Day 229

Now that it is sunny again, here are some pictures of the yard with the mulch.

You can see that a deck will look nice someday! 

And this is what is behind the shed, where no one can appreciate it. I counted at least 5 peony bushes about to bloom.  To the right of this picture is the alley access to the backyard.  I'm sure this will come in handy someday but I'm not sure for what.  There isn't room to park a car back there without blocking the alley for others.  Now isn't a good time to transplant these peonies, but next spring I plan to move them somewhere where I will be able to look at them!  In the meantime, I'll just have to cut bouquets for inside the house.  Which is actually a good excuse for cutting them anyway! 

We have columbines!  Pretty! 

Day 227 part 2

A post script to to the previous post:  Brian and his guys DID come back and pick up the yard debris!  At 7 pm they came back after being here in the morning at 8:15.  Kudos to those guys! 

You can't really see it in its full glory, but you get the idea and tomorrow I'll post a better picture.  It's dark and it's still raining.  

Which are the two reasons why we're not going to do anything with mulch this until tomorrow.  To quote my student's dad Tony, "a redwood tree threw up in [our] driveway." 

Day 227

Sadly, we are still not upstairs yet.  We've been waiting for the floor guys for 2 weeks now.  They seemed a bit contrite about that when Jason called this morning, so they seemed sincere when they said they would come over on Wednesday.  Everyone, cross your fingers!

We had Brian the landscaper come over with his crew and help us clean up the mess that is the backyard!  It has been raining all day, and I didn't want to get my camera all wet, so I took these pictures in a hurry.  Also, they were supposed to come back this afternoon to collect all the debris and deliver a huge pile of mulch, but sadly, that didn't happen either.  Hopefully tomorrow this will happen, and then I'll take some pictures of the finished product!  In this picture, you can see the little garden Jason started.  He put up the fencing to protect it from bunnies because we see a lot of them hopping through our yard. 

Does anyone know what this is?  No, this isn't a fun quiz; I really want to know what this is.  Brian didn't know.  He thought it could be asparagus, but unless it is some kind of giant asparagus, I really don't think so.  I don't know what to do with it either.  Is this a pretty landscaping plant?  I'm leaning toward no right now. 

The landscapers edged out a defined line in between the plant beds and the grass area.  I really appreciated Brian's artistic vision!  It looks much better than I thought it would.  I'm very excited to see what it will look like with the mulch!  The landscapers were a little haughty at first, but Brian told us they hate people that don't take care of their yards.  He defended us to them.  It isn't our fault that this place was neglected for a year!  They had to hack some things way down, but when they grow back I think the place will be quite presentable! 

Day 219

Spring is my favorite time of year, and even though it comes later here in Omaha than what I was used to in Oregon, I'll take what I can get!

 Jason cleaned up the backyard a bit.  It was a jungle when we moved in because the house had been vacant for months, and the previous owner couldn't have cared less.  The house almost went into foreclosure and apparently he was pretty angry at the bank and at the world.  But regardless, we didn't really know what we had in terms of plants, and it has been really fun seeing what is coming up!  We have two lovely flowering trees in the backyard, pink of course.  The scotch broom is really pretty, and there is some purple weeds in the grass which I kind of like but we should probably get rid of.  Too bad we know nothing about landscaping.  I think it has potential though!  When you are standing in the backyard, it feels really private because we have lots of bushes in between our yard and the neighbors' yards.  that bit of randomness toward the bottom of the picture is going to become a little vegetable garden.  Jason has always wanted one of those and he is very excited to get started on it. 

Surprise, that wasn't a peony bush, it is a bleeding heart bush!  And to think I was worried about the naked ladies (the green stuff in front) covering up the tulips I planted, because the bush has eaten half of the tulips already!  Has anyone ever seen one get this big?  I even cut some of the branches off for a bouquet before I took this picture.  Apparently it likes to be completely ignored, which is PERFECT for me!  And of course it is pink as well!  Someone who used to live here loved pink.  The walls were pink, the carpet was pink, the bathroom is still pink with purple trim, and the kitchen was peach.  Not pink, but pretty close.  So it make perfect sense that the plants would also be pink.  I have no problem with pink plants; however, the rest of the pink is slowly but surely being eradicated.  Really!  I know it may not look like it, but we are really close... I know I know, I've been saying that a lot, but it's true!  You'll see next week.

Day 214

Check this out!  We have crown molding on our cabinets!  

We had a guy come over today and install it, because we were too nervous to do it ourselves.  No one will see the plumbing that isn't the prettiest, but since we'll be looking at the crown every day, it needs to look perfect. 

Jason and I are totally thrilled by how good it looks!  The under cabinet molding will nicely hide the lighting we plan to install someday. 

Not only do they look complete now, they look like a beautiful work of art.  Jason wanted me to take a picture of the detail work the guy did on these corners.  If he hadn't put that little angle in the crown, we wouldn't be able to open this door all the way.  Functional details are the best! 

The only sad thing is that we ran out of molding.  We need 8 more feet to complete this bit over the fridge.  So close!  We'll order some more and Jason can probably figure out how to install the last bit.  

And Happy Birthday to the most beautiful, kind, sweet and loving mother ever!  

Day 206

Hello all, we hope you all had a very happy Easter!  We've been plodding away at the baseboard painting. 

This is a painted stretch.  I like how it is a little shiny, and I think the bright white offsets the floors nicely.  

I love how this looks!  Jason's doorway casings look like they are original to the house now that they are painted. We still have at least half of the trim in the upstairs left to paint, but we have made a pretty good dent in it I think.  

This lovely picture is our hall closet.  We weren't going to worry about painting it because it is a closet and no one looks in those (unless you like to snoop!).  However, I'm sure you agree with me that now next to everything all painted and new looking, this closet looks like, well you know.

Ahh, much better!  I only primed it, but I think it is good enough.  The green trim remnant from the 50's is not staying.  That avocado trim has definitely been there a long time, if not the 50's, then at the latest the 70's in my estimation.  I wonder what orange and brown flowered print linens graced these shelves.  I found some q-tips behind the shelves when I took them out, but something tells me those are newer.  

 This is the new dining room chandelier!  I think it looks very elegant.  I ordered the ceiling medallion online and I am very pleased with it.  It isn't quite flush with the ceiling because again, our ceiling is charmingly lumpy.  We haven't decided what we will do about that.  We've discussed using a brad nail gun, caulking or both.  We're both a little nervous about the nail gun because we don't want to break the medallion, but I think it will probably be okay.  

This picture is just for show.