Julie Wiggins: House

pictures = a thousand words

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 02:56:59 GMT

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

Front Tree Area - done

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 02:45:17 GMT

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)

Rosemary-Lavendar-Lemon Balm-Peppermint Scape

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 02:38:46 GMT

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

destroying things

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 03:55:50 GMT

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

Fixing a basket weave fence

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 03:48:47 GMT

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

two toned house

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 03:35:48 GMT

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)

little green pods

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 03:31:14 GMT

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.

pictures of the new front lawn

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:29:59 GMT

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

so what you don't know about buying a house..

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 08:54:59 GMT

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..

coat rack and bathroom cabinet

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 03:11:37 GMT

here's the new coat rack I designed and built

before

and here's the beginning of the bathroom cabinet

Remodeling living & dining room

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 03:46:02 GMT

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

The new gate

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 08:15:59 GMT

The gate I built, if you notice to the left of the picture - there stands the old rickety gate

now looking back at the original idea I started with...here, I need to add a latch of some sort..that would be helpful

loving the jigsaw

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 02:55:15 GMT

what I really wanted in a new gate was something like this and there is no way I can afford to put in a 600.00 gate especially since I didn't want to pay for the labor in the first place...so as I was driving to a client office today, I realized I forgot to measure the height of the 4x4 stud, I think it was shorter than I had made the gate and if so, I need to cut the gate down a smidgen...and yes, when I got home, the 4x4 was about 12 inches short - cool! Now I could jigsaw the top of the fence into a rounded configuration - its rounded enough, I can't seem to draw a circle straight, actually I can't draw a straight line very well either, so now I've got my rounded top just like I wanted. Tommorrow morning I have to go back and buy another 2x4 and reattach it to the top, lesson learned, always measure everything twice. And then I need to finish cutting out the kitty door, take the old gate down and hang up the new gate but at least by taking off a foot, its a little easier to manage and I can probably hang it myself. I was thinking about putting a small butterfly in the middle but that might have to wait...

now that I've used the jigsaw and am not scared of it, there are so many cool designs floating in my head and I realize I can do what I want with the gate, its my gate and so what if the top isn't perfect, its my first time using a jigsaw and for that matter first time I've ever built a gate..pictures soon

who needs a handyman anyways? I can do it!

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 02:28:26 GMT

when I bought my house, i went on the premise that I could do most of the remodeling and handyman work and then when it came too it, the easy way out would be to hire someone to do it but when I got the bids for the work no way, i can do it myself or for the most part I can do it myself. Today I used my jigsaw for the first time and didn't hurt myself, actually it was quite fun. And I built a gate, the gate is a little heavy but it's definetly sturdy, I ran out of light to finish putting it up and I'm not sure if I'm strong enough to get it up by myself but that's what friends are for right?

I also figured out the trick at home depot, if you go in looking like a girl that has no clue, then no one will help you. If you go in, looking like you know exactly what you're doing, then every guy in there wants to help out whether you need it or not. Case in point, yesterday I was wearing a tank top and sandals and was carrying a purse and went to home depot - no one person ask me if I needed any help. Today, I went in t-shirt, tennis shoes, no purse and went to pull the lumber down and all of the sudden there were two guys asking me if I needed help.

Building the gate took a little longer than expected, I was going to do that, then work a little, then paint the wall, so new plan of action for the weekend, is one project then working. Its still tax time and everyone needs something plus I have a few other tigerpaw projects going on right now.

So tommorrow, I must get up early and finish the gate and then head off to work.

Next week, I'm going to fix the other side of the fence that's about to fall down. Seriously, $300.00 to install a new post, that's BS. I checked out prices today, new 4x4 post is 10.00 + the cement 5.00 = this is a 15.00 repair and maybe like 2 hours of my time. Oh and maybe I should install some lights out in my backyard so I can see.

And the pocket door install, there is no way I'm paying 1000.00 to install it. I can figure it out. There are books and I know how to take down and put up sheet rock, so I'll just figure out the rest.

interviewing handymen

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 17:47:57 GMT

i'm interviewing a couple of handymen today for some odd projects around the house and after the first one, I'm thinking it would just be easier to buy a book and do it myself.

The first one that showed up was 20 minutes late - i'm ok with that, i'm usually late. Then I showed him the bathroom and where I wanted to put in the pocket door and he asked me what a pocket door was and then proceeded to tell me that the beams in my house were important - no shit sherlock. Yea, so that pissed me off. Then we went outside to show him the gate that needs to be replaced and he couldn't figure out how to open it even though I said push it hard, finally I had to open it for him and then he told me the post was strong, I didn't ask whether or not the post was strong, I asked how long it would take to install a new gate. He told me he could put some plywood up and hinge it - that's not what I asked. If I had a new gate, how long to put it up? I finally gave up and didn't even show him the rest of the projects. His english wasn't very good and he smelled. I'm all for the little guy trying to make in this world, but seriously dude, listen to your clients, don't assume they have no idea what they are talking about.

At this point, I'm thinking I should just start taking Sat/Sun's off and work on the projects around the house, it would be easier...unless any of my friends know of some great handyman's in the area that speak english, possibly single would be great too :)

will report on the second one..later this afternoon