The Green, Green Grass

While the men were working on the front yard, we fenced up part of the yard to keep the dogs from barking.  We took the opportunity to put down some Scott's Turf Builder.  Man, that stuff works.  Unfortunately, I didn't put it down evenly enough.  Maybe I missed my row, or didn't press down hard enough in some spots.  Our yard now how streaks.  I'm sure they'll go away. We really put down the stuff to stop the crabgrass, not to get the dark green grass we now have. We'll take it though.  (You'll notice I put down some bright red mulch around our tree... more on that later.)

The Stone Pathway

The stonework is finally done.  We're really glad we went with the natural stone (as opposed to the Connecticut blue stone everyone uses here).  Matches our stone foundation.  Path looks great.  Can't tell you how hard these little men work at this ancient craft.  Chip, chip, chipping away to make the stones fit. They're real artisans.  We're also glad all the ugly bushes have been cleared out, especially that scraggy Forsythia which got in the way each and every time we got in and out of the car.  Now they need to regrade and we need to go shrub shopping with Mario. 

Wicker Furniture

We'd been searching for the right wicker furniture for the patio for some time.  It's like the stuff went out of style. Has it?  Well, we found and ordered a set from Target.  An ottoman arrived first before the whole set -- luckily.  It was an ugly off white.  So, we cancelled that order.  More searching.  Olga then used her credit card points for a Home Depot Gift Card.  We went online and placed an order for a wicker set we liked, only to discover that gift cards can't be used on homedepot.com.  We called our local Home Depot and were told that they didn't have it in their store.  Then we spoked to a manager who then informed us that they do, in fact, have the set.  I picked it up -- the whole set -- in the Element.  We then ordered the cushions online.  With the morning sun coming in, it's a great place to have breakfast and a big cup of coffee. 

More Work on The Front Yard

Here's the front yard with the old (cracked) cement path removed.  Pictures also show that they refaced the part of the wall facing the house.  That wasn't really part of the agreement, but we're glad they did. 

The Leslie's Come to Dinner

Olga's parents and brother James and girlfriend Emma came to dinner.  All the way to Stamford from Vail... and Greenwich Village.  We didn't take any photos together (probably because we were too busy eating Helena's yummy Turkey Dinner) but here's our first properly set table at the house. 

The Front Lawn

Work began on the front lawn.  Mario Lombardi (think he's Italian?) and his crew are doing the work after we met with much more expensive landscapers.  We don't need the lawns of Versailles, we just need our front yard to look nice.

The Cave - Update

We're making progress on the cave.  Concrete has been poured. Purchased flooring.  Pergo.  Springdale Cherry.  We bought that color mainly because we like the darker wood color but also because Springdale is the section of Stamford we live in.  I bought red velvet curtains to go behind the screen that we'll eventually have.  Olga still thinks whole project is silly. 

More Gardening

Gardening is... a very good workout.  We don't know if we even own the land but we cleared out years and years of leaves from our Hickory tree on the other side of our backyard fence.  The far side of the fence pictured above was essentially a no man's land that was completely overgrown.  We cut it back and tried to smother it with leaves.  Wooh.  Lot of work.  The neighbors were peaking out their windows.  Also added a garden bed on east side of the house to look at from the porch or the dining room.  It doesn't look so great now. 

More Gardening

Inspired by our seedlings, we cleared out the garden beds on the side of the house... 

Dougan... Bathing in the Sun

Dougan likes to take in the afternoon sun in the dining room... 

Seedlings... One Week Later

Woo hoo!  We awoke to Saturday morning to Marigold seedlings that had come alive and wiggled their way out of the soil.  We felt such a sense of pride.  The Lavender and Dianthus also have begun to sprout.  No word from the veggies yet on when they'll break through the soil. 

Seedlings

The seeds we posted about arrived.  Time to -- I'm not sure what the verb is, "pre-seed?"   As we completed this project (the same weekend as the rocking chairs -- what a wild and crazy weekend), we really doubted our green thumbs.  Who knew how teensy tiny some of these seeds are.  

We're Rockin'

Picked up two rocking chairs and a side table at Lowes a few weeks ago.  I haggled down the price of the table since it was a floor model.  I don't think they're used to haggling at Lowes. 

Winchek's Visit: Palm Sunday Weekend

The Winchek's came to visit on Palm Sunday weekend. We walked up to the playground at the Toquam magnet school in our neighborhood. Back at the house we played with the "Photobooth" on the laptop.

More photos here:


http://flickr.com/photos/31283714@N00/sets/72157604280528681/

Spring is (Nearly) Here: Krokus Appear

"Krokus" is either 1) a heavy metal band from Switzerland or 2) a small early-blooming flower. Krokus -- the flower, not the band -- appeared last week in our front yard.  It's freezing now but we like that the little guys have made an appearance.  We hope warm whether comes soon after.

Sketches

More spring cleaning. Here's an early sketch of what we thought the yard would be. Placement of the garden is the most correct thing here...

A Pantry Deferred

While doing some spring cleaning on the laptop came across a rendering of what scheme for our pantry. Looks pretty cool. Our thoughts now are to not do a pantry. Instead, we want to knock down the wall and create a kitchen bar, possibly adding value to the house. That project, however, is quite a ways away.

