House

a little pictorial of what's going on with the house remodel

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the studio

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the privacy screen for my patio area

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cork flooring

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master bedroom  - eww, the mold discovered
 

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living room

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the planters/cat tree

oops, didn't take pics yet

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backyard lawn

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new french drain

- Posted by Julie Wiggins - 7:56:59 PM - comment [] trackback []

Front Tree Area - yeah finally finished

Moved the potato bush yet again - separated out the dead one and moved the small one that's struggling to survive, me thinks it doesn't like to be replanted but it was either that or removed it completely and I like it. And got rid of those weird ferny things - I so did not like them. Planted the strawberries - who knew - they are good ground cover. Moved some of the moss to a shadier area, I guess moss really likes some partial shade and a little more water than it was getting and the Strawberries love full sun. And can not forget to water the pansies or they start to die.

Front Tree Area Before

Front Tree Area Finished

Close up of Strawberries (you might wonder why their random, because I can not plant in a straight line, I can't cut or draw one either, so why would planting be any different.lol)

- Posted by Julie Wiggins - 7:45:17 PM - comment [] trackback []

Rosemary-Lavendar-Lemon Balm-Peppermint with a little Strawberry thrown in to the mix.

As you can see there is this weird fake rock in the picture - its to hide the sprinkler system however its ugly and doesn't fit and will be taken out soon

Part 1

Part 2 - almost done

Part 3 - finished with a little walkway

- Posted by Julie Wiggins - 7:38:46 PM - comment [] trackback []

First time using a circular saw and I torn out part of the deck

demolished the brick planter in front of the house and found this old milk bottle from some old milk bottling company in Oakland

- Posted by Julie Wiggins - 8:55:50 PM - comment [] trackback []

I love the old style basket weave fences with ivy growing around, through, over but when the next door neighbor has a large pit bull on the other side, I had to do something about the openings and my fix was to slat over the open weave but still preserve the basket weave style - worked like a charm, a little bit of a pain because I didn't want to kill the ivy but it looks great.

Fence Before

Fence After

- Posted by Julie Wiggins - 8:48:47 PM - comment [] trackback []

my neighbors must be wondering what is going on, half the house is one color, half is the new color - I'm working on it as fast as I can - can only paint when its sunny outside, part of me thinks I should just hire someone to finish the job, the other part of me - keeps telling myself - it will get done at least before the end of summer - I hope. Maybe I should have a painting party to get some help to get it done or maybe Monica's kids and friends wanna make some money and come over and help out?

I love the new colors (in case you're wondering, the color on the left is the new color)

- Posted by Julie Wiggins - 8:35:48 PM - comment [] trackback []

who knew..planting and playing in the dirt is actually relaxing, its like stepping away into another world where the phone isn't ringing, the text messages aren't popping up constantly and it just being out in the sun and doing a different kind of work....so today, I planted pansies around the tree and then irish moss staggered around the tree, I need more pansies to even it out but so far so good. I had to look up how to plant both pansies and irish moss, someone laughed at me - not mean just in a curious sort of way when I said I had to look up how to plant things - but really how would I know, I've never done it before, at least not that I can remember. I can honestly tell you I've never planted irish moss before but I like the look of the little green pods and in theory, they are going to spread out 6-8 inches across so it should fill in the tree area quite a bit. Although the potato bush and other strange ferny thing don't look right now, looks out of place. 

Close up view of planting of pansies and moss with a little mint thrown in

I was a little lost on the whole concept of compost and fertilizer and had no idea what to get at Home Depot so I just grabbed what everyone else was getting, the home depot person told me the potting mix is both compost and fertilizer mixed together and it was perfect for planting - ah ok.

Tommorrow, I start digging holes for the rosemary and lavendar bushes that will go against the front of the house and then planting the lemon balm and peppermint in front of that, and oh yea, the strawberries too- should start to smell delicious outside my office window soon and its all edible flowers and herbs. And this weekend, I'll plant the orange tree.

- Posted by Julie Wiggins - 8:31:14 PM - comment [] trackback []

pictures of the new front lawn

where the slate will be once it stops raining and I can deal with the drainage issue:

the new green lawn

new lawn again with electrician working

the tree area, see it with cute little flowers surrounding the tree

and last but not least, the front of the house which has black bark (currently the favorite place to use as a litter box) to be replaced with something else

- Posted by Julie Wiggins - 11:29:59 AM - comment [] trackback []

your house will eat your money

no one ever tells you about those expense to owning your own home beyond the mortgage payments and taxes such as

• tree trimming, my god that's expensive
  
• landscaping to have that gorgeous green lawn
  
• or having a new neighbor move in with pit bulls and that old basket weave style of fence that's covered in gorgeous 20yr old ivy, has to be immediately fixed and boarded up the openings so the attack pit bulls don't come through the fence and you know the neighbors are like "my dog, he's so sweet, he's part of the family" yea, but he doesn't like other people in his space and he's not fixed - why the hell is he not fixed? and your probably wondering why its my expense - because I don't feel safe with that dog being able to see me while I'm in my backyard
  
• or having to fix your backfence - because the irresponsible people in the back keeping getting pit bull after pit bull puppies and letting them dig through to your yard
  
• or plumbing problems because your sink, bathtub, laundry sink and toilet have all of sudden developed a case of the hiccups
  
• or the ant issue - where did all these ants come from?
  
• or finding all the trash that the original owners dump in the backyard (apparently the orginal owners didn't have garbage service and just dumped and burned their garbage in the backyard - which explains the razor blades, needles, condoms that I keep finding)
  
• and remember you will hit your thumb twice in a row while hammering

all in all, I love owning my own house, its just little annoyances and expenses that seem to be cropping up left and right out of nowhere all at the same time..when all the credit cards are maxed from all the other design expenses and the value of the house has gone down, so refinancing or getting an equity line isn't worth it right now..

- Posted by Julie Wiggins - 1:54:59 AM - comment [] trackback []

here's the new coat rack I designed and built

    before

and here's the beginning of the bathroom cabinet

- Posted by Julie Wiggins - 8:11:37 PM - comment [] trackback []

I painted my living room and dining room and installed hardwood floors over the last couple of weeks. Originally I wanted to paint the living room and dining room floors in a really cool artistic pattern with poetry on the floors - similar to this idea

Then when I pulled up the carpet and found tar on the concrete, plans changed. I guess originally in the 1940s they put abestos tile throughout the house over the concrete foundation and to install those, they had to first put tar down, then the tiles, thank god the previous owner had already had those removed - because it would have cost me so much more to deal with that - being its hazardous waste and all. And you can't paint over tar, it just bubbles up eventually or scraps off and here's what that looked like..concrete pic

all best intentions go astray...and I really wanted hardwood floor eventually just wasn't planning on doing it now, so something out there was telling me to just do it and here's the end result

more pictures here...

dining room before  ::::::: dining room after

living room before :::::::: living room after/mocha walls

next is the landscaping

- Posted by Julie Wiggins - 8:46:02 PM - comment [] trackback []