it was to unclog the sewer.  It took two days, in the bitter cold.

Working way down in the street.

I had an "elbow" replaced in 2008 and at that time was told more work needed to be done due to tree roots encroaching the Y connector in the street.  They quoted a cheaper price than eight and a half years ago.  They did not block off the street like they said they would in 2008, which would have added to the cost.  We have very little traffic on this short, narrow street; it is one-way coming from one end so that helps.  Mostly the traffic is from neighbors coming and going.  The job was done before my neighbors came home from work.

I had been stressing because the guy who came out initially told me several bushes would have to be moved.  I didn't know how they would survive the winter, plus I had just transplanted the dwarf blue spruce this fall and it didn't look so hot.  But fortunately only one small rosebush was in the way, and it's never been that great a performer anyway.

So now I can do my laundry with no fear of sewage backing up into the laundry sink, which was really quite disgusting.  I had put it off as long as I could.  It's no fun spending money on stuff you can't see, but peace of mind is a good thing.

High Gardening Season

We had a very wet, cool start, although not as cold as last year.  Cold enough, though, to kill most of the buds on the white azalea. And wet enough to cause root rot on the peonies.  This is disheartening when you wait all year to see them.

The iris from my mother's garden bloomed this year; the light purple doesn't flop and the maroonish one was my grandfather's. I bought an Autumn Moon Japanese maple. Funny how when you go to plant something, the place you had in mind just doesn't work.

The maple is the orangey chartreuse plant.

I got rid of the dwarf evergreen; it just never looked good after the transplant. I transplanted two boxwood out back in its place; not sure if they'll live.  Ugh.  At least it's not my pretty Green Mountain box.  And the blue lacecap bloomed for the first time in a long time.  I have a few blooms on the macrophyllas, for which I'm grateful.  Last year was pretty much zero.

I have to finish transplanting stuff that I left last year - the Stella D'Oro daylily being crowded out by the Fairy Rose and the peach daylily being crowded out by the Tiger Eyes sumac. I also bought a white catmint, which I probably shouldn't have because I just read that they self-seed prolifically.

That's my Dusty in the background!

Garden Goals

I'm not liking this trend toward superficial, rushed communication.  Twitter, Instagram, texting.  So I'll continue to use an "old-fashioned" medium like blogging.

We had a ton of rain last year and it really helped make things grow, including young and transplanted plants.  But I should have transplanted all four Green Velvet boxwood rather than one.  Also I need to move the peach daylily out from under the sumac.  This year I MUST NOT FORGET to prune the Pinky Winky, Strawberry Sundae, oakleaf and Invincibelle hydrangeas.  Pinky looks all kooky and straggly behind the beautiful baptisia foliage.

I'm pleased with the new garden (where the huge barberry tree was), although the ajuga groundcover obliterates the rock-framed border.

Ugh, I see plastic bags of leaf mold I didn't finish applying, and weeds.  Maybe my goal should be removing junk before I take pictures.  I dropped my camera once again and this time it was fatal.  I found taking pictures with it easier than with my phone.  I abandoned my weekly photo shoot after that.

Last year I bought amsonia Blue Ice, the things I've talked about before, Blue Billow hydrangea, Sunjoy Gold Pillar barberry, Sun King aralia, Sum and Substance hosta and Halcyon hosta, and maybe a few others I can't remember.  This year I'll buy an Autumn Moon Japanese maple to put at the corner of the deck near the new bed and maybe some lavender, but I can't think of anything else that's needed.  Maybe this will be the year I'll have the nerve to get rid of the struggling roses planted in my original garden in 2006.

2018

Happy New Year, 2019!  I was on Twitter and saw a tweet saying to post your top three personal accomplishments of 2018.  I couldn't think of any.  Maybe I need to be more creative, and reflective.

I saw a bear.  I saw an owl.  I lived past the age my father was when he had his heart attack.  This year I want to record things, like in a journal.  Does anyone have success with that?

My pipes froze mid-January, again.  We had incredibly bitter cold weather last December and January.  Not much snow though.  Starting basically in August there were two very ill family members in and out of the hospital, one time together.  One got diagnosed and is waiting for surgery.  The other doesn't really have a firm diagnosis, or treatment plan.  I  was reminded of my control issues during this period while trying to advocate for these capable adults.  Did they do what I said, call the referrals I gave them?  What did the doctor say to them?  Did they interpret it correctly?  I was reminded of a wonderful song by Robin Mark called "All Is Well."  One verse goes:

All is well, with my soul,

You are God, in control.

I know not what You've planned,

but I know I'm in Your hands.