Seeds of...

Failure? Disappointment?

The Burpee catalog arrived. Time to pick seeds. We -- I, Robert -- went a bit overboard. Here's the philosophy: seeds are cheap, if they fail it's not that a big of a deal. Buying flowers at Fairfield County nurseries: expensive. In Fairfield County, they sell "Private Equity Petunias" and "Hedge Fund Hibiscus." We went with Burpee.

Here's the overly ambitious purchase. Stay tuned for the spring and summer:

*Veggies & Herbs*
Tomato Mortgage Lifter (Heirloom) - 1 Pkt (50 seeds)
Lettuce Looseleaf Blend - 1 packet (500seeds)
Lettuce Looseleaf Heatwave - Packet (500 seeds)
Basil Summerlong - Packet (100 seeds)
Sweet Pepper California Wonder - 1 Pkt (100 seeds)
Cucumber Sweet Success Hybrid (Burpless) - 1 Pkt. (30 seeds)
Chard Burpee's Rhubarb - 1 Pkt. (210 Seeds)
Parsley, Plain (Single Italian) - 1 Pkt. (750 seeds)
Coriander or Cilantro - 1 Pkt. (150 seeds)
Oregano, Greek - 1 Pkt. (700 seeds)
Rosemary - 1 Pkt. (100 seeds)
Spinach Baby's Leaf Hybrid - 1 Pkt. (300 seeds)


*Flowers & Flora*
Lavender Lady - 1 Pkt. (300 seeds)
Coleus Rainbow Mixed - 1 Pkt. (40 Seeds)
Bells of Ireland - 1 Pkt. (50 seeds)
Cutting Garden - 1 Collection
Petunia Wave Hybrid, Purple - Purple Wave - 1 Pkt. (15 seeds)
Alyssum Carpet of Snow - 1 Pkt. (1000 seeds)
Alyssum Royal Carpet - 1 Pkt (1000seeds)
Petunia - Magic Carpet Hybrid MixZinnia Tequila Lime - Packet (50 seeds)
Candy Box Impatiens - Packet (20 seeds)
Phlox Fordhook Finest Mix - 1 Pkt. (100 seeds)
Phlox- Summer Majesty Hybrid Mix (1 pkt. 50 seeds)

The Garage: After (But Before Taping and Painting)

Here's the after photos of the garage.  Not great photos but it does look much cleaner -- and safer.  Now it needs to be "taped" so we can paint it. Then, we need to organize it. 

Bad Pipes No More (Knock Wood)

In one of our first posts on this blog we said that the house has "Bad Pipes.  Good Bones."  Well, with the impending sheetrock job we had to fix some of those bad pipes.  The "We" in this case means "Joe Burke."  He came down especially to replace the old pipes in the garage and basement.  After he cut open one of the pipes he showed me what 85 years of gunk (from the bathroom sink) looks like.  Not very appetizing.  We now have some plastic piping -- and better drainage. 

Cooper (And Tosha) Visit

No pictures of Tosha, but we did snag a photos of Cousin Cooper. 

The Garage: Before (And Learning About Insulation)

We knew we wanted to put up new drywall in the garage.  As you can see in the pictures, it was in bad shape.  Didn't look so nice.  What we didn't really think about was that there was essentially no insulation.  There was literally some cardboard stapled up to the ceiling as well as the funky beige water-stained material you see.  My father's friend Dave came over and pointed this all out to us.  He told me the feel the floor in the study, especially where there was no ceiling at all.  Cold.  Very cold.  So we hired Dave and his buddy and son to put up the drywall.  I had to acquire the materials.  Oh boy. I ordered the wood.  Not really a problem. But then I had to order the drywall/sheetrock (I don't know what's the difference!).  The folks at Richardson Gypsum Supply are real nice.  And patient.  They asked me what thickness I wanted.  My reply:  "I dunno."  I told them what it was for.  They told me I needed 5/8 to be up to fire code since the garage it's attached to the house.  I'm absolutely sure that the weird beige material broke all sorts of code.  Then they asked me about thickness of the insulation.  My reply:  "I dunno."  R11, R13, R19.  Who knew there were so many sizes?  Well, I agreed to insulation that wasn't thick enough.  Luckily, Dave and his crew agreed to pick some up (I believe they went up to R21) for me before they began work.  See next post for the "After" photos. 

 

Nifty Hanger Thing

So, we didn't have a very good system for storing our mops, brooms and other sweeper-like instruments (we, somehow, have acquired quite a few). We first stored them in the closet. That didn't work so well.  Then we sort of just threw them on landing of the basement steps.  That didn't work so well either.  Olga picked up this nifty hanger which uses, how can I say this, a "roller contraption" to keep the handles in place.  It's pretty cool. Never thought we'd be so intrigued by a hanger.  

New Console Table, Lamps

Part of the original design for the living room, we finally added a "mission style" console table and companion lamps behind the house. My father also helped drill holes in the floor and run speaker wire so that we can set the rear speakers on the table. Full surround sound. Room is certainly cozier, which is going to take some getting used to.