Now That Winter is Almost Here. . . Garden & Yard Photos! October 23, 2008

So our first attempt at gardening was actually pretty successful.  We started off with a few basics, including tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers.  We made tomato and cucumber salads and cucumbers were a pretty common snackaroo for a few months.

Wee Veggie Garden

A Few Months Later

In a post from maybe June, I mentioned wanting to use rubber mulch in part of our yard and I’ve included a photo of the mulch and the seven shrubs we planted.  It looks pretty good, but those dang leaves that keep falling from the trees are driving me crazy.  I keep wanting to pick them out of the mulch.

Bottom Left Side -- Rocks & No Mulch or Shrubs

With Rubber Mulch and Shrubs!

Anywho, the weather has definitely cooled down and everything is slowly withering and going into hibernation, but we’re prepping for next spring.  We’ll start early and plant o’ plenty.

Here’s a hint at an upcoming post — Check out that way cool interior door that was being used as an exterior door.  You can’t see it from this photo, but the door frame is sorta pieced together, the door is cracked, and there’s a space for a transom window that has been boarded over.  These are all qualities you want in a door when the temperature has already dropped down below freezing. . . Stay tuned for the seriously awesome update on that stuffs.

Man we have been slacking on the updates… September 22, 2008

but not on the work around the house.

We will have lots of pics coming soon, hopefully in the middle of the week.  For now, here is a size comparison photo.

FJ vs 218

106… now possibly 131 July 30, 2008

We had drinks with our neighbors to the north this past weekend, and we fund out A LOT about the history of our house… very cool.  Apparently their house was built by the son of the women whom owned our house.  As it turns out, instead of being built in 1902 it looks like the main part of the house was built by 1881 and most likely 1877!  It definitely explains a lot about the construction of the house.  Additionally we found out that the second addition was in place by 1949, so it too is older then we believed.

Overall we learned quite a bit more about our little place, and makes us prouder to know it’s trooped on for so long… and the pina coladas were very good too.

So many projects and only 23 more weekends left in 2008 July 18, 2008

So it could maybe possibly be my fault that we haven’t posted in a little while, but we have many projects to come. . . We’ve been working on our yard, rearranging our furniture at 1:30am on a school night and contemplating how to improve the bathroom on a super small budget.

We’re thinking about using rubber mulch and permeable pavers to help finish off the front yard and driveway. I was looking at Marmoleum earlier tonight for the bathroom and despite the website saying that it “is all natural and comes in a rainbow of beautiful colors,” I’m not really liking any of the fabulous colors.

We also just met with a green architect this afternoon to get a better idea of what an addition might cost and ultimately look like. The meeting was pretty interesting and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we might be able to build a little something Josh and Tanya friendly for our wee budget.

Thanks for reading and we’ll be posting yard photos very very soon. . . pwomise.

Low VOC Paint June 26, 2008

With all the action of painting, molding, and unpacking we wanted to give a shout out to our paint, Olympic Premium…woot!  It might take a couple coats on the plaster walls, but it has no VOC and is Green Seal “Class A” Certified.  With all of our projects around the house we are trying to do them as green as possible, on a budget since we are both dorky veg*n’s who care about the environment all on non-profit salaries.

What does that all mean?

“Paints and finishes release low level toxic emissions into the air for years after application. The source of these toxins is a variety of VOC’s (Volatile Organic Compounds) which, until recently, were essential to the performance of the paint.

New environmental regulations, and consumer demand, have led to the development of low-VOC and zero-VOC paints and finishes. Most paint manufacturers now produce one or more non-VOC variety of paint. These new paints are durable, cost-effective and less harmful to human and environmental health.”

The Olympic Premium is zero-VOC, though there is some slight confusion wether the paint colorants (the color pigmant they add to create your shade) is zero-VOC as well.  Either way the pain is zero to low VOC, made in the USA and about the same price as regular paint, which is handy to our non-profit wallets.

We bought our paint at Loews, it took us talking to two different people at the paint area (one said they did not carry low VOC paint), and a bit of investigation on our own to find out they carried enviromentally friendly (friendlier?) paint.  From what we have read this is pretty common.  Even though green living is a buzz word, many times the stores have no idea if they carry green products… so strange, especailly at the yuppy feeling Loews.

Both of us would highly recomend the paint, especailly for the budget conscience who can not fork out the big bucks for the fancier smaller brand green paints.  Added bonus, Olympic has a zero-VOC primer too!

Links:
Olympic Premium Paint
Green Seal

Gaps are gone, molding is on. June 21, 2008

Oh what a little paint and one WEEK of fiddling with molding, and by fiddling I mean cutting, painting, nail gunning, caulking gaps, and repainting… who knew molding would be such a long process and make such a big difference.  Check out the before and after pics below, it is pretty amazing what a difference it makes.

• living room north east before

• living room north east after

• living room north west before (check out the dingy before color, ick)

• living room north west after (ooh yeah snowy mountain white and a nice dark silvery-gray)

• bedroom south wall before, HUGE GAP!

• bedroom south wall after, clean and nice

• and the west bedroom wall before

• west bedroom after, much much better

• and check out the bedroom steps before

• and after, the clean white paint doesn’t hurt

say hello to one of our friendly little neighbors! June 21, 2008

we discovered him one morning on the window sill.  i didn’t get a chance to take a picture of him then, but he turned up again the next night.  i’ve decided to call him mr. snail!

Pics on the way? June 12, 2008

Oh where oh where is my camera’s docking station? Somewhere in a box I guess…  Once I find it pics will be posted.

So far this week we have finished painting the living room (except for two small areas that need some primer and a coat or two of paint due to kid drawings ont he wall), and we have in the house all of the molding for the living room and bedroom ready to be cut and painted this weekend, plus some goodies for the backyard… busy weekend ahead. I will make sure to track down the dock so I can post the pics I have promised.

We bought a lawnmower… finally June 6, 2008

After searching for a Made in the USA 18″ Reel mower (manual push) we settled on an assembled in the USA Craftsman… since apparently Made in the USA and 18″ Reel Mowers do not exist… boo. So here it is, well a stock photo of it… more pics to come, I promise.

Moving in, and repiars have started June 4, 2008

Sorry for the delay in posting, we moved into our house with the final box hitting the floor at 3am on May 27err May 28th at that point and then were picked up for a work trip to NYC at 7am. We arrived home a few days ago and the process of unpacking, and fixing things in under way.

Now that we have internet at the house I will start posting some more photos over the next few days.