Right now I'm way behind on renovating my dining room (I started it in April!).  Scraping paint took longer than planned, then I wasn't able to paint over the popcorn ceiling.  So I removed it.  Now I'm stuck trying to remove the texture at the edges, abutting the crown molding.  There's also caulk there.   Ugh.

Spring, as is its pattern lately, was late and cold and brief.  Summer wasn't too hot.  I'm trying to remember what I did.  Oh, yeah, my major makeover continued of the first (back) garden.  In addition to what I mentioned in my last post, I planted a viburnum in place of a pink knockout rose I transplanted to the side garden.  My newer rose did much better this year.  I have to remember not to prune it so it can make rose hips.  The transplanted irises from my mother's garden didn't bloom so I'm looking forward to seeing what colors they are.  The transplanted daylilies from her garden bloomed.  They should bulk up next year hopefully.  I transplanted some more this year.  Seems like I moved some of mine around as well.  Wow, I really need to document things better.  Although it's fun to see what comes up in the spring.

The bleeding heart I thought died came back to life and kept putting out new foliage through August.  The white clematis didn't come back so I planted a yellow baptisia there.  Baptisias are my new favorites.

A couple hostas got a deadly disease, Hosta X Virus.  Hopefully it hasn't spread to the others.  My hope is that this continues to be a relatively warm, snow-free winter, and spring is just around the corner.

And lastly, my cats have finally figured out I'm not a pyscho serial killer and will actually lay next to me on the couch.  Progress.  They're both snuggle bunnies.

It's Summer!

And it's stiflingly hot.  Hard to breathe.  Can't garden.  But I did some work today because I've been off work since Friday and have to go back Thursday.  We're so busy, a lot of stress.  I blame it on millenials, but really it just seems that the whole world is a lot uglier these days.  The beginning of the end, to quote my now-retired former boss.

The winter was incredibly cold, and early, like the beginning of December.  My pipes froze once again the beginning of January.  I'd just attended a deacon's meeting in which Pastor Deryk said that people seem to be suffering from some sort of funk, and we will experience troubles in the year ahead.  And these troubles should be considered God's gift.  I'm still thinking through that one.

In any event most of my lavender plant died, as well as the butterfly bush in the side garden, and my sister-in-law's groundcover rose in the front yard completely croaked.  It had been moved by the sewer repair people, then replanted in the wrong spot.  So of course I had to move it again.  Getting too arrogant and/or careless.  In the shade garden I lost two bleeding hearts, which I don't understand because I've seen some enormous stands of them.  But then I had some weird stems come up where my beautiful Gold Heart variety was.  I thought the woodchuck had struck again but then realized I must have oversprayed some Roundup in that area.  I'll never learn.  Apparently in a fit of pique I sprayed my neighbor's bittersweet and grapevine.  Bad move because I'd come to rely on the latter to cover his chain link fence, which borders the shade garden.

Poor Gold Heart.  Not sure if it'll recover from being poisoned.

I do actually have a few hydrangea blooms on some plants. I transplanted the Vanilla Strawberry hydrangea last fall, apparently permanently wrecking my thumb. I needed cortisone for my trigger thumb condition. Aging is not for sissies. Anyway I had to prune it hard because it was so huge, and now it's being attacked by wood borers. I had to cut it back farther; hopefully the glue and/or nail polish on the branch tips will prevent further infestation. The Blue Billow hydrangea is very beautiful this year. I planted a new one in front to replace the rose.

I've continued with the major renovation of the back garden, buying a Royal Purple smokebush and Tiger Eyes sumac. It'll be a while, though, before they reach full height.  I've acquired quite a taste for chartreuse things.

Smokebush's in back with pink plumes; sumac behind orange butterfly weed.

I've yet to plant a Judd viburnum in place of a double pink knockout rose. I've just about given up on some roses in this garden. This rose will be placed next to another one in the side garden. Maybe it'll do better there. My fairy roses are gorgeous per usual; the red one has really grown.

Peonies and clematis were very prolific this year.  I'm always afraid of clematis wilt but I think mine just suffer from the heat.  Finally got around to twisting a wire around the deck post for Comtesse to climb.

Comtesse de Bouchard.  Ignore the garbage bags please.

Good old Jackmanii.

Once again I'll be moving things around, like a hosta under the Japanese maple that doesn't get enough light and is changing colors. Also the irises in the front garden got so big they're crowding out their neighbors. The red fairy rose got so big it crowded out a beautiful pale yellow daylily and Rozanne cranesbill.  I'll quote whomever again - gardening is the art of moving things around.  Constantly.

I'll have to move these beauties; few blooms next year, darn it!