The Fixer Upper House and Garden

Stuff

Getting Rid Of Stuff has been a major theme for me these past two years. After a lifetime of being an accumulator, I now love throwing things away. Today I threw away a scratched Teflon skillet, thus liberating the pots-and-pans drawer (as well as my family ) from a potentially poisonous cooking utensil. I also gave away our cream-colored dining room rug, which I once loved but whose color I always regretted, especially after Milo used it as a poop mat when we were on vacation recently. I gave the rug to a man who came to haul away the bricks from the front yard. I gave it to him on one condition: That he must absolutely clean the rug before presenting it to his wife. I'll never know if he does this, but I tried.

Here's another thing I gave away today: a ton of bricks and bluestone shards. Well maybe not a ton. I'm not good at judging things like tons. It seemed like a ton to me. But the thing that really puts today on the anti-clutter radar is that at long last, I got rid of the ugly evergreens out front. Except for a few gnarly juniper stumps, the front yard is as naked as new construction. 

Ahhhhh.......

For a progression of photos of the front of my house, click below

Knock, Knock

When we moved into The Fixer Upper House a year and a half ago, I got a note that went something like this: "Until you get a proper mailbox, the United States Postal Service will no longer deliver mail to this address."

This unwelcome letter made me gloomy, because I had to pick up our mail at the post office until I replaced the 2-inch mail slot next to the front door with a mail box big enough to handle today's volume of junk mail. I knew it would take months...and months to find a mailbox that met my standards. 

I had a vague idea about those standards: circa 1920s, wall-mount, brass with a brownish patina to go with the front door's 100-year-old lock and handle. And I knew I

didn't want art deco or arts & craft. Foreshadowing the level of effort I would put into finding other house fixtures, I searched ebay and craigslist; googled "mailboxes circa 1920;" looked through dozens of catalogs and magazines; and shopped malls, home-design stores, antique stores and flea markets. But I couldn't find the mailbox of my dreams.

Fortunately, about a year ago I got on good terms with Glen, my mail carrier. I think he felt sorry for me because the

Almost Impossible Weather

Given that we've experienced every possible extreme weather condition since we moved to the  Midwest exactly 2 years ago, it's with great pleasure and some suspicion that I report the following: Summer has been glorious. I can't recall ever experiencing so many consecutive days of breezy, sun-filled, 80-degree weather anywhere or at any time in my life. Not a single June day was sweltering-hot or windbreaker-cold. We've had rain for sure; strong thunderous storms that wake your dreams and rock the trees (it's storming as I write this). But the spells pass quickly, and we do have that new moat of a storm drain to protect the basement. We also have a new bluestone patio that's perfect for a sun-dappled morning cup of coffee and a bowl of Quaker Granola. With the sun warming my pj's, I hardly notice the stones don't match:

Shades of White

A situation with my painter has caused me to rethink the way I am parenting my daughters.

Last week after the painters had been working on the exterior for 2 days, I realized they were using Brilliant White on the trim, when I had told them to use Dove White. (How to describe the difference? Brilliant White is the color of Oprah's teeth after a visit to the dentist. Dove White is like Half 'N Half ... before you pour it into coffee).

 GC and the painters tried to convince me that even though I thought I wanted Dove White, the brighter Brilliant White which they had chosen was actually a better match to the window mullions. They talked about the importance of maintaining consistency; they said it was the architect's idea; they said it looked really good; they didn't remember hearing me mention Dove White. And they pointed out that they'd already purchased xbezillion gallons of Brilliant White and had invested 2 days of labor into the job.

Choosing Exterior Paint Colors

One of the things I tried to avoid throughout this renovation was making decisions at the last minute. When we renovated our first house 13 years ago, I was so unprepared for finishing decisions that I would have to rush out and buy stuff the moment the carpenter told me he needed it. For example, when he informed me it was time to install bathroom tile, I buckled my baby into her car seat and raced off to the tile store. When he needed the bath tub, I frantically dialed Husband's cell phone and told him to get one on his way home from the airport. We picked out the kitchen cabinets from a lineup at Home Depot and decided on exterior paint colors after half an hour in a paint store. It turned out well enough---it was a 100-year old Victorian two-flat that we rescued from decades of neglect, and for the five years that we lived there, we loved it completely.

This time around, as many of you know, I took the opposite approach: I researched and priced out every centimeter of The Fixer Upper House ... Until now!

The painters are here to do the exterior work. All along I've been planning on a "sand" color for the window trim, but I haven't figured out which of the hundreds of "sand" colors I should go with. I want the shutters to be dark green--but which dark green? I have given not a moment's thought to the beadboard, fasciaboard and all of that stuff. And I totally have disregarded the centerpiece of the house: The Front Door.

The Fixer Upper Garden

One of the things that really motivated me to buy T.F.U.H. 20 months ago was that it needs a total landscaping overhaul, and I really love to toil in the garden. My green thumb is going to come in handy, because the front evergreens are so dense and overgrown that five children can simultaneously lay on top of them without even bending the branches. The side garden is a barren mudslick and the backyard is so bereft of plants it looks as if a bomb went off. The property endured decades of benign neglect from the P.O.s and nine months of cataclysmic assaults from us: The demolition of the old addition, the digging of a new basement, the building of a new addition and the installation of a storm drain all have detonated the property. There's nothing left but rocks, scrappy trees and hard, clay soil...I can hardly wait to get started!

This is the future bluestone patio:

The Gambrel Roof

Here are before-and-after shots of the gambrel roofed addition.

Before:

After:

 

Blog Updates

Dear friends and readers,

I am as un-techy a person as you'll ever find, but a little thing called "widgets" is making it easier to navigate the blogosphere. Just six months ago, I grappled with how to start a "favorite houseblogs" sidebar to this blog. Now I can link to other blogs very easily (if you're a blogger who reads my blog a lot, let me know!). Widgets also have made it easier for me to connect with you, dear friends and readers. I've just added "feedblitz" (upper right corner), which allows you to get my posts delivered to your e-mail address if you so choose. And I've also added a "search" function that lets you find stuff on the blog.

So if you want to revisit last summer's flood,  or read about soapstone, or get some tips on mudroom design...search the blog!

Now if I could just find a widget to fold the laundry...

The Living Room

Originally we had big plans for changing the function of the living room, including building columned half-walls that would separate the main, narrow section from a small attached sunroom. This would have created a lovely office for moi...but after we decided to install a storm drain in the yard...well...the lovely office for moi got flushed away.

And this is OK, because the phoenix rises out of ashes...and the dough rises out of quickened yeast ... and May flowers spring from April rains ... Anyway, looking on the bright side: after we refinished the floors, painted the walls and cleaned up the fireplace, the living room emerged as the go-to place for curling up, catlike, in a comfy chair with the Sunday paper, and reading it all, even the Auto section and the circulars from Macy's and Target. It's a great place to go to play board games, or visit with a friend, or chat on the phone. And the room's spaciousness deceives visitors into thinking the house is a bit bigger than it really is.

The living room is only partially furnished at this moment in time due to fund compromisation (I just made up that word). You can see how nicely the floors turned out:

The fireplace bricks are the exact same color and texture as chocolate chip cookie dough before you dump in the bag of chocolate chips:

 

Did I mention how nicely the floors turned out?

Get out your sunglasses! The walls were really really white

And this:

Quiet ... At Last

I am home and there are no workers digging in the yard or hammering in the basement. The phone is not ringing, the kids are out with Husband and the sleeping dogs are not even snoring. I vacuumed every day this week, because it's shedding season for labradors and visiting season for T.F.U.H. (people kept stopping by and I kept inviting people to stop by). So in addition to being quiet, it's also very tidy here.

Ah, blessed peace; how I've missed you.

This is the first time since we moved that I feel relaxed. I've been so busy...and am having so much fun in the house. Last night we hosted dinner for a progressive party, which is a remarkable way to entertain. I must remember to volunteer for this type of thing more often. In a progressive party, everyone meets at one house for cocktails; then you break up into groups of 8-10 people at various homes, and after dinner everyone gathers for coffee and dessert at another destination--in our case, our church.

If you're a dinner host, here's what's expected of you: You set the table and provide wine. You do not cook. You do not mix martinis. You do not bake an interesting dessert. But if you're like us, you do install light fixtures an hour before the party, polish your silver for the first time in 15 years, and hope darkness falls before the guests arrive so no one notices the backhoe in your yard. Here are some photos:

M helped set the table and took these photos; C kept replenishing guests' water goblets; T was polite but shy and Milo didn't throw up on any shoes:

The morning of the party, my friend Ginny invited me to a flower-arranging seminar, where I made this centerpiece:

 

I will never forget unpacking, drying and repacking my crystal and china on the driveway last summer, after a flash flood dumped 18 inches of water into our basement (where all of our belongings were stored). This is the first time I've used the "good goblets" since then and I was sad to realize how many we lost during the flood. Hand-blown crystal is not very sturdy! And, yes, it was dark by dinner but it still was hard to miss the construction equipment in the yard (which was used to dig a storm drain earlier in the day). I think it even added a little charm to the evening.